The boom came from the second floor, so Stew swapped his mind into Eira, just in time to duck a fireball.

"What is this?" Stew was having trouble getting his bearings as Eira rolled to the right and returned fire with a bolt of energy so deeply violet it looked black.

"Training." Eira spat out between clenched teeth as she dodged another fireball. He couldn't see anything through her eyes but the back of a gravestone.

He reached out for the shamblers and found them all gone. Lorelei was all the way across the swamp.

The contract technically gave him the ability to jump to Raek, or Garrik, or even Theus' perspective, but that might lead to some difficult conversations, so he instead hopped into Romero's mind.

Yet again, he immediately regretted it.

Romero seemed completely unperturbed by the mage battle on the other side of the mausoleum. The hungry ghoul was much more interested in a juicy chunk of freshly dug up shambler leavings.

It was one of the most difficult things Stew had ever done, letting Romero swallow the mouthful it was chewing before pulling the ghoul away to peek around the edge of the stone building.

If Stew had any illusions about how his monsters would fare against higher level delvers they were firmly dispelled by this "sparring match."

All of the shamblers were down already. It seemed they had never landed a scratch on the delvers. Eira was, wisely, it seemed, keeping her own revenants out of the fight. Stew could sense them wandering around in the living quarters.

The delvers were having some sort of live fire exercise in the graveyard with actual fire. As Romero watched, Theus gathered a ball of flame between his hands then lobbed it toward Garrik. Unlike a physical ball, the fireball accelerated as it went, moving more like a missile than a bullet.

The comparison was even more apt when the fireball swerved left at the last moment, making a tight loop to speed toward Garrik's exposed back. Garrik, his sword ready, whirled.

Stew expected him to try to block it but Garrik cut the fireball in half, his blade seeming to drink the magic glowing briefly as did his armor. Stew peeked at his stats. There was no change to his mana, so he had either just refilled it by absorbing the fireball, or whatever enchantment his armor and sword shared hadn't required any of his own mana. Stew was hoping to watch another couple of passes to make sure, but that didn't turn out to be an option.

As Garrik recovered from his two-handed slice, Raek appeared, right behind him, daggers flashing. He managed two slicing strikes before Garrik could turn or react, then Raek was gone.

Stew could feel every air molecule in the dungeon, but he couldn't track Raek when he vanished again.

Eira, several beats too late, cast a sort of instant beam spell that ended up splashing off of Garrik's armor with little effect.

"A little more help?" Garrik called out.

"I'm trying!" Eira called back, but suddenly she was taking two quick dagger cuts from Raek herself.

"Focus!" Raek whispered in her ear before vanishing again.

Stew rubbed Romero's chin with his yellow clawed hand. He had never really thought about how disturbing rogues could be. He was going to have to find a way to counter this stealth ability and fast. It couldn't be an accident that they were demonstrating all of these skills to him right now. Maybe they wanted to see how he would react?

As he thought, Rufus stepped out from cover and charged Theus from behind, his shoulder into his shield for a bash.

Theus either didn't see him or ignored him as he lobbed another fireball toward Eira, forcing her to duck behind the gravestone again as the flames exploded with the same heavy detonation Stew had felt earlier.

At the very last moment, Theus side-stepped the charging fighter, spinning gracefully on one foot, then continuing to spin across the attacker's back, hooking one arm around the guard's helmeted head and snapping his neck without apparent effort.

One of Eira's beams splashed across Theus' bare shoulder staggering him as he finished his turn.

Theus nodded as the guard slumped to the ground, dead. "Much better!" he called out to his pupils as if Rufus had raised a useful point in a classroom. "By distracting me, Rufus gave you an opening." The teacher brushed charred flesh off his shoulder, healing the wound beneath with the same motion.

Stew was surprised, though he had a hunch this guy, Rufus, a level 5 fighter with mediocre gear, was a redshirt from the moment they called him over to sign the contract.

Eira took it much harder. She rose and stood staring in open shock. "You killed him? Why?" She shook her head slowly. "Do you want me to–"

"No!" Garrik stood straighter and raised a hand, "wait."

Raek reappeared also, standing next to Theus, watching the dead guard's body.

Oh right this is my part.

Stew reached out to his temporary minion and respawned the guard. It was his first time respawning a human, so he wasn't sure what to expect. But what happened made the most sense really.

The guard respawned next to his body, stark naked and visibly shaken. "That was…" He looked over at Theus and cringed a little. "I remember. I felt it." He bent down and looked at his own face. "How long."

"Not long." Raek sheathed his daggers. "Get your things before the dungeon absorbs them."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Theus and Raek exchanged a look.

Stew was even more sure this had all been a test of him rather than the two pupils. What exactly Raek and Theus had learned other than that he would keep his promise to respawn delvers, he wasn't sure. In the contract, he had given himself a time limit of one hour for respawns, thinking ahead to busier days, but he was glad he hadn't waited.

"I think we've had a good session. We'll be heading back up to the surface, but I am close by, should you need me." Theus looked Eira in the eye. "And your parents will be glad to know that you are helping to establish a new trading outpost." He turned to Garrik, "and Brutus sends his regards. He's pleased to see his son putting his attention to the security of the Republic. He's asked Gaius to personally bring a garrison for the defense of this new border town."

"Gaius must have more debt than I thought. I expected him to just come visit, not lead a legion here on common guard duty."

"Nothing common about guard duty in this place," Rufus muttered, but Stew thought he might be the only one who heard.

Eira and Garrik both looked relieved, so apparently they were happy with whatever story Theus had shared with their parents. But he thought he might check with Eira anyway. He had more than a few questions. He thought she might be more comfortable giving straight answers once Theus left.

"I need to talk to you about the level when you're finished here," He sent to her.

She sent back a wordless confirmation, apparently lost in her own thoughts.

While he waited, he checked with Lorelei.

She was irritated. "Is it always so loud around here? It was like we took a broadside at close range."

Stew started to explain the training battle, then interrupted himself. "You know what a canon is?"

"Aye, I know which end to point toward trouble and where to set the match." She laughed. Her external voice was nothing like her salty internal tone. She continued mind-to-mind "I doubt I could stack shot all day with this back. And if you're planning an excursion, I'll tell you I don't know the local waters." She splashed a bare foot in a swamp puddle.

Now he had even more questions, but they would have to wait. "I want to introduce you to the level boss. She'll be your captain, I guess, for this level. You'll be her first mate."

"Or last if you like." Lorelei primped her hair.

"No randomly killing your colleagues." Stew hoped he sounded stern. "We will do some planned sparring though, so that you can level-up."

"Oh don't worry. You saw I left that skulker alone, just as I promised. I won't go draggin anyone down to meet Captain Jones unless you give me the nod."

"Skulker?" Then thinking better, Stew added. "You could see him?"

"Sure, that throat slicer that came sneaking around. He was good, but to this spider every wasp is just another fly in my web. The plants could sense him, even if I couldn't see him myself."

"How well did you follow him? Where did he go?"

"He followed a searching course, moving fast as a feather in a gale. All the way out to my shack and down the stairs to the next level."

"That's." Stew thought about it. "That's good. Thank you. Keep an eye out for those kinds of delvers. We'll likely have more of them, and, unless I tell you differently, any that come in unannounced are fair game, even this one, if he comes back without signing a contract."

He swapped his attention back and forth between this conversation and where Romero was tracking the delvers as they returned to the stairs and the surface. Raek stayed with the others and stayed visible, but Stew kept Romero close until they started up the stairs, and followed them with his dungeon senses until they left the dungeon altogether.

That was when he realized he had forgotten to use Stat-o-Vision™ on Theus.

How could he forget something like that? It seemed like there had been more than one stealthy skill in play. Even that "training session" had been as much to distract him as to test him. How far had Raek gone in his explorations?

Stew checked the slimes and didn't see any evidence that the traps there had been triggered. The slimes didn't seem to have any memory of a battle. He was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the ooze recalled smelling a tasty treat that had, unfortunately, gotten away. It had been away from its post blocking the door to level four for several minutes chasing after what sounded like a rabbit.

Had Raek just happened to smuggle a rabbit with him? Was that just standard rogue gear in this world? How had he known he would need to distract the ooze? Maybe it was some sort of illusion or summoning?

Stew moved to level four. Here things were different.

The Auroch Bull was standing guard at the bottom of the stairs flanked by two of the spectral Panthers.

"We didn't want to disturb you while you entertained your guests, but we had a visitor of our own." Bossy shared from where she stood near her temple at the far end of the level.

"You could see him?" Stew asked.

"Nothing can hide from the cats." She chuckled in his mind. "And nothing can pass our bull without defeating him."

Stew could feel the unbending will in the giant bull, and the playful ferocity of Socks and Boo, and he felt a little bit better about how things had turned out. The delvers might have made it past his slimes, but he had hopefully maintained a little mystery.

He didn't blame them for keeping their own secrets and trying to find out his, and it didn't seem like they had violated any of the terms of their contracts, but he would still have to keep an eye on them. Just because he understood their motivations didn't mean he had to let them do what they wanted. He had his own priorities and one of those was keeping his bluff in with what were obviously much more powerful neighbors.

"I think it's time to shake things up just a little bit. I'm moving Socks and Boo to Level 2. I'll replace them with some new kittens here." He really wanted alligators and giant mosquitos for his haunted swamp, but he would settle for ghost panthers for now. Besides, a few kills would make them stronger.

While they started up, he spawned two more kittens, one silvery gray and one black like boo. He named them Twilight and Midnight and sent them to meet Bossy and Fluff, so they could get to work turning milk into actions and grow up big and strong.

And speaking of secrets, he was going to have to get Theus back in the dungeon, not just to get a look at his stats, but to get him to fight the grappler golems. Maybe he would even train them for a price?

Everything went on the todo list, because the biggest revelation today had been very deliberate, and strangely done. Theus could have told Garrik all about his dad's friend and the legion somewhere out of Stew's earshot. And Theus and Raek could have just told Stew directly. Should have really. What game were they playing?

He had his own game in mind. If he could get his mana and action production high enough he could offer training for the soldiers 100 at a time, and maybe he could get this Gaius to help train his golems if he needed money so badly. The thought scared the hell out of him, but if he hadn't been currently residing in a solemn-minded bull, he would still be grinning ear to ear.

This timing couldn't be a coincidence.

All the pieces had finally slotted into place. He was no history buff, but he had taken a half semester of Latin in Middle School. He knew where, or at least, when, he was. Rome was a republic. Garrick's dad was a Senator named "Brutus." The Helvetians were acting up to the north, and a Roman Consul named Gaius with money troubles was headed north leading what would probably turn out to be more than one legion.

Brutus' old buddy, Gaius. That had to be Gaius Julius Caesar.

If Caesar didn't sack the dungeon and kill everyone, maybe he'd sign an autograph.