I made it to the tower just in time.
Calling it a tower was a gross simplification. The Dungeon Gate was inside a three story tall building that was on a hill overlooking the port. It was close enough to the palace that from afar it looked like the two of them could be part of the same building, even though there was a very wide road between them and the palace had a large courtyard and high fences to keep people out.
The tower wasn’t the impressive thing about the building. It was the giant, hollowed out tree next to it. The tree had died due to the proximity to the Dungeon Gate, but instead of cutting it down, the Taray’s had decided to hollow it out and turn it into a base for their family. It had since become an office and gathering place for Adventurers that were in their good graces and Ceridwen had constructed a more modern home that connected the tree and the Dungeon. It was impressive that she had accomplished so much, especially since she wasn’t the heir of the family and that the Tarays were based out of Slece. Having such a place for a branch of the family was nearly non-existent, and I had to wonder how much pull she had with the main branch if she was able to accomplish this much.
I walked into the bar, the room took up almost the entire first floor of the Hollow, and headed straight for the barkeep.
“The rush is about to hit.” The seventy-something, white-haired, brown-eyed, green-skinned man shook his head. “Might want to find somewhere else to be.”
“I’m right where I want to be.” I glanced at the large metal doors that led to where the Dungeon Gate was.
The Dungeon Gates were required to have at least two sets of walls around them in case there was a Dungeon Surge. When a Surge happened, monsters from one of the lower floors would start to migrate up. As they did, they pushed the monsters on the floor above them out, which had a domino effect of pushing monsters out of the Gate and into the city. Each Dungeon mouth was fitted with a protective ring around it that would prevent anything from leaving the Dungeon, but that only worked in theory. The problem was that if the Dungeon stayed sealed, there was no way for Adventurers to get into the Dungeon to clear out the monsters, which meant that the number of monsters on the first floor would continue to grow until either a monster strong enough to break the gate migrated up or the first floor swelled so much that a Dungeon Break happened. During a Dungeon Break, each floor of the dungeon would have their gate break off of the main dungeon and open the entrance to their floor somewhere close. Which usually meant in the middle of a city full of Mundane who couldn’t fight even a level one monster. It was a mess and the Dungeon on the island city of Tegir had broken so badly that the entire island was now full of nothing but monsters.
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I pulled myself out of my thoughts and focused on the barkeep. “I’ve recently inherited a lot of All and I feel like celebrating with people like me.” I gave him a grin. “How much celebrating will this buy me?” I took a hundred thousand All coin out of my CB.
The bartender shook his head. “You’re too clean to be messing with these type.” He nodded at the door. “Best leave while you can.”
I was definitely in the right place. I just had to convince the man in front of me of that. I thought about taking out my sword, the one that would have marked me as a Grenium. I still had the sword and the armor, just in case I needed them. The armor would take too long to put on if there was an emergency, but the sword would cut through things nicely.
Loud voices made their way through the door, it would be moments before the first Adventurers entered the bar.
“You have two choices.” I leaned forward, so I wouldn’t have to speak so loud and pushed the coin towards him. “You take the All, or I announce to all of these good people that this establishment thinks it’s too good for my coin and that I'll buy drinks at the first bar that wants it.”
The green man shook his head and took the coin.
“Good. Now get me something Tier Four and strong.” I needed to loosen up or else these Adventurers were going to mark me as a guard. While food still sated us, alcohol had to be brewed from materials obtained from the dungeon or it was like we were drinking water. Some things had to even be cursed because many Adventurers had passive healing or cleansing skills that would prevent even a buzz. I shook my head as I accepted the drink and downed it. It was sweet and there was no burn at all. Either this was the best drink I’d ever tasted, or the barkeep had given me something Tier Three or lower. I didn’t get a chance to ask him as the Adventurers that belonged to the voices entered the bar.
“Friends!” I spread my arms wide, pretending that the drink had actually done something. “I’m celebrating! Join me!” When they didn’t move, I added. “I’ve got a big hundred to burn. Drinks are on me!”
I smiled as they cheered and headed for the bar. I wouldn’t have to tell anyone else. These Adventurers would handle that for me. Now I just needed to sit back and listen to them spin their stories as I looked for someone who might know a better way to join up with Sipher than simply walking into the ruined city on Tine and shouting the outlaw’s name.