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The adventurers didn’t go down into the dungeon for a second try that day. Not because they had gotten so hurt, but because they had some celebrating to do.

As Iris was getting bandaged up by Molly, Bee confided to Ernesto. “I leveled up.”

The boy slowly, awkwardly smiled. “Congratulations?”

She glanced at him, “I’m excited, but it feels wrong to be excited when you and Aunt Iris are hurt.”

The boy nodded again. “It doesn't hurt, and I leveled up too.”

He got a strange look on his face. Proud and a little lost. “I’m not a Survivor anymore, I’m a Defender.”

Well, good for you boy. You’re a real adventurer now.

On their way up, with Molly supporting Iris and the boy using his pitchfork for a cane, they found a plastic container with twenty four potions of Insulin waiting for the healer. Which seemed to perk her up a bit.

Upstairs she made a phone call for more of the pizza. “My treat. I leveled up.”

Iris seemed a little disgruntled when Bee and Ernesto announced they had leveled up as well. A bit greedy aren't you old woman. You just leveled up yourself and got a great ability as well.

Molly had gotten an ability called Boost which temporally raised someone's Health score to keep them alive while she was healing them. Whatever description she had gotten didn't mention that it could be used before a fight as well. Or she didn't mention it so no one would ask her to.

Bee got Defensive Aura which would work against most of the attacks the creatures in the dungeon had available to them, especially after Molly snagged the Crossbow. Putting the dungeon loot into the adventurer’s hands at last.

I was going to have to replace that with something. I wonder if I could rig up something like these flamethrowers Kelvin showed me on the You Tube?

Besides the class change, Ernesto had gotten the Taunt ability. It was one of the most common Defender abilities, but it had always annoyed me. When I had gotten it, all I could think of was “Great, a special way to get more things to attack me. I feel so blessed.”

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While eating their gooey hot meals, which I noted not even a single slice was offered to me, they discussed plans for getting past the forest room.

Alas, that was not to be.

I had noticed a few men stopping by Hector's while the adventures had been in the dungeon. Now they had returned to their vehicle and took out a small but heavy looking four wheeled device from the back of their car and began pushing it by a long set of handles around the neighborhood.

Only to stop as they walked it down the front footpath in front of Iris’s house, and then stop. The man pushing the device slowly began walking around it in a circle, becoming more alarmed with each step.

He finally turned to the other man. “It’s huge sir, way too big and round to be anything natural. And it’s twice as big as the Zug island incursion.”

Incursion, that sounds like something bad.

The other man was making a call. “This is Agent Drucker. Code Moria, I repeat, code Moria, we have drums in the deep.”

I had Kelvin look up Moria, and I looked at the Google he got. I think my time of operating in secret is over.

I wrote a note and sent it up to Iris, the four of them seem pleased to see the champion as he came out of the kitchen. The boy seemed to sense that there was a problem as the kobold gave him a grim nod.

Iris read the note, stiffening up before finally sighing. “The feds have arrived.”

She looked at the boy first. "Ernesto, take a quick shower and get dressed. You should have some time."

Then her niece. "Tell your friend to say goodbye to her man, and then pack a bag.”

Finally, she turned to Molly. "Please call a Uber to take the kids back to your place for now. Get them to the news crews when they show up, and tell everyone about who Tark is and what we've been doing."

Molly nodded. “Got it, get our story out and it’s harder for them to grab us and hide us somewhere.”

Bee started to argue with her aunt, while Ernesto raced downstairs gnawing at a slice of pizza.

I was a little distracted, grabbing ahold of my wife as she suddenly appeared. “No matter what happens to me, I will be waiting for you when you are done with the girl. No matter how long it takes.”

Iris had headed outside to the end of the path from her front porch to where the men still stood, one of whom was holding up his hands and apologizing.

“Save it. My name is Iris Deslover and I own this property and everything below it. The dungeon belongs to me and I am not giving it up. There is no law against owning a dungeon and I'm going to go call my lawyer right now as well as the cops. So get off my property and if you intend to enter my property you better have a warrant."

Then she stomped off with a grin on her face before either of the two men could begin to speak.

I believed the old woman had been preparing, and looking forward to this fight for quite some time. Inside she made a call. “Stanley? This is Iris, that situation we talked about. It’s on, call the cops, call the news, and get them here before the fed lock the place down.”

In the core, Alelan gave me one last kiss and slipped out of my arms despite my reluctance to let go of her.

Looking around, I found myself surrounded by a dozen or so Summoned Kobolts and I regretted that I had only given a handful of them names.

"The people who are coming here believed the dungeon to be a mindless killer. So we have two goals. One, not to kill." My minions seemed disappointed at that. "And two, show them that the dungeon and its defenders are far from mindless."

"We have only a few hours at best to prepare. So I'm going to start with a spell.

Dictum of Law

Dictate a Law that limits what can work in a dungeon

Only one Dictum can be in effect at a time

“Dictum. Explosives do not work in the dungeon.”