“I don’t know what to tell you.” I say with a shrug, “The Boss was a Level Sixteen Rock Troll. “I even have the Troll Heart to prove it.” Saying this, I shake my head and try to make my way over to the other side of the room to get a few hour's rest before I tackle the rest of the dungeon. Before I could actually put my plan into action, the red-haired girl stopped me again.

“Listen, it's not that we don’t believe you,” the redhead said, which elicited a grunt of disagreement from the man. “but for as long as anyone can remember, the Fifth Floor Boss has always been a Fire elemental.” She paused and then seemed to make a decision: “Anyway, it seems we got off on the wrong foot; I’m Sarah.”

“Melissa,” I responded, shaking the offered hand.

“Excellent,” the redhead… Sara beamed. “let me introduce you to everyone. The disagreeable one is Nicholas, our rouge is Dominque, and the two mages are Jacob and Andrew, their twins if you’d believe it.”

“Right,” I say, unsure what to do, “anywho, I’m going to rest for an hour or two before tackling the rest of the dungeon. You guys have fun.” I added, trying to end the conversation, and Sarah seemed to sense it.

“Oh, um, right.” She said, “We were going to head back up. Maybe we’ll see each other in Southport?”

“Maybe,” I said noncommittally. Finally, I could make it over to the other side of the room and sat down against the wall. Leaning my head against the wall, I close my eyes, and the next thing I know, I’m no longer in the dungeon but in the office overlooking a lake. However, there were a few differences, unlike the first time I found myself in this office all those years ago. First, I was sitting behind the desk, and Gem was standing in front of it. The other difference was that she was not alone. The second was the young man who appeared to be about my age with tousled dark brown hair standing next to her. His t-shirt and shorts would have been out of place in Questoria even if the shirt didn’t reference a band that never existed on the planet.

Letting the silence drag on a little longer, I took in the perfect recreation of one of the System creator's offices. Over the years, it had become one of my favorite virtual environments primarily because it had the best view of all the ones we’d tried. A close second was Katheran’s living room, which was used mainly for relaxation. Sliding my hand across the desk surface, displays winked into exitance, floating a few meters above the desk. I couldn’t entirely hide the grimace at seeing the project I’d been working on; it had not been going well, and I pushed the display to the side so I could see the two infomorphs.

“So, care to explain?” I open the floor, leaning back in the comfortable chair.

“Administrator,” the young man said, “As your talk with the group on the Sixth Floor indicated, the normal Fifth Floor Boss is not something most delvers wish to take on solo. This has reduced the number of solo delves. I have been working on another path designed specifically for solo delves to rectify this. It was just a fortuitous turn of events that I was planning to start limited testing when you decided to visit.”

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“So you're using me as a beta tester, so to speak. “

“Essentially, Yes,” the Dungeon intelligence said with a slight bow.

“that doesn’t explain the few times I ran into other groups?”

“Ah, well, you see, both the group and solo paths intersect at various points, which gives the appearance that there is still only one path. From my research of human psychology, it was clear that if it was made obvious that there were two paths—one for groups and one for solo delvers—some might…um… believe they were being slighted.”

I stared at the Doungeon's intelligence for a few heartbeats before giving a slight nod in agreement. “I’ll concede the point, but I’d point out that if only solo delvers run into the Rock Troll, people might get suspicious. Anyway, that doesn't explain why the dungeon map only showed one path.”

“Um, that was my doing,” Gem piped in a little abashedly, and my eyes drilled into her. “I may have accidentally, on purpose, moved the metadata file for the group path, so only the new solo path showed on the map.”

“I hope you're planning to put it back,” I say, my tone pleasant, but my eyes bored into her.

“Already done,” Gem replied with a breathy laugh.

“Right, I have a question: how were you able to integrate the two paths seamlessly?”

“Ah, that's actually quite interesting, administrator; you see, I took inspiration from rail networks on the creator’s homeworld. Part of the network involves two rails merging into one, and there are these special tracks that move to align the rails, allowing the train to enter and exit the single rail. I use a similar concept to connect the tunnels to the tunnel leading to one of the shared rooms.”

“that is quite ingenious,” I say, “but what happens when you have someone coming down the sole path and a group coming down the group path simultaneously.”

The infomorph opened his mouth to answer but a moment later closed it before saying, “I hadn't thought of that. I will have to run a few simulations to find an optimal solution. Thank you, administrator.”

“Well, if you’d like my two cents, “ I answer, “you could probably just put some obstacle that delays one of the paths so you can get the switcher back in position. Almost all of your tunnels have at least one trap, so probably some trap that could be easily concealed when not needed.”

“Hum,” the Dungeon Intelligence murmured. “I’ll have to consider how to incorporate it, but that might work. Thank you again, administrator. You have given me quite a bit to think about.”

“Well, in that case, you’re dismissed,” I say, and the young man winks out of existence; turning to Gem before she can do the same thing; I add, “Gem, a moment.”

“Yes, Mel,” Gem asks innocently, and I sigh. Letting the chair snap back upright, I rest my elbows on the desk, resting my chin on my interlocked fingers.

“It worked out this time,” I say, “but in the future if a Dungeon Intelligence wants me to try out an untested part of their dungeon, tell me in advance.”

“Of course.”

“ And that doesn’t mean the second after I step into the dungeon,” I add.

“Ah, that's no fun,”

“I’m serious; I’ll make it an order if I have to,” I say, and a flash of apprehension crosses the woman's face. It was one of the few “perks” of my class that I was least comfortable with. As an administrator, I had the authority to order Gem to do anything I wanted, and she’d have no say. When I was younger, I had laid awake at night thinking about what someone less…moral would do with that kind of power. Giving myself a shake, I pulled the display with the project to the front and said. “I have a few hours before I have to ‘wake up.’ Why don’t we figure out why this isn't working.”