There was no way for Kat to know that Lacey and Colt had tucked all the extra levels in layers between them and Kat. There was no way Kat could know that the Manchester Room had collapsed, making it almost impossible to pass the lowest level. As far as Kat knew, even if she was in communication with her familiar, the way was clear all the way down to the control room and Lacey and Colt were easy targets. Kat could have been a jerk, but she hadn’t even tried. Instead, she’d trotted out of their dungeon with a wave and a smile.
Lacey let a smile form on her lips as the dungeon pulsed into a green. Every level that had been completed with no casualties had completely reset and their quest ticked up to 5/25, making Lacey begin to hope that the darkest days were over. The pace was doable. Colt dropped the creatures she’d drawn onto the pedestal and their hoard quest updated to 5/20 with the summoning tickers still at 0/100 until they summoned them. Lacey wasn’t sure what she would do with 100 exploding pillows, but maybe she could find a slumber party themed room or something in her dreams that night. The big quest was chugging along at 35,122/1,000,000, but it was only a few hours in and the pace would be okay if they didn’t have any really bad setbacks.
Now that they were watching stats go by on these quests, some interesting facts came to light. The beetles produced at double their normal speed when folks were in the dungeon exploring. It only really happened in the active levels. It was like the denizens of the dungeon knew when they needed to go into overdrive.
“Go see your girlfriend,” Lacey’s dopey smile was as stupid as Colt’s normally was. “I’ll make sure the goblins know what levels to reset.”
“I wish,” he muttered under his breath, the floor lurching as he moved their control room close to the stairwell that led down out of the Aztec Tomb.
“She likes you,” Lacey admitted. “She just doesn’t want to come off as a pushover.”
“Ginger will already be sending her crews to go reset those levels,” Colt changed the subject. “What if there’s only one coupon? You should go. You need the air more than I do.”
Lacey backed toward the door out of the control room, a challenge in her eyes. “You really think she’d leave just one coupon?” Lacey waved him to follow.
“No, but I don’t want to get my hopes up,” Colt lit up, and chased after Lacey pushing her through the doorway.
There were 2 coupons. Colt took his and nearly skipped back into the control room to take the shortcut to the entrance. Lacey took the long way, easily bypassing the traps with her George and wondering if she was hobbling herself by not forcing herself to figure out how to level up skills like Kat had. Lacey was grateful that Kat hadn’t taken advantage, but it didn’t sit right that Lacey and Colt had so few skills in comparison.
As Lacey poked her head outside the dungeon, she was taken aback by the changes outside. The clearing had been expanded, though tree stumps still ringed it, the adventurers out there were using them as tables or seats. Campsites had broken out like hives, their little columns of smoke drifting up with some tantalizing smells that told Lacey they did some hunting in the woods. There had to be at least a hundred people, busy as goblins, turning their dungeon entrance area into a settlement.
Lacey turned to look at the mountain. There were 10 entrances, but it looked a lot different than the first time Lacey had come out with Colt. There were 2 rows of 5 entrances and the adventurers had built wooden ramps to the upper levels. Now that Lacey was looking at it, she could see a better way to organize.
“We should stagger the openings so that they don’t have to build around the lower entrances,” Lacey said as she walked up to where Colt and Kat were talking.
“That’s a good idea,” Kat nodded, but her brows creased. “Any chance we can run another round of adventurers through today?”
“I was just saying that we needed to reset a few things first,” Colt turned to Lacey. “I can go check in with Ginger to see how long it’ll take.”
“No need,” Lacey waved him off. “She was heading out here when I left. She wants to know where to put the treasure chests we got for the successful incursions.”
“You get treasure too?” Kat perked up, sticking her hands in the pockets of her leather pants.
“We only get treasure for the incursions where the adventurers voluntarily leave without any casualties,” Colt explained, looking for Ginger.
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“We already set these guys to respawn in this nearby town,” Kat nodded. “The casualties weren’t as bad as I thought they might be, but I’m a little worried about the highest party wipe.”
“Are they pissed?” Colt asked.
“I won’t know until they respawn, but their respawn time is more than a day and a half,” Kat frowned. “I don’t think they will be, but they were the only complete wipe.”
“We were thinking that the final room was too tough,” Lacey admitted reluctantly. “At least for NPCs.”
“Do you have something different to replace it with?” Kat suggested, her eyes squinting against the sun that was setting behind the mountain. “At least until I get a chance to try the room for myself. I can probably tell you if they were just sloppy or if was really too hard.”
“How’d you like the Aztec Tomb?” Colt prodded Kat.
“It was great!” Kat’s eyes lit up, and it was only then that Lacey noticed that Kat was cleaned up from all the blood and dust of the tomb. “Its well calibrated for the level. The only reason it took me so long was that I was alone, which no one else would really do. I gained 2 levels. I’m up to 12 today, but I can’t hit that one that wiped until at least the end of the week. It shouldn’t take me much longer to level up that high to take it on.”
“I can tier down the Manchester Room,” Lacey felt the praise and let it sink in, but they had such limited time outside that she wanted to focus on solving issues only Kat could help them with. “If you want to try that level next, I’ll set it up.”
“I wouldn’t suggest the Aztec Tomb for anyone that didn’t have a rogue in the party,” Kat shook her head. “Loved the chains and sarcophagus puzzles. I had to lockpick my way past it without a group, but I can see where it would be faster for the group to do the puzzle instead of bypassing it. Do you have higher levels of the Aztec Tomb, or can you tier it up like you said you could tier down for the Manchester Room?”
“Tiering up and down is just a matter of swapping out monsters and arenas with lower or higher-leveled monsters and calibrating the poisons and difficulty levels of the traps,” Lacey pondered. “It shouldn’t take me more than an hour and half to set that up, but if you want another run today, that might be pushing it. We started late already, and this would push us into nighttime.”
“Will that be a problem?” Kat pressed, but Lacey could see that she wouldn’t try to bully them into doing more than they could do.
“I was hoping for some sleep tonight,” Lacey admitted with a tilt of her head.
“We might also need to do an overnight refresh for the mobs we lost,” Colt blew out a breath. He wanted to give Kat what she wanted, but he was right in that they could use a nighttime speed-up if they wanted to level up a bit more of the menagerie. If Lacey and Colt could sleep at the same time, the stable of Gossowaries could give them enough for another copy of the Aztec Tomb.
“You need 2 hours to reset the dungeon,” Kat tapped at something on her display. “It’s a little past supper time out here. What do you say to breaking for the night tonight, and we’ll try for 2 sessions tomorrow? If we start a little after dawn, break for a 2-hour reset and then do an afternoon shift, we could finish in time for late supper?”
“That sounds doable as long as nothing goes too wrong,” Lacey exchanged a look with Colt, who nodded.
“That’s beyond our hopes, so we’d be pleased out here if we could pull that off,” Kat beamed.
“It works for us too,” Colt nodded thoughtfully. “We got some quests that make us just as motivated as you are to keep a steady stream of adventurers coming through.”
“I’m a little worried about our casualty levels, but I think we should run a few days to see if we need to change things up,” Kat waved over her head at a person who then turned to walk toward them. “I’d like to introduce you to one of the guild leaders. He’s not going to do the dungeon as he’s too high a level, but he came out to see what’s what.”
“Are we safe enough out here?” Lacey leaned close to Kat before the man in chain armor got too close.
“Sure,” Kat gave Lacey a wink. “Shadow’s closer than you might think. Even if someone here had nefarious plans, Shadow is watching your backs.”
“I don’t see him,” Colt leaned into their little whisper session.
“And that’s one of the things that makes him so dangerous,” Kat purred, and now that Lacey was looking, she could see that Kat’s hand rested lightly on a mound of air.
(Lacey) Perception +1
Once she’d seen it, Kat’s hand loosened so that it didn’t look like anything at all. Lacey realized that Kat had let her see. The tall man in chainmail was getting closer and Ginger was peeking out of the nearest dungeon exit warily. Colt waved Ginger over. They weren’t far from the entrances, so Ginger got to them before the new guy did.
“Bernard!” Kat called out to break out of their huddle.
“It’s only a little after 6pm,” Colt turned away from the approaching newcomer to speak to Ginger. “Can we have the dungeon reset in an hour?”
“Reset easy,” Ginger nodded, but grimaced as she lifted up a little ball of fur. “Pet difficult.”
“Spark is causing problems?” Lacey took her pet, giving a sideways look at where she imagined Shadow to be.
“Yowl at entrance,” Ginger wagged a finger at Spark. “Spook unnamed workers. They think ‘ghost of dead adventurers.’”
“We still have unnamed workers?” Lacey groused. “I thought I got the latest batch.”
“Too stupid to name,” Ginger rolled her beady red eyes. They still got a few really stupid goblins once in a while. Not knowing what else to do with them, Ginger had used them to clear and carry. “New one try take full treasure chest to water cavern. Eve and Adam compete to see who can raise sunk treasure chest first.”
“My money’s on Eve,” Colt chuckled.
“Ginger take bets,” Ginger turned a shrewd smile on Colt, her hand out palm up. “What wager?”
“Fine,” Colt shook his head back and forth. “You think Adam will fish it out? You’ve got a bet!”
“Ginger think Eve not get chest out of water first,” Ginger asserted.
“Same thing,” Colt shrugged and rummaged in his pockets for something that would appease Ginger as a bet worth taking.