Lily sat at the kitchen table, drumming her heels against the legs of her chair. In the corner, Cook’s chin had drooped toward her chest, her gentle snores mimicking the contented purring of a particularly large cat.
The kitchen was spotless. Lily had washed and dried the last of the dishes and wiped down the surfaces while she waited. She and Cook had barely started the dishes when Cook excused herself, muttering something about resting her eyes for a minute. Lily hoped the Baron was okay, he got a much larger dose in his nightcap than the little taste Cook took.
Lily counted five times sixty more of Cook’s snores, and then got up and snuck out of the kitchen towards Baron Canewhold’s study. Everyone else in the household should be fast asleep in their chambers, excepting young master Layne and the Baron himself. Young master Layne was still out, and should be out for a while yet as he often was. The Baron now… Lily just hoped that he had retired to his chambers after the nightcap.
That, however, was not to be. As Lily gently pushed the study door open, she saw his grizzled frame resting on the study desk, his arms folded under his head. His rumpled shirt steadily rose and fell with his breath while he slumbered.
Her heart bounced even harder in her chest at the sight of him, at the knowledge of what she needed to accomplish right there in the study. So soon after what she had done just this morning as well. If he woke, she may very well end up on the gallows. Pins and needles ran through her limbs as she fought to keep her breath silent while she analysed him.
Hubrid Canewhold
Baron Level 31
Status effect: Drugged
Her eyebrows lifted in surprise. Aside from his high level, she had never realised that the title of Baron was an actual class. How does that work? Layne was set to inherit the Baron’s holdings, but everyone knew that he was a knight. Would his class change to Baron when the plantation passed to him? She would have to ask Agnetha about it.
She stepped carefully into the study, shifting her weight onto her front foot as controlled as possible. The floor plank gave a muted groan, muffled under the heavy carpet overlaying it. One step down. Lily cautiously repeated the process as she moved through the study. To her relief, the sensations in her body gradually returned to normal as she progressed, until she could lift the pendulum out of her tunic pocket with a steady hand and drop it behind the cushions of the study couch. That was the easy part.
Lily checked the baron’s status again – still drugged. Even so, she hesitated. To reach her next target she had to move deeper into the room, past his desk to the door leading to the mansion sanctum. The sanctum door loomed large and dark in the corner of the study, its sturdy knotted wood a testament to its durability. The sanctum itself was a mystery. As far as Lily knew, no servant had ever been inside it and the baron never opened it without locking the study door first. However, if Agnetha was right, there would be a number of healing potions inside. The wealthy always kept a good stockpile of healing potions on hand, all the more so when they had an only son who was an avid adventurer.
She focused on using all of her sneaking skill to move past the baron and to the sturdy sanctum door.
Skill increase: Sneaking +1
At the sanctum door, she paused to study the lock. This was the unknown in her and Agnetha’s plan. Agnetha could prepare her for the most general locks, but if this one was specially crafted her mission would end right here. The lock was an old-fashioned one, strong and sturdy, like the door itself. And, thank the Gods, it was one of the types Agnetha had made her practice on.
Lily reached up towards her hair and withdrew her borrowed lock picks, selecting the correct one and replacing the rest in her hairdo. It wasn’t long before the lock came open with a satisfying snick. She gave a silent derisive snort at the baron. The idea of squirreling these riches away, and then keeping it behind such a useless lock. Truly, the rich were arrogant.
Then the silence was broken by a muted rustle of papers. Lily froze, slowly turning away from the door to face the baron at his desk. His head was still on the table, but one of his arms had slid out of position, pushing some papers onto the floor. She did another status check.
Hubrid Canewhold
Baron Level 31
Status effect: Recovering
With haste she had not used once during the night, she sped up her movements while trying to remain as soundless as possible. One quick step brought her into the sanctum. It was dark. Too dark. She needed light.
She hurried out, lifted the lamp from the desk and returned into the sanctum. The wall to her left was lined with shelves of tomes, papers, artefacts, and instruments. The wall to her right displayed weapons and armour. And at the very back there was a display case with a collection of rings and jewellery on the top shelf, and a collection of glass vials filled with different fluids on the bottom. The displayed items were locked away behind a second, unfamiliar lock.
Lily jerked at more sounds of the baron stirring. Her time was up. Time seemingly slowed as different scenarios flew through her mind. Is there enough time to try to pick that lock and take a healing potion? No. Smash the glass and grab everything? Not without drawing the baron’s attention, now that he was starting to wake up. Only one option. Retreat.
New skill unlocked: Quick thinking 1/20
She silently pulled the sanctum door closed, replaced the lamp on the desk, and hurried out of the study.
<>
Back in the cavern Claire had a problem on her non-existent hands. She cast another worried glance at her status main menu that she had on display for both Rick and herself to see.
Claire
Type: Life-Mind
Level: 1
Integrity: 100%
Processing speed: 100%
Functional capacity: 79%
Progress to next level
-210/250 LF Performance provision
0/500 Dungeon Investment, consisting of:
0/≥125 LF
0/≥125 ME
16/250 Skill Share Value
“This is quite the conundrum,” Rick reiterated.
I can think of a few other descriptive words and phrases, Claire added.
“Oh? Like what?”
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Ah, never mind, she replied, having a vision of trying to explain some of Earth’s more creative expressions to her dungeon elemental. Suffice it to say that the pawpaw had hit the fan, splattering her whole cavern.
It turns out that Rick’s fears about the distance from her core chamber to the surface were well-founded. Claire was still proud of her intervention on the beach in saving Lily, but it had come at a cost. She was sitting dangerously close to that 70% functional capacity mark, below which her processing speed would start being affected. Not to mention the 50% mark which would endanger her core integrity.
Rick, can you quickly go over the absorption and construction costs for me again?
“In short, you need 10 life-force for every cubic metre of raw matter you wish to absorb, equalling 1% of your total functional capacity. Construction is double the cost, as it takes more energy to create than to deconstruct. Therefore, 20 life-force (or 2% of total functional capacity) for every cubic metre of construction you complete.”
Meaning there is no way I can finish our basic dungeon construction and population without impacting my processing speed.
“Unfortunately not.”
Claire growled, This is quite a frustrating situation. I feel like there must be a way to get our first rooms done, without compromising my ability to think.
“I’m sure there is. My master always said to think, study, and think again.”
Sounds like sound advice.
Both of them contemplated the status screen once more.
Claire needed at least two rooms to start with, according to Rick. A boss room, which also acts as a semi-final defensive layer to her core, as well as a first room just off the entrance to her dungeon. Both needed to be populated with constructs to challenge adventurers, and both needed suitable rewards.
“In general, there would be two ways to approach this problem in traditional dungeons,” Rick continued. “The dungeon core would either have to create less, or find a way to access more life-force. You haven’t even started creation, and without creation you can’t get more life-force, but without more life-force you can’t create.”
Thus completing our circular argument and current dilemma. But we have to do something.
Claire continued mulling it over. This was an either or of which they could afford neither. But what if they didn’t try to do both? Could they settle for a little of each?
Hey Rick, what if instead of a boss room and a corridor to the first room we just did another shaft with the first room and entrance at the end of it? I mean, I can’t be hurt if people can’t get to me in the first place…
“It’s a good idea in principle, but we’re still going to have the problem of restricted life-force circulation. You need a larger corridor to get more life-force down here for you to absorb.”
But how much larger though? Would a crawlspace be sufficient? A corridor or a full-on hallway? Actually, do we even need a first room?
<>
Outside the study, Lily leant against the hallway wall, her heart throbbing in her throat. She had missed her opportunity. She shouldn’t have waited so long in the kitchen, she should have moved to the study as soon as Cook fell asleep, she should have worked faster once she was in the study. All the ‘should haves’ kept circling in her mind.
Even now she really should get back to the kitchen and out of here. She wanted to obey the part of her that thought that, but she just kept standing there, like a frozen doe. She took a deep breath, then another.
Something tugged at the edge of her consciousness and Lily gingerly felt around the edges of the emotion. It was the same part of her that had shown her deception on the beach and prompted her into swiping the compass. What was it? Was there something she had missed? Whatever it was, it tapped insistently at the edge of her awareness.
Every moment she stood there the baron was coming closer to full wakefulness. Every moment deepened the danger she was in. But her father was going to die if she didn’t see this through.
Yes, she realised, finally allowing herself to know the truth. There was no more time for the butcher. Even this morning had already been too late. That’s why Agnetha hadn’t suggested it. And that’s why she sent Lily here to rob the Canewhold’s of a potion that Lily, as a servant and villager, couldn’t even imagine the value of.
So Lily might as well push her luck to the utmost limits now. Clinging to her reasoning, she didn’t flee just yet and took another breath. Gently she mentally felt around the edges of the submerged thought, lying just beneath the surface.
And then, when it finally rose fully formed into her consciousness, Lily wanted to scream. Half in frustration that she and Agnetha didn’t think of it before, and half in relief because there was a solution.
Putting her sneaking skill to further use, she quietly rushed down the corridor as fast as she could go, only stopping once she reached the door to young master Canewhold’s chambers.
Because, what is the use of a healing potion locked up in a study when the young master is halfway around the island looking for adventure? And when has the young master ever taken the time to put his gear away after a long day of adventuring?
Oh, the old baron would berate him for it once again tomorrow. Those tirades were no secret among the servants. Not that it could be kept secret with the way the baron yelled anyway.
But tonight Layne’s carelessness with his equipment was going to save her. And, more importantly, it would save her father.
<>
The door to young master Layne’s chambers clicked open so effortlessly that Lily’s knees buckled in utter relief. A part of her had feared that the door to his chambers would be locked, like the sanctum was.
As she entered his chambers, the events on the beach earlier that day rushed back at her, stirred by the smell of oil and leather which permeated the space. His space.
How can it still be the same day, she wondered. In one day she had stolen a pendulum, been abducted, became a rogue, drugged the baron and now she was trespassing in the younger lord’s domain. I have to keep moving, Lily reminded herself. Even though young master Layne had a habit of staying out late, even he would return eventually and the starry threshold king have already dipped below his zenith in the night sky. She needed to get this done. So she picked up the lamp lighting the entrance to his chambers and walked into his bedroom.
Lily had worked in the mansion for many years, but this was the first time she entered any of the family’s private chambers. As such, she gaped at the sheer size of the bed in his room, covered with a richly embroidered coverlet combined with fluffed pillows at the head of the bed. The mosquito netting was still drawn back – she supposed he would loose it himself once he retired to bed for the evening. Or for the morning as it were.
What would sleeping in a bed like this be like? Unbidden a vision of her lying in the bed, tangled in the young master’s muscular arms rose in her thoughts. Then she shook her head. It was the second time she had lost focus now and she couldn’t afford it. She needed to get the job done.
As expected, his adventuring gear was strewn loosely across the furniture, and Lily found his adventuring belt hanging from a chair in his study. After that finding the right vial was easy – all she had to do was identify the one that looked exactly like the vial Agnetha had handed to her, with the same colour of liquid, and exchange the two. Lily froze as heavy footsteps came thumping down the hallway, stopping outside the outer door to the chambers.
<>
Layne could finally feel exhaustion starting to weigh on him as he reached the door to his chambers, but still he resisted. Ever since he was a child, allowing himself to fall asleep had always been hard. He constantly fought it. Sleep brought lack of consciousness, lack of control. It was like someone stealing his life, his experiences, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
But even he knew that, for tonight, the battle was coming to an end. Once again, he would be forced to submit. So he returned to his bedroom with slow steps and pushed the door open.
He barely noticed the serving girl inside, who turned down the bedding and then loosed the mosquito netting, nodding to her in passing as he leaned against the wall and kicked off his boots. She gave him a small bow in return, and then exited to go wherever servants went at this time of night.
It was only as he sank into sleep that it occurred to him that servants weren’t usually around this late. But the thought slipped away and was forgotten almost instantaneously.
<>
Lily brushed away another notification as she escaped into the night.
Skill increase: Quick thinking +1
Skill increase: Deception +1
<><><>
Character sheet summary at the end of Chapter 8
Claire
Type: Life-Mind
Level: 1
Integrity: 100%
Processing speed: 100%
Functional capacity: 78%
Progress to next level
-220/250 LF Performance provision
0/500 Dungeon Investment, consisting of:
0/≥125 LF
0/≥125 ME
16/250 Skill Share Value
Core defence enabled
Cutting thorn barrier
5 LF to initiate
Continuous drain of 10 LF per day
Resources available
Biomass: 43
Mental energy: 150
Raw material: 434
<>
Lily Hunter
Rogue Level 1
First-tier skills
Basic herbalism 1/20
Deception +1 → 3/20
Lockpicking 5/20
Petty theft 1/20
Pickpocketing 4/20
New: Quick thinking +2 → 2/20
Sneaking +1 → 8/20
Sleight of hand +1 → 2/20
Second-tier skills
Spying 0/50