“Ahhh hell…” Despondant, Kylie sat and slowly read the hoard of information windows that popped up before her. Some were just standard combat and death messages such as “You’ve been slain, yada yada… You have dropped your tattered pelt.”, but some were downright depressing to read over.

“Guys, I lost two levels,” Kylie pouted, while reading her other messages.

“That funny. Me not even see experience blip,” Seran laughed.

“I only lost about a tenth of a level,” Heather exclaimed. “That’s insane!

“Well, it was barely two levels,” Kylie explained. “I went up a level when that beetle exploded, and then lost the level I gained and another one. I’m sitting right at ninety-six percent now, so I just barely lost two levels.”

“Still, that’s a massive loss,” Heather offered sympathetically. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, too quietly for anyone else to hear.

“Sucks to be you,” Seran laughed, flexing his muscles. “All me lose me get back when me smack fart out of fly later. Me not even have clothes to lose,” Seran chuckled, while strutting around and flexing naked. “Acid melt clothes and fire burn clothes and now Seran all natural man again! HISS! HISS!” Thrusting out his pelvic region, Seran made several loud hissing sounds before breaking down into manfully girlish giggles.

“Just shut it,” Kylie snorted, tossing a tattered wolf hide over at Seran, and wrap that around yourself. I’m still sorting this crap out. It looks like my ‘Don’t Die’ quest has been updated. Apparently when a member of the royal bloodline dies, they leave behind something called an ‘Essence of Nobility’. I don’t have a clue what the hell that is, but I’ve got to find it and absorb the essence one again. Until I do, I’ve got a fifty percent penalty to experience, negatives to my charisma and diplomatic abilities, and I’ve lost all the benefits of my noble bloodline and authority – whatever the hell those are!”

“Noble bloodline?” Heather asked, looking at Kylie a little oddly.

“Didn’t I tell you I was an exiled elven princess, hunted by the people of my land, with an ever increasing bounty on my head?” Kylie replied, looking innocent.

“Nooo, I don’t think I’d heard quite all of that before,” Heather replied, looking a little shocked and hurt.

“Sorry.” Blushing slightly, Kylie simply shrugged in apology.

“It all good,” Seran laughed, walking towards the exit of the room they’d respawned in near the entrance. “Heather know now, and not matter anyway. Princess or pig, our Kylie still just our Kylie. Long as her got squishy-squishy bounce-bounce, we still love her. Now come! Let’s go get noble smoble back. No one here but us; it just sit there like happy noble turd in golden chamber pot.”

“Fine,” Heather snorted, flicking her hair back over her shoulder in what Kylie had learned was a certain sign of annoyance. “Let’s go get this ‘Essence of Nobility’. Who knows, maybe I can absorb it and become a royal elf,” Heather laughed, an evil glint in her eyes. “In fact, that sounds like a great idea!” Turning and running, she suddenly dashed past Kylie and out the exit.

“Hey! Wait a damn minute!” Rushing after her, Kylie ran out of the room and past a confused looking Seran. “I need that! I don’t want to be stuck with a permanent penalty like this!”

“Finders Keepers!” Laughing wildly, Heather completely ignored Kylies pleas, curses, and promises to make her pay as she ran on recklessly back where they’d came from.

Running breathlessly behind her, Kylie screeched to a stop and looked puzzled at one of the intersections. Suddenly cackling wildly, she yelled down the tunnel after Heather, “Wrong way, idiot!” Giggling madly to herself, she turned and ran down a different passage to her left.

Several minutes later, Seran finally caught up to the same intersection, strolling along casually. Hearing footsteps echoing from straight in front of him and from the left of him, he shrugged and then turned to the tunnel on his right and started down it. “Good idea, me guess. Split up and look for new things to splat. Me think us almost done in here. This good idea. Faster!”

“Hey! Rat. Spider. Beetle. Me come for you!” Laughing, he tapped his massive hammer in his hands and wandered off alone to see if he could find anything else to indulge bashing on.

* * * * * * * *

After wandering hopelessly lost back and forth through dozens of different side tunnels and passages that all seemed the same, Kylie was about ready to give up and just cry. Without much time left in their session, she was going to be forced to log out without having found the way down once again, and that worried her to no end. She’d never lost her ‘Essence of Nobility’ before, and didn’t know what it was, how it behaved, and how long it’d last on its own. Would it melt like ice over time? Could a creature in the dungeon consume it and gain whatever bonuses it gave? She simply didn’t know and that uncertainty was twisting her stomach in knots.

“Hey jerkface!” Heather’s voice suddenly came across the party chat, making Kylie jump and spin around like an idiot. “Guess what? I’ve found it!”

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“You have not!” Kylie yelled back in denial, praying that it wasn’t true.

“I sure have,” Heather taunted. “It looks like a sparkling little diamond and is giving off a pulsing white light. Finders Keepers!”

“Don’t you dare! I need that,” Kylie pleaded.

“Too late. I’ve already tried to use it,” Heather laughed bitterly.

“Tried?” Swallowing down a lump in the back of her throat, Kylie asked, “What happened?”

“Not a damn thing,” Heather responded, sounded disgusting. “I got a stupid pop-up that told me, ‘Only those recognized as nobility can consume an Essence of Nobility. You lack the proper qualifications at this time.’ Dumb ass rock. I should just melt it.”

“Don’t you dare! You just wait until I find my way there,” Kylie commanded.

“Fine, but I get first choice out of the other loot that dropped,” Heather bartered.

“Fine! Fine! Just don’t melt my essence,” Kylie agreed.

“Seran no need loot,” a rough male voice interrupted and joined in the conversation. “Seran just need smash!”

“Fine! The you two can’t regret it later!” Heather laughed freely for a few seconds and then the party chat went quiet. A moment later the ground shook and thunderous rumbling echoed up and down the tunnels. A moment later, a think wave of blackness washed over everything, causing Kylie to close her eyes tightly against the sudden change in lighting. When she opened them again, she was back at the small entrance with Seran and Heather both standing nearby.

“What the hell was that?” Kylie asked, confounded.

“I claimed the dungeon,” Heather giggled, holding up what looked like a midnight black pearl. “It’s exiled anyone not in our party from the dungeon, I now have the right to rename it, and there’s about eight million options that the core opens up!”

“Sounds great,” Kylie muttered, feeling a bit taken advantage of. “Where’s my essence?”

“Oh! Here.” Taking her other hand, Heather tossed a small shimmering gemstone over to Kylie. Pulsing with a light white glow, a window popped up the moment Kylie caught it.

Reading over it, she quickly nodded. “Yes, dammit, I want claim this essence.” The gemstone pulsed brightly a few times in her hands and then disappeared, leaving behind more system messages for Kylie to read.

Looking at first one girl staring off into space and reading messages only they could see, and then watching the other do the same, Seran shrugged his massive shoulders and started to walk out of the room. “Me go smash. Stupid women stare at stupid air. No fun. Bash better!”

“Oh no you won’t,” Heather replied, as she moved to block the exit. “The creatures in here now are ours. We have the dungeon core! From what I can tell, we can earn experience, levels, bonuses, and all sorts of different things if we can grow and level the dungeon up.”

“How level dungeon,” Seran asked, looking puzzled.

“I’m not entirely certain,” Heather admitted. “There’s a lot of crap to take in all at once with the core. I think the general idea is when the dungeon kills hostile invaders, it accumulates experience kind of like we do. The things in here now, whatever there is that’s left, will work to protect the dungeon and kill invaders.”

“Not smash beetles?” Seran pouted.

“Not if they’re in the dungeon now,” Heather reinstated. “Things in here are off limits.”

Looking a little puzzled, Kylie asked, “But how does the dungeon kill things? None of the creatures outside followed us in through the darkness earlier.”

“I don’t know,” Heather admitted. “Like I said, there’s a lot to sort out with this damn thing. Maybe there’s an option to open the front door or something. Or maybe dungeons only grow by killing invading players. I’m not certain. It looks like the dungeon has a natural growth rate, and a respawn rate. It also looks like there’s some way we can add new creatures to the defenses. The thing is, everything seems to take Dungeon Points, which the crystal seems to earn very slowly naturally, but which can be sped up by the killing of invaders inside the dungeon.”

“That simple then,” Seran laugh. “Now we go hunt forest. Catch enemy. Drag it in home. Then smash!”

“That might work,” Heather agreed, “if it’s possible to catch things. We never have before.”

“Yes we have,” Kylie said, laughing slightly. “Rat ball, remember?”

“Rat ball,” Heather agreed, a large smile starting to spread across her face.

“Rats balls make rat babies,” Seran agreed, having no idea what the heck they were talking about.

Kylie looked over at Heather and then both burst out laughing. “I’m gone before the timer runs out again,” Heather told them, waving briefly before saying, “Log out.”

Looking over at Seran, Kylie nodded once showing that she was ready as well. “Log Out,” they both said together, escaping to the real world to celebrate becoming lords of their own dungeon together.