To the duo, logically speaking, the person at the door could only be people from the n.o.ble's s.h.i.+p. Enemies. As they were the only other known group on the otherwise uninhabited island. But If that were the case, why would they bother to knock?

"...Summon more skeletons," directed Daisy in a hushed tone, "I'll send for some of those from below deck to surround them from behind as well."

The dungeon core nodded, and then obliged her captain's request, summoning two dozen more fully equipped skeletons, the limit the room could hold without being a hindrance to the mobility of each other. She then ordered them to stand against the walls on either side of the door.

"Enter," ordered Daisy, her voice taking on a suddenly domineering tone, one which Crystal had never heard from the lich as of yet.

The door opened a few seconds later, and a twenty-something-year-old, person with black hair, cat ears, and a black tail stepped in.

"Uh, h-h.e.l.lo," she stuttered upon seeing the Imp, the lich, and the twenty-four skeletons.

"My name is Tina Blackpaw, captain of the 'Panther's tail,' former, acting admiral, of the now destroyed demihuman expeditionary fleet," she said solemnly, "I have come to negotiate the terms of our surrender."

Crystal and Daisy glanced at each other, both remembering their previous conversations regarding human farms, and Crystal's subsequent decision to start one, in order to offset the DP she was currently hemorrhaging.

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Tina respectfully lowered her head, awaiting a response.

However, Daisy hesitated, not knowing who should be the one to respond to the catkin. Their relations.h.i.+p was one of 'dungeon core' and 'dungeon boss' after all. The lich, despite knowing that she would be the far superior one in matters of politics and negotiation, and that she was technically the captain, she still did not want to presumptuously make decisions on her mistress's behalf.

She gave a questioning glance towards her mistress.

"In times like these, I'm fine with our relations.h.i.+p being that of 's.h.i.+p' and 's.h.i.+p's captain,'" Crystal whispered to her in response, "so, my captain, I'll leave this matter in your, far more capable hands,"

Daisy didn't smile at the amount of trust that Crystal apparently had in her. Nor did she cringe, or blush, from the embarra.s.sing a.n.a.logy that the imp had just made. But if she had still been able to, she certainly would have done all three.

Satisfied by the emotion she had felt through their link, Crystal smiled mischievously. It was her revenge at constantly being called mistress, which she likewise found rather embarra.s.sing.

"Take your time here," she continued, "I'll go upgrade the brig so that our guests, both present, and future, feel appropriately welcome."

Daisy gave a nod in response.

"Take half the skeletons with you," ordered the lich, and Crystal obliged, not wanting to tempt fate any more than she already had in the past month or so.

Tina watched as the imp, the lich's apparent subordinate, left the room with a dozen of the pirate skeletons. She couldn't help but to stare for several seconds, as the child-sized creature casually walked past her, and out through the room's only doorway.

'Well, that's not something you see every day,' thought Tina in shock, 'if the kingdom knew an imp existed here they would've sent a thousand s.h.i.+ps rather than just three.'

Imps, beings governed over by Scree, G.o.ddess of whimsy. They were creatures which almost all people who knew of them would agree, should not exist. They were what happened when the line between fairies and demons became a bit too blurry. Two races which were troublesome enough to deal with on their own.

Tina felt a sudden cold chill crawl up her spine as she stared at Crystal. She promptly removed her stunned gaze from the imp, and quickly turned back towards the lich, the source of the feeling. Said lich was currently staring silently at the catkin, her gaze filled with unknown emotions.

"...My name is Daisy Jones, captain of the ashen maiden," the lich spoke with pride as she introduced herself, "now then, let's negotiate."

Tina, though she would ultimately be mostly happy with the terms of surrender which she would receive, as she was originally expecting a borderline nightmarish experience to occur, would always regret having stared at the imp the way that she had.

It was an action which Daisy Jones did not appreciate in the slightest...

Upon leaving the captain's quarters, Crystal headed immediately through the officer's quarters, and towards the ladder just beyond its exit.

She then looked down at said ladder with an unimpressed expression.

"Kinda inconvenient ain't it," she muttered as she looked at it, "I mean really, what kind of fantasy dungeon uses ladders to travel between floors?"

She then noticed the ladder next to the first one, leading upwards to the forecastle deck. She also remembered the previously broken ladder leading from the cargo deck to the orlop deck.

"...Lame," she said simply.

"Cost to convert all ladders to stairs, twenty DP." a girl's voice chimed happily to Crystal from nearby, "please choose the appearance as well."

"Eh!?" Exclaimed Crystal, at the voice's sudden arrival.

She then, quickly realizing who the voice was, let out a sigh of exasperation.

"Oh, right," she said to the dungeon a.s.sistant, "sorry Alexa, I forgot you existed."

"So mean!" The a.s.sistant replied in a hurt tone, "and since when is my name 'Alexa.'"

"Just now," replied the imp, "I named you that just now."

The a.s.sistant, Alexa, replied only with silence.

Crystal was glad that upon her consultant's upgrade into an a.s.sistant, that said being's personality had evolved as well, from an androgynous, monotone, voice, which only she herself could hear, to a somewhat immature sounding girl, with a much less artificial feeling personality.

"Oh, and yes to the stair thing," Crystal added, "make it something light coloured to contrast the blackness of the s.h.i.+p, please."

No blue box appeared this time, yet the stairs came into being regardless. They were smooth and light tan coloured, made from an oak-like material.

Alexa explained the lack of blue boxes without any prompting from the imp.

"I-I'm able to do minor things like this by default, up to a set DP limit," She said, stuttering, still somewhat giddy from being named, "you can adjust what I can and can't do in my corresponding 'Dungeon a.s.sistant' menu, at your leisure."

Crystal made a mental note of that as she proceeded down the stairs to the orlop deck, and then down the next, adjacent set, to the cargo deck. She then walked the length of the deck, but stopped at the door which lead to her brig.

She sighed once more, having realized yet another flaw in her dungeon.

"Thirty seconds," she grumbled.

"Hmm?" Inquired Alexa.

"It took thirty seconds to travel from one end of my dungeon to the other," she clarified.

"Ah," said her a.s.sistant, realizing the issue, "your about to complain about how fantasy dungeons should be much larger than this, aren't you?"

Crystal smiled at how well Alexa had already predicted her thought process.

"Got any traits that would help with that?" She inquired. To which the imp could swear she could hear Alexa giggle.

"Of course, there's a trait for basically everything," said the a.s.sistant, "and you actually already have this one."

The s.h.i.+p's interior then immediately began stretching and extending in a disorientating manner, forcing Crystal to brace herself against the brig's door.

The cargo deck continued to expand, first doubling, and then tripling, in both length and width. The ceiling's height also increased, but only by roughly fifty percent of its original height.

"Uh, that made me nauseous," groaned Crystal as she held one hand over her mouth.

"Spatial manipulation?" She inquired, curious as to the trait Alexa had been referring to.

"Yup," replied the a.s.sistant, "It'd be a total waste of two trait points if it could only be used to store stuff."

"I see," said the imp, smiling as she looked at her suddenly s.p.a.cious looking s.h.i.+p.

She then remembered how Alexa had increased exponentially in quality upon her upgrade.

"...Just curious," began Crystal, "but is it possible to upgrade spatial manipulation, and if so, how much?"

The a.s.sistant giggled as she took a moment to search for the information.

"Next upgrade is 'Spatial control.' It allows you to not only increase the established floor sizes by another five-fold, fifteen-fold in total, but allows you to place floors between other floors as well, without increasing the overall size of the dungeon's exterior. It also can combine with the trait 'Temporal control' to become 'Dimensional control,'" Alexa explained," the cost is six TP."

It sounded perfect to Crystal, s.p.a.ce would no longer be an issue if she could build floors between other floors. Her dungeon could literally be a giant tower, merely shaped like a s.h.i.+p.

"The one after that," Alexa continued, "is 'Spatial domination.' It allows an additional eight-fold increase in size, a one hundred and twenty-fold increase in total, as well as more ways in which to control the available s.p.a.ce and its contents. I can also combine with the trait 'Temporal domination,' to evolve into the trait 'Dimensional domination'. It costs twelve TP, plus the additional cost of spatial control."

"Next is the aspect of s.p.a.ce itself, which-" Alexa continued once more, but was quickly interrupted by Crystal.

"Alexa, stop," she said.

"Second one's too rich for my blood, and I don't even want to know about the third one. But I'll take the first one," the imp declared happily, "It'll also allow me to make a whole floor for just the brig, so its actually two birds with one stone."

Alexa then immediately got to work purchasing the upgrade, and the s.h.i.+p's deck once again began expanding, much to the displeasure of Crystal's stomach and sense of balance.