“She didn’t come see you?” Olza asked. Hans leaned over her shop counter.

  “Nope.”

  “I haven’t seen her either. Maybe she’s on another forest errand?”

  “Maybe. Or she’s avoiding me.”

  “You think so?”

  Hans shrugged. “She mentioned never having been in a battle like that before. It doesn’t matter how old you are when you have your first taste of war. Everyone works through it differently. Also can’t find Sven.”

  “Maybe he went up the mountain without telling anyone?”

  “Probably. I’m getting a ride up tomorrow.”

  Olza assured him Sven was fine.

  Quest Update: Check in on the adventurers at the dungeon, including Becky and Sven.

  To change the subject, Hans asked her to explain her thoughts on Luther’s notes. He had reported his first month of observations in a letter to Olza, but Hans hadn’t read it and assumed he wouldn’t understand if he tried. The headline was that all of the starcups were growing more quickly than Olza’s Gomi control starcups, which Hans already knew.

  He didn’t know that the clove of Mazo garlic she provided to Luther grew more quickly as well. Not enough of the garlic plant was above ground yet for him to provide an accurate guess of its growth speed, but it was promising.

  If Olza would accept an observation without clear data–Hans had to laugh at how well Luther knew Olza–Luther believed the garlic might be maturing three to four times faster than surface garlic. Whether any of those results were scalable was another topic entirely.

  “He sent down enough dungeon soil for two pots,” Olza said. “I just planted those the other day, though. I’m so excited to see what happens.” Olza did a small tippy-tappy dance with her feet, like she was physically restricting her own dance movements. “Sorry.”

  Hans said he wasn’t bothered.

  “Oh! Do you want me to get my notes on the manual? I’ve been researching that too. Look at me. Research on research.”

  “About that,” Hans began. “Can we hold off on that for now?”

  “You’re really starting to–”

  The door to Olza’s shop opened. Uncle Ed half-shouted, “Hans, you in here?” He dipped his head to the alchemist. “Miss Olza.”

  “Good to see you, Ed.”

  “It’s good to be seen. Oh, gods. Did I just say that? My pa said that all the time, and I hated it.”

  Hans and Olza laughed.

  “Sorry to interrupt. I was talking to Charlie and he said you were looking for a ride up the mountain. I’m leaving shortly if you want to hitch a ride with me.”

  “That’d be great.” Hans turned to Olza. “Looks like I’ve got to run. I’ll see you soon.”

  He followed Uncle Ed out the door before Olza could finish a sentence about how Hans should be resting his leg, not traveling.

  Uncle Ed did his best to give Hans a blow-by-blow of Kane and Quentin’s tournament matches, but he lacked the vocabulary and the experience with combat to paint too clear of a picture. That was okay with Hans.

  Quentin ran through his first three opponents. His fourth opponent offered a bit of a challenge, but couldn’t get any meaningful offense going, so he lost to Quentin too. In the fight for first, Quentin faced an older Apprentice, perhaps nineteen. The match started pretty even, but Quentin fell for a feint and that was the end of his tournament run.

  “Thuz was telling me that some chapters withhold promotions so their people do better in tournaments. Is that for real?”

  “Happens all the time,” Hans replied. “There’s also the opposite where they promote faster to pad their rosters. That’s less common.”

  “So he wasn’t just trying to make Quentin feel better?”

  Hans shook his head. “Sometimes a chapter will look really good in a tournament because they do ultra-slow promotions. They sweep every division because half the team is fighting a division under what they should be fighting. To be fair, it’s unintentional sometimes, but what can you do? It’s one of those accepted problems. Another possible explanation is that the guy was just better. No shame in that.”

  “Right. Right.”

  “Why didn’t Quentin do the Absolute?”

  Uncle Ed unleashed a deep belly laugh. “Not for lack of trying. Izz talked him out of it eventually. Apparently most of the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions at the Apprentice level signed up for the Absolute. Bunch of giants. Bigger than me. Izz had been watching the other matches too and felt dropping Quentin in a bracket of almost all big guys wasn’t… How’d he say it… Productive. It wouldn’t be productive.”

  Hans was glad Quentin listened to Izz.

  “I thought you’d be all about him taking on challenges, not giving up, persevering. You know, adventurer stuff.”

  “One or two big matchups, fine. If the division is stacked with big boys, though, the abuse it puts a lightweight through isn’t worth it. I’d have handled it the same way as Izz.”

  “Mmhmm, mmhmm.”

  “Not going to tell me about Kane?”

  “I thought you’d never ask!” Uncle Ed nearly jumped off the wagon with excitement. “He seemed like a different kid entirely, but then it occurred to me. I’ve never seen him fight fight. It’s always him in the training yard. In that tournament though?” Ed whistled.

  “That good?”

  “I don’t know shit about what I’m watching, Hans, but even I know he ran through his matches at middleweight. Ref would tap this bell to start the fight, and then it was over. The other guy was either on his ass or yielding over and over.”

  Hans laughed.

  “He got challenged in the Absolute. He drew the guy who took first in Quentin’s divisions for one of the matches, and he had a tough time. Edged out a win on points, but it was real close. For the finals, it was him and this heavyweight, oh gods. I’m sorry, Hans. I forgot a part.”

  What Ed had forgotten to mention was that no spells were allowed at the Apprentice level, the Absolute being the exception.

  “A few of the people tried to cast, but nobody actually got a spell off.”

  That was typical for the Apprentice level, Hans said.

  “And nobody knows Kane can cast because he hadn’t tried to. He said he wanted to cast against Quentin’s lightweight, but the guy was too fast. The heavyweight was not too fast, and I swear I didn’t even notice him do it.”

  “His Spellsword training is paying off. What’d he do?”

  “Kane can probably explain it better, but the guy was moving forward to attack, and Kane cast Pull as he moved for a parry. Tugged on his ankle mid-step. He doesn’t go down right off the bat, but he for sure stumbled real bad. Kane knocked him off his feet the old fashioned way after that.”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Hans thanked Ed for all of the stories. He wished he could have been there too.

  After several quiet minutes of trees rolling lazily by, Ed said, “From what I gather, that orc band was bad news. Quentin came over for dinner before they rotated up and talked my ear off about encounter levels and multipliers based on how many monsters were present. I didn’t quite understand it, but Quentin was adamant that on paper, the fight with the orc band was a losing one.”

  Hans explained that the unspoken assumption behind encounter levels is that either side is entering the battle aware that they have enemies to defeat. Ogres were rated as Silver encounters, but even a child could slit the throat of a sleeping ogre. Fights weren't a card game where one hand was definitively better than the other at all times.

  The Gomi adventurers had advanced notice of the threat, the element of surprise, and two Druids who knew the landscape well enough to pick the perfect place to attack.

  “Casters attacking from the rear gets ugly, fast. We had two groups: one attacking the mages from behind, one keeping the warriors from advancing at the front. All of our upper-ranked adventurers were in the mage attack party except for Becky.”

  The plan was to attack the mages from behind to draw the attention of the entire warband to a threat behind them. If an enemy group had a mage, they almost always prioritized protecting their mage. When the warriors turned back to help, the other group attacked. There were a lot of other details in there too, but that was the overall framework.

  “Sounds like you had a hell of a plan.”

  “Almost,” Hans said, dejected. “I played it out in my head enough to find our best bet for avoiding casualties. I had Becky and Buru drawing where they remembered individual trees being, no matter how big. I mean really, I tried to account for everything. When I thought I had, it was going to be a close one, but winnable. I didn’t account for the mages knowing Summoning spells, though. Plan went to shit when those came out.”

  “What happened to that boy was terrible,” Ed said. “I can’t imagine that was the first you lost. That must be hard.”

  Hans shook his head.

  “You shouldn’t blame yourself.”

  “I don't.”

  “Oh?”

  “I blame the orcs.”

  As far as Tandis knew, Sven was still in Gomi. He had not checked in at the dungeon.

  New Quest: Locate Sven.

  Quest Update: Check in on the adventurers at the dungeon, including Becky.

  Thuz found Hans in his cabin, fresh off the wagon and dropping his bags. When Hans asked how the adventurers at the dungeon were doing, Thuz shared that he and his brother had already spoken to the others, the Minotaurs and Becky included. The lizardmen didn’t need to witness the battle to know what it was like to lose an adventurer. At the time, no one seemed any farther off course than any other person navigating a moment like that.

  Quest Complete: Check in on the adventurers at the dungeon, including Becky.

  A weight Hans hadn’t realized was there lifted from his chest. His lungs felt fuller. He took a big inhale to enjoy the feeling and grabbed his side. He forgot about his broken ribs.

  “I’m most worried about Lee,” Hans said. “She’s struggling.”

  “To be expected.”

  “I know this is the last thing you want to talk about, but if you guys were comfortable with it, maybe you could talk to her? If not, that’s fine. I understand.”

  “Knowledge should be shared,” Thuz began, “even if it was painful to acquire. Perhaps, especially because it was painful to acquire.”

  “You’re a good man, Thuz,” Hans said.

  Quest Complete: Ask Izz and Thuz if they would be open to talking with Lee.

  “We emulate our teachers.” Thuz said with a gentle bow. He looked down at Hans’ wrapped leg. “But not their combat abilities.”

  Hans laughed again and then clutched his side. It hurt so much to laugh. Thuz laughed with him.

  When Hans caught his breath, he presented an offensive gesture to Thuz. “I was going to tell you we could grow the golem now that you two are back, but you might be stuck up here for a while if we do that. I won’t be in any condition to assist in the near future, and our Silvers are taking some time. As they should.”

  “I would find that acceptable. I believe my brother would agree. We have not challenged ourselves enough in recent months.”

  “I have to be honest,” Hans said. “I’m not sure the golem will live up to your expectations after waiting all this time.”

  “That is another part of the blessing, Mr. Hans. Before we came to Gomi, we never expected to fight a golem that was long defeated. This is a unique opportunity that we do not wish to squander.”

  Hans made everyone up the mountain swear not to tell Olza he went into the dungeon. He could hear her scolding him already.

  The dungeon core accepted the suggestion to recreate Bunri’s tower but took some liberties that Hans didn’t expect or understand. He suggested the core place the tower at the beginning of ogre valley. Most of that section was banal forest, about as instructive as a long walk. Plenty of space for a wizard tower.

  They found the tower in what used to be the imp and zout room. Instead of a plain square room, the room had been transformed into the top of Bunri’s tower. If Hans hadn’t seen the original himself, he wouldn’t have thought the new area had anything to do with a tower. What would have been open air looking out over a country landscape was simple dungeon wall.

  When they arrived, the imps entertained themselves by breaking the bottles piled at the top of the tower. Smashing. Throwing. Dropping. Kicking. The zout was not present, scared away by the bottle festivities, Hans suspected.

  The door down to the fifth floor of the tower was magically trapped, just like the original. Lacking an enchanter, Izz used a sharp Push to blast through.

  That level had the same familiar bow of the original, the weight of the countless books straining the limits of the tower’s lumber. As Tandis predicted, the books were all blank. The next floor was also the same as the original, including the collection of hair beneath Bunri’s mirror.

  In the workshop, the only notable changes were more blank pieces of paper–even the paper where Bunri had written “Bunri is a failure” over and over. It was now blank as well.

  The drawings on the walls were as he remembered them, however.

  Why only that?

  Hans increasingly found himself thinking of the core as if it had a personality, but really that was him rationalizing the yet-unexplained oddities of growing a dungeon.

  With a few Force Bolts, Izz blew away the bulky padlocks securing the metal hatch, the one that led to the golem. He said something about how no self-respecting wizard would settle for security that archaic. Reflecting on what he knew about Bunri, Hans decided Izz was right. Bunri definitely was not a self-respecting wizard.

  “Before you go down,” Hans said to the brothers, “Remember that Mazo spent two hours in this room while Gret and Dunfoo looked for traps.”

  Izz and Thuz looked at each other. They left the hatch closed and studied the room.

  At that moment, Hans realized that he would have to sit there for two hours as well. He went upstairs to look for interesting bottles. There was nothing else to do.

  He found the following:

  -dozens of potion bottles, from travel vials to jugs with caps that doubled as measuring cups

  -hundreds of unlabeled beer bottles, likely bought locally (local to Bunri)

  -dozens of the same tall, narrow liquor bottles with dark green glass

  -an expensive whiskey bottle shaped like a goblin head

  -a phallic bottle that said “for external use only” in lowercase and then again in uppercase

  -a pink ceramic bottle with the face of a unicorn and “premium bathwater” etched into the container

  -a square black bottle that had a single label with the words “hells yeah” and nothing else written on it

  When Hans returned to the workshop, Izz asked, “Are these sound waves?”

  “You're familiar?”

  “It was in our reading from Miss Mazo. She insisted we be well-rounded in our studies. A philosopher proposed the idea some time ago, and a wizard verified it relatively recently.”

  Thuz pointed to a paper that had two lines instead of one. “This we do not know. Is that significant? They vary in heights and widths, which aligns with our reading. Different noises, different lines. Two lines is the only variation we cannot explain.”

  Hans sat quietly. He had known the brothers long enough to know Thuz didn't really want an answer. Izz and Thuz always thought out loud as a unit that way.

  “Two hours have passed,” Izz said. Thuz took another look at the drawings and turned back, nodding. They opened the hatch, and Hans followed them down the stairs.

  “What would you like from me?” Hans asked before they opened the door to the golem.

  “Anything you might have said in that battle, if you feel it is appropriate, we would hear,” Thuz said. “Otherwise, our commitment to walking in her steps has not changed.”

  Hans understood. They opened the door to the golem room.

  The battle began for the brothers as it did for Hans and his party.

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Progress from Gold-ranked to Diamond-ranked.

  Mend the rift with Devon.

  Complete the next volume (Iron to Bronze) for "The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers."

  Find a way for Gomi adventurers to benefit from their rightful ranks in the Adventurers’ Guild.

  Secure a way to use surplus dungeon inventory for good.

  Finish transcribing the manual and decide on the next course of action.

  Help Izz and Thuz bring new opportunities to their home village.

  Investigate the locations of old Diamond Quests.

  Await the delivery of lockpick training tools.

  Locate Sven.