After pausing at the door, the woman visible mustered her courage and strode to Mickeys desk.

To amuse himself with a petty power play, Mickey waited until she was just about to speak and then preempted her with his best customer service voice.

‘Hi there. You’re here for the interview?’

Caught off guard the young lady replied

‘Er yes my name is Hilda Banks, I’m Scheduled for Two pm?’

‘ Fantastic, Please take a seat and wait.’

They waited in awkward silence for another ten minutes before a dishelved male youth around university age burst through the door.

‘Hey i’m here ab-’

‘You’re here for the interview? Fantastic, Please take a seat and wait.’

As the two recent university graduates made a few abortive attempts at conversation the appointed time for the group interview came and went. Without any additional applicants arriving Mickey finally decided to get the show on the road.

Standing up he addressed the two.

‘Okay now, since it doesn’t look like we’ll have anyone else joining us i don’t see any reason to keep waiting. Since there are two positions open and only two applicants i figure you two will both get the job, provided you don’t fail a simple test.’

The two applicants looked at each other uncertinly.

Hilda spoke up first.

‘Ah the thing is the job advert wasn't very informative. It was just for upper management with no experience necessary.’

Mickey nodded in understanding.

‘So what you’re thinking is “is this a scam or something illegal?” And let me assure you that no it is not. The sketchy job advert was intentional. I wanted to weed out people unwilling to take risks, and to get uni grads with a fresh perspective. To summarize the job, I’m building a new company to exploit the unique resources of an urban metaregion.

I need a couple people to handle the bureaucracy for me. However this is a new company in a new industry, if i hired experienced upper management they would try to run things similarly to their old jobs. New graduates without experience on the other hand will try to build a standard textbook company and adapt it to their needs. I expect you'll make a bunch of mistakes figuring out what works, but as long as you learn from them it’ll work out.’

Mickey pulled a pair of tough full body worksuits out of his pocket.

‘Now remove your shoes and put these on. Time for you two to see the metaregion.’

The male appliant hesitated before asking.

‘Is that safe? I thought metaregions are deathtraps.’

Mickey smiled grimly.

‘They are mostly, which why I’ll be escorting you. You’ll be safe with me there, but I won’t be escorting every group so you two will need to know what our future guild members will be getting into. You can’t run a successful bakery without knowing something about bread.’

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As the two appilicants entered the dungeon, Mickey tasted their emotions using the dungeon's empathy. The boy, who had introduced himself as Lloyd, was scared but a strong need for money was keeping him focused. The girl, Hilda, on the other hand was awash in a sea of uncertainty and self doubt and only sheer will was moving her forwards. Mickey felt that with some tempering and experience the two of them would be perfect fits. He just had to check their character.

While Lloyd kicked and stomped the rats in a panicked rage, Mickey moved next to the pale faced Hilda.

‘So why do you think loyalty may be more important to this company?’ Mickey asked.

Hilda started in surprise.

‘What?’

Mikey repeated himself and then watched as Hilda tried to come up with the answer she thought Mickey wanted. He didn’t bother listening to her answer.

Mikey asked the same question of Llyod as the watched Hilda slowly wobble her way through the obstacle course.

The young man frowned as he answered.

‘Loyalty would be more important so teammates don’t get into arguments or fight over loot. You don’t want to be on a team where someone will leave you behind. You need to work together.’

Mickey considered the answer. Honest but incomplete, which was more or less what he expected.

After they completed the first floor and acquired their skills, ( for Hilda, and For Lloyd.) Mickey led them out of the dungeon.

Hilda spoke up first.

‘So it’s like a video game, with skills and levels and everything?’

‘ Skill yeah, but we haven’t seen any levels or loot yet. The skills aren’t much yet but as it’s assumed they will get stronger as the dungeon gets bigger. We expect physical loot as well at some point. That means this metaregion will hopefully be a reliable source of metamaterials and meta augmentations. Which is why it’s so valuable.’

Mickey paused at the office door.

‘Okay so you two both passed the test so much that you didn’t pass out or run screaming. So if you want the jobs you have them. Lloyd you will be in charge of logistics, and Hilda you’ll be in charge of administration. I’ll send emails with the job and duty details and you can think it over during the weekend. If you accept, come in on Monday and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the tea and we'll sketch out a business plan. Okay? Cool.’

Without waiting for a reply Mickey walked into the office and closed the door.

Hilda Banks and Lloyd Moore looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and leaving to their respective homes.