The rain was more of a drizzle now, and Vee ran his hand through his soaking hair to get it out of his eyes. It’d taken him a few minutes after arriving at the partially collapsed building to catch his breath, but now that he’d done so he was faced with the unpleasant task of addressing the trespassers.

They looked at him with sheepish expressions, their eyes downcast and their faces resolved to accept whatever judgment he meted out.

But what should he do? What should he say?

Frankly, Vee knew that this was absolutely not his area of expertise. He was used to lectures, but wasn’t familiar with being on the delivering side.

As he wrestled with his options, there was a shift in the ethereal that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to prickle. Vee recognized the feeling well. It was the Expectation. Even without activating [Third Sight], he could sense its presence. The spirit was growing ever more corporeal as it wound its way through the air around Vee’s body, but for some reason it didn’t decide to try and make contact with him.

Vee took a deep breath and the feeling receded, though it was still there.

Then he heard the spirit’s burning voice.

(Who do you wish to be?)

Energy radiated forth and a notification popped up in front of the [Dungeon Master]. Instead of the typical white color he was used to though, this one was blue as blue could be.

(You stand at a crossroad of two paths that lead to the same destination. However, depending on which way you decide to go, the journey will be quite different.)

(Consider your choice carefully, for once you start traveling down a path it only gets easier to keep following it.)

(Option one: React with anger. Let them have what they have earned.)

(Reward: Intimidating Presence +2, Ambition +1)

(Option two: React with compassion. Instruct them so that they can make better decisions in the future.)

(Reward: Citizenship +2, Leadership +1)

Vee pondered the strange notification for some time. In addition to not looking right, it didn’t feel right either. His body seemed to be strangely heavy, and when he tried to look over at Alforde, Vee found that his head and neck wouldn’t obey his commands. The only thing he could do was interact with the notification.

So that’s what he did.

One the one hand, the cathartic allure of cursing the teenagers out and berating them for making such a foolish decision was strong. They could have gotten hurt, or worse! Didn’t they know how stupid they’d been? They deserved to know how stupid they’d been! Right?!

However, at the same time, what would making them feel worse truly accomplish? Thanks to Luna, they hadn’t been hurt by the fiends, and with Vee, Alforde and Luna to escort them back to the street fair, nothing bad was going to happen.

Talk about having your illusions shattered, Vee thought as he stared at his options once more. It really wasn’t much fun to be the one giving the lecture either.

(Well?)

No point in going over the same rationale more than once. Vee reached out and selected the second option.

He might as well get closer to unlocking that quest, whatever it was.

(Very well.)

(Citizenship +2)

(Leadership +1)

And with that, the Expectation vanished once again, though this time as it shifted away Vee got the impression that its form had slightly changed once again.

Interestingly, the “failed to receive quest” notification failed to pop up. Vee waited for it for a moment, and then decided that if it hadn’t appeared already, it wasn’t going to anytime soon. He hoped he hadn’t missed his window of opportunity to gain it. Quests could be funny like that.

A matter for another time. Standing up a little straighter, Vee met each young adult’s eyes in turn.

“You three are luckier than you know,” he said. “Had it not been for Luna here, you might have met a grisly fate. Do any of you have combat classes?”

They all shook their heads.

“Then why did you climb over the wall?” he asked. “Aren’t you scared of the fiends and ghosts in the abandoned part of the city?”

“We were told that it’d be safe since the fiends don’t really cause much trouble during the day. We were going to be back well before nightfall. We swear!”

Luna cocked her head to the side a little bit.

“Told? By who?”

The one in the middle who’d been injured ran his hand through his beard. He looked at his companions with a questioning expression and they both nodded.

“Uh…well, you see…as we were heading towards the gate this morning we were stopped by a man in a mask. He offered us a deal. Five gold fleurs apiece if we crossed the wall and stayed out in the abandoned part of the city for a few hours.”

The trip back to Crestheart was thankfully mundane. Luna led the way, with the injured guy riding in her cart behind her. His two friends were behind them, and Vee and Alforde brought up the rear.

“Do you really think it was Seidon?” Alforde asked.

Just a little while ago, Vee would have been happy to bet all the fleurs in the world that the councilman was responsible, but now he wasn’t so sure.

“Has to be,” Vee said as he kicked a piece of brick out of his way. Nothing else made any semblance of sense, unless the councilman was just a shifty guy who said shifty things and his words had been nothing but an extremely unfortunate coincidence.

Somehow, Vee didn’t think that was the case, but still.

See, after Vee had exclaimed, “A-ha, and that man was Seidon, right?”, the teenagers looked at each other with blank expressions and shook their heads.

“He was too tall to be Seidon,” the bearded one said.

“Too fat, too,” said one of his companions.

Vee hadn’t believed their denial, so he’d activated [Detect Lies] and [Detect Falsehoods] and had asked them again. However, both skills verified that the youths were telling the truth. Since he doubted that any of them had the ability to fool his skills, he was truly confused.

As they drew closer to the dungeon, the sounds of the street fair gradually grew louder and louder. The rain had almost completely stopped now, and Vee was grateful that there weren’t a dozen [City Guards] waiting to fine or arrest him as they emerged. Small blessings.

The people attending the street fair were all too engrossed in the stalls or performers – including the bevy of unsanctioned ones that’d popped up throughout the day – to even pay attention as the group once they walked around to the front of the dungeon.

Luna helped the bearded man out of her cart and his friends hurried over to support him.

“We really can’t thank you enough,” one of them said as he looked at Vee.

With a grin, Vee held up his hand and rubbed his thumb against his index and middle fingers. “Are you sure about that? You said the masked guy paid up front, right? How about a little monetary token of appreciation, eh?”

The teens grumbled, but they all eventually reached into their pockets and drew out their five gold fleurs. As they went to hand them to Vee, Alforde coughed – politely of course – and the [Dungeon Master] glared up at his friend. The armorsoul coughed a bit more insistently, and Vee rolled his eyes.

“Fine,” he muttered. With a scowl, Vee pointed at Luna.

“I wasn’t the one who saved you. She was.”

The [Pumpkin Witch] grinned as she pocketed the money. The teens left, hopefully never to be heard from again, and Vee’s heart started beating a little faster as he made eye contact with Luna.

“Do you want to walk around a little bit?” she asked. “With those golds I’ve got more money than I know what to do with and it’s burning a hole in my pocket. Help me spend some?”

Vee’s stomach did a flip as he looked up at Crestheart tower. Judging by the number of adventurers still outside, there were plenty of runs to be finished, and the [Dungeon Master] felt bad for abandoning Reginald.

“I…really should get back to work,” he said slowly.

Alforde coughed twice. One of them was particularly insistent, and even Vee couldn’t miss the hint.

“But I suppose I could spare an hour or two,” he added. “Reginald knows what he’s doing, I’m sure he’s got everything under control.”

“I’ll go check in on him,” Alforde said. The armorsoul nodded to Luna, gave Vee a subtle, yet significant glance, and headed up the stairs to go check on the top hat.

Vee’s stomach rumbled.

“Are you hungry, by chance?”

Luna grinned at him and something twisted inside Vee’s chest.

“You bet I am! Let’s go find something tasty!”

“Do you like noodles? There’s some really tasty ones over that way.”

As he walked side by side with Luna, Vee couldn’t help but smile. I can do this.

There was another tiny shift in the ethereal, but Vee’s mind was so focused on other things just then that he paid it no mind at all.

Alforde could hear Reginald’s voice from two floors away, and the hat seemed to be engaged in a long-winded story as the [Dungeon Champion] opened the door.

“And then I said to him that we needed to make sure that we had a way for the slimes to be visible even without any light in the room. That’s why we went with the ones that’d eaten the lesser fire elements. Can you believe that Vee wanted the whole room to be completely dark? He’s –wait, hang on just a second. Ahem. You have selected the room of Faith. Inside is a challenge that seems impossible at first glance. Are you sure that you want to continue? Anyways, as I was saying, it’s critical that adventurers are given information that creates the proper ambiance and mood that we want them to have. The aura skills are nice, but realistically, if we can get the runners into their own heads, half our job is done already. That’s really all there is to it. Now, what was the other thing you asked? Something about the orb keys?”

The woman behind the hat nodded with great interest, and the armorsoul took stock of the other people in the room. Seidon was lounging up against the wall, surrounded by four of his [Bodyguards]. He looked bored and a little irritated, drumming his fingers against his forearm.

Next to Dheart was a man Alforde hadn’t seen before, and judging from his resigned, glassy expression, Alforde surmised that Reginald’s penchant for long-winded ramblings had claimed another victim. Poor guy.

The armorsoul suppressed a snicker as Reginald turned to look at him.

“Oh, hey Alforde,” the hat said. “You and Vee back from your thing? How’d it go?”

“Fine,” Alforde said. “Things good here?”

“They’re great,” Reginald said. “Lorelai here has been asking wonderful questions. You know, she really knows a lot of stuff about dungeons. I think Vee could learn a lot from her. Is he coming up behind you? There’s no time like the present.”

Alforde shook his helmet. He didn’t want to come out and say that Vee was with Luna. If Seidon was their enemy, he didn’t want to be responsible for feeding the man that particular bit of information. He’d read enough books to know what happened when the bad guy knew too much about his enemy’s personal life.

At the same time, he knew that if he said anything too vague, Reginald would pester him about it until he got the whole story.

It’d have to be code then.

“Nope. Vee had another issue crop up that he had to take care of. You know how easy it is to have your schedule get squashed when you’re a [Dungeon Master]. Whether by the light of the sun, or the glow of the moon, there’s always something to do. He’ll be back as soon as he can.”

He hoped the hat would get what he meant from his inflections, but for a moment it didn’t look that way. The [Majordomo] simply stared at the [Dungeon Champion] as if the latter were an idiot, but then his felty mouth spread into a wide smile as he put the clues together and he laughed.

“I see, I see. That’s…gourd, I mean, good.”

Thankful that his ploy had worked, Alforde watched the rest of the run in progress with everyone else in the room without saying anything else. When it was finished, Seidon announced that they’d taken up enough time and had to be going. Something about preparing the notes for the next council meeting. The man next to Dheart looked like he was about to cry from joy, but the woman, Lorelai, looked heartbroken.

“Come back anytime,” Reginald told her. “It’s nice to have someone to talk to who can actually understand what I’m getting at.”

She laughed and walked over to give the man by Dheart a kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks for coming along,” she said to him.

The man mumbled something Alforde couldn’t hear.

As Seidon walked by, Alforde gave the councilman a stiff nod.

“Good to see you again,” he said.

Seidon grunted.

“Not particularly.”

Without another word, the councilman led his group back down the stairs to the street. Alforde watched them all walk away.

When he turned back around, Reginald had turned around so that he was looking straight at him. The hat was still grinning and there was a mischievous wrinkle by his eyes.

“Alright, we’ve got a few minutes until the next run begins. Give me all the details. Who asked who? It was Luna, right?”

Main Character Sheets:

Vee Vales

Primary Class: Ghost Maestro (Locksmagister University), Level 24

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 16

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

Might: 10

Wit: 26

Faith: 18

Adventurousness: 6

Ambition: 11

Plotting: 14

Charisma: 9

Devious Mind: 16

Leadership: 15 (+1)

Guts: 11

Intimidating Presence: 8

Citizenship: 16 (+2)

Public Relations: 4

Alforde Armorsoul:

Primary Class: Hammer Afficionado (Self), Level 20

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 12 (+1)

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 11

Additional Class: Clunker (Vee Vales), Level 2

Might: 31

Wit: 11

Faith: 24

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 8

Endurance: 16

Intimidating Presence: 11

Heart of a Champion: 3

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 6

Vigilance: 4

Reginald:

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

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

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 39 (+2)

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 10 (+1)

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 6 (+1)

Might: 1

Wit: 29

Faith: 10

Ambition: 25

Greed: 21

Deceptiveness: 29 (+1)

Manipulativeness: 34

F^#$#$%@#

Loyalty: 44

Patience: 12

[#@$%%^*!#@__--#%]

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 4