13 The path of progress.

Katelyn.

The answer to her current issues, that problem being an inability to actually gain any more experience, seemed obvious!

Katelyn needed a ‘class’ to keep the machine rolling.

And while her maximum level seemed locked on both the monster side and Kate side due to soul-jank, she suspected things would work themselves out once whatever flag was keeping her restricted was finally removed."

She turned to the smaller woman, taking in a somewhat long breath as the other girl watched her with expectation, clearly sensing there was something on her mind, but letting her think it through. "I ‘think’ I need to go hunting…" She proclaimed, turning again to eye her new boss room, along with all the changes that Abby was currently making.

Their trial run of Katelyn's design had gone swimmingly!

Yet after several successful slaughters as they’d played out their little bit of theater for what was going on a near week, there were several things about it that they both unanimously agreed ‘could’ be changed for the better.

Now, this shard of Abby's dungeon would be inaccessible while she rebuilt things, and likewise, Kate would be trapped here until it was finished.

Though not horrible, now that she had an idea of what she had to do, she felt a sort of restlessness that was difficult to ignore.

For her part, the dungeon just eyed her with a sidelong glance, considering for several long moments before offering her two cents on the matter. "That's a somewhat ‘difficult’ ask…" She began, a frown setting in as she did so. "I mean, it's really not going to take me long to rearrange things here, so, do you really need to—"

"I'm bored as much as I am antsy; I feel like I need to do something!"

"But you're not even gaining experience!" The pixie countered, looking at her as though Katelyn were some bizarre animal with as many eyes as teeth."

"I’m pretty sure I have a way to fix it; I just need a class."

Eyes narrowing, the pixie just stared at her with a modicum of distrust, her little arms folding as she floated away from Kate's shoulder, "A class… You're saying that you, a ‘monster’, can somehow get a class, and that's what's been keeping you from getting experience for, like, half a year? Not that I'm exactly complaining…" She added, just softly enough that the reminder didn't sting.

Thus far, Abby had been reaping the majority of benefits from Katelyn's presence within her. Due to the mimic's strange metaphysical physiology, the dungeon was only getting ‘half’ of what she'd otherwise receive from what was, theoretically, considered one of her dungeon monsters.

The other half seemed to go directly to Katelyn herself, which wasn't how things were supposedly done under normal circumstances. The monster-girl, much like the strangeness of her nature, was simultaneously ‘not’ one of Abby's pawns, ‘and’ a tool she had at her disposal, all the same.

Both of them, for the majority of their time together, aware of one another or otherwise, shared in the fruits of Katelyn's efforts as though they were equal-stakes partners in some gruesome business venture.

However, once she'd been flagged by the system as being unable to receive any more experience, the universe had likewise stopped taking her share of soul stuff and instead allowed the dungeon to keep it all herself.

It was part of the reason why Abby had claimed she owed the plucky mimic so much, as Kate, even in her mental catatonic state, had still been helping the dungeon without ever knowing she was doing so.

Now, Abby was ‘aware’ of herself again, much as Katelyn was, and though she knew the other girl might just be a tad disappointed her new friend wanted to start taking her well-deserved profits again, to deny her was to shatter their budding alliance before it had time to develop.

"I mean… if it's just about trying to get a class or profession scroll…" The pixie began, fighting back against the idea but not with any considerable fervour, "Then I have plenty I can give you!"

"I have more than enough for myself." The mimic countered, waving a hand and producing one such scroll from the myriad of which she'd gained, either as loot or directly from the system itself. "I've got a damned collection of the things… no, it's more about wanting to ‘test’ some stuff about myself.

"Sooooo, toward that end, I thought maybe you could put me into one of those priority shards you were talking about and let me run wild for a bit, like old times," she added, grinning with serrated teeth as the dungeon just sighed.

"It's not that easy, you know! And besides, what if you get caught?"

"Okay, first of all," Katelyn accused, pointing at the somewhat sheepish dungeon, "bullshit, it's not that easy; we both know you could replace me with Grog as your final boss—"

"But I can't!" Abby whined, her tiny voice exasperated as she threw up her hands with frustration! "It doesn't work like that! You have a soul! A real one! That means that you can't be in literally dozens of shards at the same time."

"But Grog can." Kate huffed, glaring at the other girl as she did so.

"Obviously!"

"Care to—oh, I don't know, ‘explain’ yourself then?"

The pixie groaned, rubbing at her short-cut hair with both hands and messing it up before growling with a far too cute noise given her tiny size, "Okay, okay… Pay attention. You have a soul, Grog doesn't. That means that while you're both intelligent beings, only one of you is actually sapient by system standards!"

"So they're all robots?"

"Yes and no." Abby corrected, taking in a long breath before continuing. "They're—alive by all accounts, but they aren't their own separate ‘entity’ from me."

"If I gave Grog a soul, he'd be more like you, able to manage a semblance of autonomy beyond me, you know, memories, free will, the basics of personhood. Also, he'd then be entitled to half the share of experience he earns me from scoring kills."

"Plus! I'd also have to pay for his upkeep, which, ignoring why ‘you’ seem to be an exception to the rule, isn't exactly what one would call cheap. He would have to really make it worth my while for me to even consider uplifting him at this stage in my life, especially since I'd have to replace him with another mob."

"What, so he'd be locked into a single shard like I am?"

"Exactly!” Abby snapped, little wings fluttering with glitter, “Yes, I could set it up so his shard is a high priority as well, so each and every time he's done with a group of adventurers, assuming he's still alive, he'd be plopped right back into the next one back-to-back until he either got killed, or I decided to give him a break.

Stolen story; please report.

"Right now, he's just another mob, a boss creature, sure, but that's only because he's bronze rank; nothing else is actually ‘special’ about him."

"And if you made him like me, gave him a soul, he'd be able to learn and improve outside of the system like normal people, but then suddenly gets loaded with all kinds of restrictions?"

The pixie nodded at Katelyn's words, pointing at her with a 'you've got it' gesture as Kate chewed on what she was learning for several long moments. Her little voice carrying over the sound of grinding stone as the chamber shifted to meet their revised layout.

“Also-also, I should point out that he wouldn't ‘have’ a human-like system, he’d still be a monster, just, more, I guess, like a dragon? In that he’d be smart and conscious and able to learn, rather than a giant fire-breathing lizard that could torch a city.

"But you could, in theory, add me in his place with a priority shard so that ‘I'd’ appear where he does—right?"

"Technically…" The pixie admitted, looking away as she did so.

"So then what's the problem?"

"Exposure, power, upkeep?" The dungeon shot back, listing her issues off on each tiny finger. "Ignoring that we both ‘agreed’ to try and keep you a secret, it isn't free for me to just create new shards, which is exactly what I'd have to do!

"Then, I'd need to pay again to get rid of it, or else I'd just have some random ass priority layout without a freaking key boss monster in it! That’s the sorta shit that’s gonna piss people off and send ‘important types’ sniffing where we don't want them."

"So you're saying that the souls I get for you won't be worth whatever power you've gotta burn up to get it done?"

Abby clammed up, looking to visibly deflate as she did so.

And, the scene gave Katelyn much-needed insight into the girl's real issue with the situation, her gaze momentarily narrowing on her before the monster girl sighed.

She reached out and plucked the somewhat surprised pixie from where she floated, placing her back on her shoulder as she spoke. "I get you're worried about our big secret getting out, but I promise I'll be careful! Besides, hardly half the morons who wander in here even seem to get to Grog.

“Trust me, I’ll make sure we're both ‘drowning’ in souls to make it worth our while; as an added benefit, I'll even start to get stronger."

"Which is its own issue!" Abby groused, holding her head by the temples as though she were getting a headache, "If you somehow manage to reach the next tier too quickly, I'll be forced to double down before I'm ready and open up a new floor to house you, which, for obvious reasons will ‘definitely’ get the wrong kind of attention!"

"You couldn't just expand this floor with more boss rooms?"

"No! The first floor of a dungeon can only accommodate up to tier-one monsters, and even then, they need to be classified as bosses. Worse, I'm already struggling with my population limit, again thanks to you! If I wanted more monsters, I'd either have to put massive amounts of energy into a full floor expansion or, like I said, build an entirely new floor, again, just for you..."

"And why couldn't you just hide that new floor like you did in my treasure room?"

"Because—well… I mean, I guess I could…" The dungeon admitted, half scowling and half considering the prospect as though it, for whatever reason, hadn't really been considered… "But, even if I did that, stairwells to other floors are static across all shards. I'd need to hope and pray that no suppression team, out of the dozens of shards I have running at any given time, bothers to go looking in whatever dark corner I decide to put it in!

“Hidden is okay,” The pixie grunted, “inaccessible isn't.

"Okay, so, clearly you're not ready to expand." Kate allowed, feeling the tiny creature on her shoulder relax from her impending nervous breakdown... "But honestly, what are the odds I can even get ‘near’ the next tier while eating people already averaging half my level?"

Another silence filled the air as the monster girl felt Abby wiggle on her shoulder with clear apprehension; the tiny voice that arrived a moment later being laced with hollow conviction… "It's not—impossible… I mean, if you specifically go after suppression teams, then, eventually…"

"Abby…" Kate warned, starting to get a little annoyed.

"Fine! I admit it! I'm ‘terrified’ that you're going to cause us a shitstorm of problems if I let you go wild on your own! There! Are you happy now?"

"I'm not some mindless machine..." The mimic sighed, glaring at the pixie as she looked ready to refute her point, given that she'd, more or less, been exactly that for an entire year, but still, Kate was feeling fully in control of her faculties now.

"If you try to lock me in a room with no way out, I'm ‘just’ going to try and bail the first chance I get. You don't ‘own me’, Abby."

"I know! It's just—hard is all to—mhmm ‘trust you’… I've been… well, I’ve burned before…"

"It's still a two-way street, even if you don't like it."

The other girl was quiet as they stood in the center of Katelyn's chamber, the monster watching while the dungeon seemed to sulk on her shoulder; she still continued onwards with construction, the world around them molding to her whim, but things did seem to slow down by a noticeable margin.

Kate wasn't sure if it was necessarily a good idea to start getting into an argument so soon into their working relationship, but she felt a need to set boundaries for each of their expectations.

She was not some random tool to be taken out of the box when it was needed, and if that was the way that Abby saw things, then risk of permanent death or not, Katelyn would be hitching a ride out of here after turning herself into an expensive-looking ring or dagger.

In fact, now that she’d had the opportunity to roam around while waiting for her room to be constructed, the mimic had even uncovered the ‘secret’ behind finding the previously elusive exit.

Either way, now, it was all out in the open, Abby's rather understandable concerns and limitations as well as her own desires not to be caged like some guard dog or golden goose were, at the very least, known to them both.

"Fine…" The dungeon eventually mumbled, gritting her teeth as she spoke. "But you have to promise you won't let anyone escape if you show yourself—plus, I want your word that you won't fuck me over and evolve again without consulting if I'm ready."

"I won't strangle myself for you," Katelyn began, deciding that honesty was still her best bet.

"I'm not asking for that!" The Abby snapped, tone as irate as her own. "All I'm ‘asking for’ is a little god damn consideration on your part! And if not that, then self-interest as the moment they figure out something's going terribly wrong with their pet dungeon, they're going to do everything in their power to fuck ‘you’ just as badly as they do me!"

Katelyn nodded, not replying outright as the pair of women stared at each other with unblinking eyes…

Then, the pixie let out a sigh, pushing off her shoulder and hovering at a comfortable distance.

"Another shard is going to make me slower than I already am; plus, the moment you kill the wrong person, there's gonna be a timer on this whole thing before it inevitably implodes. Are you absolutely positive that putting yourself in a priority shard is what you want?"

"I need combat experience! And not the sort that I got while pretending I was a fucking box or the kind that the system awards for arbitrary success. If I'm going to be your ace in the hole, I've gotta figure out what works for me and what doesn't. And obviously, that intent extends beyond being a fucking ‘trap’.

"And honestly? That's all going to be one slow ass process if I'm sitting around for half the day waiting on a chance to even get people in my shard, to begin with! I mean, by all means, we should keep my boss room but—"

"But it's niche." Abby finished, nodding her agreement, at least in that regard. "Fine, I'll make you another shard, but after this, you've got to start pulling your weight again. I can't keep spending all the energy I get; we need it so I can keep developing schematics without pulling the trigger on them. The next floors that appear won't nearly be so friendly…" She added, eyes glinting with cruel malice.

"Don't worry, babe, I'll keep your belly nice and juicy," Katelyn laughed, poking the other girl's stomach with a gentle nudge, the latter of whom blinked at her, hands reaching down to feel at the place she'd been prodded as though trying to figure out if Kate were calling her overweight"

"Metaphorically fat," she clarified, rolling her eyes as she did so…