:What’s next? I don’t see or feel any others.: Rissa walked over to Serenity, still talking to him telepathically.

It was remarkably convenient.

:Next? We try to find the soldier. Assuming that’s who was running from these men. He’ll know something; that’s the way Events work. The thing is, we’ll have to convince him to tell us. I’d rather we talk him into it.: Serenity stopped, unsure how to continue.

Rissa laughed out loud. :Which means you want me to do the talking? Or do you want me to be completely silent? I’d rather not pull a good cop-bad cop routine.:

Serenity shook his head as he headed towards where the soldier ran off the road. :Tell me if I’m going to completely fluff it up. Or whatever. Keep an eye on him? I might need you to help me find him, too.:

Serenity dismissed his blade and sheathed the hilt as he looked around. There was no sign of a threat; Rissa would hopefully be able to tell if one approached, but this didn’t feel like that kind of Event.

:Nah, he’s still near us. Not far from where you’re standing, I think he’s up a tree.: Rissa walked over and put a hand on his shoulder before shouting. “Hey, are you still out there? Can you tell us what’s going on here?”

Serenity looked around for the soldier while he waited. It was probably thirty seconds before he heard the man call out to them. “Yeah, I’m here. Who are you?”

It was best to stick to the information they had and stay in their role. Serenity called back, “We’re mercenaries, currently in service to Aval. We’re looking for raiders that have been harassing this area. Was that who was chasing you?”

“Raiders?” The other man sounded almost hysterical. “No, they were scouts for the army besieging Effra. We were sent to get help, but you saw. They’d have caught me if you didn’t intervene.”

Serenity glanced at Rissa, then back towards the tree that the voice was coming from. “Why weren’t you on horseback? And was there someone else?”

“We were, but-” The man stopped. When he started talking again, there was effort in his voice. “-damned tree. We were on horseback, but the horses tossed us off when we ran into those guys. Four of us were sent out, two on each route to Aval. This is the shortest route, so we were expecting trouble, but what we got was more than we could handle.”

As the man emerged from the treeline, Serenity got his first really good look at him. He was dressed in modern camouflage and seemed to be mostly equipped like a normal soldier, but instead of a gun he had a short sword strapped to his side.

He felt like a Tier One. Reasonable to challenge this dungeon, but unable to simply walk over the enemies the way Serenity and Rissa had.

“Too many to fight?” Serenity glanced at the ones on the ground. Six against one wasn’t even remotely worth fighting in a relatively fair fight.

“Yeah. They split up when we did, half of them went after Leroy and the other half followed me. Still too many. I was hoping they’d split up and send most of them after you; if I caught them by surprise, I think I could handle two of them in the forest.” The soldier didn’t seem apologetic about admitting he’d hoped that more of the enemy would follow Serenity and Rissa.

Serenity smiled. “They might well have; they did it once, after all. And if they didn’t split up, the odds are good they’d have followed us and you’d be able to get away and get the word to Aval.”

Chances were good that one of those two options was how the event was supposed to play out. The third option was one Serenity didn’t mention, where the strangers chance-met on the road stopped to fight and were killed, but delayed the Hessi long enough for the messenger to flee. Word had to get to Aval somehow, after all.

It sounded like there were two possible ways to follow this up; they needed to either take the soldier to Aval, which should trigger the “reinforcements” event early and end the dungeon fairly quickly or rescue the captured soldier. Leroy, if Serenity had caught the name correctly. “Oh, almost forgot. Call me Thomas. What’s your name?”

The soldier grinned. “My name’s also Thomas, Thomas Clark, but please call me Tom. Can you get word to Aval?”

If he answered yes, how was he supposed to do the rescue? On the other hand, perhaps the forces coming in from Aval would rescue Leroy; if they didn’t, surely he’d be given a chance to escape. It might not be much of a chance, but it’d be there.

Serenity nodded. “Yeah. We were supposed to scout out the raiders as quickly as we could, then Gate back to Aval. Do you have a good estimate?”

Tom seemed to relax. “Yeah, it’s-” He patted his side, as though expecting to find something that wasn’t there. “Dangit, when did I lose my bag? I’d have sworn I had it when I climbed that tree!”

Serenity shook his head; he could already tell they weren’t going to find it. This was an interfering dungeon, or it wouldn’t have replaced his (and Rissa’s) armor when they entered. It was likely that if the soldier had escaped on his own, he’d have kept the bag. Since he didn’t, the price of escape was the information he was supposed to deliver. They probably wouldn’t find it, but it was still worth trying. “What did it look like?”

When they didn’t find the bag after a half-hour of searching, Serenity turned to Tom. “What was in your bag?”

“Everything I needed for a few days’ travel.” Tom paused and started checking things off on his fingers. “Food, clothing, a pistol, matches, a knife, a sleeping bag, a tarp, some water bottles, some cleaning stuff, the information on the enemy … I think I’m missing something but I don’t remember what.”

“Tutorial backpack?” Rissa asked, grinning and leaning against a tree. “We can’t replace your gun or the backpack, so hopefully it’ll be returned to you when you leave. Sounds like the only other important thing you lost is the info on the enemy. Did you memorize it?”

:I wasn’t going to tell him we were from outside,: Serenity protested.

Rissa winked at Serenity. :Someone will figure it out, probably as soon as someone who knows anything about this dungeon sees the message I sent to Mr. Williams. Better to do damage control now, which means not keeping secrets for no reason.:

She had a point. He didn’t have to like it, but she did have a point. If he’d thought of it that way, he might have said something differently earlier. :Fine.:

“Yeah, it’s my - wait, you said you were with Aval?” Tom glanced back and forth between Rissa and Serenity.

“We are.” Serenity tilted his head at Rissa. “I wasn’t going to say more, but … we picked a faction when we joined. It’ll let you do that if you meet the conditions; it seems to be the key to getting more Events. Well, a key; I’m pretty sure Travelers can pick up most of them. With all of that said, why don’t we get back to the Dungeon scenario. I’m guessing you didn’t memorize the papers you were supposed to carry?”

Tom just stood there for a moment, thinking. It made Serenity revise his opinion on the soldier; he couldn’t be as young as he looked.

When Tom finally spoke, he was decisive. “No, I didn’t memorize the opposing troop information; that’s why we each had a copy. I know the basics, but that’s it. You think the dungeon took it from me; that means we need to rescue Leroy. I can lead you to where we split, then we’ll have to track him from there.”

As they left, Tom turned to Rissa. “How did you get into a full dungeon run?”

“There are a few ways,” Serenity interjected. “They all boil down to additional access privileges. It’s a reward some dungeons will hand out, though they’re usually still limited in some way. Any monster of the dungeon can re-enter, too. The dungeon core can also let people in up to a point; that means that anyone in charge of the core, such as a dungeon binder or sometimes a City Lord can.”

None of those were how Serenity had gotten in; at first, he’d thought it was his Ghost in the System title. Perhaps it had been, at first, but now he was beginning to think it was something else. “I think the planet can let people in, too, but she wouldn’t do that without a good reason. In that case, I think the dungeon core would get to make some choices about how it worked.”

Serenity and Rissa had a good reason; they were to negotiate with the dungeon core. The difference between the options they’d seen had to be the doing of this particular dungeon core; Serenity wasn’t certain what the reason behind it was, but that was the only thing he could think of that would explain the difference.

Tom took a moment to digest the revelation. “So which was it in your case?”

Serenity started to answer, but realized Rissa had a better read on the situation than he did, with her empathy. :Should I tell him?:

:I think so. He’s receptive right now. Plus, there are going to be rumors anyway. This one doesn’t seem too damaging.: Rissa set her hand on his shoulder. “My horse didn’t run; I’ll grab it and one of the enemy horses and meet you back here in a moment.”

Serenity patted Rissa’s hand, then started speaking as she lifted it off his shoulder. “Gaia, the World Core, asked me to be her emissary, to talk to the dungeon cores. I’m good with crystals and magic, so…” Serenity shrugged. “I’m pretty sure this is a special thing, so I can talk to a dungeon I can’t otherwise get into. She wants the dungeons to help with managing the ley lines. They’re sort of like the world’s magic plumbing, and the system’s kinda broken. So she needs all the help she can get.”

Serenity mounted his horse, then watched as Rissa pulled herself up. Tom was slower, barely making it up on his first try.

Tom fiddled with the reins a bit, then pointed down the road. “It’s that way. As soon as I figure out how to make the horse move.”

“Lean forward a little, you’re sitting all the way back and telling her to stop. Tighten your legs just a bit.” Rissa spoke up before Serenity could.

Tom followed the instructions and his horse started walking forwards. He tugged on the reins and quickly turned her in the correct direction. “So, tell me about Events. You said you were able to join as another faction?”