Bo looked at the ring suspiciously,<strong>"Aye an I don't know if I like the idea of puttin on a ring that we know is cursed.  How about I take the key an you an Shugar can divy up the rest... soul fruit included.  Cause fer me, I don't think I wanna eat one of them unless things get really desperate."</strong><br/><br/>Bo looked up at Zerxel, and the drow saw something in the dwarf's face that she hadn't seen before, suspicion.  It may have been Zerxel's fault for not addressing the issue that Bo had brought up.  Every contestant who went through training knew that the golden key was the single most useful thing any contestant could find on any given level.  So when Bo had asked Zerxel how she wanted to split the loot, and the drow had avoided talking about the single most valuable piece, it could be seen as if she were avoiding it.  Zerxel was no ordinary drow, in fact she was quite a-typical of her race.  Still, the dark skinned elves were known for their duplicity, ability to manipulate a situation, and their greed.  Bo didn't want to think these things about her friend, but they came to her mind anyways.<br/><br/>As much as Zerxel hated the dungeon, she was now seeing one of the largest disadvantages with grouping with others.  Not only did encounters become more difficult, but resources in the dungeon were limited.  For the dozens of years Zerxel had watched the contests on the Æthertube, she'd seen exactly this thing happen.  A group was going well, but then suspicion took hold, and once it did, it became an infectious vein that ran through each of their minds.  What made it worse was the knowledge that at the end of the level, their trio would have to split up anyways.  One contestant could take another's hand and follow them into the resting room.  But that would leave the third of them behind.  There was no such thing as three contestants in a resting room.  In addition, whoever was the 'guest' in the resting room would be unable to talk to their counselors or receive anything that the 'host' did not wish.  The 'host' of the room, the first one through the exit portal, had the 'guest' in their sway.  The 'guest' would be in thrall, much like a contestant that was reborn from the soul fruit, unable to resist the commands of the 'host' while they remained in the resting room.   Since resting rooms were never broadcast over the Ætherwaves, no one at home knew what took place in there.  But Zerxel had seen a duo enter the end of a level as good friends, and then immediately part ways several hours later with a bitter hatred in their eyes when they entered the next level.<br/><br/>Zerxel liked Bo, and Bo obviously worked well with Zerxel, of that there was no doubt.  They fought well together, and with Shugar backing them up they'd taken down the toughest creature on the level with relative ease.  But this trio could only last until they exited the level.  Once they entered the third level at least one of them would be separated, and there was no way to make sure they could find each other again.  What it all came down to was the fact that while alliances in the dungeon were useful, and they had even been known to last until the very exit when contestants left at the end of the reaping level, there was no way to ever be sure of another's motives.  There was no way to know that someone who was your friend today might not betray you to survive tomorrow.<br/><br/>Zerxel knew all of this, and wondered how to make it right as Bo grimaced slightly and said,<strong>"I'm just sayin, if I were gonna pick how to divy up the loot, I'd take the key me ownself is all.  Especially when ye factor in whatever deal ye made with them spiderlings."</strong><br/><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">ooc</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div class="floatright">(http://i.imgur.com/V35h4ws.jpg)</div><br/>If this is something that you really don't like let me know.  I know it's most likely you just didn't think to count the golden key as 'loot' when you wrote your response.  But I decided to roll with it and play that out.  Now OBVIOUSLY you, Vergil, are playing the hero of this story.  OBVIOUSLY Zerxel is the heroine here.  BUT from Bo's point of view, she is.  She also probably places a little more value on Shugar then Zerxel does.  I just wanted to create an interesting dynamic to play with.  BUT if you (vergil) really don't like it, we can kind of drop the angle and move on with Bo going back to being more trusting.<br/><br/>But if the soulfruit IS divided up evenly, neither of them is going to want to eat it right now.  It's a powerful boon and one that can be saved for a really bad situation.  Obviously eating one now and then turning the contestant over to the spiderlings is a good and valid strategy for Zerxel, but neither Shugar nor Bo necessarily wants to do that.  On top of which by the way, the spiderlings only want one 'brood queen'  While they'd take more than one, they don't have an unlimited amount of rewards to give.<br/><br/><br/>Also, I keep forgetting to post the image of the map with the locations marked out that Shugar pointed to, so here ya go.  I'll also put a 'clean' version of the map below, incase you want to see it without the numbers and such on it.  As always, click to make bigger.<br/><br/>(http://i.imgur.com/Vc8rqkl.jpg)<br/><br/></div></div>