In the morning, I revealed my secret weapon before we set out for the day. Now that I was able to create soda, it was as if the whole world opened up ahead of me, food-wise. A giant boar, which the team had taken out while searching for me, provided some rich, fatty meat which I ground up the hard way with basil salt, and garlic, into sausage, and some buttermilk, soda, flour, and salt provided the basics for biscuits. After mixing the ingredients and then blending them with more flour on a large board, I pulled some butter from my cold space and started cutting layers of cold butter into the dough, folding it over each time. My gift was huge assistance here, as a cold knot of minor pressure was able to keep the butter and dough cold as I folded it like a blacksmith folds a sword blade.

I took advantage of the oven in my soul space to cook the biscuits, and cheated by cutting the biscuits into squares AFTER they were cooked before stashing them into null-time. I returned to the campfire after that, frying the sausage loosely and then adding some flour to the grease, I fried the flour with the sausage until scraping it to one side barely flowed. When the flour was a nice brown and loaded with some salt and plenty of pepper, I added my second secret weapon. Hot flour plus cold milk equals perfect peppery sausage gravy, which I spooned over split biscuits.

“You realize that you are completely wrecking us for normal food, right Bran?” Cassie asked me as she wolfed it down. “Biscuits are supposed to be hard rations that you can carry with you and pick up weevils for extra protein when they start to turn. Gravy is what’s leftover in the bottom of a pot of stew or just the drippings off of a chunk of cooking meat, that you soak bread into to make it able to be chewed.”

I looked at her a little sickly. “Would it sound better if I referred to this as shit on a shingle? It doesn’t technically qualify, since true SOS is gravy-chunked beef on regular bread toast, but I would hate to ruin traditional biscuits forever by presenting a version that wrecks your expectations? Or perhaps, I should allow you to work your breakfast magic in the future while I exclusively confine myself to evening meals?”

She started shaking her head as I waxed poetically on the virtues of allowing Cassie to cook for all of us, and pretended to ignore the glares shot her way. After a moment I murmured, “Sweety, never, ever bring up maggots, rotting, feces, gangrene, or other unappetizing subjects while eating someone else’s food, not even if they are a kobold.” and grinned at her. “Not all of us have your dwarven constitution.”

Cassie nodded quickly at me, “Consider the lesson taught. No more bringing up disgusting comparisons at the breakfast table.” At that, even Shiana chuckled.

“Not Shit on a shingle” Tasty Biscuits and Gravy.

This meal has been prepared using magical enhancements and essence-enhanced monster meat by an excellent chef. It provides the following benefits for the next 24 hours:

22% reduced fatigue costs for physical activities.

Enhanced concentration to prevent magic or skill use interruption.

8% enhanced regeneration speed.

“How’s your supply of salve?” I asked Raphael curiously, as I checked out my supplies. I still had 3 pots of it left, as well as several other medicinal substances I had worked up. I passed a small flask to Cassie, and she eagerly accepted it, as it would help her when she was tanking.

“I still have half a pot, although after that boar we had to use some on Cassie. Have you been able to use any of those skins you took yet?” he replied.

I shook my head, “No, preparing those are going to take a lot of time unless I speed things up and blow through all of my magic pool. I have been kinda busy with my mana, so I am leaving them in storage until we can get some downtime. Unless you want to spend another day here so I can get them ready? I also want to trek through the delta some more, I have found a mad amount of useful herbal ingredients here and plan to be gathering the whole time we are trekking.”

Raphael shook his head, “Naww, we will probably get some more stuff from looting you can use. After we make the dungeon our bitch I will need some downtime to take care of my other body’s needs, so you guys can move on to the next big thing while Cassie carries my band or spend time dealing with your concoctions. Right now we are all level 17, I am hoping we can hit level 20 and our next set of class specializations before my break.”

I raised an eye ridge at Cassie, and she shrugged, “I told you you disturbed a lot of wildlife in your run. We must have killed and looted upwards of 30 serious monsters while we were looking for you, and 3 bosses, including that greater dire boar you cooked this morning. Which reminds me.”

Cassie handed me a pair of what looked like leather booties, and I took a moment to try them on before we set out.

Boots of the Beast Walker. (Uncommon)

These boots adapt to any bipedal foot configuration. They provide light armor and do not interfere with the use of natural weapons.

They provide +1 rank to movement speed and protect even tough feet from medium hazard terrain.

Value: Medium

Created by: System

I was almost in tears. “You got me shoes!” I exclaimed, smiling at everyone.

Raphael nodded, “They dropped for me off a very large monkey boss that tried to tear us apart. I already have a pretty decent set of pads, but Cassie mentioned that you had been barefoot from the moment she met you, so we decided to save them for you.”

I nodded again, sniffling a little. I wasn’t emotional, but I was playing it up because I appreciated the gesture. The boot laced almost up to the bottom of my newly-relocated dewclaw, and my toe-claws projected from the front of the boots. I was ready to fight!

I hopped to my feet, tucked the now-cleaned dishware into my inventory, and we prepared to head out towards Kalika’s killer dungeon.

“Is there even the slightest possibility that whoever created this entrance could be any more obvious and stereotypical?” Raphael asked as we stared at something that would scream ‘dungeon’ to even a blind man.

A giant skull of something that looked lizardlike led to a hole in the side of a small hill it was set against. The skull had two long snakelike fangs that formed pillars on either side of the large entrance, and green arcane flames seemed to make the eye sockets of the giant skull glow.

Kalika scratched the top of her head and shrugged, “As a killer dungeon, it is bad enough that it is unbalanced. If it had a mind as well, or anything resembling creativity, it would be too dangerous and we would have destroyed its core a long time ago.”

“There are few traps, and those are of the organic variety. Strangler vines, honeydew traps, living pits, and monster ambushes are the greatest threats. The dungeon is very simple, 8 fighting areas in a row with the fourth being a lieutenant raptor, and the last containing a Rexus, with no safe zones. We leave the same way we go in, and it will regrow at least part of the room’s defenses on our way back, one of the reasons it is considered a killer dungeon. The other reason is that the creatures within fight among each other and breed constantly. When the pressure becomes too great, the inhabitants exit the dungeon to predate in the delta proper, and unlike standard dungeons, they do not die after leaving its radius.”

Kalika continued to explain, “It also provides no loot other than what you can get off of the creature remains. Nothing until you defeat the boss, which no one has ever done, so no normal loot at all, although parties with gatherers have reported many valuable plants within. The other reason it is considered killer is that the deeper four areas will swarm the lieutenant area if it is losing, which is deadly. The only creature that will not attack at that time is the Rexus. Usually, when they are cutting back the spawns, teams will clear the first four rooms except for the raptor, which is enough to keep it from swarming for several months. Parties that attack the raptor often do not survive the experience.”

I had a plan, involving the bottleneck just before room 4. “What exactly is a Rexus?” I asked her.

She shrugged, “It is a creature that speaks low reptilian, or… low kobold? Anyway, it seems sentient, but irredeemably insane. It looks much like an incredibly fast partially reptilian ogre, but Its hands are the heads of biting reptiles. It seems to possess some cultivation ability, but babbles constantly about adjustments and fixing skeletons, which is especially odd since this is a reptilian dungeon, not undead.”

I nodded, I would like to try some explosives, but if it was inside the flash and bang would likely harm my party members more than their opponents. We made sure that our armor was set, and we all did stretching and limbering-up exercises. After watching us for a few moments going through Tai Chi and yoga forms, Kalika joined in, although it took her a few moments with each exercise before she had it down. She was very limber but hadn’t practiced some of the stretches. Cassie, surprisingly, had been practicing on her own, as she was much better able to stretch and limber up even with her armor.

“This is different,” Kalika remarked. “But it is much like a meditation. The positions help get in touch with the energy. Between that and the food, it is no wonder your party is highly successful even if somewhat understrength.”

I nodded, “That and we do not count on the maneuvers the bands offer. I am looking forward to seeing what Raphael can do, since the last time I saw him fight, he was doing all sorts of weird whipping combos that had almost no effect. I want to see his real skills, not the fake stuff the bands gave him.”

Raphael grinned, “Oh, I figured out how to combine real techniques with the stuff that the bands added. Cassie can play primary tank and I will play off-tank DPS. I think you will be impressed.”

I nodded, and we arranged ourselves with me at the front stealthed to keep my eyes open for traps and ambushes, followed by Cassie as my shield, then Shiana and Kalika as ranged DPS and area of effect, followed at the rear by Raphael. He made a decent rearguard and claimed he could get to the front incredibly quickly if needed, but I had a sneaking suspicion he also enjoyed watching Shiana and Kalika’s backsides as they stalked our prey.

We entered the tunnel, which was wide and easy to navigate, and I saw hundreds of footprints, mostly of the heavy, claw-tipped drake sort. I had felt a growth in essence outside of the dungeon, but the moment we walked into the skull it grew into an almost constant pressure, like a heavy wind blowing out from the caves ahead of us. The tunnel only lasted about 50 feet and I realized that, unlike our prior dungeon experience, there was no ‘starting safe zone’ to rest and recover in. A slight curve and the tunnel opened back up into what looked like a small valley, hundreds of feet across, covered with a thick layer of vegetation that was more akin to a primeval forest than the delta we had come from. The roof was open overhead, but the sky was strange and purple, the sides of the valley turning into walls with giant spikes of rock suspended sideways into the higher levels of the valley. And on those rocks were wyverns.

They were squabbling and fighting and, I was pretty sure, a pair were breeding near the base of one of the spikes. There must have been over a dozen, various colors, and every once in a while one would dive down into the foliage and come up with a squealing lizard. It was very much like a scene from a nature documentary, if the entire camera crew were in hell and on acid at the same time.

There were hundreds of plants that glowed to my [observe], but here and there was an angry red glow. Directly in front of us, if we were to cross the cavern, there was a heavy willow-looking tree that glowed red, and I realized that the fronds that dangled towards the ground were loops that returned up into the foliage. I had zero interest in finding out what would happen if one of us crossed into one of those loops, so I slipped sideways along the valley wall, keeping my eyes peeled.

There was another plant up against the wall, a red creeping vine that was also dully glowing red, but it was speckled with brighter glows, small orbs that depended, like fruit, from each vine. I didn’t want to get close to the plant, since I had no idea what the threat was, but my [observe] was screaming that whatever those orbs were, were very valuable.

Eventually, I returned to the cave entrance, and whispered to Cassie, “There are dozens of wyverns. They seem to be alert. I think our only chance might be to lure them here, where they will not be able to fly freely, and then take them out.

Cassie nodded, and I started to work. I had plenty of saplings and firewood stored, and with Raphael’s help, we were able to able to maneuver a few rocks to narrow the entrance itself. Several of the more flexible branches were wedged into the rocks, pulled back with Raphael’s strength, and then I carefully tied large drake fangs to their forward edges and applied a small animation knot that would trigger if they were disturbed. In total, it took almost half an hour of preparation, but we had arrived a little after noon and were filled with stamina, we should be fine with however long this place took to finish. I didn’t want to try and compress my core this close to the exit, especially if a lizard exodus were about to take place.

Once the preparations were complete, we strategized. “I will cover the primary entrance. When we fought the Wyvern before, its primary weapon was its tail stinger.” Cassie explained. “Without being able to get in good dives, the stingers will only get driven by their weight and strength. I can block them easily enough, and my mount can protect one flank while Raphael covers the other and helps tear them apart. Shiana, you can shoot over my head easily enough and they should be coming in high.”

Kalika nodded, “If we start to get too much crowding at the entrance, I will use lightning storm. I cannot do it often, but Cassie, you are not wearing metal armor except for your helmet which is ungrounded. If you hear me starting to chant, duck low and touch the head of your mace to the ground. I will start far enough back that it shouldn’t catch you, but you might get a little bit of shock from it if I have to use it.”

I nodded, “I know, I stay at the back and catch strays.”

Kalika nodded, “yeah, keep them off of Shiana and me and things will probably go a lot smoother. The thing is, if we can, I don’t want to use lightning, because it tends to smash cores. If we can kill them without smashing their heads, we might get lucky and find a core so Bran can assist a bit more actively.”

All four of us looked at her in confusion, and I finally asked, “What does finding a core have to do with anything?”

Kalika looked askance at me. “Cores and the essence pressure are the reasons we are here. Cores will allow your creative abilities to work, and consuming a core in this essence pressure is what will allow you to compress your core. Plus, if we get a second core, you can create a combat pet that is second to none. That’s what your...class does.”

We were looking at each other curiously as she continued, but no one wanted to interrupt. “If we could have headed to a town first, I could have obtained one. They are extremely expensive but certainly attainable. Here there are two bosses, and a small chance of getting a core from the essence charged beasts inhabiting this place. I figure there’s a good chance of getting at least one small core and a medium, even if we cannot defeat the final boss for his large core.”

Cassie nudged me with her elbow, followed by Shiana. Raphael looked a little mystified at all the nudging, but I pulled a bag out of my storage and started nudging it open with my fingertips, tugging a few of those gems I had been finding in monsters into my hand. “Monster cores, are they like these?”

Kalika’s eyes grew wide and her mouth opened into an ‘O’ of astonishment. Her eyes flickered to my palm, and then back at my face, and then back at my hand again, and I think she was trying to say something, her mouth was opening and closing like a fish, but no noises were coming out. That was very interesting, and then Raphael piped up. “Cool, are those like soul gems? Summoners can drain life into expensive gems, and then use them to summon their pets. Having to drain things first to summon their pets is what keeps them from getting seriously overpowered, since their summons only last a little while for each gem, and strong gems can cost a couple of gold each empty.”

Kalika shook her head and closed her mouth. “No, those are monster cores. Where the hell did you get those from?”

Cassie still looked a little confused. “We sometimes get the small ones traded from kobolds. We grind them up and mix them into the metal we use to make powerful weapons since they improve enchantment containment and come with their effects that can add things like poison or drain to a weapon.”

I looked at her, “Well, the first one I got off a skeleton. We got more in a small dungeon but hit the motherlode with that Hydra. I got what… 5 of the medium ones from its heads, and then the huge core from its body. The other monsters have them pretty regularly, sometimes in the head but usually inside the body itself.”

Kalika was shaking her head, “That’s not normal. Usually only the most powerful of creatures drop them, perhaps one in five category one bosses, or a dungeon boss, they are… of incredible value.”

Raphael was doing that weird staring off into space thing again, with his fingers on his band’s gems. After a moment he came back, looking a bit breathless. “That big one in the middle there. Is it untyped?”

I shrugged, “Most of them seem to contain an aspect, but I cannot tell how much they have, but the ones I got off the hydra were fire, I think, while the one in the middle of its body was just pure mana.”

He nodded, and then started to say, “Remember how we were talking about fair loot?” but Kalika interrupted him. “That is a grand, untyped core. Those three are large untyped cores, a fire core, and several nature cores.”

I shrugged again, “I have quite a few more, but I just threw them in with the rest of the loot to deal with later. I can probably ask my fairy to separate them for you if we need them?”

Raphael was grinning hugely, and I think I saw dollar signs in his eyes. I mean, it was amazing, so before he got too greedy I grabbed one of the large untyped cores and tossed it to him.

He stumbled, putting out his hands trying to catch it, it slipping out several times before he managed to clutch it tightly in both hands at the same time. “Will that pay your rent for a while?” I asked him. At his nod, I added, “You aren’t going to like… try to kill me to take the rest, are you? I mean, if it’s valuable, I am the golden goose here. Cutting me open isn’t going to magically give you the ability to get rich forever.”

He shook his head, “No. of course not. And yes, it will pay my rent. And my rental fees. And the cost for a new coolpod so I don’t need as much downtime. And probably taxes for the next few years on my family property. I am an ethical being, not a thief.”

I grinned at him, “I know. When someone lies, they smell bad, especially if they are planning violence.”

He nodded, and then grinned back, “I noticed the same thing. That’s the reason I am here. You conceal things but are very careful never to directly lie to anyone. I appreciate that.”

Huh, I knew that changechildren had enhanced senses, but he must have loved his character to have gotten it to the point where he could recognize odors like that with his in-game senses. I wonder if he could have tracked me by scent even if Shiana hadn’t been using her tracking ability? It was a little frightening.

Kalika sighed, “That still doesn’t explain how you received so many.”

I shrugged, “In my world, I was a boy scout like I mentioned. We learn a lot of things like tracking, recognizing edible foods, stuff like that, and my relatives were survivalists, and taught me a lot more.”

I smiled at her, “When I got here, my senses got cranked up way higher, and kobolds get a gift called scrounging. I was able to blend survival and scrounging together, and now, when I look at a corpse, I can spot all sorts of valuable things. My gift lets me recognize them even if I am unfamiliar with them, and a lot of monsters, aside from goblins, tend to have these.”

“You were able to blend… what? Okay, when we are done, you and I are going to have a very long talk. There are a lot of things you haven’t told me, and I cannot teach you anything if I don’t understand what you can do.”

I nodded, and she continued, “For right now, put that wealth away. You are tempting me with it, but keep the small fire core available. We are not going to try and compress your core right now, but you can use that in this fight.”

I smiled, “You know, I was thinking about making explosives before. With the fire mana, would it make a good bomb?”

Kalika double facepalmed. I mean, she put both of her hands on her face and shook her head. “You would explode a co… No. We are not going to make a bomb. We are going to ask for Cassie’s help assembling a simple minor servitor with fire magic to help kill these wyverns.”

“Cassie, do you have stone sense?”

Cassie nodded, “I have stone working as well.”

Kalika nodded, “That is wonderful. We need as much scree of a small size as possible, preferably soft stone, but with as little soil contamination as possible. Something with a low melting point would be best.”

Cassie looked slightly interested. “Does it have to be stone?” she asked.

Kalika shrugged, “No, metal or glass would work as well, but some metals have far too high of a melting temperature, and while that would be wonderful for the final result, we don’t have a fire mage handy to melt it down.”

I scratched my head, “Would bronze work?” while Cassie cracked a grin at me, knowing what I had in mind.

Kalika nodded, “Of course. I can melt it, but I cannot manipulate it since it is not natural.”

“How much do you need?”

Kalika shrugged, “With a small core? Perhaps 50 pounds of it will do. I am certain we do not want to wait here a week while you create 50 pounds of bronze a handful at a time, though.”

I pulled out Cassie’s beaten-to hell breastplate and chausses, which were damned close to 50 pounds all by themselves, plus one of the many bronze ingots I had stashed in my soul space. “Will this work?”