No Need For A Core? - 170: The Power of Cheese

170: The Power of Cheese

No Need For A Core? by Zagaroth

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Kazue mentally hummed a tune as she set about a few self-assigned tasks, starting with giving the cooks some instructions on what to make for dinner. Next, she sent a buzzkin over to where Li and Gil were enjoying their party. The messenger landed in front of them with a small bow and addressed Gil, “Lady Kazue and Lord Mordecai wish to let you know that they have a small surprise awaiting you and that you may want to clear the dungeon by dinner time. As for Mister Li, I have been informed that should you successfully deliver Mister Gil to the feast hall by dinner time, and have cleared the dungeon on the way, then there will be some special treats for you. One of your dishes at dinner time will be a savory cheese pie, and when dessert is served, there will be a sweet cheese pie as well.”

The ratling had been splayed out on his back with a rather full-looking belly, but at this announcement he sprang to his feet, bloated stomach suddenly back to normal, “Did you say cheese pie? Wow that's awesome I love cheese pie well I just love cheese but everyone loves cheese right Gil come on Gil we gotta get going we can't miss out on the cheese pie it's very important you know to get all the cheese pie that you can eat come on Gil stop being so slow we need to stop wasting time because it's time for cheese and you should never make cheese wait for you though sometimes you have to wait for cheese because cheese can take a long time oh I wonder what type of cheese it's going to be?”

As the two headed for the end of the zone, Kazue prompted the two bosses to go full out. The 'trap' would be sprung with all four gems lighting up and all three of Sarcomaag's 'trees' spawning, followed by Klastoria falling down a few moments later. These two were going to be the first to clear the combat path of the wetlands, and they'd be skipping past a couple of groups who were currently in the relevant villages, resting up.

Part of her was disgruntled with the fact that the nature of her path effectively made it 'easier', though that wasn't exactly true. The difference was that her challenges were the sort that you could retain progress on. Some things were pretty much impossible to do in a single day, such as building even a small boat that could be considered reliable. That meant that steady work could get you across the hurdles eventually.

The combat path was more binary; either you could overcome the challenge or you couldn't, and if you lost the battle, you were escorted up through a temporary tunnel back to the entrance after your wounds were taken care of. That sort of situation rarely happened on her path, though there had been a few occasions such as when a boat capsized hard. Most of the people who didn't reach the end of her path were either on a time limit and wouldn't be able to continue quickly enough, or they were just feeling too frustrated and gave up.

Well, that and a few of the frustrated people had become angry and aggressive, requiring that they be physically escorted to the entrance. She didn't tolerate any violence on her path, not even between party members. She and Mordecai tried to only kick out the instigator, but sometimes the situation was too messy and they had to kick the whole party out.

Only once had someone tried to resist with real force, and that's when that person learned an important lesson: The various rabbit clans worked on trading positions between various posts on both paths, and all were combat-trained. Kazue was grateful Mordecai had thought to make sure that happened. Really, his presence made it so much easier for her to be nicer; he was the one who made sure that there was a backup plan if someone broke the rules of her path.

Her musings were interrupted by a signal from Fuyuko's room, and Kazue shifted her attention there, creating an illusion on the platform they'd built earlier. “You rang?” she asked, in a faux-formal tone. She only held the pose for a moment before grinning at the girl.

Fuyuko took a moment to parse what had just happened and then smiled at the silliness. “Hey, ya. Um, I figured out the bath and stuff, and the robe is super comfy by the way, thanks fer that. Anyway, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do from there. I don't know how you guys do dinner and stuff.” She really hoped the woman could help her out here. She knew that matching colors was supposed to be a thing, but it had never been something she'd worried about and didn't know how. She'd just been happy to have new clothes, and Gil wasn't really someone to learn about colors from. His outfits always seemed to have a color theme, often in bright colors, but that didn't mean they'd been good themes.

Kazue's image looked thoughtful as she swished her tails and then nodded, “Alright, I have an idea, but first we are going to begin with a new rule for you: No black outfits at dinner. While black looks fine on you, and it can be so much more, this will be training so that you know what to do with more options. Now, spread that bundle out you got earlier, I am going to show you the outfit in the package that I think we want to start you out with.”

She'd already torn open the package to get a look at what was inside, but she'd left it like that when she realized she wasn't sure what she wanted to do from there, so now she took the clothes out and put the pieces that had similar colors near each other.

“So, I think we should have you wear this one,” Kazue said as she created a bit of extra illumination on her selection, “This will be pretty on you, but not too spectacular. I don't think you want to be the center of attention right now, and one of our people wants to be very eye-catching tonight, so it wouldn't be fair to have you accidentally competing when I know what is happening.”

Well, she wasn't wrong about Fuyuko not wanting to be the center of attention, but the rest of what she'd said was a little confusing, “What do you mean?”

“Ah, well, Betty, who is one of our third-floor bosses, has decided that she wants to snag someone's attention, and Mordecai and I have helped her get ready for that. But as I just realized, the two of you have similar height and builds, though you don't have her muscles yet. So it's best that you contrast her a little, and you are already much paler which gives us a good starting point. Oh, and Mordecai moved Gil's room further down the hall as a precaution, depending on how things turn out.”

Fuyuko was examining the clothes in question when she figured out what Kazue was saying and turned to look at the image in the corner, “Yer friend Betty is trying to get Gil's attention?” She asked with disbelief. She'd traveled with Gil for weeks, and while she liked the man a lot he didn't strike her as the sort of handsome, dashing man that women chased after. But she'd never felt like she understood what those rules were anyway.

“I don't get it either, but it seems he made an impression when he and Li went through the third floor, and she had fun during their fight.” Kazue shrugged, “Maybe it's sort of like with Mordecai and Moriko, they get worked up when they spar. And unlike her previous fights, she'd been fighting Gil solo while Li played with Umbrowl, so it was a new experience for her.”

Ugh, well, whatever. She shook off those thoughts and focused on the clothes she was holding. The first piece was a pair of wide-legged pants in flowing fabric. “Those are called Palazzo pants,” Kazue let her know as Fuyuko examined them. The legs were made of wide rectangles of soft, pettable, sueded silk in indigo with a delicate four-pointed star-like motif woven throughout.

With them was a tunic top of shot silk in matching indigo, shot with threads of deep red. Whereas the pants were almost clingingly soft, the fabric of the tunic was just a bit stiff, which would keep her from feeling overly displayed, and Fuyuko was pretty certain it would obfuscate her armor if she wore the tunic over it.

When she started to put the outfit on, she found it also came with a red, sleeveless undershirt, a little bit of which showed in the V at the neck of the tunic for a pop of color.

The tunic's side vents allowed for ease of movement despite the slightly stiff material, which let the tunic be long enough to cover her front and back down to her upper thighs. It also came with an indigo and deep red belt for her waist, and thin, soft leather slippers that Kazue said were perfect for dancing in.

Fuyuko wasn't sure about that, but she also didn't know how to dance, so maybe? But it felt weird to wear something so light and thin, shoes like these would have been destroyed in a few days in her old life. Well, ones that were not enchanted at least.

She was suddenly struck by a memory of a conversation earlier that day, “You guys are rich. I mean, I love it, but no way could I have worn something like this before.” She idly stroked her hand over her thigh, petting the soft fabric. It was hard to stop touching the silk, it was just so nice to feel. “I ain't never had anythin' like this before.”

“I guess. I mean, you are right, it's certainly a luxury, but it's not as much of a difference for me as it is for you, so it's harder to see it the same way. And I've been a dungeon for months now, so I've kind of gotten used to how things work.”

That caused Fuyuko to frown, there had always been something she was missing about the stories she'd heard, “How do you become a dungeon?”

“Oh. Ahem,” Kazue's image blushed a little, “I guess no one told you that part. Well, I might as well get it out of the way. Um, I was a shrine maiden, and last winter solstice, I had too much rice wine and fell into the moon pool when no one was around, and, um, well, drowned. And that might have been that, but Lady Mericume took pity on me and said that she could have me be reborn as a dungeon. And then at the start of spring, I woke up here, as my new dungeon self. This was a couple of weeks before Moriko and Mordecai arrived, that part kind of requires more detail, so maybe we should go over that later. For now, why don't you come out to the main hall? You can meet Betty and talk with her while we wait for Gil and Li.”

That sounded more like Kazue just didn't want to talk about it anymore, and Fuyuko could understand that. She'd be pretty embarrassed too. “Yeah, let's do that. And, thanks for the help.” She petted her pants one more time before she turned to leave her room.