Ucria exited the boss chamber last, still marveling at the carvings. Dungeon cores showcasing creativity, especially Sarter type, wasn’t unheard of, but on this scale, and with this level of mastery, it was something completely new. Hopefully it wouldn’t be Muol. If it was Sarter, she might be able to convince her father to just disconnect the core. Killing something this beautiful for crimes it didn’t commit would be sincerely unfortunate.

The change in atmosphere from the boss room to the hallway beyond was immediate. Whereas the boss room was grand, well-lit, and spacious, this passage was small, dim, and cramped. Carvings still appeared on the wall, but they were much sparser. Fortunately, it was fairly short, quickly ending in a smaller room with four chests, each marked with a symbol. Ucria quickly recognized them as class icons, and ran to the crowned hive of the [Apiarist]. Refos went to the chest marked with an oro, the ancient symbol of concentration, overlaid with a crosshair. Evwel’s was a drop of liquid splitting in two, and Pellex had… Ucria shook her head. It was just a plain cog, the [Artificer] symbol. Ucria really needed to find out more about Evwel’s class, though, especially after watching that fight. But that thought, only in the back of Ucria’s mind anyway, was completely forgotten when she opened the chest.

Inside the wooden container was a simple iron wand, shimmering with the faint light of enchantment. Ucria picked it up and gave it a closer look. She thought she knew what it was, but had to be sure.

Level 16 Bondstick

Once every two days, can be used to forcibly create a connection, with a Tier 2 increase to Social stats for the purpose of overcoming resistance. Must be touching an object to add it to a link.

Requires Social Power 25

“Level 16 loot?”

“Mine is even higher. A skill lens. For loot from the first boss, this is very unusual. The skill is… [Soultouch]? Seems to…” Refos’ eyes went blank for a second, scanning a screen that wasn’t there, “When used on someone, touch-based skills from any source only require that the skill’s user is within a certain radius, defined by skill level, rather than the target’s body, as usual. Synergizes with my other abilities, so I can apply it to my bullets. Fairly useful skill, though I must say that I don’t think this is the most optimized party for it.”

“I got a skill lens too,” Evwel said, “[Excision].”

On hearing the name, Refos’ eyes went wide, and his hand leapt to his gun. Ucria froze.

“Don’t use that lens.”

“What? Why?”

“[Excision] is the [Exorcist] class skill. That class is restricted by the Adjudicatory, and for good reason. Dedicated to the expulsion and eradication of soul-consuming parasites, they suffer the worst from those entities. The few that are allowed to take the class spend their days in soulbronze chambers, chanting the Rebukes, waiting for the next person they’ll be brought in to free, and hoping that their next target won’t be the one that takes them. Take that skill, and you’ll be just as much of a target.”

“How do you-”

“My wife was one.”

Ucria took a deep breath. It hadn’t been her fault. She had dealt with this, a long time ago.

“You, um, shouldn’t do it. It’s not worth it. Trust me.”

Evwel grunted and flipped the lens into the air. They all watched it flicker and sparkle in the light, spinning gracefully as it dropped back into Evwel’s hands. She turned to Ucria.

“And what did you get?”

“A, um, ah, a Bondstick. It lets me forcibly create connections between things, and gives me a, uh, around 40 to 80-point boost for overcoming resistances. Requires touch, though. And you need Social Power 25 to even, um, use it.”

“Pellex?”

The [Artificer] took a step forward, holding up his loot. Ucria gasped, and took a half-step closer. It was a metallic cylinder, about the size of a barrel top, with a small, hemispherical depression in the center. Four soulbronze prongs curved out of the cylinder, seemingly ready to grasp whatever next sat in that groove.

“That’s a Sarter core lock! These are core housings for Sarter cores, and they’re always grown into the dungeon itself! Having an unattached one would be invaluable for research!”

“Yeah, I’ve read a bit about Sarters. This one was created just for the chest, too. No past whatsoever. I haven’t done a dungeon run before, but I’m pretty sure none of this is normal loot.”

“No, it isn’t,” Ucria said, still looking over the lock. She shook her head and looked up. “That reminds me. Dungeon? Hello?” After a few seconds with no response, she tried again. “Are you, um, there? Can you communicate?”

The door at the end of the room silently slid open, revealing a spiral staircase leading further down.

“An atypical method of communication, but one nonetheless. I see no reason to disregard it.”

Refos wasted no time following his own advice, and briskly walked over to the staircase. The group followed, but Ucria once again took up the rear. She paused in the door frame, looking back at the room. The chests flickered and disappeared, and the lights started to dim. She turned around and headed down into the darkness.

At the bottom of the staircase, a small room waited. The other three stood by the door, and when Ucria reached the bottom, Pellex rapped lightly on it. A wave of ngi pulsed across the door, the elusive power dungeons wielded always signaling entry to a new area. Once the door opened, the group quickly exited, checking out their new surroundings. The floor was, in contrast to the polished gray and elegant marble of the partially decorated floor above, appointed like a regal hotel, the kind Ucria would occasionally stay at on carceological dives near cities. Coarse, maroon carpet lined the floors of several branching hallways, lit by warm thilamps and wallpapered with an odd chevron design. Elegant wooden doors stood along the passage, presumably leading into the hotel-themed floor’s rooms. A random selection of those, however many the dungeon could afford to stock with spawns, would be ambush sites, but there would most likely be loot in the regular ones, to encourage perfectionists into traps. Until they found an example of the floor’s main spawns for Pellex to use [Locate] on, they’d be working blind, but Ucria wouldn’t have to be powerless anymore.

“Evwel, could you, um, smash a wall?”

“Smash a wall?”

“Or, um, anything, really. Just cause some damage to the dungeon.”

Evwel shrugged and complied, bringing the full might of her Physical stats to bear as she slammed a fist into the wall. Despite appearances, the walls were only façades for whatever material the dungeon would have enhanced to near invulnerability to serve as its protective shell. Ucria didn’t care that they were a façade. Just that they would smash. And smash they did, Evwel’s fist blowing the wall where she hit to smithereens, wood chips and paper flying across the room. Pulling her fist out of the wall, Evwel stepped back and admired her handiwork, a hole quite a bit bigger than Ucria’s expectations.

“Well, now what?” Evwel asked. Ucria opened her mouth to respond, but Refos beat her to it.

“Take a few minutes to recharge, and keep an ear out.”

Ucria glanced over to Pellex. He was staring at her, eyes wide.

“You didn’t, did you?”

“Um, maybe?”

“Well, uh, wow. You won’t have to wait long, at least. I can hear them now.”

Ucria focused, and, sure enough, there was a faint buzzing at the edge of her hearing. She turned towards the hallway it was coming from, and a few seconds later, a swarm of large, white insects with black stripes came into view. Ucria sent feelers out with [Hive Sense], and the skill told her what she needed to know. 13 in number, a fairly large force, each individual about the length of a finger. Elites. Given how the dungeon didn’t seem to see many visitors, Ucria figured that the lesser drones would have been removed for efficiency’s sake. The bugs landed around the hole Evwel had made and began to perform their duties. The two largest set themselves to repairing the stud Evwel had destroyed, ngi flowing from their antennae as they vomited material into place. The rest of the swarm were busy repairing the plaster, reforming both it and the wallpaper with the same action. The group watched in fascination. Pellex and Evwel had never watched a dungeon repair itself, and Refos saw the insects as kindred spirits, focused on their tasks to the utter end. Ucria was a scientist, and every experience in her field of study was worth noting.

It only took half a minute for the insects to finish, and Ucria felt, more than saw, the moment when the dungeon released them to return to their nest. As soon as that happened, she activated [Queenship], and her power erupted from her, sending an invisible shockwave across the room. The wave of sci washed over the bugs, breaking the links that held them to the dungeon, replacing them with bonds to her. And just like that, she was the new queen of these 13 [Dungeon Bees].

Ucria glanced around the room. Evwel didn’t seem to understand, but Pellex was clearly amazed.

“You really managed to make your class work on [Dungeon Bees]?”

“Yeah, um, I was always interested in carceology growing up, and when I was trying to figure out what class I would take, I saw [Apiarist]’s description. It wasn’t instantly compatible, but after some, uh, trial and error, I managed to figure out how to capture them.”

“Wow. I wouldn’t have guessed it would be possible unless you massively out-leveled the dungeon.”

“It isn’t, unless you wait until the dungeon isn’t looking.”

Evwel stretched and started checking down the halls, talking while performing her inspection.

“Well, what can they do?”

“When they have ngi, they can create and repair pretty much anything, basically their normal function. They work kind of like [Cenobites] – they pick up on ambient power, and don’t need a direct connection to the dungeon, just need to be, um, close enough. They can also provide simple orders to common spawns with ngi, unless the dungeon takes direct control, and, most importantly -”

With a quick mental order, Ucria targeted one of the nearby thilamps, and the swarm turned as one to face it. Ngi crackled between their antennae, and each bee opened its mouth and vomited a thick stream of the white energy, spearing through the fixture in a dozen places. The beams quickly faded, but the lamp was destroyed, and it hadn’t even been an obstacle, given the wall behind it riddled with holes. Evwel was clearly shocked by the sight, but quickly replaced her surprise with a grin.

“Well, why didn’t you start with that! Lead the way, Queen Ucria, and don’t steal all my kills!”

Ucria activated [Mazesense], feeling the skill draw on her limited thi. Slowly, she began to know things about the labyrinth, see routes through the dungeon. She felt an exit and concentrated on it. After a few seconds, the best path snapped into her mind, and she started down one of the hallways.

They had been walking for a few minutes when Refos held a hand up to stop the group.

“I hear something. Be on guard.”

The four crept forwards, watching the doors for any signs of movement. They didn’t see anything, and Ucria was almost about to relax when a door burst open in front of her. A group of short, humanoid monsters, a little over half Ucria’s height, charged out of the room. The spawns appeared to be made of wood, and had five arms, one coming out of their neck. Their eyes and mouths sat in the center of their chests, and they waved iron spears that jangled against their tacky jewelry. Ucria quickly focused on one and glanced over its stats.

Ambusher [Targnol]

Basic Spawn

Phi: 45/45

Thi: 16/16

Sci: 13/13

[Targnol] were a common monster type, but in dungeons their massive variety could easily lead to being caught off guard. Ambusher [Targnol] could turn invisible for a fraction of a second, and these did, the swarm disappearing just as the rest of the party got off their first attacks. Refos’ target couldn’t outrun the [Precisian]’s bullet, but Evwel’s punch and Pellex’s slash met nothing but thin air. Ucria tried to influence them through her [Dungeon Bees], but the commands couldn’t override the [Targnol]’s battle instincts. As if to scold her for trying, the monsters appeared right then, two of them swiping at her with their spears. Ucria leapt backward and sent a command to her bees, and her assailants were quickly pierced with ngi. Pellex had managed to cut through one of his attackers and dodged the other. Evwel was trouncing the four closest to her, beating any who got close enough into gory pulps. Refos had fared the worst, but that wasn’t saying much, and three gunshots soon rang out, each one fired with deadly aim.

The [Targnol] disintegrated quickly, but not before Pellex had had a chance to study their spears. Now, as Ucria led the way, Pellex followed right behind her, using his [Locate] and letting her know when he detected more ambushes. Having completely circumvented the dungeon’s strategy, travel went very quickly. Now able to know which rooms were safe, they even checked some for loot, but it was as Ucria had expected. The dungeon was being severely underfed, and it was resorting to cannibalizing its own loot to be able to spawn monsters. They only found a few items, none of them that great, other than a severely deteriorated storage rod, which they moved their loot to.

Eventually, they reached the end of the maze. Again, a large boss door blocked their progress, but Ucria was a bit less worried, this time. The bees weren’t really able to communicate, but she had figured out a few tricks over the years. One of them was that the bees used hidden maintenance shafts to get around, and could cross between floors without issue. When Ucria ordered them to go down, they would simply ignore her, something that only happened with impossible requests. The core was on this floor. The final boss battle would be difficult, even for a starving, stunted dungeon like this, but its tactics weren’t nearly as inventive as its carvings, and the group was the perfect counter to its strategy. With her bees, her father, and her companions, Ucria was eager to get this over with, and finally meet this strange core.