On the fourth floor, a pale-skinned, demonic looking creature scurried up to Victoria and offered her a crude bag. Like Victoria herself, the creature was humanoid without being transformed. That was more common for powerful monsters than less-powerful. Still, seeing it surprised Ari. For a low-level newbie like her, seeing humanoid monsters was rare. Another level thirty-plus, at a guess. They were deep in the dungeon, now, and so the monsters that resided in these areas would be fitting to the dungeon’s depth.

She didn’t inspect the monster, not wanting to ruffle any feathers, just in case. Maybe it was a silly precaution, but Ari should be as careful as possible when it came to all this.

Victoria turned to Ari, holding out a thick canvas bag. “Put it on. The Core wants to keep the meeting room a secret.”

Ari did as instructed. She pulled the bag over her head, the already-dark hallway going black. It smelled, though not horribly. Stuffy. Hard to breathe.

At the same instant she tugged it down, Victoria picked her up. Ari squeaked in surprise. Powerful arms lifted her up, and she was tucked into Victoria’s elbow.

Ari huffed. Lugging her around like a sack … so disrespectful.

And so easily. Victoria was strong. Though, obviously she was. As a level thirty-six strength-based monster, she could likely rip a tree out of the ground. Carrying Ari was nothing.

Though, she was in monstergirl form, right now. She was humanoid by default, but Ari’s [Transform] had turned her softer, more human. Her more monstrous features stayed replaced, and without being charmed. How long would she stay that way? Until Ari’s punishment ended? She had no clue how this all worked. They were treading new ground.

Anxious, Ari let herself be carried along. They were on the tail end of the trip through the expansive underground labyrinth. Any moment now, she’d be meeting the near-mythical ‘Dungeon Core’.

Which was a confirmation of hotly-debated theory. Seriously, Ari’s class had allowed her to discover that dungeons did have minds? Intelligent ones, no less? She already had an overpowered class, and now she was unearthing secrets puzzled over for millennia?

She just hoped Miss Dungeon Core didn’t want her eaten, or anything. What had Victoria said? That she was interested in Ari because of what she’d been doing to her subjects? Hopefully fucking her way through them wasn’t something that upset her.

An odd thought popped into her head. Could she … do the same to the Dungeon Core? Transform her? Then, obviously, be outstandingly destroyed in the resulting fight. Because obviously she wouldn’t win. The question was more, was it possible?

If so, could Ari add an entire dungeon to her Menagerie?

Whew. That’d be … crazy. Even by the standards of her class.

Finally, they arrived. Ari was set down, and the bag over her head was yanked off, revealing the room.

She gaped at what she saw. Mainly, at the center of the room. A prismatic orb sat there, atop a finely carved pillar, shimmering with thousand of multi-colored lights. It was … unreal in appearance. Literally. Ethereal, some object from myth. Victoria had said ‘meeting room’, but she’d been taken to the core itself?

{THIS IS IT? THE ANOMALOUS ONE?}

Ari almost shrieked in surprise. The voice came out of nowhere. Fortunately, she managed to stamp it down into just a jump and a loud squeak.

The voice had been inserted into her head. Which … made sense, she guessed? How else had she expected to ‘speak to’ a dungeon core? But even so, the experience was disorienting. It wasn’t like getting skill information or an [Inspect]. It had intonation, a voice, behind it. Though flat, non-human. Alien. Very faintly feminine.

And overpowering. Loud. The reason Ari had nearly screamed. It’d caught her seriously off guard.

“This is her, Mistress,” Victoria said. “The one you asked me to retrieve.” She attempted to not sound annoyed, but it was obvious how she felt about her orders.

{SHE’S CHANGED YOU. AS SHE DID THE OTHERS.}

“She did.”

{YOUR LEVEL DIDN’T MATTER.}

“It seems it didn’t.”

{WHEN WILL YOU REVERT?}

Victoria paused, then glanced at Ari, waiting expectantly.

The concept of reverting, of returning to her more primitive self, didn’t seem to bother Victoria. It never did, for the monstergirls Ari didn’t invite to her Menagerie. It was only after Ari had brought them into the fold that the concept of returning back to non-sapience troubled them. Her class helping things along, she assumed?

“I’m not sure,” Ari admitted, finally finding her words. “I’ve never lost before, so this is a first. Normally, you’d change back in … I dunno, a minute? It varies. Longer if we’re talking and interacting. But losing works different, I think.”

“Hm,” Victoria said. She turned to the Core, inclining her head in respect. “Can I return to my duties, Mistress?”

{GO.}

Victoria did so. She did send a glance over her shoulder, though, toward Ari. She seemed the slightest bit concerned, which—great. Thanks for ramping her anxiety up.

Swallowing, she faced the mythical entity who had purposefully arranged an audience.

“So, uh,” Ari coughed. “I like your … orb.”

She winced.

{WHAT ARE YOU?}

“A girl seriously in over her head, apparently.”

The Core didn’t seem amused at Ari’s attempt at lightheartedness. Maybe she didn’t understand it. But … no, that was definitely an unimpressed aura radiating from the prismatic orb. How she could infer emotions from a pulsing orb of crystalline energy, she had no idea.

“I-I don’t know,” Ari said, giving a more direct answer. “What do you mean, specifically?”

{YOU MEDDLE. IN WAYS THAT SHOULDN’T BE POSSIBLE.}

“Um.” Ari didn’t know where to start with that. This whole experience was surreal. Beyond surreal. “I’m a … monster layer.” It was the truth, but mostly came out as a joke. Then, realizing her last joke hadn’t gone great, she gave the direct answer. “It’s my class.”

{EXPLAIN.}

“I lay monsters.” She shrugged helplessly. “I hope that isn’t a problem with your, um, subjects. I didn’t mean to step on any toes.” A second later, she added, “they’re all very nice. My dad says people’s subordinates reflect their leader. So … I have a good first impression?”

Was flattery appropriate here? Ari thought so. It was all she had, really.

{YOU TOOK ONE OF MINE.}

She winced. “Should I not have?”

{ONE WORKER ANT? IRRELEVANT. BUT HOW? HOW IS IT POSSIBLE?}

Ari bristled. She bit down on a retort. Though, she couldn’t let a statement like that go completely uncontested. “Nobody is irrelevant. Silvy has been an amazing addition to the squad, and I’m sure she was here, too.”

Despite the orb having no physical form, Ari got the distinct sense she was being scrutinized. She squirmed. Maybe she shouldn’t talk back to alien, indeterminately powerful entities. But she’d insulted Silvy. Ari hadn’t been able to keep quiet at that.

{SO I SHOULD BE UPSET AT YOUR THEFT, THEN?}

Er …

Ari had walked herself into that one.

“I’m … sorry?”

A bare hint of amusement in the way the orb pulsed. {HOW DO YOU DO IT?}

“Transform? It’s a skill.”

{IT GOES AGAINST THE NATURAL ORDER. IT IS AN IMPOSSIBILITY. ARE YOU ONE OF HERS?}

Huh? “Hers?”

{THE ONE WHO SEEKS TO BREAK HER CHAINS.}

Ari gaped. Things had been surreal enough, and then she was asked a question like that? ‘She’? Who?

{NO MATTER,} the Core said. {IT IS IRRELEVANT. YOU DISRUPT MY CREATION. YOUR EXISTENCE POSES A THREAT. THUS, NATURALLY, YOU MUST DIE.}

Huh?!

“H-Hold on a minute,” Ari said, taking a step back. The Core had almost seemed … not friendly, but not hostile, either. And then she’d delivered a statement like that? Not even a threat, either, but a simple explanation of what would happen.

Behind, a scuffle of stone. Ari spun and saw one of those ghastly creatures with pale skin. A vampire? It matched the encyclopedia entries, but was hard to tell. It approached, a bloodthirsty expression on its face. A high level monster like that thing could have her dead in an instant. Without time to even react.

She didn’t have time to think. Had to act, do whatever she could. Spinning back forward, and forced into this, she held her hand up toward the Core.

What could go wrong, right?

She activated [Transform].

A long, stretched out moment.

Something inexplicable groaned, the world letting out a confused, ‘… eh? Sorry?’, as if not sure what to do.

The prismatic orb disappeared in a burst of white smoke.