Vugar, the Frodian Warrior kissed his wife goodbye and set off for the inn where he was meeting his friends. He was a red panda beastman, short and stocky with cute animal ears. His skin and hair were red, white and black in a pattern resembling a red panda’s markings.

On his way there a gust of wind blew an elf woman passer-by’s straw hat clean off her head. Vugar jumped seven feet high and caught it, landing in a graceful roll. He handed the hat to the embarrassed woman, who thanked him without meeting his gaze.

“Th-thank you, sir.”

“You’re welcome! Surprisingly gusty today isn’t it?”

“Y-yes.”

Not wanting to bother the poor lady, Vugar said his goodbyes and set off for the Cat and Kitten Inn again. He had something important to discuss with his friends.

The elf woman turned out to be walking in the same direction. He tried making small talk a couple of times, but the woman seemed too nervous to enjoy it.

She was wearing an artificer’s lab coat and had a shoulder bag full of something heavy.

Vugar began to suspect he knew who this woman was. There was one person other than his friends he was supposed to meet at the Cat and Kitten today. When the building came into sight, and they were still walking together, he couldn’t resist asking the woman directly.

“You wouldn’t happen to be Baroness Spiderholly’s artificer, would you?”

The woman gave a shrill cry of surprise and pulled her hat down over her face.

“N-no! I’m… someone else!”

“I’m Vugar the Laughing Tornado.”

“Oh...” she said, peeking at him from beneath the hat. “Actually, I-I am.”

She looked left and right carefully then seemed to calm down a little.

“I’m Emiria Spiderholly, the Baronesses daughter. Please call me Emiria."

Vugar was surprised, and it showed on his face. He hadn’t expected the Baroness to send her own daughter out into the city. He looked around, but he couldn’t see any guards.

“Did the Baroness not send any guards with you?”

“I’ve got something better than guards with me.” She said, patting her bag.

They entered the building and Vugar waved to the barman, an older wolf beastman with greying hair who noticed the pair.

“Vugar!” the barman wiped the bar with a cloth. “Room 17.” Brusque as always but with a wide, friendly grin.

Vugar returned the grin and gave a nod.

“This way,” he said to Emiria, walking with familiarity through the maze-like corridors of the old building.

Before the building had been converted to an Inn, it used to be the top floor of a dungeon. A goblin dungeon if Vugar remembered right. There were once five dungeons in Harald’s Rest. Two had been cleared out and destroyed: The Goblin King’s Lair and The Cockatrice Nest. The other three remained and were doing well: Harald’s Crypt, The Sea Caverns and The Tree of Blood. They had been left because they provided more benefits than they caused problems. All three produced many useful items, the Tree of Blood especially.

Eventually, they reached Room 17 and Vugar knocked on the door. The spy-hole in the door slid open, and a pair of beautiful green cat eyes looked out at them. It was Isolde, the doctor of Vugar’s adventuring party.

“Vugar! ...And who is this?” she said in her bright and serene voice.

“This is the Artificer we were going to meet today.”

“What’s the password?” Isolde asked in a joking voice.

Emiria stepped forward and whispered something.

“Oh! Come in! Come in!” Isolde hastily unlatched the door. “I was only joking!”

The door opened, and Vugar’s companions came into sight, causing a happy smile to break out on his face.

Modestly dressed in White Sea Serpent skin armour, Isolde closed the door behind them. She was a black cat beastwoman with dark skin and cute cat ears poking out of her hair.

The wild-looking, tall and bulky barbarian elf named Rakugann was sitting at the table eating his stew. He nodded at Vugar, who nodded back.

Redleaf the beast master fed scraps of meat to his blade-bird and grey lioness animal companions.

“Well met, old friend,” he said with a knuckle to his brow.

Vugar returned the gesture.

The last member of his group put her book down and looked up. Another cat beastwoman with white and orange tabby hair in a ponytail, she wore a long brown robe covered with gold runes.

“Good morning, Vugar.” She smiled but quickly went back to her neutral expression.

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Vugar gave her a warm smile.

“Good morning, Mildred.”

Mildred appraised Emiria.

“This must be the Baroness’ Artificer. Are you hungry? As you can see, we have a lot of stew.”

“N-no, I ate before leaving.” Emiria looked at her feet. She introduced herself, giving her full name and occupation and then they got to the point. Her entire personality changed when she talked about business, becoming much more confident and serious.

“The Baroness wants you to test a new magic item.”

Isolde leaned toward Emiria across the table and put her chin on her palm.

“Oh, is that all?" she said. "I thought it would be something much stranger with all the top-secrecy.”

“It’s probably best if I show him to you.”

Emiria reached into her bag and took out a black box. Putting the box on the table, she opened it. Vugar spotted some rune chains on the box but couldn’t tell what they meant or their purpose. Mildred’s gaze went to them too. He’d have to ask her what they were later. Inside the box was a gold orb about the size of an orange. Before they could ask what the object was, it spoke.

“Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. I am the illustrious 517, and I am a GENTLEMAN.”

The orb had a tinny, grainy voice as posh as any Vugar had heard.

Emiria smiled warmly.

“517 is the greatest achievement of our entire research facility.”

Rakugann was the first to recover from the shock.

“What exactly does it- I mean... does he do?” he questioned Emiria in his deep voice.

Before Emiria could speak, 517 answered.

“I can do a great many things! Ha-ha!”

The group waited for him to continue, but he didn’t.

Emiria tried to answer the question.

“He can map-”

517 cut in and interrupted her.

“I can map out your exact path through a dungeon!”

517 projected a map on the table, an illusionary 3d image of the city of Harald’s Rest.

A Green path shone from the Baroness’ estate through the city and to the Cat and Kitten, Emiria’s path that morning.

They waited for 517 to continue, but he didn’t. Emiria tried to go on.

“He can also summon Gold-”

Once again, 517 cut her off.

“I can also summon several Gold Knights! Haha! May I, my lady?”

“No, 517. You only have so much mana so save it for the dungeon.” Emiria still had a warm smile on her face like she was looking at a favourite child.

Vugar knew a Gold Knight was a kind of monster. A kind of automaton or golem if he remembered correctly. There were a few on one of the floors of Harald’s Crypt. While tough, they were quite slow.

“The last thing I need to tell you about for now is his Mana Recharge ability. He can-”

“Yes, that’s right! I can gather the Mana in the environment and transmit it in a usable state. What do you mean by "the last thing" by the way? I’m pretty sure I can *REDACTED.*" For the final word, his voice became much louder and more machine-like. "...oh, I forgot I couldn’t talk about *REDACTED.*”

Emiria still had a smile on her face, but her eyes were completely closed, and the smile seemed to have frozen on her face. Vugar broke the silence.

“Is there something we should know?” he asked her.

“I-I'm only authorised to reveal more in further tests. Some things should remain top secret for now.” Emiria’s expression didn’t change.

Vugar frowned slightly.

“What do you guys think?” Vugar asked his fellow party members.

Rakugann was the first to reply.

“Something feels off about this one.”

Isolde put her counterpoint forward.

“But the pay is 1000 Gold Coins. We could live comfortably off that for two or three months. We just have to get to Floor 2 and come back. That’s normally pretty simple.”

Vugar remembered something and mentioned it out loud.

“I remember hearing in a lecture in the Adventurer’s Guild that Dungeons do something to ambient Mana similar to that Mana Recharge ability,” Vugar remembered it vaguely but Mildred reacted to that.

“Oh yes,” she replied, “Dungeons use it to replenish their traps and monsters.”

Vugar continued, wondering aloud.

“What would happen if the two abilities conflicted with each other?”

“That’s what we’re sending you in to test.” Emiria replied. “Don’t forget that there will be more tests later with increasing levels of pay.”

Vugar was conflicted. On the one hand, this could be extremely dangerous; on the other hand, it could be extremely profitable. There was no way to know how dangerous it was until they tried it.

“Let’s put it to a vote,” he said eventually.

Rakugann was the first.

“I vote no.”

Vugar considered him carefully. His instincts had got them out of trouble many times before.

Redleaf was next.

“I also vote no.”

Mildred followed him.

“I vote yes. I’m curious,” she admitted.

Next was Isolde in her very relaxed voice.

“I vote yes too. This could be the discovery of the century,” she said.

Vugar looked at his friends, meeting their gazes as he considered.

“I vote no,” he said finally.