Zaria pulled up her list of upgrades. “So, like I mentioned, I was looking ahead. The cauldron has been incredibly powerful so far, so I’m looking to try to find similarly powerful abilities.”

“All right. And that was so powerful because it had three upgrades needed to unlock it.”

Zaria nodded. “Based on what you all said, the more upgrades needed to unlock an ability, the more powerful that abilities will be. So I’ve been - while you’re sleeping or when I’m bored - looking ahead in the upgrade trees to identify a few more abilities like that. Ones that will play off where I’m going already.”

Vysala nodded and leaned forward. “Do make sure you’re being careful with that, though.”

Zaria cocked her head. “What’s the risk?”

“Let’s say you have an ability that requires all six elemental hearts to unlock. So you spend your next five upgrade points unlocking them. But each elemental heart is roughly balanced with the other six, which means you’re not actually getting much stronger for those five ranks, just more varied in your power.”

“And at the same time, I fall behind in power.” Zaria said.

Vysala nodded again. “You have to survive to be high tier to use high tier abilities.”

“Fair,” Zaria said. “But I think it can be done. Because the three abilities I’ve identified that require multiple abilities to unlock are spread out in how useful they are.”

Vysala looked directly into Zaria’s core, a grin on her face. “Show me.”

Zaria pulled up the list she’d assembled.

Mistress of the Cauldron - you can change your cauldron’s aligned element as often as you like, spending 5% of the Cauldron’s mana each time. You also unlock a new, powerful ability for each of the Elements. Prerequisites: 3 different elemental hearts, Improved Cauldron Spellcasting, Expanded Cauldron spellcasting, Bronze Tier Cost: 2 Upgrade Points.

Monster in the Woods - Your mobs gain advanced abilities when their traits are combined, and orders to them that require them to leave your dungeon allow you to retain control of the mobs for as long as the sun is set. Prerequisites: 3 Different mob types, Mimic Symbiosis, Any 1 Regional upgrade. Bronze Tier Cost: 2 Upgrade Points.

The House that Eats People - Your external form becomes far easier to shape and change, and you are able to spawn a mimic duplicate of yourself that has mouth in places of entrances. The House that Eats people counts as a World Boss (although you can still have a World Boss alongside it if you choose that upgrade), can be controlled whether or not it is inside your dungeon, and can carry 25% of your total command points of mobs without the timer for their control running down so long as they remain in The House that Eats People’s stomach. Prerequisites: Greater Mimics, Bigger on the Inside, Doors Don’t Work Like That, any 1 other Structural Upgrade and Leg Upgrade to your Yagacore. Bronze Tier. Cost: 2 Upgrade Points.

Vysala whistled under her breath. “Those are powerful abilities. Extremely powerful. I can see why you chose them.”

Zaria chuckled. “I want to get them all before I hit Silver. Which informs how I’m going to spend my upgrade points. You’re right that I don’t want to spend my next two upgrades on elemental hearts, and we’re getting ready to go into battle soon. I’m hoping for some decent experience gain in the next fight.”

“So… of the abilities on that list, what works?”

“I’m thinking structural or leg upgrades,” Zaria said. “That Balehen did a number on me, and if it had been much stronger, I would have been in real danger.”

“I’m in favor of you not getting yourself killed before I can bond with you.” Vysala paused, her lips working as she mulled over the words. “Or after, for that matter. Really, I’m mortal, you’re not, I’d prefer you wait until I die, then sacrifice yourself on my grave out of grief. It would be great for my post-mortem ego.”

“I’ll take that under advisement,” Zaria said dryly. “Now, let’s see what options there are are for structural upgrades.”

She pulled up the list, filtering out those she didn’t meet the requirements for and only cost one upgrade point.

Improved Walls: Your dungeon walls become nigh indestructible. Only a being at least two Tiers above you can break them. Special (Cores with Exterior Walls): This only applies to interior walls. Exterior walls grow stronger, reducing the amount of damage you take by 50%. If an exterior wall is breached, the interior walls of that room are treated as exterior walls for the purpose of this ability, but reduce damage taken by 75%. Cost: 1 Upgrade Point Living Walls: Your dungeon walls can create appendages appropriate to your theme. These appendages are human sized at Tin Tier, and increase in size with each Tier. Special (Cores with Exterior Walls): This only applies to interior walls. The normal prerequisite is waived. If an exterior wall is breached, the interior walls of that room can still manifest appendages as per normal, but one size category lower. Cost: 1 Upgrade Point Hungry Walls: You are capable of manifesting (1 * Tier, Currently 2) mimic mouths from any part of your structure, both internal and external. These mimics deal damage as normal mob of your tier, and have prehensile tongues that extend (10 * Tier, currently 20) feet. Anything consumed in this way will remain in an extradimensional space until you retrieve it. These mouths do not require command, but instead are under your direct control. They can be made with elemental hearts, and gain relevant abilities. Prerequisites: Mimic theme, Bigger on the Inside. Cost: 1 Upgrade Point Raptorial Legs - One of your talons elongates and is raised off the ground, making it a better weapon. Does bonus damage to structures. Cost: 1 Upgrade Point Grasping Hands - In addition to your body, you can manifest hands from the walls of your Hut that you have full control over. You may invest command into the Hands to allow them to act independently, treating them as Mobs for 2 Command per Tier. 1 upgrade point. Special: If taken with Living Walls, the Grasping Hands can take the form of theme appropriate appendages. Cost: 1 Upgrade Point Doors Don’t Work Like That - Doors inside your dungeon can be traversed by any mob you are capable of summoning, regardless of size, so long as the Door is at least large enough for an upright human to walk through. In addition, your Doors need not linearly connect to another room, instead capable of connecting anywhere else in your dungeon. Trapdoors gain the same benefit, but they must be large enough for a human to fall through. Prerequisites: Bigger on the Inside, Copper Tier. Cost: 1 Upgrade Point

Vysala whistled softly. “Some nice options there. I’m guessing you’re not taking Doors Don’t Work Like That because it won’t help in the upcoming fight?.”

“Yup. I’ll pick it up soon - and it sounds like a fun ability - but it won’t give me any new defensive or offensive options against an exterior threat.” Zaria pondered the list again. “Raptorial legs also I think I’m going to pass on. The bonus damage does sound nice, and it’s worth revisiting in the future, but so far, my legs have been more than enough on their own.”

“I did see the effect of a house roundhouse kicking a demon chicken in the face,” Vysala said. “It certainly wasn’t ineffective.” She paused. “That is a sentence. That is a sentence that just came out of my mouth.”

“Yeah, it did.” Zaria chuckled. “I should probably find someone to teach me better fighting, though.”

“Because you think you need it, or because you want the spectacle of a sapient teaching a house to fight using only kicks?”

“I can choose both.” Zaria went back to the list. “Improved walls is solid but bland, and doesn’t give me an offensive option. Living walls is mostly an internal benefit, although it gives me a fallback if a murder chicken breaks a hole in me again. That leaves Hungry Walls and Grasping Hands.”

“So you’re picking Hungry Walls, right?” Vysala said. “After all, the tongues will serve as weapons, and it’s not clear if Grasping Hands will be long enough to reach the ground.”

“If they’re not long enough to reach the ground, I can make weapons for them,” Zaria said. “Although I don’t like that particular ability doesn’t list the number of hands I can make, the benefit of being able to wield a sword and shield shouldn’t be discounted.”

“But that’s not an exclusive benefit,” Vysala said. “The tongues of Hungry Walls specifically are said to be prehensile. And you can add moon hearts to them for added effects.”

“Right, but I don’t know how strong they are.” Zaria hesitated. “On the other hand - pun not intended, but I’ll own it anyway - I don’t know how strong the hands are.”

Vysala nodded. “And there is something else to consider. The… image it projects.”

Zaria made a questioning noise.

“Just that there is value in how you are perceived. Witches gain no special benefit from pointed hats, but if I have two options that are roughly equal in terms of stats, I’ll take the pointed one to advertise ‘Yes, I am a Witch,’ at first glance. Not to the point I’m sacrificing anything or putting myself in a disadvantageous situation, but I want people to know what they’re dealing with. To make assumptions.”

Zaria shook her head. “You lost me there. Doesn’t that give people an advantage in learning how to counter you?”

“It does. Which is why I’m melee focused with my build and how I fight. Because people will see Witch, think I’m a ranged caster, start preparing to counteract and protect against that, then get blatted across the face with a ten pound spork reinforced by an Impact rune.” Vysala grinned. “But for you - you are the walking dungeon. The world’s only Yagacore. You are a monster that creates other monsters. You want to advertise it. So why would take hands and arms that might humanize your form when you can take mouths and tongues that make sure your foes need to flee in terror or be consumed.”

Zaria chuckled darkly. “Now you’re speaking my language. All right, all right. Hungry Walls it is. If it doesn’t work out for me, I can just wait till I get a Major Fissure Core and respec.”

“That is an important thing to note,” Vysala said. “The Hardness 1 Fissure at Cal’borah? It’s also a Major Fissure. So if our goal is to break a major seat of Reclaimer power, we might want to plan to push in to close that Fissure before it reaches Hardness 2. And get you a Major Core in the process.”

Zaria rubbed her hands together with excitement. “Then we absolutely are going to go there. We’ll need to secure this Legacy Dungeon, then we’ll need to go to the Coven - or find other allies - and from there we can go to Cal’borah and give them the same option you mentioned earlier: Flee or be consumed.”

Vysala laughed. “Perfection.” The word turned into a yawn before she could finish it. “Now I need the rest of a full night’s rest. No amount of Stamina regeneration can replace it. Also, are you keeping the moon Cauldron up?”

Zaria nodded.

“Then keep in mind tonight is a dominance change. Well, not tonight for us. But about two hours after dawn, Ysdrah will be dominant on the other side of the planet, and that should impact your abilities. If you want to wait for another dominance, that’s three days, then Spiral takes over.”

“Noted,” Zaria said. She checked the Ysdrah abilities, then cackled in excitement. “Oh, I’m going to have fun with this. Good thing we can’t wait three days anyway.”

Vysala grinned. “Thought you’d be excited for one in particular. Wake me up when it’s time to unleash the flood?”

“I will,” Zaria promised. “Also, Maw, Broil, and the Crossbow mimics will be in and out tonight, so you may hear somethings.”

Vysala cocked her head. “What will they be doing?” Vysala asked.

“I had a thought,” Zaria said. “in regard to experience gain. I only earn experience for things that happen either from my mimics, from my direct spellcasting or attacks, or within my Area of Influence, right? But I don’t need to land the killing blow - I just need to be involved in the attack somehow.”

Vysala nodded. “And?”

“Well, I doubt the system will count me triggering a localized natural disaster as an attack for the purpose of experience gain. But if I have the crossbows fill the front end of the flood with bolts, and I have Maw fill it with acid, and Broil fill it with some embers that will cool into coals - all of those are generated by my power. They’re still things that give me experience.”

Vysala’s eyes lit up. “You’re trying to game the system, and get those who drown to count as experience gains. Kind of like how shoving someone off a cliff means you didn’t really do much damage, gravity did - but since you shoved them, you get the experience from the kill.”

“Exactly!” Zaria preened, glad to hear her plan had some basis in reality. “Even though the water will do most of the work, I’m hoping debris and acid generated from my mobs will count for that, even if the acid is too diluted to do any damage, and the random objects floating in the water probably won’t hit hard enough to really hurt.”

“It could work,” Vysala said. “I’m less sure about the acid - there has to be a point where it’s too diluted to count, else everyone would fire acid attacks into the ocean and get free marine life experience for years - but given we’re dealing with a smaller body of water and a more immediate cause-and-effect connection, it could work. But anyone from the rubble you create hits that drowns? That could absolutely work.”

“Which is also why I’m going to generate some additional simple objects for the water to carry just using my mana. I’ll have to keep an eye on Stability, but - the more, the better.”

Vysala nodded. “Good plan. And I appreciate the heads up. Now. I’m going to sleep. Tomorrow’s fight… I’m looking forward to it. And seeing what those new upgrades do.”

Already Zaria had selected the upgrade, and was forming the mouths - one with a moon heart, and one with the bird heart. It was time to put that special unlock to use. She had some ideas to follow - and some scries to try.

Like Vysala, she was already eager for tomorrow’s fight.