Their trek up to the boss was uneventful. The Rumors methodically cleared the floors, and Maven kept the younger girls from being targeted by monsters or hurt by the dungeon’s traps.

“Man, is this how it feels like to be you?” Ellie had asked Tess. “It’s weird watching all the monsters ignore me.”

And that pretty much summed up the feelings of Ellie and Maven. Tess had grown accustomed to this treatment, but it seemed Ellie and Maven were still basking in the novelty of it. Admittedly, Tess found herself a little bored by the experience, since she wasn’t contributing much, but it didn’t take them long to get to the boss, so it wasn’t a big deal.

“Let’s go over the plan one more time.” Jin said, stopping the group before they entered the boss room proper. “Maven, you’re in charge of making sure your party doesn’t get injured. If it looks like things are going to get too dangerous, I expect you to make the boss stop doing anything. I don’t care about our experience fighting it, it’s more important that you remain safe.”

Maven nodded. “I understand. You have my word that the three of us will come to no harm.”

“We appreciate it. Feel free to take potshots if you so wish, so long as it would not get in the way of our efforts.” Jin said.

“Which it shouldn’t.” Ker added. “Just be careful, alright? We’d hate to see any of you get hurt because we wanted to get an early crack at this dungeon.”

“Don’t worry about us.” Ellie said. “We’ll be fine.”

“We trust you.” Ker said, giving her a smile. “Let’s go beat this thing, okay?”

The group moved through the door and into the boss room, a blast of warm, dry air greeting them as they did. Before them was a large plain not unlike the top of the canyon, dry scrubland as far as the eye could see.

There was just one major difference; everything was huge, even the smallest of bushes that only would barely reach Tess’s knee outside were gargantuan, easily two to three times her size. And, lurking behind the bushes about two hundred feet away, she could make out a huge snake through her tremorsense, the beast watching the group of people warily.

Alice raised her shield, taking a step forward. “Good thing this is a wide arena.” She muttered. “You three, keep well to the side and support from afar, alright?”

“Understood.” Maven said. “Tess, Ellie, follow me.” She strode off to the left, veering away from the snake and The Rumors. As she led her party members through the spacious room, the plants parted for them, the stems and branches of the plants bending themselves into perfectly-sized tunnels for them to walk through.

“I must admit this is much more convenient than I thought it would be.” Maven said. “Changes such as this cost a pittance, and I am close to regenerating fast enough to recoup all of my resource losses.”

“That’s probably to be expected.” Ellie said. “I mean, both Death and Fortune’s Blessings require no resources to use, and Life’s Blessing is far more efficient than regular healing. Blessings are all about convenience, at least the strong ones.”

“I suppose so.” Maven said. “Do you believe we are far enough away now?”

“Probably.” Tess said. “Should we just fire an attack each and then watch the show?”

“That seems reasonable.” Maven replied. The bush around them opened up a clear path towards the boss. Once the way was clear, she chanted a quick spell and a bolt of light flew out to hit the snake, which was already in the thick of battle with The Rumors. Tess and Ellie followed suit, but when Tess moved to site down, Maven stopped her. “Wait one moment, please.” She said. “I believe I can make something for us to sit on.”

The bush around them peeled back even more, and a couch grew out of the floor, which Maven promptly sat down on. “It would appear that I can also make items that appear in dungeon housing.” She explained. “I do not believe it will come up much, but it should be a benefit to us regardless.”

“Well, I’m not going to look a gift couch in the mouth.” Ellie said, collapsing onto the couch. “Not bad at all.”

The three sat for a while as The Rumors fought, and within only a few minutes the snake was felled. As it burst into rainbow smoke, Alice immediately turned her head, obviously looking for Tess’s party. As she located them, she dashed over, and Tess’s party got up to meet her halfway.

“A couch?” Alice asked, raising a brow. “Where’d you get that from?”

“I made it.” Maven said. “It is the same type that dungeons make for the living spaces, and therefore within the purview of my Blessing.”

“That makes more sense.” Alice said, scratching the back of her head. “I thought you had it in one of your bags or something.”

“Nothing like that.” Maven said. “Though I do not doubt we could fit one in a bag if we so wished.”

“I know, I just thought it was a strange thing to have in a bag.” Alice said. “Though I suppose there’s some use for it. Anyway, are any of you hurt at all?”

“Not in the slightest.” Maven said. “There were no complications whatsoever.”

“Good. In that case, let’s go get our rewards, okay?”

Alice led them over to where the door to the Rewards Crystal was, and everyone piled in and placed their hand on the crystal, receiving their reward.

You have gained the Skill Beastmaster’s Bond!

Beastmaster’s Bond:

Rarity: Mythical

Type: Passive

Description:

You and your tamed monsters or summoned creatures share all passive abilities, buffs, debuffs, and status conditions. Multiple instances of the same passive ability, buff, debuff, or status condition do not stack.

Sharing is caring, and you care a lot.

An odd sensation passed over Tess, and her attendants stirred within her. Mistress, I feel so…strong! Silky said. Is this what it feels like to be you?

I don’t know. Tess replied. How much stronger do you feel?

I do not believe we have your Blessing. Isabella said. But your other Skills are enough on their own.

Tess: How does this work with Attributes?

Fortune: Jankily. None of the effects that transform your body apply, but basically anything that has a non-physical, passive effect does. This includes effects on Attributes that also happen to give you physical alterations. People who have this Skill aren’t supposed to be able to “peek behind the curtain” and see how Attributes actually work, so they’re none the wiser to the fact that they’re not technically getting the entire effect of an Attribute

Ellie: What’s this about?

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Tess: New Skill I got, will explain more out loud.

“So,” Alice said, looking at Tess, “what’d you get?”

“A Skill that allows me to share passive abilities, buffs, debuffs, and status conditions with my summons or tamed beasts, and vice-versa.” Tess said. “Including those originating from Attributes.”

Alice’s eyes lit up. “So if we hit all three of you with a damage buff –”

“Multiple instances of the same thing don’t stack.” Tess said quickly. “So no dice there, unfortunately. Still, it’s plenty powerful.”

“As always.” Alice said. “Standard fare for me, nothing great, nothing terrible.”

“Same here.” Ellie said. “It’s a bit better than what I’m used to, but I imagine that’s because the dungeon is higher level, not because I got slightly lucky.”

“Probably.” Ker agreed.

Jin tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Maven, can you create Rewards Crystals?”

Maven blinked in surprise. “I never thought to do that. Give me a moment.”

Dungeons: You can, but they won’t be effective unless whoever touches them meets the requirements to gain a reward.

“Yes, but they will not work unless you could normally get a reward from them.” Maven relayed.

Jin shrugged. “It was worth thinking about. Shall we call it a day?”

Maven nodded. “I am ready for some food and relaxation.”

“I think we all are, but you three in particular have had a long day. I’ll whip something up for you, do you all have any preferences?” Ker asked.

“Can you make some bread?” Ellie asked. “Your bread just hits different.”

“Sure.” Ker chuckled. “I’ll get the jams out, too.”

“Oh, and Tess, don’t forget to absorb the boss’s core this time.” Ellie said. “Don’t let it stew too long like you did with the last one.”

“Yeah, I’ll do it once we get back.” Tess said. “How did that boss fight, by the way? I’m assuming with poison or acid or something, right?”

Alice groaned. “Worse, it was with a base.”

“A base?” Tess asked, taken aback.

“You know, like in chemistry. The opposite of an acid. The stuff they use in cleaning products.” Alice explained. “Real nasty stuff, though it’s fortunately pretty rare as a combat tool.”

“And that means what exactly?” Ellie asked curiously.

“Well, you see, both acids and bases burn you. But bases, like…don’t do as much immediate damage, but they do more damage over time and are harder to remove. And the nastiest of enemies use both, coating you in a base and then neutralizing it with an acid. It’ll remove the DoT effect and do a bunch of damage in the process all the while being supremely uncomfortable.” Alice grimaced, apparently recalling an unpleasant memory. “Trust me, you do not want a chemical reaction occurring on or within your body.”

They chatted a bit more as they headed back into the lobby and got the hoverer set up and themselves situated inside. And, right after she sat down, Tess absorbed the core of the boss.

You have absorbed a Basic Bushland Boa Core!

Slots filled: 23/30

You have gained 1,500 EXP in Monster Breeder!

New core absorbed! Scanning for abilities…

New Skills detected!

Attempting to degrade and obtain Highly Based…

Congratulations, you have successfully obtained Based!

Displaying core information:

Basic Bushland Boa Core:

Level 63

Estimated Power: 1,750

Estimated Maximum Power if Enhanced: 3,500

Tess’s focus was snapped away from the window as another appeared right it front of it.

Fortune: Hate to cut this short but duty calls, again.

Tess: We weren’t done for the day?

Fortune: I’m pretty sure Fate wasn’t meddling with this, and it was just dumb luck.

Death: Don’t be so harsh on yourself there

Life: Now is NOT the time, Death.

Fortune: He’s right. The head of my church is trying to exit stage left and we gotta go stop her. Now. She’s packing up the few vital things left in her office, and I give it five minutes before she’s gone through a secret exit she built into the place. Switch your gear around, we’re dropping in hot.

Tess stood up, the casual clothing she normally kept her armor in bleeding back into a suit, a mask appearing around her eyes. “Gotta go.” She said. “Be back…soon.” Not waiting for a response, she activated the Attribute that gave her rabbitkin traits, activated the recognition scrambler on her armor, pulled the sleeves of her gloves down because it just felt right, activated Descent, and then was gone.

She landed on one knee, standing up from the sudden crouch as a wind whipped at her hair. She was forty or fifty stories up on a balcony, and the twinkling lights of the City below backlit her silhouette against the large glass sliding doors. Beyond them was an office in minor disarray, though notably the large executive chair was both on the wrong side of the desk and facing away from the balcony, so Tess could only barely make out the figure of a woman sitting on it. Still, her Tremorsense gave her a pretty good idea of who she was looking at; a relatively tall elven woman with short hair, sipping some unidentified liquid from a goblet.

A small chunk of loose plaster chose that moment to dislodge itself from the ceiling, landing squarely on the balcony door’s lock, applying just enough pressure to unlock the door and allow a sudden fierce gust of wind to slam it open.

The hand holding the goblet reached out to the side, lazily motioning for the door to be shut. “Be a dear and shut the door behind you on your way in, miss Appointed of Fortune.” The woman said. “It’s rather chilly tonight. That being said, I do believe this is our first time meeting, so introductions are in order. I am Olga Aesal, humble servant of the goddess of Fortune, at your service. To what do I owe this…unexpected visit?”

Aesal? Tess asked. Is she –

Somewhat-distant aunt. Not even close to on speaking terms with Aleksander’s family, but technically related.

“You know full well why we’re here.” Fortune said. “You didn’t really believe you could get away this easy, did you?”

“Of course not.” Olga tittered. “I was sure you’d try to stop me, but I’m sure we can come to an…agreement. Care for some wine? I left a goblet for you on the desk.”

Fortune didn’t dignify that with a response, instead sighing and shaking their head. “What went wrong, Olga? You were so good at the beginning, so full of faith and willingness to work towards the betterment of society.”

“I realized the true nature of society, Fortune.” Olga responded. “People are creatures that run only on greed; once they gain a taste of living large, they’ll do anything for more. Too many people receive our handouts only to return under cover of night and try to pilfer more. Too many come to us in hopes of a sudden turnaround of their luck, a massive windfall that will propel them into a life of hedonistic delight, one which they will inevitably lose as they fail to put in even a scrap of effort to maintain it.

“People are selfish, greedy, ungrateful fools, so what does it matter if I give myself a little extra pleasure? Everyone else would certainly do the same if they had the opportunity, even your little Appointed. You of all people must understanding this, so why bother with this charade any longer? I have served you well these past decades, so let me quietly disappear. You cannot afford turmoil in such an unstable time, so do the smart thing and take the easy way out, will you?”

“Not happening.” Fortune said flatly. “And I’m not going to waste time arguing against your twisted philosophy, either. You have two options right now; one is to come quietly, sign a Contract stating that you will publicly resign out of a sense of guilt, and the other is to resist and make me force you to sign the Contract. Choose.”

“You are far too predictable for the goddess of Fortune.” Olga sighed. “Here’s a counteroffer. We duel like civilized people; if I win, I walk away scot-free. If I lose, I submit to any and all demands, and I declare that as Contract.”

“Very well.” Fortune said. “Consider your Contract accepted.” There was a charge to the air as a magical bond was created, one which Tess instinctively knew was similar to a Fatebinder’s Oath, except more…bidirectional.

These Contracts are usually supposed to bind two parties to a very specific set of terms. Fortune explained quickly. It won’t work on us. If by some miracle we lose, we’ll just send in Evan or someone else and she won’t get away again.

“I will try not to hurt you too badly.” Fortune said, unsheathing their claws and maneuvering their body closer to the desk. “But no promises.”

Olga tutted to herself. “That’s barbaric.” She said. “I said we would fight duel like civilized people.” She reached into a bag, pulling out two large…somethings before finally wheeling her chair around for the first time and tossing one to Tess.

Tess and Fortune caught it, sparing only enough time to ensure it wasn’t dangerous before returning their eyes to Olga. She had a near identical device of her own that she was fitting onto her arm, some sort of bracer which projected out a holographic display marked with a series of strange, marked rectangles that seemed vaguely familiar despite the fact that Tess was sure she hadn’t seen much quite like it.

“Don’t just stand there like a buffoon.” Olga said, reaching into her bag once again and pulling out two stacks of cards, which she fed into a slot on her machine. “Put on your Duel Terminal. It’s time we settle this.”