Worthy Core

"My goodness! Xenia was really worried we might be, ah...hiring on you a little early, Weaver Pizola."

The elderly drider manages to look slightly embarrassed as the two rabbit-eared priestesses check her over. "Well, I'm not that close to croaking just yet, dears! I just...needed to catch my breath, is all. Trust me, I intend to go out on my own terms!" Pizola pauses to look around at the small room built off of the Floor Five shrine, and frowns in a bit of confusion.

"Now, I know one of you is that Priestess Deylia, hrmm? I've heard a little about you. But...why are there two of you?"

One of the priestesses points towards a massive mirror covering one wall of the room. "I'm Emma, actually, I'm just wearing Deylia's skin for a bit. One downside of using Challengers as a floor fight - they can't just die and heal themselves like dungeon guardians can. So we probably just hit a record for number of people needing healing at one time, and I can help out a bit with that while I look like this." She gestures at herself before continuing. "Also, Xenia'd like to talk to you a bit, but she's not burning avatar time for it, so consider me her representative at the moment."

"Oh!" Pizola straightens her back a bit, although she doesn't remove herself from the drider-sized sofa she was moved to. "Are we beginning the interview portion of all this right now? I'm afraid I'm not quite at my best...actually, how do I look, Priestess?"

Deylia purses her lips. "Well, as you know, healing can fix immediate damage but it can't turn back the clock, Weaver. You're not in further danger at just this moment, but if you were planning to head back down the mountain today, I'd have to recommend instead that you spend a night in the inn. As someone who's cleared nine floors, you would be entitled to quite good offerings there, by the way."

The performer shakes her head. "Thank you, but that wasn't what I meant." Pizola moves to adjust her hair as she looks into Emma's enchanted mirror. "I mean how do I look, dear?"

"Oh!" Deylia clears her throat and begins again. "You look quite elegant...for a woman who just climbed onto another one's back, beat her in a fight, and nearly died. If you don't mind me saying so."

Pizola clearly doesn't, going by her laughter. "Ahaha, fair enough! So then, Emma - how exactly does this interview go then, if we're doing it now?"

Emma pulls up a chair to sit in before answering. "Well, there's a fair bit that's already been covered, so we don't need to make this a full drawn-out thing. The Highbranches did your background check and we'll trust them on that. Normally we'd get a report from the Challenger's Association but, well, that's not really applicable this time, is it?" Emma shakes her head. "Xenia is a bit surprised about that, but I suppose we did limit our options a bit by asking for someone with public perfoming experience and all that."

The drider manages to look a little smug. "I suppose that is a fair concern, but I think I've established that someone doesn't need a silly Challenger rank just to know how to handle themselves, wouldn't you say?"

The mirrored woman nods in agreement. "You were pretty impressive, definitely. A bit more of a support role than the usual heavies or fighters, but that's not a bad thing. You always seemed to have a few extra tricks up your sleeves as well. Xenia likes that sort of flexibility."

"I'm glad then that having our little arena match with those youngsters end in a tie didn't entirely count against me, then."

"Aha, honestly, even with you helping out, Xenia would've been a little miffed if the Highbranch team did clear the floor. They're good but it's been set to be a challenge for Supremes, which they're not. There is a...somewhat combat-related concern we do have though, partially related to you not having Challenger experience."

Pizola raises a white-haired eyebrow. "Oh? And what would that be?"

Emma takes a deep breath. "Just gonna ask it directly. Have you ever killed someone, Weaver Pizola?"

The drider's lips turn into a thin line before she answers. "Monsters, yes. Both wild and 'tamed' beasts which turned out to be not so tamed."

Emma shakes her head. Before she can respond, Deylia speaks up and heads towards the door. "I can see this, ah, may be a bit personal. I'll just check in on some of the others..."

As she steps through the door and out of sight Emma's form shifts into that of a human woman, one with pale skin and black-and-white-striped hair. Her expression remains the same, however. "I'm sure you know that's not what we were asking, Weaver."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"You were asking if I've ever killed a person, yes. The answer to that would be no. Do I have fighting experience? Oh, quite a bit, my dear. But I've always managed to avoid needing to kill. As you said, I have many tricks up these old sleeves."

"I'm sure you do, but unfortunately that's a streak you might need to break." Emma frowns with Xenia's lips. "You're looking to become the guardian of Floor Ten, the deepest floor in the dungeon. Currently, the last floor before the Core Chamber. While we have put in a number of non-lethal, or slightly-less-than-average-amount-of-lethal challenges into the floor design, we have to consider that sooner or later someone's going to come through who doesn't care about fair fights or prizes. If someone comes after the core, we're going to need you to be able to stop them. Lethally, more likely than not."

"I may not have ever been in one before, but I know how dungeons operate." Pizola sighs. "Yes, of course, if the time comes to take a life, I shall do so. It does seem a shame, though...I mean, if a Supreme-tier Challenger should die by my hands? That's surely a rather storied career to bring to an inglorious end."

"Eh." Emma waggles a hand. "Aside from people turning into floor guardians, we actually have another 'retirement' option for high-tier people who die here, and who aren't assholes. Uh...which is not exactly public information."

A smirk reaches Pizola's lips. "So now that you've told me, you'll have to kill me?"

"We haven't quite gotten that far yet. Next main question: who do you want to be when you grow up? And by grow up, I mean die."

It takes a brief moment for the drider to puzzle out that statement. "Who do I...oh, you mean to ask what sort of monster I wish to become, is that it?"

The mirror nods. "Some people come here specifically for improved bodies. Trush and Parker were both...missing bits. Parker was on the older side as well, although you have him beat there. I suppose to give some idea of the options, I should tell you that doing a straight-up drider body's not really a great option. We have False Mortal monsters that can do that, but they're very physically weak. We let Sincere have one since his skills are all magic anyways and he's only guarding a single room, but a floor guardian is probably gonna need to do a bit more moving around. We do have Arachne, if you're familiar with those, but they're not exactly driders. Yulia's one, for example."

Pizola scoffs. "Right, what with having that second mouth where their hips should be, if I'm not mistaken? Those are bedtime horror stories we tell to young drider children. An option, perhaps...but tell me a bit more about those performers we saw, with the masks and the legs coming from their backs? I'm not familiar with those, I believe."

"Yeah, those aren't really traditional 'monsters'. Once we get a monster category up to a certain level we have the ability to make sentient individuals themed on that type - Deylia, Trush, and BB are all variants of Rabbit Champion, for example. In the case of Floor Ten, what we've populated it with are 'Arachnos Champions'. Ah, specifically a 'Peacock Spider' variant, cause they look cooler, I guess. Good at jumping, too, though no webs. Basic humanoid body plan like you saw, aside from the legs, but the masks were covering their faces. They've got mandibles plus jaws, and eight eyes, though two of them are the main ones. Does...that appeal to you?"

The Weaver takes a bit to consider that before answering. "I...imagine it would be a bit of an adjustment, learning to walk on two legs rather than eight, although they do at least have the extras there for support I suppose. I have to admit though, you really did quite an excellent job on their costuming. A very excellent stage presence. I...think perhaps I would be interested in giving one of these 'Champions' a try, yes."

Emma turns her head towards an empty part of the room before turning back to Pizola. "Won't be a problem. Champions have class subtypes too, we can put you in a mage-type body. Anything special for looks, though? Colors? Height?" Emma cups her hands in front of her chest. "Badonkers?"

The older woman blinks briefly at that. "Well...obviously, I wouldn't mind being a few decades younger! As for, ah...'badonkers', as you so elegantly put it, perhaps we could...experiment? I've heard many a tale from performers complaining about their larger, ahem, assets. But part of a Mistress of Festivities's role is to attract the eye, and, well...they do aid with that, certainly."

"Oh, we've got some experience with that, alright." Emma chuckles, before growing serious once again. "Well, honestly, Xenia says she can't see much reason to turn you down. And we've gone without a proper Floor Ten boss for longer than we'd like, anyhow. If you still want the job, you've got it. Do you have any...special requests before you sign on, though? Note that while we do have the special ability to let people take trips outside, the dungeon never really closes so we can only do so much of that. If you have any outside business to take care of, you should probably handle that first. Especially if any of it's further away than Grassbrook."

The room is silent for a while, as it sinks in for Pizola that her mortal life might truly be coming to an end. "Ah...what a thing to have to consider. At my age, you think about it a lot, of course. Not knowing if you'll have a tomorrow, that is. But to know it for a fact..." The drider goes quiet for a while longer. "...I did of course handle my personal matters before I came all the way out here. Not that there was much to handle, you understand. My siblings all died quite a few years ago, you know. Old lovers...well, who knows which of those are even still kicking, haha! And I don't really have anyone local I'd wish to speak to. The Highbranches, I suppose. Ought to thank them for helping me with this opportunity."

The mirror listens for a moment to her original before passing the message on. "Well, we don't have to do anything right this minute, of course. And the Highbranch team should be all patched up in a bit. Raylin only got a little stabbed, the crybaby. How about we throw you a going-away-slash-welcome party in the lounge tonight? Everything's on the house, of course."

"A final party, you say?" Pizola grins. "I suppose that might suit me just fine..."