It wasn’t long before Echo pointed at the corn next to the stalk that held the core. “There. And there. I can’t tell what it is, but it’s there.”

Serenity’s voice was cold; danger in the dungeon core room was a sign of an excessively dangerous core. The standard action was to destroy any core that moved monsters past the final boss. “Morwen, lightning please.”

Her lightning struck the corn-wall and three trapvines became obvious as they blackened and fell to the ground.

“Can you cover the whole room? Not all at once, but in sequence?” Serenity looked at Morwen.

“I can, but it won’t stop more from coming. I’m low on mana, too, so it’s going to have to be single strikes and not AoE. I thought that was the last fight.” Morwen looked determined.

Serenity nodded. “Do your best; it should have been. Echo will tell us if she hears anything. Stay away from the walls anyway; I’ll need to touch the core, but no one else should need to get close.”

Serenity watched as Morwen threw lightning at the entire small room. Several other trapvines were crisped and an entire patch of corn also died, revealing what looked like another exit. A wooden archway stood just past the end of the corn, and a road showed not far beyond it. It was just like the entrance.

Serenity was running the dungeon to convince the core to work with Gaia to manage the ley lines, and he wasn’t looking forward to it. This was going to be Serenity’s first time talking to a core that he considered excessively dangerous.

There wasn’t any reason to put it off, and there was every reason not to.

Serenity stepped up to the core and rested his hand on it. Nothing.

What had he done last time, back in the Ancient Temple dungeon? He remembered talking to the core when it watched, but he’d been able to feel its interest. He’d felt nothing like that here, and without that, the dungeon core there hadn’t responded.

When he reached the core, he’d rested his forehead on it and one of his horns had touched the core right before he ended up talking to the core in its own space. Was that the key?

Serenity knelt down in front of the core and deliberately touched it with a horn. He heard Morwen’s voice ask “What are you-” before he was once again floating in darkness. This time, he faced a larger version of the green dungeon core crystal.

[World Core Emissary Override: Dungeon Core Conflict not initiated]

Serenity looked down at himself and found that he was in the shape he thought of as himself, his chimera form. He turned back to the dungeon core. It hadn’t spoken yet; maybe it didn’t know it could? “Hello.”

Serenity floated in the darkness. This was much tougher than the Ancient Temple; that dungeon core was eager to talk, even if it seemed young. This one ought to be younger; perhaps it simply didn’t know what to say?

He tried to move forward, and found that he could move freely around the blackness. It was like moving in the Void or even back in the space where he fought the Hegemon Worm.

It reminded him a lot of the fight against the Hegemon Worm; he was grateful that this time he was in his own shape. The dungeon core didn’t reply, so he tried again. “I’m here to invite you to work with Gaia, the planet. She’d like your help managing the ley lines-”

Enemy

The dungeon core clearly knew how to speak, but that wasn’t a positive response. “No, I’m not your enemy. If you want to cooperate, I’ll help you. If you don’t, I’ll leave.”

Enemy. No escape. Die.

[Dungeon Core Conflict initiated by Corn Maze]

Serenity sighed to himself. At least he wasn’t going to have to worry about whether or not the dungeon could safely be left alone; it couldn’t. All he needed to worry about now was how a “Dungeon Core Conflict” worked. The only one he’d seen before was with the Ancient Temple dungeon, and they hadn’t gotten into it before they both said they didn’t want to fight.

The Voice he was hearing didn’t sound quite like the Voice he’d gotten used to. It reminded him more of the one he’d heard the first time he evolved; it had less personality. This one sounded a little less mechanical and more organic, oddly enough; Serenity would have expected the opposite.

[Phase 1: Negotiation concluded; Corn Maze is unwilling to negotiate]

[Phase 2: Opening Round initiated]

[Select your mode for the Opening Round: Dungeon Manifestation, Avatar, or Core (Unavailable - protected by Avatar)]

Serenity tried to ask the Voice for details, but there was no reply.

[Select your mode for the Opening Round: Dungeon Manifestation, Avatar, or Core (Unavailable - protected by Avatar)]

Serenity stared at the repeated message. If his Core was protected by his Avatar, that probably meant that his Avatar was his body. Dungeon Manifestation was blurrier, but it seemed likely to be the safe first choice by the way it was presented.

Serenity was fairly confident that his Avatar would be good enough; if he could solo the dungeon then break the core normally, there was no reason to believe that he couldn’t do it here. Still, he’d probably face another dungeon that wanted to fight in the future. Ignoring a choice and failing to learn about it simply because he didn’t need it right now seemed unwise.

Dungeon Manifestation

[Phase 2 Combat: Dungeon Manifestation (Corn Maze) vs Dungeon Manifestation (Serenity)]

[Corn Maze:

Minotaurs: 2 available

Ramcorders: 1 available

Trapvines: 0 available

Minitaurs: 0 available

False Corn: 5 available]

[Serenity:

A Rest from Death -

No monsters (item creation only): Unavailable (Out of Range)

Ancient Temple (Link) -

Nightmare Wraith: Unavailable (Out of Range)

Blue Line Enigma -

Rune Puzzle Dungeon: maximum 4 Participants

Choice of 1 Rune or 4 Wisps per Participant

Aki’s Dragons’ Lair (Ally) -

No monsters designated for Ally Dungeon Combat

Serenity Settlement Gardens -

Assorted mundane plants (+)

Chickens: 6 available

Goats: 6 available]

[Select which Dungeon to Manifest]

There was a lot to unpack in that display. It looked like having connections to more dungeons was an advantage in dungeon combat; that made sense. It also made sense that he couldn’t take advantage of the dungeons on Tzintkra.

It was interesting that Aki could potentially help; he’d want to talk to her the next time he was in New York City. Or perhaps there was some way to talk to her using the ley line network?

No, that would probably require one of the communication crystals she’d mentioned, and he doubted she’d had a chance to pick one up.

Structures didn’t seem to matter; he didn’t see the Signal Booster Tower. It was interesting that the Safe Rest dungeon seemed to offer items and the Blue Line dungeon actually had a choice. What seemed important to know, though, was that the monsters he’d killed on the way into the Corn Maze weren’t available for it to use. If he ever planned to take out a dungeon in the future, he’d have to remember that and get as close to a full clear as possible.

[Select which Dungeon to Manifest]

He must have spent too long thinking about it; the Dungeon Voice was prompting him again. Well, the choice was obvious.

Blue Line Enigma

[Select a combination of Runes or Wisps]

Serenity wasn’t certain how the runes would even work, but this was as good a time as any to experiment. Still, he didn’t want to completely give up on the wisps; they would be a good match against this dungeon’s monsters, since they were difficult to damage without magic. The ramcorder - what an awful name! - might be able to manage it, but Serenity doubted the minotaurs could.

Two runes, the rest as wisps

[Two Runes, eight Wisps selected]

[Choose your Runes]

It was giving him free choice of what runes to use, not limiting him to the ones the dungeon had taught? Really? It was probably limited in the amount of mana it would tolerate, but being able to choose runes after knowing what he might fight was incredible.

He had to test it. He’d pick a rune that needed a large upfront mana investment to work at all and a rune that had a variable effect based on the mana input.

Spreading Fire Arc and Lightning Fountain

[Choose your Runes]

It was an immediate response. That meant it had heard him. Perhaps it didn’t accept his choice? Or did it need him to show that he knew the runes?

Serenity visualized each of the runes clearly.

[Runes selected]

[Lower Tier dungeon is Tier 1. Terrain modification not permitted for Tier 1 combat. Open Field terrain selected]

[Commencing Phase 2 combat]

Ahead of him, Serenity could see a miniature field. On the side near him were several wisps and two runes; on the other side of the field he could see two tiny minotaurs, a “ramcorder”, and a few stalks of corn.

The minions started moving. It looked like they had some autonomy, but when Serenity tried to direct his, he could affect one at a time. He reached for one of the runes and found out that he couldn’t touch it.

I guess it’s a good thing I chose some minions.

He sent one of the wisps to the Spreading Fire Arc rune. It was able to somehow pick it up and move it.

The minotaurs were halfway across the field. That was close enough. He directed the wisp with the rune to head towards them, then had it trigger the rune. It only had to be closer to the enemy than the other wisps, so that they wouldn’t be caught in it. If he had the scale correct based on the minotaurs, a standard Spreading Fire Arc would incinerate the entire other half of the board. He needed to make sure his other wisps and rune weren’t caught in it.

The wisp evaporated.

Serenity stared. He hadn’t expected the wisp to destroy itself to trigger the rune.

The Spreading Fire Arc rune fizzled. He could see the magic moving along the complex rune traces, but he could also see that there wasn’t enough mana necessary to trigger the rune properly. It tried, but the final effect was a tiny puff of flame aimed vaguely in the direction of the green dungeon core. The flame barely scorched the grass.

One wisp was clearly insufficient, but he’d learned something. Runes were clearly going to require careful handling, and he always needed to bring in wisps to activate them.

While he was watching the Spreading Fire Arc rune, one of the minotaurs reached one of his wisps and charged. It headbutted the wisp, which dissipated in a flash of fire.

The minotaur fell to the field as a smoking corpse.

That seemed like a favorable exchange ratio. Serenity directed another of his wisps to intercept the other minotaur, with the same result.

Serenity could hear music coming from the ramcorder, but it didn’t affect him or any of the wisps. He could probably do the same thing with another wisp, but there was one more thing he wanted to try first.

He directed one wisp to hang back, which left him with four. He had one of them pick up the Lightning Fountain rune and carry it across the field to between the corn and the ramcorder. If it attacked physically, he’d just have the wisp take it out, but he suspected it wouldn’t.

It just stood there and played the recorder.

Serenity directed the other three wisps he didn’t have standing back to follow the rune. Once they were gathered together, he quickly directed all four of them in sequence to trigger the Lightning Fountain rune.

This time, he got the result he expected: a standard Tier 1 Lightning Fountain activation.

The Blue Line Enigma dungeon was very flexible, but only having the ability to create at most two Tier 1 runes wasn’t very powerful. Overall, he was happy with that; the flexibility was probably worth more than direct power and it meant that other odd dungeons would probably not massively outperform their Tier.

Lightning rose from the Lightning Fountain like water from the fountain it was named after, in ever-growing rings. It reached the corn first and the corn wilted then burned. The lightning reached the ramcorder next. It was hidden from view until the rune’s lightning dissipated.

All that was left was a large circular burn mark on the field, some charcoal, and a blackened recorder. The Lightning Fountain had clearly done its job.

[Phase 2 Combat complete. Remaining Manifestations:

Corn Maze: None

Serenity: 1 Wisp]

[Surrender rejected]

[Phase 3 initiated: Round Two]