Dungeon Champions

Agent Kieran suggested we start from the beginning, and so we did.

Much of what we relayed to them was information they already had. I wasn’t sure what sort of communication system they had in place, but they’d already learned about the attacks on Captain Drake’s boat, the elemental loose in Lans, and the shenanigans orchestrated by the Trade Regulation Bureau officers and agents. They hadn’t heard that we’d befriended the elemental, nor that we’d escaped.

When we’d finally shared what details we could, I crossed my arms and gave the pair of them a glare. “So, now which one of you is going to tell us what’s going on?”

Agent Kieran looked at Mayor Regan, and he motioned for her to take charge.

“You were hired as…” Agent Kieran waved her hand through the air. “A contingency plan. In case all other lines of defense failed, your party was in place to hopefully save the day. Which, you did. And while it wasn’t done quietly or efficiently, it was done. For that, you have our thanks.”

I shook my head. “Might be best that you start from the beginning.”

“Someone is constructing a dungeon.”

My party gasped, and I looked at them all, confused. “Wait, isn’t this a normal thing? Aren’t dungeons manufactured by Cores?”

“Yes. By Cores,” Britney said, her voice trembling slightly.

“What she means is someone else,” Mayor Regan said. “Someone who isn’t a Dungeon Core.”

“That’s impossible,” Skullie said, his teeth grinding against one another. “That is fundamentally not how dungeons work.”

“And yet, they’ve succeeded. At least partially.” Agent Kieran tapped a finger nervously along one of her horns. “I don’t know how they are doing it. Or why. But this smuggling is just the tip of a very deadly knife.”

Pieces of the puzzle clicked together. I remembered the rocks we’d found at the gathering spot beyond the north gates.

Mayor Regan picked up the thread. “Those monsters you fought at our gates? We suspect they’re overflow from the dungeon. That those building it don’t actually understand dungeon ecology and are flooding it with creatures to try to keep it thriving.”

“Have you located it?” Zuri asked, fidgeting with her hair wrap. “If monsters are attacking the town, it has to be dangerously close, right?”

“There’s farmland just outside the north-eastern side of town that has been suspected as the source,” Mayor Regan said. He looked at Bea, who nodded at him. “The Purifier’s Guild keeps sending adventurers onto the property and no one comes back.”

Agent Kieran nodded grimly. “Exactly. We’ve lost too many good adventurers already trying to investigate. That’s why we needed a more…unorthodox approach.”

I frowned. “So you set us up as unwitting bait? Hoping we’d stumble across something useful while investigating Giles?”

“Not bait,” Mayor Regan said smoothly. “More like…independent investigators. We couldn’t risk tipping off whoever is behind this by sending in official agents.”

“And how does Giles fit into all this?” Merielle asked.

Agent Kieran sighed. “Giles is a smuggler, plain and simple. But he’s not the mastermind. We believe he’s been unknowingly transporting materials and creatures for the dungeon builders. The elementals and artifacts you encountered were likely meant to power some aspect of the artificial dungeon.”

“Is Giles…?”

“Apprehended. I wanted to leave him at his shop, but after what we heard from Lans we knew things had escalated too far. Only so far you can take something like this before it becomes a problem.”

I rubbed my temples, feeling a headache coming on. “Why would they be transporting the elemental material away from their nascent dungeon?”

Zuri, who’d moved to stand at my shoulder, spoke up. Her tone was deeply troubled. “To help seed other artificial dungeons.”

Crap. I’d entirely missed that possibility. The thought was more than a little worrying, especially if our enemies had resources this vast. Holding back a sigh, I said, “So what now? The elementals and artifacts are secure in Lans for the moment, but that won’t last forever. And we still don’t know who’s actually behind all this.”

“Now,” Agent Kieran said, standing up, “we take the fight to them. With the evidence that you’ve gathered and the disruption you’ve caused to their supply chain, we finally have enough to justify a full-scale raid on the suspected dungeon site.”

Mayor Regan looked alarmed. “Sera, are you sure that’s wise?”

Agent Kieran nodded firmly. “We don’t have a choice, Milton. This has gone on long enough. If we don’t act now, who knows what kind of catastrophe we could be facing.”

I exchanged glances with my team. We were all exhausted from our recent ordeals, but I could see the resolution on their faces.

“Count us in,” I said. “We’ve come this far—might as well see it through to the end.”

My Tablet buzzed, appearing with a quest. I didn’t check it.

“Excellent,” Agent Kieran said, a predatory grin spreading across her face. “We’ll need all the help we can get. I’ll assemble a team of my most trusted agents, and we’ll move out by nightfall.”

Britney groaned. “Nightfall?” She turned and looked at me. “We slept horrible for the past few days.” The celestial then looked back at Agent Kieran. “Can’t you give us one night to sleep in actual beds?”

Kieran bristled. “And what if they unleash something worse while you’re napping?”

“Actually… I agree with Britney.” The celestial looked up at me, stunned, but I continued. “We slept in shifts, on a boat that was attacked multiple times in a single night. Then pushed to our limits to limp to Lans. Last night, I didn’t even sleep because I was too worried about agents manifesting on our boat.”

“I hardly see how that’s—”

Letting some of the ice back in my voice, channeling the authority of my class, I turned back to the agent. “If you want us to be at our best, we need one night. We can move out in the morning, if you’ve got a plan that doesn’t require nightfall. But we need rest, or we’re going to be sloppy. And if what you say is true, we can’t afford to be sloppy.”

We need to level, I reminded myself. First thing in the morning, once we all have clear heads.

Agent Kieran snarled, showing off a pair of fangs that were growing longer by the moment. “Fine.” She spat the word, obviously frustrated by the delay. “Milton, put them up in your place.”

“Excuse me?” The mayor sputtered for a moment, clearly caught off guard. “Why my place?”

That snarl turned into a ruthless smile as Kieran turned to us. “You’re staying at Moonlight Home, correct? Two rooms. Lynn almost scammed you into paying a hundred gold a night, but you talked her down to fifty on the terms you’d book two weeks in advance.”

I wasn’t sure where she was going with this. “That’s…correct.”

“Six men tossed your rooms after Giles put you on that boat. They didn’t find anything, which is why you weren’t immediately murdered by the crew that was working for them, but it still isn’t safe for you to go back there. Giles might be in custody, but if we’re going to delay so you can be refreshed, it wouldn’t make sense for you to have your rest interrupted.”

I nodded, seeing the logic in Agent Kieran’s words. “Fair enough. Mayor Regan, I hope you have some comfortable guest rooms.”

The mayor sighed, resigned to his fate. “I suppose I can accommodate you all for one night. But please—try not to break anything. Some of those antiques are irreplaceable.”

“We’ll be on our best behavior,” Zuri assured him.

Somehow I doubted that, but it was the correct thing to say.

Agent Kieran waved her hand in front of my face. From the way she was glaring at me, I assumed she’d been trying to get my attention.

I blinked at her, confused. Had I spaced out for a minute there?

“Be ready at dawn,” Kieran said. “We move out as soon as the sun rises.”

I nodded in acknowledgement, and she took her leave, saying she had preparations to begin. That left us standing there awkwardly with Mayor Regan and Bea, until the mayor sighed and started escorting us out of the office.

The walk to his residence was mercifully short. My legs felt like lead, and I could see the exhaustion written on my companions’ faces.

Everyone just needed a good night’s rest.

On the way, I checked the Tablet notification.

***

Quest: Investigate/Defeat the Mysterious Dungeon

Assigned to: Society of the Defiant.

Estimated Time to Completion: Unknown.

Estimated Risk: Unknown.

Potential Rewards: 50-150 experience points each

Details: Investigate and defeat the unnatural dungeon (if it exists). Note: This may start a quest chain.

***

“Oh, good. More quests.” I shared the information with the team, earning a sound of muted enthusiasm from Nym.

“Do people always level up as fast as we have?” the catgirl asked, moving to walk next to me.

It only took a beat of checking my memories to answer her. “Sort of.” I tapped my chest. “You’re all being power-leveled right now.”

“Power-leveled?”

“Yeah. Because I’m a higher level, the experience rewards are being somewhat normalized to what I’d need to progress. It just means the quests we’re going to be offered by the Tablets will be higher level and more difficult.”

Her ears flickered as she considered that. “But most of these quests aren’t coming directly from the Tablets. We’re investigating them.”

“True. But do you think the people giving us the quests would be handing them out to folk who weren’t dripping with legendary equipment, unusual familiars, and Epic Tablets?” Ours were partially concealed, but there would be no mistaking a capable party.

“Oh. True.”

We walked in silence after that, the team simply too tired to banter like usual.

The mayor’s home was a grand, three-story affair with a well-manicured garden and a view of the bay. It was less visually impressive than Professor Ryd’s place, but with a much larger footprint that gave it the illusion of being fancier.

Under different circumstances, I might have appreciated its beauty more, but right now I was too tired to care.

Surprising to no one, the interior of Mayor Regan’s home was just as impressive as the outside. Rich wood paneling lined the walls, adorned with detailed tapestries and oil paintings. Plush rugs covered most of the floor, muffling our footsteps as we followed him through the foyer.

“Guest rooms are on the second floor,” Mayor Regan said, gesturing up a sweeping staircase. “There should be enough to accommodate all of you comfortably. The kitchen is to the left and fully stocked if you’re hungry. Just… try not to make too much of a mess. And my study and master bedroom are off limits. They are the rooms to the right here on the first floor.” He touched his leg. “Bad knees.”

“Thank you,” I said, as my team all echoed the statement. “We appreciate your hospitality.”

“Sure, sure.” The mayor retreated to his study and so my companions and I trudged toward the kitchen. All it took was the promise of a soft bed and a hot meal to put a little spring back in our steps.

Zuri threw together a quick meal for everyone, and we ate in relative silence. It was just nice to not have to fret about our safety for the first time in a few days.

Once the meal was over, we divided up the rooms quickly. I ended up sharing with Skullie, while the others paired off as they saw fit.

Even though it was still early in the evening, I was looking forward to resting.

The guest room I took had a high ceiling and was adorned with elegant furniture. A large bed with white sheets sat against one wall, while a desk and chair were pushed against another. The walls were painted a blue that reminded me of the bay, and the curtains framing the large windows were a dark brown. In the center of the room, there was a table piled high with books and a comfortable armchair next to it. The room felt warm and inviting, offering a much-needed respite from our journey.

I placed Skullie carefully on the nightstand. “You doing okay, buddy?”

“As well as a skull and spine can be,” he said dryly. “Though I must admit, I’m rather curious about this artificial dungeon business. It goes against everything I know about dungeon mechanics.”

I stifled a yawn. “We’ll get to the bottom of it soon enough. For now, let’s just focus on getting some rest.”

After a quick trip to the restroom to clean up, I collapsed onto the bed. The mattress was impossibly soft, and I felt myself sinking into it gratefully.

Just as I was about to drift off, there was a soft knock at the door.

With a groan, I hauled myself up. “Come in.”

The door creaked open, and Zuri poked her head in. She was wearing a silk wrap around her hair, but it was different. This one was green instead of amber. It reminded me of her dress from the night of our date. “Sorry,” she said immediately. “I hope I’m not bothering you.”

I shook my head, gesturing for her to come in. “Not at all. Everything okay?”

She entered, closing the door behind her. “I just… I couldn’t sleep. Too much on my mind, I guess.”

I patted the bed beside me. “Want to talk about it?”

“No.” Zuri shook her head and paused, looking at Skullie. “I want to go put him in my room and then come back and have my way with you. More than once, if I’m being honest.”

Well. That woke me up.

Chapter 50: In The Arms Of A Gorgon

**Chapter cut to keep the story PG!**