When Sincere recovered his senses, he found he'd attracted quite the crowd. Lollyp was kneeling at his side, helping him up, but the entire Challenger party surrounded him as well, and even DEATH and Slooshy could be seen at the back of the room. "Well...it seems my negotiation skills leave something to be desired. As does the thickness of my skull, I feel...quite ill."

Lollyp nods, her face grim. "It's not just you. They took the core! I feel...I don't know, hollow somehow, right? This is really, really bad."

Alizz steps forward, forced calm in her voice. "This isn't quite a panic situation just yet. They haven't destroyed the core, just removed it from the dungeon bounds, which means we still have some time to restore things."

"Oh? How much time do we got?" Slooshy glides her way around the edge of the crowd, leaving a wet trail on the stone floor as she goes.

"Right, right, let me think...for the immediate term, the main issue is that nothing in the dungeon will recharge or repair. Monsters won't respawn, traps and broken doors won't reset, that sort of thing. And, of course, the master of the dungeon has no access to her dungeon while she is away. We should have about twenty-four hours before the dungeon begins to actively decay."

Lilly Fullblossom's eyes go wide. "That quickly!? I had no idea dungeons were so fragile!"

The drider shakes her head. "It's not all at once. High-energy features like magical water or energy traps will fade out first, within a few days. More complex mechanical traps will cease working a few days after that...the platform on the second floor would certainly be a major concern, if that stops working. Then more magical monsters, like ghosts, will begin to...cease functioning, followed by the more mundane ones like bats." She turns to face Lollyp and Sincere. "Bosses actually last the longest, as you have higher concentrations of your own mana. Assuming you aren't killed and don't push yourself...maybe two weeks at the longest. Then over the following months and years the rest of the dungeon will slowly break down and fade away."

Sable steps forward, clanging an armored fist against her chest. "Well let's not wait around that long, yeah!? The longer we wait, the further away they get!"

"Yeah! Wait, one of us can go with you this time!" Lollyp begins to approach the group, then deflates. "...It probably shouldn't be me, though. I can barely scratch an earth elemental and putting out enough ice to do in a fire one would probably drain me too fast."

DEATH OF RABBITS nods at the back of the gathering. "LIKEWISE, AS I UNDERSTAND IT, MY DARK MAGICS WOULD HAVE LITTLE IMPACT ON THEIR NON-ORGANIC FORMS. MY SCYTHE COULD PERHAPS FIND USE, THOUGH THERE MAY BE A BETTER OPTION."

Although most of the group winces at the sound of his demonic tongue, Sincere nods in agreement as he recovers himself. "Yes. I believe it should be me. My mana reserves are still low, but if anyone has potions to spare that could be alleviated, and there is still a chance I could speak some reason into them."

Lollyp eagerly nods along as she turns back to the Challengers. "Will you help? I have some potions back in my room I can share around, and you'll welcome to scoop up all those snacks back upstairs before you go, in case it turns into a real trip."

Alizz gives no hesitation before responding. "Of course. The continued survival of a certified dungeon is among our highest priorities, and I will not have all we worked for destroyed now." She briefly scans the faces of her own group, and seeing no disagreement, turns towards the two representatives from the Church of Bounty. "You'll follow as well? I know we didn't quite prepare for this."

Lilly nods, and Sable is already heading towards the tunnel. "Damn straight! Even on a basic dungeon run, I always pack along plenty of supplies, just in case. Now, are we going?"

The field agent eyes the tunnel. "Fortunately, it appears they weren't expecting anyone to be able to follow them out. Kelsey, Sely, you gather what you can from Lollyp's supplies and catch up. Taly, you're our tracker, would you take the lead?"

"On it!" Fixing her Worthy Dungeon-crafted mask to her face, the shadow-garbed Rogue quickly leads the way down the tunnel, followed by her colleagues and Sincere.

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"Quickly! Return to camp, and prepare defenses!"

Crumbs looks down at the fire elemental walking alongside him. "...Camp? We have a camp?"

Scorch looks up at his associate. "What? Of course we have a camp! That's where we told the others to wait."

"Oh. I thought that was just like...a room, you know? Don't camps have like, stuff and all that in them? Like...tents, and campfires."

"We don't own any tents, and what would we do with them if we did? Look, if we say it's a camp, it's a camp."

"Oh, that makes sense." Crumbs looks around as the group takes another turn. "Won't it be hard for Lord Sincere to find us, though? Once he's free of the dungeon?"

The fire elemental stops, bringing the group to a halt. "Damn, good point. You four, you wait here and prepare for our Lord's return!"

A feminine flame puts a scowl into her voice. "What!? Who knows how long that could take! You want us to what, just sit around for however many days that might take?"

"As opposed to what? Sitting around in camp?" He nods towards the dungeon core in Crumbs' hand. "Unless you know how to make use of one of those things, we'll be waiting either way!"

Another earth elemental agrees. "It's hardly a camp, anyhow. You can count on us, Captain Scorch, sir!"

"Don't encourage him." The fiery woman gives the impression of rolling non-existent eyes before shrugging. "Fine, fine. We'll be here to guide our Lord. Let's just hope it doesn't take too long..."

----------------------------------------

As Kelsey and Sely catch up to the party, guided by chalk marks left by Taly, the kobold begins to pass around glass bottles from a bag at his waist. "Here we go, got some of the usual; healing, stamina, mana. Also a few offensive items, but uh, the slime girl said they were mostly 'experimental'. Still, any edge is a worthwhile one."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Lilly seems uncertain as she takes hold of a bottle that chills her skin. "Is there really that much cause for concern? There's seven of us! All high-level, if I'm not mistaken. The only hard part should be catching up to them, correct?"

Kelsey shakes his head. "Fighting elementals can be deceptive. There was that Roxxy a few months back, earth elemental, and I heard she woulda only qualified for a couple levels if she'd joined the Association. But that's all a matter of training and flexibility and that. An earth elemental, even one who's never been in a fight before in their life, can be as sturdy as a well-equipped Expert. And fire elementals are naturally as destructive as an Expert Pyromancer, and usually harder to kill if you're not prepared for them. Hey, Sincere, any other types we should be watching out for?"

Sincere thinks briefly before answering. "I only awakened the one water elemental, Slooshy, before realizing how weak they were in such a dry environment. There was one more lightning elemental I sent out on patrol, I believe, but if they recovered more hidden ones among the ruins, it's difficult to guess what they might be."

"Well, you can make a few guesses." Sable adds in her two coppers. "A wind elemental's not real likely to be found down underground. A lava elemental is a maybe, but let's hope they didn't find one of those."

Sely frowns, not that she'd spent much time not frowning since the rescue operation began. "Lava elemental? Ain't heard of those, how many kinds are there?"

Sable continues. "Well, you got your basic four, of course. Fire, water, earth, and air. Then you got your combos. Fire and air make lightning, fire and earth mean lava, water and earth can make either mud or quicksand elementals, depending on their birth environment. Air and water make ice, air and earth make sandstorms...think there's some debate on if cloud elementals come from fire and water, or if there is no fire and water combo and those are just fancy air elementals. Heard there's kinds that come from triple combos, but you need like, wizards in a tower to put those together."

Sincere interjects to expand the list even further. "The 'basic four' are the most commonly found, of course, but any form of aspected mana can lead to elemental formation under the right conditions. Dark magic can lead to quite horrifying shadow elementals. And temporal and spatial mana...well, let's just say that even I would not like to engage in a duel with a time elemental."

The group continues in silence for a moment as they continue their brisk pace, before Sable responds. "...Yeah, let's really hope they didn't find one of those."

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"...Okay, I'm bored."

An earth elemental turns towards the flaming spirit across the hall. "It's been like, twenty minutes, Cinder."

"What!? No way, it's been like four hours at least!"

"I swear, it's like you fire elementals live on accelerated time frames or something. If anyone knows the movement of the world, it's an - hold on." The rocky woman looks down the darkened tunnel, nearly pitch black outside of the area lit up by her companions. "There's someone coming - a whole group of someones, actually."

"What!? Impossible, it took weeks for the dungeon to find mercenaries the first time, didn't it? Whatever, ready for combat!"

"Hold! We are not here to fight!" An authoritative voice echoes down the hall, source unseen, until suddenly a demon appears before them as if he had literally just stepped out of a shadow. "This is all a grave misunderstanding, and it would be a shame for there to be unnecessary deaths. There is no need for hostility between yourselves and the dungeon!"

The shock is apparent in Cinder's voice as she responds. "Oh my gods! Do you all see this? This is great! Scorch is going to be thrilled!"

The confusion is apparent on Sincere's face as he attempts to determine just how he was able to cause such a quick change of heart. "He is? Well...excellent then. Perhaps you could lead us to him, and we can sort this out."

Cinder continues on, however, speaking to her companions. "Now that we took the core out of the dungeon, Lord Sincere can leave too! He's still under the mind control, but we can capture him and take him back to camp! This is way easier than I thought it was gonna be!"

"Are you serious?" As the two earth elementals approach to take custody of the man, Sincere sighs. "...I see. Well, let's try and take one alive, shall we? We may need the directions."

To the shock of the elemental guards, the darkness filling the hallway partially dissipates, revealing half a dozen adventurers following behind him. A tall woman with shining armor and slight horns poking from the top of her helmet clangs a sword against her shield. "Fine by me! I'm taking the big one on the right!" Dashing forward, the warrior slams into the nearest earth elemental, doing her little damage but certainly blocking her from getting any closer to Sincere.

On the other side of the hall, vines suddenly spring from the ground to grip onto the legs of the other walking stone, but Cinder quickly spots their fragility. "Hey Slate, I'll burn that shit off of you in no time!" The man seems unconcerned as her flames blast the lower half of his body, igniting the magical plants, but the flame is blocked too quickly to finish the job. To Cinder's surprise another armored figure, this one much shorter but with several feet of tail, leaps directly into the path of the flames. "What? Okay, whatever, fine by me if you wanna die so badly!"

To her continued surprise however, the armored figure just laughs. "You wanna try and burn a Warrior of Flame, girl? Good luck with that!" With the fire washing harmlessly over the kobold's shield there's nothing preventing the man from charging her, and he soon does so, swinging at her core and forcing her to dodge backwards.

Nearby, the other flame elemental steps forward to fire a blast at the other adventurers, but a quick barrier spell from Sincere blocks the attack in its tracks. When Alizz moves forward a moment later, shouting a spell with wands in hand, the rushing flames do more than simply pound uselessly against the magic shield. "Mana Feedback!" Although some of the fire continues to lap at the shield, the rest reverses direction back towards the elemental, somehow setting the air itself on fire around it. The elemental only laughs in spite of this tactic, unimpressed.

"You're gonna try and burn a fire elemental!? Nice try!" The taunt turns flat when he spots the smirk on her face, and Alizz utters two more words.

"Aspect Reversal." The ball of flame around the elemental's core suddenly transforms into a sphere of water, causing his light to blink out immediately, and the entire mass falls to the ground with a splash. Sparks can be seen from within as the elemental attempts to reignite, but it's entirely the wrong move for him to make. Were it just normal water it would hardly be a concern at all, but the heavy dose of water mana conflicts with his own fire-aspected energies, and when combined with the sudden temperature shifts the elemental's core loudly shatters into pieces.

"No! You bastards!" The earth elemental fighting against the demonic Paladin doubles the strength of her blows, causing the hall to echo with the ringing of her fists against the holy shield, but to her surprise the warrior sheathes her sword in response.

"Behold the strength of the divine!" A golden glow illuminates the Paladin's bracers, and when she returns the elemental's blows with her fist the kidnapper's stony skin actually cracks. Not without a cost, unfortunately. "Ow! Ow! Ah!" The Paladin continues her assault, breaking the elemental apart with every punch, but likely breaking a bone or two of her own hands in return each time. Before she can wear herself out, a Cleric runs up behind her and places a hand on the demon's shoulder.

"I'll take your pain! Ow! Ah, you really don't hold back, do you!? ...Keep it up!"

Sparing only a moment to shoot the Cleric a glance, the warrior keeps it up as requested, easily outfighting the much-slower elemental. A final blow against her opponent's chest sends a crack clear through the woman's core, and moments later her form crumbles to dust.

Across the hall, Slate had just about managed to clear himself of vines faster than the opposing Priestess could tie him down, but unfortunately he was still far too slow. Having spent a solid minute preparing her next spell, the wand-wielding drider gives him a final glare before firing it off. "Mana Seal." Glowing runes fly through the air, penetrating the man's rocky body as if it weren't there and landing directly on his core. As their magical energy burns away, his body falls apart much like his companion's had a moment earlier, but this time a fully-intact core lands in the middle of the debris, lit up by Alizz's magics.

Much further down the tunnel the quickly-retreating Cinder sees it all, and despite the distraction of the kobold swinging away at her, eventually manages to do the math of the one of her versus the seven adventurers closing in. Raising her hands, she shouts out. "Hey, I have a hot idea! What if there was no need for hostility between us and the dungeon?"

Sincere raises an eyebrow in her direction. "...An intriguing idea. Let's discuss that."