Peek: Teeth

The caiman scion nods to himself as he watches the putrid oozes start spreading out. The final septic pit has been cleared. Cleanup may have technically been Slimy's duty, but Teeth can't help but feel responsibility for the entire sewer section of Commander Violet. She had tasked him with eliminating the rat invaders, which he took to with aplomb!

Protecting the oozes is vital to the Commander's well-being, after all. The waste from the outsiders is a potent source of mana for her, and the oozes are the most efficient way to process it. Therefor, protecting them is important!

His jaws part in a prideful smile as he marches along the walkways, happy to see everything running so smoothly. The invaders are eliminated efficiently, with few denizens even suffering a scratch. Attrition is low and mana production is high, and with luck, he can see it soar even more.

Onyx insists on preparing the sewers for delver activity, and more than simply hunting bunnies. He pauses as he wonders if the Commander will add any bunny nodes here. He doesn't think they would quite fit in, but he's not the one who will be making that decision. No, he's the one to ensure the decisions bear the most fruit.

And encouraging delver activity is the Commander's latest idea. She's been learning well from the General, the other dungeon setting a great example for his protege. It's still odd to think he's only a few months older than Commander Violet, but the way he runs himself... if he wasn't close enough to see it work, he'd have never believed it. And so the Commander does her best to imitate him.

If he has delver fights without killing them, so can she. Now he just needs to figure out how to actually accomplish that. Onyx is eager to help, though Teeth isn't sure she's quite cut out for the task. Don't get him wrong, she's easily the strongest fighter Commander Violet has. But that's also the problem. She's too strong for the delvers, and what she thinks would be a nice warm-up is instead a fight the delvers cannot handle.

He's just lucky the denizens seem better aware of their strength than Onyx is. His fellow caimen have flat-out refused to engage with delvers. He knows exactly how his kind fights, and after having observed a few delvers, he knows most would have a very hard time fighting them.

Grabbing bites and submerging are their primary ways of attacking, and he's just concerned that dealing with delvers in the same way they deal with rats would... not be something the delvers would survive. They'd probably come up with some countermeasure eventually, but not before losing some number, and Commander Violet has made it very clear that any number above zero is unacceptable.

The gremlins are more willing to attack, at least, but they're hesitant. Drawing blood feels... risky. General Thedeim is able to strike the balance, but he and his scions are much more experienced with gauging delver strength. There are some healing slimes stationed in strategic positions in the sewers, but it's still something he and the denizens are being cautious about.

He wonders if he could talk with some of the General's scions, ask their advice. Maybe they could even give pointers to the Commander for getting her own healing denizens. From what he understands, having an Alchemist is an important step for securing some healing, but he doesn't know if any of the other scions will be interested. Onyx has her Voice duties, Cappy is busy spying, Legs is busy smithing, Nose is always out on expedition. He himself has no illusions about learning alchemy. It's far too delicate a process for him to even try.

Slimy might be interested, and now that the sewers have finally gotten through the backlog, she may have the time to pursue it, but he's unsure if a putrid ooze will be any better at alchemy than he would be. She would have finer control, but she's... well, slimy. As he understands it, getting extra things into an alchemy recipe is a good way to make a mess at best.

Either way, it's unlikely they'll have access to much healing for quite some time, and so they must be careful. Commander Violet, thankfully, is aware of the difficult situation, and isn't really pressuring him, but that just makes Teeth want to try even harder. Healing may be beyond his purview, but discipline is not. He makes a note to himself to talk with Cappy once he's done monitoring the outside for the current situation.

He needs to know how strong a delver is, and getting information is Cappy's specialty. Once he has the information, he'll know what denizens to send to test the delvers. He'll need to be more careful than the General with his encounters, but he also has the time to take to learn the proper balance.

The Commander is stable and secure, so there's no need to rush anything. He just needs to take it slow and steady, like with cleaning up the sewers. Dealing with delvers will not be quite so dirty a job as that, but it's still one he is willing and eager to do.

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Inspired by Dathon, who wanted to get a peek from Teeth's perspective.