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Manual Not Included (Dungeon Building, LitRPG, Isekai)
Chapter 2.23 – Look Who’s Coming to Dinner

Chapter 2.23 – Look Who’s Coming to Dinner

“Sorry I’m late,” Kat was flushed and panting. She passed them all, taking Colt’s arm and steering him back in through the opening in the stockade.

“Is everything okay?” Colt’s tone was serious, as he pulled Kat to a stop.

“Uh,” Kat puffed out another breath. What could have winded a person with Kat’s levels of strength and stamina? “Yes and no, but I think…” she started, a hand on Colt’s arm.

“Halt and announce yourself,” came the gruff command of one of the guards at their backs. They turned to watch a man stroll out of the forest. Kat turned to look back and rolled her eyes. Those eyes settled into fury, and they all turned to see who had set off the normally happy-go-lucky attitude.

Dressed all in black leather that looked just as amazing as Kat’s attire, the man walked casually with his hands in his pockets and a wry smile on his lips and he didn’t look particularly happy. He was taller than the guards by an inch or two with curly black hair dusted with a bit of white and a perfectly trimmed beard and mustache. The white didn’t look like it had come from advanced age, as he didn’t look much older than the rest of the players they’d met. He had a lithe form, and a devil-take-you look in his eyes as he ignored the largish cat that had its teeth firmly sunk into the man’s calf.

“You cannot be here,” Kat told the man, strolling toward the guards as if he owned the world.

He passed the guards after saying something too low for them to hear. They flanked the man instead, not that he seemed bothered by the escort. Kat bristled like a porcupine with poisoned quills. The fact that Kat didn’t like the guy told Lacey all she needed to know, at least for now.

“I’m afraid the young woman is correct, sir,” Bernard stepped gallantly in front of Kat, causing the man’s gaze to go from almost indulgent to deadly serious in a second. “This area is restricted to approved guild members. I’m going to have to ask you to turn back.”

“I would advise you to step out from between myself and my daughter, sir,” the man said, his tone so low that he almost couldn’t be heard over the ambient noise of workers down the road and the camp behind them that was preparing for the second run of the day for the dungeon. The fact that they had heard the raised voices from this distance over the noise behind them attested to how loud his and Kat’s argument had been.

“That’s not necessary, Dad,” Kat put herself between the man and Bernard.

Lacey looked to Colt who was standing there with his mouth hanging half-open like he’d seen a ghost instead of a man. Was it time to meet the parents already? Colt was normally good with parents. He was a wholesome guy with a churchy upbringing that moms liked and a respectful attitude that most dads grudgingly allowed. Then again, Colt generally had time to prepare and gussy up for meeting the parents. This was rather sudden even for easy-going Colt.

“I’m hardly intimidated by a man of lower level than my son,” Bernard lowered his chin and glared, his hand on his sword.

“What level?” Kat stammered, her eyes wide.

“Ten,” the new man said with a glower and cluck of his tongue. Lacey didn’t think the guy looked like he was a measly level 10.

“What?” Kat snapped, her hands up between the two men.

“Your mother has a vindictive sense of humor,” the man explained in the tersest way possible.

“I don’t get it,” Kat looked up and blinked a few times, obviously thinking through the meager set of words.

“My wife has declared that I’m the one in the wrong,” he didn’t look like he agreed. “She has given me the chance to re-earn my levels to catch up with you. I don’t think that will be too difficult.”

He wore his arrogance like a long cloak. Lacey had worn a cloak once. Every time she’d tried to scoot by anyone or anything, she’d dusted things off tables and tripped over the long hem. The only thing tripped up by this man’s arrogance was probably other people.

“Let me see if I understand this,” Kat looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “Since you wouldn’t listen to me about minding your own business, Mom busted you down from level 77 to level 10, so that we are on even footing?”

There was almost too much wrong with this conversation to process all at once, Lacey thought. She could tell that Colt agreed as he hadn’t recovered and still had his mouth half open. Lacey’s mind latched onto the level 77 part and made a tentative connection to their intruder. Then that same stunned mind skittered over the dad part and right to the mom part. What the hell was Mom that she could bust dad down to level 10? It boggled the mind and so her brain finally stumbled to a halt with the memory of Kat saying that her father had assassins killing her previous NPC boyfriends.

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“First,” he growled back, “you are my business and second, we are not on even footing as you are nearly twice my level. Your mother also busted down Shadow.” He pointed to the cat still attached to his leg. Now that he was close enough, Lacey could see that it wasn’t superficial. There was blood on Shadow’s mouth, not that any of it showed on the man’s black leather pants.

Spark squirmed to get down, but Lacey kept her grip tight. Shadow had his mouth full. He was definitely too busy to protect her little kitten, who was probably trying to get down only to help Shadow out. At the thought of her precious Spark attacking this man, Lacey hugged Spark hard enough to make her squeak in protest. Lacey lightened her hold a little at the touch of claws on her bare arm, but she was not letting Spark down.

“Shadow?” Kat lowered her attention to the cat still hanging onto the man’s pants.

“My name is Dom,” the new man tried to smile as he slid a hand out of his pocket to posit a shake of hands toward Bernard. Shadow, perhaps having taken his name being called as permission to let go of the man, spat out the pant-leg with a bit of a cough and blood that the man didn’t seem to notice.

This man was their intruder, and they’d caught him in the dungeon twice. Lacey cocked her head to the side to study him a bit more carefully. This was the person who had stalked them in their own control room and yet they weren’t dead, no matter how much Lacey had seen such things in her dreams. Kat’s dad? Kat had said that he was protective. What did that mean in an environment like this where murder wasn’t really a bad thing? He hadn’t killed them, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as all that.

“I am Count Bernard Mattolth, of Hamburg in Sumberton, and leader of the Firestar Hunter Guild,” Bernard announced, too well-mannered to deny the new man a handshake. The two men shook hands like gentlemen. Shadow glared at Dom the entire sullen walk back to Kat’s side. Spark squirmed again, and since it seemed safer, Lacey let her down. Spark stalked across the grass to join Shadow, tossing a single sparking hiss at Dom. Kat, her chin jutting forward, still gave her dad the stink eye.

Dom reached a hand to Lacey and, not knowing what else to do, she took it. “I’m Lacey, one of the dungeon masters of the dungeon here.”

“Well met,” Dom bent his head to her with a thin smile. Spark, hiding behind Shadow, hissed again at Dom. He quirked an eyebrow at the pair of pets. She could have imagined it, but Dom’s gaze seemed to soften a little when he looked down at the cats. Lacey thought a little better of him until he turned to Colt and Dom’s eyelids lowered to half-mast.

When he got to Colt, his eyes weren’t smiling, but he did offer his hand.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Kat pushed herself between Dom and Colt, a dagger in her hand. “I don’t care how low you’ve been busted down to, you’re not touching him.”

“If I’d wanted to hurt the boy, I’ve had plenty of time to do so,” Dom ran his tongue over his upper teeth and withdrew his hand. He did all that and yet didn’t seem to open his mouth far enough to more than mumble the statement.

“The difference is that now I can and will stop you even if it means spawn camping your ass back to level 1,” Kat spat at him, and her vehemence was almost palpable. Lacey wanted to believe that spawn camping could have accounted for the man losing 67 levels.

“We can deal with this like civilized people,” Bernard interjected unwisely, obviously uncomfortable with the level of Kat’s animosity. Being a father himself, he likely sympathized with Dom. Lacey wasn’t sure she agreed, considering that Dom was not all that fond of her best friend and had very recently been a level 77 player. The last player even half that high had wanted to take over their dungeon.

“I doubt that,” Kat muttered, but then she smiled at Bernard and changed the tone. “Even if we could, Dom here is not a citizen of Sumberton, much less a member of any of the approved guilds. As I said before, Dom, you can’t be here.”

“You are no more of a citizen of Sumberton than I am, nor are you a member of any of the guilds here,” Dom countered. “And yet you run the dungeon without even having to take turns like the rest of the guild members.”

“That’s because I found the dungeon and organized all this for the dungeon,” Kat spat out through clenched teeth. “We have an arrangement.”

“Then, I too am free to make arrangements,” Dom stated, crossing his arms over his chest with a creak of worn leather.

“Really?” she challenged, a glint in her eyes that didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest.

“Really,” he declared with just a hint of a sneer.

“Well, I am the representative of this dungeon, and I say you don’t have a right to be here,” Kat asserted. “You’ve already broken several rules of the dungeon and are therefore banned.”

“What rules?”

“You violated the one-way doors to delve deeper than allowed,” Kat ticked off her points on her fingers. “You stalked the dungeon masters in their own control room. You entered the dungeon without signing up with the guilds.”

“You can’t prove I’ve been in the dungeon,” Dom cocked his head to the side.

“I don’t know of any other level 77 players on this server,” Kat said, and Lacey felt like a spectator at a tennis match, eyes bouncing from one person to the other as they argued.

“I’m not level 77,” he raised an eyebrow. “I’m level 10.”

“This isn’t a game you can twist around however you want,” Kat poked his chest.

“This is a game,” he smiled.

“Don’t be dense,” Kat argued, her voice slipping into sweet sarcasm. “Unless Mom also deleted 90% of your intelligence stat.”

“Don’t give her any ideas,” he frowned.

“Don’t tempt me,” she glared.

“Why don’t you let the dungeon masters decide for themselves instead of tyrannically dictating who goes in and out of their dungeon,” Dom probably thought he sounded reasonable.

“Sure, why not?” she turned to Colt and Lacey. “Do you want this conniving, control-crazy, overbearing, maniacal deviant in your dungeon?”