“I wonder how far the town is from here?” Lacey asked Colt, not ready to go back into the dungeon with so much free sunshine left to their day of freedom.

“Wait, yeah!” Colt snapped his fingers. “We don’t have to go back yet. Do you think we could catch up to her? She’s probably going to town, right?”

“Probably,” Lacey huffed a small laugh, but tried to look serious when he turned hopeful eyes to her. “Let’s see if we can catch up without looking like a couple of stalkers, huh?”

“Yeah,” he stood and brushed non-existent crumbs off his shirt. “Space is good. Play it cool, right?”

“Yeah,” Lacey nodded, pressing her lips together to keep back her amusement. “Hey Ginger, would you take these folders back to the control room and maybe the crystal stuff? We can leave the table and chairs here.”

“These chairs are comfortable,” Colt ran a hand down the velvet upholstery, but his eyes were still on the forest.

“Fine, tuck these inside too, but close to the entrance so we can bring them back out for company if they come back,” Lacey told Ginger who eyed Colt like he might be sick.

“She’ll be back, right?” Colt assured himself.

“She said she would,” Lacey answered Colt, tucking her hands in her pockets and trying to leisurely stroll toward where Kat had disappeared.

“Right,” Colt nodded to himself. “When the dungeon is ready.”

“Right,” Lacey parroted him to try to keep from teasing him.

“You think that tier system will work?” Colt’s mind was suddenly so on getting the dungeon ready that it was painful to watch, but Lacey controlled herself. “If they can control the entry, then we could open up at least what?” he looked up, completely oblivious to the glorious sky above them, “five or six entrances?”

“One for every 5 levels from 1 to 5, up to 20 to 25,” Lacey suggested, amused by the birdsong in the woods. “I wouldn’t want to push it and try for 25-30 right away. Do you think we might want our leather armor and swords if we’re going to journey into town, Colt?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Colt gave her a befuddled look like he’d forgotten they were outside the dungeon and out in the cold cruel world. “Ginger?”

“I go get runner to fetch,” Ginger waved a hand at Colt, her other hand carefully cradling the crystal decanters. She gave the red one a suspicious sniff and Lacey figured that the wine would be hidden in a hidey hole by Ginger personally. Either that or it would get accidently spilled.

“Ginger, can you put that red one in my room, please?” Lacey called out and she could see Ginger scowl. “In the ice bucket would be great.” Ginger sent back a thumbs up over her hunched shoulders. Lacey was pretty sure most of the wine would make it there.

“Yeah, we should level up before we promise a set of levels we can’t deliver on,” Colt was muttering half to himself. “How long do you think it would take, say someone at level 10 or something to level out of the whole dungeon though?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Lacey leaned against the table and crossed her arms over her chest to watch her best friend lose his little mind. “Maybe about as long as it would take us to level the dungeon up enough to keep pace with her.”

“I don’t mean a specific person, but like any person,” Colt dodged her implication. “Yeah, we could probably keep ahead of her, especially if we have other groups coming through.”

“We could make signs for the outside?” Lacey ignored his crazy-headed behavior to save his dignity. “Or do you think they would do that?”

“We could maybe hire someone from town,” Colt suggested, his mind coming back to earth. “Should we take coins?”

“Great idea,” Lacey took her leather armor and sheath of daggers from a runner goblin and sent them back in after a handful of coins. The coins weren’t worth much to them, but gold was normally relatively precious in a small town. There were still a few pouches of the stuff in the bottom of the treasure chest they’d gotten from completing the tutorial.

Ginger came back out with pouches of coins that ranged from copper to platinum. Colt took one and Lacey took the other one. Given a choice, she’d have spent some time studying the materials Kat had brought them from the guild, but they only had one day out in the world and Lacey didn’t want to waste it reading paperwork.

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“Thanks Ginger,” Lacey tucked the pouch behind the layer of leather that covered her chest. Her leather armor wasn’t as nice as Kat’s had been. She wondered if she could get better in town. Lacey wasn’t jealous of Colt’s attention or of Kat’s clothing, but while Ginger cleaned the leather armor daily, it didn’t look like a leather jacket like Kat’s had and Colt wasn’t the only one with romantic prospects in this new world.

It had been a long time since Lacey had been interested in dating, but the last few weeks in the dungeon had jolted something loose in Lacey’s heart. They said that success breeds success and Lacey could see why. A lifetime of failures had beaten her down, but coming out on top against Monty’s ruthless guild had changed some of that in Lacey. Her anxiety nattered at her with self-doubt, but she pictured it drowning in the pool that had killed Monty, and something was somehow looser.

“You ready?” Colt broke into Lacey’s ruminating, and she gave him a smile.

“Yep,” she patted where the pouch poked at her under the armor. “I’m very ready for a walk in the woods to discover a fantasy world. Aren’t you?”

“You bet,” he clapped Lacey on the shoulder and darted a glance in the direction Kat had gone.

“We might be able to catch up,” Lacey suggested with a smile.

“You think so?” he perked up and started jogging backwards to keep Lacey in sight. “Then come on slow poke!”

“I’m coming,” Lacey gave a mock groan as she broke into a slow jog as if she was too weak to go faster.

“Lace,” Colt griped, spreading his arms with quick glances behind himself to make sure he didn’t run into a tree. “You’re killing me.”

Lacey broke into a run and passed him with a playful grin. “Catch me if you can.”

“The last guy you said that to ended up drowned,” Colt turned and ran after her.

Was it reckless to run through the woods of a fantasy world full of monsters, armed with a sword and a couple of daggers between them? Probably, but it felt so good to let go and run. Lacey let the wind cool the sweat on her brow as she dodged trees and Colt’s playful swipes at her. She was still just a little faster than he was, the result of running track in junior high back when she gave a shit about pleasing her dad by following in his footsteps. She might not have been in shape, but at least she’d gotten some exercise on those steps more recently than Colt had done anything like a workout.

“If you’re going to catch a girl like that, you’ve gotta be able to keep up, Colt,” Lacey huffed out at him.

“Is there a treadmill upgrade for the control room that you didn’t tell me about?” Colt got out between heavy breaths.

“Nope,” Lacey grunted back, darting away from his latest swipe at her. “But I’m thinking a treadmill just can’t be all that hard to draw. What is it? Just a couple of tubes wrapped in a belt.”

“We have more complicated traps than that,” Colt overbalanced hopping over a downed tree and barked out a laugh as he tumbled into a bed a pine needles.

“We do,” Lacey grinned down at him from on top of the log. “You okay?”

“Yeah, actually,” he grinned back up at her, shrugging off a little wince as he ran a hand behind his head to check it for damage. “It’s been a while since you’ve let loose, so yeah. I’m okay. It’s good to see a spark of the old Lacey.”

“Has it been that long?” she asked, holding out a hand to help him up.

“A couple of years of intense Lacey is a year and half too long,” Colt took her hand, not because he needed it, but because she’d offered it.

“Huh,” Lacey leaned back to lever him off the ground. Even as large as he was compared to her, she could still apply leverage like a pro. “We can dump a simple drawing into the pedestal and see what it gives us.”

“Or we could buy a few more coupon books of day passes,” Colt suggested.

“Or we could take the deal to become adventurers for a while,” Lacey offered up, brushing off her hands.

“The caves bother you that much?” he asked her more seriously.

“You knew?” Lacey looked up at him from under her lashes, a frown on her lips.

“I should have figured it out sooner,” he said by way of apology. “But when you were sucking air from the top of the stadium exit, I got the picture. I’d forgotten how antsy you get in closed spaces.”

“It’s not the closed spaces half as much as the oppression of a mountain of dirt over our heads all day and all night. That’s why I was negotiating for that valley out behind the dungeon’s mountain,” Lacey shrugged and turned to look around to get her bearings. “I figured that if I could just get out for a run once in a while, it would be okay. I don’t want to give up the dungeon, but I’ve got to be able to get out more often.”

“You don’t think that someone like that guy back at the church or even Kat would consider that and find a workaround for you?” Colt beat the sticky pine needles off his pants and sleeves. “It’s not like you can turn off claustrophobia.”

“This isn’t exactly a place that looks like it deals with disability accommodations, does it?” Lacey orientated with the sun and walked a few paces to test direction before picking her way over a few low mounds of dirt. “Besides, the higher ceilings and larger caverns help out enough for now.”

“We’ll spring for day passes,” Colt promised, running his hands through his hair to comb out more of the sticky needles.

“Sundays will help too,” Lacey shrugged, and she belatedly realized that was why she’d negotiated for Sunday dinners with Colt’s family. “As long as we don’t spend all of them inside. I just need to see the sky more often is all. I’ll be fine.”

“Lacey, stop!” Colt commanded, his tone sharper than she thought was necessary.

“I’m fine,” she snapped back at him, turning to face him.

“No, I meant stop moving,” Colt’s eyes were round as he stared over her shoulder and put a hand down to his sword.

Lacey froze in silence, a chill running up her spine at the growl that came out of the forest. They were dungeon masters, not adventurers. Lacey couldn’t hit the side of the cavern with a thrown dagger. Still, the two of them had bounded out into the fantasy forest like they were on a walk through a local jogging trail. She was pretty sure that Colt hadn’t had enough beers to kill a wolf, much less the half dozen that had surrounded them by ducking in and out of the shadows of the trees.