Place ‘Mastiff Defender (Undead)’ x2 - Cost: 2,300 Mana?

Include Rabid Bite - Cost: 600 Mana

[Y] / N

Animal Husbandry Skill Line Unlocked

One Point Allotted To Animal Husbandry

Monster Taming Skill Line Unlocked

One Point Allotted To Monster Taming

Place ‘Sloughed Slime’ - Cost - 1,500 Mana?

[Y] / N

Graverra leans in to squint down at the map in her grimoire. Despite thinking it funny of Hecrux to have done earlier, there’s only so much zooming in she seems to be able to do.

“How do we see in there, though?”

The drawn versions of the mobs animated as they moved - The slime thankfully wasting no time oozing itself into the fountain basin and congealing there, while the two mastiffs took up familiarizing themselves with their perimeter. Still, it wasn’t quite the same.

“You just… do. You’re a core.”

Graverra grumbles to herself, somewhat embarrassed again. Rather than focusing her attention on the map, like she would to move around her vision there, she focuses specifically on one of the mastiffs. At first this only pulls its stats to her mind, but after a bit more concentration and another bought of vertigo, a hazy vision focused specifically on that mastiff fills her head.

The mastiffs trot along together along the gravel that fills the middle of the courtyard, occasionally sticking a chewed up head into one of the clusters of plants to check for anything in there. Despite their zombified appearance, Graverra still thinks they’re awfully stoic… Until, seemingly at the end of their little patrol, one play bows to the other and sets off a game of chase.

Graverra giggles and lets the vision fade. Maybe someday it could be a constant, back of her mind type of thing, the way it seemed for Hecrux, but for now that seemed like an awful lot to manage at once.

“Can I name them?”

“Well, only champions really need names. It won’t give regular mobs a bonus to anything- and you’ve already done it.”

Rename ‘Mastiff Defender (Undead) - 1’: Moggiard

Rename ‘Mastiff Defender (Undead) - 2’: Dralzekk

“It makes things easier! If I give them names, then we know which one I’m talking about.”

“Are we naming the slime, then?”

“No, because we will only have one slime. Ever.”

“Until it morphs…”

“What?”

“Nothing, dearest. What was it you wanted to show me after we’d spent some mana?”

She really should have followed up on that, but even if he did think she was moody, he’d certainly learned enough now to know how to manipulate them to his benefit.

“Right! If it works

Graverra pulls up their construction supplies, but zooms in on the primary core’s lair, rather than their courtyard. She might have been able to try this while still in her chambers, but in the event it bothered Hecrux somehow, she’d chosen to wait until he was active again. Going as though to change something about the tiles in the room, she finds what she’s after… sort of.

It doesn’t read like a tile should, somehow its walls, floor, ceiling, and every other type of structure at the same time. The cost can’t seem to decide on itself either, but in theory, if this worked, she’d be making some mana back.

With that in mind, almost literally, she drags the viewfinder back to the courtyard. Although it still might have made a decent hide out for their mastiffs, Graverra fills in the space with the bubbling, oozing flesh, until it seems more like the pillars are there to hold it back rather than hold anything up.

“That’s ah- hm.” While she’s still focusing so hard, tongue stuck out and everything, Graverra can’t really concern herself with Hecrux’s reaction to the whole ordeal… But if it did feel even a little bit uncomfortable, she thinks she’s justified in it, anyway.

Place Fleshy Mound - Cost: 750 Mana?

[Y] / N

While it still cost, they simultaneously had the mana used on the basic dungeon tiles the mound had replaced returned to them and the cost reduced in general by the points in the fleshwarping skill line… Exactly as she had hoped.

Graverra looks up at the dungeon core now, seeking some approval.

“That’s a bit more like it, aesthetics-wise I mean.”

“And it doesn’t hurt you like in here, does it?”

“I can fix that, I think.”

“Good! Then watch this.” Graverra eagerly pulls back up the tiles, allowed them, having to choose only cobblestone for now, but noted to herself that eventually this should be marble. Going over where the flesh mound sat now, Graverra lays out the basis for the balcony.

Construct 10 Cobblestone Tiles for 100 Mana?

[Y] / N

Though it’s only a split second before they find whether this works or not, Graverra still holds her breath. Nothing else stops her, though she’d hoped maybe that would have put another point into masonry. The lightly penciled in tiles turns to the ink of something fully built.

“Ha! See! Because the system can’t decide if we’re laying more floor or what on which level because the fleshy stuff counts as everything, so it can’t tell us no. And you know, costs less, because fleshwarping.”

“Oh, that’s bad… If I had a mouth, I might kiss you for this.”

Graverra giggles nervously and quickly begins adding some finishing touches. “You would have figured it out… eventually.”

“It wouldn’t look nearly as good, though.”

Graverra inclines her head as if having to give that a moment’s thought. “No, I guess it wouldn’t.”

With a bit more fleshwarping and the placement of steps, Graverra is able to connect the courtyard to the balcony. For the moment, she guesses it works more like a raised platform, since there’s no building behind it, but eventually it will be a sort of raised entrance into her castle proper. With the placement of some small iron railing - finally kicking off their metallurgy - and a couple of planters with ivy that would eventually be poisonous, she hoped, Graverra was satisfied enough for the moment.

Graverra lets the construction elements fade from her mind and focus back on Moggiard - the naming helps with that too, she thinks. Both undead hounds had seemed to prowl around the area being worked on and now that they had the stairs, were bounding up them to go and check in on the new addition to their area of patrol.

“They like it!” She announces, then returns her full attention to Hecrux and his lair.

While she doesn’t doubt the primary core is pleased with her little loophole, Hecrux had already moved on to checking their mana reserves.

Total Dungeon Mana Reserves: 2625

Graverra slumps over to recline on an elbow while she watches him work - admittedly, orchestrating all that had worn her out a fair bit more than the last time.

“Will we have enough for another room now?”

Hecrux moves as if to shrug. “I think we can get started on some more hallway…”

Place ‘Ominous Passageway’ x2 for 750 mana?

[Y] / N

They were bigger than the archway leading in to the courtyard. One was placed on either side, with a slightly larger pathway to follow. On the left, Hecrux had it slope down and a few levels under the courtyard - though not so severely he would need many sets of stairs. The other he left shorter and running up to about level with the balcony.

Construct 55 Dungeon Segments for 475 mana?

[Y] / N

“What are you planning?”

“On the right? No idea, it just needs to go that way. On the left, something like a graveyard? Castles have those, don’t they?” Not waiting for an answer, Hecrux places a room a bit smaller than the courtyard.

Construct 144 Dungeon Segments for 1,152 Mana?

[Y] / N

Not quite in that orientation, but she doesn’t want to squash his enthusiasm, especially if he’s making an effort to stick with her vision. In fact, Graverra finds it awfully sweet.

“Oh… a crypt.” Suddenly she’s not so tired after all. Graverra sits up and tries repeating the process of fleshwarping a little faster. It gains them back what they’d spent on the ceiling to this proto-crypt, but she just spends it all again connecting the oozing fleshy ceiling with more desecrated pillars and some stone coffins to match.

“Explain to me these pylon things?” She asks while still fussing with the placement of coffins. She doubts they’ll have enough after this to fill very many of them, if any, but someday they would. Graverra very much looked forward to that day.

“I guess the ones we have access to now are best described as the way dungeons can cast simple spells. There are bigger ones with better effects, like damage, or if we get particularly large and want to be able to port parties elsewhere… But we seem to be limited to sensory effects.”

“So this swarm of bats won’t actually do anything?” Finished with her caskets, she selects the pylon in question and tries out fitting it within a half open coffin. If she did it right, it seemed no one could see it… if adventurers could see that sort of thing, because she never remembered seeing any before.

“It might concern some, but no, they’re just for fun… or theming, I guess.”

Place ‘Swarm of Bats’ Pylon for 150 Mana?

[Y] / N

Place ‘Dripping Water’ Pylon for 50 Mana?

[Y] / N

Graverra yawns as the two pylons begin to construct themselves. With all that said and done, they only had about a hundred mana left. “Will the dogs wander down there?”

“Not unless we tell them to.”

Graverra hums her approval, then lays the rest of the way down on her spider web blanket. “I think I’ll just nap here, if you don’t mind. Capo will want to know what we’ve done,” She yawns again. “And I don’t have the energy for him right now.”

“You summoned him back…” Hecrux reminds, but it sounds good humored.

“You made him like that in the first place…” She doesn’t stay away long enough to be concerned she’d offended him again.