Ozzy made his way over to the livery stable. The day was early, and the sun had just come up. The roan gelding in the far stall ignored him, but the little donkey was watching him closely as he went up to the door. He was about to knock when he heard snoring from above in the hay loft. After checking the ladder to make sure it would hold his weight, he carefully climbed up to the second story.

Ben was clearly up to something and working on a project, but Ozzy wasn't quite sure what. Three tables had been made by putting planks across stacked hay bales. One had an assortment of leather scraps, shears, buckles, and straps. No mystery about what Ben had been working on there. A set of riding leathers, boots, and a new hat were hanging from a crude wooden dress dummy.

The leather was made from the flame-resistant hide of a bull sedge beast but with a nicer finish than the stuff they sold to the Legion. Ben had dyed the hides a little darker, and it felt like oil and wax were worked into the leather. The pieces were a uniform dark red-brown in color with copper rivets and buckles. Inspecting the pieces, Ozzy saw that small copper plates had been riveted in strategic places between two layers of thin leather and patches of flexible copper mesh in others. It was heaviest on the back and breast. The high collar of the coat also had a long copper strip adding some protection. Ben seemed to put a priority on the favored spots for backstabs, arrows, and garrotes. Ozzy chuckled at that. Ben had been running into a lot of bad people and ended up dead when he did. His class gave him some interesting missions.

The other tables were more of a huge mess than workspace. One had two halves of a metal claw with some spring-loaded mechanism. Bent metal, ruined springs, and broken claw parts showed earlier attempts. Plans for some sort of crane were scribbled on the table.

The other table had a rat’s nest of copper wire, bent plates, and long rods. Probably where he'd assembled all the armor bits before attaching them to the leather.

More snores came from behind some hay, which is what led Ozzy to Ben. "Wake up Sleeping Beauty. Our lord and master, Mr. Billy, needs your talents."

Ben sat up, looking bleary. "Right. Of course, he does. I think I only got to sleep around dawn. What time is it?"

"A few minutes after dawn."

"Shit. What does he need to be done?"

"Well, he told me that he needed a lightning rod made to protect a project of Jorges'. He seemed to think you would know how. Prior to seeing your little workshop, I might have wondered, but I'm going to have to agree with him that you might be the man for the job. What the hell is all of this?"

Ben looked a bit sheepish. "I sort of tapped into my Heritage. I think the AI is taking into account a lot of what I did in the earlier games. I've gained some inventor skills, a bunch of craft skills, and have been adopted back into my old family." Ben quickly put on his new hat so he could doff it and bow properly to Ozzy. "Benjamin Franklin the 7th, at your service. You mentioned a lightning rod, did you?"

"I did, but why don't you explain to me what this contraption and the armor are first? You've got me curious now. Tell me about this inventing skill and I'll trade you the details on my new way to grill meat." If Ben had found a way to gain some extra skills, Ozzy wanted to know the details. Every little bit of information helped."

Ben was eager to show off. "That contraption is the start of a fine piece of machinery to pull large chunks of cooked meats out of dangerous flaming pits. You don't have a good way of bringing the cooked sides of beef out of that pit until it finishes. This will be a little crane that runs off of muscle power and pullies. Just swing it over to the spot you want, lower the jaws, and let them snap onto the meat, then pull it back up. Besides the fact that it doesn't work, I'll have it by next week. It needs some thought put into it."

"The armor is based on the designs I have for Courier gear, but the materials are better. The hides give better protection and the copper will reinforce some of the areas where I get hit a lot. I'll be stylish and protected next run."

"Between these two projects, I'm almost up to level two as an inventor and can pick up some more crafting skills and work on more projects. I have a nifty little cross-bow, but need some more skills and a long talk with Suzette first. There may be a way to enchant it to make it cock faster."

Ozzy looked at Ben's hat. "You're missing something. A fine hat like that should have a feather."

Ben's face fell, and he placed the back of his hand on his brow. "Sir, you are correct. Alas, fine feathers have become scarce in these parts. Not one has seen fit to flutter into my grasp and the merchants have only poor-quality feathers of small size to offer." Ben shrugged. "Maybe if I ever get sent to some big city. Until then, my poor hat is unfinished and sad."

Ozzy reached into the pack he was carrying and pulled out a thin wooden box about a foot long. "Strangely, I seem to have picked up something in my travels that you might like. I've been waiting for you to finish your new hat."

Ben carefully opened the box and stared first at the long red-gold feather and then back at Ozzy. "How...! Where...! Shit, man, this is a damned Phoenix feather! It's glowing! Where did you lay hands on this?"

"Long story, let’s say it was a parting gift for putting up with annoying people."

Ben reverently attached the Phoenix feather to his hat. There was a small glow around the hat. Ozzy and Ben got a notification. (Beatrice as well, but she was used to the System by now and ignored reading it in favor of munching hay.)

[Congratulations, you have created: Couriers Hat of the Phoenix

Mitigation: 5 points.

Fire Mitigation: 20 points

+ 1 to CHA.

This item, when owned by a Courier, cannot be lost or stolen. It will eventually turn up inside your Courier's ring.

You have gained +50 experience in Inventor.

You have gained +50 experience in INT.

You have reached level 2 in Inventor.]

"Now that is one nice hat," Ozzy noted.

"To say the least. Thanks, Ozzy. That's a hell of a gift." Ben seemed stunned. "Wow, I actually made a magic item."

Before he could continue, there was a whistling sound, and two small balls of light flew into the stable. One flew at Ben, striking him in the forehead and stunning him. The other continued, passing through the wall.

Ozzy picked Ben up off the floor where he had fallen. "You ok?"

Ben shook his head. "Holy shit. That was some type of message, hard to sort out, but I think some paladin needs help with wolves?"

The door to Mattias's room slammed open. "You up there lad? The message just came in. Haven't been hit by one of those in a couple of decades." He looked down at his missing leg. "This one is going to have to be all yours Ben. Make yourself useful Ozzy, and go get enough food in this saddlebag for three days and fill the water bottle. I'll help him get Mudhead saddled up."

Ben eyed the roan. "Mattias, I can't take that horse. I can't really ride him yet. It's embarrassing, but I don't have the skill."

Mattias scoffed. "Then I guess you get to learn fast, son. Damned silly they didn't teach you how to ride before giving you the job but done is done and we have to deal with it. I know you have the ranks for it by now; you just need to practice some, and you can add horseback riding to your skills. That was a priority message, which means we go with all haste. Mudhead there will probably behave; you just have to stay on him and rein him in hard near water. Go put on that fancy new gear. I'll get some oats and apples in the other bag, and you can be on your way."

Ozzy appeared and strapped the saddlebag of food to the horse. As Ben came down the ladder dressed in his new leathers, Ozzy handed him a steaming cup of strong tea and a muffin. Ben asked Mattias, "Where am I even headed, I'm still trying to sort the message."

Mattias nodded. "Yeah, the first time you get one like that, it hits hard and is a little messy to figure out. Your head will sort it soon. Head to Rowan Keep, and keep going south. Take the road to Burlsford and then on to Thunderhead. Go due south from Thunderhead and it's about 50 miles to the South of that. The message will help you home in on the person who sent it, or where it was sent from if he's dead."

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"Remember, your job isn't to save the day or do stupid heroics. You get there, find out what's going on, and get word to whoever it needs to go to. Now climb on and get out of here."

Ben got on the horse, held onto the saddle horn and reins, and lightly touched his heels to the roan. It turned its head and sort of snickered at him. Mattias slapped the horse’s ass and it leaped forward, running down the road and Ben holding on for dear life.

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"Fear not fair maiden! For I, Sir Timothy have returned to make war against the foul forces of darkness once again!" It was a bold speech, delivered as Timmy walked into the tavern, followed by two dozen armed adventurers.

Suzette had been expecting this. "Ah, I had despaired at your absence and am thankful that my small tavern has such brave defenders." She looked the group over. They seemed better prepared than last time and were sober. Still, she didn't need any more screw-ups.

"Let me know when you’re ready to take in the first group, and I'll open it up for you. Same as before, five gold a group."

"Nay, fair maiden, we have come to raid. We must avenge our tarnished reputation and slay the Under Rodent." After the last disaster, Timmy had put in hours offline both planning the raid and assuring his sponsors of some great footage.

The 'fair maiden' wasn't happy with the idea. Suzette folded her arms and looked Timmy in the eye. "Not happening. You guys screwed up last time, and badly. You didn't kill enough bosses to cover all those people dying. It was a win for the dungeon. The damn thing was nearing the full point. I had to send in a group to carefully cull the packs of rat-kin roaming around and take out a low-level boss to trim it back."

Timmy had no clue how dungeons worked in Genesis. "What happens if it fills up?"

Suzette figured this might be the time to spread some knowledge and get some Teaching experience. "All of you gather round and stay quiet. Let's all learn about the care and feeding of dungeons."

Twenty-five adventurers and a few regulars became quiet as Suzette started to speak. After she had taken on the position of Dungeon Keeper, she quizzed Aleister and Hermes on the subject. She wasn't telling Timmy's group everything. But she thought it was a good idea for adventurers to have an understanding of how things worked. It might avoid a disaster someday.

"Dungeons need fuel to create magic items and monsters. They get this from mana. And the deaths of people venturing inside give a lot of mana. As the Dungeon Keeper, I can see how full the dungeon is. If we delve into it too much, it will quit producing bosses, magic items will disappear, and possibly the whole dungeon could go away. "

"But the opposite is worse. Too much mana and the dungeon can fill up. If this happens, there are two options I know of. The first is that the dungeon shuts down for a time, and grows stronger. It levels up the way a player does. The dungeon opens up again, but it's stronger. The trash mobs are at higher levels, and so are the bosses. If you thought the Under Rodent was tough last time, imagine what a few more levels would do?"

"The other event though, is bad for everyone. The dungeon vents all of its mobs and relieves the pressure. An army of rat-kin gets released, and even the smaller bosses. They roam around and kill anything. They have to be culled quickly or the whole area changes and more and more monsters spawn. There are already cursed areas in the world like that. I don't want to make another."

"Really, do you know..."

"Sorry, above your pay grade. Focus on this dungeon and killing without dying."

"Raids right now are risky. We experimented a bit. The more people in the dungeon, the more mobs it seems to respond with. A group of three adventurers was running into patrols of 2-4 rat-kin. A group of 5 was encountering up to 6 in a patrol. And when we sent 10 people in, the first patrol was a dozen rat-kin led by a Level 3 Elite named 'Skartonge'. It was a tough fight. One of the reasons your raid had such a tough time was because of the huge number of monsters the dungeon can spawn when a raid shows up. You need to clear the upper levels before going down.”

It hadn't been a tough fight, but she wasn't going to tell this group that. The boss was armed with a damned razor-edged prehensile tongue. It had lashed out and grabbed Delbert, dragging the ice mage into the pack of rat-kin where he quickly died. But the second time he tried for Ozzy, who had stepped forward. The tongue wrapped around his left arm, but Ozzy grabbed hold of it with both hands and yanked Skartonge forward. Manwar and Monger had stabbed the prone rat-kin boss in the back a dozen times before it could recover. Two flame bombs from Zephyr had sent the rest of the rats running for home. Delbert was a casualty, but he didn't mind much as he got two Enhancement points and a chance at the loot chest like everyone else.

She and Ozzy had talked a lot about trying to take mixed groups of Players, NPCs, and workers into the dungeons for small raids. The Enhancement points went a long way to empowering the workers. They had to be careful though, not to feed the dungeon. Hopefully, Timmy's group could take it down a couple of notches.

Timmy considered the info and nodded. "Well, we can't have either of those things happen, after all, we're the good guys. How about this? I take in my best group and we clear a lot of trash and kill a boss. If it gets bad, we retreat and don't wipe. Then we'll send in a fresh squad, and keep grinding the dungeon down until it's acceptable to raid."

Suzette was ok with that. "That works.

Joseph spoke up. "I see a nifty shield on the wall. Is that what the boss dropped?" Several players eyed up the shield. It was a wooden round shield with an iron rim. Three dwarven runes were engraved in gold on the wood.

Suzette brought it down off the wall to show it off. This was the fourth magic item from the dungeon and was hers outright. Acme would get the next two, and then it would be her turn again. "It's dwarven made. The three runes translate to Armor, Repair, and Strength. A normal round shield gives five mitigation. This one is 10, plus it self-repairs and gives the wielder +1 STR."

There were quite a few oohs and ahs from the adventurers, and some covetous looks. "Find me something pretty in the dungeon, and maybe I’ll consider a trade. Otherwise, it goes to the first person with 5 gold pieces." The shield went back on the wall, and the group prepared to descend into the dungeon. The rest of the players sat down to have a small ale and wait their turn.

“Oh, and that reminds me, I have something for you Joseph.” Suzette reached behind the bar and pulled out a potion satchel that had been lost in the fight with the Charnel Daemon. “The potions all got used in the fight, sorry, but I wanted to get the satchel back to you.”

Joseph’s eyes lit up. He’d taken hell for losing that item. Timmy had shelled out big bucks for it to a halfling vendor in a small village. Not only did it hold a ton of healing potions, but it had some special storage where the group kept their coins.

“Wow. Thank you. Yes, I missed it terribly, it holds twice as many healing potions as normal. Where did you find it?”

Suzette had debated handing back the item. She hated Famco. with a passion, but recognized that she couldn’t let that control her actions. Timmy’s group wasn’t too bad, all things considered, and if she made the little healer happy, that favor might get returned later.

“Ben found it during the fight, probably near where you died. He showed it to me a couple of days ago and I remembered you wearing it. Glad to do a favor. I’m hoping you guys will be around quite a bit to do the dungeon. Our bosses might be ACME and Famco. but I don’t see why that means we all can’t get along. Good luck down there tonight.”

In the back, slowly sipping a beer was a barbarian who was known to his group as Brak the Strong. Timmy had recognized Brandon through his little disguise. They'd compare information later. Brandon had said he might run up this way to get the lay of the land. ACME was lax with their security. Anyone could just waltz into the town and buy a beer. That was going to hurt them some day.