I was still smiling at them while they looked at me in confusion. “Don’t you want to see what you paid for?” I asked, still smiling. Before they could respond I noticed a bunch of screens that had popped up at some point. I dismissed them for the moment.

Alder spoke, drawing my attention back to the present. “It’s already done?” She looked confused and slightly dazzled from the brilliant explosing of light. She kept blinking her eyes as if to clear away spots in her vision.

“What do you mean 'already'?” I asked in confusion. I wasn’t keeping track of time too closely, but it had definitely taken well over an hour to plan the dungeon out properly and get things just right.

“It only took a few seconds from when you started to when the ground started shaking. I didn’t realize the process was so fast.” She shrugged off her confusion, seeming to take it as just one of the many miraculous things that occurred in this new world we lived in. The threshhold for weird had risen since Janus changed the world.

I was still absorbing the information she’d given me. From my perspective I’d spent over an hour, probably two, creating the dungeon, but only seconds passed in the real world. Did that mean that time flowed slowly in the world while I created the dungeon?

I shook my head dismissing that as unlikely. The amount of magic required to slow time for the entire world, or even just my immediate surroundings, would have been immense. Not to mention if it was the immediate area that was slowed, someone from outside would likely have noticed this in the past, and I would have heard about it before.

The only explanation that made sense to me was that, somehow, my time was accelerated. It probably had to do with that strange blue space I entered when I activated the skill. I wanted to spend more time figuring out how it worked, but I could see that the party was impatient to see the dungeon, so I dismissed my thoughts for the time being the same way I had dismissed the notifications I’d received. They could wait.

“Well, would you like a tour?” I asked again, and she nodded, gesturing for me to lead the way.

I did, taking them down the steps, deeper into the earth. A breeze pushed at our backs as we descended making it somewhat more treacherous to navigate the stairs cut into the stone than I’d anticipated.

When we got to the bottom, I turned and did my best impression of a tour guide, waving a hand at the area around me. “Welcome to your dungeon. This is the first chamber. As you can see, it’s populated entirely by Carniovorous Dandelions.” The dandelions surrounded the path I’d made, and the breeze in the room had them swaying. It might have looked picturesque if not for the fact that dandelions had their mouths open and snapping, revealing deadly sharp teeth like something out of a nightmare.

“Why’d you make so many of them?” The warrior asked, a disgruntled edge to his voice. “This many could be a problem when we try to harvest them.”

I shrugged. “They’re important to the dungeon ecosystem I’ve created.”

Quimby gave me an odd look. “What do you mean ecosystem? Respectfully, we didn’t ask you to create this place as some sort of nature park.”

I sighed in exasperation. “If you’d quit interrupting me, I’d explain.”

Alder waved them to silence as Redmond looked like was going to respond. “Very well then, explain please.”

I shook my head. “Well, I’ll start with your concern. First, they won’t be able to swamp you because they can’t get to the path. They can’t move, and the path is wide enough that you should be able to manage just fine. You will have to handle a couple of them at a time if you decide to harvest them, but it’s my hope that you won’t need to do that.”

That caught her attention, and she looked at me curiously. I saw her unasked question, but didn’t want to answer it just yet. I held up a hand. “Please, let me just show you the dungeon and then explain it to you. Easier to see it first so you can understand it better.”

I walked down the path and they followed behind, patient, for now at least. I continued introducing them to the dungeon. “This first chamber is dedicated entirely to the dandelions. The path makes sure you can get through it easily and to this corridor here which leads to the slime chamber.” I led them to approach the tunnel that served as the corridor to the next chamber. The wind picked up as we approached.

“I kept it narrow per your request so that you wouldn’t have to worry about the slimes swarming you.” I led them into it but paused. “Before we go farther, you should be prepared. The slimes are already spawned, and will likely attack when we get closer. There might even be some in the tunnel.”

“What’s to keep them from coming through to this chamber?” Alder asked, but then her eyes widened. “Oh, of course, the dandelions.”

I nodded. “Until you told me that the slimes wouldn’t approach the dandelions I wasn’t sure how to make this work. That’s right, the smell of the dandelions will keep the slimes away. And the way that this corridor serves as almost a wind tunnel ensures that they likely won’t enter the tunnel either as the smell of the dandelions will be carried to them.”

“Aha!” Izzy said. “So that’s why it’s so windy here.”

Alder shook her head. “It won’t always be, if there’s no wind outside it likely won’t be as effective. Still, the smell should at least keep them from entering this chamber.”

I smiled. If she thought this wind would be dependent on the weather she was sadly mistaken. But I didn’t want to explain that part of my plan yet. I continued with them down the tunnel, though I let Redmond, Izzy, and Drust lead the way in case we ran into some slimes in the tunnel. However, it seems the smell of the dandelions was effective as we didn’t see any until we got to the end of the tunnel.

I did think of a potential problem then and pointed it out. “Well, I am sorry if this ends up keeping the slimes from following you to the tunnel.”

Surprisingly, Redmond shook his head. “No, that’s not an issue, don’t worry. Slimes avoid dandelions, sure, but their instinct to feed is stronger than their fear of the flowers. They’ll follows us into the corridor for sure.”

Even as he spoke, I saw slimes by the entrance of the tunnel begin to take notice of us and began oozing their way toward us. It was interesting to watch, as I’d never actually seen slimes before. I’d always thought they might hop, like they did in some video games I played when I was a kid. Instead, they moved like snails, albeit slightly faster. The blue goop that formed their being was oddly distributed, not unlike ice cream that had started to melt. Despite that, it didn’t trail behind them. Like non-newtonian fluid, they held together in a way that seemed to defy common sense.

Even though one of the parts of the slime was callled slime eyes, they weren’t really eyes, so much as two orbs of something. I wasn’t totally sure what, but they didn’t have pupils so they couldn’t have been actual eyes. But I knew they somehow must have sensed us, and looking at the two orbs I suddenly realized that if you thought of the slime as just a face, the strange orbs were closely spaced enough to be nostrils. “Scent,” I thought to myself. “It must be scent, since they’re able to smell the dandelions.”

It seemed that they didn’t all smell us though, as only those closest to the tunnel exit came to us. Alder gestured to the three at the front of the group and Redmond took a few steps forward, meeting the first of the slimes. He pulled the sword that had been sheathed across his back from the moment I met him and stabbed forward with it. The sword pierced the slime. It was strange to see, not unlike someone sticking something into gelatin. The slime didn’t seem to be bleeding or cut, so much as it seemed to break apart where the sword pierced.

The slime collapsed in on itself. It didn’t melt away or lose it’s strange solid state, but it lost it’s shape, almost as though it was a doll that had its strings cut and collapsed.

Redmond and Izzy dispatched the slimes with ease, though I noticed that Drust remained still the entire time. I guess he figured they had it handled.

The other slimes didn’t seem to have noticed us yet and milled about in the chamber. I could see the party members stopping to take stock of the chamber. I continued my explanation.

“As you can see, this chamber is filled with slimes. The dungeon core is at the back in the pond. The slimes won’t approach it because they can’t swim.”

“Wait, that’s not the dungeon core on the pillar?” Quimby cut me off.

I shook my head. “Nope. That’s the Thermacore I brought with me.”

Redmond grimaced and wiped some sweat from his head. “Is that why it’s so Janus damned hot in here?”

I nodded. “Yes, but trust me, there’s a reason for it. Well, now that you’ve seen the set up, let me explain.”

Alder watched me with impatient eyes. I had already drawn things out long enough, and she must be annoyed. I didn’t delay anymore and began explaining my design. “Okay, so the Thermacore absorbs mana from the surroundings to heat the space it’s in right?”

They nodded, so I continued. “Well, by placing the Thermacore here, it heats up this chamber. Not to a ridiculous degree, but enough to create a notable temperature difference with the tunnel and the first chamber. I don’t know how familiar you are with the physics of how wind is formed, but to oversimplify it, when air heats it rises, and then nearby cold air rushes to fill the space, thereby creating wind. The air then infiltrates the rock above, that is passes through it, creating room in the chamber for more air to rush in.” It was more complicated than that, but I wasn’t even sure how much of this explanation they’d follow.

Alder nodded her head. “I took physics back when I was in school, as well as environmental science. It was more common in those days. So the Thermacore heats the surroundings, which causes the colder air from the first chamber to rush in, creating the wind that sends the scent of the dandelions blowing through the tunnel.”

I shook my head. “No. I mean, yes, it does that, but that’s not the main reason why I set it up this way.” I could see her getting more impatient so I pressed ahead. “Okay, so you know that slimes reproduce by consuming mana rich matter. And you know that dandelions require mana rich liquid to reach their roots in order to produce seeds. Well, my approach to this dungeon was to find a way to create a cycle that would sustain the two. You all come here and kill the slimes. You take the jelly, but leave the eyes. Well, every time you come you can also take the eyes and feed them to the dandelions on your way out. Just pulp them and toss them over them and it will create enough mana rich fluid for some of the dandelions to produce seeds. Then the seeds will get blown by the wind down the tunnel and into the chamber for the slimes to feed on and reproduce from. Dandelion seeds are surprisingly mana dense, more so than normal organic matter. So long as you leave one slime alive, they’ll be able to completely repopulate the chamber. If you use the eyes from every slime in here you can probably get all the dandelions to create seeds. That in turn will let the slimes completely repopulate. That way there’s not cost to running the dungeon. The only downside is it will take a few days for the slimes to repopulate so you’ll probably only get to gather the jelly twice per week.”

Alder and Quimby didn’t respond though they exchanged looks. But Izzy seemed curious. “Won’t the seeds germinate as soon as they land in here? That will just lead to the slimes getting slaughtered by dandelions once they grow.”

I shook my head and grinned. I was rather fond of this next part. “No, that’s why the Thermacore is so important. It absorbs enough of the ambient mana in the area that the seeds won’t be able to take root as there isn’t enough mana to support them.” Before I thought of the Thermacore I wasn’t sure what to do about that. I thought I might be able to use the dungeon core to control where the mana was densest, but ultimately it couldn’t control the entire environment and some of the mana from the other rooms would likely have flowed in. Then I’d had my stroke of genius about the use of the Thermacore, realizing it would solve the problem of the wind needed to send the seeds to this chamber and the issue of the seeds taking root.

Redmond interrupted my internal gloating. “Look, this is interesting and all, but why is it necessary? You’re telling us we have to leave a slime alive, feed the leftovers to the plants, and even limit ourselves to two dungeon runs per week. Those are some serious restrictions.”

Quimby nodded, and grinned slyly. “My musclebound friend here is right. It’s an ingenious design, but, well, there’s no need to be environmentally conscious of the dungeon. We don’t have to worry about it being a renewable resource, or taking more than it can sustain. Not when you’ve already promised to fix the dungeon no matter what.”

I eyed him. “So you’re trying to say it’s my problem and not yours, is that the gist of it?”

Quimby shrugged, a smirk on his face. “Your words, not mine.”

I looked at him and then at Alder. She wasn’t smirking like him, but she didn’t say anything to dispute him either. I crossed my arms and looked at them. “Well, the way I see it you have a couple of options. You can ignore the perfectly sustainable option for this dungeon and grind it until it collapses. At which point you can ask me to fulfill my contractual obligation that you snuck in, taking advantage of my ignorance of business, to make me fix it.” Quimby was still smirking, though Alder at least had the decency to look away in shame. “But here’s the thing. I’m a new dungeon maker. I don’t have any money. In the worst case, I’ll just have to default on the contract. Now, since the contract was approved by Janus, that makes sure that I’m obligated to pay you damages if that happens, but at the end of the day I don’t have any money to pay the damages in the first place. You can force me to the edge of the cliff, and over it into bankruptcy, sure, but at the end of the day that won’t get you a new dungeon. So, yes, I’ll be destitute, but you’ll soon follow me.”

Quimby wasn’t smiling anymore, and I took no little satisfaction in that. Before, I had been feeling slightly guilty still about having to limit their ability to farm the dungeon, but Quimby’s words and Alder’s guilt made it clear they’d known what they were doing when they included that term in the contract. The only mistake they'd made was assuming that I had enough money to afford the maintenance when they were paying me based on profit rather than revenue. If I'd known the difference between the two I would never have agreed to the contract in the first place for this exact reason.

“So, if you go that route, you’ll be completely screwed, just like me. You’d win, of course, but it would be a pyrrhic victory. Then there’s the other route. You can use the dungeon the way I designed it. It will give you more than enough slime jelly to create your product. Once the business is off the ground you can hire someone else to create a new dungeon if you need more product.”

What I didn’t say was by that time the statute of limitation on their claim against me would have run its course, so they wouldn’t be able to sue me anymore. That seemed for the best to me as Quimby struck me as the vengeful sort.

“This is ridiculous, we agreed-” Quimby started to complain, but Alder cut him off. “Enough Quimby. No, really, it’s enough. There’s no point to this. Going twice a week is already enough to get us off the ground. He’s right. If we pursue this in court, it’ll be a loss even if we win. It’s not worth it. At the end of the day we have a dungeon that will keep producing for us. Let’s just end this here.”

Quimby looked like he wanted to argue some more, but the look on Alder’s face made him hold his tongue. But from the way his eyes glared daggers at me I knew there would be problems from him in the future. He’d do whatever he could to give me a hard time. I just shook my head.

It takes a special kind of person to slap you in the face and then get angry when you don’t turn the other cheek. There was no point arguing with him. The best way to deal with a guy like that was to slap him back each time until he didn’t have enough teeth left in his mouth to bite you again in the future.

I let them lead the way back out of the dungeon. I did notice that Redmond collected the jelly and the eyes, and fed the eyes to the dandelions on the way out. At least someone was listening.

The atmosphere in the party was much chillier than it had been earlier. When we got out of the dungeon, Alder turned to me and just nodded. “Our business is concluded. We have your bank info, the payments will be arranged quarterly.”

I shrugged at her obvious dismissal. “I’d say it was a pleasure doing business, but it was anything but. If you need a dungeon in the future, don’t call me.”

Quimby bared his teeth in something that barely resembled a smile. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be sure to take our business elsewhere in the future. And I’ll let everyone I come across know about you.”

I looked at him coldly. “I’ll return the favor with the Dungeon Makers Association of Asance.”

His face paled slightly, but he didn’t say anything. The DMAA had the power to make things very difficult for him. Unfortunately, I didn't have any connection to the association. Too bad he didn't know that.

I turned around, nodded at the party members and started to leave. Izzy looked chagrined and embarassed. Redmond just looked stoic. I couldn’t see Drust’s face to know how he felt about everything that had happened.

I turned to leave, but then turned back remembering something. I spoke to Redmond. “Oh, and you don’t have to worry about harvesting the dandelions. If it’s the floral scent you want, well, I imagine that eating nothing but the seeds will give them enough of a scent. Though you can obviously harvest them if you don’t think it’s enough.” He nodded in acknowledgement but didn’t say anything else. He was employed by Alder and Quimby and he wasn’t about to offend them by playing nice with me. I shrugged, turned, and left the factory.

As I walked out I felt the adrenaline begin to fade as I left “combat mode”. I took a deep breath to quell my anxiety at how close everything had come to ending badly. Even when I did everything right and made a self-sustaining dungeon, I could have still ended up bankrupt. I exaggerated when I said I would be destitute as I could always have joined a company. But they didn’t know that. If they’d known I was bluffing, they might have gone ahead with it, and I’d have been forced into another life, one I didn’t want. I took another breath, trying to keep my legs from shaking as I walked out.

I’d just stepped outside of the factory when suddenly I heard a scrape of boot on stone behind me. I turned rapidly and found myself only a foot away from Drust, the rogue. My breath quickened. Did Quimby send him after me to kill me? I didn’t think he’d take it that far, but Quimby seemed like a mad dog, so it was impossible to know for sure. Before my thoughts could spiral any further though, a voice came from the hooded figure. The voice was strangely high pitched, and didn’t fit with his image at all.

“Do you have a moment to talk?”

He pulled back his hood as he spoke and my eyes went wide.

“You’re a kid?” I practically shouted.

A young looking face stared back at me, a shock of blond hair on top of his head, bright blue eyes that reflected the sun. He had chub on his cheeks that made him look more like a cherub than some stone cold killer.

“I’m eighteen,” He said in a peeved tone, and it took everything I had not to laugh at the childlike whine in his voice. “Anyways, can we talk?”

I looked at him, unsuccessfully fighting back a grin at his childlike appearance and high-pitched voice that made it seem like he hadn’t even hit puberty yet. “Sure, let’s walk and talk.” I began walking out of the industrial district, putting some distance between me and the unpleasant memory of Q&A Jelly.

I cast a glance out of the side of my eye at the soft looking teenager next to me, still disbelieving that this was the same assassin from before.

But cutting through my surprise was an undercurrent of interest and doubt. “What could he possibly have to discuss with me after everything that just happened?” I led the way out of the industrial district and back towards the market in front of the public dungeon, keeping an eye on him out of the corner of my eye as I did for fear of taking a dagger to the back.