No Need For A Core? - 112: Dark Waters

112: Dark Waters

No Need For A Core? by Zagaroth

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As the delving group settled into camp at the start of the fifth floor, Mordecai went to work with some more ideas for the sixth floor.

They may have gotten a lot more rabbits, but many were young and others still nursing, so now was not the time to upgrade them into dire rabbits. The rest were also brand new to being dire rabbits. So he decided to only take six of the more experienced dire rabbits who were interested in his new concept. And this time, the name was the inspiration for the creature. Several stories and attempts at cataloging creatures described a creature with this name, only there were a lot of descriptions, so Mordecai felt quite justified in creating his own ‘bunyip’.

He did have to ignore the temptation to make it part fox because of the name however, as that wouldn’t be very useful for an aquatic area.

No, for this version of a bunyip, he took two each of the three types of dire rabbits and grew them in size, then blended in a mermaid-like tail, complete with a common mermaid ability to shift their tails back into legs. Naturally, they needed to be able to breathe underwater as well as air, but Mordecai was giving them an extra ability: the ability to create a magically sustained bubble of air around a target’s head.

The purpose of this was two-fold. Its primary purpose was so that there was a rescue team to prevent people from drowning, even if the bunyips were the very ones who took a person down into the water. It also served as a secondary protection for the bunyips themselves, should someone try to use noxious or toxic clouds on them, whether above or below water.

Mordecai instructed them to just act as a rescue team for now. He felt that they had enough other ways to challenge the party when they got this far. Then he nudged Kazue’s attention to where Moriko was training on the ice floes. He waited until Moriko was just a tiny bit out of position, then had the new bunyips launch themselves in front of her, creating a spray of water and startling their wife.

It almost worked the way he wanted, her back step taking her off the ice and onto the water. But Moriko’s training saved her as she kicked off the water with a burst of chi and skipped across the water for several steps before landing on another ice floe. She smirked in the general direction of the core. “Nice try, pervert dungeons. We already had this conversation.”

“Aww, I was hoping that would work. And what were those?” Kazue’s thoughts came over the link.

Mordecai guided the bunyips into popping up near the ice floe so that both his wives could get a good look. “We have a lot of references and several descriptions for a creature called a ‘bunyip’, but they are all aquatic, and so I decided to make my own, inspired by the name.”

“They are cute.” Moriko acknowledged, crouching down to scritch the head of the nearest one. “Are they going to help me out?”

“Not for now. They are going to be lifeguards, since we only have the six. I’ll evolve more dire rabbits in a month or so. I am thinking of also evolving some of the magic dire rabbits into the same sort of form. Combine these with the other inhabitants, and I think we will have enough for an interesting variety of encounters.”

“That’s not as much variety as we have on the fifth floor though.” Kazue sent.

“True, but it’s also a different sort of challenge. Increasing the variety of combatants should not be a measure, just enough variety for the level to be interesting. And if needed, I am sure there are some bunkin and rabkin who can change things up.” Overall their laganthro friends enjoyed a more civilized demeanor, but this idea created the image of a ‘tribe’ of them dressed up in leaves and with bone piercings in their ears chasing a rafting party along the river, blowing darts at them. He made sure to send his wives that image, and both of them started laughing with delight.

“Oh, that’s too precious! I want to see that someday!” Moriko said, having to fight to keep her ice floe balanced after rocking it like that.

“Alright, we have our primary fights, and we already know I am going to evolve a kelpie for one of the bosses. I am thinking we could use a dragonkin for the other, namely a naga. They are often considered more serpent kin than dragonkin, but given my influence, I should be able to give it some more dragon-like aspects. This would make them both powerful, tricky shape changers. And I’ll just let them figure out their own strategies from there.”

Kazue’s thoughts were amused. “I married a wicked dungeon man, it seems. And he’s been corrupting a once pure-hearted monk into being his wicked priestess. And all I can do is suffer as they torment their poor victims.”

“Funny,” Moriko said dryly, “that sounds more like a request than a complaint.”

“Why, whatever could you mean?” Mordecai was pretty certain her eyelashes would be fluttering ‘innocently’ if they were with her avatar. He mentally blew them kisses and let them banter and flirt while he turned his attention back to the two bosses.

They had the mana now, he was going to finish creating them, they just would not yet be part of the fight on the sixth until after Moriko had a chance to show off, and they’d had the chance to train. It wasn’t hard to find a pony that would rather be a magnificent stallion of a water horse; quite the opposite, and he had to turn down many interested equines. Once Mordecai had made his choice, he named the soon-to-be kelpie Kulle.

There was just as much interest in the snakes and such for becoming a naga, but he finally selected a small female with pretty black and green scales and named her Jasi.

Evolving and enhancing them took the rest of the afternoon and night, but by the time the sun rose again, the dungeon had two new bosses.

Elsewhere, as the sun set that same evening, Bellona stood in a shallow hot spring atop an exposed hill, wearing only her underclothes. The evening wind began to whip across the mountain range, the cold biting at her bare skin while her feet practically cooked in the hot spring. She stood still and breathed steadily as she focused on her exercise, tuning her spirit and soul to the flow of elemental energies of heat and cold.

Her trainers had explained in greater depth the nature of the boon she had been granted. The mark touched her soul and created a potential to gain that which could normally only be inherited. In this case, it was the potential to have the elements flow in her blood the same way it did for the genie kin and such that occupied this town.

Instead of magic or chi, her spirit was the medium through which her will was guided. But much like those arts, meditation and visualization were part of the process. So she focused on the sensations of her body, felt for the contrasting energy types, and drew them toward each other, exchanging heat and cold faster than they would on their own.

The orc champion had been taught another truth as well: For physical properties alone, there was only heat. Cold was ‘merely’ a lack of it. But from the viewpoint of the mind and soul, even an absence was a thing, and that was where the elemental energy of ‘cold’ came from. There was an essence to cold that the spirit could grasp and respond to. This was what she was manipulating as she channeled cold and heat through her body, keeping her skin from freezing and keeping her feet from cooking.

This was how she would remain through the rest of the night, unless her observer thought that her life was in danger. Injury was allowed, they had the magic to restore her flesh, so avoiding pain and damage was upon her.

And this was only one of the preliminary stages. They had given her previews of what was to come; areas of both greater heat and greater cold, peaks known to draw lighting, acrid caves that dripped both acidic and alkaline waters, and further afield were locations that had been sculpted by the people here to bring all the elements together in a constant clash.

Once she could endure this clash, both tempering her body and circulating the elements in her spirit to keep her flesh from harm, then they would know that her soul had adapted enough to begin the training to actually wield the elements.

Bellona was no mage, they did not expect her to throw bolts of lightning or any such things. Her spirit was her channel, and the spirit extended only a little beyond the flesh. Her weapons and armor would be her focus, calling the elements to her aid in the midst of battle, empowering every strike and defending her from every blow. Perhaps in time, as her spirit and power grew even more, she might be able to do more. But for her training here, manifestation and control of the elements during battle was enough. And still so very, very far away.

The two visible moons rose above her form, illuminating her green-toned skin with a pale light. The larger, brighter of the pair was The Mother, representing Mericume, goddess of the moons. The smaller, slightly bluish moon was The Son, and represented Ozuran, though it still fell under the domain of Mericume, for all moons were also hers.

There was a third moon, a tiny dark orb that was ever hidden in the night, and Bellona had never been one of those able to see this particular sphere. It was named The Hidden for a reason, and few outside of scholars and certain religious sects paid much attention to its existence, even though most knew of it from at least one story or another.

But even though few were aware of it, the little moon was always present, and always had its small, subtle effects on the world. The wisest people never dismissed it just because of its size, not if they truly understood what it represented. And tonight it was in conjunction with The Son.