"I think we had best time this carefully."

Ben and Rolly had been debating several points in the agreement between ACME and its Contract Workers with input from Ozzy now and then. They were meeting on the 3rd floor of the tavern. Suzette had been in and out of the room, first to find out what was going on, and then to get plenty of hot tea and another plate of food for Runt.

Suzettes entrance the first time had been the final thing that made Runt relax a bit. Whatever was in her smile worked on him. He relaxed, knowing she wouldn't let anyone screw with him. And it did seem to look like they had a plan.

Rolly agreed with Ben. "Yeah, this is tricky, but it all fits. Runt works in the dungeon, but if Billy claims the dungeon, then technically Runt works for Billy and this is just a transfer."

Runt mumbled between mouthfuls. "The Butcher is going to wake up as soon as the dungeon is claimed. And I'll get pulled in to do about six-dozen jobs."

Rolly looked at Runt and said, "Which is why you're going to sign that contract in front of you as soon as I say to, or you see the announcement about Billy claiming the dungeon. Timing is everything."

"Should be soon, Suzette said that Layla showed up thirty minutes ago and picked up breakfast and tea. Call it a twenty-minute walk, and ten minutes for Billy to rush over to the dungeon, add a few more for him to find his pants and ..."

All Praise to the Baron

Baron Willian of the House of Horvacs has shown his power as Baron of Gadobhra by claiming the dungeon known as The Pit of the Butcher

ACME is awarded 1000 building points. The dungeon is now active and open for exploration by hearty adventurers seeking glory and riches.

In celebration of this event, all ACME Contract Workers may take an extra 15 minutes for lunch today, and enjoy a small glass of beer on the house!

Ben yelled, "Or maybe he didn’t stop to find pants. Go, go, go. Sign that thing."

Rolly handed Runt a pen and ink. Runt quickly signed his name in blocky runes.

Welcome to ACME

You have gained the following skills:

Primary: Contract Worker

Secondary: Sleepless in Seattle, Tastes like Chicken, Endure VI, Haul III, Dig II

Tertiary: Slaughter, Hack Flesh, Chop Bone

You have been assigned the class Contract Worker: Butcher's Assistant

Please note: ACME is a spiteful and jealous protective corporation. To help protect you better, you may not have employment with another entity unless approved by ACME. Your status as a minion is revoked.

From three miles away, in the middle of the ancient city, in the depths of the pit, a dungeon boss awoke and was immediately notified that he had lost a minion. The angry roar shattered the remaining ice, awoke the monsters, started the fire in every roasting pit. The scream was heard as far away as Rowan Keep.

Inquisitor Diego sighed as his job got much more complex.

Runt cowered in his seat, but felt no pull at all to return to the dungeon.

=*=

Baron Billy, standing at the front gates, barefoot and in a bathrobe, lit a cigar in celebration. Someone down in the dungeon wasn't a happy camper. That happened a lot when ACME moved in and set up shop. He slowly walked back across the drawbridge and walked home through the shattered city, enjoying the day. He settled in behind his desk on the first floor to start drafting ideas for advertising on the gaming forums. He had three dungeons now. It was time to start making some money.

His work was interrupted by two people walking through his front door. One had the head and legs of a boar, with massive tusks. His only clothing was a wide leather belt and a loin cloth. A huge cleaver hung from his belt, chipped and stained with old blood. Wrapped around one arm was a chain with a meat hook, and the other hand held several smaller chains, each attached to a collar. He took two steps into the room and let out a roaring squeal that made Billy cover his ears.

The second person seemed human, if you ignored the jet-black eyes and deep red skin. He was dressed in a long leather coat that swirled around his knee-high boots. The coat was buttoned from his neck to down past his waist. Ignoring his partner, he addressed Billy.

"My pardon for having to ask, but would you be the Baron William?

Billy slowly exhaled smoke from his cigar before answering. "I am."

"And would you be the person who just a short time ago laid claim to the Pit of the Butcher and assumed the position of dungeon keeper?"

Billy nodded, "Yep, one and the same. Anything I can help you with? And it's rude not to introduce yourself."

The man in the leather coat was a bit taken aback by Billy's attitude. Had they actually found a Baron with a spine? If so, it was going to be fun breaking him.

"My apologies, your excellency. I am Molwinog, advisor to the Butcher of Gadobhra. This person is my associate, Mignik, the Master of Minions. Also, in the employ of the Butcher of Gadobhra. Our problem is a simple one: The dungeon has been deprived of a minion, and the Butcher would like it back."

Billy leaned back in his chair, blew a smoke ring at the ceiling, and carefully looked around the room. "Sorry, can't help you. I just checked and I don't have any lost minions floating around."

Mignik growled and took a step forward. Molwinog heard a small click, and held up a hand to caution his partner as he noticed Layla standing off to the side with a bolt loaded into a very nasty looking crossbow. "Your excellency, the notification said that our minion, Runt, was hired by you as a 'contract worker', whatever that is."

Billy smiled, "An important piece of information. I don't handle hiring, that would be one of my employees. Head on down to Sedgewick and talk to Ben. I'm sure he can straighten things out.

=*=

"It still says the same thing?" Ozzy was curious to see how the system handled the centuries old minion with a couple of dozen skills becoming a contract worker.

Runt shook his head. "Nothing, just a blank with the words 'PENDING DISPUTE OUTCOME'. "

Ozzy decided to bring up something else while they were waiting. "Here's something for you all to consider. Turns out there is a butcher's guild in Gadobhra. One of Runt's old bosses runs it. I had to pay a little to join, but he's desperate for cash by the look of it. The interesting part is the quest system. Little quests let you earn guild points. Then you spend those instead of CSP to earn your basic butcher skills and upgrade them. And anyone can do those quests. It lets someone train to be a butcher."

Suzette frowned. "I don't want to be a butcher."

Ozzy smiled at her. "But would you rather chop some meat up, or mud wrestle sedge beasts?"

Her eyes got wide. “Grab the skills, max them out, get the STR points, got it." She frowned again. "But won't that take forever? Tertiary skills suck to raise, even for you, and you're killing a couple of hundred sedge beasts a week."

Ben was adding Ozzy's skills to his book, and taking notes. "But does the Butcher's guild give out tertiary skills? Or primary? Seems inefficient of them. ACME does it to slow our advancement."

Ozzy continued. "Nope, primary skills. And Runt and I can upgrade ours. There are several things we can take as well, and I'm curious how skills like Precise Cuts or Choice Cuts might work out for some of us that like sharp objects. There's also a weapon available to us and a couple of other odd things."

Ben was all for it. "That sounds great. I say we take advantage of it before Billy, or anyone knows what we are doing."

After a bit more conversation it was decided they would meet back in this room after dinner, and then head up to the city.

The sound of heavy footsteps came to Runt's sensitive ears, alerting him to the need to hide. Before he could slide into a dark corner, the door to the room slammed open and Mignik angerly burst into the room. "Time to come home, little runt, big brother Mignik missed you." His hook and chain shot out towards Runt, who was already diving under the table. The hook grabbed one of the heavy chairs, dragging it to the table where it could go no further.

Ben had a clear enough idea of the situation to know he didn't like the large monster invading his town and trying to drag Runt back to the dungeon. To be fair, no one else liked Mignik either. Ben's whip tangled around his other arm. The whip did no damage at all to Mignik's tough hide, but Flames of the Phoenix and Demon Slayer penetrated, doing 115 points of damage. Rolly grabbed the whip and the two of them managed to pull Mignik off balance and leave him wide open for Ozzy to lay into him.

With one chain wrapped arm out-stretched from his attempt to snag runt, and the other being pulled in the opposite directed, a surprised Mignik could only watch as Ozzy rose from the table and hit him hard.

Ozzy had been steadily growing more powerful. His STR was now at 20, and having earned all the levels of One First of Iron his fists hit for a base damage of 185. Added to that was 25 points of Demon Slayer, and the entire amount doubled from Slaughter. Mignik took two hits for 420 points each. The first was under his chin, knocking his head back. The second took him under the rib cage, driving into his soft belly. The damage was equivalent to being critically hit by two paladins using great swords and Smite.

Mignik lost over 1/3 of his health in those two hits and went berserk, shattering the chair his chain was attached to, knocking Ben and Rolly down, and driving Ozzy back against the wall. It was like getting hit by a charging boar, Ozzy felt ribs crack and two huge tusks drove into his belly. Most opponents would spend the next round stunned from the pain, but not someone who had endured dwarven first aid. Endure Torture helped Ozzy stay conscious, and he struck back at the easiest target, which happened to be Mignik's head.

Ozzy spent 400 stamina to unleash If one doesn't get you, the other one will, pounding away at Mignik from the left and the right, over and over again. Mignik was no longer restrained, but being hit 8 times for 210 points of damage took their toll. His tough hide only absorbed a third of the damage and his health plummeted to a fraction of his total. As the huge boar demon staggered backwards, it was almost anti-climactic as Suzette appeared in front of him and drove a shaft of sunlight into his eye.

Mignik fell backwards, landing at the feet of Molwinog. The fight had been so fast that even if he had wanted to, Molwinog couldn't have saved Mignik from a beating. And really, he hadn't wanted to. He'd warned him about charging into the tavern, but Mignik hadn't listened and this was the result.

Molwinog held up his hands and made no fast movements. "Peace? Pause of hostilities? King's X? Truce?"

Suzette pointed a glowing finger at him. "Move and you can eat sunlight." Molniwog stayed very still. Ben rushed to Ozzy and helped him into a chair before using healing magic on him. Rolly quickly moved behind Molniwog.

Butcher Mignik of The Butcher's Pit has fallen in a challenge to Butcher Ozzy of Sedgewick

Butcher Mignik forfeits 1 cleaver.

"Well, that explains a lot. Miggy really should tread more carefully in another butcher's territory. Then again, I don't remember Sedgewick ever having a real butcher before. Well met Ozzy. I am Molwinog, Advisor to the Butcher of the Pit himself. I'm sure we can clear up this mis-understanding."

Ozzy grunted. "Sure, say your piece but I've got three friends just itching to take your head off."

Molwinog lowered his hands slowly, and looked at Ben, Suzette, and Rolly. "So I see. No worries. I have no desire to engage in combat. May I ask a few questions? You are the butcher that so recently restocked the larders of the Pit with that lovely pile of meat and bone? And are you taking little Runt under your wing?"

Ben finished his first spells. "Stand up straight Ozzy, I think this next spell will pop that broken rib back in place."

Ozzy got up, grimacing. "Yes, I chucked a few hundred carcasses down your back door yesterday. And yes, Runt is now under my protection and working for me as an Apprentice Butcher. Now answer my question. What's this about a challenge and a cleaver?"

Molniwog bent down and took the cleaver from Mignik's belt. "This is yours now. Spoils of War and all that stuff. As to the challenge, well, you can't have a dungeon full of Butchers and not have them argue about who is the toughest. They take these challenges quite seriously, although many of us just see it as bragging rights, or seeing whose cleaver is biggest. Miggy will take quite a bit of shit from the others for losing to you. Especially on the first day of the new dungeon season."

"But, that's secondary to having solved the conundrum of the missing minion. The dungeon lost a minion, but Sedgewick has a new apprentice butcher. In time that's for the best. And he frees you up to keep the dungeon well stocked. From my point of view, we lost a minion and gained a powerful butcher. I consider that to be trading up and will so advise the dungeon lord. I look forward to working with you."

Not seeing Runt, he just spoke loudly to the room. "I assume you're under the table, Runt. Quick thinking as usual. Let me congratulate you on the promotion. I'll be seeing you again someday. There's always room in the Pit for another Butcher." He toed the unmoving form of Mignik. "Do you mind if I drag him home? Lots to do and I assume you don't want to keep him around."

Suzette crossed her arms. "Sure, take him, but leave a gold piece on the counter as you go. He owes me for a chair.

The two denizens of the Pit retreated, one conscious, one not. A vintage gold coin stamped with the image of a cleaver on both sides was left on the counter. Runt crawled out from under the table. Ozzy looked over at him. "You ok runt?"

Runt replied. "Oh, I'm fine. You told me earlier things would work out, so I just ducked and let you work them out. Boy, oh boy will Miggy be pissed off. I'll polish up your new cleaver and hang it up in the shop. You've got to show off trophies properly."

Ben asked Runt, "Any change in your status?"

Runt checked. "Yeah, all good. My class is confirmed at Contract Worker: Apprentice Butcher" That's some spiffy collection of abilities you guys get. Could have really used those in the dungeon."

His eyes continued to read messages. “Wow, I made level 6 already! The system says I have way too many experience points to stay in Tier 1. And I got all kinds of spiffy special bonuses. This Contract Worker deal is awesome!”

Suzette sighed as she looked at the mess she had to clean up. "Alright, I have to get back to work. Are we still on for tonight? Are you going to be ok Ozzy?"

Ozzy poked at the places where his wounds had been. "A little sore, but Ben patched me up pretty good. Should be fine, we have a good group, and Runt knows what to start on next. Hell, let's pack a picnic dinner and make a night of it."