“Well guys, impressed?” I said to myself as they stared in awe at what I had done.

"Duke…?"asked Jasper slowly as the three of them slowly fanned out.

"This isn't like any dungeon I've ever been in," Duke replied.

“I certainly hope not,” I thought to myself as they took in the sights.

Midnight was doing his best to look aloof as well as attentive from his post at the new trading hub on the right while Carmen was on the left by the game of chance. Well more like glorified lemonade stands with pictograms instead of words, but it was well made at least.

I had opted for signs with pictures rather than words for two reasons. One I wasn’t sure what the literacy rate around here was and two I couldn’t write in the language even if every one was literate.

“It looks like a merchant scale and a pair of dice,” Jasper piped up.

“Yeah and the cats are running it,” Zee said.

“Ugh, if only there was a way we could talk to them,” I groaned as nobody moved a muscle.

“Let me try something,” Carmen said as she levitated some cups and a coin out from under the table.

“What is the white one,” Duke began, “Oh, oh no…”

“Is that blind hydra?” Jasper interjected as Carmen spun the gold coin around in the air with the cups.

“Huh is that what they call it here?” I thought to myself as the small person dashed up to the counter.

Zee groaned and relaxed his posture, “So instead of spawning monsters and making a labyrinth, this dungeon decided to make a trading hall and gambling den”.

“Well at least we won’t have to fight anything like this,” Jasper said as Zee walked up to Midnight’s booth.

“Duke! Hey Duke,” Zee called from the merchant stall.

“Wh- yeah Zee?” Duke replied, rubbing his face with his off hand.

“Looks like the black cat wants to trade wood and nails for gold."

“Actually any metals will do, but nails will still work,” I thought.

Duke had relaxed his posture slightly, but still kept his sword drawn as he walked over to Zee and began investigating the exchange board.

“Wow looks like a pretty good exchange rate for lumber,” Zee said “these look like pre-dragon prices.”

“Ok mental note, dragons exist in this world,” I thought to myself and continued listening.

“Hey Duke, are you ok?” Zee asked.

Hard lines had come with an intense expression on Duke’s face as though he was watching something far away.

“Duke? Duke?” Zee said as he grabbed his friend’s shoulder.

Duke flinched and for a split second looked like he was going to strike out at Zee before sheathing his short sword.

“Sorry Zee, just ghosts,” Duke replies, shaking himself out of his stupor.

Zee’s expression softens as he begins to speak, “I know you don’t like to talk about your adventuring days, but this might be our best chance to earn some consistent coin.”

Duke sighs, “I know, it just-”

“DAMN MY EYES!” Jasper exclaims, interrupting Duke.

Zee and Duke both stare at each other in shock before bursting out laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Jasper asks in an accusatory tone, whipping around to look at the two.

“Well we’re going to need the coin especially if Jasper keeps gambling his share away,” Duke said as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

“Certainly beats working for The Skisfinks,” Zee replied, ignoring Jasper.

“Aw come on guys, I just lost a whole gold,” Jasper said deflating.

“You mean your share that you got from the dungeon cat before you decided to threaten her and we all got chased off?” Zee asked, “that gold?”

“Well yeah,” Jasper replied awkwardly before turning to Duke, “can I borrow some coin?”

Duke rolled his eyes, “What makes you think my answer is going to change from the last dozen times you asked me for gambling money?”

“Oh come on, I can beat a cat at Blind Hydra,” Jasper groaned.

“First off it’s a dungeon cat,” Zee began, “secondly, you don’t win Blind Hydra, not really anyways, you just play until someone decides to stop and you have a problem.”

“I do not have a problem,” Jasper said defensively, “I’m just trying to make some money.”

“Well you can make money without gambling,” Duke replied, “the dungeon is trading wood and nails for gold."

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Seriously?” asked Jasper as he glanced over at the exchange’s sign.

“Yep seriously,” replied Zee, “you would know if you didn’t immediately throw your money away.”

Jasper shot Zee a dirty look, but before he could respond Duke interrupted him, “before you two start bickering again, do either of you know where we can find some lumber?”

Jasper gave Zee a sideways glance as if considering whether or not to just chew out Zee, but after a moment, decided against it and began to think.

“Ah ha!” Jasper exclaimed after a moment.

“Sounds like you have an idea,” Duke said.

“Not just any idea,” Jasper said with a sly look, “a great idea.”

“Here we go,” groaned Zee.

“You remember old man Tor down by the docks?” Jasper continued, ignoring the barb from Zee.

“Yeah, old dwarf who owned a fishing boat?” Duke replied.

“Remember how he was paying someone to get rid of it?” Jasper said with an expectant look.

Realization dawned on Dukes face, “but nobody would take him up on it because the boat was beyond repair and you would end up losing money on it because you would need to buy a permit to dispose of it in city or make multiple trips to take it piecemeal out of the city.”

“We take apart the boat and have the dungeon take care of it for us!” Jasper exclaimed with a big grin.

“Wow Jasper you really do have a good idea every now and then,” Zee teased.

“Oh shove it Zee,” Jasper replied with a roll of his eyes, “are we doing this thing or what?”

The three off them exited through the loading bay door, but not without Duke giving a dark look back before shutting the door behind him.

“Well that went as well as it could have,” I thought.

! Requirements met for quest system: Quest system unlocked !

! Persistent quest started: Gather Materials !

A new tab on the menu marked ‘Quests’ appeared on the menu.

“Ah great another thing,” I thought as I opened the tab.

Instead of the usual RPG quest system to keep track of quests you had accepted, this page appeared to have options for creating and issuing quests.

“Makes sense,” I thought, “can’t exactly go out and fetch anything can I?”

I chuckled bitterly to myself, “Out of mats so I can’t build anything, low on mana so I can’t really experiment with the mobs, the rats have slowed down to a crawl so I don’t have anything to defend against. Guess I’m doing the quest giver NPC thing and waiting for the brave heroes to return.”

***

Meanwhile at the docks, a handshake deal between a grinning gnome and a dwarf took place. Each thinking that they were getting the better end of the deal over the other while a human and a deep elf spoke among themselves to the side.

“Man that has got to be the weirdest dungeon I’ve ever heard of,” Zee muttered as he watched Jasper and the old dwarf haggling over the boat.

“Yeah never had a dungeon try to offer me a job and a friendly game of chance on the side,” replied Duke with a carefully neutral expression on his face.

Zee sighed, “look Duke, I respect that you don’t want to talk about your adventuring days, but are you going to be okay?”

There was a long pause before Duke broke the silence, “yes, maybe? I don’t know Zee. This whole thing feels like a trap and I’m just waiting for it to spring on us.

“It’s not impossible that this is a friendly dungeon,” Zee suggested, “there’s one in the undercaves where I’m from. Never been there myself, but it’s where we get a lot of our resources.”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Duke said, “on one hand, it could be a friendly dungeon and I’m worrying over nothing. On the other hand, this could be some sort of trap to lure in a bunch of people and slaughter them.”

“We could report the dungeon to the Dungeoneer’s Guild,” Zee suggested.

“Yeah and we’d lose out on our best chance to get off the streets. Dungeons are dangerous, but it’s where lost gold and artifacts wind up somehow. You can finally afford to study at the academy and Jasper can start up a shop again,” Duke countered.

“Don’t think that I haven’t thought of that,” Zee said, “but I can see you’re suffering.”

Duke sighed, “yeah this has been hard for me. At this point I’m telling myself I’m doing this to keep an eye on it.”

Zee placed a hand on Duke’s shoulder, “I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather have looking out for me.”

Duke smiled, “thanks Zee”.

“Alright everyone, my part’s over,” Jasper called out, holding a bag of coins, “let’s get this thing loaded up and hauled out of here”.

“I knew we keep you around for a reason,” Zee called back as he noticed the size of the bag.

“Oh shove it hedge mage,” Jasper replied as Duke tried to stifle a laugh.

“How’d you talk him in to giving you all that coin?” Duke asked.

“Turns out he had an anvil sitting around from a long dead uncle,” Jasper explained, “it’s been in storage so long that rust has started to eat away at it. Couldn’t get rid of it to save his life.”

Zee groaned, “we’re doing this all in one trip, aren’t we?”

“Well if this dungeon is good on its word, we’ll be able to afford a room and a bath tonight,” Duke said encouragingly.

“I’m going to need it after we’re done,” Zee said with a huff and rolled up his sleeves.

***

“-on we’re almost there!” Duke called out as he entered my field of awareness.

“Better let them in,” I thought and opened the loading door.

It truly was a sight to behold. Duke looked like he was doing the lion’s share of the work with Zee leaning his whole body weight into it. Jasper was doing what he could with his size, his feet practically sliding out from under him.

Finally the three of them made it in and collapsed on the ground huffing and panting the whole time.

“Made it!” exclaimed Jasper as he pushed himself up and staggered over to Carmen.

“You can take everything but the wagon,” Jasper said breathily, “we need to return that.”

The ‘Break Down’ option became available again and I made short work of everything they had brought, making sure to avoid the wagon.

“Woah it looked like it turned to ash and drifted away,” Zee exclaimed, taking a step back.

Another notification popped up in my field of view.

>Give reward? (Y/N)

I found it interesting that I could choose to stiff the three of them, but quickly decided against it as I selected ‘Yes’.

Gold sprung out of the ground in front of the trading post and for a moment I thought Jasper’s eyes would pop out of his head.

“WE’RE RICH! WE’RE RICH!” Jasper shouted as he literally jumped for joy, his exhaustion apparently forgotten.

“Come on Jasper, there’s a warm bed calling my name tonight,” Duke called out before moving to the loading bay door.

“Hells yes, I’m going to drink something that doesn’t taste like turpentine!” Jasper shouted before following Zee and Duke out of the door.

A bright light filled my field of view before glowing lines coalesced into text.

! Milestone Reached: First Quest Complete !