There’s a familiar spring and squish to the floor as Graverra enters the next room. Somehow, it’s gotten to be oddly comforting… And while the sight of the large heart hovering in the center of the room is doubly so, Graverra’s first impulse is still angry.

“What did you do to me!?” Though the heels of her thigh highs still sink awkwardly into the floor, Graverra seems better able to balance now as she storms towards the core.

The core’s eye blinks open before he answers, making Graverra wonder if she’d actually caught him sleeping at a time like this. “What we agreed to.”

“You promised not to hurt me!”

“I believe the exact terms were that I be gentle. I assure you, it could have been worse.”

Graverra’s expression twists with disgust. She doesn’t even want to think about that. “Well, maybe, had I known, I would have been more specific!” At this point, she’s not too sure there had been a better way, but she could still be upset about it.

“I gave you the opportunity to do your own research, you chose not to.”

“I shouldn’t have to know the inner workings of the universe before making a decision!”

“You do now, though, don’t you?” There was something smug in the question that Graverra wasn’t sure she liked. Sure, she seemed to have now gained that world creating power he had promised her, but it wasn’t going to be any fun using it if all the core planned to do was lord it over her.

“Sort of… I guess… It’s all going to come out of my grimoire now, isn’t it?” She holds the book out a bit, as if considering opening it when another thought strikes her. “You don’t have to use a grimoire. It’s all just in your mind.”

“Estremon thought it might have been overwhelming otherwise. You won’t need it forever, but you seemed attached to it.”

Graverra goes back to hugging the grimoire to herself, because yes, she was a bit attached to it. “Is that who I spoke to? Estremon?”

That she didn’t need to go looking up. Even as a regular old adventurer, Graverra had heard of the entity known as Estremon. She wasn’t quite a god - like Strexhin, the god of death and dying - or a demigod even, but she was associated with them. Thinking on it now, Graverra wondered if it worked a bit like primary and secondary cores, though she’s not sure what the entity might be secondary of… Gods were tied to their domains of choice and there wasn’t quite a God of Core Creation. Not that Graverra knew of, anyway. She might have to do some reading about that later… Right now, there were slightly more pressing matters.

“Which one of you gave me this?” Graverra points at the scar starting just below her throat and running down the middle of her cleavage.

“Estremon.”

Graverra’s eyes narrow, not sure she trusts that. “And these?” She points to one of the white streaks in her hair.

“I thought they were pretty and they suit your aesthetic.”

The compliment almost distracts her, but she’s not quite ready to be finished feeling angry at him. “Well, when you get a human body…”

“I won’t.”

“Yes, you will.” She considers pulling open her grimoire right then to see if she could access any of the core’s customizations. It only seemed fair, if he’d been able to mess with her, even if she was the secondary core now.

“They’re much too weak.”

“And this isn’t?!” Graverra practically lunges forward to jab at the core with a finger.

The core yelps, though it could have just been in surprise. “I shouldn’t have to defend myself from my wife!”

That gets Graverra to pause. “Is that what I am now, really?”

“Estremon thought the title was silly… And the fact that I wanted to keep some of your adventurer attributes. Greedy, but I knew how important that sort of thing was for you and you were already likening all this to an actual marriage pact…”

That was quite possibly the sweetest thing the dungeon core had done for her, or even said to her. “Well, thank you, that’s…”

“I’m sure we could find a better one in the future, if you want.”

“No! It’s- I like it. You made it just for me.” Maybe in the future she would change her mind - possibly after deciding to ask how the core had known some of that, given she hadn’t actually said it out loud, but she guessed that could also just be a sign he was paying attention after all.

“Good.” The core clears his non existent throat. “You’re welcome.”

Whether the pause in their conversation is long at all, it feels like one to Graverra.

“What’s your theme?” She still might have been angling to see the core’s stats, but that was still only fair in her mind. He’d already seen her sheet plenty of times. “And you are picking a name for yourself now. I can’t just call you ‘core’ forever.”

“Am I?” She’s not sure if the tone is about the fact that she plans to allow him to pick now, rather than herself, or that she’s simply being bossy again. Either way, she doesn’t blink first.

The core sighs. Graverra’s grimoire pushes itself open in her arms.

Core 66 (PRIMARY)

Class: Dungeon

Location: Undetermined

Core Rank: 147th

Mana Reserves: 4,000 (7% / 1hr)

Dungeon: Unnamed

[See Further Dungeon Info]

Core Avatar

Appearance: Eldritch Heart

Theme: ‘Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know’

Even Graverra knew she might want to be a little more concerned about what that theme implied, but…

“Why do you have more mana than me?!” Even if they had to split it, they could have done so evenly. She thought secondary wasn’t supposed to mean anything...

“I’m the primary core, though it can be evened out in the future. Besides, we’d do better to agree on what we spend it on than to run down the clock bickering. That’s probably what she expects to happen…”

“What clock?”

“You can’t just wallow until you’re ready. As much as I think I would have liked to, there wouldn’t be any low-level dungeons. Here, open our dungeon’s page.” But rather than wait for her, the page flips of what she guesses is the core’s accord…

Dungeon - Name Undecided

Location: Undetermined

Dungeon Tier: Pewter (7)

Theme: [Undecided]

Specialization: [Undecided]

Total Mana Reserves: 7,000 (7% / hr)

Regeneration Boosts: 0 Mobs: 0/7 [See Further Mobs Info] Traps: 0/4 [See Further Traps Info] Drops: Undetermined [See Dungeon Layout] Puzzles: [Unlocked at Copper Tier] Questlines: [Unlocked at Gold Tier] Dungeon Will Be Placed In… [335:24:03]

“Oh. That timer…” Graverra fidgets with her hair, suddenly nervous to be on a deadline. She didn’t even want to ask how much time she’d wasted on her own avatar, or on this conversation. There was a pressure to perform now, with being an exception to a rule and causing all that trouble. Thankfully, she already seemed to be doing some things right.

“Ha! She had to give me back my week too, perfect. If we start straight away, we should have a chance at 173,950 more by the time we’re opened.”

Graverra’s eyes widen. “That’s all mana?” And they were only level seven still… She could see now why he’d contrived this plan in the first place.

“We probably won’t be that efficient, though if you could not turn everything into a discussion, that would help.”

Graverra purses her lips, wanting to argue with that, but then that would constitute making it a discussion and then he would be right. She forces on a smile that should have chilled his blood, if he had any. “Where do we start?”

The core squints, but what emotion he’s trying to convey, Graverra isn’t sure. Which was just another argument in her favor for a human body, really. Communicating clearly with a dungeon core had already proved hard enough.

Rename ‘Core 66 (PRIMARY)’ avatar: Hecrux

“Oh!”

“Do you like it?”

“Well, yes, but it doesn’t really matter if I do, right?” In a moment of emotional clarity, Graverra recognizes that the core - Hecrux, probably shouldn’t just be treated as a means to an end. Not if she didn’t want to be treated that way either, and the fears that she might were still mounting.

“I think it suits well enough.”

Graverra nods.

“Maybe we’ll revisit the body idea later…”

That gets a wicked grin out of Graverra, but Hecrux is quick to move on.

Set ‘Dungeon Theme’: Grotesque

Graverra opens her mouth to comment, nearly thinks better of it, but says it anyway, “Is that what it was before?”

“Yes…” Hecrux’s eye narrows. “Why?”

She nearly asks if this theme can be anything or there’s some predetermined list, but she remembers she’s able to test this for herself. Going in as if to change it she finds no list, only a space to be written in.

“We can change it later?” She still asks, just to be sure. She won’t now. She understands that would be a bit rude, so she closes her grimoire.

“You know, if you don’t like it, you could just say something.”

“I’m just keeping our options open, darling.” She beams back at him, earning her a flat look in return. “Is it the same sort of thing for ours? Titles worked sort of like achievements, which I’m sure you already knew, but since we were equating them earlier…”

“They’re a bit like defining attributes in this case. We can earn them based on our actions, and if we take the dungeon in a different direction than what we’ve declared, it might be changed for us.”

“Then are you really ‘Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know’?” She would like to have that one cleared up sooner rather than later, even if she had gotten a little distracted.

Hecrux’s approximation of a brow wrinkles. “It would seem Estremon thinks so.”

“She gave it to you?” It’s almost painful now how much Graverra wishes she’d thought to ask Estremon. The entity had clammed up almost immediately on the first question pertaining to Hecrux, but that just made her want to know more. “Can you not change it now?”

“Graverra… This is turning into a discussion. Can you at least try to focus?”

“I am focusing!” There was a discussion to be had about who Hecrux really was, at least in her mind. Even if it were a little late for that and she wasn’t entirely interested in admitting it either, still could help with future decisions. “You can leave your lair, can’t you?”

“What does that have to do with anything? I’d rather not.”

“I don’t want to just stand here on your weird flesh floors for hundreds of hours. At least I have furniture in mine.”

“Yes, you’re welcome, by the way.” Hecrux rolls his singular eye before the floor rumbles beneath her.

“I don’t-“ Graverra protests the idea of more fleshy chairs. As well designed as she thought they were, they still seemed to be part of him and after the ordeal of becoming a core at all, she was reluctant to repeat any part of that process. Instead, the table from her own chambers oozes up from the space between them and the chair behind Graverra.

“Oh, well, thank you.” She seats herself and scoots the chair in, setting her grimoire on the table to flip back open to their dungeon’s stats. “I assume we’ll hold off on the name until we have a better idea of things. Should we start with the layout first? Or mobs?”