***** Guildmaster’s POV 12:00 PM *****

Once again, I stood on the highest tower of this accursed castle staring out at the plains around me struggling through the emotions in my heart. On the one hand, there was the elation of finally being able to cut loose and let my fire burn. On the other hand, there was the sorrow of knowing that my dress and I were the only things for hundreds of kilometers in any direction that weren’t covered in ash and soot, the death I had wrought sitting heavy on my heart.

My only consolation was most of the locals would be safe. Even the nomads and the herdsmen that live out here stayed near their fire shelters so that they could run inside as soon as the signal went off. It would be another hour or two before the ground cooled enough for them to leave their shelters.

I, on the other hand, could leave any time that I wanted. Having a ridiculous level of fire affinity does have its advantages after all.

I just wish that things didn’t have to be this way. Why can’t these idiots just be satisfied with what they have? Why do they have to tear our country apart?

“Pardon me Guildmaster, but you have an incoming call from Bud,” said my smart wrist bag.

“Oh?” That’s a bit of a surprise. “What does the dungeon want from me?”

“He didn’t say. Will you answer his call?”

“Might as well. If I don’t I’m just going to be sitting here moping for the next few hours.”

“Very well then, the call begins in 3… 2… 1…”

“Hey Bud, what’s up?”

Greetings Guildmaster! I am happy to say that my dungeon is finally ready for adventurers! I’d recommend a team of eight for this first encounter.

“Already? It’s barely been a week and a half since you started!”

I know. That’s why my name is Builder: because building things is what I do.

“That’s fair. In that case, I’ll send some adventurers your way as soon as I get back to my office. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some traveling to do beforehand.”

That’s fair. Safe travels!

“Thanks! I’d return the blessing, but well…”

Yeah, traveling isn’t really my thing at the moment.

“No, it isn’t. Bye now!”

Goodbye Guildmaster.

***** Anderson’s POV 4:30 PM *****

“What do you mean we’ll have to hack our way through the jungle from here?!” demanded Tomjohn as we stepped into the clearing where we’d met Broohn a short while ago. He is a human Blademaster and one of the four adventurers that had been added to our party for this mission. He spends most of his time in cities, so it came as no surprise to anyone that he started complaining about being stuck in the rainforest.

“The spell only allows me to take us to places that I’ve been to before, and this is the farthest into the jungle that I’ve ever been,” replied Shelvin.

“But you said you were the fastest way to get through the jungle!”

“He also said that it took them two weeks to get this far the first time,” interjected Pogofomous Strickmoore, the second addition to the party. He was also human, but that’s where the similarities ended. Where Tomjohn was tall and muscular Pogofomous was short and slightly pudgy. Where Tomjohn preferred an up-close, in-your-face fight, Pogofomous preferred to sit back and lob spells from a distance.

“If you no like jungle, then should no take quest into jungle,” added Ton, who stood out amongst our group as none of us could match the sheer size of the minotaur. Unsurprisingly, he was completely covered in steel-plate that didn’t seem to be hindering his movements any, nor did his tower shield and freaking massive bearing sword. Well, it was a bearing sword for anyone else. For him, it was just a decent-sized longsword. The surprising thing was the recurve bow on his back, which he had already proven to be an excellent shot with.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“What he said,” agreed Trixon, an orcish archer and the final member of our expanded party.

“Hey birdbeard, have you caught any birds recently?” called a female voice from somewhere in the trees.

“Who–” I sputtered for a moment before the name clicked. “Amandine!? Is that you?!”

“Who else would dare call you that, you silly dwarf!” she said as a humanoid creature hopped out of the trees. “Yes, I know I’m not human anymore, but my people and I had an extended encounter with a dark magic user, so now we’ve all been turned into Lizarolfkang. Things got a bit hairy there for a bit, but we’re fine now. Still adjusting to all of the changes, but otherwise fine.”

“So your son Doskad is fine then?”

“Yes, my husband Doskan is perfectly fine, even if we do have to figure out how to do certain things–oof!” she cut off as I slammed into her with a hug, satisfied that it was really her.

“So it is you. I’m glad you’re ok.”

“Me too Anderson, me too,” she replied, hugging me back. “Now if you excuse me, I have a bit more hunting to do. If y’all wait here for a minute or two, Zona will be along to explain things better and guide you to the hotel she built in front of the dungeon. I’ll stop by after dinnertime tonight and we can catch up.”

“Wait, you’re out here hunting on your own lass?” I asked as I stepped back to take a closer look at her. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine,” she said, shifting into a fighting stance. As she did so, claws sprouted from her fists and she bared her teeth. Suddenly, she didn’t look so defenseless.

Then she was gone, vanished into the trees like she’d never been there.

“Well, that was unexpected,” said Bobert.

“So who is this Zona we’re supposed to be waiting for?” asked Ragnar.

“That would be me,” said a new figure stepping out of the trees. “Greetings adventurers! My name is Zona, and I bid you welcome to my forest.”

“Hello gorgeous!” said Tomjohn, rushing forward to plant a kiss on the back of her hand. “Would a lovely lady such as yourself be interested in having dinner with me tonight?”

It was only after he had spoken that I recognized her as a dryad. While they do have a reputation for being rather promiscuous, propositioning an unknown dryad immediately isn’t necessarily a good idea.

“I’m sorry, but I’m already planning to have dinner with my husband Broohn.”

“Tomjohn! Back off!” I barked.

“Can it dwarf! Nobody asked you!” he replied, before turning back to Zona.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt him much– this time,” whispered Broohn’s voice in my ear. I’m not entirely sure where Broohn was, but I wasn’t too surprised that he could project his voice like this.

Meanwhile, Tomjohn sealed his fate with his next comment: “Why are you going to dinner with a man who sounds like a boring old broom? I can be much more entertaining than that!”

At this point, Zona seemed to realize that the subtle approach wasn’t making any headway as she anchored his feet in place with a couple of vines, then kicked him in the chest with both feet, launching her into a backflip away from him.

This gave Broohn the room he needed to pop out of the forest and gently step on Tomjohn’s chest.

“GREETINGS TOEJAM!”

“Gah!” exclaimed Tomjohn.

Then Zona stepped up where Tomjohn could see her clearly. “Toejam, this is my husband, Broohn.”

“Meep!”

“As you can see, he is far from boring. Wouldn’t you agree, Toejam?”

“Ma’am, yes Ma’am!”

“This is your only warning,” growled Broohn. “Next time will be much more painful for you.”

“Are you saying that you’ll-”

“I won’t be doing anything. Zona is more than capable of taking care of herself,” Broohn said as he pulled his foot off of Tomjohn. “Greetings adventurers! Welcome to our forest! If you’ll follow us, we’ll lead you to the dungeon in about twenty minutes. I wouldn’t recommend going in until tomorrow morning, as you’ll want to be well-rested first, but that’s why Zona built a hotel right in front of the dungeon.”

“Lead the way,” I said shrugging. This wasn’t how I expected things to go, but I have to say this was far more entertaining than I expected it to be.

*****

Sure enough, twenty minutes later we came upon a clearing in the forest where there was a building that was clearly labeled with a sign that said “Starship Dungeon Inn.” However, it was like nothing that I’d ever seen before. It was only about thirty meters square, but it soared several dozen stories up into the sky and had more glass than I’d ever seen anywhere in my life. I was just glad there were visible seams every so often as it kept the price of the glass manageable. If she’d coated the entire exterior in one piece of glass, I might have fainted dead away trying to estimate the cost.

Even from here, I could see that the common room took up most of the first floor, with comfortable looking tables and chairs scattered everywhere, a bar along one side of the room and a long table with some sort of odd glass roof above it on the other.

There was also a section of flat white stone that covered the ground around the building for four meters in every direction that just kind of stopped at the tree line, yet I couldn’t point out exactly where the stone stopped and the trees began.

The greatest surprise, however, was Zona herself. As she stepped across the line between the trees and the stone, she changed from an amalgamation of trees, vines, and other plant-based stuff into an amalgamation of steel, stone, wires, glass, carved wood, and many other materials. Despite the sudden increase in the complexity of her form, I got the feeling that she was much more lethal now than she had been before.

“Welcome to what will one day become the Rainsoaked City. I hope you enjoy your stay here regardless of how the dungeon dive goes. If you’ll follow me, I’ll get you signed into your rooms and then we can start the tour.”

“You know, when Amandine told me that you’d built an Inn here in the jungle, somehow I wasn’t expecting this! This is magnificent! I can’t wait to see what wonders await!”

“Thank you! I hope everything here is to your liking!”