Hans stayed at the cabin with the adventurers when Terry, Sven, and Honronk returned from their two-week rest to rotate the current party out. Becky hadn’t returned to the cabin since her last visit, and he didn’t want to leave Apprentices by themselves yet. The cold days that were somehow short and long at the same time wore on him as much as it did the Apprentices, but they were making the bigger sacrifice. He could sleep on a bedroll for a while longer for their sake.

“Things are good back home,” Terry told Hans. “Little strange, us kind of being celebrities or something like that, but no one is sick or going hungry.”

“The dreams?”

Terry sighed. “They’re strong as ever, I hate to say. Wanted to be more positive, though.”

Honronk set a small pouch in front of Hans. “Four casts of Dispel Charm.”

That meant Honronk and Olza had looked through a list of Dispel variants, and they had enough reagents for Dispel Charm. And no others. They were missing only one reagent for several, but they couldn’t place an order for them for a while yet. Hans looked at the pouch and realized how much work it represented. Before he learned to Dispel Charm, he had to learn the basic Charm spell first, which would burn a few of the ingredients in the pouch. A small glimmer of good fortune: They had extras of those components, but only enough for five attempts before their possible Dispel Charm casts decreased as well.

“Sir,” Honronk began. Before Hans could contest that title, the tusk continued, “I’d like to do this, if you’ll let me.”

“I take it you’ve given this a lot of thought?”

Honronk nodded. “Yes.”

That meant no need to warn the tusk that Charm was from a different school than the Illusion spells he had been practicing–all new incantations and gestures to learn, in other words. Losing dungeon-specific training time wasn’t ideal for any Apprentice, but the dungeon was stable. Charm could be useful in combat, so he still gained some adventuring benefit there. Hans’ hands were out of practice and borderline arthritic, making Honronk the better choice on that front as well.

Hans approved.

“Thank you,” Honronk said and set to work studying right away.

In his mind, the Guild Master knew that the challenge Honronk had ahead was beyond his current ability but was not technically impossible. Honronk seemed hopeful, and was more likely to succeed, given his own skill level and the momentum of his self-study.

When Honronk settled into his usual place by the fire, sitting cross legged with a spellbook in his lap, Sven approached Hans. “Talked to the smith and borrowed a few tools. He taught me a few things I’d like to practice if that’s okay.”

Hans didn’t know what Sven was talking about.

“Making traps. Might be the long way around, but I figure that will help me learn to disarm them too.”

“Did any of you actually take time to rest?” Hans said, looking around. Everyone shrugged as if it hadn’t been so bad. “Don’t push too hard. No shame in letting yourself recover from hard work.”

The party insisted they were fine, so Hans didn’t belabor the issue, letting the adults be adults.

Quest Abandoned: Acquire the tools and knowledge to train trap disarming safely.

The Rogue wasn’t wrong that learning to make traps in order to later learn how to disarm them was “the long way around.” Sure, he needed to learn the anatomy of traps, that much overlapped in the middle ground between trap building and trap disarming. The technique and knowledge to make traps from scratch, however, covered more crafting knowledge than a Treasure Hunter needed. Similarly, the techniques for safely disarming a live trap accounted for a set of variables not shared in the creation of traps.

Dungeon traps were often hidden, which made them each two traps in one. The unsuspecting adventurers were one group of victims, but Treasure Hunters specifically were the second group. Safely accessing the parts of the trap needed for the disarm when they were intentionally obscured and covered with misdirects–all by torchlight–was an obstacle course that allowed for one attempt, and one attempt only.

Long way or not, the alternative was to make no progress at all.

With the down time, Hans had many spare hours to ponder future plans for the dungeon operation. He made progress on the cabin redesign, but it was beginning to look more like the Hoseki chapter campus. After weeks at the dungeon, he was convinced they needed the following: a dormitory similar in size to one of the Tribe barns, an armory, a pantry, a common area, and smaller private quarters for when someone’s child or spouse was staying at the cabin.

He felt particularly strong about that last point, but the build was already looking overly ambitious. To fit everything he wanted, they’d need as much space as two barns. At least. Imagining the construction this far from town, his plan drifted into the region of “likely impossible.” Barns went up quickly when half the tribe with their best tools worked on it together. The current cabin used short floorboards–barely two feet long–because they were the most practical option for small handsaws, the largest tool that was practical to hump up to the cabin.

Building a structure as big as the barn all the way out here would take a long time, if they could do it all.

Twelve-year-old Hans would have been in utter disbelief that present Hans was still stumped by how best to disguise the dungeon entrance itself. They couldn’t suspend dungeon runs if an outsider–such as someone from the Adventurers’ Guild–was poking around. If they stayed for any length of time, they would notice adventurer parties appearing or disappearing at odd intervals.

He had an idea for two secret passages, though. They only needed a secret passage if an outsider was present. Otherwise, funneling adventurers through overengineered theatrics was unnecessary. If the cover was needed, they would conceal the convenient entrance and send parties off campus to a hidden tunnel which doubled back to the dungeon entrance. Completely underground.

…That they’d have to dig themselves.

We’re on a mountain. None of that is possible.

Quest Update: Talk to Roland or Galad about the campus idea. Bonus Objective: Pick a secret passage cooler than a bookshelf door.

***

“With Lesser Sleep, we’re fine on our own,” Chisel said. “We can run it blindfolded.”

Hans wasn’t convinced. “The dungeon is still growing. It could be different tomorrow.”

“You’re wasted here. Rotate out. Take a break.”

A real bed…

Chisel was right. He had to admit it. If the other team felt as confident about their ability to run the dungeon without Hans’ supervision, a trip home would be lovely. Sponge baths–rag baths, really–in the middle of winter were an unpleasant necessity out here. To be actually clean? What a dream.

A proper bath…

“If they agree, I’ll take a cycle off.”

***

The quest board had seen happier days, but the drawings tacked to it were good stand-ins until the weather broke and the town came back to life. The row of tiny pots along the windowsill told Hans that Olza had kept the kids busy with activities and lessons. Specs of green sprouts were just beginning to poke through the soil. He guessed they would be starcups, but that was only because Olza hadn’t mentioned growing any other plants recently.

On the way back to town, Chisel made Hans promise to wait at least a day until running classes again. Looking around the guild hall, he was grateful she had planted the idea in his mind. He was tempted by the empty benches, wanting to see them full of people learning. But he was tired. So tired.

The next morning, he slept in. When he meandered downstairs, strongly considering a morning beer, he found a basket of pastries from Charlie and Galinda. They smelled fresh, and they reminded him that Charlie also had a key to the guild hall.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

The Gomi chapter’s security is atrocious.

Bringing the basket with him, he treated himself to another bath.

A few hours later, Olza came up the stairs with books in her arms. Hans was halfway through a book about a group of adventurers who were lost underground for three years. Reading something other than a guide, textbook, or tome felt like a vacation, but his notebook sat nearby, making compelling arguments about why he should get back to work.

“Is it too soon for dungeon core talk?” she asked.

Hans heard his notebook laugh maniacally.

I need more sleep.

“I don’t mind,” Hans answered.

Olza shared a list of new monsters to spawn in the dungeon for alchemical ingredients. The camahueto horns could get ten silvers per horn, which came out to two gold, eighty silvers for what they had collected so far. The imp blood was worth sixteen gold in total, and that was with the party running out of containers halfway through their rotation at the cabin. Hans also undersold how much the Apprentices spilled by accident, so profit potential was likely closer to twenty gold for a full rotation with enough storage and efficient collection techniques.

An Adventurers’ Guild chapter Guild Master earned a salary of twenty gold per month, except for Hans. Since he was a Gold-ranked, he got one gold per month, and that was enough for a comfortable life in most towns. Twenty gold per month was equal to nobility. One hundred gold per month was high nobility, the kind of small fortune that funded a fully staffed country estate. Meanwhile, a humble town like Gomi might get a hundred gold in taxes per year.

Our distributor will take a big cut, but still. Gomi is going to be well off.

Prior to learning the dungeon core could be influenced, the earning potential of the dungeon was limited to a rare magic item and the chance that, perhaps, one of the monsters would have an eye or feather that alchemists happily paid for. That wasn’t guaranteed, nor was the value of that ingredient, if they found one.

“If we can choose whatever monsters we want for the dungeon,” Olza began, “we can solve every financial problem in Gomi. In a few months.”

“What would you recommend?”

Olza read from her notebook. “Geode geckos, most slime varieties, cockatrice chickens, cave crawlers, ghosts, poison goliath toads, and any elemental except air.”

Hans glared at Olza. “It’s my first day back. Really?”

“Okay, fine. No slimes.”

“And no ghosts. Elementals are doable, but they wreck weapons. Geode geckos are tricky, but they might work. Cockatrice chickens? Hard no. Petrification monsters are too risky. Cave crawlers soon. Anything with a goliath classification is a ways away for the Apprentices, but eventually it would be manageable. What kind of ingredients are we talking?”

“I’d like to dispute the elementals. If we can pick anything–and we don’t know if we can–we could grow diamond elementals. Ground diamond is in hundreds of recipes but it’s so hard to get sometimes. Not to mention the chance of a jewelable diamond. Lots of profit in a small package.”

The most popular tactic to use on diamond elementals was percussive force spells and blunted weapons, preferably war hammers. The trick was timing the spells and the strikes to create a sort of resonance in the diamond elemental that made it brittle. Plenty of adventurers figured it out eventually, but getting it wrong in the meantime was painful.

The Apprentices would need to be Silver or so to have the best odds.

“We have some time before diamond elementals are going to be an option, skill wise. You make a good argument though. What would you get from geode geckos?”

“They grow their crystals with an oil they secrete. A bottle of that is worth two weeks of imp blood in terms of brewing potions. From what I understand, it’s easy to rupture the sack in battle, so that’s part of what makes it valuable. But there’s more use for us here right now: Sleep potions for the children. There’s a variant recipe where we’d actually have enough for everyone.”

That was another consideration entirely. They would need to go to four member groups to manage a creature that size, roughly as large as a Clydesdale horse. But the camaheutos had grown in pairs, as did the imps. Two geode geckos would be a problem, especially in narrow corridors. The Apprentices would agree with the risk if he asked, but their judgment wasn’t objective when the kids were involved. Hans would have to take on that responsibility for their sakes.

Olza was right, though. Once the Apprentices reached the right proficiency level, the loot potential from ingredients alone was beyond substantial. The Lemura’s Labyrinth had over a hundred types of monsters roaming its halls on a fresh cycle. If they could fill their own dungeon with a hundred high-value creatures, Gomi would make a lot of gold.

“That’s a problematic amount of gold,” Hans said. “Very problematic.” Gomi could have enough capital to be its own kingdom, if they could move the inventory that is.

“And dangerous,” Olza added.

“Too much to hide and too tempting for even good people.” Hans rubbed his face, already tired from having another new problem to address. “We could choose not to grow the dungeon that way. Fewer ingredients, fewer problems.”

“I thought of that,” Olza replied. “Rare reagents are profitable, sure, but they can also help a lot of people. Like you told me a ways back, lowering the costs of something as small as Lesser Healing potions would be good for everyone.”

“We’re back in the same corner. Is it more right to protect our people here and pass on the chance to help people outside of Gomi, or is it more right to risk our people here to help more people outside of Gomi?”

The alchemist shrugged. “We have had a lot of questions like that recently.”

As for questions they could answer in the immediate future, Hans agreed geode geckos were worth considering. He was convinced of their value but was unsure of the risks and how to manage them. They knew too little about the dungeon core to be able to say for certain what would happen with any given experiment. The next suggestion they gave the core could result in ten new monsters for all they knew, radically shifting the difficulty of an average run for the Apprentices.

New Quest: Harvest oil sacs from geode geckos.

“I also wanted to talk to you about Honronk,” Olza said.

She went on to share that the Apprentice Black Mage spent nearly every day of his leave in her shop, sitting quietly in a corner reading one of her books, occasionally asking her questions or for clarifications on material he wasn’t sure he understood. He didn’t get in anyone’s way or cause any inconvenience, but she worried he wasn’t resting. That worry compounded when Sven mentioned to her that Honronk was always the last one to bed and the first one up, both at the cabin and back in Gomi.

Hans admitted to having similar concerns to the point he wasn’t sure that Honronk slept at all. At the same time, the Black Mage always seemed alert and thoughtful and always did his part on dungeon runs. If he was exhausting himself, he didn’t show it.

When Hans added that Honronk volunteered to learn Charm and Dispel Charm–the only spell that might work on the nightmares where they also had all of the components on hand–Olza scrunched her face.

“Did he mention enchanting to you?” She asked.

The Guild Master said it had come up briefly, but they didn’t cover anything substantial.

“He borrowed one of my books on it. He asked me a bunch of questions about permanent wards and what materials could or couldn't be enchanted. I figured he’d ask you the same questions.”

“Didn’t mention it. Did he say anything else?”

“Nope. He seems pretty quiet.”

Hans agreed. The Apprentice Black Mage always seemed most content by himself with a book or notebook in his hands. Working hard was admirable, but if his sleep was as sparse as it seemed, his health needed to become a larger priority. Hans promised to keep an eye on Honronk.

“He makes a good point about considering enchantments,” Olza added. “I don’t know who we’d get to make them, but wards might be our best option if we can’t eliminate the nightmare spell completely.”

“Build a roof instead of trying to stop it from raining?”

“Yes. With how little we know about the nightmares right now, it’s hard to say what we need and what we don’t.”

Two of Hans’ quests echoed how right Olza was.

Active Quest: Address the deficiency of magery education in the Gomi chapter.

Active Quest: Continue researching non-localized spells capable of causing nightmares in tusk children.

They needed the snow to melt to move forward on half a dozen other problems and projects, but the pass reopening also meant that Gomi’s dungeon plan would go public and that whatever developments happened in the kingdom, especially with regard to the ongoing orc conflict, could reach Gomi again.

New Quest: Finalize spring preparations for launching the dungeon plan by talking to Charlie, Galad, Galinda and Roland.

***

Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

Progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked.

Mend the rift with Devon.

Complete the manuscript for "The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers."

Expand the Gomi training area to include ramps for footwork drills.

Refine a system for training dungeon awareness.

Research the history and legends of the Dead End Mountains, more.

Protect Gomi.

Train Gomi adventurers to keep the dungeon at bay.

Talk to Roland or Galad about the campus idea. Bonus Objective: Pick a secret passage cooler than a bookshelf door.

Find a partner to move dungeon loot efficiently.

Find a way to share new knowledge without putting Gomi at risk.

Address the deficiency of magery education in the Gomi chapter.

Continue researching non-localized spells capable of causing nightmares in tusk children.

Test structural suggestions for the next dungeon core experiment.

Harvest oil sacs from geode geckos.

Finalize spring preparations for launching the dungeon plan by talking to Charlie, Galad, Galinda, and Roland.