Tommy’s perspective

Tiara seemed worried, more so than usual, when she told us that the dungeon needed us to get Anderson for help. I wasn’t about to question much but I did need to know what to tell him, and according to her the church finally came back.

Opening the door to the adventurers guild I walked quickly to the front desk.

“Oh hi Tommy” Sera said. Sera was a woman in her early twenties, human with blonde hair wearing the traditional receptionist uniform. “I don’t think there’s any groups today that can take you along sadly, this isn’t the day you usually come so nobody expected it.” She did sound very apologetic, maybe she thought we needed money? No not since Anderson so very kindly donated what was of course never in the chest downstairs officially.

“I need Anderson, now.” I said solemnly, “the church just came to the orphanage.”

Her usual cheery smile vanished instantly into a very serious expression. “I’ll go get him.”

We stood there waiting for all of a few seconds when we heard a muffled statement followed by the sound of a chair and possibly a table being knocked over. Anderson came running out and jumped over the counter and began to look us up and down.

“Are you okay? Did anyone get hurt? Did they go in the house?” It was a lot to answer all at once.

“Uh yes we’re fine, nobody got hurt and they didn’t get near the house that I saw.” I answered honestly. “I was inside and Tiara told me the dungeon wanted me to come get you for help.” James nodded as if to agree with me.

“Stay here,” he told us sternly, “I’m going to get a couple people to help as guards and we can go back.”

With that he turned nodded at Sera and went to the training grounds out back to get a few volunteers. It felt just a little bit less stressful knowing we had some help. I sure hope the dungeon has some sort of plan.

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• • •

Dungeon perspective

While the kids were gone getting help I decided the house needed another makeover, hopefully it will be a little more sturdy for the upcoming fight. The thin boards used previously were replaced by logs to hold up the roof of the porch, the walls became more solid. Looking inside I can see more studs around to help with stability and it even had a plumbing system now. The biggest change that came from it was the water tower that spawned. I never knew what they were for so I looked at it’s information.

‘Water tower, this structure is connected to the plumbing of the orphanage and holds a head of water up high to allow for water pressure without the need for any power. Must be filled every week, would you like to upgrade the tower to have it auto refill instead?’

Yes, let’s get rid of anything that may cause problems down the road.

The tower glowed for a moment and stopped. Nothing visibly happened so I decided to investigate. Looking closely I can see a rune on the inside top of the tower that more or less said that it would release water whenever the water level went down, so it would always be full. Neat. Okay, so now that I’ve maxed out pretty much everything Al I need to do is expand… but I can’t do that yet. No, not with me taking in THAT. I can’t just do that Willy nilly.

“Visitors” came Bruce’s deep almost raspy voice.

Looking toward the town I saw five, hold on five? Yeah five figures coming toward the house. It was Tommy and James back of course, they brought Anderson and two other along with them. They were in leather armor and both had spears, both were cat people with similar coats, twins maybe? Don’t tell me they have clones in this world.

Tiara go greet the guests please.

Tiara hopped up from the game of go fish they were playing together. I had made cards from mana as a way to practice and showed them how to play, no way I would show them poker just yet.

Tiara joined the group closing in on the house, “weird place isn’t it brother?” One of the cat men asked.

“Yes, so many avatars and monsters but nothing has attacked us yet.” The other brother responded.

“I told you both you would be safe here,” Anderson said with a hint of a smile. “You’re just here in case the church comes again.”

“I still don’t see what’s so bad about the church coming here” the first brother sniffed.

“That’s something I can explain on the way back. Since you both are helping with this we hope you can be trusted with this information.” Anderson said almost as a warning.

“We’ll why don’t we know if these kids here know if?” The second brother asked slightly irritated.

“Because the church used to run this place, so they know first hand what the church is.” Anderson said with an air of finality, closing the conversation. Changing his focus as they neared the door he addressed Tiara, “I’m sorry for not saying hello, as you could see I was in a conversation. And speaking of that lets go inside and have one ourselves. I hear that your father needs my help?”

Before she can respond I tell her what I need. “Yeah he needs your help,” she says eyes bright, “we need you to bring the viscount here to talk.”