During an unscheduled pause in the day’s dungeon runs due to a cracked floor courtesy of an overenthusiastic [Earth Mage], Vee made his way downstairs and held up his hands. The adventurers waiting outside fell quiet as they looked over, and the [Dungeon Master] smiled as he reached down into his pocket and drew out a handful of silver fleurs.

“I’ve got a job for anyone willing to take it,” he announced as he counted out three coins and showed them around. Everyone fell silent.

Vee grinned.

“Will someone go down to the Grinning Pig to grab me a beef sandwich and some fried potatoes? I’m starving.”

As if to accentuate his point, his stomach rumbled loudly enough for everyone to hear, and there were more than a few chuckles as the adventurers – who’d clearly been expecting something more suited to their martial talents – mostly went back to what they’d been doing before he’d come down. However, a younger adventurer dressed in ill-fitting armor who’d been hanging out near the back of the crowd came over and held out his hand.

“I’ll do it, Mister Vales,” he said. He couldn’t have been older than fifteen or so, with straggly blond hair that hung down in front of his eyes. “It’s not like I’m going to be running the dungeon today anyways.”

The boy looked so forlorn and depressed that Vee couldn’t help but ask what he’d meant.

Sneaking a furtive look back at the other adventurers – who, now that Vee took a closer look at them, did seem a touch older than he was used to seeing – the boy shrugged and took the coins.

“Nothing. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said sourly as he turned and left. One of the older adventurers, a man wearing an orange cape and carrying a knotted staff, gave the boy a patronizing clap on the shoulder as he stepped aside to let the boy through, and Vee furrowed his brow. What was that about?

A pair of other adventurers looked at each other and nodded, and the [Dungeon Master] stood where he was for a moment longer to see if anything other unusual things happened. When none did, he brushed a lock of hair from his eyes and went back upstairs to the office with a heavy sigh. Clearly, there was something sketchy happening with the adventurers – and he was willing to bet money that orange cape and the others were involved – but so long as Crestheart stayed busy, Vee didn’t have the energy or resources to dedicate to figuring it out just then. He had bigger, more immediate problems to solve, like finding Thien or acquiring alternative dungeon rewards in the event that she stayed missing.

Still, he got Reginald’s attention as he sat back down at his desk and said, “Have you noticed anything weird about the adventurers lately?”

“What do you mean?”

Vee explained what’d happened, and the hat looked at the adventuring paperwork on the desk in front of him.

“Well, now that you mention it, nobody under level sixteen signed up for runs today. In fact, most of the applicants are in the low twenties.”

“What about yesterday?”

Reginald’s yellow arm reached over to the file cabinet on the other side of the room and opened a drawer. He took out a stack of papers and pulled them over, examining them too.

“Nope, no low-levels yesterday either. What do you think is going on?”

Vee shook his head. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But something seems screwy. I’ll go talk to the guild about it on Saintsday, though, since Crestheart will be closed that day and I’ll have the time to get to the bottom of whatever it is.”

With the matter settled for the moment – as unpalatable as not taking action was – Vee took out his notebook and started sketching while he waited for Do and the rest of the [Dungeon Maintainers] to finish their maintenance.

He doodled a few squares, doing his best to ignore his rumbling stomach. His hunger was his own fault, as he’d stayed up late thinking about how to best improve Crestheart’s “story” and had overslept as a result. In his rush to make it to the dungeon in time that morning, he’d neglected to eat anything, and now he was paying for it.

Pre-made lunches, that’s the key, Vee thought as he finessed the squares into something resembling a maze. But then, there were only so many sandwiches he could force himself to eat. Of all the meals, lunch was by far the hardest to plan for.

Add it to the list.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead, wary of the slight ache beginning to form in the back of his skull. Ignoring it, Vee returned his attention to his current dungeon planning problem, which was finding a better way to utilize the teleporters. The current frontrunner was a miniature labyrinth.

Vee’s general idea was to use [Walking Walls] to make the maze longer or shorter, and have teleporters in the dead-ends to send adventures back to the beginning when they took a wrong turn.

However, during his brainstorming sessions, Vee had also been intrigued by the possibility of sending adventurers into small, thematic rooms, and forcing them to do battle with special packs of minions. Especially if he could find some way to improve the targeting of [Boost Drops]. Then he could even have fully boosted rooms to make sure that he maximized the skills value.

Ideally, he’d also manage to tie the rooms to clues for getting through the maze, but Vee wasn’t sure that he could accomplish such a feat. The [Dungeon Master] hated to admit it, but his attempts at coming up with verses for the dungeon were not going well.

Not for the first time in his life, Vee mused that he hated poetry. All the rhyming and rhythming and metaphors and similes were huge pains in the butt.

At this point, he might honestly be better off putting up signs around town and asking if any random passerby wanted to try their hand at penning a few lines. Their attempts would probably be just as good as his own.

The alternative, he shuddered, would be to use prose instead of verse. That was probably a crime somewhere.

Eventually, a knock on the door announced the adventurer’s return with Vee’s lunch, and after failing to get more information out of the poor kid about the situation with the older adventurers, the [Dungeon Master] let him go back to the street and eagerly started eating his food.

His sandwich was big and greasy, and Vee didn’t bother to wipe his chin when the spicy orange sauce slathering the beef dribbled down. He was too hungry to care about such things.

That is, until Luna came into the office.

Making a sound like a choking lavawhale at the sight of the [Pumpkin Witch], Vee frantically cleaned his face and wiped his greasy fingers on his jacket.

Though her clothing was the same as it always was, there was something different about her that day. A sparkle in her eyes, perhaps, or maybe a tinge of pink on her cheeks. Vee couldn’t entirely figure out what it was, though, mostly on account of trying to dislodge the bit of fried potato that’d stubbornly gotten stuck in the back of his throat.

“Are you okay?” Luna asked with wide eyes as she ran over and gave Vee a couple hearty slaps on the back that felt like they could have knocked him across the room. “Do you need some water or something?”

Having totally given up on looking anything even remotely resembling cool, Vee nodded and gratefully accepted her offered water bottle. The cold water got rid of the problem, and Vee sighed with relief. His throat was raw and felt more than a little scratchy, but he managed to squeak out a thanks all the same.

Then his voice totally abandoned him, as he’d realized the potential implications of drinking from Luna’s water bottle.

Judging by her unchanged expression, Luna apparently did not.

Once he’d calmed himself back down, Vee asked, “What brings you by, Luna?”

The [Pumpkin Witch] reached into her mailbag and drew out a thick letter. “This arrived yesterday, and since I wanted to see you anyways, I asked if I could deliver it today. Here you go.”

Mentally repeating wanted to see you anyways over and over again, Vee took the letter and looked at the return information on the envelope. While there was no address listed, the name ‘Zeiken’ had been cleanly printed in the top left corner, and there were a couple little drawings of doors here and there that told the [Dungeon Master] all he needed to know. It was an update from his salamander associate.

Clasping her hands behind her back, Luna’s cheeks reddened ever so slightly and she said, “And um, I couldn’t help but see the sign outside that said you guys are going to start taking Saintsdays off starting next week. Would you…maybe want to hang out with me that day?”

Feeling his own face grow warm, Vee nodded. “Of course. That’d be really fun. What do you want to do?”

Luna shrugged. “I figured we could just go for a walk or something. Get something to eat? I don’t know, I’m not big on detailed plans.”

“That’d be a lot of fun,” Vee said. “Does noon sound okay?”

“Sure. Meet in the market square?”

“It’s a date.”

Flashing a smile that made Vee’s week, Luna waved goodbye to Reginald and left the office. The hat whistled quietly as the door closed, and Vee gave his [Majordomo] a warning glare.

“Don’t start, Reginald.”

“I take no pleasure in pointing this out, Boss…but uh, Saintsday? Weren’t you just saying that you needed to go to the guild and settle this adventurer business?”

Vee stared blankly at the hat for a second in something akin to abject horror. How could he have forgotten so quickly? Crap.

But still, he didn’t want to miss a date with Luna.

“It’ll be okay,” Vee said, whispering a silent prayer that it’d all work out somehow. “The guild opens early, so I’ll just have to go and talk to them to get things figured out before my date.”

“You know, it’s probably beyond time for you to get a planner,” Reginald said. “I bet you can probably have Cecil help you out with that.”

That was almost certainly true. While Vee had long suspected that his [Excellent Spreadsheet] was capable of far more than he’d ever utilized, the [Dungeon Master] didn’t feel like trying to figure it out just then. Did he activate the skill and ask if it had a calendar function? Maybe. Was there perhaps an esoteric user manual somewhere he could find instead? Probably, though it was doubtful the Oar’s Crest library would have such a tome.

He'd have to figure it out another time. Though his to-do list was rapidly approaching “lose sleep about” status, Vee turned his attention to Zeiken’s letter. Tearing open the envelope, the [Dungeon Master] looked down at the folded piece of paper inside.

“What’s in there, Boss?”

Not wanting to have to go over it twice, Vee read the letter out loud.

“Mister Vales, I’m pleased to report that your faith in me has been rewarded. I’ve managed to negotiate a space for Crestheart in an upcoming dungeon development committee formed by the [Dungeon Masters] of Amespool, Old Narluc, Yew’s Rest, and Shontsdale. Don’t worry about the long title; it is a dungeon circuit in all but name. In order to secure this spot, however, I had to agree that Crestheart would be the first dungeon challenged, which is widely considered to be something of an insult. I implore you, Mister Vales, don’t listen to those who would say that, and instead, do everything you can to improve your dungeon before the first adventurers start arriving. Being a part of something like this is big. This is a chance for you to reach new markets and expand Crestheart’s customer base as we discussed. Your success hinges upon your ability to offer a compelling experience. Faithfully, Zeiken.”

Vee put down the letter and looked at Reginald. The hat was frowning, and then said, “Well, he wasn’t lying about getting our name out there I suppose. That was faster than I expected. He’s right, too. Even if we’re just going to get rolled over by a bunch of high level adventurers, this is a big opportunity for us. How long do we have before it starts?”

Vee scanned the letter again, not seeing a date. However, as he set the letter down he noticed another small piece of paper in the envelope and took it out. It was a flyer depicting a shadowy figure holding a hammer – was that supposed to be Alforde? – and had CRESTHEART – OAR’S CREST at the bottom. Beneath both of those was a starting date six weeks away.

Swearing, Vee gulped down the rest of his lunch and grabbed his notebook. He scribbled even more furiously than before.

Today had turned out to just be one of those days where he couldn’t catch a break. Distracted and feeling more than a little overwhelmed, Vee left Crestheart’s traps alone for the most part, and spent the rest of the runs sketching out different concepts that he hoped would make a good impression on the dungeon development committee. As he scribbled, sketched, and scratched out ideas in rapid succession, the [Dungeon Master] fought back the urge to announce an early closure.

Every run felt like it lasted forever, and Vee snarled each time an adventurer made it down to Alforde. Thankfully, the armorsoul was in perfect form, and ended every bout quickly, but Vee was still impatient as could be for the day to end.

Finally, as the last adventurer left the dungeon, Vee activated his magnification crystal and called down to his friend.

“Alforde, don’t bother bringing the earnings upstairs today, just pull them into the dungeon and I’ll have my orchestra bring them up later. We can do the count tomorrow. Tonight, we’re going to go and find Thien, okay?”

Alforde’s voice echoed back through the crystal.

“Got it, Vee. I’ll meet you outside.”

Vee bit his lip. There was too much to do and never enough time to do it, but by Gawain’s beard, he was going to try and get as much done as he could.

[Determination +1]

He picked up Reginald and looked into the hat’s eyes.

“I don’t suppose you know anyone who might have a knack for finding things, or people, would you?”

The hat’s felty mouth curled into a smile.

“I thought you’d never ask, Boss.”

Frowning, Vee put the hat on and headed down to the street.

Main Character Sheets:

Vee Vales

Primary Class: Ghost Maestro (Locksmagister University), Level 29

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 20

Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 5

Might: 13

Wit: 32

Faith: 21

Adventurousness: 7

Ambition: 14

Plotting: 19

Charisma: 13

Devious Mind: 22

Leadership: 17

Guts: 13

Intimidating Presence: 10

Citizenship: 20

Public Relations: 5

Determination: 2 (+1)

Alforde Armorsoul:

Primary Class: Hammer Afficionado (Self), Level 22 (+1)

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 13

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 14

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 5

Might: 40 (+1)

Wit: 12

Faith: 26

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 8

Endurance: 20

Intimidating Presence: 12

Heart of a Champion: 8

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 8

Vigilance: 6

Vanity: 2

Reginald:

Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ???

--~%@(%[email protected] &% (*$ #&#e !i$$ (#$%#$%#[email protected]!)~--, #[email protected]& ????

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 38

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 15

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 8

Might: 1

Wit: 33

Faith: 14 (+1)

Ambition: 27

Greed: 22

Deceptiveness: 27

Manipulativeness: 37

$#&*[email protected]!!

Loyalty: 46

Patience: 8

[#&%%%@%!#@__--#%]

[email protected]#!! @#[email protected][email protected]#

@#[email protected]%%^

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 7