While Xenia had been working on her latest recruit the other followers of Prince Thaddeus hadn't been idle, and both of the remaining support teams attempted and cleared Floor Six during the course of the day. They didn't have an easy time of it, however - Xenia needed to buy some time for Ruckus and herself to design her personalized traps and tests, and so she decided to buy that time by breaking ankles.

Numerous new traps were added to the climbing sections of the abyssal floor, such as handholds designed to work correctly when lighter scouts tried to use them, yet broke off or triggered spike traps when a more heavily-armored Challenger put their weight on them. The dungeon master also developed a new slime crossbreed named, imaginatively enough, Earth Slimes, which were a byproduct of her Earth Sprites. Just as Water Slimes could appear nearly transparent when submerged in water, Earth Slimes were capable of camouflaging themselves perfectly with surrounding rock or dirt as long as they were standing still. This was partly a factor of their natural coloring and texturing, and partly due to the fact that they would actually eat some of the surrounding stone and then use it to coat their skin. These slimes could make seamless pitfalls, creating a floor which appeared quite solid until you tried stepping on it. A few were also placed onto the climbing walls, and scored themselves a number of finger snacks.

Even Taly had been told to go for injuries rather than killshots with the parties, which irritated the Rogue more than a little. Family members or not, there were more than a few complaints among the guardians that this was all a severe waste of resources against a group that had already proven itself to be a threat. By going all-out - perhaps by moving Sevastion's Wandering Boss range to cover the sixth floor - scoring at least a few kills wouldn't have been too difficult. After spending an hour watching Xenia and Emma discuss plans with Ruckus however Lollyp had come to a different conclusion about Xenia's true motivations, one which she voices after the imp had been released to his upgraded prison cell for the night.

"You're having fun, aren't you?"

Xenia blinks in surprise, either at the comment itself or because she'd forgotten the slime woman was sitting at the dungeon's conference table. Trap discussion had been moved there from Xenia's office so that guardians who had a bit of free time could come and contribute, but aside from a few suggestions when she'd first arrived Lollyp had been nearly silent. Trush and Valkyrie Brightsky had both come and left, with Brightsky seeing the imp to his new and improved quarters, and it was now just Xenia, Lollyp and Emma still sitting at the table around a pile of sketches and dungeon-created models. "Eh? Fun?"

Emma smirks at her boss, still wearing Xenia's face as she does so. "We might be. Are we having fun, Xenia?"

For once Xenia's expression is not a mirror of Emma's. "What? Lolly Pop, we've just spent the whole evening talking about what essentially boils down to as 'low-level psychological torture of my grandkids'. And despite what the Challengers and occasionally Alizz might claim, I'm not a sadist. Trust me, I'm not looking forward to dealing with all this shit."

Lollyp has to shake her head at the denial. "Really? Cause I've seen you on some of your dungeon design stretches. I'm not saying you don't have some fun with the typical floor, but it's hard for you to focus on traps and stuff for more than like, an hour or two at a time. How many weeks or months have the last few floors taken to finally get opened to the public after you started on them? And how long has it been since we did one of those raids for a new floor unlock? You don't push for new floors until you absolutely have to."

Xenia eyes Lollyp cautiously, not sure where she's going with this. "I mean, I'll admit, dungeon design's not my typical skillset. I mean, if anything, I'd probably rather be one of the Challengers if I had a choice in the matter. I miss getting my blood pumping, you know? I'm more used to getting my own hands dirty. So, yeah, designing traps isn't particularly fun for me most of the time."

"Except this isn't like most times. You got into that stuff with Ruckus, earlier. Deylia and Parker both poked their heads in tonight and you barely noticed. Hells, I've been sitting here watching you and you forgot I was here, didn't you? And you're omniscient."

Emma's smirk turns into a full-on grin. "She's got you there, girlboss. You don't get this focused when a bunnyboy's ass is shaking in your face in the Lounge. Right now I think I got a pretty good idea what you're feeling, and you are getting intense about these tests of yours for sure."

"It's not fun! It's important! If I'm doing this, it's important that we do it right, and..." Xenia pauses, and forces herself to take a deep breath before turning back towards Lollyp. "Ugh, don't mean to snap, but...was there something you meant when you said you thought I was having fun?"

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Before answering, Lollyp takes the time to plop out of her seat and head down to Xenia's end of the table, giving her a brief shoulder massage with one hand before climbing into the chair next to her. "I wasn't saying it to like, pass judgment or anything. But there's a reason you're doing all this beyond just the family ties, right? I mean, look at what you did with Floor Six today in a matter of like, twelve hours. That floor hasn't been updated in months, and now suddenly it's breaking bones again. You've got a muse working on your shoulder right now, don't you? You seem...inspired, and I don't just mean by Ruckus's suggestions."

Xenia glances towards Emma, but finds no support there, and so she sighs before answering. "Ugh. So...Emma and I told Ruckus today about how I flipped Champions to my side, back when I was Prince of the Fallen Tower. In a fair bit more detail than I've probably told you...no, scratch that, way more detail than I've told you. The fact that Emma gets my memories while she's wearing my face is occasionally convenient and also really fuckin' creepy, you know?"

The creep in question scoffs. "Pffft! On the bright side, you know that I'm not gonna do anything with your memories that you wouldn't do. You'd prank the shit out of yourself if you could! Also, you're avoiding the point."

"...Right. Anyways, it made me think about how, as fucked up as I was on that run, and for all the bad decisions I made, there was one part of all that I actually almost enjoyed."

Lollyp leans forward, an attentive look on her face. "Oh? Wait, is it the part where you had constant - "

Xenia quickly interjects. "Not talking about the celebrity superstar sex. I mean, that was physically good, usually, but I mean more like...emotionally, or spiritually or whatever. And that was the fact that I got to meet and know people who were as fucked up as I was. As I still am, honestly. They didn't have all of the experience that I did, but they got it, you know? At least after I pointed some shit out to them. I was wrong, with the decisions I encouraged them to make, but I wasn't that far off with how I pictured the situation. At least, with the info I had available at the time."

"Okay...and what does that have to do with designing all these personalized tests? None of these people are...what did you call it? Izzykais? Or wait, are they now, because they've been realm-hopping?"

The reincarnator shakes her head. "It's not the same, no. But I still feel like there's something there, right? A chance for some sort of...connection, I guess. To family, to people who came from the same world I did, even if it was so much different in time that it was practically a completely different place. There's still a bunch of these guys left, and I want to believe that some of them aren't complete assholes. If I can find just one nugget of gold in this pile'a shit, maybe it wasn't all for nothing. Maybe I can have at least some sort of positive legacy after all the shit I did. You know?"

Emma raises an eyebrow, her smirk now vanished. "Wow, you're actually taking this more seriously than even I thought. I figured we were just in it for the challenge of it all. I mean, it's not like we can design personalized traps for every random adventurer who wanders in here, yeah? Seemed like an opportunity for a bit of mischief. What are you gonna do if some of them actually pass the test, then?"

Xenia looks back at Emma, slightly surprised. "What, you don't already know?"

"I got your memories of events, traits, and skills, more or less. But I can't read your mind at this current moment, and even small differences in perspective can change future decisions in a big way. So no, I don't know your plans if you don't tell me."

The dungeon master taps her finger on the table as if she's checking something off on an invisible list. "Thaddeus is holding off on doing a big raid-scale push for the core chamber because he's not expecting me to vanish the shortcuts the moment he shows up with a dozen people at his back. He thinks he can work his way down to the lower floors piecemeal. If we completely wipe out another one of his parties though, through deaths or captures or whatever else, he'll probably accelerate his plans and we'll lose the chance to work on people individually. At that point it'll probably be do-or-die for everyone. So we're going to have to switch to doing catch-and-release."

Lollyp frowns at that idea. "What, like, even for the ones who 'fail' the tests?"

"To make sure I get the chance to see as many of them as possible, yeah. If some pass, maybe we'll be able to turn them to inside agents before we send them back, or at least we can mark them as nonlethal targets when the final push happens."

Emma leans back in her seat. "And if they all fail, then we've got to fight a full-force raid when the time comes."

Xenia doesn't seem particularly concerned, going by the slight curve of her lips. "Through nine floors? No holds barred? Trust me, I've got a whole sleeve full of aces for if it comes down to it."

Her slime companion returns back to Emma's original question. "But after all that, what about the ones who turn out to not suck ass?"

"Well..." Xenia's voice trails off slightly, as she becomes lost in thought. "Suppose that depends on exactly how the test results look..."

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

In a room at the Lucky Bastard, Thaddeus practically growls. "Six injuries in a single day? What went wrong!?"

Tizzy does her best not to take her boss's anger personally. "A minor floor redesign, apparently. New monsters and traps that haven't been on Floor Six before. It's almost certainly targeted against us - but at least they're all minor injuries. Even the fingers can be regrown if we use some of our better potions."

Linda Cogswell frowns at the half-imp's analysis. "But that will delay us a few more days, won't it?"

The scout nods. "Yeah, it'd be a real risk to go into Floor Seven with injuries. But at least we don't have a solid time limit, right?"

The prince's eyes narrow. "We'll have to see. Our ancestor is up to something..."