The trio of adventurers took a moment to rest and recover their mana in the meadow before they proceeded deeper into the dungeon. They didn’t really need to rest very long, as Zack’s ambient mana was more than enough to help make up for what they lost clearing the room. Their stamina, however, was something Zack couldn’t help with. It would seem that some powers dipped into the stamina pool more than the mana pool.
As far as Zack understood it, stamina wasn’t a resource in the way that mana was. It wasn’t a discrete pool of energy that people could draw from to cast spells or use powers. Rather, it was a representation of the body’s level of physical exhaustion. Health worked in a similar way. It wasn’t a one-to-one representation of take this much damage and you die but rather a representation of how much damage a person could take before they passed out, or were incapable of fending for themselves.
Zack had watched the trio clearing the meadow specifically so he could understand how these attributes worked, and was pleasantly rewarded for it with a level up all his own. He didn’t bother reading his stat increases, but he was grateful to make it to level five. He could deal with it later. For now, he was busy making sure Thumper was ready to fight.
The dire hare was crouched in the tall grass, his eyes locked on the vine curtain leading back into the meadow. Zack was surprised to see that his blue fur had turned a shade of dark green, giving him excellent camouflage in the environment.
“Oh, that’s going to be interesting. Hey, Thumper, make sure you don’t kill anyone, okay?” Zack said. He was confident it didn’t need to be said, given Thumper had so far acted as an extension of himself, but he wanted to be extra sure. The absolute last thing Zack wanted was for people to die inside his dungeon and real adventurers coming by to investigate. That would almost certainly lead to his real death.
The hare didn’t budge, but Zack at least got the impression that it acknowledged his desire. No sooner did Zack start redirecting his attention towards the meadow did the vine curtain part to allow the adventurers entrance to the boss room. As before, Greg led the way, pausing to glance up at Zack’s hovering wisp in the room.
“Oh, right, flavor text,” Zack muttered, clearing his nonexistent throat. “Hiding in this chamber is Thumper, guardian of the meadow, dire hare. Be on your guard, for you never know when such a creature might jump out and attack you!”
Alex shook his head. “We really got to work on those,” he grumbled, stepping up beside Greg.
Chandra joined them next, sniffing the air. “He’s in the grass,” she said, pointing to Thumper’s camouflaged form.
If Zack had a face, he would have smacked it in frustration. In his excitement, he forgot that Chandra was a werewolf and could literally smell his bunny a mile away. Oh well.
Thumper, sensing the threat Chandra posed, leapt out of the grass and charged at her, horn primed and ready. He lowered his head to impale her in the leg and—
A tether of crimson mana shot from Greg’s hand, redirecting Thumper mid-charge. The rabbit didn’t stop rushing, though, and Zack watched as the orc’s skin turned thick and barky. Greg twisted in place, taking the brunt of the attack in his armored shin. Thumper let out a frustrated squeal as he bounced off the orc, only for Greg’s towering sword to swing his way.
Thumper wasn’t the average, bunny, though. The attack would have normally taken any other dire rabbit out of the fight, but Thumper regained his composure and deftly rolled away. He hopped to all fours and let out a defiant chitter, pawing at the ground.
“Oh, this bunny’s got bite,” Chandra grinned, lowering herself to all fours in a mirror of Thumper’s posture. The two beasts locked gazes, and with a bark Chandra charged forward.
Rather than meet her head on, Thumper leapt to the side at the last second, deftly dodging Chandra’s attack. She yelped in surprise as the dire hare twisted in place and drove his horn straight into her side. As he yanked it back out, his white horn was sticky and red with blood.
“Chandra!” Alex roared, rushing to get to her side. When Thumper wheeled threateningly at him, he froze in place.
“Holmgang!” Greg shouted, once again dragging Thumper his way with a tether of crimson aether. “Go! Help her!”
Alex didn’t waste a breath. As soon as the way was clear, he dove to Chandra’s side and pressed a hand to the wound in her stomach. “Shit, shit, shit,” he hissed. “You’re losing too much blood! Don’t you have a healing factor or something!?”
“I do, but it’s not working,” Chandra whimpered, vainly trying to roll over onto her back. She let out a whine and clutched at her side.
“Zack! Do something!” Alex roared, looking around frantically for the wisp.
Zack could only hover in place as he watched Chandra bleed. A quick glance at her stats was all he needed to see that her health was sitting at a flat zero. If she didn’t get some healing soon, she might die. But Zack didn’t know any healing magic!
In fact, the only healing magic between the three adventurers was Greg’s Troll Blood, which let him quickly heal his own injuries. Chandra, did, however, have something similar.
[Lupine Healing]
[Racial Spell, Werewolf, Passive]
[You heal from wounds remarkably fast. Does not work on life-threatening injuries. Severe injuries cost Stamina in addition to Mana.]
[Cost: 1 Mana per Health recovered.]
If they could stabilize her, she’d be fine. They just needed a way to stabilize the wound…
“Alex, cauterize the wound,” Zack ordered.
“W-what!?”
“You have fire magic! Use it to cauterize the wound! Her healing power can’t kick in while the injury is life threatening.”
Alex’s eyes widened, and he looked from Zack to Chandra. Chandra nodded briskly, and removed her hand from the wound on her side. Alex sucked in a sharp breath, and Zack watched as the aetheric channels in his arms began to glow with fiery orange light. Almost immediately, a thread of mana connected to his head, as he achieved a breakthrough.
Chandra screamed in pain as her side started to smoke, but when Alex pulled his hands away, the bleeding stopped. She panted and breathed deeply, staring at the wound in fascination. What had momentarily been a life-threatening gash in her side was now a blistered and melted burn. Already it was starting to smooth out, as her Lupine Healing at last kicked in.
Alex let out a sigh of relief and collapsed into the grass, wiping sweat from his forehead. He didn't need a proper status tattoo to know he'd gone up a level. A glance over his shoulder was enough for him to confirm that Greg was still battling Thumper, neither having made much of a dent in the other.
“I think that proves my point about how levels work,” Zack said smugly, earning a frustrated glower from Alex. It wasn’t how he intended to teach the lesson, but it was as good a way as any. Alex had learned a new way to use his magic, a new spell, and as a result he deepened his connection to the Akashic Record. He leveled up.
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Alex didn’t bother answering Zack as he clambered back to his feet, sword in hand. He rushed up behind Thumper and let loose an eruption of flames into the bunny’s back. Thumper squealed in pain, rolling around in the grass to vainly put his burning fur out. Greg took advantage of the situation to punt the hare in the stomach, sending it rolling away before viciously dragging it back to his side with another Holmgang.
The fighting continued this for several more minutes, during which time Chandra was able to fully heal herself. Zack was surprised that the werewolf didn’t even have a scar to show where she was injured, so thorough was her healing process.
With the three of them attacking him from all sides, Thumper didn’t stand a chance. Before long, he let out a squeak of despair and fell over, dead. For a brief moment, nobody said a word. Nobody even breathed.
Then, Zack did the only thing he could think of. A victory fanfare blared out from his wisp, echoing through the room and startling the trio of adventurers. “Congratulations! You defeated Thumper, the Dire Hare!”
Chandra put a hand to her chest as she let out a breath of exasperation, shaking her head to banish the momentary fright. “That certainly… That was something.”
“Aside from when you almost died, that was pretty fun,” Greg chuckled. He flicked his mountainous sword and sheathed it again. “I do feel like we should receive rewards for beating the boss, though. Like items, or something.”
Alex frowned, and whipped his phone out of his pocket. “That’s a great idea. I’ll add that to the list of things we need…”
“All in all, I’d say that was an excellent trial run of my dungeon. Not only did you manage to complete the whole thing, but you even succeeded in besting my boss!” Zack said, proudly.
Chandra rolled her shoulder and cracked her neck. “Not much of a dungeon, if that’s all there is to it.”
Zack let the insult roll off him like water over a rock. “I’ll get bigger, I promise.”
“At least we can say there’s a distinct challenge involved with running the dungeon, although I can’t say for certain if it’s a good idea to put our customers in lethal situations,” Greg said, crossing his arms.
“Customers?”
“Oh, right, sorry. I never actually explained that,” Alex said. “Let’s reconvene in the lobby, and I’ll walk you through my plan.”
When the trio of adventurers returned to the lobby, Zack conjured three chairs for them to sit on. Chandra refused to turn back into her human form, evidently more comfortable in her werewolf form. Greg needed a larger seat than the others, as he broke the first one that Zack tried to make for him. Alex, surprisingly, remained standing.
“So, here’s the idea,” Alex started, drawing everyone’s attention back to him. “The three of us have need of work, right?”
Chandra and Greg nodded.
“Zack is able to provide a service that nobody else can: he can provide the opportunity to train and learn magic in a safe, controlled environment outside the jurisdiction of the universities,” Alex continued.
“Mostly safe,” Chandra corrected, rubbing at her side. The wound was gone, but evidently still stung.
“Mostly safe. I think I can work on that, though. Free healing potions or whatever, to help keep adventurers safe and alive. Also maybe better telegraphed boss attacks,” Zack agreed. “That game of chicken with Thumper was a cheap tactic.”
“I propose we open Zack for business. We sell tickets or something to allow people to enter the dungeon and fight monsters. We offer it for a reasonable price, and we rent out equipment to those who might need it,” Alex continued.
At the mention of renting out equipment, Greg’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, that’s really clever! Give even people who might not have the necessary gear or learning a chance to taste the adventurer life.”
“Right? So we have a kiosk over there for weapon rentals, maybe a meeting stone so people can form parties, and a vending machine for healing potions,” Alex went on, gesturing to all sorts of ideas in his grand vision of the business.
Zack felt momentarily uncomfortable with the idea of commodifying himself, but the concern alleviated quickly. It wasn’t that he was selling himself, and he would still get something out of the exchange. The more people who entered his dungeon and spent aether, the more mana he would have to spend and grow. The larger he grew, the more people could come into his dungeon. The cycle would perpetuate indefinitely!
“I like this idea,” Zack finally said, excitement in his voice.
The other three turned to him in delight.
“I’m really glad to hear that,” Alex said, breathing a sigh of relief. “I’ll be honest, I was worried you might not be up for it, so I avoided telling you until just now.”
“It’s a great idea. Like, sure, I’ll be functionally whoring myself out, but it’s not like I don’t get anything out of the trade. There are, however, a few problems we’ll need to tackle before we can open for business.”
“Oh?”
“For starters, I’m going to need some new patterns. Not just monsters, either. I need items I can give out as rewards. We also might want to consider merchandise, things we can sell to attract more attention.”
“Leave that to me,” Greg said, giving a massive thumbs up. “I can get you some weapons, armor, materials, potions, you name it.”
“Perfect. I don’t think there’s an upper limit to what kind of potions I can make, but the mana requirements will change the more complex they are,” Zack said. “I still need that cash register, though.”
“Oh, I’ve got that covered,” Chandra said. She reached into her pocket and extracted her phone, as well as a strange cube-shaped device. She plugged the cube into her phone. “I’ve got a point-of-sale app that I use for conventions and my art business.”
“Art business?”
“I take commissions, mostly anime and furry art. That’s actually why Alex brought me here. He wants me to design signs and stuff for your business,” Chandra grinned and put her phone and cube back into her pocket. “After running it for myself, I’m interested in potentially working here. If it means I get unfettered access to the dungeon, of course.”
“Of course, and a salary,” Alex said brusquely. “This will be a worker run co-op. We’re a company for the people, by the people.”
“I like the sound of that,” Greg chuckled. “I’m sick of selling weapons to stuck up adventurers.”
“And I’m sick of being a starving artist,” Chandra agreed.
“Zack, are you okay with that?” Alex asked.
“I mean, it’s not like I need money,” Zack laughed. “Besides, you guys can buy me whatever I need, right?”
“That's the plan, and then the rest of our cash gets split between the rest of us,” Alex agreed. “No more shitty managers bossing us around. No more Karens screaming at us for disrespecting them. No more unlivable wages.”
“You make it sound like a dream come true,” Greg said, sighing wistfully.
“It is. Look, I’ve been trying to find an answer to my money problems ever since I got let go from MallMart. I think this is it. We’re not going to find a better opportunity than this!”
Greg and Chandra shared a look with one another, the silent exchange conveying their excitement and their apprehension. Zack had to admit, Alex was doing a good job selling the idea to them, but that didn’t change the fact that he was proposing they leave their current lives for a startup. There was no guarantee that this plan would work, no matter how much they poured into it. All of it hinged on Zack’s ability to be an exciting dungeon, and Alex’s ability to advertise him to their target market.
I’m going to have my work cut out for me, Zack chuckled mentally.
“I have one more request, before anyone agrees to anything,” Zack said, interrupting the deep thoughts of the others. “Chandra almost died today. If Alex hadn’t achieved a breakthrough and learned his new Cauterize spell, she would have been severely injured. I will not have people dying in my dungeon. It’s bad for me, and it’s worse for business.”
“I thought that’s why you wanted to have healing potions?” Alex asked.
“Sometimes people get hurt, too hurt to use potions,” Zack said. “I want to nip this in the bud before it becomes a problem. We need healers in every room to stop people from getting critically hurt and usher them to safety if their party wipes.”
“That is a very good point,” Chandra agreed. “People dying in the dungeon would get us in trouble very quickly. The last thing we want are cops, or worse, adventurers coming by to stop us.”
Greg nodded his agreement, too.
“Healers are really expensive, Zack,” Alex grumbled, crossing his arms. “Do you know how few people actually bother to learn healing magic? Everyone wants to be a tank or damage dealer. Nobody wants to heal.”
Zack scowled as he thought it over, and turned his attention back to Greg. “Are topical healing potions a thing?”
“Yeah. My sports shop sells healing potions in these plastic pods instead of glass bottles. All you do is pop them against the wound and the healing potion does the rest,” Greg explained.
“Okay. Get me some of that. I think I can conjure healing potions on the fly from my wisps, at a greater cost to my mana. That will have to do for now,” Zack said. “The moment we can afford one, though, I want a healer in here to teach the appropriate spells. I’ll make specialized healer mobs for just that reason.”
Greg nodded, and rose out of his seat with a groan. “In that case, I think I have a pretty big shopping list to handle. I’d best be going. Chandra, you want a lift back into town?”
“If you wouldn’t mind. Want a hand gathering your items?”
“Please. This is going to be expensive,” Greg grumbled.
“We can brainstorm logo ideas while we’re out. I’ll start a website on my phone, too,” Chandra agreed. She rose from her own seat, her body melting back to her human shape.
As the two of them left, Alex turned to Zack with a grin on his face. “So?”
“So what?”
“Am I a genius or am I a genius?”
Zack snorted a laugh, but didn’t argue. It really was a good idea. “What do you intend to call this brilliant business venture of ours, anyway?”
Alex’s grin widened to reveal his teeth. “I plan to call it…”