I made my way up to the dungeon master’s quarters and grabbed the crate of spells. I knew that they were expensive just because of how Kasidy had reacted. I also knew that if I could read, I would be tempted to grab every one of them so that I had access to all the spells. I didn’t have the mana to use them, and I would have my abilities spread all over the place.

It took me a while as I went through to find the right bundle. But once I did, I’d have thirty healing spells. Each one could teach the spell to one person. Sure, there were other ways to learn the spell, and I was sure that I could sell these for a vast sum. In fact, I almost sold them all to the dungeon just for the store credit.

With that thought, I knew that I needed to pass through Dave first. He needed to tell me which scrolls the dungeon had. If they were all copies, then I was good to go giving them to Irwin. If not, then I needed to seriously think about it. In fact, I figured that I would have Dave tell me about all of the scrolls first.

It took me about fifteen minutes to get back down. To everyone, as I came down, Kasidy called out. “Took you long enough!”

I laughed. “I was gone only like 15 minutes. I wanted to go through the scroll!”

Dave laughed from behind the counter. “No, Arn, you forget that your room isn’t in the safe room. You were gone just over 6 hours.”

I thought back to how long I had been up getting cleaned up. I realized now why it seemed like Kasidy and Renfry had been waiting a long time. They had been It had taken me at least an hour to get cleaned up and check everything with the core. Which meant they had spent a day inside. It also meant that Irwin’s mana drain hit him hard. Much harder than what happened to me.

I placed the crate on the bar. “Dave, can you please check through these and see if the dungeon already has these spell scrolls that it can offer? Start with the healing ones, please.”

Dave sat his shot glass down and started to pull out the scrolls. As he picked them up, he separated them into two piles. While he was doing that, I headed back over to the table. I sat down and gave everyone a smile.

Then I asked. “Irwin, have you been told where we are as of yet?”

He shook his head. “I figured this was the second floor of the tower, but I don’t understand why it is set up as it is. Nor do I understand how new clothing got in my room or even the tub. It wasn’t there when I left.”

I grinned. “Well, to answer that is easy. Turns out that the tower is a dungeon, and we hauled your butt into the safe room.”

Irwin nodded nervously. “We’re in a dungeon?”

The three of us smiled, and I said. “Yup. More on that later. The important thing is that the dungeon buys things, and it is looking at the scrolls right now to see what it wants to buy from us. Now we would need a good reason not to sell to the dungeon but to give it to you if it wants one of the healing scrolls. You see, as this dungeon gets bigger and older, it will be able to make those scrolls, and then others will be able to buy them.”

Irwin nodded slowly. “I know. That’s where most scrolls come from and why they are too expensive to do what you are planning on doing. Giving me enough scrolls to gain a healing class is staggering.”

“Now, before we move, see what scrolls we have to pick from. Are there any other spells that you would want beyond healing?”

The young man chuckled and gave me a look like either he was crazy or I was. “My lord, there are dozens of spells that I would like. The problem is taking the time to learn them all. I am like every mage. I want them all, but I know that I can’t use them all and so healing and protection.”

Dave called out. “Arn, come here, and let’s talk about what you have and what I want.”

I flashed a smile at the group and said. “That’s my cue, don’t drink too hard while I’m away.”

I walked over to the bar. Dave looked more serious than I had seen him in a long time. In fact, unless we were talking about the needs and purpose of the dungeon, he never looked serious.

As soon as I got to the bar, he leaned in. “Master, these scrolls you brought me are all masterwork quality. Of them, there are 12 that I haven’t seen before. Of those 12, there are three that I don’t have a variant of.”

I nodded slowly. “So you want three of them or 12 of them?”

He shook his head. “I want to trade for all of them.”

I raised my eyebrow. “All? Why?”

He smiled. “Masterwork scrolls can be used three times before they lose their charge. But unlike a normal scroll that will fade away and turn to dust. They are still there if you take the time and know the language that they are written in, then you can still learn the spell from it.”

I nodded slowly. “So I take it you don’t have the masterwork versions of any of these?”

He shook his head. “Just a reminder, anything that you bring into any of your dungeons, all of them get. Which means that your first one that reaches the required level will be able to give them back to you.”

I smiled and tried to hold in a laugh. “Nice try, but I know better, and you know that. You always rob me blind when I buy something from you. Besides, what level dungeon do we need to reproduce these?”

Dave almost looked guilty when he said. “One hundred.”

I shook my head slowly. “Okay, so if I give them to you, what’s the trade?”

Dave thought for a moment. “So since these aren’t from in the dungeon, the exchange rate is much higher. Also, since they are at such a high level, I can give you the standards of each of the masterworks…. Except for the ones I don’t have copies of, I can give you the variant. Then the three that I don’t have, I can umm…”

I shook my head. “You know better this isn’t going to work, and stop cheating me.”

Dave smiled and laughed. “Okay, so I can’t do a straight duplicate on them because of how the dungeon mana works. But because we are trading, I can do away with the level requirements for you. So what I can do is give you masterworks of everything that I don’t currently have and standards for the rest.”

I nodded slowly. “What will that do for the dungeon? I guess I should call it the tower.”

Dave gave a mischievous grin. “It will shoot the tower up to floor ten and down to level ten as well.”

I thought for a moment with a smile forming. “Which would make the tower runnable. So I could get Irwin training and see how Renfry did while we were here… It might be better to take them back to another just to see how they would do, but here I can practice with them.”

Dave nodded, and I asked. “Okay, since we are trading, what potions can you throw in with this?”

“I can give you experience potions, but they won’t do you any good. I could go as high as greater Mana and Health. Just about any potion you can think of I could do within this trade.”

“Got one that can make me read?”

Dave laughed. “I don’t know if anyone could get you to read. You might be too stupid. But no, I don’t have anything for you.”

“Can you raise my intelligence?”

“Temporary only. The permanent stat boosts cost more than the scrolls combined.”

I sighed, then looked over my shoulder. “Hey, what potion should I ask for if I could pick anything? You know something to pull my butt out of the fire.”

Kasidy called out. “Greater Wish!”

Renfry smiled and chimed in. “Something that could let me get a buzz.”

I laughed as Irwin said. “If anything is on the table, then your best bet is a high-quality recovery potion.”

I looked back at Dave. “Greater wish?”

He shook his head. “I don’t even know if those things are real. I only have heard some songs about them.”

I thought for a moment. “Okay, so what’s a recovery potion, and why is it better or different than a health potion?”

“Well, it's different because it’s an all-in-one. It’s a health, mana, stamina, cure poison, cure disease, remove curse, and clear debuff. They are amazing. I could get you a minor one and the standard spells. Or we could trade everything for a greater recover potion, and you not get any spells back.”

I shook my head. “Okay, so that’s a non-starter since we need the spells. Or rather, I want the spells. So can we get Irwin kitted out in some healer stuff? A focus or something that can help him heal better? Or hey, is there some skill book we could get that would let him not target us?”

Dave nodded. “So there’s no skill he can get with the secondary class he has that would let him not target his allies when using his area of attack spells. That is just the makeup of his class. I can kick in with the scrolls high-quality beginner robes of the healer. They would let his spells act 3 levels higher. I can also give him a staff that he can store mana in for healing spells only.”

I nodded slowly and rubbed my beard. I needed to get a haircut and get this mess of a beard taken care of. I should have done it in town, but I just hadn’t thought of it. Now that I am a lord, I needed to look better so that people would react better to me. As it was, I was just an ugly mess of hair that I tried to fix by cutting it off with a knife.

I stopped thinking about my hair and answered. “Let’s do it.”

All the scrolls vanished, and then duller ones appeared in their place. He placed them all in the box and laid the robes on top. Then he came from around the bar carrying the staff. We headed over to the table.

I set the box down on the table and looked at Irwin. “Let’s make you a healer.”

* * *