You stare, unblinking, at... Steve. Steve, unsurprisingly, stares back. Her eyes are a green so dark as to nearly be black. At least when she retracts a pearly white nicticating membrane. An itch builds in the back of your eyes. Everyone around you is watching, silent.

You can't help but to feel somewhat outnumbered.

“Uh, boss?”

You nearly look away from the creature in front of you, but catch yourself at the last second.

“Yes Jack?”

“I put it back like you asked boss.”

“Thank you.”

The kobold looks back and forth between you and Steve.

“Did I miss something?”

Sapphire responds. “Red has something against Steve.”

“I do not,” you retort, but you are cut off in turn by Mercy.

“It's a good name. Very... spidery.” She's not even attempting to keep the mirth out of her voice.

“I have nothing against the name!” You shout, finally breaking off your staring contest. Honestly, were you expecting to win? Steve had you seriously outgunned. “I have a problem with-”

You whip your eyes back to the spider. Because that spider just purred like a cat.

“That!” you shout.

A few of the goblins exchange glances and begin to back away.

“None of you heard it?”

Sapphire shakes her head and walks past you to stand by Steve's side, patting her on her head.

“Who's a good Steve?” The spider preens under the attention. “Who's a good spider? You are, yes you are...”

You did not need to see a spider thumping it's back two legs like a dog while getting it's chin scratched, but life has been decidedly strange for a while now and you try to take it in stride.

“See? It's not a spider! It's some kind of... dog or cat or something in a spider suit!”

Mercy comes up behind you and starts trying to pull you away. “Come on Red, it's been a stressful few days. Lets get you some rest. Cha... Charlemagne says he got some ale from the adventurers. Maybe we can have a party tonight? Get your mind off things. Why don't we fix the lair up a bit and then we can just relax for a while hey?”

You let yourself be pulled away, still glaring at Steve over your shoulder. It's somewhat of an act of course, and well worth it with how much Sapphire has lit up, her eyes sparking as she looks at you being led away. That doesn't change the fact that there is something odd about that spider, but you're willing to let it lie. It's a companion now after all. You're pretty sure that it's safe to be around, as well as another source of experience for you.

Mercy leads you on a slow walk around the edge of the arena as the goblins and kobolds swarm around Steve and Sapphire in interest. You get around a third of the way around the room before she speaks, just as you pass one of the kobold workers, the strange un-living being meticulously scrubbing blood from the floor.

“I wasn't really kidding about the party – it would be nice to do something for everyone, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. Do you know what your plan is now?”

You pause for a moment and then nod. “I think so. There's a lot of things I want to do.” You glance up at her, continuing in a lower tone, “Promises I need to fulfil. Mysteries to solve. But first I think should be the next level of this place. It might put the repairs back a little though.”

Mercy nods without judgement, but still questions you. “Why?”

You give it some thought, until your path has taken you a full half way around the arena. “To be perfectly honest? Because it's the most expensive thing I can currently buy. And that makes me think it's very important.”

Mercy nods again, seemingly accepting of your reasoning. “Fair enough. It's not like we don't have time to recover resources now.”

You hum in agreement, and, as the two of you begin the walk back towards the pool room, you glance down into the arena.

Only to see Jack straighten up and hurry back out of the centre of the sand. You sigh.

“Jack!”

“Uh... yes boss?”

“Do I need to tell Feathers that you need extra training to keep you busy?”

“No boss!”

He jogs back to the middle of the arena and drops something on the floor. You turn back to Mercy, only to see her focusing on whatever Jack just dropped.

“What..?”

And then she's gone, leaping right over you in her haste to reach the centre of the room. You half unfurl your winglets and jump after her, unsure as to what has gotten into her as she falls to her knees ahead of you.

Her movement has not gone unnoticed – she is, after all, the largest being in the dungeon, towering over most everything else except Amanda. The goblins begin to drift towards you, led by Hammer and Sand, while the kobolds hold back.

You reach her long before anyone else does, only to find her cupping something in her hands and shaking.

“Mercy?”

Her hands open, and although the rest of her doesn't move, that's enough for you to see what she is holding.

A crystal, similar to the one that was used to power the sanctuary spell, although about half the size. It was almost entirely dark green, like pine needles or stagnant water, except a vein of pink running up one side. The pink pulses like a heartbeat of light as you watch, before your perception kicks in.

Demon Corrupted Nature Essence

“Oh.”

Mercy lets out a choked laugh. “'Oh' is right Red.”

You look back at the small lump of congealed magic, and then back up at Mercy's face before your eyebrow rides raise. “Oh. Oh!”

She laughs once more as you turn to the goblins.

“Wood! I need wood!”. Your mind is spinning. Mercy is smiling although she seems to be on the verge of tears. The goblins look at each other but shrug and turn towards the exit.

“Do you have enough in the stockpile?” Asks Mercy, even as the two of you stand and half jog towards her cavern.

“For one attempt,” you nod

“Do we have time?”

You glance back at the doorway, over the arena and over the pool. The sky is turning pink. Most of the day has been spent already, waiting for Amanda to respawn, talking with the newly named minions, and trying to prove that Steve was purring when she was alone with you.

You set your eyes back forward. “For one attempt.”

The two of you burst into the cavern and immediately skid to a stop.

The sex stump is awake.

Whether it was awoken by the adventurers and the sounds of violence, or whether it's just been to long since it last fucked, you're not sure. Whatever the reason however, it's blocked the path between you and the back of the cavern. And while you could place this tree in front of instead, it's definitely noticed your intrusion.

Mercy steps forward, one hand held back at you. “I've got this,” she intones with all the gravitas of a fated hero facing her certain death.

“I'm not sure we have time to be honest,” you begin, but it's far too late. Mercy has already walked calmly into the mass of wriggling appendages and -

Huh.

“Down boy! Down!”

Was actually giving them commands. Commands they were following, if unhappily. The entire mass of vines drooped with a noise like wood groaning in the wind. One slightly thick vine remained at head height and it was to this that Mercy addressed the rest of her statement.

“Good boy. We're safe now, you did a good job. But it's not playtime just yet.”

The entire mass wriggled as one when she said 'play', but settled down again as she kept up a firm facade.

Facade because, from behind, you could see things that the sex bush could not.

“Now, into your stump. Stump! Good boy.”

Slowly, ever so slowly, one vine at a time was retracted, slithering into the woody stump that served as the elemental's base. After barely a minute had passed, you feel safe enough to nip around the far side.

Livingwood Tree – 30 wood

Place?

One accept button later, and a new pop up has taken its place.

Warning! Demon Corrupted Nature Essence is highly unstable! Using it as a reagent in this project is advised against!

Well when have you ever paid attention to whether or not something is a bad idea? You wave the warning away and, just as before, a ghostly tree cracks into appearance before you – still laced with pink veins. The difference lies at the edges, as if the ghostly tree was set in front of a dim green light. It made the whole edifice look more real, in some ways.

“Hey. Red.”

You turn at Mercy's soft voice, to see that she has come up to stand next to you.

“Whatever happens. Whether this works or not.” She seems to struggle for words for a moment, but you're pretty sure you know what she means. You give her a nod, but she continues anyway, after biting her lip.

“Thank you.”

With that as the last word, the two of your turn towards the outline of the tree and begin to strike at it, filling the progress bar with surprising speed. Which neatly dovetailed into the other question you wanted to ask the most knowledgeable, or at least oldest, of the inhabitants of your lair.

“Have a look at this”, you say to Mercy, opening your character sheet. The half demon glances over the numbers with a grunt.

“Seems pretty normal to me.”

“Don't they seem a little... high?” you ask, hesitant to bring up something that had been bugging you since you applied the double level up you got from the fight. From what you know of Hero stats, you were generating the right number of points per level but -

“Every time I level up, some of my stats go up on their own.”

Mercy grunts again. “To be expected. That's how we work, monsters and NPCs both.”

“But I also get points to allocate.”

This causes her to stop hitting the ghost tree for a moment.

“That's... definitely not expected.” She stares at you for a long moment and then turns back to her work before she speaks again.

“Maybe boss monsters are meant to grow faster than normal mobs? Point allocation is something I've only ever heard of in Heroes but it makes a kind of sense. And if you ever get too strong someone will just come along and kill you.”

You swallow. “That wouldn't work. I don't lose levels.”

Mercy stops entirely, staring at you with shock written large on her face. “That's... that doesn't happen Red.”

You point out the relevant section on your character sheet.

Mini-Boss –When you are defeated in battle, lose accumulated progress to your next level rather than all gained experience. Spend Fame on unique bonuses to your lair, your mooks and yourself.

“Well fuck me.”

You wait for her to pull herself back together, until she turns to you with an uncharacteristically serious expression on her face.

“Keep that secret Red. That, right there, is... fuck. I don't know how to put this,” She takes a few deep breaths to steady herself. “That ability puts you among the most powerful monsters to ever walk the world Red. If Carnifex had been given that ability the world would have fallen to hunger years ago. If the Ashe Queen had it, nothing would remain but fire and soot. The only thing, the only thing, that keeps the status quo in favour of the heroes... is that no matter how strong we grow, if enough of them band together they will defeat us and knock us back down to earth.”

She shivers, her eyes raking over your body before she pulls herself away and begins to work again.

“Keep it secret Red. Or you'll never be allowed to level up again.”