The next day, I was back at the Guildhall around noon with Sarah and the rest of her team. “We talked it over last night, and we’d like to hear more about what we’ll be facing before we agree to accompany you on this expedition,” Sarah said.

“That’s fair,” I say with a nod, then look around the semi-busy bar area of the Guildhall. “Let's see if we can get one of the Guidhall’s meeting rooms.”

“Why not just talk out here,” Nicolas pips up, and I shoot him a scawl.

“Because I don’t want every, Tom, Dick, and Harry, eavesdropping on our conversation,” I respond, which gets a raised eyebrow from Sarah. I wasn’t sure if that was because of the unusual reference or because I didn’t want to get into specifics about the expedition in public. In any case, I moved over to the reception desk.

“Hello, and welcome to the Southport Adventurer’s Guild. How can we help you today?” the receptionist chirped.

“Um, right, I was wondering if any Hall’s Meeting rooms were free?” I ask.

“I'm sorry, miss, but the Meeting rooms are for guild staff use only, " the receptionist said, and she seemed to actually be sorry she couldn’t help.

“Would it make any difference if I said I’d worked at the Guildhall in Forestend before coming here?” I ask hopefully. I could probably mention that the Guildmaster had sanctioned the expedition, but I was reluctant to play that card. Primarily because while the Guildmaster and my father had been friends and even adventured together, I wasn’t sure if he’d back me up on this.

“I’m sorry, Miss. Only current guild staff are authorized to use the meeting rooms, " the receptionist said.

“It's okay, Melissa,” Sarah said, coming up behind me, the rest of her party still standing where I’d left them. We can find somewhere else to talk in private.”

“No, I have one more card to play, but I didn’t want to use it.” Turning back to the receptionist with a sigh, “Listen, I’ll level with you. I’m trying to complete an agreement I made with the Guildmaster. To do that, I will be discussing some highly confidential information. I’d feel better doing it behind the built-in anti-surveillance wards the Guildhall’s meeting rooms have.”

“Um,” the receptionist hummed, “would you mind if I verified this with the Guildmaster?”

“Sure, go ahead,” I say.

“Confiential information?” Sarah asks.

“Well, it's not so much confidential as the information has wider implications that could cause a massive uproar. Unfortunately, if you're going to go on this expedition to the Lost Dungeon with me, you're going to need to know some of that information. I hope you realize I'm taking a risk in telling you guys any of this, and quite frankly, I’m only doing it because you’re the only Adventuring party that has shown even a slight interest in this.”

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“I’d give you my word that your trust hasn’t been misplaced, but I know we haven’t known each other long enough for my word to mean anything to you. So I just hope that by our actions, we prove it,” Sarah responds, and we fall into a comparable silence as we wait for the receptionist to return.

It didn’t take long for her to return with the Guildmaster in tow. When he saw me, the Guildmaster said, “Let her have what she wants,” and turned around to head back to his office. I was a little surprised by this, but the rest of the staff didn’t even blink an eye, and it was only a few heartbeats later that Sarah, me, and the rest of her team were being shown into one of the Guildhalls meeting rooms. Sarah sat at one end of the conference table with the rest of her party array along the side. After double-checking that the anti-surveillance wards were active, I sat at the other end of the table.

“I’m sure Sarah filled you in that I’m planning an expedition to what I call Southports Lost Dungeon,” I say into the following silence. “Southport used to have four dungeons, but for one reason or another that I couldn’t find in the historical record, the fourth dungeon’s entrance was sealed, and its location has been lost to history.”

“And what makes you think you’ll be able to find it,” Nicholas broke in before I could continue speaking.

“Because,” I say evenly, “I was able to find an old map that marked the location of the Lost Dungeon, and after referencing more modern maps, I’m fairly sure I’ve pinpointed its location.”

“But how are we going to get into it if the entrance has been sealed?” Dominique asks before Nicholas has time to retort.

“Actually, that will be the easy part of this expedition; barely an inconvenience. When I was young, after taking my class, I was fascinated by all the screens the system could display. To make a long story short, after spending a long time just digging around the various System screens, I found something called a User Guide—”

«You mean you wrote the User Guide,» Gem commented, which I ignored.

“—and it contained a treasure trove of information on how the System worked. Well, most of it's irrelevant to our decision, but the section about what we’re talking about was a Hybernating Dungeon. Apparently, for some reason, the guide didn’t go into it; some dungeons ended up in a state of hibernation where it has no control over the monster within it. More importantly, that section also detailed how to get around the seal on the entrance. The guide also explained various methods it called ‘troubleshooting steps’ that could potentially reactivate a hibernating dungeon.”

“So I take it the ultimate goal of this expedition is to try these troubleshooting steps,’” Sarah asked, cutting off the rest of her team's response.

“Essentially, yes,” I say. “the main problem is that because the monsters that inhabited the dungeon when it went into this hibernation state are no longer under the dungeon control, we really don’t know what we’re walking into. So, in a sense, even though this dungeon has already been discovered before, we need to treat this as if it were a newly discovered dungeon.”

“And I suppose for these troubleshooting steps to be effective, we’ll need to make it all the way to the boss’s room,” Sarah commented dryly.

“Well, ya,” I say, “I figured that was a given.”

“Okay, I know you said the dungeon had fifteen levels, and we’d be facing monsters up to at least level 45. From what you just said, are you confident that we’ll be seeing monsters of higher levels than that? Is there a possibility of the dungeon having created more floors since it was ‘lost’”

“Not unless it was in the process of opening a sixteenth floor when it went into hibernation. And yes, I’m confident we’ll see monsters higher than level 45. How much higher, I don’t know. Since they aren't under the dungeon's control, these monsters will act like we encountered them in the wild, so we need to be on our toes.”

“In that case, why don’t you go over what you can about what type of monsters the dungeon had and what we might expect from the historical accounts so we can put together a game plan,” Sarah said, and I do just that.