NOVEL NEXT Chapter 207: New Staff
"It's good to see you're back and in one piece! I take it things went...well, about as well as could be expected?"
Xenia exchanges a hug with Taly as the dungeon master welcomes her to the core chamber, a smile on her face but with a rather tired-looking expression. "Hey, it takes a lot more than a god or two to keep Xenia Worthy down, you know! We do got a lot to talk about though."
"I bet! Looking forward to hearing all about it!" With that said Taly finds herself a seat at the room's conference table, and Xenia moves on to welcoming the next guardian to arrive. It was late in the evening after her eventful trip to the personal realms of multiple deities, and she had summoned all of her bosses to discuss what had happened. Deylia had been released from her solitary confinement for the occasion, and even the armor duo had been dragged into the room, despite their claims that staring at dark stone walls was more entertaining than attending dungeon meetings. The visiting Challengers had been informed that the dungeon was closed for the night, and if anyone were to try a run anyhow they'd face the full force of Trush and every dirty trick Xenia could come up with. So far, they'd settled for a round of free drinks at the inn instead.
There hadn't been much more for Xenia to discuss with the gods after being assigned her two tasks, although she did spend an awkward few minutes being doted on by Kahlia and her clique after returning from Theolif's realm. None of them were particularly thrilled about the idea of allowing an ambassador from another pantheon to take up residence in their own realm of interest, but given that Valkyrie Brightsky would be confined to a single dungeon, and that the deal seemed to be for pure motives, they eventually agreed to allow passage just this once. Brightsky hadn't actually arrived yet, and Kahlia and Theolif had some god-to-god discussions they needed to do to set up the arrangement, but that would hopefully be changing soon.
Once everyone had arrived, taken seats, and started digging into the snacks and drinks if they were into those sorts of things, Xenia takes up her place at the head of the table and gives them all a good looking-over. "Got a full house tonight, huh? Been a while since I got you all in here. We've got a lot to cover tonight, but while I'm on the topic of a crowded table, now'd probably be a good time to introduce Parker to the gang. I don't think you've met everyone yet, so Parker, meet your new coworkers, everyone, meet Parker."
The large rabbit-man gives a bit of an awkward grin as he waves to the others up and down the table, mostly due to the fact that he still hadn't entirely adjusted to the scale of his new Rabbit Patriarch body. Although Xenia had given him a custom-sized chair, the width of his shoulders still takes a bit of getting used to, and his motions are a little uncertain as he offers handshakes to those seated closest to him. "Glad to be here, certainly. Although I must say, this is the most bizarre conference I've ever attended. Which I mean in a good way, of course, no offense intended."
"NONE TAKEN." DEATH gives the man a smile as he offers his bony hand to shake, which somehow manages to come through despite his utter lack of lips. "ANOTHER GUARDIAN OF THE LAGOMORPH PERSUASION ADDED TO OUR RANKS, I SEE."
"Sorta." Xenia shrugs. "Parker here is probably gonna be trying out a split-body thing, when I give him his combat form it might not be rabbit-related, even if that does seem to be increasingly our theme. For now though I'm giving the man a chance to enjoy his second honeymoon, so for a while we'll be doing something else for the Floor Seven boss, which I'll be getting to in a bit."
Taly shoots the man a wide grin, her eyes warm despite their red tint. "Yeah, and congratulations by the way, I've heard you've had some...early success. Good for you, and I'm looking forward to hearing about what that did for the dungeon, too."
"Thank you. It was...certainly much more successful than we were anticipating, but Laeniel and I have had some time to discuss things a bit more and I think we're both very satisfied with this turn of events. And thank you again for the, ah, extended 'honeymoon', Xenia, although I'm happy to provide my services at any time should they be needed." Parker gives the dungeon master a nod, and she returns it with a thumbs up.
"Thanks, but with any luck we should be good on staffing for a good while, which leads me to the next announcement. I'm gonna go ahead and start with the big one first...as most of you know, I've been looking to get in touch with the gods from one of my previous lives, one where I fucked up bad, in order to...reduce my sins, my karmic weight, right the balance sheets, however you wanna say it. Kahlia agreed to arrange that if we could get a dungeon monster to knock up a mortal, and once again, thank you Parker for your contribution to the cause."
Having only gotten the very brief summary version of Xenia's history earlier, Parker is still a little confused about what exactly all of this is about, but the man accepts the compliment nonetheless. "Ah...anytime, dungeon master."
"Thanks to that, this afternoon I had a lovely little chat with Theolif, Lord of the Shield, who very nicely did not smite me into atoms for my sins. He did provide me with two tasks, though...one of which came with a Divine Favor. A champion, to both assist us here in the dungeon and also do a little, uh, soul harvesting. Guy, is she ready?"
The guide bobs next to her. "I have received a notification that she is, ma'am."
"Alright, then...send her the invite."
Nothing appears to happen for a few moments, but eventually without further warning there's a bright flash of light not far from where Guy is hovering. When it fades out a woman is standing there - but she has little in common with the librarian Xenia had once met in her memories. Rather than wearing the simple robes of a priestess, Opal Brightsky is now garbed in holy plate armor, shining bright and, perhaps unsurprisingly, with a large, heavy blue shield affixed to one arm. The only green skin visible is that of her face, which is now perfectly formed and flawless, her body remade through the effort of divine sculpting. It's still framed by her pointy elven ears, but the dark-green, almost-black hair tumbling around her shoulders looks as glossy as that worn by any model. Her most notable change however is that the woman is now sporting a pair of wings, with feathers made of metal, and Xenia gets the vague impression that each individual feather might be almost shield-shaped.
One thing the woman lacks however is any warmth in her expression as she examines the people gathered in front of her. Her eyes are a solid yellow now, without visible pupils, and it only seems to enhance the inhuman nature of her gaze. "So...you are the guardians of this...'Worthy Dungeon', I take it?"
As a greeting, Lollyp asks the first question that comes to her mind. "Wow...are you an elf? But you're so...green."
Opal's eyes narrow at the slime. "And you are very...squishy."
With a sigh, Xenia steps in with introductions. "Everyone...meet Valkyrie Opal Brightsky. She's been loaned to us by Lord Theolif, and will be helping him out with his...debt collection. I'll probably be making her boss of Floor Seven, although once Floor Eight's done and Parker's on duty, we might shuffle things up a bit."
Sincere shifts slightly in his seat. "The way you're avoiding the specific nature of her task here makes me rather nervous, I'll have to admit."
"Is the Fallen Prince a squeamish one in this life? Well, allow me to explain, then." Opal snorts before continuing. "Your dungeon collects the souls of those it slays, yes? I am here to collect them and send them instead to my lord, where they will serve as Summoned Heroes and help to right the wrongs your master here once committed. Not all of them, of course, but any adventurer who is..." She sighs before finishing her statement. "...Worthy."
Lollyp seems a little uncomfortable at that. "Wait, are we going back to maxing out our killcount? I mean, I don't mind much personally, I kinda miss having the occasional team-wipe to my name, but I don't think the Association would like that."
Xenia shakes her head. "Like the lady said, Theolif wants Hero-quality adventurers only. Initiates and Advanced definitely don't count, and maybe not even Experts, but Opal here is the expert at judging souls, so I'll leave the details up to her."
Trush raises a hand. "This still seems like a significant cost to the dungeon, given that we won't be able to use those souls on upgrades. How many souls are we talking about, here? And what about any future 'applicants' we get?"
"Any applicants that go through the process and pass, we'll still take as usual. Anyone that gives themselves up but we didn't actually want, well, Opal can take a look at them. As for how many..." Xenia turns towards the elf, who speaks without hesitation.
"As many champions as it takes for our homelands to be freed from the tyranny of the Prince's descendants."
"...Yeah, that. Could be a thing for years, honestly. We aren't bagging that many Experts yet. But it's not a one-sided deal. I don't know exactly how you'd classify Opal in terms of monster tiers, but...I'm betting she's an A-tier boss at least. That ain't nothin'."
"Indeed it's not." Trush gives the woman a nod, although her expression of vague displeasure changes little. "I'm looking forward to seeing you in action, Valkyrie. It sounded like there was more to discuss as well though, Worthy?"
"Yup. We also completed Kahlia's divine quest to have five children conceived in the dungeon, thank you again Mr. Reeves. I asked Kahlia if she had a champion of her own we could use...which I brought up before knowing we'd get one from Theolif...but even so I think it's a good deal. Unlike Opal, who will be living here full-time until her task is done, Kahlia's champion is an emergencies-only sort of guy. Someone overpowered comes by, or someone comes looking to crack my core open? We give him a call and he shows up. Possible some of you might know of him, guy goes by the name of Bill of the Blue Hair."
Although she was vaguely aware of the man and his reputation, Xenia's rather surprised by the shocked looks that appear on the faces of her reincarnated guardians. Sincere is the first to voice their confusion. "Bill - Bill of the Blue Hair!? His soul resides in Kahlia's comforting embrace?"
"Uh...maybe, I'm not sure if it's that literal or not. Honestly it wouldn't surprise me. You didn't know him by any chance, right, Sin-Man?"
Sincere shakes his head. "Not directly. But he was legendary over a century ago, back before the Valleylands won their independence from the Dragonlord. He mainly fought in service of the Rainlands, but he ranged all across the continent, righting wrongs, slaying monsters, rescuing...and marrying damsels. I never met him, although I am...acquainted with several of his descendants. Paladin Sable being one such. It'd be astounding to actually get to meet him one day."
"Well, that day is today, cause I got permission to call him up for introductions. Guy, we got Billy on the line?"
"Indeed. I've...also intercepted several messages from him asking if you're 'hot', which I've elected not to answer."
"...Swell. Well, let's bring him in and say hello."
Once again, after a brief delay there's a bright flash, and another new arrival is soon standing next to Opal. Despite the fact that the elf is rather tall for a woman, even an elven one, the human next to her still has the advantage by at least a foot and has shoulders as broad as Parker's. His loose, shoulder-length hair is indeed blue, as is his slight goatee, but even more striking than his personal appearance is his attire. Unlike the divine armor of Valkyrie Brightsky, Bill has arrived in what appears to be blue jeans and...a Nirvana t-shirt. An easy grin brightens up the room as he scans the crowd.
"Looks like we got a whole damn party here tonight, yeah! Excellent!" Turning his head he spots Xenia, and offers her a handshake - with a hand that easily dwarfs her own when she reaches out. "You're Xenia, yeah? Sweet name, and I dig that nose piercing, very gnarly."
For once, Xenia doesn't quite know what to say. "That's...yeah, thanks. Nice style on you, too. Um. ...Earth?"
Bill nods eagerly. "Hells yeah, man! Cincinnati, '92! You too? Heard you were like, an extra-reincarnator or whatever, but didn't wanna make any assumptions, you know?"
"Uh, yeah, actually. Tallahassee, like, three decades later."
The man's grin grows wider. "Ah, Alabama, Dukes of Hazzard country, wicked!" Before Xenia can do more than blink once or twice, he turns back towards the rest of the group. "So, we gettin' this party started off or what!?"
