Vee and Alforde barely spoke when they returned to the boarding house, and when he saw that the armorsoul had left for the dungeon before he’d woken up the next day, Vee realized that things were Bad.

He thought of Sculla’s warning that hadn’t been a warning, and wondered if this was what she’d been trying to warn him about. Had she foreseen his fight with Alforde somehow? Maybe it had something to do with that strange tobacco she’d been smoking. Vee made a mental note to ask her about it.

After a quick breakfast and cup of coffee that both tasted like ash in his mouth, the [Dungeon Master] made his way to Crestheart with Reginald. The hat, sensing Vee’s somber mood, didn’t talk much. Vee was grateful for that.

Wureini, the salamander [City Guard] Vee and Alforde talked to sometimes was on duty that morning, and she fixed Vee with a wide smile as he approached.

“It looks like it’s going to be a good day for you guys,” she asked. Vee raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“We’ve already had to open the gate three other times this morning,” Wureini said. “A group of kitrekin adventurers was waiting here to go through at sunlight, and another group of humans arrived shortly after that. Then Alforde came by, though I was surprised to see that he was by himself. He didn’t really say much.”

Vee ignored the hidden question and the salamander frowned.

“Are you sure that the other groups were adventurers?” Reginald asked. “It’s unusual for them to come by so early.”

“That’s true. I guess I’m not sure they were adventurers,” said the [City Guard], shaking her head and tail. “But they were all equipped like they were getting ready to run the dungeon, so who else would they be?”

Goons and gangsters, Vee thought, but he didn’t say so out loud.

“Did they mention anything interesting?” Reginald asked.

“You’ll have to ask Taziel,” Wureini asked. “He was closer to them than I was."

Taziel was an older man Vee had seen a couple times but never talked to. He had salt and pepper hair, thick eyebrows, and a fleshy nose that looked like it’d been broken more than once. His armor was clean, but it didn’t sparkle like Wureini’s did, and the leather grip of the sword slung across his back was worn and faded from use. He was a hard man, and merely grunted noncommittally when Vee asked about the strange groups going through the gate. Vee thanked him anyways.

“Have a good one,” the man said as he turned the big wheel that opened the junk and scrap metal gate. Vee thanked him and walked through.

“If those weren’t the Don’s crew and some of Sacre’s guys, I’ll eat my hat,” Vee murmured as the gate clanged shut.

“I’ll level with you, Boss. I’d really rather that you didn’t do that,” Reginald answered. “But I agree with you. They’re definitely looking for something. What are you going to do? Are you going to send out the fiends?”

Vee was. Closing his eyes and reaching through his bond -- ignoring the one that linked him to Alforde, which was taut and dark – Vee tugged on his connections to his medium section. The fiends were eager and excited as they listened to his orders.

“There’s a group of humans and a group of kitrekins somewhere out in Westown,” Vee ordered. “Find them and watch them for a while. Stay out of sight and out of danger, but I want to know what they’re up to out here.”

His underlings wasted no time in doing as he commanded. Splitting up, they went out into Westown, little more than shadows in the alleys. Vee wished them luck, and turned his attention back to the Dungeon.

He legs were as heavy as his thoughts as he climbed the stairs up to his office, but a quick check confirmed that Alforde was already down in his arena. Vee bit his lip. If his friend was going to attend to his duties without complaint, Vee would do the same.

[To stay the course despite hardship is noble indeed.]

[You can now earn points in Determination.]

[Determination +1]

***

Absentmindedly, Vee pressed a button on his console and watched as the [Snow Saw] sprang up out of the floor. Unfortunately, he’d been too slow once again and the adventurer – a level 15 [Air Mage] – simply turned around and looked confused as the place where he’d been standing some time before was filled with sharp spinning snowflakes that likely would have been an impediment to his run if he’d been there when they appeared.

Cursing, Vee slammed the button to proc the next traps, but he was too early this time, and the man wearing the crooked hat and threadbare robe had plenty of time to simply stop where he was and wait for the [Icicle Spikes] to retract back into the walls.

Vee shook his head. The day was not going well. He’d been missing his timings all morning. As much as he hated to admit it, he simply wasn’t in the right headspace to work properly. Not wanting to continue throwing good effort after bad, he flipped the switch on his console that set the traps to activate on their own when triggered and stood up. Reginald gave him a strange look, but was too caught up in his own job to say anything as Vee started pacing back and forth.

Though it’d already been a few hours since he’d sent out his fiends, his bonds to the members of the medium section were almost completely inert. There hadn’t been any flickers of emotion, nor any hard-to-understand messages coming his way. They simply hadn’t found anything yet.

He couldn’t help but feel a keen twinge of disappointment. Despite knowing that Westown was a gigantic sprawl of abandoned buildings and overgrown alleys, he’d really hoped that the fiends would have turned up something by now. They were devilishly quick and capable of moving across the city faster than people, most likely on account of not needing to battle their fellows as they did so.

Vee shook his head and did his best to remain calm. He trusted his minions. They’d turn up something eventually.

Looking back at the dungeon run, Vee saw that the adventurer had reached the mini boss room and was battling Mr. Chills. The giant snowman was filling the air with snowballs, but as that was the adventurer’s domain they weren’t amounting to much. The man simply waved his wand and the projectiles blew to the sides of the room shattering harmlessly against the walls. Without the pressure from the ghost’s attacks, the [Air Mage] simply walked from one side of the room to another and collected both halves of the deactivating key without issue. The auto-timed traps weren’t enough to deter him, and Vee found himself thinking that the mini-boss needed an upgrade.

I should give it another type of attack, Vee thought as he sat back down at his console. Maybe some sort of proper melee attack, or a ground based projectile of some sort. Heck, even if it bowled a snowball instead of throwing it that’d be an improvement for cases like these.

He reached over to the console proper, thinking about retaking control of the traps, but ultimately decided against it. He was still too antsy, too distracted, and for the moment he was content to simply watch the runs and decide if and when to use [Boost Drops].

Having deactivated Mr. Chills, the [Air Mage] continued to the third floor, making easy work of the floating platforms and pitfalls there. However, his success made him cocky, and he stopped paying attention to his surroundings once he entered the final string of battle rooms. As a result, he fell prey to a skeleton ambush. A pair of knights got ahold of him and kept him from fleeing while three lancers swept back and forth and battered him with their spears. He forfeited his run then and there, and Vee slouched in his chair as the dungeon was reset. The rest of the day was going to be a long, slow slog. Vee could feel it in his toes.

Before he could truly despair thou, a glimmer of something flitted through one of his bonds and the [Ghost Maestro] sat up as if struck by lightning. A fiend over near the center of Westown had found something!

Saw kitrekins near old drain grate, the minion explained. Short time later, gone.

Vee instructed the fiend to look around some more and see if they were still nearby, but when it checked back in a half hour later, there was no further sign of the kitrekins.

Vee rubbed his chin, deep in thought. The gangsters must have gone through the grate.

So whatever they were after, it was in the labyrinth of the sewers, eh? Interesting. He couldn’t imagine what was possibly down there, but it was a good lead all the same.

Curiosity urged him to send the fiend in after them to see what it could find, but Vee resisted the temptation. There were other ways to find out what they were after without risking a fiend, and Vee was going to try those first.

***

The rest of the day and the next two passed in a dull slog of monotonous repetition. Vee alternated between periods of managing the traps and leaving them alone, watching scores of adventurers battle their way through Crestheart’s floors. The experience was a rather mixed bag.

On the one hand, there were so many challengers that the fleurs were rolling in, which was great, but on the other hand, the [Dungeon Master]’s heart wasn’t in it and he found himself impossibly eager for each day’s runs to end.

The joy and excitement that he normally found by tinkering with different trap timings or minion pack positioning was nowhere to be found, and Vee briefly wondered if he was starting to experience the adverse status effect Burnout. A semi-permanent sense of malaise was how it started, he thought.

Or maybe not, as his stats were all where they were supposed to be and none of his skills failed when he tried to use them. If anything, they were working too well. Though he was still a good ways from being able to use [Boost Drops] an extra time every day, he was able to use [Walking Walls] without any straining. Still, Vee was wary about that not being the case forever, so he took frequent breaks from manning the console to walk around. He even went outside a handful of times and got some fresh air, but none of his trips did much to help his mood for long.

This wasn’t sustainable. Even his discussions with Rortenferry failed to improve the [Dungeon Master]’s mood for long, since the [Professor] had yet to truly crack any of the underlying principles affecting Vee’s unusual orchestra.

Vee took some bitter solace from the fact that he wasn’t alone in his struggles, either; Alforde was struggling too. Due to the fact that Vee’s work with the traps and minions was substantially less potent than it normally was at weakening adventurers, a good chunk of Crestheart’s challengers made it down to Alforde’s arena where they’d battle the [Dungeon Champion].

Thanks to the sheer difference in level and experience between them, the armorsoul was still winning nearly all of his bouts, but many of them were closer than it should have been.

Vee watched his friend miss attacks that should have been easy to hit, or fail to dodge a skill he had to have seen coming. At first, he’d wondered if Alforde was intentionally holding back in an attempt to make the fights fairer, but as the number of times Allforde had to claw his way back from two or even three stocks down steadily increased, Vee didn’t think that could possibly be the case.

The [Dungeon Master] was trying to think of the best way to approach Alforde and start to repair their friendship at the end of the day’s runs when Dheart chimed and got his attention.

“Master, it is my pleasure to report that the Union has authorized me to tell you that Crestheart’s next perk will be arriving tomorrow.”

Vee acknowledged the message, and when he looked back at the champion’s arena, he saw that Alforde had already left the dungeon.

Tomorrow, he told himself. Tomorrow he would start making things right.

Main Character Sheets:

Vee Vales

Primary Class: Ghost Maestro (Locksmagister University), Level 28

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 18

Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 5

Might: 12

Wit: 31

Faith: 21

Adventurousness: 7

Ambition: 14

Plotting: 18

Charisma: 12

Devious Mind: 22

Leadership: 15

Guts: 13

Intimidating Presence: 9

Citizenship: 20

Public Relations: 6

Determination: 1 (+1)

Alforde Armorsoul:

Primary Class: Hammer Afficionado (Self), Level 21

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 11

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 14

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 4 (+1)

Might: 39

Wit: 12

Faith: 26

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 8

Endurance: 19

Intimidating Presence: 13

Heart of a Champion: 5 ( -1)

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 8

Vigilance: 6

Vanity: 4

Reginald:

Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ???

--~%@(%[email protected] &% (*$ #&#e !i$$ (#$%#$%#[email protected]!)~--, #[email protected]& ????

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 38 (-1)

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 15

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 8

Might: 1

Wit: 32

Faith: 11

Ambition: 27

Greed: 22

Deceptiveness: 28

Manipulativeness: 36

$#&*[email protected]!!

Loyalty: 46

Patience: 9

[#&%%%@%!#@__--#%]

%^(@#!! @#[email protected][email protected]#

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 7