"Crack it! Crack it!" Beatrice shouts out as she rolls away, avoiding the fist of the massive earth sprite smashing into the floor behind her. The sound of that crash is followed up by high-pitched pinging noises, as throwing picks made of arcane energy bounce off of the humanoid beast's thick skin.

"I'm working on it, I'm working on it! Just don't get punched again!" A dwarf in black leather laughs as he makes throwing motions with the pick held in his hand, each movement sending a magical attack in the monster's direction. He lights up the arena with more than just the glow of magic as he does so, with glints of red, green, and purple in his mouth catching the torchlight as he moves.

"It's hardly doing any damage at all! If we need to wait for you to crack it open, we'll be here all day!" Tassa growls as she dashes forward with her great axe held in both hands, swinging it at the back of the sprite's knee. It actually manages to sink an inch or so into the stone, but the weapon gets caught as the limb flexes, and the minotaur finds herself knocked to one side before she can recover it.

The Ranger grips her left arm as she stumbles away, pain evident in her face, and as she grimaces a second, much taller minotaur woman comes up behind her. Before Tassa can push her away she finds herself caught up in a grapple she's unable to escape. "Gah! Must you do this now!?"

"Stop squirming and let me hug you! You really want to wait until after the boss fight to get healed up? You won't live long like that! Comforting Hug!" The larger woman laughs as she casts her magic, her pink-accented Cleric's robes billowing as healing and warmth flow into Tassa and her injured limb.

"Seesh, you two, get a room already!" Beatrice jokes before throwing a pair of alchemical bombs at the monster's feet, trapping them in a thick, sticky mud. With her target slowed she moves to flank it before slamming into it at full force with her shield, not even bothering to use her sword, but the creature seems as unaffected by the attack as it has been by anything else she's done. "Gods, I've fought elementals who weren't this tough!"

The dwarf with crystal teeth laughs again. "This ain't no bottom-tier sprite, lass! You've done well enough, though - watch a dwarf master at work!" After taking careful aim, the man launches three more mystic picks at the monster, and then almost without warning the stones making up its body crack and split. With a thunderous sound the heavy rocks crash to the floor, and the moment the sprite's core becomes exposed Beatrice seizes the moment and smashes it. There's a brief flare of energy, but a moment later what remains of the body degrades even further, disintegrating into little more than a pile of gravel.

"Huh, nice! Though I think you mean dwarf Expert, right, unless I heard you wrong earlier when you described your class, Gemtooth."

The dwarf rolls his eyes as he tucks the one physical pick he owns into a holster on his belt. "Pfft, stop being so literal! Yes, Arcane Rogue is an Expert-level class, but it ain't the class that teaches you how to break apart stone! That's the skill that comes from generations of mine craft!"

If he's about to make any further boasts, it's halted by a pained yelp from Tassa as a broken bone in her arm suddenly snaps back together. "Ah! Gods, that...well, I suppose it didn't hurt much, but that was distinctly uncomfortable." Turning her head, she eyes the woman holding on to her. "You can let me go now, Janey. I'm entirely healed now, thank you."

Janey steps back with a smirk, but she doesn't move very far. "Are you sure? I could do a more complete examination, just to be certain..."

Beatrice sighs. "Easy now, Ironhoof, or I'm going to start seeing why you had so much trouble finding a party. I have to admit, I didn't think Embracing Acolyte was going to be such a literal class title. Do you really have to hug people to heal them?"

The minotaur rests one hand on her hip as she raises a finger into the air. "Not at all! ...I do require physical contact, though, ah...specifically enough of it to break down the outer barriers to a person's soul. Kissing on the lips or some other suitably intimate area would work, but I could heal practically anything if I were to - " Tassa quickly cuts off any further explanations.

"We won't be doing any of that, thank you - especially not in a dungeon! I have to say, now I'm even less surprised I've never seen a follower of the Goddess of Love in a dungeon before. Someone dying of blood loss from a lost leg would hardly be in a condition for your - your treatments!"

Janey frowns, but the dwarf speaks up in her defense. "Well, it ain't like many other Expert-level healers would be able to fix that either, now could they? And the obscenely-sized lass did warn us about her methods before we took her on."

"Obscenely-sized!? My my, Gemtooth...you just say the kindest things." As the dwarf's eyes go wide Janey scoops him up with both arms before pulling him into an amount of cleavage that nearly matches his own body mass. "Thankful Hug!"

"That ain't a spell, you oaf, that's just you making up hugs!" The man struggles for a moment before soon deciding that he's okay with this situation, actually, and he gives Beatrice and Tassa a smug look as they stare up at him. "...Not that I'm complaining. And hey Tassa, don't go writing off her abilities in a dungeon just yet, now - I've been hearing there's a new dungeon down south that actually encourages such things, you know."

Beatrice raises an eyebrow. "Oh, um...you're talking about Worthy Dungeon, right? I'm actually familiar with the place, although I left before that uh...special floor got added. Somehow it doesn't surprise me, though."

Janey's expression grows excited as she plants Gemtooth back on his feet. "The Dungeon of Fertility! It may be in service to Kahlia, not Taina, but I would very much like to see it one of these days. The goddesses do work together often, you know, it makes me wonder if perhaps Taina herself might one day give one her blessing. If I hadn't already been a Challenger, hearing about the new dungeon would have certainly encouraged me to become one!"

Contrasting her excitement, Tassa grumbles as she begins to sort through the arena's loot chest. "Worthy Dungeon, you say? I...would like to visit the place, but in the far future. Not until I've advanced my class quite a bit further, certainly."

Gemtooth snorts as he comes up for his own look at their prizes. "What? It's brand new practically, only got what...four floors? Five if you count that 'special' one? You don't need to be a Master to take the place on, you know."

Tassa sighs before responding. "It is, but...a man I knew fell in that place. I need to be ready before I face it myself, and I don't simply mean my combat abilities - although those as well, of course. But no, I need more...experience, more wisdom before I go in there."

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Beatrice nods, gently patting Tassa's shoulder with an armored hand. "It...does have a sizable body count for its age, or so I've heard. If you're looking for wisdom from stabbing monsters though, I feel like I can speak from my own experience - you're not going to find it that way." She smirks at her own comment - although she's entirely encased in metal at the moment, all of her party members have seen hints of the scars she carries from years of monster slaying.

"Perhaps. But I wasn't going to find it in the Valleylands army either, so perhaps I'll just have to wander further until I do. Now...shall we attempt one more floor today?"

Janey throws a fist into the air. "Let's do it! But before we go, does anyone need a Blessing of Taina? You can even keep some of your clothes on for some of them!"

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

"Taina! No, don't touch!"

The Goddess of Love narrows her eyes at her friend. "Come on, I'll be gentle. It will be fiiinnnne." She looks up at her friend's face, a task which would likely cause neck pain in most mortals, given that she has the form of a four-foot-tall dwarf and her fellow goddess is pushing ten feet in height.

Kahlia growls down at the shorter deity. "I need to ensure it lasts until Palain gets here! I'm supposed to believe if I let this out of its containment field for two seconds you won't just be slurping it up like - oh!" The Goddess of Fertility interrupts herself as she spies another visitor to her Garden, this one in the garb of a human man with a bronzed tan and tussled, sun-bleached hair. His simple laborers' clothes leave his arms bare, exposing muscles formed by a lifetime of hard labor, and both Kahlia and Taina find themselves taking a moment to admire the new arrival.

He greets them with an easy smile, stopping first to lean over and say hello to the pink-haired dwarf, marked further by small heart tattoos on each of her cheeks. "Well, if it isn't my favorite Goddess of Love! I haven't seen you in the Garden for an age!"

Taina rolls her eyes, though she does blush a little. "Oh please, it hasn't been that long. Though it's not my fault Kahlia never throws any good parties here. I wonder why you even keep this dimension around, sometimes."

"The whole point of the place is for quiet contemplation! Palain at least appreciates the concept, isn't that right, my dear?" This time it's she who leans over, planting a kiss on the man's lips. As she does so, Taina doesn't even bother to hide the fact that she's staring down Kahlia's divine cleavage for the duration.

"You have a green thumb to rival my own, my lovely. Although Taina is partially right - you haven't arranged a meeting here, even a small one, for a very long time."

Kahlia nods as she stands back up, growing more serious. "The place did seem thematic for the topic of the meeting I called you both here for. Did you know that the master of the new dungeon is a reincarnator? She actually spent a century or so here once as my own guardian."

Palain looks surprised for a moment, before switching into a laugh. "Wait, so that's why you finally got yourself a sponsored dungeon? I know you've been trying for a few years now, I didn't think that there would be a connection like that, though. What odds!"

Taina shares in the surprise. "That is a wild coincidence. Outside of those cases where a whole group or family line or the like gets cursed, reincarnators are one in a billion, aren't they? Does that have something to do with tonight's meeting?"

"The incredible part is, she didn't even know of our relationship before asking me for a Favor! The odds truly are astounding. But no, that's not actually what I called you two here for today."

Palain's expression turns more inquisitive, as he stares at a glowing orb floating behind Kahlia. "Something to do with that, then? Some new project?"

Kahlia shakes her head as she turns around to face it. "No - someone else's, I suspect, and an old project. A week ago, one of my Paladins offered me a gift of power - this collection here is divine mana pulled directly from a divine elemental."

Her fellow gods both freeze at the description, with Taina being the first to exclaim. "That - that shouldn't be possible! We keep a lockdown on that shit, all of us! Who's sprung a leak?"

"I've spent the past few days investigating the region, and there are no leaks from any divine planes, at least not at the moment. However, I believe it may have been created centuries ago - a lost project of the first dungeon."

As Palain sighs, Taina grumbles again. "That place? What a fucking mess! I remember back when it started making elementals in the first place - do you recall, the Dungeoneers had to invoke a whole new set of rules and re-establish the species elsewhere? They should never have been allowing mortals access to the prototype!"

Palain chuckles, a little ruefully. "Oh, they did have earlier prototypes, but they were such a mess they never even made it to mortal eyes. But yes, if the dungeon somehow gained access to divine mana, that's another oversight someone ought to answer for. At least it is shut down now, but then how did this elemental arise after so long?"

The Goddess of Curves sighs. "As you know, Worthy Dungeon is located atop the old site. It's expanding into what ruins remain, and it seems that on occasion adventurers are wandering about the place and stumbling onto things. Unfortunately, this isn't quite the end of it - the elemental was destroyed, but one of its bosses recovered the remains of its core and took them home - Worthy Dungeon is now capable of spawning divine sprites."

Taina groans, falling back onto her butt as she grips her head with her hands. "Divine dungeon monsters! This is terrible! Awful! ...Actually, I don't know. Is that a problem?"

"I don't know! Some dungeons have divine servants as part of various Favors, but I've never heard of one that can spawn divinely-aspected minions at will before! But of course, I'm not a dungeon expert. I don't suppose either of you know of such things?"

The other deities shake their heads. Even within a pantheon, gods tended to have their various factions. There were the usual Dark Gods, of course, those not invited to the polite parties and drunken orgies, and who usually had to settle for niche cults for their worshipers. The three present were all generally part of the Guidance faction - those gods who believed in providing a helping hand, and working to ensure at least a minimal level of comfort for their devout. The Dungeoneers, on the other hand - those gods most directly involved in the design of dungeons - were almost all part of what those present would call the Musclehead faction. While some were in fact rather intellectual, they tended to believe more in the 'rise or die' sort of philosophies, the sort of thinking that tended to create great champions at the cost of hundreds or thousands of deaths. Palain frowns at the thought of needing to interact with some of their number.

"I wonder if the Muscleheads know about this sort of thing, and just never mentioned it. Something of an embarrassment, I suspect. But then, the first dungeon predated most of their involvement, didn't it? Who would have worked on that one?"

Kahlia pauses for a moment of thought. "There were perhaps half a dozen or so? I didn't pay much attention at the time. Both of the war gods, I believe. Ulinda, Goddess of Crafts, and Garre, God of Monsters were probably involved. We should try and talk to them, I think."

The Goddess of Love bares her teeth. "Do we have to? Ugh. Garre stopped taking my calls after my worshipers started collecting one of his tentacle monsters for pets. Is this even a concern of ours?"

"Perhaps not for you two, but I am invested in dungeons now, you know! I'd like to have some heads up on what my favorite dungeon might be in for!"

At that remark, Taina grins. "Fair enough, fair enough. You know, maybe I should try and get into the business as well, now that I'm hearing how it's been working out. I'm still not into the violence so much, but there could be potential..."

Palain lightly scoffs. "You'd probably have to talk to the Dungeoneers about it just to get them to design a whole new set of rules for yours, given how you'd want things to go. But very well, I am curious. Sadly, harvest season is just around the corner, so I may be a bit busy in the near future."

"No rush, no rush. I believe that dungeon master of mine can handle at least a few months without disaster, I'm sure..."