Dad seemed overly interested in when I would be going back to Dawnhold, and I'd swear he wanted me out of the house for some reason. I was tempted to pretend to leave and then hide and see what happened next, but I didn't have an opportunity. I couldn't leave in the evening or I wouldn't reach Dawnhold till midnight, and Dad was in the fields all day. It would have to remain a mystery for a while longer.

Henry had made a town trip two days after I got back, so it was twelve days later I found myself tagging along behind him. While my luggage was in the cart, this time I personally was not. I attempted to jog on my own feet to keep up, blasting [Endurance] when I could in an attempt to keep my stamina high.

Skill [Endurance] advanced to level 4

Skill [Enlarged Stamina Pool] advanced to level 8

Skill [Enlarged Mana Pool] advanced to level 12

Class [Body Mage] advanced to level 4

Class level increased intelligence by 1

"You aren't Cluma in disguise, are you? How are... Oi! Your face is glowing green!"

Ha, I forgot my clothes weren't completely covering up the visual effects right now. Not many of the village had seen my cool glow thus far. "It's a spell to boost my endurance. Side effects include a (radioactive) rash."

"What the heck is (radioactive)?"

"Green and glowy."

"If you say so. You don't half come out with weird words sometimes."

It wasn't my fault if the local language didn't have a translation for radioactive. Nor was there any point in mentioning that anything sufficiently radioactive to make my skin glow would mean I'd be dead in short order.

I kept up with the cart as far as possible, but my mana couldn't hold out for the whole trip despite my lack of luggage, and I had to pile into the cart before my stamina ran completely dry. Still, it was good exercise, and got me a class level. I'd be going back into the dungeon this time with a few upgrades over my last run, not least my magical ring of strength.

The plan was to stay a week and then go back home with Henry on his next visit, hopefully avoiding a repeat of my getting lost, and then I'd keep alternating between the two each week. Now that I wasn't following the schedule of another party, it meant I could get some other things done too, like finding a runecraft teacher and finally getting around to exploiting my Earth knowledge. Before that, though, the first thing I needed to do was track down Clana's new restaurant and use my newfound riches to stuff my face with her cooking. Maybe Henry knew where it was?

"Do you have any idea where Clana's new restaurant is, or if it's open yet?"

"Nope, afraid not. I haven't heard of any new restaurants in Dawnhold."

Pity. Maybe the delvers' guild reception would know. The mysterious invisible catkin family aside, we reached Dawnhold without incident or any need of elven intervention, and I waved my goodbyes and headed off back to the guild. Where would travellers normally stay here? Did Dawnhold have an inn of some sort? How much did houses cost? Given the unclaimed land, would anyone complain if I built myself a little hut a way out of town? Fortunately, the guild master seemed willing to offer up lodging for now, so it wasn't something I needed to worry about yet.

The guild reception was blissfully free of arrogant newbies, and I was shown to a guild dorm room. It was in fact the exact same room as last time, and I didn't see any signs of it having been used since. If they didn't have pressure on rooms, maybe I could keep it more or less permanently, and leave stuff here instead of having to cart it back to the village?

The guild receptionist didn't have any idea where Clana had opened up shop either, but suggested asking at the merchants' guild. I dumped my stuff in my room and headed out there, following the directions I'd been given and then getting very confused at the lack of any sort of guild hall at the other end. A merchants' guild should be at least as big as the delvers' guild, right? They were gaudy and ostentatious places, built to show off wealth? Big marble pillars and stuff? But all that was there was a normal row of stone houses.

One of the houses had a small plaque near the door advertising it as the merchants' guild. On reflection, I couldn't even blame Earth knowledge for colouring my expectations there; this was a tiny town, so of course there wasn't going to be some huge gold-plated temple to wealth. How many merchants did a town of a thousand need? I poked my head in, and found myself in a smaller reception area than the delvers' guild, with only a single desk and a couple of chairs as furniture. A man was sitting at the desk scribbling over some documents, and looked up as I entered.

Eric, Human, Trader (5/15)

Wow, considerably lower level than me. "Excuse me. I'm looking for a friend of mine who came here to open a restaurant last week. Name of Clana."

"Hmm? I'm sorry, but no new restaurants have opened here in a long time. Certainly none last week."

Huh? That couldn't be right... "Her husband Camus came here several times over the winter to set things up, though? They can't have just disappeared."

"Camus... I do remember him. Catkin. A big catkin. He wasn't looking for property here, though; he was moving to the Emerald Nest."

What? He... he took his family and ran? How dare he...

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Hey, are you okay?"

No point getting angry here... This was all on Camus. "Sorry. I promised their daughter I'd come and visit her, but I was under the impression they were moving here. I can't travel as far as the Emerald Nest."

"Yeah, using the portal is expensive. Sorry about that, kid."

I blinked. What was that? "Portal?"

"Oh, you've not heard of it? The delvers' guild has a portal back to the Emerald Nest. They charge a small gold for a one-way trip, though."

Wait, each time the guild master said he was going to contact headquarters, I assumed he meant a magical phone or something. Was he actually going there in person each time? Presumably they wouldn't make the guild master pay, but to charge that much to the general public, there must be some cost to the guild associated with using it. It probably guzzled monster cores like Xander guzzled orc meat. I'd have to save up for a while before I could fulfil my promise to visit.

"Thank you for your time. That was very helpful."

"You're welcome. That's what I'm here for."

Not once in that conversation had he commented on my age. Professional indeed. I headed back to the delvers' guild in something of a bad mood; I couldn't believe Camus had dragged his family completely out of Dawnhold without even saying goodbye. Did Cluma even know what was going on? Did Clana know? It was amazing how much drama a brainwashed population could still get up to. In that case, I'd just have to earn a couple of gold coins, show up at his door and enjoy the look of surprise on his face.

Back at the guild, I decided I'd take my annoyance out on the poor dungeon monsters. There was still plenty of daytime left. I'd do a boss run down to the third floor, or maybe a bit further, depending on how much difference my ring made. I geared up, happily discovering that the ring fit under my armour with no problems, and headed for the dungeon. That probably explained why none of the others had shown any interest in it; they probably were already wearing a dozen of their own under their armour. Alas, the gate guard gave rather more trouble than when I was with Xander.

"Oi, where do you think you're going? This isn't a place for kids."

"I do have permission to enter. My name's Peter."

The guard frowned. "Yes, you do have permission, but where's your party?"

"I'm going in solo today. Don't worry, I'll stick to the top floors."

The guard didn't look happy. He was obviously conflicted between not wanting to let me through, but not having any justification for stopping me. "Fine. Head on in, but you'd better come back out again."

I nodded. "Of course."

I still hadn't acquired a map of the dungeon, but we'd done the top couple of floors three times and I remembered my way to the boss. Both bosses went splat without the aid of magic. Quite literally, and I was glad my armour enchantment was able to cope with the spattered brain matter. On the third floor I thought I remembered my way to the boss room, but after an hour of wandering and a dozen rooms of goblins, I had to admit I was lost. That was... awkward. Not really concerning, not yet, but perhaps I'd been too hasty charging in here on my own. All the rooms looked the same, and I had no way of leaving a trail; the dungeon would just eat everything.

ding

Skill [Dismantling] advanced to level 4

Not completely without perks either, but on the whole I'd still rather not be lost. Could I follow the left-hand wall? Was that guaranteed to work if the exit was in the middle and not at the edge? Pretty sure it wasn't. It also wasn't guaranteed to work if I didn't start following the wall immediately on entering a maze, so I had a double whammy of problems. Still, I had nothing better to do, so I started tracing along the wall, refraining from actually holding a hand against it after I accidentally set off a dart trap.

A short while later, I found myself back at the staircase up. Not an exit, but at least I'd managed to return to the start. What now, then? Should I make another attempt at reaching the boss room from memory, or continue tracing the wall? If I remembered my maze rules correctly, if I continued tracing the wall I'd end up back here even if I don't hit the boss, so it would be sensible to try that first.

Ploughing through more rooms of goblins, I came across something I hadn't seen before during my delve with Xander's team; a treasure room. The chest contained a measly two copper coins, which really didn't seem worth my time, but at least it was a point of interest as I wandered around.

Thankfully, the strategy of following the wall did eventually get me to the boss room. Now I had even more frustration to burn off. I fired off my three main buff spells, threw in a [Minor Speed] for good measure, bent space to position myself in front of the goblin lieutenant, and brought the full force of my staff down before he could react. The goblin exploded, the pan he was wearing on his head forced down and flesh and bones alike being ejected sideways to get out of its way. The other goblins, mindless as they were, didn't even flinch and ran on towards their doom as I batted thrown stones out of the air.

ding

Skill [Strength] advanced to level 5

Skill [Minor Speed] advanced to level 12

Skill [Weapon Proficiency: Staff] advanced to level 12

Given how easy that was, maxing out another two skills as a result came as a surprise. Maybe not having backup made a difference, regardless of whether the backup actually needed to do anything? The ease also meant that I hadn't managed to beat out all of my frustration, but there was no way I was heading down to the next floor without getting my hands on a map first. Or at least a pen and some paper to draw my own as I went along. I looted the chest and stepped through the teleporter, hoping that it would actually bring me back to the surface and not send me to some unexplored area or worse. Thankfully, it behaved as expected, leaving me back outdoors. Time to return to the guild.

ding

Oh? More stuff? What was that for? Oh heck, the last time I dinged while leaving a dungeon I got quested... Bleh, did I jinx myself by being thankful the teleporter had behaved itself? I gingerly checked my messages, but there weren't any. Huh? I'd swear I heard the notification ding. Why were there no messages? My status all looked normal too, with no changes I could spot. Did I just imagine it? Was all this stress of not knowing what the hell was going on finally starting to get to me? Best to hurry back to the guild and get a good night's sleep...

I gave a friendly wave to the guard on my way out. "See? I came back fine."

"If you say so. You were down there quite a while. I still don't... WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!"

And once again, huh? I was getting a lot of use out of that word today. Why did he react like that as soon as he turned to look at me? I looked down. Ah, right, I was still wearing half the goblin lieutenant. "Exploding goblin. Perhaps I'll pay a quick visit back to the first floor and wash myself off."

I did an abrupt about turn, thankful that I hadn't made it out to the street like that. My water crystal didn't produce enough water for a proper wash, but combined with the self-cleaning enchantment, it was good enough to make myself presentable within a few minutes. That done, I made another, more successful attempt to return to the guild. Thanks to my getting lost, it was now late evening, too late to do anything else today other than eat. I'd look into getting a map tomorrow and try to get my other non-dungeon stuff done.