"Welcome to Deep Delve"

The blue box faded away, and Julie found herself in a dark place, looking into a mirror. The mirror showed her an image of herself, one she recognized as having uploaded to her VR rig a few months ago. A transparent menu hovered to the side of the mirror, with a list of races.

Human Elven Dwarven Gnome

Julie focused on each one in turn, noting that choosing Human didn't change the image in the mirror at all. Selecting Elven dropped her height by an inch or so, and caused her ears to lose their lobes and gain an upward sweep, as well as somehow sharpening her features. Moving on to Dwarven, she saw the image in the mirror drop another two inches, but gain the lost height back as shoulder width, a noticeable increase in bust size, and a broadening of her features. The final option, Gnome, kept the dwarven height but reduced the breadth and bust to a few inches smaller than her original frame, and softened her features, making her appear almost child-like.

She flipped back and forth through the options a couple of times. Julie felt it was a tossup. She wasn't interested in playing the Dwarf, and while the Gnome was cute, the Elf was not only cute but sort of regal. The Human option was just her, and wasn't the point of these games to escape and be someone else? With a decisive nod, Julie selected Elf, and the menu on the left-hand side of the mirror changed, expanding into more options.

Elf (Full)

Elf (Half-Human)

Elf (Half-Dwarven)

Elf (Half-Gnome)

Elf (Animal Aspect)

Julie smiled in delight. She loved character creation. Melody might love hunting down epic loot, but Julie was an alt-aholic in these games because she loved making characters. One of her deepest darkest shames, hidden even from Kevin, was the princess dress up games designed for preteens that let her build a princess and then create the perfect wardrobe.

She checked out the basic combinations first. Half-Human added a bit of the height back, and while it kept the ears, it softened the features. Half-Dwarven shortened the Elf a bit, increased the bust without adding much to the width, and broadened the features without losing much of the sharpness. Half-Gnome remained the same height as the Half-Dwarven, but reduced the width considerably, and looked a bit like an Elven child, which she wasn't really interested in.

Finally, Julie selected the Animal Aspect option, and blinked as the menu expanded.

Animal Aspects:

Amphibian

Avian

Canine

Feline

Insect

Reptile

She hesitantly selected Amphibian and quickly backed out of the menu. She did not look good as a frog or toad person. With trepidation, she checked Avian, and was a little disappointed to discover that wings weren't an option, although having feathers instead of hair did look a bit neat, but not enough to make up for the nearly beak-like nose she sported.

Julie was pleasantly surprised to discover that the canine section included foxes, and she admired her fluffy tail and tufted ears for more than a few minutes. The feline option held no surprises, cat ears and tails, and even the option for slit pupils. She ventured into the Insect category for only a few seconds to confirm her suspicions that chitin and antennae were the order of the day. Yuck. Reptile wasn't much better, all scales and tails and claws.

Eventually, Julie decided to go with the fox. After selecting it, another menu opened up on the right-hand side of the mirror, with the usual array of sliders for sizing and color. Before she could begin, a window appeared in her vision, blocking the mirror.

"You have chosen to play a character with an appendage your body does not possess. Please be aware that extended play with this appendage or changing the length of your character's limbs in excess of twenty percent either shorter or longer will have a negative impact on your coordination when you exit Deep Delve. The duration of the effect has been demonstrated to be directly proportional to the excessiveness of the change, but all testers reported the effect fading after less than ten minutes."

Julie blinked. She knew you could suffer vertigo in VR, but this was the first time she'd ever seen a game that advised it might affect someone when they were out of the rig. Acknowledging the alert, she started working on her appearance.

She was quite pleased to find that the fur on her tails and ears matched her hair color as she changed it, and that they had their own sliders if she wanted to select another color or darken or lighten it. Julie hadn't opted to have an external clock display in the game, so she wasn't sure how much time she had spent customizing her character. She was quite happy with the results. Once finished, the mirror displayed an anthropomorphic version of herself. Almost exactly the same height, a little bigger in the chest and ass, ash blonde hair, with ears tails the same color but fading to a darker blonde at the tips.

Mentally selecting the "Finalize" option at the bottom of the appearance menu, Julie was presented with another warning screen.

"When naming your character, keep in mind the following trends amongst the races.

Dwarves have either patrilineal or matrilineal names (Erickson, Helgadottir), and have descriptive personal names, such as Saltheart, Foambeard, Stormeye, Thundershout, or Iceblood.

Elves don't use familial names but rather use locales (Darkwood, Brightglade), and their descriptive personal names tend to follow the pattern of combining syllables of the mother and father's name, so Elwynd and Callistra might have a daughter named Ellistra, or a son named Calynd.

Gnomes adopt the name of their passion or profession. Baker, Carpenter, Mason, and Animus are all examples. They tend to follow the humans in their use of traditional 19th-century names from around the globe for their personal names.

Humans tend to be a mix of the other three races when it comes to their last names. It isn't unusual to find a Robert Stormbeard, an Amanda Dimhollow, or a Charlie Cooper.

The Animal Aspect races tend to follow the naming conventions of their other halves. Still, they can also fall into the Human naming convention if they hail from a primarily Human community.

New Realities appreciates your decision to join us in Deep Delve. That said, offensive names, allegorical names, or names that don't fit the concepts behind Deep Delve will result in your account being locked out of the game until you complete the process of changing the character name, which will be overseen by one of our administrators. So, to save yourself and our game administrators the trouble, please take a few minutes to consider your character's name."

Julie laughed and waved the window away. She knew she'd enjoy more without the "Teabaggin Yomama"'s running around. She wasn't naive enough to believe those people wouldn't be playing the game, but it seemed like New Realities was at least making an effort to keep them in check. She watched as her avatar slowly spun around, considering her name. "Ceari Lightfalls," she entered, and the world darkened around her. Suddenly, she was drowning.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kevin waited impatiently at the red light. He had a small drybag rok strapped behind him, and he was just waiting to jump onto the on-ramp for I-75. He pulled in the clutch and dropped down into first as the light for the cross-traffic went orange. His light went green. Kevin let the clutch clip as he grabbed a handful of throttle. Quickly upshifting to second, he leaned into the curve as the cloverleaf ramp bent around to join the interstate. He shifted to third as the ramp straightened out, already moving along at a bit over eight miles an hour. Kevin checked his mirrors, and with a glance over his shoulder to confirm the lack of traffic, merged over clicked up through the gears until he was humming along in sixth.

He knew that both Melody and Julie were likely logged into Deep Delve. The game had launched about an hour ago. Robert had assured him that not even the craziest, grindy-ist player would hit his Dungeon until sometime in the middle of next week. Kevin had taken that assurance as permission to get away and decompress. He smacked the play button on his Bluetooth controller and shifted to a more neutral position on the bike. He was heading up to the Blueridge Parkway. It was about seven hundred miles, a good chunk of it on the interstate. He figured he'd ride the night through and end up arriving before sunrise, around six am.

He planned to spend four days riding the parkway, camping and doing some sightseeing. He'd told Robert who'd encouraged him, telling him he needed to recharge before tackling his next Dungeon. Robert had also advised he read the manual when he got back.

Kevin had wanted to play a bit with Melody, Julie, and Dave. Sadly the fact that he wasn't going to be on the same server had crushed that dream on the cold, cruel rocks of reality. He planned to play next weekend. Hopefully, by then, everyone else would have leveled up a bit and moved on to the Dungeon, and he would be able to play in peace. Kevin tended to have a flower sniffing playstyle. He liked to investigate every little detail of the games he played, which occasionally frustrated his friends.

Shaking his head, he turned up the music and started to sing along as the mile markers passed him by, the stress of the past two weeks bleeding away.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"FUCK!" Melody sputtered as she floundered to the surface. She'd just finished creating her character, a Gnome named Melody Butcher, when the game had faded out, and she found herself underwater. She looked around, frantically kicked to keep herself above the waves as rain poured down, and above her dark roiling storm clouds flashed with lightning. She felt herself being carried by a wave, and in a flash of lightning, saw a beach ahead of her.

She started dog-paddling frantically towards the beach, making progress in fits and starts as massive waves overtook her, forcing her to align herself with the beach in the next lightning flash. Melody had just broken past the surface of another wave when she felt a strong arm wrap around her, and a hoarse voice shouted against the wind, "I've got you! Just try to float!" She was pulled through the waves, coughing and spluttering as the rain and the occasional wave did their level best to drown her. A few terribly long minutes later, she found herself being pulled to her feet in the surf as they neared the beach. She staggered up the beach, shaking off the supportive arm, before falling to her knees in the sand, retching as she puked up what felt like half the ocean. Wiping her mouth, she looked up into the face of a worried looking Dwarf.

"You ok?" He asked. "Fuck," she coughed as she staggered to her feet. "I'm not a great swimmer, and that isn't a swimming pool," she said, gesturing to the crashing waves. "Yeah," the Dwarf said, "I'm a lifeguard, and this is a storm we'd close the beaches for." Melody extended her hand, saying, "Thanks for the save, I'm Melody." "Drake," the now-named Dwarf said, then stopped himself and countered, "Erm, Saltheart rather," he said awkwardly. Melody nodded and said, "Well, what now, Saltheart?"

"Heading back out," he yelled over the wind as he turned and headed back into the stormy sea, "I can see other people out there!" Melody yelled towards his back, "I'll try and figure out a fire!" She watched as the Dwarf swam back out into the waves, the lightning showing her several other forms struggling to shore. She shivered. It was fucking cold. She held a hand up to cover her eyes from the whipping wind and rain and looked up around.

They'd washed up in a cove of some sort. To the north, maybe a quarter of a mile away, she could see a rocky cliff jutting out into the ocean. To the south, much further down, she could see the beach curve to the east, out into the ocean, a ridge rising up to protect the cove. Teeth chattering, she climbed up the beach and gasped as she reached the top of the dune that stretched down to the water. The frequent lightning flashes illuminated the area around her. Rolling grass-covered hills stretched out towards a dark smudge that might have been a forest in the distance. It was far enough away to not be of any immediate use. Looking up and down the beach, she could see a few pieces of driftwood scattered about halfway up the dune.

Melody set to work. She'd found a huge chunk of driftwood, what must have been the trunk of an enormous tree. Forty feet long, and fifteen feet wide, she'd started digging out a hole underneath it. The wet sand excavated easily enough, and she had cleared a space five feet wide and about two feet deep under the edge of the trunk when she heard a voice from down the beach yell, "Melody! Give me a hand!"

She turned and saw Saltheart dragging a limp form out of the waves. She staggered up and hurried down to meet him. Saltheart had drug the storm's victim up the beach, and it looked like he was about to start CPR as Melody arrived. She knelt down across from him, and they both jerked back as the figure, a Human woman began to cough, rolled to her side, and tried to empty herself of the ocean she'd swallowed. The woman heaved herself to her knees and leaned over, vomiting. "Keep on eye on her," Saltheart said as he rose up started heading back to the angry sea, "I'm going back in." Melody gave him a nod, not thinking that he couldn't see her do so, and started patting the woman's back.

"Hey," Melody said as the woman started to stagger to feet, "I'm Melody, and that fine fellow that pulled you outta the ocean is Saltheart. What's your name?" "Jasmine," the Human coughed and looked around before she went on, "I feel sick, and it's freezing," she said. "Fucking A, right?" Melody replied as she took Jasmine by the hand and led her to the dubious shelter of the driftwood trunk. "Catch your breath, and then help me dig out a fuckin' hole," she said and started scooping more sand out. Jasmine watched her for a minute or so, then knelt down a few feet away and started digging as well.

Both of them were intently burrowing, having managed a five-foot-tall (at the edge of the trunk anyways), by ten-foot-long burrow, when they were startled by a voice from behind them, "Nice, but we need to shore up the sides, or it's just gonna fall in on us." "Fuckin' hell," Melody yelled as she spun around and saw a tall Human with a swishing tail and tufted kitty ears. "I'll grab some wood to shore that up," he said and turned, leaving Melody and Jasmine to glance at each other and shrug, as they returned to their digging. Saltheart had brought a Human catgirl to them and headed back out to the ocean by the time the Human catboy made it back, dragging a load of what looked like weathered planks.

"I was looking for something to do the walls, but this might be better for a roof or an awning," He said as he dropped his burden and inspected the burrow. The three girls had dug out an eight-foot-tall by twenty feet wide by ten-foot deep burrow under the tree. Melody shook her head and grabbed a couple of planks, "Naw, that fuckin' mammoth trunk is all the roof we need, you're right that the cock sucking walls are sliding in. If we shore em up along the edges, we can dig another ten feet back and another ten both up and down," Melody explained as she headed into the sandy hole.

She stuffed the plank up against the edge of the trunk, and then kicked it into place. She pulled some more sand out from behind it, kicked it again, repeated the process two more times, and nodded in satisfaction. "Just need another hundred or so of those," she muttered. She turned and stopped herself before she could step on the person sitting against the wall behind her. "The fuck?" Melody said. "Sorry," said the woman, "I needed to get out of that rain, give me a couple of minutes, and I'll help dig." Melody walked out of the burrow and into a wave of half-drowned refugees. Looking down towards the ocean, she could see Saltheart leading a horde of people out of the waves and up onto the beach.

Setting her shoulders, she yelled, "Saltheart! Get those assholes moving up here, and I'll show 'em what we're fuckin' doing!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Robert leaned back in the chair, a glass of whiskey in one hand, as the last few members of the New Realities board trickled in. In contrast to some of the studios, New Realities had managed to keep their board exclusively comprised of developers and designers. As the chairman stepped into the boardroom, he closed the door behind him and clicked on the white noise generator they'd installed early in the company's infancy.

"Lets fucking hear it people!" the chairman said as he clapped his hands together and walked around the table as others gave him a shout or a clap or a thumbs up. "We've been live for four hours, and guess what?" he asked, then answered his own question, "Not a single person has logged out yet. We're up to fourteen million active accounts connected concurrently." Robert saluted him with his drink. "John, I know we tested it heavily, but any QA issues popping up?" the chairman asked. "Not as of yet, although I hesitate to rekindle an old argument, but I really do think the shipwreck could have been done without the drowning aspect," John said waspishly.

Robert sighed and took a drink. 'Here we go again,' he thought. He disliked John. They had locked horns a few times and really just didn't get along. "Testing indicated that the best way to implement full immersion was through shock and trauma," said Eli. 'And there it is,' Robert thought to himself as he took another sip. As much as he disliked John, Eli disgusted him. They'd worked together a bit in the early years, and while they weren't drinking buddies, they hadn't been contentious. But after Eli came back from Africa, he just wasn't the same. Robert mused to himself, 'It's like he got a taste for the torture he recorded, and now he carries it with him. An invisible stench, or an aura. You see him, and you just know the man has witnessed true evil. And liked it.'

The chairman, a graphics designer of all things, named Chris Isaac, waved his hands and chimed in, "Let's shut that down - the decision was made, the players are immersed. The die has been cast. All the years of hard work, the sacrifices we've all made, it's all going to pay off." 'The man could talk,' Robert reflected. "Robert," Chris said, "were you able to put together an aggregator to pull the social media and forum mentions together for us?" Robert raised his class in one hand and pulled out his phone in the other.

"I've sent the invites to everyone - it's restricted to the people in this room, although I'm sure some of the gaming sites are either throwing together or have already built something along these lines," he said. Chris nodded and motioned for him to continue. "While I expect we'll get a little flack for the drowning, I have to once again reluctantly agree with Eli. I spent an hour in GM mode watching the local server, and by the time everyone was out of the waves, I hadn't seen a single instance of anyone referring to it as a game," Robert said. "Reddit and Facebook are going to be the first two platforms where we will see feedback," he sipped his whiskey before continuing, "assuming the responses are in line with our testers, I expect to see preorders for the next wave that exceed the initial numbers multiplicatively." Chris nodded with a huge grin and motioned to the man next to him, Dennis Craigwell, who had the distinction of being the only man at the table who was neither a designer nor a developer, but rather a systems and networks administrator.

Dennis stood up and addressed the table in a dry British accent, "Quite," he said, "I've monitored both our server and bandwidth capacity, and I'm pleased to state that all is shipshape and Bristol fashion. Assuming the load we've seen so far is representative of the heaviest we can expect, I dare say our existing capacity can easily support triple the concurrent users." There were nods around the table. Dennis had been hired by his position by Chris a year after New Realities was founded, as the company arrived at the crossroads of deciding to deploy and maintain their own systems and networks or rely on an external provider for them. Already steeped in secrecy and quickly developing an atmosphere of institutional paranoia, they'd opted to keep everything in house.

Several developers had strenuously objected to the cost. Still, Dennis had stayed firm on his plan to have the servers and connections over specced to allow the company to ramp up capacity rapidly.

"Not to rain on our parade or be a buzzkill," Robert said, "but are we prepared, from a legal perspective, for the oncoming storm?" Chris gave a sigh and waved his hand as if to shoo him off and replied, "Yes, we've retrained counsel in all fifty states, and they stand ready should they be needed." Robert raised a finger to interject and asked: "I can only speak to Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, so I have to ask if counsel has been informed as to the likely legal actions?"

One by one, each of the developers affirmed they had indeed informed their lawyers of the ramifications of Deep Delves' development. Robert swallowed the last of his whiskey. He couldn't help but worry. Next month, assuming a 90% subscriber retention, the company stood to earn just shy of ninety million dollars in profits. If Chris and Dennis were right, the following month would see that number reach close to four hundred million dollars a month. Of course, they would be at or close to market saturation, and from there would need to expand another country, which posed another set of issues. They had made tentative contact with the government of Poland. The Poles had long served as a gateway to the west. They had developed a robust infrastructure that could serve as their access point to most of the former Soviet bloc, and possibly Europe. However, it remained to be seen if the citizens of the EU would be able to coerce their government into allowing Deep Delve to be sold and played.

Western Europe represented another ten million subscribers, and likely another fifty million a month in profits. Eastern Europe was a bit uncertain, as once you left the main cities, utilities became dicy. Still, assuming Russia didn't raise a fuss, New Realities could expect another eighty to one hundred million subscribers, and while the cost of doing business there was significantly higher, a monthly profit of two hundred and fifty million dollars wasn't unreasonable.

All told, assuming minimal troubles and interference, within a year, New Realities should realize a profit of eight and a half-billion dollars a year. Talks with India, China, Korea, and Vietnam were progressing; however, each country was insisting the game be published in their language, and at the moment, New Realities simply didn't have the resources. After the first six months, once profits were rolling in, the issue would be revisited. No one wanted to give up a market of over half a billion potential subscribers, all countries combined.

Robert was jerked from his musings as he accepted a glass of champagne. He stood along with the others and joined the toast. "To Deep Delve!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Julie sat up, gasping for air. Her eyes sprung open, and she looked around wildly. She was on the shore, with the storm still raging above her. She stood up shakily. She put a hand to her forehead and winced. The last thing she remembered was trying to swim through the storm. The problem being that she was a terrible swimmer, and her tail didn't help. Julie could remember slipping under the waves, trying to breathe, and the burn of saltwater filling her lungs. "I fucking drowned," she whispered to herself. It had hurt. A familiar voice jerked her out of her reverie.

"Alright, mother fuckers, I see we got a new batch of bitches! Drag em' to the shelters!" Melody bellowed. Julie looked around and realized she wasn't alone on the shore. Twenty or thirty people were staggering to their feet, and being assisted up the coast and away from the ocean. Julie shook off the hand that reached out to guide her and struggled up the slope towards where she had heard Melody. It had to be Melody. It sounded like Melody, and no one over the age of twenty spoke that way except her.

She wiped the rain out of her eyes and located her friend easily enough. Melody hadn't done much to customize herself. "Mel!" she called out over the storm and the crowd. Melody looked up from the Dwarf she was speaking to and yelled out, "Where my bitches at!" as she pushed her way through the crowd towards Julie. "Right here!" Julie called as she worked her way towards Melody. They met in the middle and lunged forward for a mutual hug. It would have been a hallmark moment, had Julie's tail not gotten in her way at the last moment, and wound up taking her and Melody both to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

"Dude," said Melody with a laugh, "I'm glad to see you too." Julie groaned and replied, "The tail is going to take some getting used to." Melody untangled herself first and stood up, saying, "Yeah, but damn, you look fine girl, like every anime-loving geek's wet dream. Emphasis on wet." Julie stood up and tried to brush the sand off herself. "Don't fuckin' bother," Melody said as she noticed her friend's efforts. "The only shelter we have is what we made, and it's basically just holes in the sand." Julie nodded and followed Melody as she led the way to a massive driftwood trunk, under which had been excavated a large shelter.

"Pull up a seat," Melody said with a smile, as she sat down and gestured next to her. Julie sat down, shivering. "It'll pass in a few minutes now that you're out of the wind," Melody said. Julie spoke slowly, trying not to let her teeth chatter, "How did you find these?" she asked. Melody laughed and replied, "Fuck, we didn't find them, we dug them out." Julie gave her a long look. "I couldn't have taken that much longer than you in the avatar creation process," she said slowly. "Naw," Melody said, "near as we can figure, the folks showing up now drowned and are reviving on the beach, but it's been about two hours since everyone who was able to made it to shore."

"I was out for two hours?" Julie said in shock. "I guess so," Melody replied, "not like I've got a watch." Julie tried to process that. Two hours. Shaking off the thought, she looked around and realized there were probably forty people crammed into the hollowed-out area under the tree trunk. "So what's been going on?" she asked her friend. "Well, ya know how Kev said there gonna be ten k people max per server?" Melody said. Julie nodded. "Well, it looks like we probably came close to capacity on opening night," Melody grinned at her and went on, "Near as I can figure, the beach is about three miles long, and it's pretty damn packed. I want to say we're probably at seven and a half maybe even eight thousand people on the beach now."

"Damn," Julie said, "too bad Kev isn't here." Melody gave her a commiserating nod. They had both seen Kevin off on his mini-vacation. "We should group up," Julie said. Melody gave her a hard blink, then said, "Fuck." Julie tried to call up a group interface and succeeded on her second try with 'Party.' An interface appeared to the right, just inside her peripheral vision.

Party Members:

Invite Party Member

Julie focused her vision on Melody and then concentrated on Invite Party Member. Melody gave a little start, and then grinned and poked at the air. Julie's interface window now showed both of them as Party Members.

Party Members:

Ceari Lightfalls

Melody Butcher

Invite Party Member

The interface faded away after a few seconds, and Julie realized that not only was Melody staring at her, but Mel was outlined in a faint golden glow. "I am fuckin' glowing to you?" Melody asked as she continued to squint at Juile. "Yep," Julie responded with a smile, "must be how you can tell your party members." Melody nodded to her and stretched a bit as she stood. Julie looked up at her quizically. "It's getting light out, figured we might as well watch the sunrise," Melody said.

Julie staggered up, beginning to wonder if the aesthetics of the tail were worth the hassle of the damn thing getting in her way. She looked down at it, twisting slightly to get a good view. She tried to swish it to the left. It instead twitched slightly to the right. She heard a short guffaw of laughter from Melody. She turned back towards Mel and glared at her friend, who swallowed her laughter. Melody darted out of the burrow, leaving Julie to stumble after her.

Outside, the wind remained strong, but the rain seemed to be letting up. Melody led her up to the peak of the dune, where they sat down companionably, both content to listen to the wind rustling through the grass behind them as the light continued to gather in the east. As the sun broke over the horizon, Julie marveled at the world around her. She looked over at Melody, who was gently glowing from both the sun and the party's golden sheen.

"This is amazing," she murmured, as she pulled a stalk of grass out of the ground and started splitting the stem with her fingernails. Melody was running her hands through her hair, trying to comb out the sand. She paused and said, "Yeah, it really is. I mean, I didn't fuckin' think about it when I was trying not to drown, and then I was digging out a shelter, and then pulling people into it..." she trailed off. Julie nodded and peered closely at Mel's nose. "I can see your pores," she said thoughtfully. Melody grinned and said, "Clean and clear bitches! No fuckin' shop funk here!"

Julie offered her a high five. She loved Melody, and she knew that while she didn't complain about it, Melody was a little sensitive about the fact that her skin suffered from a layer of ground in oily gunk that she could never quite get off.

"It's just so real," she said quietly. She heard a gurgling sound and looked over at Melody, who was poking at her midriff. "Dude, apparently you get hungry in the game," Melody said slowly. Melody grinned and went on, "You know what that means!" Julie groaned, and Melody bounced to her feet, declaring, "Fuckin' time to get me a big hunk of meat!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kevin pulled into the Sinclair station that advertised Ethanol-free fuel. He was running an autopilot as he gassed up and chugged down a bottle of water. He was about two hundred miles into the ride, and everything was fading into the rearview. The past two weeks had been the most stressful of his life. He was past it now and looking towards the future.

As he rolled on the throttle and maneuvered back onto I-75, he let his mind turn towards Deep Delve. He had a month to put together a new Dungeon. His mind turned the idea over and over. Kevin really just wanted to keep building the Verant Caldera, and every idea he came up with for his new Dungeon was just an extension of that. Rolling his shoulders, he gave in. His brain wanted more Verdant Caldera. Once it was done, he could build the next Dungeon. There wasn't anything he'd read that said he couldn't build another level to the Caldera, as long as he put out another Dungeon by the deadline.

Kevin rolled his shoulders and let his mind wander to the cavern, with its redwoods and mist. He heard the dull roar of the waterful, the snuffling of a hog, and the bellow of a hungry Rufus. He knew he needed the vacation, but at the same time, he was looking forward to working on the cavern.