It was past midnight and rather cloudy to boot, so at first the dozing Doorman didn't notice when he suddenly had company. He was alerted by the noise, however, when the woman standing at the dungeon's exit portal suddenly spoke out loud.

"...Holy shit. It worked! It actually worked!"

"Eh? Who's - oh! Lollyp, is that you? Haven't seen you lately, you don't swing by Floor One very often these days!" Doorman blinks his eyes a few times, confirming that it is indeed the slime standing not far away.

"Ah! Hey Doorman! And yeah, guess I haven't visited lately, sorry about that. Work, you know how it is. How's things been up here?"

"Oh, not bad, can't complain. Still a good month away from autumn I believe, I'm looking forward to watching the forest turn colors. Oh, and hey, isn't tonight your birthday party? Happy birthday!"

Lollyp grins. "Aw, thanks! So...notice anything different about me tonight?"

The riddle door peers down at the woman. "Did you do something new with your slime? ...No? Oh, you must have gotten a new wizard hat for your birthday! Very nice?"

The slime can't help but chuckle at his guesses. "Haha, not exactly, my hats are always kind of new considering they last about two or three days before getting blown up or melted by acid. I've actually got a trunk full of like twenty pre-made hats and vests at this point. But nope! You need a hint?"

Doorman grumbles. "Seems like I ought to be the one asking the riddles around here. ...Say. You wouldn't happen to be on the wrong side of the door, would you? We've only ever talked before while I was open!"

Lollyp claps. "Yay, you got it!"

"But what are you doing!? Isn't your mana or some such draining every second you're beyond the bounds? You're probably going to drop dead any minute now!"

The slime turns around rather than answer right away, taking the opportunity to check out the few lights still burning in the village down below. "Actually, Doorman, I feel better than ever." As a grin spreads across her lips, one more whisper escapes into the night air. "...Best birthday ever."

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From an outside perspective, Worthy Dungeon remained rather quiet for the rest of the day. As with Day Fifty, Day One Hundred was known to be a time of sudden changes within many young dungeons. So it was that the Challengers were taking a break until a fresh Association inspection could be done, but such inspections never happened on the first day of a milestone, given that things could often still be a little chaotic while a dungeon was in the midst of changes. Alizz didn't make anyone wait too long however, as the following morning she once again appeared before Doorman with her team accompanying her. Her team...and a few additions. Alongside Alizz, Kelsey, Sely and Taly walked Verdant Priestess Lilly Fullblossom, and Paladin of Bounty Sable Bluehair, all of them seeming in good cheer.

"Soooo, this is your first official inspection since Floor Five opened up, right? Gonna do an in-depth check, eh, eh?" Sable waggles her eyebrows at an increasingly-frustrated drider.

"While this will be our first major inspection since then, we have visited the dungeon since, you know. But no, we have no need for...'in depth' checks of any kind."

"Shame. You're missing oouuuuttt..." Sable's sing-song voice trails off as she notices where they currently stand. "Ah, looks like we're here!"

Taking charge, Alizz moves to the front of the team's formation. "Greetings, Guardian of Worthy Dungeon. We're here for another inspection - with a few guests. I'm told this would be acceptable with your master?"

Doorman nods. "More than acceptable - we've been waiting for you! If you wouldn't mind, the Master of the Dungeon has requested your presence for another conference. As everyone here has cleared at least the first three floors, you're welcome to take the shortcut directly to Floor Four, where the others will be waiting for you."

Alizz tries hard to fix the smile on her face. "...Oh no. Not again?"

Doorman raises an eyebrow. "I'm not sure what would provoke that reaction. I'm told the last one went quite successfully!"

The Field Agent glances backwards for a moment before turning back to the door and hissing. "But...we have guests!"

"I'm quite aware, yes. The Master wishes to speak to them, as well."

Sable steps forward, having clearly heard everything. "Nice to know we made a good impression! C'mon, Agent - I'm looking forward to hearing what the dungeon's got to say!"

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After finally deciding to give in to the request, the party's trip down to Floor Four doesn't take the group long. Within five minutes they find themselves standing within a cleared-out meadow, the snack-covered conference table once again summoned not far away from the gurgling waterfall. Sincere and Lollyp are both waiting to receive their guests, although Sincere takes charge of the greetings.

"Welcome once again to Floor Four! We're glad to see that your two organizations have agreed to work together, as we have business for both of you today."

Alizz steps forward. "I have to admit, I wasn't expecting this, although I probably should have. Has there been a need for...changes in how things work around here? Also, I suppose we'll have to be working through you and Lollyp as interpreters today?"

"Nope!" Sable and Lilly both nearly jump out of their skins as a woman suddenly pops up behind them, wrapping an arm around their shoulders - although it's a bit of a reach in Sable's case. They're so surprised, it takes them more than a few double-takes before they realize the oddly-dressed woman is a contrast of pure black and absolute white. "Hey, nice to meet you face-to-face this time. Xenia Worthy, Master of Worthy Dungeon. And you're Lilly and Sable, right?"

Sable's usual easygoing manner actually manages to escape her for a moment. "You're - you're the dungeon spirit!? And we're actually seeing you!?"

Xenia chuckles as she begins to head towards the conference table, elbowing the heavily-armored woman on the way. "Yup! And I've sure seen a lot of you, ain't I? Think you can keep your hands off my Core Guardian til we finish the meeting?"

Seeing the spirit's grin, Sable instinctively responds in kind. "I'll do my best...although maybe I'll just have to put my hands somewhere else instead..."

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Before Xenia can likewise answer with more of the same, Alizz attempts to regain control of the conversation. "Xenia! You've...found yourself another avatar spell, is that it?"

The monochrome woman waggles a hand. "Got a weaker version of the full thing, actually. Still has a time limit, and takes a while before I can use it again, but this seems like the kind of occasion to use it." She takes a moment to eye the Paladin who's obviously eyeing her in return. "...Wonder if there'll be enough time after...well, let's get to business, shall we? Grab a seat and have a snack, we've got shit to talk about!"

The party settles in, a little warily despite the fact that four of them have done this before. Or, perhaps because four of them have done this before. Although Alizz is the official leader of the party, Lilly finds herself unable to remain quiet as she examines the gathering she finds herself in. "I...I'm not entirely sure I understand what's going on here. Is this...normal dungeon inspection behavior?"

Alizz grumbles. "No. Or at least, not for dungeons that aren't Worthy Dungeon. But...I suppose I shouldn't complain too much. I suppose I'm just a little bitter about how the dungeon's direction changed after the last one of these."

"Oh, c'mon!" Xenia gives Alizz an unimpressed look. "You can't be that bothered by Floor Five, can you? What harm is it doing?"

"What harm!? I..." The drider takes a moment to collect herself before continuing. "I'm just...concerned about what sort of 'Challenger' this may bring to our branch. It's not that hard to clear one floor of a dungeon, and I'm a little worried tourists may begin coming by just to claim that they've...performed lascivious acts within a dungeon. Which could reflect poorly on the those of us who try to be professionals."

"Sorry, sounds like a you problem. By all means, let the horny tourists flock to our door, that's what I say. But whatever, that's not what I wanted to talk about. Or...maybe it's kind of related? A little."

Kelsey rolls his eyes. "Yeah, enough griping about the horndogs already, how about we get to the point?"

"I'm trying, K-dawg!" Before Kelsey can react to his new nickname, Xenia continues. "So, here's the sitch. We've currently got three open boss slots. I'm kind of assuming they're going to be in high demand for, uh...applicants eventually, if not right away. But if we're gonna do this, I want to do it right."

Taly nods. "For something that big, that sounds like a good idea. But what's the right way to do it?"

Sincere chuckles and gestures towards the two Church of Bounty members. "While we have some ideas on that front, primarily we intend to outsource that particular concern to the Church, if they'd be willing to participate."

Sable goes a little wide-eyed at the suggestion. "Wait, us? I mean, Elly'll be thrilled that you're willing to work with us, but what exactly do you need us to do for you?"

Xenia continues. "For starters, we'd appreciate it if the Church could be our bouncers, basically. Filter out the nutballs and the folks who have no idea what they're getting into, before they come in here and off themselves. Past that, we'd like it if you could maybe test the applicants a little. You know, someone who wants a life like this not only needs to have the kind of skills we'd need in here, but they need to have a good reason for wanting to live a life in here, and really importantly, they need to understand what it is they're signing up for. Obviously, anyone that passes your test would need our approval too, but it'd make me feel a lot better about anyone who came in if they had some sort of stamp of approval."

The Verdant Priestess has a noticeable level of concern in her voice when she speaks up. "But...what sort of test should we do to determine all of that?"

"Glad you asked! Because to figure that out, I think someone needs to have at least some experience of this life themselves. So I'm opening my doors and offering an invitation - if one of you or, hell, both of you or some other member of the Church is up for it, I'd like to have you come and live in the dungeon for a week. Doesn't have to start today, if you need to think about it or pack something or whatever. And obviously, I'm not expecting you to fight Challengers. But once you've had the behind-the-scenes view of things, you'll have a better handle on explaining it all to other folks."

Sable and Lilly share a surprised glance before Sable answers. "That's...wow. I'm not...not interested, but I definitely wasn't expecting that to come up. I mean, who lives in a dungeon?"

Lollyp laughs at her expression. "Ah, please, down in the Domain folks do it all the time! My last dungeon had a permanent population of like, forty slimes, kobolds and demons, and some staff on rotation too. If things are worked out with the dungeon master, it's perfectly fine."

"Well...we'd definitely need to confirm things with the Bountiful Mother first, but...I suppose that all sounds reasonable." Lilly attempts to give a smile, but she's clearly less thrilled about the idea than her Paladin companion.

"Great! And that leads me to part two of this little discussion. Our bosses can leave the dungeon now. As in, like, go outside and stuff." As Xenia makes her statement, six jaws drop on the opposite side of the table. It takes several full seconds for the shouting to begin, but Sely's voice is loudest.

"WHAT!? What divine favor did you burn to get that one? Dungeon monsters leaving a dungeon!?"

Xenia tries not to laugh too much at all the outrage. "None, actually! Standard dungeon upgrade, apparently. Never heard of it? ...I mean, Lollyp and Sincere hadn't, but I figured you'd be the experts."

"NO!?" Alizz's cry echoes across the woodsy cavern. "Dungeon monsters can barely get ten feet outside a dungeon exit before collapsing and disintegrating! Dungeon bosses wandering around outside...how in the world did you get that ability!?"

"Well, funny story, that. We've had a few water elementals living in the place for a while now, some of them are sorta-technically part of the dungeon, it's complicated, but one's an unaffiliated mortal. Say hi, Slooshy!"

A shout echoes back from the nearby waterfall. "HI, SLOOSHY!"

"...Yeah, that's Slooshy. Anyways, since we've had her living in here for more than half the time the dungeon's been in business, we can apparently exchange 'ambassadors' now. If someone from outside stays here for at least twenty-four hours, one of our dungeon bosses gets to go outside. With Slooshy, that's one boss, more folks would presumably mean more. If the person leaves we uh, think the boss will kind of drop dead and come back here, but we haven't tested that yet." She pauses and eyes the Association members before her. "You really haven't ever heard of this?"

Sable eyes the waterfall warily. "First off, you having water elementals explains a few things. But secondly, uh...no? I've been doing dungeon intrusions off and on for like, thirty years now and I've never heard of this."

Alizz's face shows a fair amount of concern as well. "Me either! You say this is because a mortal was living here for an extended time? Lollyp, like you just said, dungeons in the Domain do that regularly. Is this normal down there? No one ever told me about that on any of my visits!"

The slime shakes her head. "We got it based on a percentage of how long the place has been running, and all the places down in the Domain are at least decades old, some of em centuries. And most of the residents are slimes and, well. If it specifically requires a single person to stay for that length of time and not swap out, at this point a demon would have to commit to living in one permanently for like a hundred years or something. I...guess we're just the first one to ever do it while we were still this young?"

The kobold sitting to Alizz's right decides to move past the topic of 'how' and onto the question of 'what next'. "That's all some interesting theory-crafting and whatnot, but what the hell are you gonna do now that you have the option? Attack folks while they're still on their way up the mountain?"

"Oh, nah, definitely not!" Xenia shakes her head and waves a hand to try and disperse that line of thought. "I mean...for starters, we wouldn't even get any of their stuff if we did that, you know?"

Sely glares at the dungeon master. "...Unless you dragged it back inside after, of course."

"Oh! Hey, good idea! Sin-man, remind me to send BB out on some hunting trips for rabbits, would you?" As Sely presses her forehead to the table in front of her, Xenia decides to get back on track. "But uh, yeah, even aside from that, I'm not that mean. But it might be useful if we needed to, like...send a message into town, or something?"

The Field Agent literally shivers at the thought. "Dear gods, can you imagine what people might do if a dungeon monster walked into town one day? I mean...I can see the practical uses of it, but...maybe if we could arrange that sort of thing ahead of time, to avoid panic?"

Xenia shrugs. "Well, that's what we're here for. Maybe at least let the army know - " She suddenly freezes mid-sentence, her head turning to stare at one of the cavern walls. "...What the fuck? There's someone else in the dungeon."

Alizz glances at Kelsey before turning back. "That's surprising. We would have expected the Challengers to wait for our inspection to be finished." As she speaks however, Xenia's face grows increasingly concerned.

"No, no, you don't get it. It's not Challengers." The woman suddenly stands up from her seat. "Someone just broke directly into my core chamber."