The kobolds on the first floor awoke, something none of them were happy about. Aby had explored each of their minds thoroughly, and it was certain that it had scrubbed clean each of them of any influence it could find. The death of that Morgen seemed to end that intrusive compulsion in their minds, but Aby wanted there to be no aftereffects. It didn’t want the work it put into these kobolds to go to waste in a manner too similar to so much of the first three floors.

The losses hurt it, though not in a resource sense. Rather, of all the intruders it had had so far, including the large biped, this creature had done the most damage. Even if all of its losses were self-inflicted, that didn’t change the fact that they were still losses, and in a way that it deemed unavoidable. Anything that could hear its call would’ve fallen victim, and it doesn’t have a large selection of deaf creatures, even if they all seemed to be incredibly able to deal with it, it was only in the right circumstances. The rifle shrimp, while not incapable of moving, were slow and clumsy, unable to be dispatched in any meaningful way. This left them stuck in their holes, and the brittle star had finally gotten used to remaining on the fifth floor, with the gem preferring not to let another creature like that just waltz all the way there.

Still, it was coming up with ideas against this, and wouldn’t likely deal with such a problem again, should some of them be brought to fruition. It turned its thoughts away from this brooding. There was no use worrying about something as such anyways, and it eagerly started to go over the information it got on its rifle shrimp.

They were… effective. The gem truly hadn’t expected them to have such an immense effect, especially since it had tested both solo and small groups of them. They were devastating in those tests, sure, but somehow the forces unleashed by such a large number had been multiplicative, not additive. This opened up exciting new possibilities, though it may not use some of them due to its distaste of the suicide tactic it now knew this to be. Of course, should the need be dire, all bets were off, though it had plenty of options if that ever did become the case.

It watched the kobolds as they had shakily stood up, then all dejectedly head back to their tribes. Aby had cleaned their minds of any foreign influence and corruption, though the killer headaches they all seemed to be having suggested that it wasn’t pleasant. Of course, that could also be due to having that influence take root in the first place, or even both. Aby knew not, nor was it entirely important.

What was important, was that they recover to fighting shape. It tried healing them, but it appeared that it wasn’t a physical ailment, and couldn’t do much with their plight. It moved on, allowing them to head home in silence, all sluggish in their movements. They were downtrodden after all, but that was swiftly replaced by frustration, then anger as they arrived in the dark of their tribe.

That was easily explained, sitting there in the middle of the tribe, tail bent and a happy smile on her face was the very being that put them in this state. Or at least, a similar being, she appeared younger, more lively, and her hair and tail were a vibrant red, whereas before she had been a dull blue.

However, the differences mattered not, and they were going to give her a piece of their mind, the one she so rudely infringed upon, and a piece that included teeth and claws. However, the attempt was interrupted by the creator, who sent a burst of intention to not do so.

Aby had found the morgen to be a very good addition to its halls, and despite the anger it had brought the core, it couldn’t deny that the call was something that could prove be very useful in some situations. Aby had found its method of attack to be so different that it even appointed her as its first Floorless Boss, something which meant that it would be considered an elite, something above the rest of its inhabitants without being truly tethered to a floor.

While it seemed like high a position, all it entailed was getting a marginal increase to its mana capacity and physical capabilities, as all bosses got. This could prove to be highly beneficial to some creatures like the dragonkin, whose already overwhelming capability in both of these only benefited from the boost, or mostly a superficial benefit like the morgen got.

It also meant that the morgen would freely wander the halls, rather than getting assigned a specific floor to guard, but would also be duty bound to attack, harass, or generally annoy any invader that she came across unless otherwise specifically ordered. It was a useful position, and while it wasn’t up to par in offensive capabilities as the star and the dragonkin, it was capable nonetheless.

So, as the kobold were frustrated at being denied satisfaction, the morgen giggled mischievously, and then swam off happily, leaving the kobolds to simmer in the darkness of their village alone.

As the morgen acquainted itself with Abys halls and caverns, it attracted the attention of some of the more intelligent denizens of the dungeon. The wyrmling moved from its spot coiled around the exit and swam around the morgen curiously, the nearly seven meter beast being as thick as she was tall. It made a circle around her, then drew its body in to be nearly coiled around her body, bringing its head to eye-level. It flicked its tongue with an interested expression in its reptilian eyes, and cocked its head to the side. The morgen giggled, something that the snake seemed to also enjoy, and as it unwound its body, it received a pat on the head. It swam back to the hole in the floor, coiling once more around the three meter wide hole and falling asleep contentedly.

The fifth floor was next on her stop, and she appeared apprehensive about the dark and foreboding atmosphere that was present. Her tension wasn’t helped, then, when she felt something tap her shoulder lightly. She yelped and jumped up, turning around and using the rudimentary magic she could to cast a light spell. What she saw was a pitch black creature, with five long and flexible arms each covered in hair-like cilia.

She found it adorable, squealing in delight as she rushed to pat the creature on its body. For its part, the brittle star was shocked, it had never received such an enthusiastic welcome and was unsure how to proceed. Eventually, it settled on using one of its arms to pat the new visitor in much the same manner that she was patting and petting it.

The morgen was even more delighted when the star had reciprocated, redoubling in caressing the surprisingly soft creature, a large grin plastered on her face. She eventually stopped playing with the fuzzy star, turning and swimming away to where the creator had told it the next floor down was. She seemed a little reluctant to leave, as did the brittle star after a moment of getting used to the sudden affection, but she needed to familiarize herself with the caves.

The next cavern of note to her was the eighth, she hadn’t seen very much on the sixth, and the seventh confused her. It was all so orange, she hadn’t a clue what even lived there to begin with. On the eighth, however, lived a rambunctious critter, four and a half meters long and very, very fast, the morgen felt dizzy trying to track it. It had come over much like the snake and sized her up, but wouldn’t allow her to get too close. She pouted slightly, wanting to pet the critter, but it got her nowhere, as the thing seemed to puff out its chest a little seeing her downtrodden expression.

Knowing she was going to get nowhere on the lizard, she eventually swam off in a huff, going to the next floor. She marveled at the vast size, and watched how everything seemed so much more active than the slow-moving creatures of the floors above. While there was nothing special on the floor, she enjoyed it nonetheless, the wide open space was incredibly relaxing to her, and she felt it a nice change of pace to the lethargic feel of the previous floors.

She descended the shaft to the final floor, already making up her mind to go back to the fifth floor once she had finished her tour. She made it to the entrance, and had swam out into the cave proper, only to feel the biting chill and promptly turn around with a scowl.

She had absolutely no desire for putting herself through that, and the creator only said to look at each floor anyways. She had done exactly that, and the tenth floor looked very cold. Satisfied with that conclusion, she swam her way back to the fifth floor, eager to continue playing with that fuzzy creature.

Except this time, on the eighth floor, there was something new, or rather someone. Appearing to be no longer than thirty-five centimeters, a head of lush blue green hair and a tail and fins a deep purple. She appeared to be waiting by the shaft upwards, and the morgen saw her perk up a slight bit when they made eye contact. She also appeared to be rather nervous, but the morgen was unsure of why.

She gave the little one what she felt was a killer smile and wave, and she returned the gesture. The morgen swam over, she was on her way to the fifth floor anyways so she could greet this curious little one on her way. As she got closer, the small lady seemed to be fidgeting, until they were close by.

In a small voice, the small one said “hello, I’m Sela”.

The morgen felt she had a nice voice, and giggled. She tried to think of her own name, but as far as she knew, she didn’t have anything like that. She put on a pondering expression, cocked her head to one side as she thought deeper into this mystery. Sela too, seemed to notice that something was wrong, and voiced her concern.

“You don’t have a name, do you?”

The morgen shook her head, seemingly dejected about that fact. She knew names were important, and she couldn’t come up with anything to call herself. It seemed like there was something preventing her from taking a name, and as she realized that, she grew distressed.

Sela took that to mean something different, however, and moved to comfort her. She spoke in that soft voice of hers, saying “it’s alright, you don’t have to be upset. If you don’t have a name, can I give you one?”

The morgen seemed overjoyed at this suggestion, nodding rapidly, seemingly afraid that Sela would withdraw her offer.

“Okay then… How about your name being Carmine, like your hair? It isn’t very creative, though…” Her musings were interrupted, however, when she felt the entirety of Abys attention snap to her, and then saw the elated expression of joy on the morgen, on Carmine rather.

Then, she saw Carmine begin to glow.