"Wakey Wakey." An amused feminine voice said.

I tried to move but was tangled up in both a blanket and something warm and both smooth and scaly.

"Wha?..." I asked the voice.

"You two are actually adorable right now, you know that?" Lluvia said.

I looked down and saw the scaly head of Iser resting on my stomach slightly drooling. One eye opened and I could see a nictitating membrane slide over his eye as well.

"Good morning Lluvia." He said then started to stretch.

"Good morning yourselves, so did you two actually do it?" She asked.

"What? No!" I said indignantly… and maybe a bit definitely.

"We just kept each other company." He said.

"Besides I think there is something there but physical compatibility is important too." I said.

"Yes, Nicole is correct, something is there a deep friendship and bond. However my preference happens to be more scaley." He said.

"Well just to let you know I don't mind sharing with someone I trust." She said.

"I… wait what!? What the hell does that mean?" I asked.

"Yeah… you certainly leveled up your cursing skill. I can feel the confusion in that." She said.

"As for what I mean by that, I'll let you figure that out." She continued with a wide smile.

"That does not clarify anything!" I almost shouted in embarrassment.

We spent the morning collecting our gear and getting organized.

"Nicole, are you feeling better today?" Root asked.

"Still nervous and worried but more manageable than yesterday. That was an absolutely shit show of unfortunate events." I said.

"That it was… so you are Iser a thing now?" He whispered the last part so that only I could hear it.

"He's a friend and a like minded individual. Could there have been more there? Maybe but currently neither of us are physically interested… and why am I telling you this?" I asked the last part to myself aloud.

As it turns out the two of us were now getting teased by everyone else. I was about to go off on everyone when our guide Fin finally showed up.

"Alright… you all sober today?" He asked.

"Yes, we've even gone as far as to ban drinking for the immediate future. Yesterday was rather stressful with half the group on that stuff…" Orlo said.

"Good to hear, and may I inquire about the questions by the Seekers?" He asked.

We all sort of froze at that.

"Yes, word gets around. Seeing as nothing happened beyond the discussion… look I just want to make sure I'm not signing up for something that could get me in trouble." He said.

"Do you have any method of identifying our levels or classes?" I asked.

"I… yes… your was odd… I like to know what I'm working with when I am guiding a group…" Fin said.

"My skill and level made them suspicious of me. For reasons I can only guess at… we explained it to the pair and while they were surprised it was not what they were looking for. And before you ask… no I would not like to go into detail, their questioning was bad enough." I said.

"Ah… I'm sorry for the umm misunderstanding on my part." Fin said after a moment.

There was another pause from Fin as if he was thinking of something to say.

"Yes?" Root asked.

"So your friend there… she is a bit too low level for this. It is a dangerous and stressful dungeon and we have a requirement that you need to be at your first evolution." He said.

"Well fuck…" I said.

There was a pause by the group as everyone processed what Fin had said.

"Right umm well… does anyone have any sort of mapping skill? It is not strictly required but is very heavily recommended. I have something that will suffice if no one else has anything." He said.

"I do, it needs leveling but I figure this should be a good boost. In Fact it is almost ready to rank up to… adept." I said, with a very noticeable pause in my description of ranking as I converted.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Journeyman should be helpful, let me know when it gets to adept. But does anyone else have a mapping skill?" He asked, somewhat apologetically.

The group just stared at Fin.

"Ok fine… You all will have to keep an eye on her, this place can get confusing. We have lost delvers in the past. If anyone does get separated you stay out, the mazes can change but only when an individual is far enough away. That means we can still backtrack, also mapping helps reinforce the maze and make it less likely to change." Fin told the group.

"Do we have 10 minutes?" I asked.

"Your group is paying me and I get paid for however long it takes. So the delay is up to your group " he said

"What are you thinking Nicole?" Root ask.

"Magical tether, I should be able to inscribe something that draws just a tiny amount of mana. If we get too separated we get alerted." I said.

"You build me a set of 10 of those in the form of necklaces. I will happily pay you what you were going to pay me and I will still run you through." Fin said.

"Wait really?" I asked.

"So much of my time is spent backtracking because someone got distracted and stopped for just a moment only to lose track of the rest of the group. I could cut my time in half with most groups." He said.

"Would that not cut into your own profits?" Iser asked.

"Oh I would still double my rates but that would still make me faster than other guides." Fin replied.

So with that I got to work, Iser and I decided on two sets of glyphs. The first to act as a magical rope or string that would alert if the distance got too great or the tether was broken. The second to act as an indication of direction, that unfortunately was limited in range but could still be useful.

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Tinkering skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!

Rank E is a free rank!

"Alright the two test necklaces worked, and I got a rank out of that." I said.

"Good 8 more to go." Fin said.

"No… I'll make enough for the group here and we will keep that set. Once we are complete I will make a fresh set for you that has any major issues we encountered worked out. If I'm going to create a product, even just a one off, then I want it reasonably reliable." I said.

"That… actually makes a lot of sense, I'll happily take a refined version." Fin said.

"Oh while I finish up the rest of these, can someone buy me 10 pounds of clay, 3 pounds of ball bearings or drop cast metal, even rough slag will do. Oh and a roll of cheap cloth." I asked.

“I can get it but it’s going in your pack.” Orlo said.

"An improvement over your other version?" Iser asked.

"Yes." I said with a large smile.

"Why does she need all that?" I heard Fin ask Orlo in The background.

"She has an interesting set of skills. Nothing close quarters unfortunately but if she has time to set stuff up we can turn an area into a killing field." They said.

I made our first set of magical tethers that should notify if anyone got too far away. I also prepared two smaller clay-mores with energy. In total it took about an hour and half to do.

"Ready on this end, how long is the hike going to be? I can do some initial testing of the tether amulets." I asked.

"About 2 hours or so." Fin the guide said.

The actual trek over was uneventful and I was able to tune each so that if any one amulet was more than 10 feet away from the group it would let out a noticeable vibration. Unfortunately if say the group had two members go off on their own the necklace would not react. I also suspected some other edge conditions could occur.

The next iteration of these I think I could fix that but it would take about a day of trial and error working with Iser.

The entrance to the dungeon looked like a normal cave entrance. With like half a dozen warnings around it in different languages.

"Too many cases of people getting lost?" I asked.

"Yes… No matter how often we warn people, some group always tries to do it without a guide. One in four individuals are never seen again, one in twelve groups are never seen again." He said.

"Right… well everyone stay focused, on our side who wants to babysit Nicole while she is mapping?" Root asked.

"Hey, I can take care of myself." I said indignantly.

"Yes but if you are spending mana for navigation then you won't have much for combat. No offense either but the one time we tried to gauge your melee skills it didn't go well." Root said.

"I have her." Orlo said.

"By the way, after leveling my Tinkering skill I took a moment to adjust all my current enchanted equipment. It's all more efficient now. Also I think I have that 'force blade' working, it's still a high frequency cluster fuck most likely but that could also be useful." I said.

"Was that the thing that sounded like nails on a chalkboard?" Turnip asked.

"Yes…" I said with a bit of a wince.

"Just save it for a last resort please…" she said with a sigh.

Everyone took a few minutes to check their equipment while Fin explained the first room we would be encountering.

"First room is the entry room which will appear as a small cavern with two paths. The way into the dungeon and the way out." He said.

"Also if you do get separated and you have to move, attempt to move back towards the entry room on each floor. Worst case you can leave the dungeon and we can check for you there. I would rather waste time with the missing person safe." He said.

"How many have you lost in this dungeon?" I asked.

"In the past 6 months none out of the 4 groups I took. 2 individuals in the last two years because in both cases they attempted to move forward on their own." He said.

"Understood… what kind of enemies will we be encountering." Root asked.

"That is the one aspect we will not discuss until you have at least made an attempt at the dungeon." He replied.

"Any more questions?" Fin asked.

"Many more.. however at this rate it might be easier to experience this." Iser said.

"I will add one last thing. Nicole here will be the lowest level I have guided through this dungeon, level range is 14 to 18. Next lowest was a level 12, so please be careful you seem to be an enough bunch when sober." Fin said.

"Alright let's begin." Fin said after one last pause.

He led the group into the entrance and through to the dungeon proper.