Gnet sat at the head of the table, flipping through reports. He dwarfed the other people sitting at the table both in stature and prestige. The members of Fravit’s party was working through their stacks of papers as well. Gnet glanced over.

Fravit, a 30 some year old human. The party’s tank and leader. Pyria, a half elf. Generally the mood maker but her intuition’s sharp as a knife. Harhuin is a dwarven priest. There’s practically a library in his head already. Aki the ice gensai was the calmest, being heavily influenced by her race, but also quite a powerful ice mage.

Gnet wasn’t sure what he would do without the assistance of a responsible and reliable party. He earned his guild master seat through accomplishments he piled up as an adventurer and as a participant in one of the demonic wars that pop up every few hundred years. He was good at fighting and leading, but as his growth slowed to near stagnation, even fighting and growing can become tiresome. Now he spends his retirement guiding adventurers and trying to ensure society doesn’t collapse while he’s still around. He was good at adventuring and leading but bureaucracy was never his specialty. The reports, though seemingly small in his hands, was a thick stack of reports regarding how every team’s dive went. Dungeons changed quick and these sorts of things were tedious but necessary.

[Gnet] Well. Looks like nobody died, although we had a few injuries. That’s more than can be said for some places.

[Fravit] Sounds like we can allow rank Gs to enter soon. The first three floors are safe enough as promised, even if they aren’t as prepared as we’d like.

[Aki] Not safe. Only not deadly.

[Pyria] Ah who cares about that. Not deadly is more than anyone else can promise. If they’re idiots then no amount of warning or babying is going to save them from a dungeon.

[Harhuin] Well, I don’t think the general public will be happy waiting for much longer. If we don’t clear this process up soon, you will need more guards to prevent people from sneaking in.

Rank Gs represented the general public. Those not quite accustomed to fighting. Most rank G quests amounted to things like cleaning houses or running errands. Allowing them into the dungeon means more jobs like fishing and mining that currently require the F rank adventurers.

[Gnet] It would free up a lot of hands. Some of the requests require a specialist and we’ll offer guarding quests too. Still, I suppose this adds to the argument that the dungeon is sentient and it’s not just the higher ups messing with us.

[Harhuin] Un. This is mostly conjecture but everyone agrees a sentient dungeon is a completely different beast to one that isn’t. Monsters get stronger bods to the dungeon and become smarter and use strategies. It’s like they are absorbing some of that sentience. Either way this rabbit creature for one is a sign of a sentient dungeon for sure. That magical beast is suspect as well.

[Pyria] Oh that charging antelope huh. It would be fun to fight that. Well, in actual close range combat anyways. You give any scout or thief ten minutes and it’s easy enough to use it’s charge against it.

[Fravit] Let’s not go putting your life in danger just yet ok. Besides, I’m afraid you’ll start setting the forest on fire if you can’t find it.

[Pyria] I wouldn’t do that. Probably. Is that even banned?

[Gnet] Well we’ve been told it’s sentient and it’s passing messages to some of the higher ups. So unless we get word otherwise, I say it’s fine. We’ll have to talk to that party about their methods though. If the fires spread faster it would be possible to interfere with everyone’s quests.

[Aki] No laws in the dungeon. Only the strong. Bad behavior will disappear, one way or another.

[Gnet] Hah. That’s true. It’s for their own good that they behave. Well, I’ll start with the paperwork to allow the rank Gs in. You guys go inform the various guilds. One troublesome team is bad enough, let’s not have any of the other guild’s members disappearing in the dungeon.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

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[Paul] Hey. Now that we’ve gotten our pay, let’s visit the entertainment district.

[Vera] Uwah. I expect that sort of desire from Adis but you too huh Polly. I mean I guess you are still a guy.

[Paul] What no! The entertainment district just opened up an aquatic arena. Teams should be practicing for now so it’s free to enter. I mean, the God of Many Faces is the patron to that sort of thing as well, but he's also the patron to all sorts of entertainment, stories, and stories. Anywhere his followers gather there's bound to be a good subject for a news article. 

[Adis] Hey. Um. What did you mean you expected that sort of –

[Carolyn] Oh! An aquatic arena sounds so so fun! I bet we’re going to have a sea volley team! Lets go!

[Vera] Sea volley? What’s that?

[Carolyn] It’s like, this ball game we used to play underwater. It’s physically and magically pretty tough so I think it’s the reason why I got my adventurer’s license so fast.

[Paul] Interesting. It should make for a nice article. I don’t think the capital has anything quite like this.

[Adis] Hey. Hey guys?

The party weaved their way through the crowded streets, picking up various stall foods with their newly earned pay. The entertainment district was on the other side of the residential district and contained a large variety of entertainers and performers and lots of bars. Unlike the residential district where houses were packed together, large empty spaces were left in the residential district for various groups to perform on and set up tents and stages. This made the aquatic arena visible from anywhere in the district.

The aquatic arena is a large colosseum styled building, with over 10 acres of land in the middle. Instead of a sandy pit, it had a tall oval glass structure, pushing right up against the closest seats. It must have been a challenge to create so many yards of smooth clear glass. As they entered, they could see a game already underway. Surely enough, it was a game of sea volley.

[Carolyn] See? See? Sea volley is super fun. You can move any which way and you can even use a bunch of approved spells and stuff to get the ball to the other goal.

[Adis] Wow. That’s amazing. Are they constantly enhancing their bodies with magic AND casting two or three spells to move the ball?

[Vera] My. This IS interesting. They really are using the water to its full effect. And everything is magnified and displayed on those giant magic rune plates too. I can’t imagine how much this took to set up.

Vera looked over at Paul to see his thoughts, but clearly he was already lost in writing his article and drawing a depiction. He didn’t even need to exaggerate his art this time. The ball bobbed and weaved through the water, spells were cast, the various aquatic races put their physical speed and strength to the test. At one point one of the players even cancelled the spell on the ball and it’s buoyancy shot the ball straight up, whizzing past a member of the opposite team and right into the hands of his teammate waiting above. Truly it made most sports seem simple, with its extensive use of magic and its three-dimensional maneuvers.

[      ] Get yer food here. We got skewers. We got hot dogs. We got bread. We got drinks. You’ve never had food like this I swear on me name.

[Adis] Oh food. I could use a little more.

The merchant’s pointy ears twitched and he whipped around to reveal a man about half the height of Adis, floating through the air with sharp pointy teeth peaking out from his large smile.

[      ] Good! Good good. What’ll it be? Every choice is just *mwah* you can trust me. I swear on me good name. And I’m a full fae. Couldn’t tell a lie to save me life. By the way may I have your name sir?

[Adis] Of co-

Adis tried to respond but found Vera’s hand covering his mouth and glaring daggers at the fae.

[Vera] Oh no you don’t. You try to take his name and I’ll loot it off your corpse.

[      ] Now now girly. There’s no need for that. Don’t you see that I’m a simple merchant with simple desires? I think all I’d like right now is to get quite a lot of currency, see?

Vera reluctantly lets go of Adis along with a glare to warn him not to do anything stupid again.

[Adis] I. Um. I suppose I’ll have a hot dog.

[      ] Excellent. Here’s your hot dog. I’ll what’s due. Now then. Tootleoo.

The small floating man raced off with distant sounds of his slogan echoing behind him.

[      ] Hot dogs. Skewers. Bread. Drinks. Swear on me own name and I’m a Fae so you know I can’t lie to ye.

[Vera] Hah. Oldest trick in the book. Don’t you know anything about true Fae? They bind with words as easily as a high lich binds undead. They’d be useful if they were trustworthy enough to be employed.

[Adis] Ah. Yeah. Sorry my bad. Hm. Speaking of which, I guess we never found out his name huh?

Adis pondered the strange fae as he took a bite of his hot dog. He certainly never had food like this before. He wasn't certain he would ever have food like this again, if he could help it.