She snaps to attention before he can say anything, and stands with a stretch.

"So, ready for me to take a look?" she asks.

"Yes, please. I'm particularly interested in your assessment of how much of a challenge the monsters will be for a group of adventurers," he remarks.

"That's always difficult to tell," she replies, standing in the doorway to inspect the skeletons. "There is a lot about a monster that is difficult to see just from looking -- how well they move, how adaptably they react to the circumstances, etc. That said, two skeletons and three slimes is a decent starter challenge!"

She turns back to smile at his core.

"These monsters might go down pretty quickly, since they're just made around normal stones. I can walk you through making some higher-quality items to base future monsters on while we wait for the first Adventurers to show up."

"How long will that take, do you think?" he asks. "I mean, we have no idea how remote the entrance is. We might be off in the middle of the wilderness."

"Oh, it never takes long for Adventurers to show up once you're ready for them," she remarks, clasping her hands. "Anyways, lets talk about creating magic items. It's somewhat similar to creating monsters. The difference is that you're not imposing a new form or any complex behaviors on an item. Instead, you keep in mind a single, concrete effect that should happen in response to a specific activation method. I suggest starting off with a crystal that makes light when you squeeze it."

"Alright," he agrees. He grabs the diamond that he made earlier, and starts tangling the idea of glowing in response to a squeeze into it. Like piezoelectricity, he thinks. He wraps the concept around the planes of the crystal. When he feels as though it is thoroughly enmeshed, he hands it to Kose to test.

"Give that a squeeze, please," he asks.

She pinches the diamond between her fingers, and radiant white light spills out between them, casting rainbows around the room.

"Oh, well done!" she remarks. She stops squeezing it and then resumes squeezing it a few times, seeing how it responds to different amounts of force. "It's the same basic concept for other enchantments, just varying the trigger and the effect. Over time, you can get better at producing finely-honed effects or producing effects more efficiently."

"Thank you," Yarold says, accepting her compliment absently.

She described it as similar to making a monster, but as far as he can tell it's not just similar, it's the same thing, just applied differently. The same way that he can move a stone and make a diamond by dragging matter around, he can make a monster or an item.

He's not sure what that means, exactly. It raises a few questions, about the difference between monsters and items, and about why making the larger diamond was so qualitatively different from everything else he's done with his new powers.

He scratches some notes into his notetaking rock.

He probes her for more detail on artifact creation. She can list many examples of artifacts and how well they are received by adventurers, but she is less able to articulate additional details about making them. He nonetheless takes some detailed notes on different effects, and speculates about how they would best be expressed.

"You mentioned 'higher-quality' items a few times," he remarks. "Do you know what makes an item higher-quality with respect to magic?"

"There are some theories," Kose responds. "But I think the general consensus is that certain materials are inherently better, and that intricately detailed art is ..."

She's interrupted by a chiming noise, and turns to look down his hallway.

"Ooh, they must be here!" she exclaims.

A moment later Yarold feels an ... increase in pressure, is what he would call it. A sense that he is being crowded, or compressed, or perhaps inflated. It's difficult to describe. Not unpleasant, per se, but unexpected.

He focuses his attention down the hall, on the three figures who have just stepped past his threshold.

The leading figure is a young man, no older than 20 or so. He carries a long sword, already unsheathed. His hair is brown, and tied back out of his face.

"Slimes!" he exclaims, spotting the visible ones.

A slightly younger woman with a bandoleer of throwing daggers and a shortbow strapped to her back stands just behind him on his left. She has her hair cut short, and a pair of leather gloves with a stone inset in the back.

She steps around Timrat as far as she can, and readies a knife to throw.

The last member of the trio is an older gentleman with beard starting to show signs of age. He has a short-sword and scuffed leather armor. His eyes glance around the tunnel, checking it for any changes.

Yarold doesn't need to prompt his slimes to attack -- they are fully prepared to engage with the adventurers right away. The three visible ones hop up to the leading swordsman and lunge for his ankles.

"Gah!"

He deals them a clumsy swipe, unused to hacking at enemies no higher than his shin.

Pona lets loose her dagger, puncturing one slime and sending its acidic interior spilling across the floor. It makes a goopy recovery and does its best to retreat across the trapdoor, but it is too badly injured and looses cohesion.

When it can no longer hold together, it's fluid vanish, and the stone which Yarold used to make it drops to the floor.

"A stone?" she complains as she pulls out another dagger. "That's not exactly a useful drop."

"Young dungeons take time to make things worth fighting for, you know that," Thanth chides. "We're just checking it out."

The two remaining slimes have not stopped for witty banter. One was dealt a minor blow by Timrat's sword, and is retreating across the trapdoor. The other has managed to get into his shoe.

"Ow! Get it out!" he insists, shaking his leg to try and dislodge it.

"Stay calm. Just do it enough damage," Tanth councils. He reaches around to hold Timrat's leg steady, and then calmly slices into the slime with his sword. This slime disappears with a pop as well.

"Ah! The drops in my shoe," Timrat exclaims. He starts to bend over before Tanth pulls him back up.

"Hey! Pay attention," Tanth reprimands him. "The fight's not over."

Yarold's skeleton chooses that moment to hit Timrat with a stone from its sling, which would have hit him on the head had he continued bending.