Zach felt the light grease from the meat coat his tongue with flavor, with each bite the taste of herbs and salt magnified the savory firm, but not overly done, piece of steak in his mouth. After chewing the first piece for everything it was worth, Zach opened his eyes to see the flick of Andy’s wrist dismissing the screen in front of him. Spearing a few purple finger potatoes and white carrots, Zach continued his culinary adventure as Alexa cleared her throat.

Zach bit down on the waxy potatoes and carrots as they burst in his mouth spilling out their juices that had melded with roast. Zach noticed that Alexa’s dirty blonde hair showed a natural shine with combed straight lines. She must have had it cleaned and trimmed, Zach thought, as Alexa came back up holding a pair of maces made with pitted black iron. “Found these at a local blacksmith shop. They’re apprentice work and I was told that after a dozen strikes on the Decay Jelly they will be useless. Their master suggested that a stone sledgehammer is preferred, but the general store was out of them.” Alexa placed the two maces down on the table with a heavy thud. Zach placed his fork down on the clay plate and picked up one of the maces. The first feeling that came over him was how heavy the iron shaft and its head was. Taking his other hand to support the weight, Zach’s fingers ran over the misshapen head of cold metal. Large hammer strikes had dented the globe so much that it looked more like a deformed orange, with the occasional red spot of rust in its pitted surface.

Looking over to Andy, Zach saw the man merely bobbing his head in agreement as the juice from his meal fell off his chin. Taking a dirty cloth napkin from his pocket, Andy wiped the juice away before taking a swallow of his food. “Good. The both of you did nicely today.” Andy moved the roast off to the side so that Alexa and Zach could continue to eat, while Alexa picked up the maces and put them back in her pack. Andy laid out several maps on table and organized them in a fractal spiral. Each map was of one large circle with lines that represented pathways. Symbols and occasionally numbers were placed next to each pathway and a list was off to the left side of the map. Zach heard the drawing of a pencil on paper coming from his left, as he felt some of his reserve mana drain away from him like the feel of water rushing down a pipe.

Andy pointed at a symbol that looked like circle with two arms coming out of it, “This is the Dungeon entrance, from here we can venture into a small safe zone of hundred feet before getting to the first intersection.” As Andy’s hand moved over a green line unto a black line that split into three new paths, “From here, we need to decided what is the most profitable and best place to get experience.” Going to what looked like a small box with a number, Andy then moved his hand over to the side of the page with numbers and data on it. “Here, see the box with the number seven, well if you look over at the other side of the map the note shows the following: swarm of rats, twenty, one, two iron bits, minor disease resistance. This means that the most common enemy we will find there are a swarm of twenty level one rats, that normally drop two iron bits, and if we kill a hundred swarms we will gain the ability minor disease resistance. The numbers at the start and end of the line refer to depth; since they are both zero, then this is a level tunnel with the entrance.”

Andy then moved his hand over the map to a red square with a number in it, “This refers to a level boss, while the Red square with a cross through it refers to the node boss.” Andy’s finger came down on a far off square, tapping it three times as if to drive home the point. Andy sat down and tented his fingers briefly staring at the map, Zach returned his gaze to the map and started to roam through it.

Thinking about their goals, Zach moved his eyes away from the map started looking down the numbered sections trying to find a slime nest that they could camp. As his finger slid down the notes column, Zach found an entry for four slimes at level three that would drop a slime sample. Looking at the map, Zach’s finger slid across to the numbered note and circled it. “This seems like the most reasonable place for Alexa and I to sit and kill slimes, if that’s our goal then we should aim to go there.”

Alexa looked at the map and with a slimmer finger then Zach’s, she placed it on a small black box with horizontal stripes next to the numbered one. “Father, whats this symbol mean?” Alexa said, as her eyes roamed the map.

“It means that this location is connected to a sub floor,” Andy went over to the next circle in the spiral and pointed to a small branching area that lead to several other sub floor entrances and exits, “See right here,” Andy touched a note showing a much higher concentration of slimes with higher levels. “My guess is that this is the slime breeding subfloor. It connects several areas throughout the node, and even has a slightly higher level per slime. The only problem is…” Andy tapped a red lantern symbol, “its trapped, and the note says that the floor is covered in mucus making it a severe trap hazard. It might be better to stick to the sub floor hallways and merely kill the slimes that are going to the next level.”

As Zach was looking at the lines leading into the subfloor and back out of it, the background noise of the inn lowered and Grim’s voice came over softly. “Alright, I think I might have something using your Automap function.”

A blue screen appeared over the table, inside the screen Zach could tell that the map had translated into a bowl-shaped plane. As Zach moved his hands out of the screen the view point on the map rotated slightly. Thinking of it like a popular map app, Zach began to scroll in and out using his hands. Twisting the map to show the sub floors, Zach could see a complex network of tunnels that all terminated at the lowest point of the node boss room. Suddenly a yellow line moved down a set of tunnels to where the Zach had pointed out the Slime room and continued into the subfloor. A small excel chart appeared off to the side with the title best route for experience. Zach looked up at Andy and Alexa to see stunned faces, as he gave control over to Andy.

After a moment of silence, Andy spoke as his hand adjusted the map. “I assume Grim helped you with this?” Zach nodded as Andy continued to work on the map, “Grim, what upgrades do you need for something like this?”

Grim’s voice came from the screen, as a small white silhouette appeared in the corner of the map, “Well Andy, you would need only Mana Paper Upgrade to receive and update the map manually. If you want Alexa’s companion to update her map, and even plot the best routes I would suggest the following: Automatic Map Drawing Upgrade.”

Andy nodded at Grim, “Thank you, Grim, that was very helpful and we will have to see about getting Alexa those upgrades. Can you explain the reason why this is the best path?”

Grim nodded as the bright yellow line disappeared and then adjusted along another path. “I made a few assumptions based off the data on the map and some of your comments. The path I plotted right now is the highest slime encounter path, the problem I saw was that a lot of Adventurers will be walking this path. So if I remove highly desired corridors and adjust for lesser used corridors I get the following.” Another line on the map appeared but this time in orange. “My guess was that since slimes have a breeding subfloor, it is likely that a few escape down connecting tunnels and every once in a while they pop up elsewhere, which is why random Adventures do find them.” A brown line appeared that melded the two lines together, “This is the best compromise between the two that I could get, best chance for roaming slimes, while allowing us to kill leeches and rats.” Grim gestured to the line and how it led into the slime sub-floors.

Andy nodded, while folding up the maps. “It’s a decent guess, Grim,” Andy said as he chewed his lip. “I can’t think of a better idea, so tomorrow morning after we sell the herbs that is the route we are going to take. When we get down there, we will have to see how detailed the Guild’s maps are.” Andy then placed two large wooden planks painted white with a leather strap wrapped around it. Zach picked one up feeling the smooth wood grain and saw a coin with a rune pressed into the middle of the plank. Andy tapped the coin making Zach looked up at his face, “The coin is an imbued rune for the guild, the white gives us general entry after midday. We couldn’t afford any of the special perks like designated hunting grounds or early time slots. They are good for the next three days, and if Grim is right about the path then we can make a little bit of profit. If not on the third day we will attempt the first level boss, and try to go deeper. I suggest you two finish up the rest of the venison and head to bed I have the feeling it’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

Zach dismissed the blue screen by a flick of his wrist and focused on opening his extra-dimensional space. A white light began to build around the pass, becoming so bright that it was like looking at a light bulb, and then with a pop, the light went out and the pass was gone. Zach sat back in the wooden chair, feeling the polished grain from so many siting in the chair before him. With the sound of a grunt, Zach turned to see Alexa slicing the roast into portions for the both of them. “Waste not, want not,” Zach said as he speared another piece with his fork and carefully moved it over to his clay plate.

**********

Zach looked over to Andy, to see him running a thumb under the edge of his chin. For perhaps the twentieth time, Zach moved forward against the back of Hayze as another person had pushed him from behind. Sighing, Zach righted himself and looked over at the entrance to the Bellmare’s Dungeon. The Bellmare’s Dungeon Entrance reminded Zach of an ancient roman amphitheater. Stone stairs and benches lead to a grand sand stage with two gate ways sitting opposite of one another. People who had arrived early were sitting on the stone benches talking, while latecomers were crowding the dirt stage floor in front of the entrance gateway. The dungeon entrance was a stone circle about 8 feet in diameter. Looking past the two burly guards in leather studded armor, was a black void that had streaks of colored light at the edges of the entryway. As Zach tried to hold back another yawn, again he felt a sharp push in his back as a low hush came across the crowd.

Zach watched the purple robed guild representative walk across the stage about the entryway holding a white flag. Anticipation and excitement flooded Zach’s tired mind at the thought of finally going in. He had stayed up late talking with Alexa about what she thought the dungeon would be like, and after having trouble falling asleep, he was awoken early by Andy to get to the alchemist’s shop. The haggling went well and Andy gave them some time to wonder the city before meeting at the dungeon’s entrance. However, the days excitement wore off quickly when Zach came to the dungeon’s entrance early and found that hundreds to people already sitting down and standing around the entrance.

The crowd went dead silent around Zach as the guild representative raise the white flag. “Hear this!” shouted the purple robe man, “All white pass adventurers will have seven hours to go through the dungeon before it is closed off for the night. Mana notifications will be sent out giving you warning on when the dungeon will be sealed. If you are trapped in the dungeon make your way as quickly to a jump point as possible, and leave during the morning. Do not attempt to hunt while the dungeon is sealed! In four hours, the dungeon will be opened to all citizens of Bellmare. Good Hunting!” And with that the man planted the flag above the dungeon entrance as people started to move forward. Group after group showed the guards their passes as people then walked through the entrance.

Zach gritted his teeth as more and more people entered the dungeon, until Andy, Alexa, Hayze, and Himself were finally let through. After showing the guards his white pass, like a teenager being let in to the backstage of his favorite band, Zach faced the black entry way. There was a small external pull as he stood there facing it, and as he looked around the inside there seemed to be nothing but a black void. Taking a deep breath to calm his fear, Zach closed his eyes and took a step forward. As his foot came down, he felt the jarring impact of the hard floor as it was raised by a few inches. Stumbling forward, Zach opened his eyes to see a grey stone floor.

“Watch your step, Zach.” Andy said as he grabbed Zach’s arm to help steady him. “Jump points have floating floors, so most adventurers do a little hop as they go through the entrance.” Zach looked up at Andy and saw that behind him a grey expanse of fog seemed to surround them. Turning his head, Zach found out that they were on a small circular stone floor that was maybe twenty feet in diameter. Stone benches were stationed on the outer edge with gaps in between them. Looking behind him, Zach saw the fog part and the view looked out onto the Bellmare Dungeon entrance area, except instead of people facing them, they all seemed to be turned away going towards the other gateway.

A clang of metal made Zach turn his head to see Hayze going to the opposite of the circle floor. As the golem got close to the edge, the grey fog started to lighten up until Zach could see what looked like a tunnel made with small paver stones that a green blue light played across. The sound of pouring water came from the opening in the fog, as well as, a foul stench that made Zach’s eyes water. Coughing, Zach covered his mouth and nose with his arm. “By the Gods and Goddesses! What’s that smell?!” Zach shouted through his arm.

Andy took a deep whiff and laughed, “That my boy is the smell of a dungeon. Now come on let’s wait for Alexa to jump in.”