There is No Epic Loot Here, Only Puns

57: The Musical Trap

Thank you. I know you don't... this... this means a lot.

Delta gave a slight shrug, a small smile spreading on her face.

"I'm good at spur of the moment ideas and making things nicer, but when it comes to defending myself..." Delta trailed off and itched at her nose. Nu's box blinked a few times.

Your ideas are good in their own area, but I am better at designing more... underhanded trials. I know I went a little power mad last time so I promise to control myself this time!

The blue box turned slightly, as if to show Nu's excitement. Delta grinned and watched as the two Pygmy Mushrooms ran around, swinging their flowers around like umbrellas. She fought back a noise that would break glass and focused on Nu's box.

It was now spitting out text far too fast for Delta to read before new text took its place.

"Slow down! I can't read that fast!" Delta said exasperatedly, which made Nu's words slow to a crawl.

Sorry, I just have so many ideas! May we start on the first floor?

"Of course, it's easier since it has more to work with." Delta stood with a stretch and walked towards the stairs, taking a few seconds to look back into the Pygmy's hole. Nu's text went to lightspeed again. Delta just nodded when she saw a question mark or a combination of different symbols.

Nu was...

Delta had noticed the box was actually looking a little transparent. While she was playing with her new monsters, Nu floated off to the side and did nothing.

His responses to her question felt flat or even a little pre-prepared.

To Delta, she got a sense of being there for the sake of appearances. Nu felt bored.

In retrospect, it was a painfully obvious thing that would happen. He had done nothing but watch, talk to a few monsters, be locked out of the floor due to Grim and others...

Nu went crazy when he had taken over last time as Delta dove into Renny's soul. He had loved it so much that he did as much as possible with little thought or care. Delta hadn't given it much more thought than Nu being weird but looking back, it was a sign.

A symbolic Nu sign.

She watched as one of her Pygmies vanished up a tiny tunnel set into the room. Delta had no idea where it went. Nu sped on ahead and Delta began to fly after him, not wanting to let anything Nu did escape her sight.

She trusted the box, but caution was a good thing to have no matter what.

---

Since Maestro is now a secret monster behind the walls, the unused potential of the tunnel between the goblin camp and Fran's room has always irked me. I wish to fix this.

Delta stood in the unused space and could admit that without Maestro's former form, it was a little lonely.

"So what's the old ticker in your head plotting?" Delta prodded and she saw the text on Nu's box shift and stretch as a simple diagram formed.

It showed a single hallway slowly being filled with a criss-cross square pattern, and in each wall a bunch of X's appeared.

"Chess with X's and O's?" she hazarded a guess. Nu's box went blank, and Delta could almost hear the sigh.

Games are an interesting concept for gambling down the line, but no. I was referring to laying out a complicated....no, a series of... A gauntlet for the... may I just show you?

Delta stepped back as if to give Nu the floor.

She felt a tug on herself and her mana began to drop. From the space near the boss door all the way to the goblin camp, perfect squares of empty space hollowed out of the ground.

A dozen or so trap holes, but not very deep. An adult may come up to their thigh at most.

I saved mana by halving their size, so it's not going to bankrupt you. Now, let's add the harder part...

Delta watched with a surprised expression as a criss-cross dark grey metal mesh slid out from the bottom of the wall to cover the floor.

"I get the holes, but why the metal fence to stop people falling in?" she muttered, but Nu just kept working. Delta watched her 43 mana, recently topped up by Hob and Gob, drop to a 25. A fresh layer of dirt appeared on top. It looked solid and Delta could barely see a difference between the goblin camp dirt and this new one.

"Holes, fence, and new dirt. I like it!" Delta joked and Nu shook his box.