* * * PARTHIA – CAPTAIN ROBIN GOODFELLOW * * *

Robin grinned ruefully; he had not expected to be back here again. He gathered his team and they headed for the local Guild office to book a turn at the dungeon. The local town was new too, and obviously not used to see an adventurer party of Tiger beastfolk. The place was apparently called Dungeonville, not exactly a unique name, Robin personally knew of two other Dungeonvilles.

After booking a couple of slots, he and his party settled in at one of the local inns. The Green Bat wasn’t the worst inn he had stayed at; it was spotlessly clean which raised it above most.

Three days later, just before Noon, they arrived at the entrance of the Spitting Cobra dungeon. They entered exactly at Noon. The first chamber was large and bare of defenders.

« Robin! Welcome to my home, do you want to challenge me, or do you just want to talk? »

Robin smiled, “Hello Jong-Su, glad to see you are doing well. How is Ivy?”

« She’s doing well and just as paranoid as ever. »

Robin chuckled, “She has cause, Mother wants to collect a favour. You up for it?”

The dungeon’s telepathic voice became more serious, almost formal. « Yes, we are more than willing. What does Mary need? »

“She wants you to set up a section of your dungeon where delvers can locate Cure Disease potions. You have heard of the Coronavirus on Earth? Well, she wants to send some Earthlings here to gain cures.”

« I can do that. But I doubt there are any adventurers on Earth capable of winning against the level of challenges the System will demand for such a treasure. »

“Mother has arranged for me to leave some adventurers here in Dungeonville to escort the poor newbies. She wants them to have to work for it.”

« Mmm, I can remodel part of my fourth level for basic Cure Disease potions, and my fifth for the more powerful Cure Serious Disease. Will that work? »

“Yes Jong-Su, that will be perfect. Have you managed to convince your other you that you really exist yet?”

« Yes. But it took some doing. Email is not as effective as an intact link. By the way I love the internet connection Mary arranged. I missed my Manga fix. »

“Fine, do you mind if we delve as far as your fifth level? Please feel free to ask us to stop at any time.”

« Feel free Robin. We owe you our freedom and sanity. »

* * * FRAGATTA’S GOD’S REALM – MARY * * *

Mary grinned as her court made room for their visitor. She noted that most of them were exceedingly wary of Villius of the Eyes. As for that greater god, well, by the way he was keeping his eyes close, he was most likely somewhat wary of her.

Mary knew he wasn’t scared of her, but it did her heart good to know that he was wary. “Welcome to my court, lord Villius. Can I offer you refreshments, tea? Something stronger?”

Villius stood very still, observing the lounging goddess on her partially submerged throne. “I would welcome a cup of tea.”

After taking tea, Villius – reluctantly – gave in to the inevitable and opened proceedings. “I – I need to be able to give the New Sages something. I want to...”

Mary allowed the silence to grow for a few seconds. “You want to stay out of the line of fire, you have seen their folly. At least I think you have, not being a total blockhead like the so called sages.”

Villius too, allowed a few second of silence to pass. “They risk all, at least one world has been lost due to their meddling. The Emperor sleeps, but – but should he wake...”

“Fair enough, an’ you want to be able to spy on me here. What do you expect to see?”

“Nothing of import – just what you want me to see and pass on to the New Sages and their minions.”

Mary examined the expressionless god carefully, “I could live with that – just so long as it is only here, and if I order your eyes out, they go for at least one hour.”

“How could I explain that?”

“Tell ’em my snakes ate ’em. You can sorta tell the truth, they have eaten a lot of ’em.”

Villius froze and sat still in contemplation. Then, reluctantly, he nodded.

“Now, what’s with this world you’ve opened to me? The one in the sky looks far nicer,” asked Mary.

“It’s one of the unclaimed worlds. The locals are unbelievers. They acknowledge no gods. Thus I was able to open it to you. Its twin is more normal. If I opened that one to you, there would be a small chance I would be discovered,” explained Villius.

“An’ if I send some followers there by space travel and set up shop?”

“You might be detected, but my hand will not be detected,” said Villius smugly.

* * * EARTH – OLIVER BROUSSETTE * * *

Olli stepped out of the portal in the back room of the butcher shop. He nodded to Solon, the rather short, mournful looking dog man who was busy behind his computer.

“Welcome back to Earth, Mr. Brousette. Did everything go well?” asked Solon.

Olli wriggled his shoulders in an attempt to relieve his tension. He smiled when his cousin Brandon emerged from the portal. “Very well, thank you for asking. The adventurers you recommended were indispensible. They taught us a lot.”

Solon cocked his head to one side, “How are you going to get the potion to your father? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Olli shrugged, “I will ask the attending doctor. Then there is one of the nurses who has minor healing abilities, she might help. If that doesn’t work, then I will use magic. The hospital is still lacking in arcane defences, or cures.”

“Short sighted of them,” chuckled Solon.

“We haven’t had magic long, Solon,” offered Brandon. “Give us time.”

Solon snorted, “It has been over a year now. How much more time do you need?”

Olli laughed, “Another ten to twenty years.”

* * *

Olli was frustrated, not surprised in the least, but definitely frustrated. The doctors he had spoken to had flatly refused to allow him to use his hard won cure disease potion. He was thankful he hadn’t taken it with him when he went to talk to them, or he suspected they would have taken it for “testing”.

He didn’t even bother to try the nurse, he was scared that he would be arrested, just so they had an excuse to search his possessions and confiscate the potion. He was sure they believed he had lots of doses. They would never believe that dungeons on the other worlds worked differently to those on Earth.

He had been surprised; the dungeon he had delved didn’t interact with the adventurers. It was to all intents and purposes a predator.

So, here he was with Brandon. They were observing the hospital under the light of the moon. They both missed the rest of the party of adventurers they had come to know on Parthia. The weasel-like mage, Gaaspur the Avaricious, with his illusions would be very useful at this moment. His sticky fingers on the other hand, could have proved disastrous.

Settling his shadow-cape around his shoulders, Olli – rather furtively – entered the hospital, leaving Brandon acting as backup and sentry.

Olli found it surprisingly easy to infiltrate the hospital. Intellectually this shouldn’t have surprised him, but it did. Even ICU didn’t cause any real challenge; it proved easy enough to follow one of the tired nurses through the closed doors.

The problems started when it came time to give his father the potion. The old man was hooked up to an impressive number of monitors, and the respirator that was allowing him to keep breathing covered his mouth.

Olli grasped his father’s shoulder and gave it a brief shake. The old man woke, but Olli realized he was out if it, not truly aware of his surroundings. Olli produced his potion and removed the respirator. His father gasped like a landed fish. Making use of the opportunity Olli poured the potion down the old man’s throat. He ignored the look of absolute disgust on his father’s face at the taste of the potion. Olli made sure the old man had swallowed the potion before replacing the respirator.

Several of the monitors were by now beeping and wailing their alarms, and Olli realized that he wouldn’t be able to escape. He sent the text message he had previously prepared and stood quietly in a corner of the room to await the arrival of the nurses.

To his surprise he wasn’t noticed, enveloped as was by his cloak of shadows. The nurses were all too busy with his father. Olli took the opportunity to slip out of the room while everyone was distracted.

Once he worked himself out of the hospital, Olli phoned Brandon.

“Olli? What’s up? I haven’t got to the station yet.”

“No need Brandon. I jumped the gun. They didn’t spot me. Can you get back to our planned rendezvous?”

“Sure thing Olli. See ya soon.”