{A} was concerned.

Petey hadn't been acting like his usual energetically acrobatic self. He stayed slumped in the corner of the cave as far away from the entrance as he could manage. As for Britney, the larger spider seemed intent on firmly annihilating everything that entered the cave, much to [N]'s delight. The hit list thus far included several small bugs and a particularly large centipede. Britney was almost up to the same level as Petey at this point, and {A} could sense her sister core's excitement rising. It felt like a sharp bite to the air, one that contrasted the heavy blanket of worry surrounding {A}.

Moving closer to Petey, {A} did her level best to cast a warm glow over the spider, pulling her options up once again. Even though she'd scanned them a dozen times, she still checked for any ability where she could replace the leg Petey was missing. As with all of her prior attempts, she found no such option.

[N] was watching {A}, although the core didn't notice. On one hand, {A}'s sudden method of taking things far more seriously was an almost pleasant change from the unrestrained happiness her older mood had been. On the other, it was beginning to make [N} anxious, which was a terrible feeling. She'd take annoyance any day over that terrible cloud of monotonous sadness.

With a mental sigh, she moved over. [Hey. Cheer up. Stop being... I don't know, sad.] She didn't know how to make her feel better. She barely even knew what was wrong, except that it had something to do with Petey's injury. How exactly that was such a terrible thing was hard to tell. The creatures they summoned for their defenses were intended to be temporary, so forming an attachment to such a basic monster was... it didn't make sense.

{A} vaguely turned towards her. {How? Look at Petey.} The spider was listlessly moving about in a small circle, stumbling every time his missing leg failed to support him. {Doesn't that make you sad?}

Yes, [N] had to admit, it made her sad. It saddened her that there was such a waste of a valuable slot sitting there dawdling its legs. [Okay, so maybe it does. What now?]

Somehow, {A} contrived to look confused. {What do you mean?}

[I mean, there's a spider right there who can barely move. You're a core, same as me. That means you can do things to fix it.]

{Like what!?} The core's voice crashed into [N] like a tidal wave, loaded with fear and anger. {I've looked the options over a dozen times! There's no option to heal him! I don't know why - maybe I'm too low of a level, maybe I didn't feed him enough bugs, but he's missing a leg and I can't do anything about it!}

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The sudden rush of emotion sent [N] tumbling backward, small eddies pushing outward from the force of {A}'s fervor. Once she came to a stop, [N] determinedly floated back over to {A}. [Okay, then do something else! If you can't heal him, get him a new leg! Make him practice walking without it! Because if you sit there waiting for the option you want to show up, it might be years or decades before you're satisfied, and I don't think Petey is going to live that long! So get off your shiny stone butt and do something! Britney's already passed Petey's level!]

It was {A}'s turn to fall back, and Petey glanced up at the two cores aimlessly, only reacting to the motion. {But...} The core's voice was plaintive now. Pleading.

Now that hurt. For all her posturing and talk of progress, the only thing [N] could never replace was {A}. The core meant the world to [N] and she couldn't even remember why. If she'd had the feeling towards Britney or Petey, she would have suspected something wrong. She would have tried to root out the feelings and burn them away like a tumor. But {A}?

{A} mattered.

[N] changed her tone, making it softer. [Look. I don't understand why you're being so stubborn about this. About Petey, about keeping him, about any of it. If Britney died, I'd figure out how to make the next one better, and I'm pretty sure she knows it. So do you want to hazard a guess as to what she's doing?]

After a moment, {A} tentatively asked, {...Training?}

[N] would have thrown her arms in the air, if she'd had any. [Yes! She's practicing for the next time a threat like that mouse comes in! And, because of that, what do you think is going to happen when she gets hurt?]

{You're going to... heal her?}

[No, she's going to fight tooth and claw to make sure it doesn't happen again! If she loses a fight, I can guarantee you it's going to be on her terms! She's going to die fighting or not at all!]

{A} recoiled, lightly bumping against the back side of the cave. {That's horrible!}

[No, that's survival!] [N] corrected her sister core. [If and when she survives the next fight, and the one after that, and the one after that, she's going to get stronger! Every time she wins, she gets stronger. Every time she wins, we get stronger. And when we get stronger, so does she! That's how this works!]

Biting back, {A} retorted, {Well, what if we were a pacifist dungeon? Then we wouldn't have to fight anything!}

[N] nearly exploded. [A- a pacifist!? How in the world are we supposed to level up if we never kill anything!?]

Before {A} could respond, Petey gathered his legs under him and jumped onto her surface, startling both cores. Trembling from the effort, Petey slowly crawled onto the top of her. He started moving a leg in a small circle, soothingly trying to calm her down. [N] stared at him, stunned. [Wait, did he hear us? So that means-]

She rotated sharply. Britney was off in the entrance, busily setting up a series of tripwires and pointed spikes. For some reason, [N] was relieved. Then she wondered why she'd felt relieved and felt mad that she needed to think about it.

{A} interrupted her thoughts. {Hey... N.}

The core paused to look at her. [Yeah?]

{...Thank you. I don't know why I was being so hopeless.}

That wasn't really the point of the speech, but at least something had gone through.