Celia flitted through the forest returning from her hunt. It had been pathetically easy as expected, tier one wolves were no match for a tier two. She still couldn’t be careless but at tier two level thirty-one she was more than capable of taking on any tier one threat. Still, it was better not to get too cocky, this wasn’t the dungeon with its nicely ordered floors, and a higher-tier creature could be just around the corner. Granted that was very unlikely, but it still happened. The last thing she wanted was to be included in an adventurer request as an adventurer killed in action.

She dodged around another tree, the slight burn of chakra a comforting presence after all this time. The movement technique she had gotten what had seemed like forever ago, had helped her integrate her power into her body, making her faster without a massive amount of strain. The normal damage that chakra would do to the body still happened if she pushed too hard or tried something not included in the technique. The primary thing that was stopping her right now was strength. Her movement art was great for speed and it did give her a little jump in strength but it wasn’t enough for any large attacks.

Vance was a lot stronger than her even when she was using her chakra. Which to be fair was partially because he trained so hard with his chi but she should have still been able to surpass him with a brief burst of strength. That she was unable to was a clear indicator in her mind of her lack of training. Over the years she had alternatively cursed and blessed the ones who’d abandoned her in the city so long ago. Cursed them for the lonely and cold nights with an empty belly, and blessed them when she heard screaming and fighting behind closed doors. Her childhood hadn’t been a happy one by any means, practically raised by the other abandoned children, but surprisingly hadn’t been violent, for the most part. This was one of those times though that her ignorance from her upbringing was a bit deep. Even Arthur had a basic idea of what mages could do, but she had almost no idea whatsoever what a high-tier rogue was capable of. Rumors of them were apparently suppressed and she never had any parents to tell her ghost stories of feared assassins in hushed voices.

She stumbled over a branch and nimble dodged around a tree that had sprung up in her path. Well, she still might not have been any better off if she had had a family, but she still felt like an idiot. She had known that the Storms were a noble family, but the most she knew about them was that Vance was a member. If she had known just how powerful and influential they were maybe she would have acted a little differently around his parents. In the end, though, no one had told her that the rulers of the entire area were visiting, or that she probably shouldn’t turn down an apprenticeship from one of the most powerful individuals she was ever likely to meet.

She sighed, maybe it was for the best that she hadn’t known. Now she knew that the Storms weren’t like any noble she had heard about, which was good because if they had been she would probably be dead already. She shuddered remembering the horror stories from her childhood about the Bancrofts wandering the streets and killing anyone unfortunate enough to be in their way. Her mind wandered to nights spent alone in the massive maze of Corinth streets. The frantic runs just ahead of guards or older children, it’d never been worth it to actually catch her though. She never stole anything other than the food she ate on the spot, and she never kept any sort of money on her. Celia had just been faster than the cruel ones with death in their eyes, but those sorts never seemed to last very long, good riddance to her mind.

She stumbled again and Celia cursed herself for being a nostalgic idiot. There was no need to think back on those days, things were better now, much better. Even if life had been simpler back in Corinth, she shook her head firmly and bumped hard into a tree which sent her spinning to the ground. With a groan, she got back to her feet firmly reminding herself to pay attention. She did make one more resolution though, she would survive and thrive in this complicated world, but to do that she would need a teacher.

Valens checked around the third floor carefully looking over the tier-three creatures available. The orcs were rapidly spreading over the floor providing a reliable if slightly dangerous base for a tier three ecosystem. His dire hawks had no trouble with the brutes, often targeting isolated orcs with lightning-fast attacks. The green monster would slowly succumb to their injuries in death by a thousand cuts sort of strategy. The dire foxes used a similar strategy, albeit with a slight twist. The little canines were not able to take an orc alone so they banded together in threes and fours to take on larger prey. Their preferred targets were sleeping orcs that would wake up to find themselves already wounded and surrounded. The foxes were a bit less successful than the hawks though, occasionally taking injuries or deaths as opposed to the bird’s flawless aerial takedowns.

The wolves were one of the few creatures that would openly attack groups of orcs. The dire wolves were also the second most numerous tier three creatures on the floor after the orcs of course. They had quickly passed up the hawks after the orcs became prevalent, their pack-style hunting proving to level the surviving wolves very quickly. Valens vaguely wondered if the wolves' hunting tactics would ever change. It did work, but it seemed so simple that he couldn’t imagine it working forever. Wearing down and isolating your prey only worked if you had more endurance or cunning than them.

He shrugged to himself and moved on, lastly were the dire salamanders that he had completely forgotten about. He groaned internally remembering the teasing he had gotten from Magnus when the drake had found out that particular tidbit. Anyway, the massive lizards were doing just fine on the desert floor, frankly, they loved the heat and sand. There were quite a few around after he went on a creation spree for them, and their population seemed stable enough. Given the tier three floors one last once over to make sure everything was ready he turned to the last room of the twenty-fourth floor and gave his oldest boss a nudge, it was time.

The Hunter roared with glee as she charged out into her new hunting grounds. The great one had finally deemed them ready to face her fury. Too long had she slept, dreaming away her boredom and dreaming of glorious combat. Now though the dreams would become reality as she pitted her increased strength against those that might match her.

The first worthy prey she spotted was a green skin, larger than before, but just as loud and foolish. Carefully the Hunter crept forward, her bully sliding almost silently over the sand, as she approached her foe. It was almost nostalgic to creep forward like this, but against this unknown foe, all precautions would be taken. It would be quite embarrassing to be returned to the creator in shame.

With a sudden blur of motion, she was on the green skin, her jaws closing around the back of its leg and shaking viciously. She could have gone for the neck, but she was uncertain of her aim on such a tall target, and in the end, this would do just as well.

Her prey squealed in pain and wheeled around, yanking her along as the green skin shook his leg vigorously. The Hunter almost rolled her eyes at the foolishness as her teeth dug further into the abused limb, but she obliged and released the leg only to dart back as the green skin struck at her. The blow thudded into the sand, and as her prey tried to step forward on its bad leg, the foolish creature crumpled to the ground.

The Hunter rushed forward again, taking full advantage of the opportunity to sink her fangs into her prey’s exposed throat. To her astonishment, however, the green skin did not immediately die, continuing to thrash beneath her weight as it fought to escape. Growling she tightened her grip as blow after terrible blow landed on her back. The green skin truly was worthy prey, and it continued to fight until the last flickers of light faded from its eyes. She felt power flow through her, strengthening her and taking another step forward in her service to the creator. Then she began to feast on her kill, in death the green skin would serve the creator well.

Sora seems quite happy to finally be let off the leash. Commented Magnus as he fiddled with a dense cloud of magic.

Yes, she does love to fight. The core mused as his boss ripped into the entrails of her kill. It was nice to see her having a good time, especially after all the stress being cooped up had caused her.

Are you going to send Aspen out to start leveling too?

I thought about it but I don’t think so. There are only so many tier-three creatures on my floors right now, and I don’t think it's quite enough for two bosses to level. Besides, the lazy thing is enjoying the break. Valens looked over at his fae boss happily playing with a leaf.

Humm, well alright then. The adventurers seem to be stalling out a little on the swamp floors, don’t they? The mana the drake was working on turned white and stuck his claws in place even as he tried to jerk them away.

Yeah, I think they just don’t like the ice floors though. A lot of the groups could do deeper but they’re staying up where it's warmer, I assume until they get to tier three. Valens was a little sad that no one wanted to go explore the icey floors, but he supposed it was fine. After all, the point of his floors was to be self-sustaining and produce a steady stream of experience. The ice floors were doing that as well as any other floor so he saw no need to change just for the human’s convenience.

Oh well, I’m sure some enterprising group will figure out that if they go to the ice floors there’ll be a lot less competition. They’ll all have to go through there to get to the tier-three floors anyway.

Valens perked up a little bit. That’s true, but that’s a little ways off. I doubt any of the current parties could get past Aspen without forming a massive group. They’re getting routinely brutalized by the chimera, and she’s not even peak tier two yet. His third boss wouldn’t be able to evolve until he gained another tier, and was hovering around mid-tier two as far as levels. Burning off experience to shift her body around and try new configurations. The core had encouraged that sort of behavior as it was a way for his boss to get stronger while limited by her current tier.

Yeah, deaths are starting to decline from battles with the chimera though. The adventurers that are left seem to be able to handle the tier-two stuff more or less. The ball of mana Magnus was experimenting with finally dissolved and released the drake’s claws. He inspected them carefully then shrugged and started working again.

You’re right, I can’t wait for people to start getting to the tier-three floors. Valens rubbed his claws together with glee. Too bad they’re so slow at leveling, they’ll get there eventually though. Magnus nodded without saying anything and the core went back to work, always more to dig.