When Etsuko started through the maze you had tried to be say encouraging things
Your delver hadn't been really enthusiastic about all the turnings (maybe she would have liked it better if there had been some traps?) but between her determination and what you said she kept on going.
It was an inspiration to watch her go at it. You were sure that even if you'd filled the maze with monsters and traps (and now you were getting ideas…) she'd not have faltered for a moment. Your Etsuko was really neat about stuff like that.
Eventually though your delver did ask for a little help and, wise and great Core that you were, you deigned to give her a few hints.
Well, more than a few but you didn't tell her everything?
Um, you only told her the way to the middle even though that meant she missed entire sections that you'd spent hours getting right.
Anyway while you don't feel
bad about it, it did occur to you that telling Etsuko how to get through your maze might be… it's sort of… Well, cheating?
She got to the middle in the end though and that was what had to count.
When Etsuko reached the middle she was confused, but that was okay. She probably hadn't paid attention in
her tutorial (hers was probably as boring as yours had been before you left) so you could see how she didn't know what to do. She did ask where you were though and, since she had technically beaten your dungeon, you decided to show her properly.
Pushing your mana into your facets you rose up into the air, shining like a beacon in the darkness, and sparkling like the sparkliest thing ever. Etsuko had a really funny expression on her face as she saw you, but she looked surprised too.
(Surprise was close to awe, right? That meant you really were awesome!)
"
Do you want to claim your [Prizes] now?" You asked eagerly, "
I mean, you could say no, but then I can't do the awesome stuff for you. And the best [Prize] is that you get to be my [Boss]!"
Etsuko didn't say anything, just standing there. Maybe you'd said something wrong so you tried again.
"
If you want to anyway." You said, a little less certain about things than you'd been a moment before. "
Um, please say yes. Please?
Letting some mana out in a way you'd never done before, you 'passed' the offer to her. While you couldn't see it yourself, you were paying real close attention and could tell when she saw a box showing the offer.
(The way she gave a yelp and took a step back was sort of a hint…)
It was only because you'd were directing your full attention at Etsuko that you heard it. Not her response, 'cause she seemed to be at a loss for words at your mega-great offer, but a weird sound. You'd never really heard it, but it was a bit like the noise that one of the 'computers' in the school made at times.
Your wracked your memory for a moment then found the right word for it.
"
Did your head just beep?" You asked Etsuko in confusion and she, or at least the skin of her face, turned this really funny colour. Lighter than she'd been before, more like a piece of paper.
While you knew that you were amazing and awesome, but you still don't know what about that question made Etsuko jab her hand at the air and accept the offer of becoming a
[Boss] in your dungeon.
What you did know is that she had accepted, that there were blue boxes telling you stuff and giving errors and options, but more importantly you suddenly knew that your brand new
[Boss] was terrified and determined.
"...i don't want to die..." Etsuko said really quietly then you felt a spike of outrage at the idea of someone, of anyone, hurting her.
Connected as you were to
[Etsuko, Dungeon Boss], through both the [Prize] she was owed and her new status as part of your dungeon, you could do that. It was something you could do and then she'd not be scared. Then you could show her all your neat stuff and she'd be happy.
As your [Boss] (
Yours! Squee!) there wasn't anything stopping you checking Etsuko's status and the nasty blanks had vanished. You really wanted to get rid of
[Moribund], and
[Corona Pollentia] sounded weird, but there was something more important to get rid of.
You didn't know everything, but you knew enough that
[Implanted Bomb] wasn't something that you wanted to have in her [Status].
It was nasty!
There were no delvers in your dungeon, no foreign souls now that Etsuko was yours, so you could change stuff. You didn't really stop to think much once you saw the status effect and just reached out and
pulled on it, tearing at the horrible thing.
You were gonna fix her
everything!
...
Um, maybe that… That was sort of a mistake.
From the outside it was happening really really
really fast, but that didn't matter. With your two fold connection to Etsuko, as your intended [Boss] monster and in the middle of receiving her [Prize] for completing your dungeon, you could see it as it happened and your perceptions sped up to follow what was going on.
In her [Status] the
[Implanted Bomb] flipped in your metaphorical grip and sudden it was
[Transdimensional Splintering] instead. All the fleshy bits which made up Etsuko, the floor and even the air around here were trying to leave to, were trying to escape the Instance Space of your dungeon in all different directions.
You realised, to your horror, that wasn't good for her. She was scared and in pain and if things finished then she'd be in all different dimensions even while still connected and… and... and she'd die!
But she didn't want to die.
You didn't want her to die!
NO.
You didn't know what to do, but that didn't matter. You'd make it work. You
had to make it work
Uncaring about the cost (oh, all that precious mana...) you reached for a solution. You didn't have a [Pattern] for one, but that didn't matter. Somewhere out there was a way for Etsuko to live and you just had to find it.
With your perceptions supercharged by the mana infusions and your rage you extended them far, far beyond the 'high school' above your entrance. Your viewpoint splintered again and again, your facets starting to ache as you overloaded yourself to get find the way before the effect could finish its dreadful work.
Not there.
Not here either.
And… there it was! Right there! That one would make her better!
It was a weird thing, a connection of sorts, but one you could use. It was like that link between a god and a [Cleric], but without the divine on one side and connected to squishy grey stuff instead of the soul...
(You tried not to notice, despite the speed of your racing thoughts, how Etsuko's legs and ribs were starting to give way as her bones weren't in them anymore. No! Give those back. Your Etsuko needed those! AND SHE NEEDED HER PRETTY EYES TOO!)
...but since it
wasn't connected to the soul or [Status] of whoever had it and that meant that you were free to purloin it.
So you did.
With frantic haste you shoved mana 'up' the connection until something in reset then you jammed the end that you'd 'grabbed' into Etsuko's [Status]. You justified it to yourself that it was to make her better, something that you could do to as part of a [Prize], and you were ever so grateful that it worked.
Except that it
didn't work!
Metaphorically gasping for breath after the heroic expenditure of mana, you could only watched your perceptions stepped back up to a normal rate and Etsuko was still screaming and screaming.
You wanted to block it out, but you couldn't. You didn't have eyes to cover or ears to plug. You were a Core and this was happening in your Dungeon and… Then everything was okay?
Etsuko whimpered, curled up on the floor but whole. She looked a little pale, all the pretty colours of her hair and uniform having somehow washed out, but otherwise okay.
But she was okay.
You checked and her bones were back, her skin was there rather than being ripped apart, and the grey stuff in her head was staying right there where it should be.
She was okay, you were sure... but she was still crying?
You really didn't know what to do so, for want of anything better, you tried to murmur soft soothing things to your [Boss] and hoped that she'd feel better.
oOo
Finally
[Etsuko, Dungeon Boss] had stopped crying.
It took perhaps an hour, maybe more, but Etsuko had fallen asleep curled up on the floor. She looked so cute that you didn't want to wake her, so you couldn't talk to her just yet. But at least that gave you a bit of time to do a few things.
(And you really really wanted to find who had put that nasty evil ugly status effect on your cute little Boss monster.)
While you personally liked the concrete, it having a cool firm feel beneath you when you settled yourself on to it, you were vaguely aware that it probably wasn't as suitable for someone who wasn't a Core. You didn't have many [Patterns] to work you with so you had to… improvise a little.
You briefly thought about spawning enough of the [ Dollar Bill ] loot, in crumpled up form, to provide soft bedding for Etsuko but that seemed like a lot of work. Instead, while going over the contents of your Inventory, you noticed that the [ Teacher's Desk ] included a sort of seat with some padding.
Hmm...
It took a sort of weird twist to do it, but you soon worked out how to have
just the soft bit of the seat manifest. Ever so carefully you formed it underneath Etsuko, a half dozen of the 'seats' managing to be enough to make sure she wasn't on bare Dungeon floor anymore.
With your Boss settled down (part of you thought she deserved a Lair, but that was the same part which thought that she should have a bull head so you put it aside for later) you decided to start sorting through all the notifications that had popped up while you were... fixing things.
Really, the blue boxes were cluttering up everything and just getting in the way.
One set of notifications you were happy to see. One started by saying that Etsuko had accepted your offer and become a [ Boss ]. The next said that, because you didn't have one, your [ Boss ] had been promoted to [ Floor Boss ]. And then
next next one said that your [ Floor Boss ] had been promoted to [ Dungeon Boss ]!
Taking a peek at Etsuko's status you were happy to see that you really had fixed her everything. The nasty blanks, and the weird null stuff on her mana, were fixed but she'd gotten a couple of weird things instead. You were pretty sure that
[ Undying Will ] was what used to be her
[ Dying Will ], but you had no idea where the other two came from.
Before you could poke at that though, you noticed some other blue boxes which totally didn't make you forget about checking more about Etsuko. You just, um, 'temporarily misplaced the thought' about that as you looked at the evidence of your greatness.
Getting a [Monster] looked to be the last thing which had been missing. You had a
proper Dungeon now and the blue box told you that the nasty [ Undungeoned ] thing had been removed from your own Status. Not only that but you'd actually
leveled up!
You were now LVL 2!
That was better than one and so shiny that you were tempted to wake Etsuko to tell her and cheer. But she looked so cute asleep that you couldn't bring yourself to do that quite yet.
(You'd just have to do it after she woke up. You knew she'd be as happy as you were about it.)
You were the bestest of Cores, kind and considerate to your [ Monsters ], so you left your pretty boss to her rest while you did some other quiet things.
oOo
What will you work on? (Pick two.)
Multiples of same action are allowed. Rolls will be involved for success.
You will already be talking to Etsuko.
[ ] Do further work on your room. (May yield a bonus Pattern.)
[ ] Eavesdrop on the young people in the building.
[ ] Examine in detail… (Pick one option below per action used.)
--[ ] <Write-in one of Etsuko's traits.>
--[ ] <Write-in one of your traits.>
--[ ] <Write-in one of your skills.>
[ ] Figure out passive [MANA] respiration. (Bonus if [MANA] is examined.)
[ ] Heal yourself (10 mana.)
[ ] Invent… (Pick one option below per action used.)
--[ ] ...a [Poor] quality [Monster Pattern]. (10 Mana)
--[ ] ...a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (10 Mana)
[ ] Make… (Pick one option below per action used.)
--[ ] …a [ Core Chamber ].
--[ ] ...a default generic room.
--[ ] …a room for a [ Boss ]
[ ] Practice… (Pick one option below per action used. May cost mana.)
--[ ] <Write-in one of your skills.>
[ ] Scry for… (Pick one option below per action used.)
--[ ] ...a [Poor] quality [Monster Pattern]. (2 Mana)
--[ ] …a [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern]. (2 Mana)
--[ ] ...information on the building. (2 Mana)
--[ ] ...more people with [Implanted Bomb]. (10 Mana)
oOo
By leveling up you gained a free gift! (Pick one.)
You have gained other benefits from levelling as listed on your character sheet.
[ ] A [Poor] quality [Monster Pattern] suiting your needs.
[ ] A [Poor] quality [Treasure Pattern] suiting your needs.
[ ] A [Poor] quality [Trap Pattern] suiting your needs.
[ ] Three [Feeble] quality [Patterns] of random type(s).
[ ] One [Typical] quality [Pattern] of a random type.