I approximate a squint at the ‘Delvers’ my crow alerted me to. Is he sure they’re Delvers? They look like kids. One looks a bit bigger and is green, so probably an orc or something? The other is also green, but is shorter. Like a lot shorter. Probably a goblin. Once they step onto my property, I listen in on what they’re saying.

The goblin looks nervous, but the orc is putting on a brave front. They look kinda dirty and poor, but mostly healthy. Are they from an orphanage or something? The nervous one speaks up. “I dunno, Freddie… are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Sure it’s a good idea! I saw the inspectors check this place out, it’s definitely a Dungeon!”

“Doesn’t that mean we should stay away?” I’m with the scaredy cat on this one. Dungeons don’t seem like the kind of place for urchins to play.

“No! If it was a big established one, yeah, but this one’s fresh! Old Staiven said he’d apprentice anyone with an ounce of magic if they could bring him some spellspores, and this is just the kind of place they’d grow! I think.”

“But… you don’t have any magic, Freddie.”

The loudmouth just waves that off. “But you do! So come on! A party has to help each other!” Huh… that Freddie seems like a good sort, at least. I thought I was looking at a bully situation. But do these kids even have levels yet?

Well, I still can’t lock the door, so I guess they’re coming in. They each ready their weapons, which are just two different sticks, looks like. Freddie there has a hefty stick, not quite a club, but it looks like it’d be up to dealing with rats and spiders. The other kid has a more whippy stick with a little shard of glass tied to it, I guess to act as his wand.

I spend a bit of mana to send two wimpy rats to greet them. I don’t want to overwhelm these kids just yet. It takes them a bit longer to notice than the elf did, but Wimpy’s gasp alerts Freddie. The kid stands between his friend and the rats and yells at them, trying to scare them off. But these are my rats, they’re not gonna run off. They have a job to do, and they are going to do it to the best of their abilities.

The two rodents scurry forward, and I’m just hoping the kids can run away before anything too bad happens to them. I didn’t need to worry, though. Freddie would have a good golf game back home and sends a rat sailing into the next room. Wimpy, however, points his wand at the other rat.

“Frost!” The little thing ices up and decides that running is preferable to dying. Which is fine by me, I still get mana for them being defeated, not just for them getting killed, which is great all around, really.

There is a pregnant pause before Freddie whoops in triumph. “Yeah, we did it! See, your magic is good enough! Now we just gotta find those mushrooms.” He looks around, obviously without a clue as to where they could be. He heads for a cabinet and Wimpy calls out to him.

“Be careful! You don’t know if it’s trapped!”

“It’ll be fine, don’t worry!” he says as he opens the cabinet. His eyes shine as he sees the silver piece sitting in plain view. “Wow, a whole silver! We should come here more often!” The boost in mana I get as he takes the coin makes me agree with that idea, too. Packrats and crows were definitely the right choices for upgrades.

The two poke around the main room, gathering coins from various containers. Freddie is not as observant as Wimpy, though. That kid peers at the spiders in the windows and the rats hunting roaches, keeping a distance as he watches. When Freddie makes to open the door to the spider lair, though, Wimpy actually grabs his hand.

“Not in there! Look,” he says and points down at the slow stream of spiders coming from under the door. Freddie’s eyes widen and he backs up a bit. “Yeah… I don’t think we could handle a swarm just yet.” Ah, good. He knows his limits, too. I like these kids.

Wimpy looks around and points at the stairs going down. “Uh… I think the mushrooms will be down there. They like darkness.” Freddie readies his stick and Wimpy makes his little wand act like a flashlight, and the two slowly descend into my basement.

I actually spend a bit of mana to keep things calm down there. Everything knows the basement isn’t for visiting, but I’m willing to give these kids a chance. They seem to know they’re getting in a bit over their heads, but the brave little buggers keep going, as careful as two kids can be.

The spider swarm hisses at the light and the presence of the kids, but don’t attack. From Freddie’s look, I think he might be arachnophobic. Still, he does his duty, standing between Wimpy and the swarm, even as his stick wobbles in his hand. “How long t-to get those mushrooms, Rhonda?”

Rhonda? A girl, then. Huh. “Just a few seconds…” she says, sounding a bit sorry about the situation. She focuses on the mushrooms and plucking several of the bigger ones. Once I get the notification that she’s gotten three units of mushroom (I have no idea what a unit actually is, but it’s more than just three caps), I decide that’s enough for now.

I’m not a mean dungeon, but I feel like I’d lose my license if I just gave this stuff away. Not that I actually have a license, but still. I have my spider scion start to emerge from his little nest, in clear view of Rhonda. At the same time, I let the swarm start to slowly advance.

“Uh… Rhonda! They’re coming!” Her “Eep!” of reply gets him to look and see the scion emerge. He’s my biggest denizen by now, about the size of a dinner plate if you count his legs. To the kids, he probably looks the size of a horse.

“Run!” orders Freddie, and Rhonda is all too happy to oblige. The two book it, and I keep my spiders from giving chase. I got a bunch of mana for ‘defeating’ the ‘delvers’, and I can’t help but smile to myself as the two slam my front door and lean against it, panting from the run and from the fear.

After about a minute, though, the two start laughing, relieved to have escaped. “That was crazy!” exclaims Freddie, riding the energy of his adrenaline tapering off. “Did you get enough?” Rhonda nods and pulls a double-handful of mushrooms from her pocket. “Yeah! Old Staiven will have to apprentice me now!” Rhonda’s happy smile slips, even though Freddie is still beaming. “But what about you? You still don’t have any magic…”

Freddie shrugs. “I’ll be fine. Maybe the Church of the Crystal Shield will accept me? We got in and out of a dungeon, after all!” Rhonda smiles at that. “You’d make a good Paladin, even if you’re scared of spiders,” she adds with a giggle. Freddie gasps. “Dude, you saw the size of that Guardian spider!”

She laughs and nods. “Yeah, I also didn’t argue when you said to run, hehe.” He laughs as well, and I get a new alert.

Quest updated!

The Next Generation completed their quests in you! Mana rewarded.

Oohh, that’s a lot of mana.