Quiet is a blessed state of being.

There’s a simple peace in it. It’s an unending, unbroken forever that goes on and on until something interrupts it and shatters it like a pane of weak ice trying to support a rock golem on a warm spring day.

“Myles…”

Well, something or someone. For a long while, it lingered like an afterthought, heard but forgotten just as quickly. Gone from his mind as quickly as it had come. However, the day would not be so easily set aside.

The bed shook gently as force was applied for the words to come to be accepted.

“Myles, wake up. We are hungry.”

Myles Chase, [Monster Tamer], [Succulent Magician], and Leader of the Rising Stars, groaned as he resisted the flat tone of his monsterkin. The Kinetic Iron Rabbitkin, Ashra Snowpelt wouldn’t be deterred, however. The sun was well into the sky already, and her tamer was still sleeping. It was nearly seven in the morning!

Even after destroying the Broken King and completing the first floor, it was no time to rest on his laurels. There were monsters to hunt and tame, mysteries to solve, and issues to be addressed. He couldn’t just sleep the day away.

So, she did what any partner would given the chance.

The wooden frame of the bed creaked as Ashra refused to be beaten.

“Ashra!”

She picked up the bed as if it weighed little more than a plush doll and shook him from it, turning him and the floor into an unceremoniously made pile of sheets, pillows, and Runner.

“We are hungry,” she repeated as she set the bed back down gently on the floor.

Myles groaned in protest.

He felt like he’d been run over by a stampede of drakes, but he was no worse for it. Despite all the hardships of the past few days, he was stronger than he’d ever been. He needed to be to survive his time in the grand dungeon and change his fate.

Getting back to his feet, he looked at the hybrid monsterkin and saw himself reflected in her eyes. He groaned again and tried his best to right his hair. “There are better ways to wake me up, Ashra.”

She gave him the ghost of a smile. “There are.”

“Why didn’t you try something else?”

“I did not think it would be as fun.”

With that, she turned and left him alone in the room to dress.

Myles stared at the closed door for a long moment, listening to the snores and muffled noises beyond as he recalled the night’s events.

It still didn’t seem real.

They hadn’t just been a part of the fight with Shardking, they’d landed the final blow. His face felt hot as the rest of it sunk in, and he realized so much more was ahead on all fronts of his life…

Live…

In front of an entire nation invested in his survival…

“Well, sket.”

As Myles got dressed, he realized how normal these sorts of things were starting to be, and he laughed. The absurdity of it all was just becoming so… so normal. It was just another day in the Grand Dungeon of Kess.

***

Ten minutes and a look in the mirror later, Myles walked from his room and into the living space of the house. There, he was greeted by the walking dazed in various states of existence. Lyna Hugea, the team’s Halfling [Master of Arms], was still draped over a couch askew and doing a glorious impression of a dying trent as she snored. Her pink hair spread like fairy dust across the couch and flowed down to join her arm adding to the contrast of the scene.

Tallia— Tail, their [Lunar Illusionist], was doing their best to clean up the living area with help from Kendra Kessa, the [Berserker], and Will Riggs, her grandfather and their [Distortion Mage]. In the night, the group had knocked over furniture, thrown pillows to the far ends of the room, spread out blankets and rugs, and made a mess of things in general. From the state of things, it would have taken him the better part of the morning to clean things up.

Thankfully for him, his team wasn’t the kind to leave a mess— well, a mess other than monster guts.

“Good morning,” Tail said in their usual, wispy voice.

“Morning,” Myles replied and gave them a nod as he battled with the last dragon of fatigue. A yawn of victory followed a moment later as he added, “Sleep well?”

“As well as the floor allowed,” Tail admitted with good humor for someone who’d just slept without a bed.

“Your carpet’s almost as plush as my bed,” Kendra added, moving the table back into place.

“The chair was like a firm cloud. I want one in our house, but it didn’t recline. My neck’s killing me now,” Will commented, rubbing it for emphasis.

“You sure it wasn’t the fight from last night?”

Will shrugged to Myles’s comment, then winced. “Felt fine after that. Though it was probably a contributing factor. Should be fine in a bit.”

“You’re fine now,” Kendra said firmly. “You just like to complain. Come on, we’ve done…”

“If you say we’ve done worse than that, I will lock you out tonight.”

The [Berserker] quashed whatever comment she’d intended, and Myles continued to smile.

Ah, the benefits of owning your own home.

Not that he didn’t have to watch himself now after that kiss, but as the group’s compass of reason, he felt he did have a little leeway.

Looking around, Myles noted that two members of the party were missing: Mitchel Hedgelore and his walking alarm clock of a monster, Ashra. Reaching out with his Leader’s Skill, he felt for their current emotions. Neither of them felt like they were alarmed, afraid, or in pain, so it didn’t take much of a guess to figure out what they were doing.

It helped that Kendra filled in the blanks too.

“They’re outside,” she said, tossing a pillow back onto a nearby chair. “She said she needed to get back to training with us.”

Of course, she’d be training already after a night of near-death experiences.

It only made sense.

Reaching out through their shared connection, Myles did a quick check on Ashra to make sure she wasn’t pushing herself after Shardking, and he wasn’t quite prepared for what he felt as he opened himself to her. From his monster, he only felt the unbridled joy she took in battle with a worthy opponent.

Closing the connection back to its normal size, he smiled.

Good for her.

Still, he did have a job as their leader to keep them healthy, and today was going to be a different kind of challenge. Today, they’d be meeting with their first sponsors, if they had more than one, and have to deal with the media. Tradition dictated that they weren’t even really supposed to go hunting today, so they really had nothing else to worry about. He didn’t know who the others were dealing with, but at least he didn’t mind Trosana.

The questions though… would be a different kind of problem.

Wiping the last remnants of sleep from his eyes and stretching out his arms, Myles set aside his thoughts of resting to do what he did best.

“Who’s hungry?”

There wasn’t a hesitation as a snore turned into a cry that belonged more on the field of battle than in a living room.

“Me—!”

The thud of Lyna falling off the couch to set her order stopped the others in their tracks. For a moment, they were quiet as Lyna stilled silently, then stirred with a single word on her lips. “Eggs…”

Kendra nearly doubled over.

Then the rest of the orders came in for eggs, bread, pancakes, butter, and jam, and Myles took them in stride as he made a mental note of each and went out to visit the more stationary member of his menagerie, his dungeon core, Silpha of the Purifying Wake.

On the way, Myles did his best to wait on the two training before taking their orders of nothing and everything in stride.

As the door to his monster barn closed behind him, the smells of the sea and the feeling of a crisp ocean breeze washed over his senses as a voice touched the back of his mind.

“Congratulations, Myles. I’m impressed.”

Myles smiled at the praise. “I had help. I could have used more, but it worked out. I really need more versatile monsters.”

He got the vague impression of a shrug. “Still, defeating The Broken King from the inside out is a different kind of bravery. Some might call it dumb. I can’t fault you though, the higher regeneration rate, material conversion efficiency, and new attacks made it massively unfair. I don’t know what the Overseer was thinking.”

“You’re telling me,” he agreed wearily as he rubbed at his arm. “I need a few supplies for breakfast, and I have a few things for you if you can use them to make more.”

“I’m not a marketplace.”

“But you like getting new things to make,” he countered. “And you didn’t mind the other day.”

“I was bored.”

“And you aren’t now?”

A feeling of curiosity and consideration crossed the dungeon core’s connection and ended with a feeling of decision. “Fine. Show me what you’d like to use while I make your groceries.”

Last night had been quite productive, and from his dimensional inventory, Myles produced one of his Epic grade Skill Stones, the platinum coin, the Soul Dew, and… noticed an empty spot between the Soul Dew Sindra had given him and his Time Lost Trappings.

Willing the item back into existence, Myles didn’t know what to make of it. The object was small, no larger than any other coin, and black as a starless night. As he examined it, he noticed some parts were darker than others. They were like black clouds against a black sky, and, if he looked long enough, they moved across the surface as they saw fit. Even so dark and cold looking, it felt warm, like a warm summer day in the palm of his hand. So, he did what he always did when he didn’t know what an item was. He used his lore on it.

Drink Token

Value: 5 Silver?

Item - Soulbound

Description: A polished coin crafted from the humors of darken stars and good for one free drink.

Detail: Look, just be ready for a drink when you get here.

Myles chilled and nearly let go of the coin as the information invaded his mind.

The ability wasn’t supposed to feel like that. The text wasn’t normal and felt… well, the information felt almost bubbly and most definitely wrong. Like carbonation fizzing in the back of his mind. Not uncomfortable, but wrong all the same.

That raised more questions than answers as he held the coin up towards Silpha. “Have you seen something like this before?”

The attention of the Dungeon Core turned from the waiting items to Myles. He could feel her influence around him move, focused on him fully now. “Seen what?”

“This.”

“There’s nothing there.”

“You can’t see this?”

“You’re not holding anything.”

With a little effort, Myles moved the item to the tips of his fingers and the edge of his personal aura. “Is that better?”

“Because of our connection, I can see down to the roots of your mana channels and through your own eyes, Myles. I can see everything within my territory, and you aren’t holding anything. There’s nothing there.”

He stressed the muscles in his fingers and felt the material dig into the flesh of his hand. No, it was there. He was sure of it…

Then again…

Bringing up his notifications from the night before, Myles looked back at his rewards from defeating Shardking.

Myles Chase

Skill Stone (Epic) Skill Stone (Epic) Soul Dew (Monster Tamer) Soul Dew (Succulent Magician) Time-Lost Trappings 1 Platinum Coin

The notification didn’t recognize it either, sort of.

The information brought a whole new level of confusion to Myles. From what he understood, the notification messages were from the world itself and powered by the magic that made up everything within the grand dungeon itself.

What in the Mists was it? Why did a drink token need to hide itself?

He wanted to do nothing more than throw it away and be done with it, but the warmth of the coin and the strange use made him think twice about it. Slipping the coin back into his inventory, Myles sighed. It was a mystery for later.

For her part, Silpha had assembled the groceries and absorbed the platinum coin, but nothing else. “I can’t take those.”

Myles raised a brow, and the dungeon core elaborated.

“These Skill Stones are created by the Overseer and can’t be tampered with by any power weaker than its own. Even if I got a Skill Stone, I don’t know if I could recreate it. They’re ethereal things and are usually created by converging events and power expenditure. Soul Dew is the same way but created by an even greater power. As much as I’d like to overpower us and end this, I cannot.”

“But you can make me filthy rich.”

“But I can make you rich, yes. I won’t, but I can with the right motivations.”

There went that plan, but at least there was wiggle room. Besides, he already had more coin than he knew what to do with even without the platinum coin Silpha returned. Inflation in the grand dungeon was going to grow insanely after the next few floors, but at this stage, a single platinum was still mind-boggling.

Gathering his food and saying his thanks to Silpha, his mind went to the fact the second floor was sealed tight. It was just another puzzle that the Runners would have to solve. Hopefully, sooner than later.

***

No one asked questions when he returned with the bags of food from the barn, and Myles was glad for it. It wouldn’t ruin his meditation. The zen of cooking put him into a familiar, loving calm as his short line orders went from order, to plate, to mouth, to stomach. Stacks of pancakes, fluffy eggs, topped toast, and patties of maple-scented sausage practically flew from his stove until the members of his team had eaten their fill.

Unsurprisingly, Lyna had stuffed herself beyond the limit as she groaned in as much pleasure as she did pain.

Surprisingly, they refused to let him clean up as usual.

“None of that,” Mitchel said and reached for the first pan before Myles had even finished cooking. The [Armored Wall] piled a clean plate as high as two of theirs with food before handing it off to him. “You cooked, we clean.”

“I appreciate it.”

“It’s what a team does, right?”

With that, he was ushered back to the table to eat while the others got up and created an assembly line of scraping, washing, rinsing, drying, and restocking his supplies. As he ate, the next thing that came to mind was the need for spices. Maybe, whenever they got the second floor to open, they’d find something he could use.

Ten minutes later, the group was gathered back around the table, and Myles was handing out the sheets he found slipped under his door from the night before, one for each member of his team.

“Looks like most of you are with me,” Myles said showing them all a variation of the note he had gotten:

Noon at the homestead of Myles Chase.

Interviewer: Trosana Leea - The Runner Times

Reason: Sponsor Interview

The only one who had anything different was Mitchel. He was still expected to meet at the home that the Sindra’s Seekers shared and his interviewer was different, a man by the name of Logan Winters for the Royal Kessivan Herald, the single largest distribution center for news in the nation.

He looked defeated as he read the note Myles passed him, but he smiled through it nonetheless. “Anyone want to trade?”

No one offered.

“Better you than me,” Kendra added getting comfortable in her chair. “Think we should get cleaned up?”

“Probably,” Will said thoughtfully. “Though they might like the tattered look.”

“I need a shower,” Myles stated simply. “Can’t think without one, and I don’t want to say something I’ll regret.” Then on a whim, Myles produced the victory statue the group had won of the mother clear slime on their first dungeon dive and set it at the center of the table. “Might as well make sure everything smells good too.”

The statue glowed softly, and near-instantly, the nose blindness the group had gained was lost as fresh air replaced the stagnate smell within the home.

They nearly retched as one.

“I think we all need one,” Mitchel agreed.

And so, the order of the day was set, and time was starting to become a precious commodity.

Within two hours, the group had showered, dressed, and waved goodbye to their latest member. Even after all that time, Mitchel stalled for as long as he could, but even he knew that it was a bad idea to keep your sponsors waiting, and one as large as the Kessivan Herald shouldn't be left that way for long. Though Myles thought that wasn’t the real reason he stalled. It would be hard to face Sindra again, let alone his entire old team, but if they were as understanding as Mitchel was, it wouldn’t be as hard as the man thought.

And so, the next challenge’s clock ticked down to noon with the original group discussing the only thing that mattered until then.

“So, you and Kendra?” Lyna asked oh-so-subtly.