Worthy Core

After getting Beatrice set up with a room, Xenia pops herself into one of Floor Five's empty training rooms and summons Guy to her side. "Guy! We need to make a phone call!"

The guide appears a moment later, aware of her request but not entirely clear on its purpose. "A phone call, ma'am?"

"Yeah." Xenia snaps her fingers. "That dungeon link artifact we've got in the inventory. We haven't used it in a while, but it's time. Can you turn it on and see if anyone picks up at the other ends?"

"We can certainly try, ma'am." The guide goes silent then, but in an abstract way Xenia can still feel the artifact being activated. Her inventory is a part of her, after all, with Guy merely being a convenient way to access it. There's no response for several minutes, but eventually someone does answer. Without fanfare there's now standing next to Xenia and Guy a smiling woman, with the spidery body of a drider and the red skin and golden eyes of a demon.

"Xenia! It's been so long since we've spoken! I've heard your Floor Ten is spider-focused, is it true? And you didn't even let me help critique your design! I can't help you if you don't let me, you know."

Xenia's response is a sigh. "Yeah, sorry I ain't called, Halith - but I'm not actually calling for you right now, either. I need your boss on the line."

The visiting dungeon avatar furrows her brow. "My...boss?"

"You know. The Dragonlord? I know this artifact has a third connection in their hands, or claws, or whatever. How do we get their attention?"

"I'm...not sure this is a terribly good idea, Xenia. The Dragonlord is a very busy individual, and they're not pleased to be 'summoned' lightly..."

Halith's nervousness is clear to see, but the reincarnator remains firm. "I ain't callin' them about the weather, Haley. Trust me, this is important."

"Well...they do show you some favor. We don't exactly have a protocol for calling them specifically, but I suppose if both of us activate our ends of the link in a connection request at the same time, that would attract their attention? Assuming they have eyes on the third end of the link, or something along those lines."

Guy bobs in agreement. "I think we can certainly give that a try."

"Alright, do that, then." Xenia crosses her arms and stands back as Guy activates the dungeon link a second time, and Halith presumably does the same with her own guide back in her home dungeon. There's another few minutes of silence - but eventually a toga-wearing, white-and-yellow-scaled draconic makes their own appearance in the room. Their wings spread wide as they turn their gaze on the two dungeon spirits one by one.

"Xenia. Halith. I assume there's urgent matters you wish to discuss?"

"Yup." Xenia nods before gesturing in Halith's direction. "Just you and me though. Just needed Halith's help to get you on the line. We've got...shit to discuss."

The Dragonlord's avatar peers at her with narrowed eyes, but Xenia's own avatar doesn't waver under their gaze. Eventually, they nod once and turn towards the other dungeon master. "I suppose we do. Halith, thank you for your assistance, but I believe I can handle matters from here."

"Of course, Dragonlord." The drider-like woman bows towards the dragon before glancing back at Xenia, but if she has anything more to say, she keeps it to herself before closing the dungeon link connection and fading out. Left in privacy, the dragon again focuses their full attention on Xenia.

"So. Which matter exactly do you wish to discuss, Reincarnator Extraordinaire?"

"A couple, actually, but let's start with one that came up a few months back." Xenia's expression turns into a grimace, and she taps her foot. "Dave Worthy? A pun-cracking skull is going around the continent calling himself Dave fuckin' Worthy. You wanna explain that to me?"

"Ah, an interesting fellow, that one." The Dragonlord smiles faintly at the thought of him, entirely unconcerned with Xenia's anger. "You recall, I suppose, that the 'historical recreations' you experience when clearing old floors of the Great Dungeon are not real individuals? But...I don't suppose you are familiar with the formation method of fossils, by any chance?"

Xenia frowns at the odd question. "Yeah, sure. Bones get buried for a long time and turn into stone, or something."

"Somewhat true, in some methods. But a more common method is that the original organic material eventual decays away, leaving a mold behind in the shape of the bone. The mold then gets filled in with trickles of minerals, eventually forming a stone in the same form of the original bone. The recreation of a person which you experience in those encounters is the mold, the shape that someone has left on your soul, not the original entity itself."

"Lookin' forward to when this science class turns into an answer to my question."

The golden dragon smiles as they continue. "I simply took the mold of Dave left within your soul...and filled it in with a little bit of you. Your soul energy, that is. You have far too much of it, you know. A good soul-shave would probably be good for your overall health - "

"Hold up, now!" Xenia's quiet anger quickly turns into the less-quiet form as she begins shouting. "You took a bit of my soul!? To copy...to copy Dave? What the fuck for?"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Why, to learn about you, of course. Dave had a great many stories of yours to tell, and was more than happy enough to do so. And once that was done, I in turn was happy to offer him a position among my forces." They raise a brow ridge in Xenia's direction, as if just noticing her outburst. "If you are worried about damage or risk to your soul, do not be. Despite Dave's appearance, I am no necromancer. Should, or when, Dave be destroyed, his sliver of your soul shall return to you, wherever you may be. I presume this has something to do with why he has taken on your family name, although I have not asked."

Xenia pinches the bridge of her nose, taking a deep breath before responding. "...And. You thought I would just be okay with this? You've been basically spying on me with my own memories? Are you gonna keep doing that? Making puppets out of me every time I try to claim a new floor?"

The Dragonlord shakes their head. "An overstep, perhaps, but one in your own favor in the long run. And no, I have no further need of examining more of your past, I believe. Although if there is an individual you wish for me to revive from your past, perhaps something can be arranged at a later time. As recompense, perhaps. Assuming we remain on cordial terms."

"That's a hell of an assumption. But, let's move on to the other issue for a moment, cause this one's apparently headline news. A dungeon in the Valleylands popped open and spit out monsters all over everyone, and people are linking this to me. But it's got something to do with you, right? Cause I sure as shit didn't do anything!"

This time, the dragon does frown before answering. "Highlight Mountain's actions were contrary to my instructions. It may have ruined much...but not every dungeon is as stable as yourself, and I have not had the option of being very choosy. That being said, yes, Highlight Mountain gained the capability thanks to my actions, which I was only capable of because I learned them from you."

"Oh, come on, what did I do?" As Xenia throws her hands into the air, the Dragonlord waves one of their own - and a screen suddenly appears before her.

Xenia blinks at it for a moment before shrugging in the Dragonlord's direction. "Yeah, sure, that's the achievement I got that lets me send people outside. What does that have to do with Highlight Mountain?"

The dragon doesn't answer the question directly. "Seeing this achievement on your list was a rare experience for me - I do not often see dungeon achievements which I've never encountered before. In a sense, this reward is almost impossible for most dungeons to achieve. By time they reach a point where adventurers are spending full days within their bounds, they are often too old to easily qualify for it. Even a mere one-year-old dungeon would need someone to reside within for six months. Such stays do occur within my network of collaborator dungeons within my Domain, but mostly with short-lived slimes and with dungeons many decades old. Even the youngest dungeon in my network would need for a resident to remain within for seven years straight without ever leaving, which is a difficult qualification to fulfill."

"...Yeah, I got it because of the water elementals living on Floor Four, in the river there. Pretty out of the way, low standards of living. What's that got to do with the Valleylands dungeon?"

The tyrant raises a finger. "Yes, elementals! An interesting exception in many ways. Created by magic, yet classified as mortals, with a soul of their own. Now, water elementals were not a useful option for me. Not all dungeons have water features, and those that do cannot guarantee the age of any particular bucket of water. However, dungeon stone is a different matter."

Xenia's perfect memory flashes back to a detail Thaddeus once told her, about his encounter with Dave on a wintry night. "You had Dave and a demon collecting rocks from a dungeon north of here. You've been collecting stone from the dungeons?"

They nod, looking pleased with themselves. "Indeed! That was the trick. Much of a dungeon's main structure rarely changes, and so it's easy to identify particular sections that are nearly as old as the dungeon itself! Now, turning that stone into elemental earth cores is not an easy matter - and even more difficult was setting up the spells so that bringing the stones to the Domain to be transformed did not count as an interruption on their timer. But there are none who are more of an expert than I on the matter of either elementals or dungeon magic, so such tasks were quite within my capabilities."

The dungeon master grimaces as she sees their purpose. "And then when you put the cores back and juice them up into being elementals, the...dungeon system gave them credit for 'residing' in the dungeon for hundreds of years? But why go through all that trouble? They're not even your dungeons!"

"Oh, but they are, for all of this continent is my true domain. As are you - but as always, I seek to approach you as an ally, not a foe. In fact, I'm glad you called on me today, for we were due a meeting in the near future regardless."

Xenia crosses her arms. "Hrmph, and tell me again why we should be allies? You just admitted to slicing off bits of my soul to spy on me."

"Again, for your own long-term benefit." The Dragonlord spreads their arms and gives Xenia a toothy grin. "After all, we are two of a kind, you and I."

That statement manages to make Xenia roll her eyes. "Yeah, that has to be at least the third time an evil overlord has said that to me. I don't see that we have much in common."

"Oh, but you see, I was speaking literally. I must ask your apologies for my deception, although it was not just of you, and it is one whose time has been nearing its end for quite a while now. I am not the original Dragonlord, you see."

The reincarnator raises an eyebrow. "Some other dragon had the job before you?"

"Just the one, actually. They have been effectively dead for this past century, however." With that said the Dragonlord grabs hold of their toga and pulls it aside, revealing their chest. Their chest - and the swirling blue orb implanted within it. Although their presence here is only a projection, something about its revelation causes Xenia to briefly become unsteady on her feet, with a feeling as if the earth had just trembled.

"What - what the hell is that?"

The Dragonlord continues smiling. "Why, this is me. It is good to finally meet you properly, Xenia Worthy, master of Worthy Dungeon. I am the Great Dungeon. And you have been living in my home."