Yet again, the beams of early-dawn light trickled into the entrance of Aby’s halls, and with it came the first shade cast from up on high, signaling the start of another day. As they had in days prior, the first group of sapients rushed into the dungeon as though it was their own home. Aby recognized this group, it was one of the few that had made it through the dungeon without casualty, even if that was due to them not going beyond the fourth floor.

The core wouldn’t mind a second chance at them, though, so when they immediately rushed to the nearest corals and began excavating the crystals it had seeded Aby felt both confused and irked. The group worked quickly, doing their best to gather as many crystals in as short a time frame as possible, and were very effective at it, especially when they began simply uprooting its coral and shaking loose the gems attached.

They worked their way through the long labyrinth, getting quite a few of the pebbles in a short time before the next group invaded. They too went to gather the waste mana crystals, and seemed upset that there were none to be had, since the core worked much too slow to repopulate the floor while invaders were on it. They began speeding through the halls, quickly coming upon the first group, still ripping apart Aby’s corals, and a confrontation ensued.

While they started by yelling and shouting at one another, it quickly grew to become a brawl, and then an outright fight, all without the intervention of the core. Aby already had a poor impression of the two groups before this, it didn’t quite understand why people seemed to place so much value on crystals that weren’t of much use to it, and now that they even appeared to be aiming for the others’ lives over mere words it thought them nothing more than fools. Aby had little desire to allow this farce to continue, especially after they had ransacked the corals, and since another group had not yet invaded it would take care of it swiftly. While both groups appeared reasonably strong, it only seemed to apply physically.

Summoning the combat able fish on the first three floors it sent them through tunnels, and without them being any the wiser the way to the entrance, and thus their path of retreat, was slowly filling with steadily growing numbers of sea-boars, all led by a very bulky goliath grouper. Other fish filled out the coral which had been left, Aby carefully guiding their numbers to ensure they’d have trouble coming back. The colony of rifle shrimp too heeded the summons, but their cumbersome bodies slowed them down. Aby wasn’t entirely certain whether this would work, giving the average strength of those who enter compared to the rather lackluster rankings of the swarm being assembled, but all it wanted was to stall for time, and to push them deeper.

As their fight seemed to draw to a close with the newcomer group having an apparent advantage, Aby sent intent to the creatures to begin their own assault. With the fearless nature of the grouper, combined with its band of hyper-aggressive sea-boar, they gladly accepted this, charging from around the corner and throwing the already disorderly groups into disarray. They seemed torn between fighting and fleeing, with members of both groups doing both. It seemed that while the general consensus was to flee, one of the less injured realized the disparity between himself and the creatures, opting to fight. It was a strategy that worked well, the vast numbers couldn’t leverage this advantage in the tight halls and wound up funneling themselves to his spear, and their demise.

And then the harpoons arrived, one streaking by him whilst another solidly impacted his arm, the copied relic driving itself effortlessly through his scale-leather. A third went wildly off course, deflected off of the ceiling and splashed harmlessly into the water. Still, it took a single strike to disrupt the tempo of the invader, and the group of both unevolved kobolds, the drake-kin, and former shaman capitalized on this. The kelpie too had made his first appearance, with Aby deciding to see him in action. His smaller frame and incredible ease in and out of the water meant he was well suited to travelling the halls of any floor, making him useful in situations such as this. The rider however, did not seem very used to this, evidenced by her harpoon being almost shamefully off the mark. Still, she grabbed another, trying to signal to her ride to charge this time.

And so, the two jerked forward, passing by the rest of the group in a jerky gallop. The kelpie, however, didn’t seem to understand exactly what his rider had in mind, and with the spastic charge even thrusting her harpoon effectively would be a small miracle. Instead, the kelpie simply swung his neck into the startled biped, and instead of being thrown like he assumed would be the case when such a large creature leverages its weight for an attack as such, he felt himself adhered to the matted nest of hair and oil by the torso. His struggles only made his predicament worse, however, and soon his arms too were stuck. Without the strength necessary to pry himself free, there was little he could do as the rider adjusted her spear, and thrusted downwards at his lightly armored neck.

The group continued on soon after that, chasing after what Aby now knew to be the remainder of this A- group of mercenaries, and the B+ ranked group with which they had fought with. Meanwhile, the core had barely enough time to finish regrowing corals and reseeding crystals on the first floor before it was met with yet another wave, and yet another mad dash for its gems.

~~~~~

Away from the constant excitement of the first floors stood a man, tall and muscular, with scales of white and feathers blue. Surrounded by frost and ice, and coiled around by an eel, he waited patiently for any who would challenge him in his domain. While it wasn’t often such a challenge came, almost never in fact, he stayed prepared just the same. Be it training or resting, he stayed ready, and so too did his partner.

He had been called upon a few times lately, needed to stop the sapient creatures invading the halls of the Maker, something he had done with great fervor, and greater success. Few appeared ready when they stepped into his floor, various degrees of shock, surprise, confusion, or interest were plain to see, and he showed no mercy to those too engrossed to fight back. Whilst he may have been weaker physically than many of the invaders who had made it this far, there had been none who could match him and his partner in these waters. This were his home, and they were his waters.

However, today was different. It wasn’t often he got challengers, sure, but he had gotten some the past few days. Why, then, was today different? He pondered over this question, and yet couldn’t think of any answers. After waiting for what he felt was much too long, he simply gave up, beginning his training yet again. He felt silly for remaining idle for so long to begin with, and moved to the bed of corals with his partner for the better light, and comforting frost. It took him a moment to become aware of his partner’s sudden absence from his waist, however, and he turned back to find her inexplicably entranced with one of the crystals which had been growing on the floor recently. While he wasn’t exactly certain why, upon closer inspection he, too, found it quite a sight to behold.

It had planted itself directly between to a particularly large frost-coral, and an icy staghorn coral, and seemed to be little more than a piece of ice which had cropped up between them due to the immense chill. What had caught both his and his partners attention however, wasn’t the crystal, but the spirit dancing around it. He had seen the Undines in the past, they flowed throughout the floors much like the water they represented did, never settling in one place for too long. This one appeared different, it wasn’t quite the same color, and the way it bobbed and shivered set it apart from the others they had seen.

It was enchanting to them both, witnessing a purely elemental being, and one so fitting for their own affinity acting so unrestrainedly. They continued to watch, neglecting the training they had already prepared for, engrossed in the performance of this strange spirit. They didn’t know exactly how it came about, nor why it liked that crystal specifically, nor did they puzzle over it. They simply watched as the not-quite-undine drifted closer to the crystal, before landing on it much like a snowflake would land upon a rock, and then seemingly melt into it in much the same fashion. The crystal shone brightly for a brief moment, then pulsed a frigid cold and shivered. They stood there a moment longer, unsure of exactly what to do while they watched the still glowing crystal for any further movement.

Before they could decide anything, however, a sharp crack sounded out, the high pitched splinter that can only be heard when something fragile cannot hold up to stress anymore. The gem itself seemed to split down the center, then shatter. From the shards of crystal that now littered the ground the spirit arose, shuddering in apparent sadness before it flitted off once more. It moved surprisingly fast, too, as both creatures were unable to keep track of it as it danced away.

They took a moment to replay the scene in their minds, and they both found a great deal of inspiration from the little elemental. The dragonkin picked up a handful of the shattered crystal, curious as to what exactly was different about it from similar specimens he had seen around in the past. It felt nearly empty, much less mana within than what he was used to, but he was unsure as to what exactly caused this. He felt the little icy mana that remained within continue to trickle out, and simply crushed the shard to powder in his hands. He was unprepared for how sharp the fragments were, however, and wound up getting a small cut from one of the splinters which imbedded itself in his palm. While it certainly took him by surprise, he thought little of it as the wound froze over swiftly, already healing itself.

After that, they finally began their training, awaiting the summons of their Maker, and unaware that it had been watching them already up until that point.