Bellona escorted Deidre up to the surface via a shortcut into the shrine. When they walked out into the trading post vilge outside, the blonde avatar looked around with a mixture of curiosity and puzzlement. "Mordecai mentio before, but I still have trouble grasping how they expanded out to the surface like this."

  The orc champion shrugged and replied, "I certainly don't uand the details. But from what they have said, it's basically a rger iment for a rger return. There are lots of outsiders spending lots of time doing stuff in what is teically their territory." She guided their involuntary guest to a position that Kazue said would give them a good view of what was about to happen. "Right now they are waiting on you. It's part of wanting to have you uand this dungeoer."

  Deidre looked dubious, but she nodded before turning her gaze toward the rows of pilrs that had sprouted up around and throughout the town. But that wasn't where the ge began.

  In the space along the foothill that led the irao the dungeoween that entrand the testing arenas; rod earth began to shift to form wide staircases that branched off to either side. These stairs curled up and around to follow the slope of the foothill and then curved iart of an upward spiral before they came too close to the crest. This path left the ground at this point, and the rge spiraling stairs were supported by a series of small pilrs and traverse, parabolic arches until they leveled out at some twenty feet above the ground.

  From here they widened and grew at a gradual slope back toward the town. The pilrs and arches supp each stage grew wider as the massive storucture grew rger and thicker until it met with the first of the prearranged pilrs. There, more arches were added to create an arcade of arches along the length of the overhead mass, as well as cross-vault arches on the diagonal. These twin, sloped paths grew halfway toward the border with Kuic before curving outward aually back toward the foothill. There they finally leveled out and turoward each other to create one massive, ft ptform that was the end of the two paths and would be the location of another city by the time the two cores were done.

  This massive structure did block out a signifit amount of sunlight, but Kazue said she already had a pn to help fix that. Her mental voice had held a giggle, and the girl obviously wao keep it a surprise, so Bellona hadn't pressed. Hah, 'girl'. Kazue was a good year older than Bellona, though the differences in their life cycles and experiences made Bellona feel like she was the older one by a fair bit.

  "So, what do you think?" Bellona asked as she turned back toward Deidre, who was staring open-mouthed at the creation.

  "I didn't know we could do that. I feel the flow of their mana, and they aren't creating this stone from mana alohey are pulling it from the earth that they had already collected during their underground growth. It's real, even if it's assembled and fused using mana. How massive are their levels?" Deidre practically whispered her question as she processed what she'd just seen.

  Bellona chuckled and replied, "The first three are probably pretty ordinary. The library in the fourth zoarted getting expansive, and the fifth zone down is a pair of huge mushroom forests. Each zone seems to keep getting bigger from there, though this isn't quite as big as the wetnds. I think. It's hard to tell from this perspective."

  "Hmm," Deidre said thoughtfully, "zones. You've all been using that word instead. I, I think I get it now. The moment you think of them as zones, you think of them growing in new ways. Floors is limiting."

  As the avatar mused over this new cept, the air around the raised zone began to swirl chaotically. Bellona tilted her head thoughtfully. "They seem to be very thh about preemptively terag what they sider to be 'cheaters'. I think Kazue's mom made them more scious about such things." At Deidre's fused look, Bellona added, "Kazue was reinated as a core by Lady Mericume. Her previous life was as a normal kitsune, and her is only about two days from here, less for some folk. Her mom's a seven-tail druid who wreaked some havoc when she decided to show off for her girl. If I remember correctly, they had just barely cimed their fifth floor at the time."

  The often stoic avatar was uo keep her expression pletely trolled as a series of emotions rolled through her. One of the emotions surprised Bellona: Anger. Deidre started to say something several times before she was able to find the right words. "Imagine, if you will, that you have hired a specialist partially for their work and partially as a sultant on another project. Thanks to the particur way in which this specialist was hired, you know that they are bound to do what you ask of them. Now imagihat you are so paranoid and fearful that you fail to pass on potentially critical information to your specialist that one of the gods had literally intervened in the project you wahem to sult on, along with other details." Every word was ced with venom and s, and it didn't take a lot of imagination to interpret this as a stand-in for talking about her actual circumstances.

  "I see," Bellona replied, "that does seem unwise, and it would hamper the specialist's job. Even if they don't like their circumstances, I imagine most people take some pride in their work. It would be upsetting to fail at a task without uanding why, and even more so when you find you were effectively sabotaged by your, ah, employer's inpetence."

  "That might be the least of the employer's sins." Deidre hissed, then winced slightly before her impassive expression dropped bato pce. Bellona could only assume that Deidre had strayed too close to not obeying an order. Depending on what exact standing orders the woman had been given, it was going to take a long time to work around them all. Time and distance from the one who gave the order wear down, but not eliminate, supulsions. At least, acc to Mordecai.

  Time to switch topics. "Well," Bellona said, "why don't we head ba a you run Kazue's path? Oh, and I have been asked to remind you that there is no bat to be found on this path, you should keep aions in check. And any potentially dangerous activities will be obvious, such as having to climb." The avatar's speed and pht be restrained, but she was still faster and strohan most ret recruits.

  Deidre nodded once. "I uand, and I do ly have many pns at the moment. So let us see what your mistress has in store for me."

  Bellona scowled at her. "A point of crification first. My tract with the dungeo third in my priorities, behind both Lady Amirume and Kuic. Get rid of whatever thoughts you have about everyone's retionship to the cores. Not even all the inhabitants are that formal and that is their teical retionship."

  The blonde read her hands in aowledgment of the point. "I apologize, you are correct. I have had some bad habits and assumptions ... strongly enced in me. Let's call it a less thahy retionship."

  "Alright," Bellona said as she rexed, "just keep in mind that many of your experiences have very stroive biases. I'm not saying anyone here is perfect, I am just saying that it is almost certainly nothing like you expeow, e on." She led the dungeon avatar to this dungeon's path sele chamber aured toward the trol panel. "I'm just your escort and keeping you pany. So to keep everything on the up and up, you should press the button. You'll want the one on the left for Kazue's path."

  Deidre reached for the button but theated. "It's funny, I don't think I'd have been allowed to make a chamber like this be si would have some traps I am sure, and the sele would have to be reversed. Not that there is a safe path anyway." There was a faint tremble in her hand before she was able to make herself push the button. Smoothly and silently the door behind them closed and the ring wall spin to reveal the path forward.

  Bellona chose to not ent oervention of the cores, as the normal sound effects were noticeably absent.

  The chamber demonstrated the first of Kazue's adjustments to her path; there was another sele chamber and three buttons. Deidre pushed the button with a tree i and the wall spun to open a door onto an orchid and berry bush variation of her inal puzzles. And just ihe door was a haversack with a plenitude of sedary pouches.

  There was a moment of mutual fusion before Bellona was tacted, and she passed on the information to Deidre. "Ah, that's a bit of a gift, though in the end it will e out of their budget for your prizes ter. But you arely prepared for a delve, so this should help. There's also a ge of clothes, Kazue suggests that it might make things a lot easier."

  "Oh." Though bemused, their guest followed the suggestion and ged into the slightly thick, yered shirt aher pants. "Hmm, my skin isn't particurly delicate, I am not sure why these would be useful," she mused before shrugging and tinuing dowh. "I take it that colleg fruit is part of the activity?"

  "Yes, but you may want to see the end of this chamber before w about that part too much," Bellona replied with a smile. It would be best to let the woman figure out the details.

  Deidre examihe door and puzzle iion and then turned around took look at the grove of trees and winding paths defined by thid thorned berry bushes. "So, a matg puzzle? Oh, some of the fruits and nuts will be high in a tree or difficult to find. Hmm, I see why you suggested I see this first. It's much more effit to collect while I search."

  That wasly Bellona's thought, it had been more along the lines of being less frustrating, but close enough. Watg Deidre move through the maze was iing and a little saddening. The woman was calm and thh, taking the time to sample at least one of every edible item and ent upon its fvor as well as mention anything iing she knew about the pnt, but she didn't look like she was really having fun. She was just doing what should be dohout aional involvement.

  Bellona wished that this was more of a surprise. It wasn't hard to figure out that Deidre's as, words, and expression of emotions had beeightly trolled for a long time. That there had been any cracks at all in this shell was a good sign, though it would be better if something other than anger had been the driving force. She'd take what she could get.

  Betty and Bellona had been assigned as Deidre's primary tacts and escorts for now. Kazue and Mordecai both hoped that they'd be able to make actual friendships with the fn avatar but at the least they wanted everyoo be on good terms.

  This wasn't enough people in the long run, but Fuyuko was still unfortable around Deidre and they didn't really have a lot of people whose duty was light enough to it to spending a lot of time with her. Kazue had pined about running thin on required inhabitants, it seems the only reason that their current zones were full enough was that they had collected a lot of upgradable animals when they cimed the hunting zone. Some of their current guests might help with getting to know Deidre, but that was still in discussion.

  When Deidre had found and collected all the required fruit and had picked up a few special rarities like the golden lychees, she paused before pleting the puzzle. "Hmm. While that was less inteion than most battles, it was far more time-ing. And progress forward isn't truly blocked, it is gated by one's skill and petence, with rge numbers also enabling faster progress. It has an equivalenbat for the purposes of mana geion and colle, and it is still rewarding. Many of these fruits are difficult to cultivate even their mundane varieties. Your dungeon has enhanced some of them with enough magiake them minor potions or potent alchemical ingredients. It is an iing choice. I would like to uand more how you were able to defend this route."

  Bellona smiled and replied, "Well, if you plete the floor, I think we show you part of the secret. Kazue says she'd be happy to take care of the demonstration."

  There was a glimmer of curiosity in Deidre's expression, but she didn't reply. Instead, she pleted the puzzle for this room and proceeded to the . The plications for this version of the path were different than for the flowers, partly because not only were there a lot of different varieties of a single fruit such as an apple, but Kazue could add details such as how ripe the fruit was.

  The physical puzzle had been ged to ways to manipute the paths and uncover new routes and hidden spaces, and the final puzzle involved artificially maniputing the 'season' in order to ge the ripeness of fruits before they were picked (and had no effe them once picked).

  However, there was one aspect of the challehat remained unaltered no matter which variant oook.

  Deidre finished her work on the sed puzzle and strode forward fidently into the third chamber, only to be struck dumb by a sudden cacophony of high-pitched voices.

  Faeries.

  Zagaroth