> Dungeon Status:
>
> Tier 2
> Level 34/100
>
> Heart 4,161,600/4,161,600
> Experience 92,949/1,040,400
> Mithril 5,228
> Adamantine 2,890
> Mana 6,420
> Poison, Greater 500
> Deadly Scorpion Venom 51
>
> Quest: Locate The New Dungeon
> Quest: Half populate your dungeon: Workers 49/66 | Monsters 52/67 | Traps 151/162
> Quest: Reach level 50.
> Quest Complete: Locate The New Dungeon.
>
> Gain 20,000 XP
> New Quest: Destroy another dungeon.
The quest completing was expected. The new quest wasn't. "Dammit! This isn't what I wanted. Fife! Actually, sorry Fife. It's Stephan and, uh, actually—is Brevity still here? Oh, there she is. Brevity, can I talk to you?" For Travis, trailing his voice across three people and settling on just one wasn't anything new, though being able to talk directly to his lawyer was.
"Huh? What?! Where?! Who said that?" Brevity, who'd been reading a book in the dungeon's library, jerked her head up.
"Sorry. It's me, Travis. The dungeon." It still felt a little awkward to him to talk to anyone apart from people from his dungeon, but he was getting better about it. "I'll have to figure out how to announce myself or something. Anyway, I'd like to know how hard it would be to get another dungeon sanctioned?"
"Because you already received approval once, it will be far easier now. You would need to get the council's permission, but I believe I could easily have that goblin dungeon's destruction order for you in around four weeks."
"Could you start that? I don't know how much gold will be required, but if you can tell me I'll make sure you're paid in advance." It would be a huge relief to get rid of the goblins. With a new dungeon growing, he didn't want to have double the mess to deal with. "Oh, if it helps, after I killed the undead dungeon, a new one has appeared to replace it."
Brevity sat there a moment, and if Travis was any judge, she was thinking furiously about something. Eventually she asked, "You can verify this?"
"Northridge now has a… Okay, I don't know what the dungeon is, or where it is, but my scouts will be back soon. I only knew it was out there because I got a quest to find the new dungeon and sent Pen and Felna out. About two minutes ago I got credit for finding it, then got a new quest to destroy a dungeon. It doesn't specify which, and if I had to pick I'd say that anything is better than that goblin dungeon. Even another verdant dungeon would be better. At least we could make friends with it." Realizing he was rambling, Travis clamped down on his mental thread and put an end to it. Then he noticed something. "If you had proof, would that help?"
"I— Uh—" Brevity closed her mouth for a moment, took a deep breath, then tried once more. "Proof would be very helpful. Though I trust you, Lord Constance would only take first-hand testimony or something signed by the local peerage. How long will it take to get some?"
"Pen and Felna are back. They have a gnoll with them. I guess that means it's a gnoll dungeon? Oh, they said it seems like it is probably some sort of monster-focus, since it already had a huge gnoll in the dungeon. They didn't bring that one, though." Travis turned some of his focus to Penelope and Felna, splitting his attention between them and giving Brevity directions to the teleporting trap that led to the entrance.
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Penelope was relieved it wasn't the same gnoll that had stolen Felna's sword, since that would have a chance of hurting her. She held them tightly enough that they wouldn't be getting free, but not so tight as to hurt them. "Would you stop squirming? Your dungeon is going to love this. Trust me."
Not understanding the dragon in the slightest, and now on the ground, the gnoll struggled to get out of the huge talon wrapped around it. But they weren't in the forest anymore. Stones underfoot, stone houses, and the intense feeling of two dungeons in proximity caused it to go still.
"Finally. Okay, we need someone who can body this guy around a bit. Has Fife left yet?" Penelope looked around, but couldn't see their go-to tank. "Or maybe Wild?"
"Wild's on his way. Fife has left already, and took pretty much everyone else suited to combat with her. I should see if Breeze wants to make a big, friendly bull-guy or something." Travis mused on the subject while Wild made his way up and outside.
Shading his eyes for a moment, Wild looked around and smiled. Whenever Ludmiller was away, he felt a little lost, but to have Penelope close went a small way to cheering him back up. "Travis said you need me to look after a new friend?"
"It's more of a guided tour. We found a new dungeon and kidnapped one of the gnolls from it. Since we get tons of stuff when we delve a few floors, these guys should get a good start to their dungeon if they are carried to the bottom floor of Breeze and then Travis," Penelope explained, and slowly opened her huge hand to give the gnoll a little movement. "Oh, and be careful of your axes, they have quick hands."
Walking up to the bigger creature, Wild waited for Penelope's talons to fully release them, then he gave the gnoll a nod. "Walk in front, don't start anything, and your dungeon will gain a huge reward."
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The gnoll, having experienced dragons and magic-using catkin, was not prepared for the shorter kobold to walk up like it was far more deadly than the gnoll. There was an aura of readiness to commit a lot of violence, combined with two dark axes, that made the gnoll not want to test the little creature's fighting ability. When the kobold pointed at a dungeon entrance, the gnoll slowly nodded and walked in front of it.
"Ugh. I'll go too. I bet that damn gnoll will try something stupid and Wild will have to cut him in half." Felna looked up at Penelope, reached a hand toward her jaw, and gave her a tender little stroke there. "I'll see you when I'm out."
As the two walked off, leading the gnoll into Breeze, Penelope heard a gasp. When she looked, she spotted Brevity Delling. The woman had been an annoying itch for Penelope. Normally very direct, Penelope had been confronted with several problems that she had no answer to—and normally Stephan covered for those. Brevity, though, handled far different problems. "You need something?"
Travis winced. Penelope seemed a little cold and rough in her conversations with Brevity, and he had no clue why. "She needed to see the gnoll dungeon so she can report it back to the court. Would it take you long to show her the entrance?"
Doing her best to ignore the annoyed tone Penelope had used, since at least half the people she'd met who knew her job used it with her, Brevity pushed on. "That would certainly assist in my convincing the court that a new dungeon is there. I'll need some paperwork from the council stating that there were only four dungeons to begin with, but that shouldn't be hard to acquire."
"Wait," Penelope said, surprise dominating her exclamation, "how rare is it for a new dungeon to appear after a city has quickened?"
"I'm not an expert on dungeons, but studying them is my job. I have never heard of this happening before. There are rumors, but they are just that. Unsubstantiated hearsay is not something I'd wager a case on. That's why I want to document this."
The hunger and fire in Brevity's voice surprised Penelope. "Hop on, then, and I'll show you." She knew not everyone would take that offer. In the sky, on her back, people were at their most vulnerable. She only had to turn upside down and do a quick loop and her rider would be having an annoying conversation with a priest.
Brevity's thoughts were much the same as Penelope's, though she didn't know that. Professionalism was important, though, and so she did as instructed and climbed onto a dragon's back. "Do you, uh, do this kind of thing often?"
Feeling the tight grip of her back spine, Penelope picked up what Brevity's problem was without too much trouble. "If you're asking has anyone managed to fall off my back"—Penelope rolled her shoulders, spread her wings, and paused—"the answer is not yet."
Travis couldn't help himself from laughing, though he kept the outburst as an inburst so as not to embarrass Brevity.
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Sweating had become a standard. It wasn't exactly a standard that Elanor enjoyed, but more a byproduct of improvement and a sign she was working hard enough. Even without Kelvin, she still had the creatures of the dungeon willing to populate the tunnels of the various training dungeons she delved, while she had her own friends working on her side.
The scorpions that were this mini dungeon's bosses were not being cooperative. She circled around them while her big wolf friends, Bite and Bark, kept their attention. When she tried to poke at the nearest one with her spear, it turned toward her and the sting came down into her thigh.
Elanor winced at the pain and swore several times under her breath as Bark lunged, grabbed the tail of the scorpion in its jaws and ripped it free from her leg and the scorpion.
Centering herself, Elanor cast her Focused Heal on herself and felt it fight back at the cave scorpion's venom. With the scorpion now turning back to fight Bark, she lunged forward with her spear to skewer the "boss" through its side.
In the dungeon, Bark and Bite would both be perfectly happy fighting with full vigor, but with Elanor's new ability, Inspire Courage, they were faster and more daring than ever. As one of the scorpions slowed due to the loss of internal hydrostatic pressure of its hemolymph, Bark took its time relieving it of both its claws and then its life.
Using up another heal spell broke Elanor from most of her lethargy from the poison, and let her assist Bark in flanking the remaining scorpion and dealing with it before it could skewer any of them with its stinger. When she staggered back a step or two, and realized they'd won, Elanor let out a whoop of excitement. "We did it!"
Celebrating as the huge wolves usually did, Elanor was on her back a moment later with a pair of lupine tongues licking her face. She laughed at the silliness and tried to fight them off with her hands, to little success. At last the wolves backed off and let her get to her feet again.
The room was the same as when she'd first entered, though now the two scorpions were gone with a pair of claws and two stingers on the ground as the only sign they'd ever been there. Lowering her voice, Elanor whispered, "Sandwalker guide them to gentler dunes."
Warmth and reassurance wrapped around Elanor like a blanket. She smiled and let it guide her to the treasure room for the mini dungeon. There was always a pit trap, which she avoided by dint of stabbing the floor repeatedly with the haft of her spear, then edging around it. "Keep back. There might be another cannon in here."
Watching her friends slink back out of any potential line of fire, Elanor dropped low and crawled up to the door before poking it with her spear. When nothing happened, she poked it again. Eventually triggering the handle, she shoved the door open and was left with a sense of anticlimax. Checking the floor inside the treasure room, she found no trap there either. "No traps apart from the pit?"
"If I put traps in every treasure room, people would stop being paranoid about traps because they'd know to always expect them. How do you know there isn't a powder keg bomb in here somewhere?" Travis asked.
"Because you're talking to me, Mister Travis. You never talk until I have finished a dungeon and avoided all the traps." Walking over to the weapon rack, and trying to hide her giggles at Travis' indignant spluttering, Elanor picked up the pistol sitting on the shelf. "You had him engrave it with my name?"
"Tinpot was excited. He knew you'd finish this dungeon. He has the bullets for it upstairs, and he wanted you to have some better armor, too, so Axel is there too with that new mithril breastplate." Travis had never seen someone stuff their pockets with gold, turn, and run through a dungeon so fast before. If there was one thing he'd found out about his new ambassador, it was that she loved adventuring.
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