Vysala stretched back in her chair, cracking her back. “Can I get a window up here? We should save your daily Babamorph movement, and I’d love to get a look out as we travel.”

Zaria answered by just making the window, putting a nice circular one at the front of the attic. Although she was in her Babamorph, she could monitor the outside world - and thus her path - by keeping one eye on the map. It would be nice to sit on the porch with Vysala for a better view, but she was right about saving the daily movement. If something happened, Zaria wanted her body on the roof, able to cast spells in all directions without needing to turn her entire home.

Even from the map view, this really was a beautiful part of the world. The increased movement speed from reaching Copper was a wonderful thing to have. By the time Vysala had finished recounting her conversation with Lurbok, they’d already cleared the area around the tower. Now they were in a forest, but a forest unlike any Zaria had seen before - the trees here were massive and ancient, weaving a thick canopy overhead. The space between the trees and the height of the branches were so great, Zaria could walk between their trunks with ample clearance. You could hide a small city here and no one would notice. It almost felt like Zaria was the size of a person, walking though a forest of normal sized trees.

From Vysala’s perspective through the window, there would be no animals visible. Looking at things from the map view, Zaria knew why - her footsteps were startling the beasts of the woods to panic and run in all directions. Even some of the animals that clearly possessed Beast Cores fled from Zaria’s passing - there was a bear with the tail of a scorpion and the forelimb of a mole tearing up the ground to form cover, and further along was a six-legged cat with squid tentacles frantically climbing a tree.

Zaria knew that didn’t mean she could assume everything would react the same way. If she strode into the range of a large cored beast with a territorial streak, or if either of the two she had witnessed had been protecting their young, they could easily turn aggressive.

“How much do you know about Beast cores?” Zaria asked Vysala.

“Not as much as I’d like,” the Witch said. “Our studies switched mostly to demons and corrupted animals. Did you know corrupted animals don’t have a tier that we can see? So there’s no way to know how dangerous it could be. Any given creature could just be as strong as a Tin beast, or it could have a power to rival demons. It’s a gamble every time.”

“Noted,” Zaria said. “So steer clear of them.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Vysala said. “You have options. Send in a mimic to gauge their strength, then decide.” She furrowed her forehead and ran her hands through her hair. “That’s not what you asked though. It was about Beasts. They do use the normal Tier structure, although look out for Elites - they have the power of a boss mob.”

“That’s what the dungeon instructions said, too. But I was wondering - do they know Tiers?”

Vysala cocked her head. “How do you mean?”

“I mean will a Platinum Rabbit with a Beast Core know it can kill me, or will it react like a Rabbit and flee? Because that’s not clear from this.”

“Ah,” Vysala’s eyes lit up. “And the answer is fairly simple. Is it still shaped like an animal, or is it shaped more like a Sapient? The latter are smart enough they can read and understand. I think Cestmir mentioned that dungeons can understand their speech, even though I’ve never heard of a Sapient who can do the same. And no one I know of has spoken to one - they can’t receive telepathy. But since you’re a dungeon with a voice, maybe you could fix that. But if it looks like an animal, it’s no smarter than any other of its kind, and will respond as a wild animal would to a giant house stomping through its territory.”

“That is good to know,” Zaria said. She felt at ease with that - it would be a very large Beast to think it could tackle a house, and even if it was, why would it bother? She was mostly wood, so not exactly great eating.

“All you really would need to worry about would be a Cored termite mound,” Vysala said, as if reading Zaria’s mind.

Zaria amended her internal statement. “How’s that work? Queen has a core?”

Vysala grimaced. “That’s where my knowledge hits its limit. I know how to fight Beasts, but honestly, it rarely comes up these days. Between demons and humans, most Beasts have been driven even further into spaces like this, and rarely venture towards settlements.”

“I’ll keep an eye out then.” The mention of demons again drew Zaria’s mind to the task at hand. “So I’m thinking ahead,” Zaria said.

Vysala smirked, taking her eyes off the window to give Zaria a raised eyebrow. “Probably for the best. More useful than thinking after things have gotten eighteen kinds of fuckered.”

“That was my thought, too.” Zaria chuckled at the Witch’s phrasing. “I have three free mob types - one boss, and two regular. Afterwards, I spend Core Stability to make new ones.”

“Which is dangerous,” Vysala said. “If I understand correctly, at least? You’ll be stable once we bond, and it won’t be a concern anymore, but until then, you could go too low.”

Zaria nodded. “And I also will need to still spend Core Stability to make the mobs we’ll be using in the fight. So I really shouldn’t spend any stability on generating brand new ones.”

Vysala leaned forward. “I know you were making new ovens. How many have you managed to create?”

“I’m up to eleven total - but the eleventh didn’t give me any new Command. So I guess my cap is two hundred for now. I’ve got one in every room except Maw’s, and the remainder in the room at the end of the first-floor hall.”

Vysala shuddered. “I’m glad you control the temperature in here. I would not want to think about how badly I’d be cooked in here with that many Ovens going.”

“Fair.” Zaria turned slightly. Her map informed her there was a Cored Bee Hive ahead. While Vysala had mentioned the threat of a Cored Termite Mound, Zaria knew carpenter bees were a thing, and wanted to give the hive a wide berth on the off chance that’s what these were. “I don’t know what limitations there will be on my generation of new mobs once I have maximum stability. I’m sure there will be some, but at least they shouldn’t risk death.”

“That would be ideal,” Vysala said. “I can help augment the mobs you have. Hitting Copper means I now have thirty available runes, but I’m still used to fighting with eight on me and four in reserve, so I figure for this fight I’ll just amplify eighteen mobs. Didn’t pick most of my new runes yet - I wanted to see what your plan was to decide. The only one I picked up was the Command rune, Gor. It lets me activate a rune with a command word,”

“Makes sense,” Zaria said. “How about your permanent? Did you already pick that?”

Vysala nodded. “I made the impact rune on the spork my permanent - I can change twice this tier, at Copper 3 and again at Copper 6, but that’s the rune I get the most use out of. Now it has eight uses a day before it needs to recharge - and it recharges one use every thirty minutes. So what were you thinking for the free mobs?”

“I was thinking of the upcoming fight,” Zaria said,” and what we’d need to win that. I took Mimic Weaponry upgrade as one of my Tin upgrades. And I think that would probably be the best pick for the fight. I can arm candlemen with the weapons, and I can create armor for them.”

Vysala chewed her lip for a moment. “Nothing else mobile? Putting Copper weapons on a Tin mob might not be optimal.”

“That’s what I wanted to run by you. Because they aren’t really Copper Weapons. They can manifest an arm themselves, but their mobility is likely limited without the candlemen. So it’s more like a Copper mob on a Tin mount.”

Vysala drummed her fingers on the table. “That does sound better,” she said. “The candlemen can get them into melee, and if they’re slower there, it won’t matter because they’ll be in the thick of things.”

“So that’s viable?”

“It’s absolutely viable,” Vysala said. “As long as you’re planning for the Candlemen to die. Even with armor, they’ll be vulnerable. Are you able to make magic armor?”

“Now that I’m Copper, yes. It’s supposed to be loot, but there’s no reason I can’t use it.”

“That’ll help even the score. How powerful?”

“Blue and Green,” Zaria said. “Although it doesn’t say what that means, and the Dungeon Instructions left that out.”

“This I do know. Blue is for magic, Green is for uncommon. Magic items give a unique property on attack - a single one. The flaming sword is the classic example. Green items do whatever the weapon or armor did before, but better. Uncommon armor absorbs blows better and restricts movement less, Uncommon weapons hit harder or cut deeper. From there it goes up to yellow for rare - which is both at once. So a rare flaming sword would both have the burning property and cut deeper when it hits, as well as the flame burning hotter. Purple is Ultra-rare, which can have custom magic properties beyond what a rare could accomplish. An ultra-rare flaming sword could potentially also shoot flames when swung. Then there’s Epic, which is red. An epic weapon would go even further, giving a broad custom property. So an Epic flaming sword might give you limited control over flame, or near immunity to fire based attacks. Next is Legendary, which is gold. They take Epic abilities to the next level. Our example flaming sword, at Legendary, could cleave through buildings with a wave of fire, and suck the flame out of a forest that’s burning to hurl at your foes. Last…you have Artifacts, which are black. An Artifact tier flaming sword would be insanely hard to come by, and it gives vast power. On top of the existing Legendary powers, an Artifact flaming sword could basically give you the power of a Platinum Pyromancer on top of your existing class.”

Zaria whistled at the thought. “Have you ever seen an Artifact?”

Vysala snorted. “Just one. The Guildmistress has an Artifact level Broom. The Nightsweeper. Not only can she fly on it - real flight - but she can cast spells with it like a Herocore Archmage on top of her Witch runes. She also can use it to control plants in a huge area around her. It basically gave her two classes” Zaria’s shock must have been apparent, because Vysala grinned. “There’s a reason she personally went to deal with the demons.”

“I can tell,” Zaria said. “But…since your runes treat mimics like objects, I wonder if I can also upgrade them like weapons and armor.”

Vysala froze at the thought. “Oh. That would be interesting. And it would help explain why they are being treated like objects for my runes - because the system considers them like objects already. Want to find out?”

“I do. But first, the new mobs. And I know what I’m definitely going with. Since we’re getting into battle soon, it would help to have some ranged support. So…want to see what a crossbow mimic looks like?”

Vysala nodded eagerly, and Zaria had one of the candlemen collect the crossbow she’d recovered from the downed townsperson and bring it to her.

Creating a new mob was easy. The crossbow shuddered and twitched, then started to change. The stirrup at the front of the crossbow split in half, becoming a pair of mandibles that framed a hungry mouth. The bow itself warped, two bulges appearing near the center that widened into bloodshot eyes, and the stock itself flattened out, changing to something more like a slug’s foot. It reared up on its stock and looked around. It spotted Vysala, but before it could react to the human, Zaria commanded it to treat the Witch as part of the dungeon. Once she was certain it wouldn’t attack Vysala, she commanded it to shoot one of the walls, just to test how it worked.

It didn’t need to load itself normally. Instead, the string stretched back, and the mimic’s back split in half. A crossbow bolt rose from the opening, which sealed the moment it was clear. A moment later, there was a twang, and the bolt struck Zaria’s wall.

New Mimic Unlocked: Crossbow Mimic. Crossbow mimics are capable of firing at a rate consistent with a human using a similar weapon. They do not run out of ammunition. Cost: 5 Command.

Vysala grinned in excitement, but Zaria stared a the mimic. Something was wrong. In spite of being her newest mimic type, it was still only a Tin mob. It should be Copper. It even had the cost of a Tin mob. Had she chosen a weak object? Was it too small?

Then, slowly, realization dawned. Of course. “I’m certain I can upgrade the mimics,” Zaria said, brimming with confidence. “Because that’s only a Tin mimic. But how much do you want to bet, if I make it Magic or Uncommon, it’ll become Copper?”

Vysala’s eyes sparkled with anticipation. “Let’s find out.”