“Felicia, I- “ I said. [Conversation] couldn’t help me when I didn’t know what to say.

“I’m sorry!” Felicia exclaimed. “I shouldn’t be prying, but-“

“No! No, you’re right to wonder.” I paused, my mind racing. “I’ll tell you everything… when we get to Level 2.”

“What? Why then? Does the dungeon have something to do with…”

“Nothing like that,” I assured her. “Just that I want to meet Kyle before I commit to anything. After all, I can hardly expect you to keep this from your boyfriend.”

“Kyle isn’t my boyfriend!” she blurted. “He’s just - you’re changing the subject again, aren’t you?”

“Of course not. That was very convincing, by the way. I totally believed you.”

“You- I’m- He’s-” she spluttered. “When you meet him tomorrow you are absolutely forbidden from saying anything embarrassing about boyfriends!”

“Okay, Okay,” I said holding up my hands in surrender. She glared at me.

“That had better mean ‘yes’ in that ‘English’ of yours.” she said.

I spent the rest of the morning, reading the book on Dungeons, while Felicia played with her new [Calculate] skill. I told her she could get it higher quickly by using the paper method to multiply much larger numbers, but she didn’t see the need. As it was she could handle any calculation up to ten thousand, and she didn’t see a need for more.

The dungeon book was interesting. It listed details for 20 publicly available dungeons - only about half of those that existed in the Kingdom of Latora, according to it. And it didn’t include any of the ‘private’ dungeons that had been claimed by the nobility of the kingdom for their own use. What was really interesting though, was the introductory section on common knowledge about dungeons. Apparently, dungeons held a unique magic that was not even detectable by current magic skills. While they could produce regular enchanted items, things like my ‘key’ were not magic, as it was understood, and could produce effects that regular types of magic could not.

Despite being naturally occurring, dungeons seemed to have an intelligence involved, either behind the design, or in some cases, actively guiding the activities that went on inside. It was theorised that this was due to something called a dungeon core, always located on the bottom level of a dungeon. Removing the core resulted in the destruction of the dungeon. This always affected the mana flows in the area, generally causing increased monster spawnings. In most cases though, the conditions that formed the dungeon in the first place were still there, so a new dungeon would form again in the same place.

Due to the effects of dungeon destruction, and because dungeons were considered a resource for the Kingdom, it was illegal to remove a dungeon core without official permission. However, the book noted, this was difficult to enforce due to a demand for cores from highly powerful mages. It didn’t say what mages did with the cores. The other thing that made it hard to enforce, the book said, was that cores did not register as magical items, and could not be scryed on.

Maybe thats why wizards want them, I speculated. They want their privacy.

Nothing much of note happened for the rest of the day. I took a nap, and worked the tavern. The next day was payday, and I tried to look suitably grateful for the few coins I received. No one was fooled, I think - while I didn’t wear it to work, everyone knew I had 20 times as much as this invested in equipment. It wasn’t about the money though. I was wearing the armour when I collected my pay, but rather than being ostentatious, it seemed to be a mark in my favour. Harold had mentioned that the type of adventurer he disliked was the ones that earned just enough money to drink themselves under the table, and never did any more. By sinking so much money into equipment, I seemed to have moved into the second category.

Today, I was meeting Felicia and Kyle, and heading down into the dungeon as a group. We were meeting at the Town Healer’s place, because Felicia had said her master wanted to meet me. I hadn’t quite grasped the nature of the Master-Apprentice relationship here. It existed, I knew, but there was very little training involved, as that all tended to be done by the System. Instead, I think, it was an exchange of labor for resources. Felicia could find her own herbs, and knew how to prepare poultices, but she needed a mortar and pestle, containers, cauldrons and other ingredients that couldn’t be found in the forest. It was the same for other craftsmen, they needed raw materials to practice on before they could get good enough to sell them.

It seemed to me that another way to establish yourself would be to adventure for a year or two, get a few levels and money and then take up a profession. The fact that Felicia was adventuring while serving as an apprentice would seem to contradict that theory, but maybe she was the exception that proved the rule.

As Town Healer, Felicia’s master (she always referred to him as ‘master’) was paid a retainer to make himself available to heal town officials (guards mostly) and aid the town during emergencies. When he wasn’t required, he made extra income by selling healing potions. This was all information I’d gleaned from tavern conversations, Councillor Webster was always complaining about the extra expense of retaining a healer when no one needed healing. As a town employee, his shop wasn’t located in the market, but off the main square. I had seen it on my first day, but I wasn’t in a position to be buying potions then. Anyway, I found it without trouble and went inside. Felicia was staffing the counter.

“Katherine, good morning.” Felicia greeted me brightly. She must be in customer service mode.

“Good morning to you to,” I replied. “Is everyone here?”

“Master! Katherine’s here!” she called out. “Yes, just go through,” she said a trace of nervousness entering her voice. “Remember - you promised!”

I giggled, and went on through to the back room. This was a workshop for processing herbs, at a guess. It looked like a cross between a chemistry lab and a florist. There was also a bed, but I think that was for clients rather than where the master slept. Occupying the room, were two men. One was about 40 and dressed in shirt and trousers and a leather apron. The other was a teenager, dressed in what looked to me to be ill-fitting metal armour.

Until now, [Charm] had been having me curtsey at every opportunity, and introductions were definitely one such. However, without a dress, I couldn’t curtsey properly, so [Charm] was telling me to just skip it and behave like the confident and assured adventurer that I was dressed as.

“Hello, I’m Katherine.” I said. I stopped myself from giving a ‘how you doing’ look at the young man who had to be Kyle. What the hell, [Charm]?

“Greetings,” said the older man. “I am Oliver Heath, and this young man is Kyle Warner.”

I shook Oliver’s hand, and then carefully made sure that any seductive vibes I was sending out were turned off before turning to Kyle and shaking his. “I’ve heard a lot about you Kyle.” Kyle was a pretty tall kid, who’d probably be a pretty large man in a few years. He had blond hair and blue eyes and an eager look to him.

“Ah, really?” he said. I just grinned.

“Before anything else, Katherine, are you injured?” asked Oliver.

“Just some scratches,” I said.

“Allow me,” Oliver said, holding out his hand. Confused, I took it. His hand glowed, and I instinctively opened my Mana Sense. I could now see tendrils of mana reaching out from his hand and touching each of my wounds. I felt a warmth and a pleasurable feeling as my wounds closed.

“Oh, thank you, that feels really good!” I exclaimed.

“You’re welcome,” Oliver said. “I have a limited number of points I can heal each day, but they go to waste if they don’t get used.”

“Do I owe you…” I reached for my pouch, but Oliver waved me away.

“Please, its the least I can do for how you’ve helped Felicia.” He gave me a warm smile.

“Well, thanks again. Felicia said you wanted to meet me before we went into the dungeon again?”

He nodded. “Please, sit.” he gestured for me to use the only chair, Kyle sat on the bed, and Oliver pulled a stool out from under a workbench. “I did want to see what sort of person I’d be putting my apprentice in the care of.”

“Well here I am,” I said, “Though I don’t know about taking care of Felicia, she may be younger, but she’s actually a bit more experienced at this than I am.”

“Hmmm.” he said, leaning forward. “If thats true, then you’ve got it extremely early.”

“Got what?” I asked, puzzled.

“The adventurers call it dungeon fever,” he said. “You’ve got it, don’t you? That urge to plunge deeper down the levels. To go faster, harder, than all the others.”

“I’ve got… reasons… to push myself.” I said. I hesitated. “Sometimes I wonder if they’re entirely rational.”

“You have some self-awareness at least. Listen to me. The easy levels are behind you now. Its going to be a long, hard slog to get to level 4, and thats just the start of the journey you’re contemplating. You’re not going to kill a boss and get even halfway there.”

“I’m aware.” I said, somewhat embarrassed. “I’d need to fight a threat level of 60 for that amount of XP. I don’t even know if that level exists.”

“I’m a little worried that you focus on the existence of such creatures as the difficulty here. My point is, you need to pace yourself. Keep pushing, and you will get killed. Worse, you could take these two with you.”

“I’d never put their lives at risk!” I protested. “Sure, I take risks - managed risks - but thats when I go alone. Going in a party - even if I was willing to risk their lives - would only be third of the reward.”

Oliver frowned. “How do you manage danger?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Assess the severity of the risk, based on likelihood and consequences, measure against the expected reward, take steps to mitigate either the likelihood or consequences - or both -depending on which would have the greater effect.” I could rattle off this stuff in my sleep. It seemed to confuse Oliver though.

“Whats does that even… does that make sense?” he said. “Is that a skill?”

“Katherine knows a lot of things that aren’t skills,” Felicia said. She’d come through from the front of the shop. “She knows a lot of things she hasn’t told us. But I don’t think she’s going to get me killed.”

She moved in front of me. “I can’t say the same for yourself though! Will you get it through your head that everyone's worried about you?”

I sighed. “I know what I’m doing alright? If it makes you feel better, I can’t really go off on my own anyway - at least for a while.”

“And why is that?”

I counted off the points on my fingers. “I don’t know my way around the second level, I’d get lost and die. I don’t know how to find the valuable plants in that jungle. I can’t collect the valuable bits from animals down there. I have thought about this. I need you to do anything down there - and that means taking it slow and steady, with backup-“ I pointed at Kyle “-and a plan.”

Felicia looked at her master. They seemed somewhat mollified.

“Besides, today we’re just going to do level one until Kyle gets to level three right? Should be a cakewalk.”

“Don’t say that!” exclaimed Felicia. “You don’t want to tempt the gods.”

I shrugged. I kinda did want to tempt them. “So, Kyle,” I said, transparently changing the subject. “Nice armour. Family heirloom?”

“Uh, yes,” he said, manifestly uncomfortable with being brought into the conversation. “I…” he looked to Felicia for help, but I interrupted instead.

“I’m no expert, but I went looking at a lot of armour yesterday. That suit looks like its supposed to be worn over some leather under… armour?” My technical vocabulary had been exhausted, alas.

“Thats right!” Kyle was evidently a lot happier with technical conversations. “It’s supposed to be attached directly, but it needs a specially crafted tunic with the fastenings on it. When Da retired, he put the metal away carefully, but he kept wearing the leather.”

“Adventurer family then?” He nodded in response. “Is that the one that I heard is the closest thing to nobility that this area has?” While everyone in the area had started out with equal grants of land, some families had prospered, while some hadn’t. Farms had been purchased or inherited, and now there was a wide variety of landowners. From what I’d heard, the Warners were the biggest of them.

“Thats us,” he said, reluctantly. “But, uh, my family isn’t one of the important branches. Oh, and don’t let the rest of the clan hear you compare us to nobles.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Great-grandfather hated the nobility, made his sons swear to never become them, or like them. Theres a few families like that around, which is why the nobles have stayed away.”

“Huh.” Interesting. I’d heard that Oakway was fairly unusual in not coming under a feudal lord. That the town was free wasn’t that unusual, it seemed like 50/50 odds, but generally the nobles owned all the land around the town, giving them- at the least- an outsized say in the towns business.

“So you’d be looking to get that under-armour then?” I asked. Kyle perked up, much happier to be talking about armour than his family.

“Yeah, I ordered it, and I’ve paid a deposit already. It should be ready as soon as I’ve got the 30 silver. As it is, the armour isn’t too bad though. The gaps are high, but my skill is enough to cover them.”

He had a sword as well, it looked to be a heirloom as well from the quality of it.

[Identification] : Longsword - Quality: Good - Damage: +60

“Well I’m re-assured.” I said. “You look to be just the kind of protector two casters should have. Are you all right with working with me?”

“You’re asking me?” he asked, startled. “Well, yes, of course Felicia said you were…” He straightened. “Yes, I’m happy to be working with you.”

“Great.” I said.

“And… about the danger.” He hesitated and I made an encouraging face. “Well, its just that Da always said - pushing yourself to the limits is just what an adventurer does. You’ve just got to be sure you know what those limits are.”

I grinned. “Thanks for that. I couldn’t agree more.”

Before we left, I made sure to buy a healing potion.

“You still have injuries?” asked Felicia, “Master can you-“

“Master Heath already took care of it,” I interjected. “This is for insurance.”

“I wouldn’t let Felicia go without one of her own, but she’s to use it only for emergencies.” Oliver said.

“Thats good to know, but its always better to have more - just in case.” I said.

“Fine,” Oliver said. He took a small vial off the shelf. “Five silver, should heal 20 HP.”

[Identification] : Lesser Healing Potion - Quality: Great - Heal +20

“Thanks,” I said, handing over the coin. “Here’s hoping I can build up a collection.”

Since the day was about getting Kyle up to 3, I proposed a division of labor. Kyle was perfectly capable of killing an Ilan lizard on his own. If he did it on his own he’d get 60 XP, whereas if we were involved he’d net only 10. Felicia could concentrate on skinning the lizards he killed, so we made money, and I would guard Felicia and kill any lizards that came after us.

It all worked perfectly well. So much so, my biggest problem was keeping myself entertained. A few lizards showed up where we were, but they were quickly dispatched and added to the ‘to be skinned’ pile. Since Felicia knew about English, I started practicing my [Sing] skill, treating her to the works of Taylor Swift and other classics. At first they were a cappella but then it occurred to me to use [Memorise] and [Unseen Sound] to give myself musical accompaniment. That was probably unwise but… even though it hadn’t been a week, I missed music something fierce.

Kyle protested that I would draw lizards to my location, but I pointed out that just meant more skins. And hearing my voice meant that he could keep track of us while hunting. He didn’t look convinced, but…

[Persuade] Level 2 acquired through use

For gaining a skill level you have been awarded 1 XP

It took most of the day, but we ended up with 10 Ilan skins, and four Idnul skins. Most of them managed to give us an Average quality hide.

“That should come to… 94 copper all up?” Felicia said, a bit disappointed. “We got more from the newts.”

“I think we should keep Kyle away from the newts for a while,” I said. Kyle grimaced. “The important thing is that we’re all level 3 now. Who’s ready to take on the next level?”

“The boss is sure to have been killed by now,” Felicia said. “He won’t be back until midnight, unless the group that killed him went to level 3.”

“Is that likely?” I asked.

“Maybe. The level 2 shaman drops a fetish that lets you teleport straight to Level 3 from the entrance, so you don’t need to. But-” she looked over my shiny new armour- “I hear its a pretty rich reward, so it might be worth the time to take the long route. Of course, its late enough that they’ve probably come back and killed it again.”

“There’s no booking system for the boss?” I asked hopefully.

“No, the first one there gets the benefit.”

“Boo. Well, we could just head down to the second level, take a look round?”

“But we didn’t pick up any second level jobs - we wouldn’t know what’s needed for collection!”

“I’m sure we could pick up something valuable. But if you’re fine waiting another day for that conversation…” I trailed off.

Felicia narrowed her eyes. “I am fine with that, because we are going to do this properly, and not hare off on a whim!”

“Fine, fine. Tomorrow then. How early do you think we’ll need to be to catch the boss?”

“Pretty early.” she said doubtfully “If someones going after it, they’ll leave as soon as the gates open at dawn.”

“Um.” said Kyle, “I live outside of town, so I don’t have to worry about the gate. I can get there earlier.”

“But we can’t have you going alone,” I said with a sly grin. “I hear thats dangerous.” Felicia huffed at me, but I continued. “What we should do is have Felicia stay at your place overnight.”

“What!” both of them exclaimed in unison, before diverging into different incoherent stammers. Undaunted, I continued on.

“Yes, thats clearly the best plan. I can slip out of the town before dawn, and meet you at the entrance at dawn. Felicia will have to get permission from her master of course, but I’m sure, Kyle, that your mother would be happy to offer her hospitality?”

“Well, we- we have a spare bed, so I guess it would be fine..”

“Then its settled. Lets head back and pick up some Guild quests.”

On the way out, I thought to check on the watchers. Telling the others to go on, and I’d join them later, I turned invisible before leaving the dungeon and went to take a look. Oddly, there was no one keeping watch, and the camp was abandoned. Odd. I quickly rejoined the others, deflecting their queries with speculation about Felicia meeting Kyles mother. Just bringing up the topic was enough to fluster them into not asking further questions.

Back in town, I was able to net a little more for our skins. We ended up with 47 copper each, but I handed my share to Kyle, on the grounds of he did most of my work, and, he needed to get that under-armour. I wasn’t hurting for cash at the moment, so I was tempted to give him another 10 silver to get him there sooner, but I knew he wouldn’t accept pure charity.

At the Guild, Felicia spent some time poring over the job requests, evaluating them on some criteria that I wasn’t aware of, while I talked to Paige.

“Do people register parties at the Guild?” I asked.

“Why yes,” she replied. “It will be good to have a third official party in the guild.”

“You only have two?” I asked. I’d never seen less than 20 people in the guildhall, so this seemed low.

“I think I already saw you talking with the Delvers, and theres a local group called the Oakway Raiders. They’re mostly Level 3. Reynard has his crew, but they’re not an offical team. And theres almost a dozen loners who just go down to the first two levels enough to make a living.” Seans group were called the Delvers? It sounded a little embarrassing, which was maybe why they hadn’t mentioned it. Although now that I thought about it, could you have a team name that wasn’t embarrassing? It was like a brand - you needed to grow into it, get people to attach positive feelings towards it. We weren’t going to do that killing lizards in a jungle. We need to save a town from something. Milly said something like that was in my likely future though.

“So is there a benefit to being in a party?”

“Being registered? Well, any guild points that the party earns are also awarded to the members, so it makes it easier to climb up the guild rankings. Higher Guild ranking is required for the more dangerous jobs.”

“Oh, like having to be Gold rank to face the final boss of the dungeon.”

“Thats not a requirement,” Paige said, puzzled. “Did you hear that somewhere?”

“I’m not sure…”

“Well, the other thing with registration is in case of a death. No one wants to talk about it, but arranging for next-of-kin or survivor benefits is easier if you’re in the same team.”

“Ah. I take it the standard arrangement is for the surviving team members to split the… inherited assets?”

“You can specify something different if you want… Its awkward to talk about, but its a lot worse after an… incident.”

Felicia came up at this point. “We’d like to register for these jobs please?” she said, holding three job listings. I called Kyle over, and we started taking care of the paperwork.

“What do you want to call yourselves?” Paige asked, pen over the registration book. Too much pressure!

“Do you guys have any ides?” Blank looks and shaking heads. Hey can [Creativity] help with this? I focussed and something came up.

“How about Eureka Company?” Puzzled looks this time.

“Eureka? Whats that?” asked Felicia.

“Its… something you say when you find what you’ve been looking for.” I said.

“I’ve never heard of it,” said Paige, “But its just a name, you can put whatever you like.”

“I like it,” said Kyle. Felicia nodded agreement.

“Lets go with that then.” I said.

Early morning found me outside Oakway dungeon. I hadn’t pulled an all-nighter this time - I was due the occasional night off, and I’d sweetened the deal by offering to help with the setup for the early morning baking. I slipped over the walls in the darkness, as before, but pre-dawn was lighting the countryside by the time I got to the entrance. I’d wanted to get here a bit early, to see if the watchers were back, and where they went during the day.

Sure enough, it seemed like they had spent the night here again. They were stamping out the campfire, and packing up their gear when I arrived. I didn’t make my presence known, just watched and followed as they headed into the dungeon. As soon as they entered, one of them pulled out a red gem, the size of my fist, and they all grabbed a hold. Without any ceremony or ritual, they simply disappeared.

I cancelled my spell, and made my way back outside. I pondered on the added data, but didn’t come to any conclusions before my team arrived.