I wake up the next morning at my party's campsite in the Last Thicket with a head full of maps and notes. I'm starting to love Necromancy.

"I didn't find a way straight through to the Topside yet," I say to my party over breakfast. "But I did locate another deeper dungeon where we can take refuge for the night so I can send out another scout. Unfortunately, the further away they get from my body, the more Inspiration they cost, and nothing is straightforward down here."

"What kind of monsters are we looking at?" Rowan asks.

I telepathically send everyone copies of the maps and aura readouts of the monsters. "The more dangerous ones appear to be animated objects like the tin soldiers in the Tinpot Palace, though they're more varied and not humanoid-shaped. There's also giant rats, mostly Basic rank with the occasional Elite, which shouldn't give us trouble unless we get swarmed. The highest ranked monster I saw was an Epic Brass Incinerator, but it moves slow so it should be easy to avoid."

"And where are we going?" Jade wonders.

"There's a dungeon on the second layer, in the midpoint of the domain. It has gravity-based puzzles and sits at the point where up becomes down. It's got a safe camping zone at the start of it, and there might be another on the other side but I didn't get all the way through."

"Sounds like fun," Melody says.

"The fastest route there would take us across a fast-moving stream. Too dangerous to swim, but we can probably bridge it. I didn't find a way around that didn't require crossing it, but there's a lot of gaps in my map."

"Well, it still beats mapping it all out trudging around on foot," Rowan says.

Party: Defiant Seekers | Leader: Drake (you) Drake | Elite | Resonant Child Rowan | Elite | Apprentice Bodyguard Jade | Elite | Apprentice Pirate Misty | Elite | Apprentice Wizard Melody | Elite | Apprentice Bard

Rowan takes the lead as we cross through the vine archways leading out of the Last Thicket and into the underground, with me right behind him. Misty and Melody take my left and right, and Jade follows behind, watching my back. I bring a caduceus wand to hand and send a ghost ahead of us to alert us for any wandering monsters.

A sprinkle of glowing crystals along the ceiling lights up the caverns, keeping it from ever getting dark enough to need an additional light source. I have no doubt that there are secrets lurking in the shadows here, but don't currently have time to go hunting them down.

Soon enough, we come upon the underground stream. White water rushes past, sparkling underneath the ambient glow of ceiling crystals.

I scan the area for sturdy plants that I could coax into a bridge, but there's just scraggly bluish grass growing in patches along the banks. Maybe I don't need them, though. I reach into my bag of holding and pull out the pumpkin seed that dropped in the Spooky Crypt, and plant it in the soil at the edge of the stream.

Linking my vis with the tiny, latent amount in the seed, I use [Plant Control] to accelerate its growth rate. My Inspiration plummets, but the pumpkin vine does sprout. It even grows a good three centimeters out of the dirt before I'm out of Inspiration and need to take a break to recharge.

Warning: The eco-guardians of Gleam have been alerted and are on their way to extirpate the invasive species.

Uh... Oops?

A timer suddenly appears in my HUD.

Gleam has issued you a challenge: Defend Your Plant Description: Waves of increasingly difficult monsters will swarm you, attempting to destroy your plant. There will be a boss every 5 waves. You may retreat at any time and forfeit your reward. If the plant is destroyed, any remaining monsters will retreat. Result: Increase the Chaos rating of Gleam by 5%

I hadn't expected that this would turn into a tower defense sequence, but I suppose on some level that I shouldn't be surprised.

"Gleam tests us," Rowan murmurs when I relay the notification to my party.

The first monster to reach us is a single rolling brass ball about the size of a basketball.

Category: Monster | Type: Animated Object | Rank: Basic | Class: Brass Roller | Disposition: Hostile

It rolls at us and tries to hit our feet. If it has any means of attack but that, it doesn't get a chance to demonstrate them before Rowan plants his sword into the middle of it. It lets out a puff of smoke and a mechanical sigh, and stops moving.

"Brass Rollers?" Rowan comments. "One is easy enough to destroy, but that's bound to get annoying when there's a bunch of them."

The timer has reset to one minute until the next wave, so I turn my attention back to my vine sprout.

The first four waves are increasing numbers of Brass Rollers for us to fight off, followed by a brass spider the size of a large dog.

Category: Monster | Type: Animated Object | Rank: Elite | Class: Brass Crawler | Disposition: Hostile

The spider leaps straight at the plant, ignoring us completely. Rowan intercepts it with his shield, and we quickly tear it apart.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The timer resets to five minutes. I check the progress on the plant. It's not growing very fast. It'll take hours before we have pumpkins, never mind a strong enough vine to get across the rushing water safely. At least this is a magical variety of pumpkin, larger and stronger than a mundane cultivar. But still, the Revenant Druid in the Spooky Crypt could do this instantly! Of course, she was also Heroic rank and centuries older than me, and probably had the skill maxed.

Gleam is giving me the chance, though, so I'll take it. What can I do to make this faster, though? Maybe I can assign a ghost to handle working on the vine so I can focus on defense. [Ghostly Enchanter] would probably do the trick. A specifically plant-based ghost would probably be even better, but I don't have a [Ghostly Druid] or whatever skill unlocked at the moment nor do I currently have time to search my past lives for a volunteer with the correct skill set.

I summon the ghost, and a pair of disembodied glowing orange eyes appear and sink into the pumpkin seedling. The ghostliness resonates well with the spookiness, and by the time the next wave arrives, the plant is growing at a steady rate.

Time wears on as the plant grows centimeter by centimeter. The swarms get progressively more numerous with each wave, but we're able to hold them off.

On the tenth wave, a rolling sphere unfolds to reveal a set of large pruning shears and a shovel, each of them attached to multi-segmented, flexible robotic arms.

Category: Monster | Type: Animated Object | Rank: Elite | Class: Brass Gardener | Disposition: Hostile

It's full of parts that break easily, in other words, and are quickly broken. It isn't the only Brass Gardener that Gleam has, however, and is only the herald of even more as they start appearing among the swarms in subsequent waves.

One of the strong vines that has been growing reaches across the stream and latches it onto the rocks on the other side securely. We might be able to cross, precariously, but we're still holding our own against the waves of brass automatons. I decide to hold the line for now and keep improving the bridge.

On the twentieth wave, a rolling sphere pops out four arms bearing razor-sharp scythes, each of which is bigger than me.

Category: Monster | Type: Animated Object | Rank: Heroic | Class: Brass Reaper | Disposition: Hostile

"Warning: Ecological interference detected," the construct announces. "Invasive species must be destroyed. Stand aside and allow me to destroy it, for the good of Gleam."

"For the good of Gleam?" I reply. "Will Gleam be prepared for the coming apocalypse?"

"We will be prepared. Final warning: Stand aside or you may be injured."

"If it's all the same to you, I would like to try to stop you first," Rowan says.

Misty's frost attacks slow it, entirely freezing one arm for several seconds. Jade severs one arm, and Rowan removes another. Melody's music afflicts it with a debuff that causes it to move jerkily. At least her Bardic Incantations can still disrupt enemies even if the party doesn't quite find it inspiring yet. Piece by piece, the party dismantles the machine until it stops moving.

Congratulations! You have defeated a Heroic Brass Reaper.

With the Heroic automaton down, the timer on the next wave bumps up to an hour. We take advantage of the extra time to rest and put as much progress into growing the plant as possible.

Four thick, sturdy vines bridge the fast-moving stream, intertwined with smaller offshoots to weave them together. Pumpkins line the bottom of it in lieu of stone blocks or wooden slats.

[Let's get moving,] I send to my party when the timer reaches five minutes. [I don't have confidence in being able to hold off more than one of those things at once, let alone a Brass Incinerator if one shows up in later waves, and I want to get to the campsite before we need to sleep.]

We abandon our position and cross the bridge. Once on the other side, I have us each select a fat orange gourd just small enough to carry. We head out into the caverns on the far side of the stream. I send a ghost ahead of us to watch for monsters, but the way is clear. Once the timer in my HUD runs down, I receive a notification.

Challenge complete: Defend Your Plant Outcome: You have made it across the stream but your plant was destroyed. Numerous seeds were released into the stream. Spooky Pumpkins will now randomly spawn in the caverns. Gleam's Chaos rating has increased by 5%.

"That was crazy," Melody says. "I didn't know Gleam got so aggressive with invasive species, or that it would be so simple to increase its Chaos rating. I wonder what other ways we can find to raise it?"

Nothing bothers us on the way to the dungeon entrance. They must have all been focused on that poor plant. Well, we didn't come out of it empty-handed, at least, and we know we can make it back across if we have to.

We come upon a stone archway leading into what looks like a mysterious underground ruin, but my [Aether Sense] and system notification let me know it's a dungeon.

You have discovered the Gravity Halls.

We settle into the designated sanctuary area that my ghost had made note of, just inside the dungeon entrance. A burbling spring provides fresh water, and a small fire pit nearby looks as though other humans have been here, though not too recently. We start setting up camp and getting a fire going.

"Cores are so weird," Jade says. "They say 'do this thing and I'll try my best to stop you'. Doesn't make much sense to me."

"It's all part of the Game," I say with a shrug. "You know what the worst of it is? I got a level of [Agriculture] for that."

"Are these things edible?" Misty asks, holding up her pumpkin. "What do these taste like?"

"They make a great pie but we don't have the stuff to make one here," Rowan says.

None of us is an expert cook, but we get one of the pumpkins sliced up and roasted by the campfire, and Misty refrigerates the rest with a wave of her frost wand. I put several seeds from it into my bag of holding for safekeeping. Then, I summon a [Ghostly Messenger] and go to sleep. It's still early enough that I can hopefully let Basalt know where we are before he goes to bed.

Basalt is awake, and highly amused when I tell him what we did. [What's your Druid aunt going to think when she hears that you've been introducing invasive species?]

[I don't think she cares what I do,] I reply. [My family always supports me no matter what crazy things I get up to. I mean, I love them very much but they basically think I'm the chosen champion of their deity and anything I do is its will.]

[Yeah, I'm feeling the attitude of the, ah, 'NPCs' to be a little awkward sometimes. The computer worship thing. How do you explain to them what the aether cores really are? How can they understand? I'm not going to start calling them 'barbarians' and I got Amethyst to stop saying that, but it still feels weird.]

[Honestly, right now I'm leaning toward not even trying unless I have some compelling reason to overturn someone's worldview,] I tell him. [Any long-term party members are going to get disavowed of the idea that anyone but humans are in control.]

[What made you pick the side of Chaos, anyway?]

[It's more fun.]

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