A few weeks later Jen walked into Sam’s workshop and said, “We’re completely broke. We only have about 50 silvers to our name."

Sam cringed, “Wow, it cost that much?”

Jen nodded, “Sure did, but I have the title documents from the City System Shop. We are now the proud owners of 100 acres of land both surrounding the dungeon and including all rights to the Hot Streak Dungeon!”

A few hours later as Jen took a seat in Director Devon’s office, he asked, “Ms. Jen, would you like something to drink?”

Jen laughed, “Not today, I can’t drink like you guildies!”

Devon took a seat behind his desk and asked, “You’ve got me on the edge of my seat with your request for this confidential meeting. I truly can’t imagine what you have in mind.”

Jen held her finger up to her lips requesting they both be silent. She pulled out several of Sam’s silencing rods and started placing them around the room.

Devon was getting nervous, but Jen whispered as she continued to position the rods, “these rods will keep our conversation from being overheard,” easing his concerns. When Jen finished, she finally said, “If we stay in this area in the middle, no sounds or words will leave this space.”

Devon nodded and said, “Interesting, let me give it a try.” He took a deep breath and hollered as loud as he could, “Guards! Guards!”

Jen could tell that Devon was pretty impressed with the silencing rods. Then he said, “Are you wanting to sell these through our public store? I’m sure there would be a lot of interest. The silence enchantments we have are tied to a specific room or location and can’t be easily moved.”

Jen shook her head and said, “No, these rods are not the reason for my visit, but you will soon understand why they are necessary. Sam and I own some land, and we have purchased complete ownership rights for everything on or in the land. There is an active dungeon on our property that we also have title ownership of. Before we offer the property for sale at auction, does your guild have any interest in purchasing it?”

Devon asked her to say no more until he gathered all the available guild officers. Less than 30 minutes later, Jen was getting seated in a larger conference room with Devon, as the last of the available guild branch executive officers entered the room for the emergency meeting.

As soon as Devon activated a built-in sound barrier especially made for the conference room, there was an immediate explosion of questions.

“Are we under attack?”

“What is Ms. Jen doing here?”

“Have we been robbed?”

And several other questions, all demanding an immediate response.

Devon raised his hand for silence and announced to the room. “Ms. Jen has full ownership of an active dungeon and has asked if our Guild branch would be interested in buying it.”

Everyone in the guild knew that it had been over 10 years, anywhere on the First Deck, since the Arc Guild acquired ownership of an active dungeon. New dungeons didn’t just pop up every day, and when they did, there was fierce competition for them.

There was complete stunned silence for about a second, before another roar of questions and comments from the guild officers.

“How much does she want?”

“How did she get a dungeon?”

“What kind of loot does the dungeon drop?”

“Where’s the dungeon located?”

Devon raised his hands for silence again. “Following Arc Guild bylaws, I called this meeting immediately. All of you now know everything I do at this time.” Devon then turned to Jen and asked, “Does anyone else know about the dungeon?”

Jen replied, “I can tell you this, if you’re able to purchase the dungeon now, your guild will have no interference, and those who do know will not disclose any information about the dungeon to anyone.”

Devon didn’t like Jen’s somewhat vague answer but went on “OK, please tell us about the dungeon.”

Jen intentionally gave the appearance of being cautious and a little uncomfortable, as she said, “Before I tell you anything about the dungeon, I need to know if your guild even has the ability to pay for it.”

The room went into chaos for a third time.

“How dare you!”

“Who does she think she is?”

“Throw her out now!”

“Fair question.”

Devon had dealt with Jen before and knew she was not the type to go around insulting people, and raised his hands again for calm. When the last muttering finally stopped, Devon looked at Jen with a warning in his eyes, and said, “Please continue.”

Jen was undisturbed by the rooms comments, kept her composure, and simply continued, “My father and I are not just asking for gold. We are also looking for a service and a relationship. We are not asking to be members of your guild. In fact, we do not want to be members of any guild at this time. However, part of the price will include providing us a multi-deck bank account with your guild where we can access our funds on any deck in any city that has an Arc Guild branch.”

Jen almost burst out laughing as the group of directors started mumbling comments again and Devon’s look of frustration with them.

“What the hell do they want that for?”

“Do we even have that type of account?”

None of the board members cared about Deck jumping. There was so much that still needed exploring in the First Deck. They all had chosen long ago to keep growing stronger and continue their adventures without any concern for jumping to higher Decks. Most people on the First Deck didn’t understand why anyone even cared to Deck Jump.

Devon just spoke over everyone and said, “Before I go through all the trouble to see if your request would be granted by our headquarters guild in Slot City, what else do you want?”

Jen knew she could squeeze them for gold, but her goal was to get the multi-deck account and maintain good relations with the Arc Guild. She smiled, and said, “No one knows how much gold I would get if the dungeon were to be auctioned off, but we all know it would be a ridiculous amount. I mean the Stone Guild is paying top dollar for just information that may lead to a dungeon.”

The board members cringed as she mentioned their primary competitor the Stone Guild.

Jen continued, “Keep my comments in mind, because all we’re asking for is a multi-deck account, access to the dungeon once a month, and the reimbursement of our actual costs and expenses for acquiring the dungeon, and these terms are non-negotiable.”

The board started mumbling with excitement.

“Just title to land can still be very expensive.”

“We need to know her actual costs and expenses before we waste any more time.”

“Maybe we can trade some loot for it?”

While setting up the multi-deck account would cost next to nothing, only Devon and a few of the others actually knew how difficult it was going to be to convince the Guild HQ in Slot City to allow non-guild members to acquire one.

Director Devon activated another enchantment that silenced the sound in the room, and then waited patiently as each of the board members realized no one could hear them, and they each quit trying to talk. Once they were all paying attention again, he deactivated the room silencer.

“Ms. Jen we would need to contact the Arc Guild Deck Director regarding the multi-deck account. Before we do that, we need more information about the dungeon, and we’d need to know exactly how much it will cost us in addition to the account.”

All the board members were nodding in agreement and looking expectantly at Jen. She smiled and said, “Two multi-level accounts, 300 gold, once-a-month dungeon access. As for information about the dungeon, it is closer to Casino City than any other Deck City. That’s all I am going to tell you about the dungeon at his time.

“Thank you, Ms. Jen, for bringing this opportunity to us first!” Director Devon quickly said to hold off any more mutterings by the other board members. “We are interested, but we must consult privately before making any decisions. May we have until tomorrow to get back with you?”

“Of course, tomorrow is fine. Thank you everyone!” Jen said cheerily as she stood to leave.

Devon also rose and walked with Jen out to the street. By the time he returned, the board room was in chaos with everyone talking over each other.

As he made his way to the head of the table, he chuckled at the crazy group of men and women in the room. They were stubborn, cheap, brash, cranky, tired, excitable, disagreeable and a multitude of other traits, but they were all reliable and honorable men and women he would fight next to any day. He knew this dungeon could start a new era for their local branch.

After a moment, the room went silent as they all eventually turned their heads waiting for him to lead the discussion.

“Let me start off by saying that I think we, as the local branch, should do everything we can to purchase this dungeon and keep ownership 100% in our branch. If we can get this dungeon without sharing any ownership with any of our sister branches, our hall will be one of the wealthiest on the Deck!”

There was unanimous nods of agreement, and then Devon asked their Chief Financial Officer, who was second in command, “Judy, do we have any multi-level accounts already assigned to our guild hall?”

“Yes, we have four that are assigned to our local guild members that are not being used.” Judy pointed down the table at two of the board members and said, “Carol and Rob both have multi-level accounts they purchased years ago when they were thinking about deck jumping.” She pulled some paperwork out of her storage ring and reviewed the documents a moment before saying, “Jackie Roll and Three Dice have the other two.”

Carol spoke up, “We should see who is willing to sell their multi-level account, and then negotiate a fair price with those willing to sell. However, I am definitely willing to sell mine.”

Rob followed up her comment with an excited, “Me too! I paid 2 gold for mine, and will sell it back at cost.”

Devon said, “Good, then we definitely have two multi-level accounts available, IF we can get the Deck-Director to sign off on transferring them to Jen and Sam.”

“She better!” one of the board members mumbled loudly.

“Let’s stay focused everyone,” Devon said taking back control of the discussion. “How much gold do we have Judy?”

She pulled some more documents out of her ring, and after a few moments said, “If we keep the bare minimum for operating expenses, we can pull together maybe 200 of the 300 gold needed to purchase the dungeon.”

There were some groans in the room, but no one was surprised. Adventuring guilds were focused on buying better gear and funding new expeditions.

Marky Bett, one of the guild’s oldest members and a former director from many years earlier said, “What about those two legacy technique scrolls we have in the vault? Maybe they would consider taking them in trade?”

Carol spoke up, “It’s been a couple of years since we checked the value of the scrolls with the System shop, but even then, they were worth more than 400 hundred gold each!”

Marky replied, “True, the System shop would sell them for over 400 gold each, but it will only pay 50 or 60 gold for each for them. They’ve been in our vault doing nothing for over 300 years, and we can’t auction them for very much because everyone, even a few deck droppers, that have tried to use them, have failed because they had insufficient mana pools.”

Carol countered saying, “All together we would be paying between 950 and 1,000 gold for the dungeon. Maybe more, depending on the current market value of the legacy scrolls.”

Shasta Dice spoke next saying, “I’m pretty sure the last dungeon that was auctioned off went for over 1,200 gold. Even at full market value for the legacy scrolls we’re getting a good deal, all because they want those multi-level accounts.”

Carol nodded, “Good point.”

Marky Replied, “Assuming we can get the Deck Director to approve the accounts. I move we offer to purchase the dungeon for 200 gold plus the two legacy scrolls.”

Shasta seconded Marky’s motion, and it passed with unanimous consent of the board.