Gem went through the routine of resetting his dungeon. It wasn’t necessary since, according to Chesu, his dungeon would be shut down while he upgraded and built his new floor. Still, the routine and mundanity of the reset helped refocus him.

He changed the order of his Trap Rooms, resurrected Magi and the various Goosalopes and Cicadossums that had fallen to Ata’s group, and fiddled with their loot contents. He absorbed Sakir’s body and all of her gear.

Finally, there was nothing more to do.

He had to face the unknown.

“Are you ready?” Chesu prompted after Gem returned his focus upstairs.

Gem sent the wisp a picture of a smiling core.

“Got it in one, kid. You’ve got eight points, right?”

Gem confirmed after looking over his sheet.

“Great. Go ahead and look at your Upgrades menu.”

He did as he was told, but nothing happened for a long moment after he selected the appropriate menu.

As if summoned by his uncertainty, the menu populated. It was a giant list, hundreds of lines long. Each line had a title and cost associated with it, and then a small symbol to indicate if it required another upgrade as a precursor. As Gem watched, the list continued to populate, a little marker along the side of the list growing smaller and smaller as more things added themselves to his options.

There were a few buttons at the bottom of the menu, but they were grayed out as the upgrade options populated.

“You okay, kid?”

Gem tried to look past the menu, then around it, but everywhere he put his vision, the menu followed. It was a plague.

“Has your version finished loading yet? Little bar stop getting smaller?”

Gem watched the bar in question for a moment. It didn’t move.

“Okay, great. Now there’s two things you can do to make this better: the first is filter it. See the button on the bottom of your menu?”

Now that the upgrades had finished populating, the buttons on the bottom of the menu were lit up and there was text associated with them. The first said ‘Filter’ with an arrow pointing down next to it, the second said ‘Interface’, and the third said ‘Auto Select.’

Gem didn’t even need to contemplate that button. While he trusted that Ruxium would have designed a functional set of upgrades for Gem to use, just leaving the task to someone else seemed like a bad idea. He might have been a tool in the World Core’s arsenal, but he was still his own being. Making his own choices was only logical.

The ‘Filter’ button created a brand-new screen of its own. Gem had a few options he could select, including filtering by tier, by keyword, or by cost. He picked tier, after a moment, since that seemed the most applicable.

Nothing happened for another moment, and then suddenly the filter menu vanished and the bar to the right of the upgrades option menu grew much larger.

Much, much larger.

Focusing on it to scroll showed him there were only about twenty options now, and five of them were marked in big, bold letters that said “TIN CAPSTONE.”

“One more thing; select ‘Interface’ if you want to see how it all works together.”

The less-daunting menu was replaced by a set of pictures. At the top was a handful of tabs that allowed Gem to flip through the different sets of upgrades. So far he had BASICS and then five labeled TIN CAPSTONE with a small number next to them.

Each upgrade was contained in its own little box, and there were lines drawing two together if they had had prerequisites. There were even subcategories, so the BASICS menu had a few different branches of options that seemed to be related to one another. It was a lot easier to read things this way, rather than the giant list that gave very little organization.

When Gem expressed that to Chesu, the wisp smiled proudly. “I remember when Ruxium was putting the finishing touches on his plans. The interface was a good idea. He used to hate having to comb through the thousands of choices and pretend it was functional. Was a constant complaint when he was a Dungeon Core.”

Gem thought while sending a picture of a grimacing core.

“But alright. Now that you’ve got your options available, let’s go through things. I’m sure you’re looking at some of the BASICS options and wondering why I told you to hold on to your points, right?”

Gem had to admit a bit of frustration. There were things here that would have helped him with mana regeneration, increased the number of blocks he could generate, or even the number or type of mob hearts he could create. And that was just the stuff he could see. Prerequisites were on full display, with a title and description, but past that he could only see the titles of the various things, and not all of them made sense.

“It was all part of the plan, believe me. I’ve seen cores time and again pick things in the heat of the moment and it ends up being the worst overall decision. Ruxium designed Sleyn’s system to be a bit more forgiving, so you didn’t have to choose anything. And now you’ve got access to your capstones and can choose according to what you want to do, instead of what you think you have to do.”

Gem selected one of them titled Master of Your Domain. There was a small description at the top:

TIN CAPSTONE: Master of Your Domain. Ever wanted to fight alongside your mobs? Well, with this capstone you can! You provide bonuses to sapient beings living in your Area of Influence, including Servitors, and you can form a humanoid body around your core, of your design. It cannot be used outside your Area of Influence, however. That would be cheating. Cost: 0 Upgrade Points, due to the special nature of being a capstone.

Would you like to select TIN CAPSTONE: Master of Your Domain?

Gem quickly thought ‘no’ and went back to the BASICS menu.

“Absolutely. But that’s one of those things you can’t change. Words have meaning in the cosmos, and you get a Capstone at the end of Tin. Period.”

“And Bronze, etc. The Capstone ends up being a specialization. Lets you do more with what you’ve already chosen. But we’ll get to all that when we can. Do me a favor: look through the various Capstones and read their descriptions. Figure out what you’re dealing with, yeah?”

Gem returned to the screen for Master of Your Domain and gave it another look. The presented description felt strong. He could become a mob of his own, and interact with creatures living in his dungeon. That felt like it was big. Important. But the body it gave would have two downsides. Not being able to use it outside his Area of Influence would limit its usefulness, and then it would also put his core in direct danger. Up here he could build defenses and protect his essence; but if he had a body, that would limit how he could keep himself safe from the Ostrum.

It was an easy no.

TIN CAPSTONE: Elemental Affinity. You’ve already got a theme, but why stop there. Elemental Affinity allows you to specialize in any element of your choice that is natural to Sleyn. There are many bonuses for specialization, including lowered command cost for Mob Hearts of your element of choice, bonus to gear enchanted with that element, and more. Cost: 0 Upgrade Points, due to the special nature of being a capstone.

Would you like to select TIN CAPSTONE: Elemental Affinity?

Gem also selected no for this one, but he gave it some additional thought. This was a solid choice. It also seemed like a safe one. He didn’t have any elements right now, and he wasn’t sure how to get them. But the Capstone’s wording made it seem like he didn’t need any. He could choose to have any element natural to Sleyn, and that would likely make him stronger.

It was a strong contender, for sure, but he wanted to see the other options.

TIN CAPSTONE: Minion Lord. You’ve got so many little creatures under your control, and they’re all sort of weird, right? What if they were all humanoid and could use weapons and armor? Not just limited to Servitors anymore; your whole dungeon would be filled with mobs who could give Hero Cores a run for their money. Cost: 0 Upgrade Points, due to the special nature of being a capstone.

Would you like to select TIN CAPSTONE: Minion Lord?

Gem immediately dismissed this one. Elemental Affinity was stronger by far, and Minion Lord didn’t address the one thing Gem knew would be a problem: skill. Shriek was a Plantling, a humanoid monster by default. When Gem had given him a sword, before making him a Servitor, the Plantling had no idea what to do with the weapon. He had been liable to hurt himself or others before actually using it correctly against an adventurer.

It was, in theory, possible that there would be an eventual option to give the mobs the ability to know how to use the weapons. But until then, the change would just be cosmetic, and so it wasn’t really something Gem was interested in.

He needed to get stronger.

TIN CAPSTONE: Fabrication. Being a Dungeon Core makes zero sense. You can’t create items you haven’t absorbed, but you’re supposed to incentivize Hero Cores to delve into your dungeon… how? Well, here’s your answer. Fabrication allows you access to creating weapons, armor, and items you haven’t absorbed yet. There’s a cooldown and a mana cost, but it’ll allow you to properly gear your Servitors and also tempt Hero Cores to get a little more daring for better loot. Cost: 0 Upgrade Points, due to the special nature of being a capstone.

Would you like to select TIN CAPSTONE: Fabrication?

This option gave Gem pause.

It was like it was written for him.

Chesu said nothing, but the wisp folded his hands in front of his face, steepling his fingers. His face was stretched in a smug smile.

TIN CAPSTONE: Upgrade to Raid. Dungeons are boring. Raids are where it’s at. You wanna have more interesting fights, more bosses per floor, and better loot? Of course you do. Upgrade to Raid is all about being a better dungeon in the best way: increasing the difficulty while promising better rewards. Raid Dungeons get to choose how many Hero Cores are required for each floor, and when. Cost: 0 Upgrade Points, due to the special nature of being a capstone.

Would you like to select TIN CAPSTONE: Upgrade to Raid?

Gem must have made some indication that he’d read the description, because Chesu laughed. “Not as easy of a choice now, eh kid?”

The wisp wasn’t wrong. Upgrade to Raid promised some really unique and interesting things. Not selecting it meant Gem lost out on not only a substantial increase in power for himself, but also a really interesting way to keep adventurers running his dungeon.

If he had all the time in the cosmos, Upgrade to Raid would be a perfect choice.

But he had a duty. A timer clicking down whether he looked at it or not.

Becoming a Raid Dungeon would be fun, but ultimately would spell his doom.

Gem thought after a hesitation.

Chesu’s smarmy smile faded. A look of uncertainty crossed over his features, and vanished as quick as it appeared. “Sometimes being your wisp is really unfair.”

“I had my hope-dashing speech ready and everything.” The wisp folded his arms over his chest, feigning an irritable look. His smile betrayed him, however. “You’re absolutely right though, kid. Infinite time to just be a normal Dungeon Core? Upgrade to Raid is the strongest thing on that list. Some still choose Elemental Affinity because the cost for elemental Mob Hearts can be overwhelming. And I wouldn’t fault you for it. It’s a good choice.”

“But Fabrication gives you everything you need. Your own power spike is a little weaker, unless you max out your Servitors. But the power spike for the adventurers is a big deal for our needs.”

Chesu gave the idea some thought and tilted his head. “Huh. Yeah. Won’t have to send Shriek out there to drum up interest. And a lot more people will be willing to give your first floor a go, especially if you make the packs a little easier. Might get some Tin 1 to Tin 5 folks interested.”

“And you unlocked quests. You’ll have a ton of ways to get people in here, and good things to reward them with. This is… perfect. Honestly.”

The wisp looked stunned. Happy, too, but like he hadn’t expected things to go so well. Like maybe things would finally go right after all.

Gem sent the wisp an image of a smiling core. It was a goofy, happy smile, once that the wisp immediately matched.

Chesu shrugged. “You can. Seeing what ability you get might help inform your decisions for where to spend the rest of your points. You don’t move on to Copper 1 without having spent all your points.”