Sitting in the still-empty Floor Three boss arena, a very bored Lollyp makes her displeasure known. "C'mmmmmoooon, Xen, how long are you gonna keep this floor without its boss?" The slime yawns and leans backwards so far that she collapses to the rocky ground with a plop, a position from which she doesn't seem inclined to move. Meanwhile Xenia stands in the middle of the room, staring at the same menu screens she has been off and on for several days now.

"It's just a really big upgrade, you know? And hey, you're doing the 'Xen' thing now too, huh?"

"What, you don't like it? If you can call me 'Lolly Pop' I think I get to call you something."

The dungeon master shakes her head. "It's fine, it's just...weird hearing that one from someone else. But yeah, sure, I think I settled on the plan."

Lollyp slowly works her way back to her feet. "Doing the Undead upgrade, then? You know that's like, the easiest category to score upgrades in, right? Every mortal you kill adds to that one."

"Yeah, but I wanna have the boss ready before the next big party comes by, and besides, that seems to be the category with the most high-end, whatcha-callit, 'sapient' options. The faster we can max it out, the better. Not that there's anything wrong with mindless maneaters, but I'd rather have some chill roomies to hang with, you know?"

Lollyp snorts. "As long as they're not so chill they mind murdering the guests, of course."

Xenia exhales as she selects options from her soul inventory. "Okay...I think these ones I picked are those farmers, that Ragrush guy, and the Mage and Cleric from that party we wiped. Hope that minotaur lady doesn't come back again looking for her ex-boyfriend or something, cause that boy is moving on! Soul purchase...selected...confirmed...go!"

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SOUL STORE PURCHASE CONFIRMATION

UNDEAD (MORTAL) CONSTRUCT CATEGORY UPGRADED TO: C-

FIVE SOULS REMOVED FROM INVENTORY

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Xenia pumps her fists. "Woo! C-tier undead, baby! And that means...ghosts now have 'Possess Inanimate Object!'"

"Wait, you're doing ghosts for the boss? I thought you were going for a giant skeleton or something. ...Wait, why are you excited about possessing objects? For a boss? That shit is usually like...nuisance-tier tactics. Maybe ambushes, but people are on the watch for ambushes in boss arenas." Saying that, Lollyp takes a moment to consider her own body count. "...Okay, non-Initiates are usually on the watch for ambushes in boss arenas."

A wide smirk grows on Xenia's face. "Because the inanimate objects they're gonna be using are these bad boys." Raising both her hands, Xenia begins to summon a pair of giant suits of armor. They aren't particularly bulky, but quite tall, each reaching to eight or nine feet with their helmets on. Each of them take on Xenia's thematic colors with reversed palettes, the one on the left primarily black with silver trim, and the one on the right taking a silver color and ebon trim. The two also differ in a few other notable details: while the left-side armor takes a masculine form, the slimmer armor on the right comes out as more feminine, and with the left-side armor soon being equipped with a giant axe and heavy shield while the other gains a sword and a set of throwing javelins on its back.

"Oh, big upgrade after all! You're doing two bosses at once? Isn't that super expensive? ...Also, are those bunny head designs on their shield and armor?"

Hovering on into the room to check on things, Guy handles the first question. "For unsouled bosses, it certainly would be. Especially as you'd need to resummon both the armor and the animating spirits every time they were felled. But I assume that isn't the plan in this case? Also, what Lollyp said: are these...bunny knights?"

Xenia chuckles. "Hey, it's a symbol of...strength and boldness from my world. And nope, not gonna be regularly resummoning these two, it's a real big spending day today. When we were watching that one party I got the definite impression those two elves were a couple, and I'd hate to miss an opportunity like that for a tagteam pair. I can bind souls to these armors, right?"

Guy answers with an up-and-down bob. "Once a C-tier ghost possesses an object, it temporarily takes on a new construct class identified as a 'Possessed Whatever-it-was'. That pattern can then be saved much like with monster crossbreeding, so that you could, say, automatically set up a library room to repopulate itself with haunted books and whatnot. They do become more expensive than simple ghosts, but it means for boss upgrades, you would be ensouling 'Possessed Armor', and not simply a pair of ghosts. Provided you make sure they're actually in the armor first, of course."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Course. I ain't that dumb. Probably." With that said, Xenia begins the boss-generating process. She first generates a pair of basic ghosts, and then goes through the mana-expensive process of upgrading both to boss-tier strength. Next the two are ordered into their respective armors, and once they begin to move about Xenia finally goes back into her soul inventory. "Okay. I'm like...seventy percent sure this one was the dude, so - lefty first!" With one hand reaching out towards the armor, she confirms her selection and the soul's energy fills the armor. As soon as it's completed she repeats the process with the second, and before long both suits of armor are looking at each other and their new boss. "Alright! You guys hear me in there?"

The suits share another look before the masculine frame answers in an echoey voice. "Yeesssss, Dungeon Masterrrr..."

The second completes the statement, in a similar but certainly more feminine tone. "Weeee serrrrrrve."

Xenia gasps. "Oh shit! You two can talk?" Guy answers before they can, however.

"Ghosts are a relatively intelligent form of undead, and mimicking the living is an important trait for ghostly tricks and ambushes. However, I wouldn't read too much into it just yet. At C-tier, they are capable of answering questions and following commands, but I would hesitate to call them, well, fully self-aware. A few more upgrades would do the trick, though!"

"I guess that does help with the creep factor a bit, yeah. Hmm, need names...can do a re-name when you upgrade maybe, but for now let's go with...Tank and Dips!"

The heavier set of armor nods, though the lighter one seems less certain. "...Diiiiiips?"

"It means, uh...highly lethal! Anyways, for environmental hazards I figure I'll fill the place with more of those Terror Tentacles, but for now my mana needs a recharge. You guys can feel free to, y'know, chill, or spar or whatever. Sound good?"

The pair nod. "Weeee will be readddddyyy..."

Xenia gives a thumbs up and makes her way back to her core chamber, now safely guarded by the ghostly bouncers.

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After taking a moment to lean back in one of the room's seats, Lollyp strikes up a new topic of conversation. "So...Beatrice, huh?"

Xenia was standing near one of the chamber's windows, staring out into the abyss as usual, but glances back at her slime boss. "Yeah? What about her, you two getting along alright?"

"She's...interesting, I'll give her that. Very single-minded, in more ways than one. Even most Challengers I've met aren't that thirsty for combat and adventure and all that."

Xenia chuckles. "Yeah, she...well, I was gonna say she hasn't changed, but actually I think she has. She always needed talking down, y'know? And given that was coming from me, you can get an idea for how headstrong she was. But now...shit, I guess that's what happens after twenty years of working on her own, no one to try and hold her back anymore. Seems to have worked out for her, at least."

Guy adds in their thoughts. "Do you think it was a good idea to send her after that wandering demon? She seems like the 'stab first, ask questions later' sort of woman, to me."

"Hey, she gave Lollyp a shot, didn't she? But that's half the reason I told her to go hire some backup, if I'm gonna be honest. Yeah, she needs someone who knows the local magic, since I don't think the rules are all the same here. And yeah, she could use someone who knows local culture and history and shit, in case she actually finds something down there. But mostly...yeah, the woman needs a team. Even if she's the biggest ass-kicker in town, she needs someone to tell her when she's being an idiot. And I love her, but that ain't a zero amount of the time."

Lollyp pipes back up. "Speaking of well-thought out moves, can you really believe that she hopped across the realms just for kicks? There's legends of realmwalkers but I don't think any of them were ever like her."

"Yeah, that..." Xenia sighs. "God, this feels like a bitchy thing to say, and don't you dare repeat it, but part of me kinda wishes she hadn't."

The slime takes a moment to consider a response. "You...didn't want to see her again? The two of you were chatting nearly non-stop for like, a day and a half, it looked like you were really happy she was here?"

Xenia clenches a fist. "I was! And I am! It's just...this has never happened to me before, y'know? I've never met someone two lives in a row, and it's just...I just...ugh. Let me put it this way. Like with the whole memorial tradition we did just the other day, right? I've just gotten real used to the idea that every time I'm reborn, I gotta let some shit go. Some of my lives have been real shit, but some of em...but I can't spend my time thinkin' about it. The folks I leave behind. The list of people I'd miss would be longer than both my arms an' one'a my legs. An' the damn list just keeps getting longer every fuckin' time. I gotta move on. I gotta move on. And now..."

Xenia trails off, and Lollyp prods her to continue. "And now?"

Xenia scowls. "Now I gotta fuckin' wonder if I fucked up. What if I could have gone back? What if all this fuckin' time, there was...if there was someone I wanted to go back to, and I could have? And I don't...I don't blame Beatrice for it. I am really glad to see her again. But it kinda fucks with the whole system I set up for myself, you know? It was...comfortable." Pausing for a breath, she sighs. "I thought I'd gotten used to this shit."

Lollyp slides out of her chair and over to the dungeon master, wrapping her in a sticky embrace. "Hey, yeah, I can get it. Like, if Bullyp walked into the room right now...I'd be happy out of my mind, but it'd probably tear open all sorts of wounds that I thought were healed up, right? But it's not your fault, or Beatrice's, or anybody's. Moving on is the healthy thing to do, it's not a fuckup. Just gotta be happy for what you've got, and not worry so much about what could've been, yeah?"

Xenia smirks as she pats the shorter woman's head. "Damn, Lolly Pop, now I gotta feel bad about being dumb compared to someone like, five percent of my age. That's a good way of looking at it. Focus on the here-and-now. Yeah...yeah! The fuck am I doin', moping about seeing one of my best friends again? Hell, I should be celebrating! In fact, you know what, Lolly Pop?"

Lollyp pulls back and looks up into Xenia's smiling face. "What's that, boss?"

Xenia cracks her knuckles. "Beatrice is doing us a solid favor right now, so it's only fair that I do one back, 'specially now that I'm ready for her. Time to put together a little present..."