They received a dmail from Kat upon their return to the dungeon. She let them know that she was taking care of some business and that they should run the dungeons as normal without her until she got it wrapped up. Not seeing Kat in the dungeon put Colt in a slump emotionally, but it did give them time to catch up on those quests.

With the dungeon incursions happening at 20/day, they made quick work of the sound quest, but without Kat to talk with or listen to, Colt wasn’t up to testing the results much. Dungeon radio was fun though, as they let some of the fights lend a backdrop to their creation process.

They didn’t bother to go topside the next day. Lacey and Colt were on a roll with their designs and watching the time tick down on the 5-day quests. They had wrapped up the sound but were waiting until the last minutes to summon a bunch of new mouths to feed.

Colt talked Lacey into going topside for lunch, even if Kat wasn’t around. She knew he wanted to look around for Kat, but he probably also wanted Lacey to get a breather. They ended up asking Bernard about Kat as soon as he greeted them outside.

“While I understand your concern for our lovely Kat,” Bernard gave Colt an indulgent smile, “the worst that could happen would be that she is in a respawn queue.”

“I guess,” Colt muttered with a frown.

“I can send someone into town to check the queue if that would make you feel better,” Bernard offered, waving over a youngster from the group nearest to them.

“It would, actually,” Lacey accepted the offer. “She said she would be checking something out for us, and we’d hate to be the cause of trouble for her. Especially after all the help she’s been to us.”

“Certainly,” Bernard nodded politely. He directed the young man to take a horse and ride into town to check the respawn queue. “He should be back in a few hours. I’ll send word into the dungeon through a cleared entrance as soon as possible. The dungeon will still open without her, won’t it?”

Lacey nudged Colt and repeated the question to get Colt back into the conversation. “Yeah,” Colt waved the question off. “We’ll run a normal set this afternoon. I was just worried about her.”

“Splendid,” Bernard declared, his smile loosening up. “If you would accept my hospitality, I would love to show you the improvements we’ve been making around the camp,” Bernard offered, probably to try to placate the concern on Colt’s face as he scanned the people near the entrance. “I realize that I’m not quite as charming company as the young lady, but there are fortifications for the dungeon that are in process that may interest you.”

“Like what?” Lacey kept their side of the conversation up to let Colt obsess by scanning faces. The worst that could happen would be that Kat was respawning somewhere, right?

“As you can see,” Bernard swept a hand around the clearing, “we’ve expanded the clearing area to create a space for not only the inside of the outpost, but also an area beyond the walls so that no one can sneak anything up on the fort. We’ve set up a basic stockade for now with a lot of the timber we’ve cut down, but the defensive wall will be just inside that.”

Now that Lacey was looking at it, she could see that the forest had been cleared much further than before. Huge logs had been sharpened and set up in what seemed like a complicated crisscross pattern around the perimeter of what would be at least 2 acres of inside area. Spark, having not found her playmate, meowed at Lacey to pick her back up. Spark was not into the idea of a walk using her own feet, when Lacey was already walking that way anyway.

“It’s bigger than I thought it would be,” Lacey commented, letting Bernard lead them toward the ring of protective wood spikes. She bent down and picked up Spark, settling the kitten into the crook of her arm as both she and Colt followed Bernard through camp.

“It will house a full garrison, training field, and stable,” Bernard’s chest swelled with pride at what they’d already accomplished. Lacey could see the beginnings of foundations for two large buildings and stakes marked out the layout of the buildings that Bernard pointed to. “We are pulling the stone from a nearby mountain so that we don’t inadvertently impose on your dungeon area. We weren’t sure if taking from the mountain itself would damage the interior. If you do have some extra stone that comes from any of your excavations, we would be happy to purchase it from you in exchange for more of the coupons you like so much.”

“You’re doing all this just to protect our dungeon,” Lacey’s eyebrows rose. “The least we can do is contribute to the project. The goblins only excavate for new dungeon levels during the night, but we’ve been expanding some of the housing caves during the day shift to provide housing for a few new races of technical support. What do you think, Colt?”

“As long as the folks out here all know not to treat our goblins as dungeon mobs, we could have them deliver at least a ton or two by nightfall,” Colt agreed, and while his eyes still scanned the edges of the forest for Kat, he was obviously still paying attention to the conversation as they walked along the perimeter. “None of the goblins are combatants in the dungeon anyway, so it shouldn’t cause any confusion.”

“Do you have other non-combatant races helping with the running of the dungeon?” Bernard paused to ask.

“Sure,” Lacey replied, a little nervous at being so far from the entrance to the dungeon but not wanting to insult Bernard’s hospitality. Spark watched the surroundings calmly though, so Lacey figured that the area was safe enough. Spark had alerted them to the intruder, so she would send up alarms if she spotted something off like that again. In the meantime, Lacey would keep the kitten safe in her arms, since Shadow wasn’t there to protect her. “There are the Spunks, who work trap maintenance and are good with our mechanical inventions.”

“We’ve got another race that will be workers as well,” Colt revealed a bit more than Lacey had intended. “But we’re hoping to use them outside the back of the dungeon as farmers and such. It can be a little difficult to keep up nutrition for a couple thousand mobs on mushrooms and worms.”

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“We have a quest line right now that should give us an outside village area to use for that,” Lacey told Bernard. Colt was probably right in that they needed to be able to trust their allies, but she nudged Colt anyway. “It’s just going to take a few more weeks to finish it up so we can get started on providing more of our own food.”

“It’s a completely enclosed valley that the system has assured us will be unassailable,” Colt said, finally giving them a little more of his attention. “There’s no reason to be cagey about it since it won’t allow any extra access anyway.”

“How interesting,” Bernard shook his head in bewilderment. “We could possibly provide some basic foodstuffs, like grain or oats in exchange for the stone, if that would help you out. At least until you can get a set of crops of your own.”

“That would be helpful,” Colt accepted the idea with enthusiasm.

“You wouldn’t happen to have pizza, would you?” Lacey asked.

“Kat has shared the recipe with some of our chefs, but we have yet to try that one,” Bernard chuckled at Lacey’s hopeful expression. “I take it from your enthusiasm for it, that you would welcome this pizza for, say, a celebratory dinner when the fort is operational?”

“We always love pizza,” Colt declared.

They approached an opening in the stockade of sharpened poles of wood. The forest beyond was still being cut back a ways further than the temporary wall. The opening was guarded by 4 large men wearing chainmail and holding huge battleaxes.

“This type of wall is called a cheval de frise,” Bernard explained. “We find it to be the best temporary defense against soldiers. The gaps still allow forest animals to squeeze through, but a medium to large force is stalled at it long enough for our guards to whittle them down. We also have guards pacing the outside of the fence to make sure we don’t have intruders that haven’t been invited.”

While the lesson on fortifications was interesting, Lacey didn’t think they’d keep out someone level 77, so they didn’t help with whatever had sneaked into their dungeon.

“We have sentries further out, as well, and guards to keep the animals away from workers who are helping to clear the road from the village to the dungeon,” Bernard gestured off to where the small trail they’d walked a mere days before was being widened, straightened, and lined with markers. Lacey didn’t want to admit that the whole thing did make her feel a bit safer, like these people really did consider Colt and Lacey to be a treasure worth protecting. “There are already a few peddlers making the rounds all the way out here, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t have a merchant or two looking to settle in outside the wall.”

“Why would they be outside the wall?” Colt asked. “Wouldn’t they be safer inside?”

“For the first level of construction, we’re focused on the main fort here and the military presence that will help people understand that the dungeon itself is off limits to just anyone,” Bernard’s tone took on a lecturing rhythm. “Once we have the main structure and a few merchants move in, they know that we’ll eventually extend the settlement with a second wall further out. Until then, there will be plenty of time to move anyone into the fort in case of an attack.”

“What about wild animal attacks?” Colt asked, and now Lacey took a turn scanning for any sign of Kat.

“Those willing to take the chance on settling a new area first are hardy folks,” Bernard answered him easily. “Animals are going to mostly leave us alone with as many of us as are out here, but the ones that are brave enough to attack the merchants will find that they can defend themselves. It won’t be long though. As soon as half a dozen shops set up, we’ll be ready to expand further.”

“I just didn’t think our little dungeon would entice a full settlement to develop,” Lacey wondered out loud. “It’s a lot to take in.”

“We’re lucky that the nearby village is a farming settlement,” Bernard waved at the nearest trees. “They’ll expand and provide the food for this new little settlement so that most of the surrounding forest will survive. Between the village and the forest for hunting, we’ll have easy access to enough food to sustain a larger settlement than you might think. This is just the beginning.”

“What are you going to call it?” Colt asked, and Lacey was a bit taken aback.

“We are still parlaying ideas on that,” Bernard hedged, turning to face them. They stood outside the wooden barricade on the road and Lacey could almost imagine the smith and general store popping up on either side of the entrance. “Since you haven’t given us a name for your dungeon, we can’t name it after the dungeon itself.”

“I hadn’t thought about naming the dungeon,” Colt looked to Lacey.

“Don’t look at me,” Lacey shrugged. “I’m the one who named a race of farmers Rejects.”

“That was a misunderstanding,” Colt quirked a smile at her. “If you leave it to me, I’ll do worse.”

“I’ll have to think about it,” Lacey shook her head at Colt. “Until then, we’ll have to just be the dungeon.”

“That doesn’t help much with our settlement name,” Bernard started to say, but Colt interrupted.

“Do you hear that?” he looked off into the trees. Now that he’d pointed it out, Lacey thought she could hear raised voices.

“I hear something,” Lacey turned toward the sounds. Colt was already moving toward it.

“Wait now, young lord,” Bernard put a hand on Colt’s arm, waving two of the guards to go check it out. “Let my men go take a look.”

“That sounds like Kat,” Colt protested, trying to pull away from Bernard. “She may need help.”

“I hate to say it, but what could you do out here to help her?” Lacey held onto Colt’s other arm.

Colt swore and shrugged her off, but he didn’t leave to follow the guards. The 2 guards jogged toward the trees.

“My guards are levels 44 and 45,” Bernard tried to reassure Colt. “If they give the signal, another dozen of my men of similar levels will dash to her rescue.”

Colt audibly ground his teeth, and Lacey didn’t blame him. They were already so far out from the dungeon that they were vulnerable to almost anything. They’d proved that on their last trip to town. Still, Kat had Shadow, so Lacey wasn’t worried, but Colt wasn’t used to allowing others to fight his battles. He was used to being the guy who charged in to save the day. It didn’t help that they were nearing the time that they would have to return to the dungeon. Lacey didn’t think the timer on their screens was going to matter to Colt until he saw Kat was safe.

Before the guards could enter the trees, Kat emerged, scowling but intact. “I’m fine,” they could hear her snarling out at the guards, who stayed behind to gaze into the forest where Kat had appeared. Kat didn’t wait for them. She stalked toward the gate area, her boots kicking up dust. Colt wasn’t the only one swearing.

“Kat?” Colt called out, and she looked up and nearly stopped.

Lacey watched Kat heave a huge sigh and paste a smile on her face as she gave them a wave. Kat wasn’t fooling anyone. She looked as pissed as a cat with a poofy tail, her hands balled up in fists and an incomprehensible mutter on her lips.

“I’m fine,” Kat finally called out when she’d gotten close enough that she didn’t have to yell. The guards had turned from the forest to follow her back, but one of them walked backward to keep an eye on it as they retreated, and Lacey liked them better for it.

Lacey let herself relax, concerned by how much they’d come to rely on Kat’s presence as a safety net. She resolved to start carrying at least one of their dungeon closure coupons with her. They’d become too complacent and that wasn’t allowed in Lacey’s mind. Something was still off about it all. It took Spark’s tiny mew to remind Lacey of what was wrong. Shadow wasn’t with Kat.