Blaze and I ate breakfast before heading out. Our dungeon run time was at 10 a.m., but she needed to stop at her office first. I wanted to talk to the county surveyor.

  “Why the surveyor?” Blaze asked as she finished her eggs over easy, sopping up the last of the yolk with toast.

  “Whatever this is has to be within range of NeedLess and Everett’s home. Wherever circles around those two places intersect might be where this thing is.”

  “I could’ve done that on my computer. If you’d said something last night, I’d already have it.”

  “Do you just have standard mapping software, or can you overlay survey maps with everything the county’s got on record?”

  “Google and topo maps,” she admitted, then gave me a look. “I see. Got it. They’ve got details I don’t have on my phone or office computer. The state office might have them, but I don’t recall. Still, it helps to have someone local who knows the land.”

  “Exactly. And just two points aren’t enough detail. Their map might show something, or maybe he’ll know something. He’s been doing that job longer than I can remember. Not an elected position.”

  “Institutional memory,” she said, nodding. “If he’s been around that long, he’s been just about everywhere. He’ll know what used to be out there.” She nodded, took the last bite of her eggs, and we both thought about what could be out there.

  We packed what we’d need for the run and headed out. The morning was warm already, a damp kind of May warmth that promised humidity later. The City/County Office Building was busy with folks heading into county offices. I’d dropped Blaze off first, then drove over here. It was just past eight.

  Hal Schmitz and I spent a few minutes catching up. He’d been working Ley Line information into his maps, verifying the spawn sites. The dungeon entrance was marked on his latest version.

  He pulled up Everett’s address and drew a one-mile circle around it. Then he did the same for the commune. They didn’t touch. At two miles they nearly met. At two and a half, they overlapped.

  “Why such a small area?” Hal asked, leaning over his desk. His office smelled faintly of paper and old coffee.

  “I figure whoever or whatever it is moves on foot. That stretch is wooded and rough… ridges, narrow valleys. Not friendly ground.”

  “Makes sense. Let me zoom in and see what’s out there. Haven’t been in that section in maybe five years… least not on foot.” He enlarged the map, and I spotted more scattered farms and old homes than I expected. The commune owned more land than I’d realized.

  “Far as I know,” Hal said, tapping the screen, “these places are empty. Owners passed, kids inherited, but no one wanted them. Sometimes folks hole up there in hunting season…without permission. Wrong time of year for hunters, though.”

  “I know a couple of people who might still be out there. Or know somebody who knows somebody.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, me too. The kind who seem to eat a lot of…‘rabbit’ all year long.” He even made air quotes.

  “Shit!

  Hal frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  “Three points define an area, right?”

  “Yeah. You got two.”

  “No, I’ve got three. And the third guy’s a hunter. Let me see if I can reach him.”

  I pulled up the Game interface.

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Are you awake? I need to know something. Very important.]

  I glanced back at Hal. “I just contacted him. There’ve been three people marked with the MINION tag. Only one doesn’t have it anymore.”

  “That tag’s important?”

  “Very. Wild Bill Hitchcock had it. So did the werewolf we fought last night.”

  Hal blinked. “Werewolf? You’re serious?”

  “They exist now. He’s sedated at the hospital till the full moon passes. We’ll see after that.”

  “He hurt anyone?”

  “No. Lucky break. Just ate someone’s dog.”

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Do you know how fuckin’ early this is? You almost woke me up. What’s wrong?]

  “Hang on a minute. I just reached him.”

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Do you remember where you were when you got that MINION tag?]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Don’t remember much. I was out…looking for stuff. Some farmer type stopped me. I don’t remember who. Someone next to him. Might have been that Iago guy. That’s the last thing before a blank. Next thing, I was back home.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [Where were you? What road?]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Best I recall, I was on Flat Creek Road. Just passed Murphy’s place going down the hill. Nothing after that.]

  “Flat Creek Road, Murphy family place, heading downhill,” I repeated aloud.

  Hal pulled up the area, highlighting buildings.

  A third circle went on the map. At two miles, all three overlapped. Everett’s was furthest out. The hunter’s circle landed across a valley, downhill more than a mile from the commune.

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [I thought you knew every hunter and farmer for two counties around?”

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [Nah. I ain’t that friendly, less they ride.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [I know how friendly you ain’t.]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [You got that right. Good thing your gal stood up for you. I oughta take her out rabbit huntin’ someday. Told her I would.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [I’ll remind her. If you remember who that farmer was, tell me. We’ve got something big and bad out there. You’re the only one who’s shaken off the MINION tag.]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [That’s bad. You need me, holler. I’ll load up and mount up. Might bring Ralphie too. He’d love it.]

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  [William of Brinsford:] [PokerRun] [I’m sure he would. Thanks. I owe you a beer for waking you up.]

  [PokerRun:] [William of Brinsford] [I was awake. Just didn’t want to get up. Now I’m up. You owe me that beer.]

  I nodded at the map. “What’s in that circle?”

  “Not much,” Hal said. “Old farmsteads in the valley. Newer builds are up on the ridges. That’s been the trend the last thirty years. There’s ruins of an old mill east about four miles. And an old quarry closer. Shut down ten, fifteen years ago. Owners didn’t make enough money to be worth keepin’ it open.”

  “Show me.”

  He pointed them out. I cross-checked on my phone. They weren’t marked, but I half-remembered where they were. Hal gave me GPS coordinates to be safe.

  “Overlay Ley Lines?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Give me a minute.” He clicked a few keys, and glowing blue threads appeared across the map.

  “Shit.” I pointed at the quarry. “Two Ley Lines cross right there.” I snapped pictures.

  Hal enlarged it for me and I took a couple more.

  “You think that’s the place? Your dungeon isn’t on an intersection like that.”

  “I know. That bothers me. I’ll try to find out why. Thanks, Hal.”

  “No problem. You’ve been helping us. I’ll make time to return the favor.”

  I meant it when I said, “That means a lot.” Then I left for the STORE.

  ***

  At the STORE, I checked my sheath knife. Still a +1 ATTACK. I’ll need to upgrade after this. At the We Buy Counter, the clerk picked it up, glanced at it, and set it back down.

  “We can’t buy this. Not one of ours.”

  I thanked her and re-sheathed it, verifying why they wouldn’t buy the book and athame either. Not outside the game…inside it. Something big.

  After that, I messaged Blaze and Shadow, telling them to be ready. We picked Shadow up at 9. Still in plenty of time. It was less than a half hour to the dungeon entrance.

  The dungeon site had changed since our last visit. A grassy area by the road had been cleared for parking. Tents were near the roadside for processing adventurers. Four portable toilets stood in two rows. Soldiers patrolled, their boots leaving prints in the grass and leaves in the morning sun. The air smelled faintly of damp earth and hot canvas. Bhaarrt and Ingrid were waiting near the stepped trail.

  The new path cut down the slope in broad wooden steps, like something built at a scout camp. Slower, but safer. Handrail posts waited for the rails to be attached.

  At five minutes to ten, we stood outside the dungeon entrance. A party was waiting ahead of us, the carved stone arch glowing faintly. A squat stone block sat beside it, the raised number zero shining MANA blue.

  “Looks full,” I said.

  “Hurry up and wait,” Bhaarrt muttered. “Just like the army.”

  When the group ahead came out, COMBAT STATS showed them all at Level 4, and their Tank at Level 5. They’d cleared the first side rooms of the third rank, satisfied with that much. We congratulated them before they left.

  The stone sign shifted to a one, then back to zero when the group in front of us entered.

  RECHARGE ME BEFORE YOU GO IN.

  The DUNGEON’s voice startled me. I quickly recharged it.

  We planned to skip the first rank, except Ingrid insisted on clearing the Kobold-only rooms herself. The number changed to one again, and I noticed no groups behind us.

  I called over to a soldier sitting under an EZ-Up with a clipboard. “Dungeon just opened for us, but nobody came out.”

  He checked, frowning. “Looks like a group wiped. Fourth time that’s happened. First today.”

  “So? We can go in?”

  “Yeah. You’re slotted for four hours. We’ll see you in about four hours,” he looked at his clipboard, “Says here you’re not doing a full clear.”

  “Just the higher rooms. No Boss.” I told him.

  “Let’s go,” Shadow said, moving up to open the door.

  “Left, or right?” I asked Ingrid.

  She flipped an imaginary coin and said, “left,” with a big grin.

  “I found out I can learn HOLY ARMOR or ARMOR OF HEALING at Level 8. I’m most of the way there. They’re Spell Book spells, not progression spells.”

  “Interesting. MANA ARMOR only appeared on my progression after several MANA SHIELD upgrades." I told her.

  Shadow added, “SHADOW ARMOR at Level 8 for me. It’s in a book for two hundred fifty moons. I should have that by then, easy.”

  “I’ll have to check for FIRE ARMOR the next time I go into the STORE.” Blaze added.

  That got us to the first door. “Shadow, do you want to have the honor of opening it, or let Ingrid do it all on her own?”

  “She can do it. I’ll be there if she needs me,” she said, and VANISHed. We all laughed.

  Ingrid opened the door with her left hand. Her right hand held her spear. She ran in, screaming something. I don’t know what it was for sure. It sounded like it was in Norse. But I heard what sounded like Odin in it. Maybe it was “Blood for Odin?”

  It didn’t take long. Less than the last time she fought them. She also had her winged helm on, which helped. I don’t know that the +2 Wisdom besides the healing bonuses it had helped with attacking, but it added to her defense.

  It didn’t take long to kill and loot all three Kobolds. Blaze said she wanted the connecting room. We could spend a couple of minutes doing it. In her case, it was the three Kobolds and a Goblin. FIRE SHIELD first, then a FIRE BALL, and finally two FIRE BOLTs. That ended that room.

  We moved to the other side, and Ingrid repeated her kills. Bhaarrt wanted a solo against the connecting room’s occupants and he took fifteen seconds longer than Blaze, and two HEALs from Ingrid, before he was done. He complained that the second hit shouldn’t have happened. It wouldn’t next time. We got a good laugh out of it.

  We skipped the rest of the early rooms, cleared deeper, resting only briefly. Shamans still slowed us, but Ingrid kept everyone standing. Loot was steady, drops random, our tactics sharper. By the time we reached the last corridor, we were stronger, faster.

  The tactics we’d worked out for the last set of rooms and our slightly higher levels made it easier to take down these rooms.

  Shamans were still a pain in the gut, but Ingrid had her healing over time spells ready and preloaded every time. We cleared all the rooms faster than our previous time.

  We’d been in the dungeon an hour and a half by the time we were ready for the last six rooms. Shadow checked and the way to the second floor was still closed.

  We rested after the first room. Then did the second two in quick succession. Once again, the drops were about the same as before. We all agreed that those drops, like the Spawns, were random. No more class specific drops.

  That put us back at the main vertical corridor. Going to the far end, we rested again to top off our MANA. We’d taken almost no damage except for Bhaarrt, who always takes damage.

  “Ya know,” Bhaarrt said, “A couple more times through this and another level and we won’t need more than one rest for each side. Maybe do the first two rows in one go.”

  We decided we’d do another run in two or three days and then try on the following weekend for another full clearing of the dungeon. After finishing some of our leftover MREs and water, we started clearing the rooms. It was only then that I noticed I hadn't received any communication from the Dungeon Avatar. I wondered why.

  This group of rooms was like the last group, but faster. Our new weapons and buffs helped a lot. We now had more potions to spread around and more for the GUILD BANK. We had enough things in the bank with what we were bringing in, and what other guild members were donating, the bank was feeling full. We needed to talk about that at our next guild meeting.

  Right now, it was almost at the four-hour mark and time to head out, and take care of other things.

  And then Shadow stopped us.

  [Urako Sarutobi:] [PARTY] [Stop. Door open to the boss room. Wasn’t open before.]

  She was right. Both doors to the boss room were open. Beyond was silence and emptiness.

  Why did it look like a trap?

  I pressed the Dungeon Ring. “Dungeon. Why are the doors open? Invitation or trap?”

  Nothing.

  “Trap?” Shadow asked.

  “Don’t like it,” Bhaarrt muttered.

  We looked at each other. Nobody moved.

  “I say we leave it,” Ingrid said firmly. “We’ll be back in a couple days, do the whole thing, and be ready for the boss.”

  Still nothing from the Dungeon.

  “Then we go,” Blaze said. “If it wants to talk, it better say something soon.”

  “I agree. “Shadow, scout ahead. We’re not far from the exit. Let’s go folks. She STEALTHed.”

  Nothing attacked. The silence was heavy, but unbroken.

  We walked a fast walk with Shadow STEALTHed ahead of us. I took the rear. I had the most hit points of all of us, including Bhaarrt, even though he was getting closer fast with every level.

  Nothing happened, and we all got out safely, which mildly surprised us. We’d been in there for almost four hours.

  Stopping at the top, we gave our report of what happened and what we found and did to add to their database of dungeon crawls. We didn’t mention the Boss Room door being open.

  The dungeon wasn’t helping us this time, so the loot we received was a lot more random. But other guild members would find some of the magic items useful. I said I’d drop the things we didn’t want off at the Guild Bank.

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