So much good news came to Gomi that Hans sharpened his sword and doublechecked his gear and supplies. Adventurer superstition made him extra cautious whenever a job was going too well. After all, the best ambush victims were the ones who believed they weren’t in danger.
The more he looked at recent events from as many angles as he could imagine, the more he let himself believe that the peace he felt was real. He found that acceptance to be surprisingly difficult.
The Adventurers’ Guild had sent someone to Gomi, and the adventurers went on their way, never catching a whiff of the Tribe’s thriving community or the town’s dungeon activity.
Adding to that peace, Uncle Ed returned from his latest delivery run with a pouch full of coin. Doorstop, their Raven’s Hollow contact, happily bought everything they had, including the actual barrels of beer. He proposed to Ed that he take on distribution for that as well, which sounded like a good idea to Ed.
If the rest of the town agreed, Ed’s delivery runs would be far simpler. He could head directly to Raven’s Hollow and unload everything in one place, saving him the trouble of going town to town to sell their beer inventory to various taverns and shopkeepers. They made a little less money going through Doorstop, but the hit wasn’t all that bad, especially given the efficiency it offered. The less time anyone from Gomi was on the road, the safer they were and the less likely they were to arouse suspicions.
Hans hadn’t had time to return to the dungeon, but the Apprentices–Kane and Quentin among them–cycled through their shifts without issue. Bel and Lee gradually helped the Apprentices less and less until they were clearing the goblin shaman and his reanimated minotaur in relative safety, freeing the Silver tusks to pursue their own training and personal life in Gomi.
They requested Gomi add a Silver-ranked section of the dungeon so they could improve also. The progress the Apprentices made impressed them, and they wanted to experience the same benefits.
Furthermore, the dorm building on what would become the dungeon campus neared completion. The road needed a bit of work yet–most of the trees were cleared but none of their stumps–but that project progressed as well.
The tattoo wards Honronk made continued to keep the influence of blood magic out of Gomi, and knowing that the Lady of the Forest watched their borders made the potential of an interloper far less frightening. They would know what was coming and from where, an immense tactical advantage.
If something did go wrong, Gomi had its palisade, and the palisade for the Tribe barns were nearly finished as well. Hans had relayed a few of the techniques and considerations he learned from Deeker, so the Tribe opted to redo portions of the build, preferring to endure the extra work to achieve additional safety. Charlie mourned the loss of his unimpeded view to the forest from his porch, but he agreed that the fortifications offered comfort in uncertain times.
At a familiar dining room table, Hans shared his conflicting feelings of happiness and fear. The other guests at Charlie and Galinda’s that night–Becky, Galad, Luther, Olza–agreed that this was all good news to be celebrated, but they too couldn’t help but feel skeptical about how real their peace was and how long it would last.
For tonight, though, they agreed to raise their glasses and enjoy the reprieve.
“I didn’t know what to make of you,” Charlie said to Hans. “That first dinner wasn’t even a year back, but it feels… it feels like we’ve been through a lot since then.”
“I tried to buy him off,” Galad said with a sheepish smirk. “I figured if he wasn’t smart enough to take the money, we probably didn’t have much to worry about.”
“I’d never thought I’d be trainin’ Hans to be a Druid,” Becky said, “But here we are.” Hans grumbled but didn’t let the conversation linger on his Druid status.
“I made fun of his hairline,” Olza said. “Then he drank all my vodka.”
Luther was outraged on Hans’ behalf. “That’s not fair. It’s only receding a little bit.”
The entire table turned to inspect Hans’ hair. “At any rate,” he began, pausing to shoot Luther and Olza a dirty look, “We have a lot of work to do and we still need to be careful, but we got through the storm. I’m very blessed to have met you all.” Hans raised his glass to emphasize his gratitude.
“Here here,” Galad added. “The world is no less dark, but our corner of it is much brighter.”
Closing the quest felt like inviting bad luck, but Hans felt so deeply fulfilled by the moment that he risked it.
Quest Complete: Protect Gomi.
When conversation lulled, mostly because every mouth was full of food, Hans asked to hear more about Gomi’s local legends.
Galinda nudged Charlie. “Tell the mountain warning story.”
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The Mayor smiled and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “That is a good one,” he said. He seemed to organize the story in his mind before continuing. “For a long time, the Dead End Mountains were a source of curiosity. A lot of curiosity. Well before any of us arrived in this town, Gomi had a long tradition of losing young men and women to the lure of the mountains. The mystery of what hid beneath its rocks and what might lie beyond claimed many lives.”
The Adventurers’ Guild expedition to the other side of the mountains and back, the one that produced the conclusion that nothing but wasteland was to be found, calmed most of the curiosity, but before then, the town elders used a story to discourage children from sneaking out to explore.
“‘Dead End’ has been used to mock Gomi by the wider world, but the elders used to say the mountains were a wall between our world and the afterlife. When we die, our spirits cross the mountains. So it really is an end for the dead in a way.
“But if a living person attempts the journey, the mountain conscripts them, forcing them to guard the afterlife for eternity.”
The threat they guarded against was people like them, individuals who had to know what was on the other side. That meant if you attempted the journey, you would be attacked by those who had gone before you, their frozen corpses clawing out of the snow to drag you down.
“If one of your ancestors forces you into the mountain’s army, the rest of your family line is cursed. No matter where you try to cross, the mountain sends your blood to enslave your soul, so you should never go into the mountains. Ever.”
Why are these small town stories always so creepy?
Quest Complete: Ask Charlie about the history and legends of the Dead End Mountains.
“That’s spooky,” Olza said when Charlie finished.
“I think it’s comforting,” Galinda said. When the table looked at her, waiting to hear more, she continued, “We don’t have to climb every mountain.”
“Well said, my love,” Charlie said, squeezing her hand.
Later that night, as Hans enjoyed the slight disconnect between his brain and his body, he walked back to the guild hall nursing a glass of whisky. He thought of Charlie’s story and Galinda’s reaction as he looked out to the mountains rising in the distance under moonlight. Though most of him embraced inebriation, he was exceptionally careful with the glass. Galinda made sure to let him know it was one of her favorites, and she expected it to be returned unharmed.
So, with the soundtrack of crickets and frogs filling the night air, he held the glass close to his chest.
He paused in front of the training yard, looking up at the multicolor monstrosity that was his sign. Hans’ Ultimate Training Dungeon–the name was silly, yet he was proud of it. Every childish brushstroke reminded him that his work here mattered. It helped people, and as far as Hans knew, he was the only person who had ever interacted with a dungeon core. His work was helping and exploring uncharted knowledge.
The majority of the core hadn’t grown yet, meaning he had dozens of experiments ahead of him. Until then, most of his recent years felt like a downhill slide to his story’s inevitable conclusion, but he didn’t feel that way now. He was at the beginning of a new story, and the possibilities took him back to the day he graduated from Apprentice to Iron. A young adventurer with a lifetime of excitement and intrigue ahead. Just like the stories.
“You okay?” Olza asked, coming up next to Hans.
“Just admiring our sign,” he said. “Is it weird I feel happy and sad?”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve done a good thing. An impossible thing. We’ve seen things no one in history has recorded before, and we still have so much to learn. But… I never thought I was a glory-chaser, but thinking about how no one will hear this story… I don’t know. It’s bittersweet.”
“Adapt it to fiction, perhaps?” Olza offered. “I’ve heard of a few writers doing that.”
“Then slap my name on the cover? Someone is bound to get suspicious.”
“So use a pen name?”
Hans rubbed his chin.
“What are you smiling about?”
You just helped me make progress on one of my oldest quests.
Quest Complete: Find a way to share new knowledge without putting Gomi at risk.
Quest Update: Using a pen name, complete the manuscript for "The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers."
“Looks like I have a lot more writing to do.”
***
See you in book two, Locked Achievements!
About Book 2:
This was not how Hans pictured his retirement from adventuring.
The discovery of Gomi’s fledgling dungeon upended his plans for quiet days of reading in between teaching classes. Instead, running Gomi’s chapter of the Adventurers’ Guild had become a clandestine operation to train adventurers to cull the dungeon while using the unique abilities of the dungeon core to inject unprecedented wealth and opportunity into the town.
While Gomi contends with the challenges of a growing dungeon, the fallout of the orc war across the kingdom at large creates new challenges for Hans and his adventurers. Blossoming Apprentices dream of plying their trade on the road like proper adventurers but can’t because of the town’s secrets. Long dead comrades reenter Hans’ life in unexpected ways, putting Gomi at risk as old enemies search for new answers. And Hans unearths new feelings about his failure to reach Diamond-ranked, putting him face to face with the shortcomings that ended his career.
Gomi is counting on Hans’ expert knowledge to keep their people safe, and his new crop of adventurers trust him with their lives every time they go back into the dungeon to explore a section with new, greater challenges. If Hans comes up short anywhere, someone he cares for will pay the price.
image [https://carpercreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/deadendguildmaster-Book-2l-small.webp]