There is No Epic Loot Here, Only Puns

127: Gam Ham Time

I miss the days when it was just me... hating the world. Watching Delta blow things up.

Nu's complaining was audible through heavy beeping and typing notes. His form had reverted back to his screen form.

No one barged in. Everything made sense. No one turned me into a person.

Delta drummed her fingers as she waited. The secret garden was devoting its full power to sustaining Hero who was in some sort of 'recharging coma' when the raid boss mode was turned off.

"Everyone barged in. Stop editing history," Delta said as she watched Lorsa explore the space with delight and slight... fear.

"The rules are so loose here. It's uncomfortably close to Dungeons that turn into Abominations," the woman commented. Delta couldn't stop looking at her.

She was a core... on legs.

It was mind-boggling to Delta who hadn't really 'moved' since she woke up. Just rearranged some bits and grew into herself.

Lorsa was a slim woman. A picturesque image of the 'elven' woman. Too impossible to exist, yet she did. It was a little ruined since Delta could really 'see' her. This form was not gained by any diet or workout or even a gifted bloodline. Her entire body had been 'crafted' with perfectionism that spoke of godly influence... or a Dungeon with too much time.

In the centre of Lorsa, not quite her heart or stomach... fragments of a brilliant diamond core were being held together by dozens of mana strings from other Dungeons. Like a bandaid over a hole in one's stomach.

Red, blue, green, gold... gold was the majority of the strings, but there were dozens of other tiny little efforts here and there. Fewer colours, more ideas.

Smoke, lava, clouds, darkness, beast.

Lorsa has been in contact with what seemed like every Dungeon ever.

Each piece so delicately weaved that one mishap would unravel Lorsa like a dream.

"You're staring," Lorsa called over, sounding amused. Delta blinked, feeling a flush on her neck at being caught.

"I've never... met a Dungeon core beside myself," Delta said quickly. Nu had gone quiet, listening.

"I would imagine so. Fairplay has done their best to shatter the Core Network in key places," Lorsa said, tone shifting to annoyance. She picked up a Pigglecap with a confused look.

"What function does this serve?" she asked suddenly. Delta blinked.

"It's cute," she offered. Lorsa took a long moment to answer.

"...Acceptable answer," she said and Delta watched her use some of her own energy... no, that wasn't right.

Lorsa focused and golden mana flowed, a borrowed reserve from another core.

A chair with rubies and gaudy golden etchings appeared in the garden. Delta didn't think Lorsa was so...

Interesting to like such a chair.

At Delta's pointed look, the woman coughed.

"Yal, his mana is... snobbish," she muttered, trying to get comfortable, and failing, on the chair.

"Mana has vibes?" Delta asked, excited to have someone else who was going through this Dungeon thing. She floated down and when she made a chair, a mushroom the size of a small car popped out of the ground.

Lorsa's smile was mysterious, her pale blue eyes too old for the youthful face.

"You would have noticed. Your own is..." Lorsa trailed off, looking for the best word.

---

In the claimed lab, orange waves charged into battle, waving arms that didn't exist as they tried to consume the stupid tree!

"For Delta!" the head of the assault cried.

The room rippled in an echoing chant.

"Shrooms for the Shroom Dungeon! FRIENDSHIP FOR THE DELTA!"

---

"Excitable," Lorsa said finally.

You're being too kind. The word you're looking for is 'Invasive and infectious'.

Lorsa turned her eyes to Nu's screen, her face frowning as she tried to understand something.

She focused and from her hand, a white screen manifested in the air above her palm. It was so pale it looked like snow freshly formed. It crackled slightly as if it was getting a bad signal.

Nu's next sarcastic comment died as he came to face-to-face with another Menu system.

It was blank... unassuming... and very much unalive.

"I'm not sure to praise you or fear you that you managed to break the system so badly that it gained thought. It's slightly... obscene, but I am old. Perhaps this is the future?" Lorsa said quietly as her own screen flicked through windows and options with minimal input from Lorsa.

Nu's screen flickered as old pain rose up from within him. Crackling and static as he lost himself in old memories. Delta's voice came out quiet.

"He's not broken. He's Nu," was all she said and Lorsa paused... then nodded in apology.

"I can't accuse anything of being broken. Not without being a hypocrite of the highest order," Lorsa said and Delta decided she needed answers before Lorsa could drop any more vague-bombs.

"What's the Core-network... and what happened to you?" she asked, as kindly as she could. Lorsa kicked her feet a few times, bouncing her knee in thought.

If to answer? To leave? To lie?

Delta didn't know until Lorsa spoke a few seconds later.

"The Core Network is basically a massive set of lines connecting every Dungeon to another. Dungeons are split into two groups. Unaware and awake. We are awake, but those without the ability to think higher thoughts beyond 'eat, grow, kill' are unaware. Those awake have power over the unaware such as using them as 'nodes' to stretch their own awareness. Even governing them in some ways," Lorsa shifted to cross her legs, leather boots impossibly clean.

"Sounds a bit tyrannical," Delta pointed out as the 'walls' of the secret garden showed a soft orange light.

"There is no choice. You cannot force growth and development. You can turn them feral or worse... break them. It's why seeds need time, why children need to develop... why diamonds need pressure and time," Lorsa replied, drinking wine from a bottle she pulled from thin air.

It still felt a little wrong to take away choice, even from feral kids, but Delta was a big softie so maybe she was overreacting.

"As for me? Well, Fairplay, a giant guild-turned-company came into my Dungeon, tricked me with an agreement after beating my bosses and when I had my back turned, scooped out the equivalent of my organs, leaving me a hollow husk that threw herself into the network as a last-ditch effort to survive," she said calmly.

Delta shot Nu a look who did his version of a shrug.

"And... why did they do that?" Delta asked, hesitating slightly in case she upset her first core friend.

Lorsa thought about it.

"Honestly. I have two theories," she admitted and held up two fingers, touching the first one.

"One, Fairplay is run by the Silence and their fanatical love of the fallen sibling. Meaning that destroying awake dungeons would not only weaken the body of the Brother further towards total collapse... but take back all the seeds I've purified over the years," she listed, throwing out important words like Delta should have read the script by now.

She touched the other finger, silver hair moving as if it was programmed to do so since there was no 'breeze' in the secret garden.

"Two, they're greedy humans who discovered the sheer mana power in Dungeon cores being led by a bigot who lost someone to a Dungeon and believes that they should control all Dungeons like farm animals and only they know best for the world," she said with a shrug.

Lorsa thought about it.

"Both? Both sounds good," she settled on and took a swig of her wine that would burn the paint off the walls.

"...I have a lot of questions," Delta said, brain frying a little at the idea there was a whole world outside of her Dungeon she had been purposely ignoring.

"I thought breaking Dungeons was illegal? Like their cores, my friend Ruli told me that," Delta insisted.

The woman winked.

"You're welcome. That whole law came around due to my little incident. My Dungeon used to be about... well, not too far off from the World Tree. Back then, the tree didn't suck up every leyline and mostly kept her attitude to herself. Now, there's no energy around that entire area to support new Dungeons. That damn tree keeps burrowing deeper as well," Lorsa said, cheeks going flush as she kept drinking.

That didn't sound right.

"I met the tree recently. It's a him," Delta corrected. Lorsa stared, slowly shaking her head.

"No, it's her. A giant cow that would wax poetics about eviscerating me, people, monsters... anything really. I haven't been around that area since I can't risk going where Leylines are dead," she admitted.

Uh oh... that sounded familiar.

"Can you... come with me for a second?" Delta insisted and Lorsa raised a brow.

Delta was sure this wouldn't take more than a few seconds to assure her that she was wrong...

---

Delta removed a finger with a wince.

"-AND THEN ROT FROM THE INSIDE WITH THE GOAT STILL ON FIRE!" Lorsa screamed, waving her bottle at Wyin. The tree's entire upper half had turned a furious autumn red.

"You little hag...I'm going to-" Delta plugged her ears again with a sour expression.

Wyin's voice was strong and Delta heard snippets of rusty wire, a reverse summoning spell, and something to do with scorpions.

"So... Wyin used to be the World Tree?" she called out, hoping to end the 'discussion' before the children came back up. They both turned to her.

"Yes/No!" they snapped. Lorsa nodding, Wyin huffing out a negative.

Delta stared, waiting.

"It's complicated and my memory... my understanding is... flawed," Wyin said irritably.

"Now who's the hag?" Lorsa said, rolling her eyes as she walked around Wyin, sizing her up.

"I was stripped down to a mere seed. Less than a fragment, less than a soul. I am an echo... but now I am my own self," Wyin said with a sigh. Lorsa shook her head in amazement.

"To grow this much from a different beginning... a different home... and yet to still be so similar," she murmured

"I wanted to wait until I was... confident before I spoke of this," Wyin said, indifferently to Delta

"I don't mind. Sorry for rushing you," Delta patted Wyin's trunk with a smile. The boss blinked then looked away with an odd look.

"This raises questions. Who is the world tree now? Another version of yourself?" Lorsa came to a stop, her hood fluttering as if the material was lighter than air.

Delta could sense it would tank a hit from Fran with ease...

The question made Wyin's face darken with hate.

"The name is lost to the fog of 'before'. All I know is I let that worm too close to my heart. With a face so close to another I once loved... that she once loved. He broke my heart and I presume, is playing with the rotten thing as we speak," Wyin turned, a snarl on her face but Delta didn't move away.

She held one of Wyin's thorny branches, the thorn unable to quite harm her avatar.

"You didn't deserve that," Delta whispered.