Abby wandered aimlessly around the streets of Setterton. To have a day off felt… weird at this point in her life. She was used to delving into the dungeon every day by now. Even if sometimes they took it slow, or a particular day didn’t happen to amount to anything exciting, at least she was still adventuring with Owyn. So to just do nothing seemed fundamentally wrong to her.

Owyn seemed excited for today at least. He enjoyed his breaks. So it didn’t surprise Abby to see Owyn missing from his bed with just a note left behind in the morning. As to what he was actually doing, Abby had a few guesses.

The smells of the bakery enticed her suddenly. Abby wheeled around on one heel, walking in the direction of the smell. The desire to have some bread was almost like the impulsion of dungeon cores, it was so strong. The fact that Abby knew she could resist it at any time felt reassuring to her. Not that she would. The fact that something other than a dungeon was enticing her made her feel even better.

“Abby!” Greeted Barry’s father, Mr. Mayflower. “I’ve got to say, it sure is odd to see you out and about at this time of day.” He leaned against the counter of his open air stall, attached to his home.

Abby laughed. “I’ve been hearing that a lot lately! You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had something fresh from your place. It’s always been packed away from Mrs. Lark’s cooking.”

Mr. Mayflower nodded seriously. “That sounds like a grand shame, I’ll tell you what. Here, why don’t you try one of these. Fresh just now! Courtesy of the fact that you take care of my boy.”

Abby took the small bun from him, biting into it without hesitation. It melted in her mouth, spreading a warm feeling all through her body.

“Mmmm! Oh man, I need to do this more often! This is amazing! What is it!”

Mr. Mayflower laughed. “Just bread! It’s the fact that it’s so fresh that makes it good!”

“Maybe I should take up baking as a hobby!”

“Well from what I hear about you adventurers, that might not be a bad idea. You see, if you’re going to make it out in the big city, you’re going to be delving into dungeons that might be so deep that you might need to make your own food while you’re down there! Having some knowledge about what is edible and how to prepare your own food might just save your life one day!”

“Maybe…” Abby considered it. “Actually, I think that’d be pretty useful! Any suggestions on how I could get started?” Maybe then Abby would actually have something to do today!

Alas, Mr. Mayflower just shrugged. “No clue. I’ve got a buncha baking recipes, but unless you have an oven on the go, you might be better off looking elsewhere.”

“Aw. Thanks anyways. And hey, tell Barry hello for me!”

“Will do lass! Take care now!” Mr. Mayflower waved goodbye as Abby left his stall.

Abby practically skipped away, eating the rest of her bun. Truely, fresh food was the best thing! After adventuring, of course.

Not even a dozen paces away, she nearly collided with Baroness Bellamy. Abby shouted her surprise into her bun, stumbling back. She attempted to greet her, but coughed due to the food still in her mouth.

“Abby.” The Baroness greeted. “I’m pleased to see you’re taking the day off. In fact, I was just looking for you.”

Abby quickly chewed the last of the bun and swallowed it past a rising cough. “What, uh, what can I do for you?”

“Have you seen Faux around?”

“Not since yesterday ma’am. Is something the matter?”

The Baroness shook her head, disappointed. “Not particularly. After meeting with you yesterday, I asked him to send out a series of letters of warning, as we’d discussed. This morning, I remembered I wanted to send a message to my father as well, even though this matter doesn’t affect him. However, I can’t find him, and I do not know who he uses to send the letters.”

“I see.” Abby stood there quietly for a second. “Do you think the dungeon did something?”

The Baroness laughed lightly. “Faux informed me that it’s a young dungeon, and one rather deep in the caves. Unless he went there himself, he should be fine.”

“Would he go there?” Abby didn’t know much about the man other than the fact that he was a librarian working for the Baroness.

“Good heavens no, he’s far too weak for that. The man couldn’t harm a fly if he tried! It’s rather a shame too, that he isn’t interested in magic. He’s so well educated, and he has such a powerful will.”

“Right.” Abby didn’t know how to carry the conversation from here.

Baroness Bellamy gave a polite nod towards her. “Well, if you do see him, please inform him that I’m looking for him.”

“Oh! If you want to send someone to your father, I’m sure one of the Dungeon Rats wouldn’t mind taking the journey?”

Baroness Bellamy shook her head. “They are one of the few people I know Faux uses for messages. I’ve already checked, and they must be running letters already. I can’t find them either. Please, if you would inform Owyn of what I’ve told you, I would be grateful. Just tell him to keep an eye open for Faux.”

“Will do!” Abby gave a salute, bun still in hand.

“Thank you dear. And have a good day.”

“You too!” She gave her a wave, finishing off her bun.

Now with a mission in mind, Abby set out to find Owyn. Of course, the first place she looked would have to be the magic shop in the market square. With such a small town like Setterton, it also doubled as a general store, making it one of the most common places for Abby and Owyn to gather supplies before their dungeon runs. It was also where Owyn would spend his free time, learning magic.

Stolen story; please report.

True to her assumptions, Owyn sat behind the counter with Old Jenny. Owyn was poring over a series of magic cores arranged on the counter when Abby opened up the creaky door. He gave her a quick glance before returning his attention to the cores. Since he was busy, Abby just wandered around the store, looking at the same items that were always there, as if somehow they would have changed since yesterday. Rope, candles, baskets, small hand tools, etc. Nothing that was mainly metal though, that stuff would come from Setterton’s blacksmith.

“This one.” Owyn said, pointing to a core.

“Nope.” Old Jenny smiled and took the core off to the side.

Owyn scratched his head furiously, but his eyes never left the remaining magic cores. Most of the magic cores were in halves or smaller. Old Jenny sold the larger chunks to a traveling merchant that rode through town once a week. The only cores she kept were the small ones, with weak spells.

“This one.”

“There you go!” Old Jenny cheered him on.

Owyn sighed, sagging a touch. “I’m just guessing. I have no idea which core had which affinity.”

“And yet, you’re getting better.” Old Jenny gestured to a small pile of cores off to the side.

“What are you doing?” Abby asked.

“Figuring out which cores have affinities for water.” Owyn said. “It’s really fascinating actually. Each core has unique affinities for what spells it can use. Any core can be used for any spell, obviously, but some cores take to certain spells easier than others. Not only do their affinities make the spells more powerful, but it also becomes easier to convert dungeon cores to magic cores if you know they’ll act more agreeable to your suggested spell.”

Abby’s eyes glazed over about halfway through his speech. “Suddenly, I don’t care.”

Owyn pointed to another core. Old Jenny shook her head, moving it off to the side.

Owyn placed his chin in his hand, leaning on the counter. “What’s up Abby?”

“Faux is missing.”

“Is he?” Owyn didn’t sound like he cared.

“The Baroness asked me to tell you to keep an eye out for him. She’s looking for him.”

“Where did he go?” Old Jenny asked Abby.

“If we knew that, he wouldn’t be missing, now would he?” Owyn muttered.

“We don’t know. The Baroness forgot to send a letter to her father, and she doesn’t know who to send.”

“Viscount Bellamy?” Old Jenny repeated. “Is this thing with the dungeon really such a big deal that he needs to be involved?”

Abby crossed her arms and leaned on the counter. “Not really. Or at least not according to her. She just likes to keep him informed, I guess.”

“But he lives so far away! The news won’t reach him for weeks!”

“Not my problem.” Abby casually studied the cores spread over the counter. She pointed to one instinctively. “This one.”

“Correct!” Old Jenny said, plucking the core out of the bunch.

“Ah- hey!” Owyn turned his glare over to Abby. “Don’t do that! This is my challenge?”

Abby smiled smugly. “You’re not very good at it.”

“I’m not the one who grew up in a magic shop! I just need more practice is all.”

Abby pretended to study her fingernails. “Mhm.”

Owyn glared at her a little longer before returning his attention to the cores. His eyes wandered over to the pile of missed guesses off to the side. He pointed to a white one.

“Wind affinity?”

Old Jenny nodded.

“Do you mind if I give it a spell?”

She gestured for him to go ahead. Owyn took the fragmented core in one hand. It was so small it hardly took him any effort to convert it to his spell. Almost immediately after he did, he pointed it at Abby. A sharp blast of warm air whipped her hair around her face. Abby shouted in surprise, batting her hands to fight the wind.

Old Jenny laughed. “Youth! What a gift! Oh Owyn, give it a rest, would you? I’m sure you’ve done enough. Here, why don’t you tell me how many more cores here have the water affinity, and I’ll let you go for lunch.”

Owyn stopped casting his spell and placed the core off to the side. Abby fixed her hair in silence while he judged the rest of the counter. “One?”

Old Jenny patted his back. “Close. Abby guessed the last one. There’s none left.”

Owyn wanted to curse, but held his tongue in front of the old lady. Instead, he stood and bowed, thanking her for her time. Before he could leave the shop with Abby, Old Jenny called out to them.

“Give a quick prayer for Faux dears!” She gestured to a figure in the middle of one wall.

A large, black dungeon core sat on a wooden pedestal. It was hexagonal, but the top and bottom were shaved off, effectively turning it into a simple pillar, about half the size of a human’s torso. A carving of the Goddess stood humbly on top. She stood with a half bow, holding a sphere in cupped hands, like an offering.

Neither Abby or Owyn were particularly religious, but that didn’t mean they were ignorant. The dead core that the statue stood on was meant to symbolize hardship, and how things can never last forever. Even magic cores ran out of power once converted, no matter how large they’d grown when they used to be dungeons. The fact that the Goddess stood atop of the core showed how humans had conquered dungeons, and would therefore be able to conquer every hardship they encountered. The Goddess held the world in her hands, but humbly bowed in offering, telling the humans that looked upon her that she was giving them the gift of the world. The gift of free will.

Abby and Owyn bowed to the statue for long enough to convince Old Jenny that they were actually praying before they left. Once out of earshot, Owyn began a conversation.

“I’m not actually hungry yet. You?”

“Mr. Mayflower gave me a bun. I’m good. Hey, did you remember how good fresh buns taste?”

“My mother never baked.” He said. He looked like he wanted to say more, so Abby stayed quiet to let him gather his thoughts. “Do you think the dungeon did something?”

“About Faux?”

“Yeah.”

“No.” Abby assured herself with the Baroness’s words. “The dungeon is too deep in the cave to send its monsters out so far, and Faux is just a librarian. There’s no way he went to it.”

“Still, the dungeon made me uncomfortable.”

Abby’s mood dipped a little. “I didn’t sleep very well last night.”

“Neither did I. Which is what got me thinking. We should have some sort of advanced warning system in place. To make sure no dungeon leaks monsters to the surface.”

He had Abby’s attention. “You mean like setting guards at the entrance? Like they do with the larger dungeons?”

Owyn tilted his head back and forth. “Yes and no. We don’t have enough people to actually set a guard, but we can still set up an alert. You still know how to set a snare, right?”

“Yeah?”

“What if we attached a bell at the end or something. We can set up a tripwire in the entrance a bit, maybe a snare or two, and then a bell. If anything triggers the snare, they’ll struggle for a bit and ring the bell. Even if they escape, we’ll at least have a chance of hearing them. Even if we don’t then we’d at least have proof that something came out of the dungeon.”

“That’s a good idea!” Abby brightened. She began leading Owyn to the blacksmith for him to make a bell for them. “We should have done this years ago!”

The idea tumbled out from there. After getting to the blacksmith, he told them that a bell would be very expensive, but they could use hollow bits of wood instead, like a wind chime. Owyn left Abby to go take care of that, and Abby returned to Old Jenny to buy the right kind of twine for the trap. After collecting all the necessary items, she ran to the cave’s mouth to meet Owyn. Abby excitedly set up the snares. Much to her enjoyment, Owyn volunteered to test them. First to make sure they would work, and more time after that to make sure Abby could hear the wood clacking against one another all the way back in town.

It wasn’t the best system, and the wooden chimes had to rattle rather loudly in order for them to even hear it at the entrance to the village, but it was so much better than nothing.

They slept much more soundly that night.