“Is what possible?” Stella asked.

Aster nodded. He stood. “What if we seal off the front room of your dungeon and turn it into a tearoom? Uh, temporarily. Just until you have enough mana to start building your dungeon up and making it more powerful.”

Stella frowned. “That means letting humans in…”

“But you also get cookies,” Aster replied.

Stella’s eyes widened. She nodded furiously. “Okay!”

Milo cleared his throat. He leaned forward. “Er, but… tea and cookies cost money…”

“I have enough money to buy tea and cookies. Besides, we’ll charge people for their tea,” Aster said.

“But who would come to a dungeon to have tea? I think… we should at least bake our own cookies,” Milo argued.

“We can bake cookies?” Stella asked, hopping where she stood.

“I don’t know how to,” Aster confessed, slightly embarrassed. I spent my childhood learning how to fight and fighting for my life, usually at the same time. When I wasn’t fighting, I helped my parents at the forge. I don’t… really know how to cook at all, let alone the intricacies of baking.

“I do,” Milo said. He looked at Alice, who lurked in the shadows, staring at them with glowing red eyes, then at Silas, who still hung curled up in one of Stella’s crystals. He took a deep breath and looked up. “Alice lives and dies with the dungeon, now, and Silas… well, things like this will keep happening if we don’t fix up the dungeon. Right now… I want to keep my friends alive and safe. If helping out might… might accelerate Silas’ release, or keep Alice alive, then…”

Aster nodded. “It’s a good idea. We’ll see if we can set up an oven out here.”

Growing bolder, Milo leaned forward. He drew out a carcoal stick and began to write on the stone. “Putting aside the actual food and drink, we’ll need furniture, too, and teapots, and a way to heat the tea. All expenses.”

“Fire slimes!” Stella said.

“Huh? Oh, for heating the tea. That’s a good idea. Actually, we can incorporate fire slimes into the oven, as well,” Aster said. He tapped the furniture item on the list. “Daiyo can handle that.”

“Daiyo?” Milo asked.

“We’ll introduce you later,” Aster said.

Milo frowned, then shrugged. “But our biggest obstacle is marketing. We need to get the word out about the dungeon teahouse, and make people come, too. The dungeon’s been closed, to the usual adventurers aren’t coming, and you don’t want to open the dungeon, either.”

“No humans,” Stella said firmly.

Aster pressed his lips together. “Ultimately, we need to open the dungeon, but first, Stella’s defenses must be stronger. That’s the whole point of opening the teahouse: getting Stella enough mana that she can strengthen her defenses, so we can open the dungeon normally once more.”

“Right. So we can’t market to adventurers right now. Instead… what if we highlighted it as a limited-time chance to have tea in an exotic location? Put the word out around the town, and invite all the villagers to come see the dungeon while it’s closed? It’s an adventuring town, but many of the villagers farm our food or build our tools, or do all the other support tasks that adventurers need. I bet a lot of them are curious about the dungeon, but never got the chance to see it,” Milo said.

“Good point. Plus, I doubt many of them have been to a proper teahouse before. That’s a bonus on two levels… because they won’t know what to expect, so they can only be pleasantly surprised by our teahouse,” Aster said, grinning.

“Pleasantly,” Milo muttered under his breath. He shook his head.

“What? Have you been to a teahouse?” Aster asked, crossing his arms.

Milo nodded. “I’m… this isn’t a brag, or anything, but…”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“It sounds like you’re about to brag,” Aster said.

“But I’m a… third son of a low-ranking noble. I have had ‘proper’ tea before, and I’ve been to teahouses in the capital,” Milo explained. Pulling his sleeves back, he started to draw again. “Usually, they have between three and five tables… they’re meant to be cozy, I think. The larger ones might have individual tables sequestered in their own rooms, but we aren’t that expensive. Besides, the first chamber is relatively small, so we can’t afford to add that many extra walls. We should go for ‘cozy.’ We’ll need some sort of curtains, and a rug of some sort… do we have anything to use for that?”

Milo looked up at Aster and Stella.

Aster rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Third son of a noble, huh? I bet you’ve got tons of money.”

“Oh, come on,” Milo complained. He rolled his eyes. “I get none of the inheritance, and I got sent into the priesthood so I wouldn’t even have kids. Where does it sound like I’m going to have lots of money?”

Stella raised her hand. “I can go ask Viki.”

“Viki?” Aster asked.

Stella pointed at the ground. “She’s a plant monster. We could use big leaves!”

Milo opened his mouth, then shut it, putting a hand to his mouth. “Hmm… it’s free, and I suppose it’s better than nothing.”

“Okay, how about this? Milo, you design the room’s look and figure out the marketing. I’ll handle the heating elements and ingredients, and Stella can talk to Viki about generating the decorations,” Aster suggested.

“And Daiyo,” Stella said, nodding.

“Right, Stella can talk to Viki and Daiyo.” Aster paused. He looked at Milo.

“What?” Milo asked.

“I’ll have to leave the cave to gather ingredients,” Aster muttered under his breath. Last time I left for a few hours, these assholes snuck in. I can’t leave Stella alone.

But given that Stella won’t let humans in, and doesn’t want to hurt humans or lose her monsters, this is really our best path forward for now. I’ll convince her about becoming a proper dungeon later, for certain, but we need enough mana to make her strong enough to rebuff adventurers before we need to worry about that conversation. That’s why we’re doing the tearoom. But to do the tearoom, we need to have ingredients, and to have ingredients, I need to leave Stella, and to leave Stella before she’s strong enough to sustain herself…

Milo licked his lips. “What if I do my designing in the first room? You can put up a wall between me and the rest of the dungeon. That way, if anyone comes in, I can remind them the dungeon is closed.”

“And if Fontea and Jaro show up?” Aster asked, quirking a brow.

“If they show up…” Milo took a deep breath. “If they show up, I’ll tell them to talk to you. If nothing else, that should stall them for a while.”

Aster stared at Milo, one brow raised.

Milo shrugged at him. “You two have Silas in your hands. Stella could kill him at any moment. I’m not going to do anything to endanger his life.”

“Reasonable,” Aster allowed. He turned to Stella. “While I’m gone, stay away from Milo, and keep one of the friendly monsters… Daiyo, Alice, maybe Viki, near you at all times, understand?”

“I’m a priest. What can I do to her?” Milo asked, brows furrowing in annoyance.

Aster shook his head. A dark light shone in his eyes.

Realizing what he’d said, Milo waved his hands desperately. “No, no, I’m not that kind of priest—”

“If you touch her, it won’t just be Silas’ life that’s in danger,” Aster growled.

“No, no, no,” Milo said, backing away.

Aster turned away. Under his breath, he grumbled, “Damned holy light users, always go on about how useless they are when they can outright purify monsters…”

Milo blinked. “Oh, is that what we’re talking about?”

“What did you think we were talking about?” Aster asked.

“N-nothing,” Milo mumbled.

Stella ran over to Aster’s side and thumped a fist at his leg. “Are you leaving?”

“Not immediately. I’m going to work with Daiyo first, but… I can’t stay here, if we want to have a tearoom,” Aster explained.

“Then we won’t have a tearoom. No humans in my dungeon, then,” Stella replied, nodding to herself.

“No cookies, either, though,” Aster said.

Stella froze. She bit her lip, her brows furrowing. Abruptly, she looked up at Aster. “Hurry, go get cookies! But go fast.”

Aster smiled and ruffled her hair. “That’s right. I’ll be right back.” Shooting one last glare at Milo, he turned and headed for the boss room’s exit.

Halfway there, he stumbled. He took a deep breath and yawned deeply, rubbing tears from the corners of his eyes. How many times have I run the dungeon today? I’m exhausted.

Seeing that, Stella ran to his side. “No, no. Rest first.”

“I’ll be fine,” Aster insisted, gently pushing her away.

Stella ran in front of him and held her arms out. “Milo fell over. What if you fall over?”

Milo cleared his throat. “She has a point. Just because fighters don’t run out of magic, doesn’t mean you don’t need to rest. You’re just a human, Aster. Don’t run yourself ragged.”

Aster paused. He looked at Stella and Milo, twisting his lips. After a moment, he nodded. “I’ll rest.”

Stella cheered, and Milo nodded approvingly.

After all, this is a good test. If Milo runs off or calls his friends while I’m asleep, at least I’m right here beside Stella, and I can protect her from whatever happens. As opposed to if I leave, where anything could happen behind my back. Yawning, he wandered back to his tent and crawled inside.

Stella crouched at the opening. “You good?”

“I’m good. You should rest too,” Aster suggested.

Stella nodded. A second later, she vanished. He heard her tent rustling, then silence. Only then did Aster shut his eyes. Within moments, he was gone.

Left alone in the boss room with no gear, Milo licked his lips. Uh… am I supposed to sleep on the floor, or…? I didn’t know this would be an overnight trip! I only packed for a quick day run!