Cal hurried through the second level, heading toward the main stairwell. His team was spread out through the two levels they now commanded.

Dave remained in the second-level inner sanctum because that was the most likely place for the Vanilla Master to strike next.

Helga and Kronke were guarding the stairs, and so far, none of the statues down on the third level steps had moved. They seemed to just be statues for now.

Gwen was up on the first level bringing the breakroom cores down, resetting the traps, and trying to fix her IBM Copier tank. She also had filing cabinets that could walk on big spidery mechanical legs. That was all part of her plan.

As for the first-level’s inner sanctum, the Dweebers had set up their web cannons at strategic parts of the cubicle labyrinth in the Soul Crusher’s Office. There had been some political strife, because several wanted to be promoted to assistant to the regional manager because the Dweeber boss was already the regional manager. It took a bit, but the Dweebers found an org chart they could live with.

Cal hit the second-level’s entrance and was surprised to see that Kelly Ryan hadn’t disappeared with the rest of the dungeon. The reception area had vanished along with everything that Inke had created, but she remained, on a rather nice, padded office chair with one of the arms broken off. She also managed a little makeup table that had various bottles and mirrors and things.

His surprise stopped him in his tracks.

She had words for him. “Creeper much? Whatever. Mr. Inke isn’t coming back anytime soon, is he?” Big sigh. “Double whatever. Are you the new management?”

Cal tried to take his eyes off Kelly Ryan, but he couldn’t. She was just so pretty and cool, and yet so terrible. Was this all a trick? Was she a minion of the Vanilla Master?

The elven accountant took a minute to cast an Identify Apothos spell. She was mostly made of the Vita energy, an Endogenous Manifestation, and not a dungeon core. But if she wasn’t Inke’s minion, whose minion was she?

“Wh…wh…What are you still doing here?” Cal sputtered.

Kelly Ryan blew on her nails. “Yeah, Mr. Inke isn’t coming back. I’m going to, like, go.”

“Do you work for the Vanilla Master? What can you tell me about him?”

She made a face. “Ugh. I like chocolate not vanilla. I am so out of here.” She rose up as her makeup table converted into a suitcase, which she picked up. A second later, she was walking down the hallway and into the darkness.

Cal chased after her. But she had vanished. It was like she’d never been there in the first place. The broken office chair remained. He reached out to his boss.

the Spidercrat replied.

That made Cal wince.

Some of Dave’s old ways returned.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Cal sent lamely.

It took a few seconds. Then Dave sighed.

Cal found her even more intriguing now. What a mystery!

The Spidercrat’s mental voice was full of enthusiasm.

The Spidercrat wasn’t going to be satisfied with just talking.

Cal paused on the main staircase. There was that dizziness, a definite sense of vertigo, and then he found himself with a view of Inke’s old dungeon.

There were three rooms they could use to stop Amorfo from reaching the second floor’s inner sanctum. The Grill Gauntlet was impressive.

Down a short hallway was a rectangular room with motivational posters on the wall. Lots of cats, people silhouetted against sunrises, soaring mountains, and calming beaches.

Dave laughed.

The motivational posters were hiding not one but two of the Newton’s Cradle Pendulum Desk Toy traps. If the raiders made it past the first five swinging balls, they’d be hit by another five silver spheres swinging on thick chains.

Beyond that was the Deathday Party Room. Since they had so many decorations, they packed them in the one room. There was crepe paper everywhere and a ton of signs and banners proclaiming Happy Birthday! Happy Anniversary! Many Forevergreen Festival Greetings! Have an Amazing Arbor Day! Arbor Day was a big deal in the multiverse because, of course, it was a reason to celebrate the Tree of Souls. The room looked a bit dingy, even with the ribbons and decorations, but that would only add to the surprise. Under the tables were his Flying Inferno Spiders, which were relatively cheap to create. The hot arachnids would leap out in a surprise attack, which would ignite all the paper, turning the place into a fiery hell.

Dave was in the middle of crafting the Unhappy Hour, a bar themed inner sanctum with a large number of slick Eritrean nightclub defenses.

Cal then checked out the old Antechamber of the Biker Club room, which was now called the Folding Chair Folly. The design was simple—pack the room with folding chairs, which would slide against each other, becoming entangled, and then unleash more of the Inferno Spiders on the raiders as they tried to wrestle through the chairs.

So far, they only had five rooms, but hopefully, with Gwen’s plans, they could keep the rest of the AT1’s dungeon cores bottled up.

But they had to hurry.

Gwen reached out to them.

Cal drew his consciousness back into his body. He turned around and went back down the main staircase. It was actually perfect timing, since Cal had wanted to talk to her alone. She’d ascended, and yet, they’d not had time to check her new skills.

Maybe one of them would be anger management. Helga had been angrier than ever, and Cal wondered why. Talking about it might help her, but would she be willing to do that?

Managing emotions was a little like accounting. Good feelings, bad feelings, and everything in between. It was those mushy emotions in the middle that troubled Cal.