Gem started his island clean-up effort by planting more trees. He’d been sure to prune his one remaining tree every time the branches regrew, and he had a pretty decent stockpile of saplings because of it.

The limited amount of dirt blocks he had worried Gem. He was a Forest Dungeon, and so wanted to have a forest’s worth of trees available, but there just wasn't enough dirt to go around. Especially if he wanted to have a tree farm for saplings and wood blocks elsewhere.

There just wasn’t enough dirt to do both properly.

Gem was also worried about the warning Chesu had given him; grass couldn’t be generated and so if Gem removed all of the grass-covered dirt blocks from upstairs, he wouldn’t have grass ever again.

Eventually, Gem decided to split his remaining dirt between the upstairs and downstairs. He’d figure out a way to make more dirt appear at some point in the future—another thing he’d ask Chesu about if the wisp were present—so that he could set up a better farm. For now, this would have to do.

Maybe grass wouldn’t be important after all.

Gem focused on planting trees on all of the blocks of dirt he had, and then creating Pylons in the rooms. For now, his false trees looked silly and a bit obvious among the sparsely placed saplings, but by tomorrow it would be a fine design. He made sure to put more trees near the paths that ran through the rooms, creating plenty of hiding places for his mobs to eventually lurk. When he had enough trees to fill out the backs of the rooms, his dungeon would be spooky indeed.

When all the trees were planted and the excess saplings were stored away in his inventory, Gem gave his dungeon a quick once-over. Depending on the height of the adventurers, the Plantling tunnels were mostly hidden, and Gem was certain to leave room where adventurers could get to the hidden doors easily, but there weren’t obvious paths to them.

Perhaps the Decorations menu would—

“Looks good, kid.”

Had Gem had a body, he would have frozen and spun. But he was formless, other than the crystal that housed his consciousness. As such, he pulled his vision back to look at Chesu.

The wisp had the forethought to look uncomfortable. One arm was angled behind his head and his wings drooped even though he used them to hover around two blocks off the ground.

“Yeah. Uh. Sorry about that.” Chesu shook his head. “I… don’t know what came over me.”

Gem sent him a picture of a crystal with an exaggerated frown.

The wisp snorted a laugh, but just a single puff of air. “That’s fair. So, uh, you wanna do this like an old married couple? Right where we started? Or do you want to show me around first?”

A coldness danced under the surface of Gem’s crystal prison.

Chesu ruffled his wings. “Gee, kid. I go storm off because the world is ending and you grow a backbone the size of Keldora, eh? Alright, alright.” He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “There’s a lot to go over, and we’re still under a time crunch. You okay if I just skim the details and you can ask about specifics later?”

Gem thought after a moment’s hesitation. He would have rathered that he got all the information up front, but Chesu was right. Every moment they spent arguing was time Gem wasn’t building his dungeon. They only had so much time left.

The wisp flittered erratically for a moment, avoiding Gem’s question. After a moment, Gem realized that Chesu was pacing, or whatever counted for pacing when you had wings and could move in any direction.

“Sleyn wasn’t always like this. There was a time before the Ostrum.”

“I wasn’t in charge of Dungeon Cores back then. In fact, it wasn’t until Sleyn’s surface was completely overrun and the first sky-bound dungeon appeared that I was contacted. He thought my expertise would be helpful.”

Gem waited for Chesu to continue, but the wisp seemed caught in his own thoughts.

“Ruxium. The World Core.”

A prickling sensation, like hairs standing on end, assaulted Gem’s core but before he could formulate a response, Chesu was already moving on.

“I’ve helped dozens of dungeons try to get good enough to take on the Ostrum. Each one has failed. I told Ruxium we were running out of time, and he pulled you from the void. One last-ditch effort. I just… I didn’t realize we were running out of time so fast.”

Chesu winced and pulled away as if he could put physical space between them. “You just don’t pull any punches, huh kid?”

“Can’t trust the only person you can talk to?”

Gem tamped down his urge to send the wisp an image of a grinning core. He needed to be firm, not playful.

The wisp blinked. “What’s a Plantling?”

Gem could feel anger rolling out of his core. It boiled and brewed, steamed like the refined mana he released into the air after processing its raw form.

He wanted to be angry at Chesu.

And more so, he wanted Chesu to feel bad.

The wisp had abandoned him. Left him to figure things out as a newly born Dungeon Core. There was no excuse that would fix it, and Chesu would need to beg for forgiveness in order for Gem to even begin to—

“Ruxium was my core.”

The words tumbled from Chesu’s mouth like they were the last cards he could play. Not a hand to play, but just the only move left.

“Before… before he became the World Core. Ruxium was a Dungeon Core on another world, and he Ascended and was given Sleyn to run.” Chesu went to run his fingers through his hair but stopped halfway through, tugging on the short strands as if it would help him say the rest. “When things started going from bad to worse, Ruxium didn’t know who else to call. So he reached out to me. It’s… um… illegal. Or, whatever. The… they don’t like it.”

Gem didn’t make him explain further. In fact, almost all of his anger evaporated immediately.

The wisp nodded before adding: “that I failed him.”

An uncomfortable silence stretched between them. Gem wanted to say so many things to the wisp, but none of them were helpful.

It hurt that Chesu didn’t feel like Gem could do this, but Chesu was also right. Before. Gem was a single Tin One dungeon looking to take on an entity the World Core couldn’t eradicate. Even before the surface was overrun. How many Dungeon Cores had come before him? Had tried to win the day but were destroyed by the growing Ostrum force?

“I’m sorry,” Chesu said after a while. “I should have told you but I was… stupid. Tired. You were tapped within moments of me losing my last core. Didn’t even get a chance to grieve his loss before you spawned in.”

Gem sent another frowning image.

“Right. And so, yeah. I just started to see hope with your progress when you got that quest. Kind took all the wind out of my sails, as an Issy would say.”

Gem thought, because he didn’t know what else to say.

The silence returned, and Gem sent the wisp a sound like a huffing sigh. It was difficult to duplicate, what with having no lungs to actually force air out of, but it was a passable attempt.

“My wandering days are over,” the wisp said, holding one hand to his heart and the other in the air like a salute. “I promise you.”