“Lacey,” Colt’s voice calmed her now that it had dropped into a teasing tone instead of an alarmed one.

“I’m up,” Lacey rolled over to pry an eye open. “Are they here?”

“The room’s only red because the druid showed up,” Colt shoved her boots at her. She had slept in her clothes.

“No big wigs?” Lacey mumbled, letting Colt help her down from the top bunk.

“Just the druid waving a white flag,” Colt was smiling, and Lacey rolled her eyes.

“You only want to rush out there because you might get to know her name,” Lacey smacked his shoulder playfully and it reminded her that her hand still ached a bit from all the drawing she’d done the day before.

“Shh,” Colt admonished her. “You’ll wake up Ginger. I’m heading up there, but I didn’t want to do that until you were awake.”

“I’m coming,” Lacey blinked her eyes awake. “Did you get any sleep?”

“Not yet,” Colt strapped on a sword that looked like it had come off the high levels. Colt walked backward out of the room, noticing her befuddled look. “I found the supply of loot the goblins found from the big wigs. There’s a dagger that came off the thief on the table for you, but put it on as you come, if you’re coming.”

“I’m coming,” Lacey muttered, grabbing the dagger and sheath from the table.

Lacey stumbled after Colt, nearly tripping over a few goblins as she tried to fumble with the cross-chest sheath for the dagger. They had to go up all the flights of stairs, but they noticed that the goblins on the secret trap doors were awake enough to open them as they went by.

“If they can set goblins to stay awake to man the trap doors, we can use them as scout-type guards,” Colt was saying, but Lacey’s mind was still waking up.

“How much sleep did I get?” Lacey asked.

“Maybe two hours or so,” Colt answered, but his answer reminded her that there wasn’t really a way for them to tell for sure.

“And you?” she asked without thinking.

“I wouldn’t try it with you against it,” Colt admonished her. “But you can see we could use the goblins better. They could stay up all night if needed. We just need to teach them shift rotation.”

“Agreed,” Lacey stubbed her toe on another uneven stair, but she kept up, barely.

“I’ve also been working on a backup water-clock alarm,” Colt told her, holding open the level 12 trap door and guiding her around the traps as fast as they dared to go. “It doesn’t work right yet, but I’m thinking I could have enough water drip into a precariously perched pan until it clatters into a bunch of others. I don’t think it would wake me up, but it would wake you up for sure.”

“It might wake you up if you dumped the water on your head,” Lacey suggested, finding her humor a little edgy after her bad dreams.

She skipped over the trip wire. It might have been a decoy trip wire, but she didn’t want to have to reset it. They needed every advantage they could get. The trap parts nearly glowed to Lacey, but she knew they were almost invisible to anyone else, especially since their traps had leveled up with the dungeon.

Lacey was huffing when they got to the top, but she was glad of it when she got there. Sure, she could have stayed behind and just moved a room with Colt in it to the top, but she’d have missed the details. The druid was cute, standing there with a stick and a piece of white cloth waving into the entrance of the dungeon. The girl hadn’t even come inside, just sat outside poking the stick through the opening.

“Hi,” Colt said, idiotically, jolting the druid to her feet.

“Oh, uh, I mean no harm,” the druid was waving her hands in front of her. “I came to warn you, not cause trouble. I promise.”

She looked scared. She had blond hair with auburn highlights that one could only get at the salon and Lacey wanted to hate her immediately. Her waist was trim, just like Colt liked them. Her eyes were hard to make out in the dark, but they glittered in the light of the torch in her hand.

“Come in,” Colt invited the girl. “We won’t bite.”

“Much,” Lacey muttered under her breath and Colt nudged her with a look.

“I don’t want to challenge the dungeon,” the druid waved her torch in front of her, backing up a bit. “I just didn’t think it was fair. I came as soon as I respawned, but when Hughe ended up in the respawn queue again, I figured we should warn you.”

“We?” Lacey asked, trying to see past the torch that blocked her night vision.

“The others didn’t come,” the druid sighed out in disgust. “They’re chicken-shits.”

“I’m Colt,” Colt stuck out his hand with a 100-watt smile that would have worked at any bar anywhere if that was something that Colt and Lacey did, ever. It worked at conventions, when they could afford to go to them and they were local, which happened often enough in Vegas for Lacey to know how well that smile worked for Colt. “This is Lacey. It’s okay. The first room doesn’t have any traps or monsters in it. You can come in out of the cold.”

“And quit lighting up a beacon to our door,” Lacey muttered, because it wasn’t all that cold outside.

“You aren’t at all like Hughe said,” the druid turned her head to the side and looked at Colt for a moment, considering.

“Hughe is an idiot,” Lacey rolled her eyes.

“Well, maybe you are a little like he said you were,” the druid teased, and Lacey thought it was just a little too soon for that but couldn’t help liking her more. It wasn’t that Lacey disliked the girl, but she was the enemy. Wasn’t she? “I’m Helluna. And Hughe is an idiot, so I’m not offended at all. Hopefully you think better of me than that when we’re done.”

Colt held out a gentlemanly hand to help Helluna across the threshold between the dungeon and the outside. It wasn’t like she had to climb in or anything. But Colt was a good gentleman, thanks to his mom being awesome.

“Are you from, um, our world too?” Colt asked, reluctantly letting go of her hand as she came in and looked around for a place to put her torch.

“Which world would that be?” Helluna asked edgily, her mouth twisted.

“Earth?” Colt said, and it sounded as weird as it should sound.

“Oh,” Helluna looked surprised. “Yeah! I’m a housewife from Fresno. You?”

“We’re both from Vegas,” Colt spread his arms like they were all from the same little town in the middle of nowhere. “Not far from California.”

“Only an 8-hour drive to Fresno,” Lacey gave Colt another annoyed look as he took the torch from Helluna and propped it into a shielded area that would give them light without shining so brightly out of the opening of the cave.

“Housewife?” Colt asked. “You look like a kid yourself.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“I had my kids young, and they live with their dad now because he has the big house,” Helluna rolled her eyes. “I’m just a waitress at an IHOP in the real world. Oh, but you mean here, right?”

“Yeah,” Colt chuckled, his interest waning a tiny bit at her potential real age. He normally only dated within a few years of his 24 years of age. “But you look young now.”

“Uh, yeah,” Helluna chuckled and ran a hand down her form. “All the players come in at the amazingly fresh age of 16. I can’t say I’m complaining. I didn’t get to spend a lot of time as a normal 16-year-old with getting pregnant when I was in high school. I almost don’t feel 30 anymore.”

Lacey looked at herself, not that she had a mirror to really give it a good look. She turned to Colt and he looked a little younger, but he always had a baby face anyway with his sandy blonde hair and hazel eyes that could look blue or green depending on the light. “I don’t think we got that perk,” Lacey scrutinized Colt’s face for signs.

“Perk or pain, it’s a perspective thing,” Helluna waggled a hand. “Maldory is incensed as he was in his 60s and had no interest in being ignored as a teenager again. He’s our mage. Tenris and I like it though. It’s a fun dress-up kind of thing.”

“Tenris is the fighter or the thief?” Colt asked casually, and Lacey relaxed a bit. Colt was using his charm to get information. That was okay. Flirting was just a sideline.

“He’s the fighter,” Helluna told them. “Sinjin is our rogue and I’m not sure he’s coming back this time. He might have had enough.”

“What do you mean by come back?” Lacey pressed.

“Oh, uh,” Helluna put a hand to her chest. “Maybe it’s different on your side of things, but if we die, we get the option to go home for a day or two. I go back to see my kids on weekends that I have them, but Sinjin is an engineer at some high-tech Japanese animation studio. I think he’s got more to go back to than I do most days.”

“Wow, how long have you been here?” Colt asked, nudging Lacey behind him to deflect her intensity.

“I was in another simulation for a few levels, but got tapped for this beta maybe a week ago?” Helluna nodded. “Didn’t you learn this in your tutorial?”

“Tutorial,” Lacey spat out the word like she was swearing.

“Our tutorial is a little messed up at the moment,” Colt admitted, smiling to take the edge off of Lacey.

“Oh, but,” Helluna got a little worry frown between her brows. “I wonder if I’m not supposed to tell you or something. But you are players in a way, right?”

“We haven’t died yet” Colt waved his hand at the dungeon. “We have a bit more between us and death than normal player characters so maybe our tutorial is in there after we die.”

“Hughe lied then,” Helluna shook her head and crossed her arms. “Big surprise there. He said he’d killed the dungeon masters and therefore we couldn’t even go in the dungeon without his approval. He also said we were lucky that he was the go-between because the dungeon masters were sadistic bastards just out to ruin us.”

“Ass,” Lacey muttered.

“True, but it was believable since the dungeon did seem really hard at first,” Helluna nodded to Lacey. “I mean we are supposed to be enemies, I suppose, but we were probably too ready to believe everything he said. And that’s why I’m here!”

“Your warning is a bit late,” Lacey pursed her lips at the girl that she was having trouble seeing as a grown woman.

“What she means is that the high levels already came through and nearly destroyed us,” Colt shrugged.

“That’s great, I suppose,” Helluna said, and Lacey tried to believe the great part was that they’d survived, “and I feel really bad about that, but I couldn’t have warned you about that one. I was already dead.”

“Dead?” Colt gave a concerned tone. Lacey just wanted to get to the point, but Colt’s way worked better most of the time.

“Okay, well, the warning I’ve been trying to work up the courage to say is that those high leveled guys were all NPCs and they’re from a big guild a few cities away from our little newbie zone,” Helluna told them like she was gossiping over the fence. “You might have killed the scouting party, but their wipe probably means that another group is on their way, and they will take you seriously this time.”

“Any idea how long before the new group will be here?” Colt batted his pretty eyes at her like a dope.

“If they take as long as the last group, it’ll be a week,” Helluna figured. “Hughe’s respawn timer will finish up here, but those guildies don’t respawn here. They respawn back at their guild.”

“So Hughe’s coming back here how soon?” Colt pushed.

“Probably by morning,” Helluna pursed her lips in obvious disdain. “The player respawn timer is two hours per level. I think the NPCs are twice that. If Hughe dares to show his face at all. What a crock of shit he’s been peddling about you two! I have half a mind to give him more than a finger-waving talking to. I’m telling the group on him at the very least. We didn’t need him to be allowed to enter the dungeon here, did we?”

“No,” Colt smiled. “And we’d like you and your group to come back once we’re through this crisis.”

“At least you look at the puzzles,” Lacey offered, trying to be nice to the clueless lady.

“They’re fun,” Helluna chirped.

“There are treasure chests behind the puzzles,” Colt put on his tempting tone that made girls think his shitty hatchback was a Maserati.

“No kidding?” Helluna’s lackadaisical attitude was too much for Lacey, who was much more interested in the group coming to kill them than Helluna finding 10 coppers of treasure. Then again, was this just a game of some sort?

“Not since the crisis actually,” Colt winced, and he should have been taking theater in school. “We can’t really afford the fees for it.”

“Well, I, for one, hope you two somehow maintain the dungeon,” Helluna leaned in conspiratorially. “I can’t imagine Hughe having any talent for interesting dungeon building.”

“You could help us,” Colt suggested. “Just tell us the deal with how the guild plans to take over the dungeon. Our tutorial was unclear on the matter of what happens if we lose.”

“So Hughe didn’t defeat the dungeon?” Helluna scowled. “That cad. He said he wiped the whole pathetic dungeon and because he did, it had to grow up and make something more challenging. Then he said you two got all butt-hurt about it and killed him in spite for it. Not that I would totally blame you if that’s how it went down.”

“If he’d defeated us, then wouldn’t he be running the dungeon now?” Colt hedged and Lacey pressed her lips together, glad that one of them could still be charming.

“True,” Helluna reasoned, nodding her head with Colt’s smile. “What do you want to know?”

“How did we end up with this guild after us all?” Colt asked, expertly putting them all in the same pot of trouble.

They sat together and it wasn’t long before Lacey buried her head in her arms as Helluna relayed the story to Colt’s charming encouragement. The day that Hughe had stormed off with the threats of doom and gloom, he’d gone to the adventurer’s guild and sent word to the nearest big guild, a guild he’d wanted to join. It had taken a week, but the guild had responded by sending the scouting team. They’d taken Hughe into the dungeon to make him the new owner of it so that they could then kill him and take over the dungeon themselves.

The rules had sounded convoluted, but Hughe had claimed the dungeon with the guild, so he had first rights to it. That meant that if the dungeon was defeated completely, Hughe was the only one who could take it over. Then he would have two days to rebuild the dungeon before it would open back up. Once it was open again, whoever wiped it next would have the right to take it over or destroy it for the value of the dungeon.

The guild had decided to take Hughe through so that he could claim the dungeon. Whether Hughe took the money value of the dungeon or tried to run the dungeon himself, the guild would win. If Hughe took the money, they’d kill him and loot his body. If Hughe tried to make a dungeon, they’d just wipe it as easily as they wiped Lacey and Colt’s dungeon.

Lacey burned with fury at the thought that this guild had the power to simply come in and take over. This was Lacey and Colt’s dungeon. They were the ones figuring it out without a manual and a guild could just come in and loot them? What would happen to Lacey and Colt when all that was done?

“I suppose you’d die like the rest of us players,” Helluna answered the question for them when Lacey realized she’d asked the question out loud.

“And we’d get to go home?” Colt asked and Lacey’s anger melted like butter on a Vegas sidewalk.

“I would think so,” Helluna laughed. “It’s just a game and Karma’s not as bitchy as people make her out to be.”

“Thanks Helluna,” Colt stood to dust the dirt off his pants. “It sounds like we’ve got a lot of work to do if we only have a week to prepare.” The week was a godsend for Colt and Lacey, if that was really what they had.

“Sure,” Helluna mirrored Colt’s movements with a tense smile. “Like I said, I just didn’t think it was fair is all. This guild is so much higher than us that we shouldn’t have had to deal with them until our levels were high enough, but Hughe had to go and get all too big for his britches, if you know what I mean. Hughe’s the one who brought them here, but it affects you too.”

“Thanks again,” Colt shook her hand, almost professionally. “We really appreciate the info and it means the world to us.”

“Yeah,” Lacey put in, her tone a little more sarcastic than it should have been. “Come back anytime to let us know of our impending doo…”

Colt shouldered Lacey behind him and smiled at Helluna. “What are you and your party going to do?”

“We’re headed out of town for a while,” Helluna laughed off his concern for them. “They can’t wipe our party again if we aren’t there to let them.” So much for the idea of asking Helluna for a warning when the new guildies came in.

“That sounds really wise,” Lacey pressed her lips together in an effort to be civil, as Colt was silently suggesting with glares and nudges. “Wish we cou…”

“Absolutely,” Colt spoke over Lacey and ushered Helluna back out of the dungeon.

“Oh, my torch?” Helluna turned to say at the opening.

“Here,” Colt gave her the same 100-watt smile he’d had when she first stepped through the doorway. “Safe journeys.”

“Safe?” Lacey sputtered, but Colt was waving and smiling until Helluna was out of sight. “You could at least have asked her to give us a warning when the bad guys came to town.”

“We have more than two days,” Colt replied, still smiling at the retreating form in the woods. Only Lacey would have known that Colt’s smile was more ruthless than Lacey’s truth had sounded. “What more warning do we need?”