Two hours – and nine complete runs with a tenth about halfway through – had passed, and Vee was back to feeling more like himself. The last traces of strangeness were gone, and he pushed the event from his thoughts. There were too many other things for him to focus on, like properly managing the dungeon without the benefit of Reginald powering everything. He thought he was getting the hang of it. Things took a little longer, since he had to reach through his bonds to his orchestra and manually order one of his fiends to open doors, activate packs of monsters, and direct power to the floor orders that told them what to do once an adventurer entered a given room. It was a clunky process that frustrated both the [Dungeon Master] and – judging by their venomous tirades – plenty of adventurers. Still, business continued largely as normal, and when he stopped to think about it, Vee realized that he was enjoying the slower pace of administration.
It was certainly less convenient than his control panel and his symphony of switches, dials, knobs, and buttons, but it was more tactile as well, and Vee found himself wondering if there was anyway to take the fun parts of this and socket it into his normal routine once Crestheart was back to its full operational capacity. He’d gotten another level of [Dungeon Master] out of it too, which was nice.
“Hey boss, you going to activate the skeleton mages in the next room instead of the skeleton archers? I don’t think that this [Pebble Pusher] can really handle magic attacks all that well.”
Vee looked down through the viewing crystal. “What makes you say that?”
So far as he could tell, the swirling mass of small stones – [Gravel Armor], according to the adventurer – looked like it’d be just as effective against magical attacks as it was against ranged attacks.
Reginald extended one yellow finger and pointed at the stones themselves. “See how they’re grey and are covered in tiny circles instead of proper grain?”
“Sure. So what?”
“Those look like dust rocks to me, which have absolutely zero magic resistance. I bet they’ll turn to powder if the mages hit them with a hex or two. Go ahead and swap out the minions for me, eh?”
Vee rubbed his chin as he thought about it. It didn’t really matter which pack of minions he ended up using, he decided.
“Let me go ahead and get ahold of Mi,” he said.
“Be quick about it,” Reginald answered. “I think you have ninety seconds at most before he’s through these ghosts and moving on.”
Closing his eyes, Vee reached through his bonds and got Mi’s attention. Like most of the members of the orchestra, Mi was rather agitated. Frustration, fear, and funnily enough, boredom swirled around the fiend’s consciousness, and Vee couldn’t help but smirk as he passed along the change in directions. “Open the red door for this run, please, and not the blue one as you’ve been doing.”
“Understood, master.”
The fiend bent down and turned the makeshift ectoplasm knob at its feet. With a heavy clunk, the doors leading into the room changed, the light blue door replaced by a dark red one. Vee breathed a silent sigh of relief: he hadn’t been sure that the mechanism he’d rigged up to help the orchestra members manage the dungeon was going to work after the first few runs. Thankfully, it seemed that the time he’d spent watching Rortenferry build various machines had paid off.
After telling Mi that it was doing a fine job and he was pleased with its performance, Vee returned his attention to the office and flashed Reginald a thumb’s-up.
“Just in time,” the hat said. “He’s nearly done with the last ghost.”
Sure enough, the adventurer was peppering the final ghost in the room with sharp little pieces of rocks from his armor, and the minion’s ectoplasmic covering was torn to pieces by the volley. When it gave one last agonized wail and split into fragments, it also dropped a shard of chaos, and the adventurer paused to pick it up before heading into the next room.
Just as Reginald had thought, the adventurer’s armor exploded into fine dust as soon as the skeleton mages hit it with their hexes. However, it wasn’t until a hissing ball of purple magic struck the adventurer’s right arm that the man realized his protection was gone. He tried to reactivate the skill, but each time the tiny collection of stones appeared around his body they were dissipated by a flurry of hexes and other spells from the skeleton mages.
Dropping to his knees, the [Pebble Pusher] slammed his hands into the ground and shouted something Vee couldn’t make out. A mound of stones popped out of the ground, and the adventurer ducked behind it so that he could refresh his armor, though he was visibly shaking and two or three shades paler than he’d been when his run had first started.
Big orange and yellow stones appeared in the air around the man, but before they could form a proper armor, the adventurer lost his focus and they fell to the ground and shattered.
He held up his hands, ending his run, though a few more hexes from the mages found their mark before Vee managed to get Mi to stop them properly.
“And that’s just how it goes sometimes,” Reginald called down through his magnifying crystal – which he’d absolutely refused to let Vee divert power from when the [Dungeon Master] had tried – “Go ahead and develop your other defensive skills a bit more before you come back, eh?”
Stone-faced, the adventurer didn’t respond as he left Crestheart, and Reginald turned to look at Vee with a wry grin. “Not the most talented quarry we’ve ever had, was he?”
Vee rolled his eyes, and Reginald’s laugh filled the office.
***
Throughout the day, a small, albeit steady stream of adventurers came into the office and asked to buy some of the products the dungeon was selling to help cover their fleur crunch.
For the most part, there was a clear pattern to what sorts of adventurers preferred specific items. The higher level adventurers were mostly interested in the discounted runs – with the majority picking up five or ten run packages – while the lower level adventurers tended to ask about the one on one bouts with Alforde or individual reviews of their strengths and weaknesses.
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Vee made a list of all the purchases, feeling his nerves calm ever so slightly as they made their way closer and closer to the amount of fleurs they needed to make the next week’s payment. It was going to be tight, but he felt a familiar flicker of hope that they’d reach the threshold before the end of business.
Another adventurer came in, and when Vee looked over, he saw that it was Alisanne Henret, the twin club wielding [Fighter] who’d just reached level 14. She was grinning as she hoisted up a small but bulging bag of fleurs, and she dropped them at Vee’s feet as soon as she was close enough to do so.
“I’ll take two duels with Alforde, a review of my strengths and weaknesses after both, and as many discounted runs as I can afford with the rest,” she said.
Vee picked up the bag and opened it up to count the coins inside. They’d settled on ten silvers for a personalized review, and twenty one for the battle with Alforde. This latter cost was the same as the normal price for challenging the [Dungeon Champion] in the first place.
Vee set the fleurs that were already spent aside and tapped the rest as he did the math on how many runs Alisanne could afford.
“It looks like you’re a little short for a three run pack,” he said, hurrying to continue as the girl’s face fell. “However, it’s only by a few fleurs, and on account of the fact that you’re one of our best customers and bought other things, I’ll go ahead and give you the bundle anyway.”
Alisanne perked up and her mouth curled into a crooked smile. “Really? Thanks so much, Mister Vales!”
Vee used Cecil to record all of the girl’s purchases. “Before you go, Alisanne, would you mind answering a question for me?”
“Sure!”
Vee leaned back in his chair and said, “Okay, you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but is there a reason you’re so gung-ho for all these runs? Most of your comrades aren’t nearly so eager.”
“I know, they’re all slackers!” Alisanne said with a shrug. “And hmm, that’s a hard question to answer, really. There’s no like, burning reason that I want to try so hard, I don’t think. It’s not like I have any younger siblings to support or a lifelong dream to climb the ranks of the adventurer’s ladder, but I like challenging the dungeon and being an adventurer.”
“That’s it?”
“Sort of? I don’t know. Maybe not?” she fell quiet. “The first time I came here I had a really good time. I didn’t have to worry about anything but the monsters in front of me and I felt like I could really just…be myself. That was nice, you know? After that, sparring with the other low-levels during the open call was a lot of fun too. It was nice to be involved in a group of like-minded people and getting stronger together. I learned so much from some of the older adventurers, and they were all really nice. Like, some of the best people I’ve ever met. I tried to get some of them to come and buy some runs or duels since the high levels are being jerks about letting us sign up for things, but most of them don’t have a ton of spare money on hand and –“
Vee held up a hand and Alisanne trailed off mid-sentence. “What was that bit about the high levels?”
The [Fighter] folded her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes. “It’s this group of adventurers who’ve decided that the city needs better representatives for things like the open call and stuff. Basically they’re monopolizing as many of the guild’s events and training stuff as they can and telling us low levels that we need to train ourselves up without relying on proper classes and things. They’ve always been around, but I guess they’ve been getting a lot worse lately than they used to be, so it’s been tough for us low levels to practice and level up.”
“I see,” Vee said, rubbing his chin. “That does sound like quite the problem.”
“Boss, remember what we talked about,” Reginald called over, casting a wary eye toward Alisanne. “We definitely don’t have the spare resources to get involved with that right now. We’ve got to get our bills paid and take care of everything else.”
Vee frowned. He knew that Reginald was right, but he still wanted to try and come up with something to help the low leveled adventurers. He resolved to think about a bigger solution, thanked Alisanne for her business, and returned to his duties when the adventurer left.
Down in the dungeon, a spindly boy with unruly curls was holding a skeleton lancer at bay with a green [Forcefield]. Vee couldn’t remember which specific version of the skill that color corresponded to, but it seemed quite effective as the adventurer pushed the minion back and then filled the air with projectiles of the same color. They knocked into the lancer and sent it scattering, prompting Vee to activate [Walking Walls] to reveal the hidden room inside. The adventurer walked inside and collected the potion waiting behind the false wall, and then resumed his run.
Vee looked over at the clock as the caster headed down to Alforde’s arena. There was a little bit more than half the day remaining. According to the list in front of him, there were another eleven adventurers scheduled to challenge the dungeon. Hopefully that’d be enough.
Activating the magnifying crystal that went down to Alforde’s arena, Vee told his friend what to expect. Lacing his fingers behind his head, the [Dungeon Master] watched the fight play out once the adventurer arrived.
It wasn’t much of a bout, unfortunately.
Alforde’s training with Holly had paid dividends, and it didn’t look like a single one of the armorsoul’s movements were wasted or inefficient as he handily defeated the curly haired challenger.
The adventurer got up and shook Alforde’s gauntlet. The former foes said something Vee couldn’t hear, but when their conversation finished the adventurer looked up at the magnifying crystal and nodded.
A few minutes later, the door to the office opened once again, and the freshly-defeated caster stormed inside.
He wanted to buy duels against Alforde too.
Main Character Sheets
Vee Vales
Primary Class: Ghost Maestro (Locksmagister University), Level 30
Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 22 (+1)
Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 6 (
Might: 14
Wit: 35
Faith: 21
Adventurousness: 7
Ambition: 15 (+1)
Plotting: 20
Charisma: 15
Devious Mind: 24
Leadership: 19
Guts: 14
Intimidating Presence: 10
Citizenship: 21
Public Relations: 8
Determination: 3
Persuasiveness: 3
Bargaining: 1
Patience: 1
Competitive Spirit: 1
<3***Infatuation***<3
Alforde Armorsoul (UNCHANGED):
Primary Class: Hammer Afficionado (Self), Level 26
Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 15
Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 16
Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 9
Might: 48
Wit: 14
Faith: 28
Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9
Endurance: 26
Intimidating Presence: 12
Heart of a Champion: 11
Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 8
Vigilance: 7
Vanity: 1
Reginald:
Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ??
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Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 40
Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 18
Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 9 (+1)
Might: 1
Wit: 34 (+1)
Faith: 15
Ambition: 27
Greed: 23
Deceptiveness: 27
Manipulativeness: 39
$#&*!@!!: !!!
Loyalty: 47
Patience: 9
Irritability: 22
Remorsefulness: 17
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Hop@#!! @#$@!@#
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Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 8