They had to make another entrance that fed into the race, so that 2 groups could come into it at once. There were upgrades that would make that easier in the future, but for now, they had to do the workaround. Lacey realized that right before they opened the dungeon, but Colt managed it from the control room while she directed a few elite goblins to help the process cost them less in credits.
“Are we ready?” Colt asked Lacey over chat.
“As ready as we can be,” Lacey replied, sending an elite goblin outside to let the adventurers know that they were open.
Adam sent up a signal and 9 runner goblins dashed out to the other entrances where 9 other elites waited. From there, each of the elites exited the dungeon with a show that Adam had organized. Lacey watched the elite bare its teeth at the throng that had gathered just outside the entrance. He flexed muscles and shook his spear over his head, and Lacey nearly laughed at the theater of it all. She’d had no idea they went to such lengths.
“Adam hear Ginger level up,” Adam jostled Lacey’s shoulder with his own.
“Yep,” Lacey took a deep breath, trying to stick with her new resolve to own her life.
“Adam level up too?” he said, more as a demand than a question.
“You need to stay the same level as Eve and if you dare to challenge me or Colt, I’ll end you and respawn you into a grave you can starve in forever,” Lacey stared at Adam with eyes so serious and intense that he gulped and nodded almost pitifully in response. Adam obviously remembered Lacey’s last temper after they’d ruined her moonshine supply. “Then, yep, Adam can level up.”
Lacey turned a grin toward the entrance to the race like she hadn’t just loosened the bowels of a goblin that was probably already physically strong enough to break Lacey in half. The elite that had gone outside reentered the cave, causing Adam to bluster up enough courage to pretend that Lacey didn’t scare the shit out of him.
“What did you say to Adam to make him look like that?” Colt asked her. Some of the menagerie had come into the visible portion of overflow, probably curious to hear the voice of their dungeon master.
“I told him he could level up as long as he stayed the same level as Eve,” she told Colt, watching the nearest Gossowary stick its head through the portcullis that held all the animals back.
“That all?” Colt pressed. Lacey reached out to pet the Gossowary.
“And that if he challenged you or me, I’d bury him,” Lacey answered, the grin still on her face.
“Good to know scary Lacey is still in there,” Colt quipped.
“Still want your old best friend back?” Lacey looked up at the ceiling, her eyes narrowed.
“Never lost her,” Colt’s reply came back to her with a winky face, and she could only shake her head. Lacey moved to stand between the two huge doors into the dungeon challenge.
“You told Kat to come into this one, right?” Lacey asked the elite that was taking his spot behind the sign-up table.
“Point at crazy woman in black,” elite nodded his head.
Lacey wondered if there were more than a few crazy women in black out there. If she had Kat’s armor, maybe she’d be considered a crazy woman in black too. The very thought had Lacey chuckling to herself and that was the scary picture that greeted Kat.
“This is new,” Kat smiled a careful smile at Lacey.
“Yep,” Lacey held her new flippant self in front of her like a shield against the insecurity that reminded her that this new her was only skin deep.
Another group of 5 worked their way up from a lower chamber. They paused at the sight of Kat in the room, but Lacey waved them into the 50’ by 100’ room so that Kat and the group stood next to each other. Leather creaked, metal scraped, and brows creased in confusion.
“See these two doors?” Lacey asked them, pointing behind on either side of herself. She stood between the doors, which each stood 10’ high and 20’ wide. The doors were thick wood banded with glistening iron, each with a huge doorknocker in the shape of a sun. The doorknockers were decorative, as was the 15’ tall statue that stood between the doors at Lacey’s back. Only the goblins at the table knew where to touch the statue to either open the door to the dungeon, or the portcullis to release the menagerie.
Lacey waited for the nods and then continued, “Group 1 will go through the left doorway, and Kat will go through the right one. This dungeon isn’t like other ones though. This one is a competition and only one group can win the grand prize of 100 gold.”
“What does the other group win?” the guy in red chainmail asked Lacey.
“Half that,” Lacey answered them. “If you aren’t interested, exit now and let another group take a turn instead.”
“But what’s the challenge?” Kat asked, edging away from the portcullis, where a Gossowary had sneaked close enough to pluck at the sleeve of the careless. Kat was not careless.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Hey!” The rogue of the other group wasn’t so careful and lost a patch of cloth from his sleeve. “Is that thing level 30?”
“What’s going on? I thought this entrance was for 15-20,” the guy in the robe, obviously a magic-user, demanded.
“The menagerie overflow area is full of higher levelled mobs,” Lacey admitted. “They won’t be released unless you provoke me or the goblins at the table. The level doesn’t even really begin until you walk through the doors and the mobs inside there are what you’d expect for the level.”
“I warned you guys that there was a failsafe,” Kat smirked at the rogue that had gotten too close to the bars. “I’m good with the challenge of a race, but I do want to know more of the rules before we go diving in there.”
“That’s because you are smart!” Lacey gave Kat a relieved look. “We’re trying out something new with the Temple Run. Each group will be given a list of quests the moment you walk through the doors. Each quest will earn points and experience. The group with the most points at the end of the run, wins.”
“That sounds easy enough to understand,” the magic-user nodded his agreement.
“One of the quests is time sensitive, and you will lose points for every minute you spend in the Temple,” Lacey explained, walking over to the Gossowary to distract it from scaring the adventurers. “Another quest will dock you points if you senselessly destroy the rooms. There will be no need to break rooms to complete this dungeon. You’ll only need to get to the end to complete it. The other quests will earn more points for completion but will take time. You’ll have to balance your time to make the most efficient run.”
“This sounds fun,” Kat grinned at the other group, who were sizing Kat up even as Lacey was petting the vicious Gossowary.
“Agreed,” the magic-user smiled back at Kat.
“Awesome,” Lacey clapped her hands together and motioned to the table. “Then ante up and sign in.”
This part was expected, so the group quickly lined up at the table and deposited their tribute. Lacey hadn’t paid much attention to the offerings so far, since the treasures that the system provided were more precious to Lacey and Colt. The seeds and donations were mainly for when the back yard opened up and they could start farming.
“Benny wanted me to deliver the spells to you, so I’ll just leave these here if you want,” Kat dumped a dozen spell scrolls on the table.
“Thanks,” Lacey moved to take the scrolls, but Kat gave a minute shake of her head.
Lacey was pleasantly surprised that no one had made a move against her. Maybe it was the two level 30 goblins who sat at the table or maybe it was the Gossowary staring at them over her shoulder. She’d started to feel a bit safe until Kat did that. Lacey leaned back against the bars and felt one of the biggest cats they had rub against the back of her. The animals felt the danger too. What were they all seeing that Lacey hadn’t seen?
“Your time starts when you cross the threshold so there’s no need to hurry to the door,” Lacey studied the group as she talked, her hands petting the animals behind her. “Even if the first group passes over the threshold first, the second group’s timer only starts when they cross over. Each side is a duplicate of the other, so neither party has an advantage that way either.”
The fighter was over 6’ tall and wore full plate. Lacey couldn’t even see the guy’s face through the shiny helmet. He stood with one hand on the hilt of his sword, eyeing the surroundings like he was some secret service agent guarding the president. The magic-user was the obvious leader because of how the fighter stood between the magic-user and danger. The magic-user wore a deep red robe, but he was more focused on the offerings being dumped onto the scale in front of Adam.
The scales were a new invention of Colt’s. They appeared to be weighted entirely to the left until enough offering was placed in the right side of the balance as decided by the deal they’d made with their guild. The scales automatically determined the value of every item placed on it and it was always right. The magic-user eyed it like it was suspect, but he nodded when it balanced, and they all relaxed a little.
The third party member was the rogue, still rubbing at his arm where the Gossowary had probably left a little hickey. The rogue seemed a bit innocent for his occupation, his gaze glued to the animals behind the bars. There was a lot to look at there. While the rogue was staring at the animals behind the bars, he completely missed the fact that a Chrew was plucking at the buckle of an ankle sheath the thief used to hold a pretty little dagger. It was the nature of Chrews to go through and steal from the unwary, so Lacey didn’t try to stop it.
The fourth party member was a healer, but that was all Lacey could tell. It might have been a woman under that midnight-blue cloak, but that was only because the healer moved so gracefully. The cloak was edged with a ribbon of runes stitched in silver on black lace. If Lacey was left to guess, the healer would have been the one she distrusted, but she couldn’t say why.
The final member was Bernard’s son in the red chainmail, and that recognition is what led Lacey to figure out that the fighter and healer were the friends he’d been joking around with outside the dungeon the day before. Now that she’d made that connection, she recognized the rogue too as one of the boys messing around.
Lacey watched the group pass through the doors as soon as the goblins opened it up, even though she’d told them that it wouldn’t net them any more time than Kat. Kat hung back, so Lacey waited for the double doors to close behind the first group.
“What’s up?” Lacey asked Kat, who eyed the door as it closed.
“It’s not that I expected trouble from them, but better safe than sorry,” Kat nodded toward the closed door. Adam had already moved to open Kat’s door.
“Bernard’s kid,” Lacey noted, finally moving away from the portcullis.
“What are you doing out here in the open?” Kat frowned. “I thought you two were playing it safe.”
“What’s safe in this place anyway?” Lacey shrugged, not sure where her new disdain for safety was coming from.
“True,” Kat looked worried. Lacey had gotten so used to watching the girl grinning her way through the dungeon that this look was unnerving. “You okay?”
“We had a visitor yesterday during the second run,” Lacey nudged the scrolls, noting that they were more of the useful ones. The Mend one was the next one they’d planned to give to Ginger.
“A visitor? How? Who? Where?” Kat’s frown got deeper.
“An invisible person showed up in the control room and it wasn’t their first visit,” Lacey found herself confessing her fears. “They were there before lunch too, but we didn’t catch them that time. We didn’t even get a warning that anyone was near, but Spark saw whoever it was and started shooting zappy stuff at them.”
“All the way down in the control room?” Kat’s eyes widened. “Who would dare? We made things completely clear what would happen to anyone breaking the rules.”
“I don’t think a level 77 assassin is worried about your rules,” Lacey groused, setting her hip against the table.
Kat closed her eyes and groaned.
“What?” Lacey straightened up.
“I’ll fix it,” Kat ground out between closed teeth.