Luther stepped out of his dungeon home in New Gomi to greet the adventurers coming down the stairs.

  Seeing Hans the Guild Master and his two lizardman students, Izz and Thuz, was not unusual for the unofficial mayor of the underground town. When Luther saw Grandmaster Devontes, however, he stopped dead, suddenly seeming unsure of himself. Maurice, Luther’s pet zout, watched from the window of their home, too afraid to come outside.

  Devon paused at the bottom of the stairs to take in the homes, the garden, and the brick of the dungeon ceiling. Izz and Thuz stayed with the Platinum adventurer while Hans went to speak with Luther.

  “I- I don’t mean to be rude to your guest,” Luther said. “I had this feeling… It was like looking over the edge of a cliff.”

  Hans put his hand on Luther’s shoulder. Reaching up to do that felt weird, but he was too committed now to pull back. “That’s Master Devontes.”

  Luther’s face dropped, followed by his head. “So that’s it then? This is all over?”

  “What? No, no, no. I’m sorry, Luther. He’s visiting, and he’s on our side. He says he wants to retire from adventuring and is considering doing that in Gomi.”

  “You’re sure we’re still safe down here?”

  “Promise,” Hans replied. “It’s sudden. I know. But I’ve already told him about you, and he’s excited to meet you.”

  “Me?”

  Hans nodded.

  “Why would someone like that want to talk to someone like me?”

  “Like what?”

  “I’m so far beneath him,” Luther said.

  “That’s not the case, whatsoever.”

  The pair stopped talking as Devon approached. Though he had traveled through the dungeon, he had neither armor nor a sword. He wore a plain set of work clothes and carried a basic rucksack. Were it not for the immensity of his presence and his storybook good looks, he could have passed for a typical townperson.

  “Sir,” Devon said, offering his hand. “It’s an honor to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  Luther extended his arm. “...you have?”

  “Hans is a big fan.” Devon looked to see the Guild Master shifting uncomfortably. “Oh, maybe that was a secret.”

  Hans said it was fine.

  “I am humbled to be a guest in your town,” Devon continued. “This is a heck of a place with a heck of a leader.”

  “I’m not sure I’m worthy of the praise, my lord.”

  Devon shook his head. “Just Devon, please. I’m retired from that life. Not to be too forward, but does that drawbridge work?”

  Luther shook his head. “Unfortunately, no.”

  “So broken like the one at the entrance.”

  Luther nodded.

  Hans already had a quest for that, and every time he walked through the transplanted gatehouses, it floated to the top of his memory.

  Active Quest: Fix the two broken drawbridges.

  “And Hans was saying you have freshwater and endless firewood down here? Is that true too?”

  “Yes, it is. Would you like a tour? I’d be happy to show you our town and answer all your questions.”

  Devon grinned. “Yes, please.”

  Luther opened his arm in welcome, inviting Devon to walk with him.

  Izz and Thuz came up next to Hans, watching the Paladin follow Luther through New Gomi.

  “He is deeply troubled,” Thuz said, referring to Devon.

  Hans and Izz nodded in agreement.

  “What can be done for these wounds? I am unsure of how to help our friend.”

  “Don’t put that kind of pressure on yourselves,” Hans said. “Nobody has the cure for this. Being his friend is the best any of us can do.”

  “Watching a friend suffer is difficult,” Izz said.

  The memory of speaking with Izz and Thuz in the days following the Ikari Massacre came to mind for Hans. They saved the town and eliminated the threats, but doing so meant killing a Diamond-ranked adventurer–one of their own. The brothers still considered themselves murderers and were distraught over having crossed that line with their abilities.

  Now didn’t feel like the time to point out that their situation was not so different from Devon’s. The Paladin had more blood to wash off, though. Much more.

  “It is hard,” Hans said. “You guys are doing much more good for him than you know. Come on. Let’s get dinner started so Luther doesn’t feel like he has to serve us.”

  “I’ve never smelled anything that good in a dungeon before,” Devon said, coming around the corner with Luther to complete their tour.

  “Camahueto steaks,” Hans said, poking his head out from Luther’s house. “Luther, you can sit. I can finish up here.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Certain. It won’t be as good as how you make it, but you deserve a break. Also, Izz has a surprise for you.”

  Izz pulled two bottles of fool’s root vodka from his rucksack and set them on the table for Luther.

  “These are for me?”

  Hans yelled from the kitchen, “They’re from the still’s first batch. Galad’s calling it the founder’s round.”

  “He described me as a founder?”

  Thuz nodded and said, “He did.”

  Luther tried to hide the sheen of tears in his eyes. He cleared his throat and said, “Good drink is best with good friends.”

  The tusk peeled the wax melted around the cork and opened the bottle. He sniffed the vodka, recoiled a bit at its strength, and reached for one of the glasses Hans had set out. He poured one for each person present.

  “Gootlab and Robert are in the fields, I take it?” Hans asked, delivering a plate of steaming steaks to the table.

  “They are,” Luther answered. “They have taken to farming better than most.”

  Devon asked if those were Theneesa’s students he heard about. Luther confirmed they were.

  “I would like to meet them as well,” Devon said.

  Luther said that might not happen for several hours yet. “They only recently departed. A reset is coming soon, right? They wanted to be there to guard the fields.”

  Because their farmland came from a job involving a forest fire, the two retired adventurers needed to be ready to protect their crops when the dungeon regrew hungry fire elementals. Managing that timing underground was an ongoing challenge.

  “Won’t be a reset for another day or so,” Hans said. “That reminds me, Olza suggested we try a water clock. She’s working on one for you.”

  “What is a water clock?”

  Hans shrugged. “From what I understand, it’s kind of like an hour glass. That’s as much as I know.”

  Luther said that would be very helpful. Having a more precise way to track the time between reset cycles would make scheduling life in New Gomi much easier.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Conversation lapsed for a while as the group ate their dinners. Halfway through his meal, Devon remarked about how quiet it was in New Gomi.

  “Is it less peaceful with roommates?” Hans asked.

  “More peaceful, I’d say. The trap of silence is that your thoughts become much louder. Having friends nearby makes those days easier to overcome.”

  “I heard about your experience in Osare,” Devon said, chewing as he spoke.

  Luther seemed to shrink at the mention of the incident, as though he could be dragged from his home and locked in that cold stall again.

  When Devon saw the shift, he apologized. “I didn’t mean to dredge up bad memories. I wanted to say staying behind to help tusks is one of the bravest things I’ve ever heard.”

  “I appreciate the kind words, but surely you have traveled with hundreds of adventurers braver than I.”

  Devon shook his head. “Adventurers can be brave, sure, but that’s what we train for. I’ve not gotten to be brave for a few years now, actually. You, on the other hand, risked everything to help strangers who might need you.”

  “Fighting armies of orcs sounds brave to me,” Luther said.

  “Not a drop of bravery in it. I was never in danger, so I never risked anything.”

  When Izz saw Luther’s confused face, the lizardman added, “Few creatures in this world can challenge Grandmaster Devontes.” Izz coughed. “I mean, challenge Devon.”

  Hans saw Devon looking uncomfortable, and he knew Luther was uncomfortable for certain, so he changed the subject. “How are the farming experiments going?”

  Luther relaxed. He shared that they had begun planting the new fields Hans added when he overwrote the terathan hive expansion. Fire elementals appearing every two days made it a bit stressful, but he believed that most crops would need a fourth to half of their usual time to reach maturity planted in dungeon soil. That seemed to vary between crops somewhat, but no matter the specifics, the grow-time was far shorter than on the surface, and they never had to pause for winter.

  He excitedly added that he was working on a potion project with Olza, aiming to use the advantages of dungeon soil to make potions more powerful and more accessible for common citizens.

  “What do you do for rain?” Devon asked.

  “That is a bit of a chore, but not as difficult as it might seem. Dungeon soil seems to have a natural moisture to it. We still have to water by hand, but it’s not as bad as I expected it to be.”

  “How are you doing that?”

  “Buckets and gardening cans. Fill them in the well when the Shit Shrooms are dead, carry them to the fields.”

  “Shit Shrooms?” Devon fought to contain a smile.

  “The umm. Arma– Armallilos?”

  “Armarillarias,” Hans corrected.

  “Right,” Luther replied. “There’s a well in that town too.”

  “Can we back up to ‘Shit Shrooms?’” Devon asked.

  “Gomi’s adventurers are creative with their nicknames,” Thuz explained.

  Hans said they didn’t need to go through them all, but Thuz insisted.

  “They call the Regenerating Castle ‘Bone Goblins,’ which is the least inspired of them all,” Thuz said. “You know about Shit Shrooms. They call the Bayou ‘the Poop Puddle.’ The Forgeborne Mines are either ‘Dirt Dudes’ or ‘Honk House.’ The latter is in honor of the young mage who lives there. They call New Gomi ‘Luther Land’ for a similar reason.”

  Devon’s grin grew with each nickname.

  Izz raised a finger. “We shouldn’t forget ‘Creepy Crabs’ for the lamia temple. ‘Bat Bitches’ for the imps. ‘Blue Balls’’ for the City of Glass. They call the geode gecko ‘the Muffin,’ but I have no idea why, nor can any of the Apprentices explain. And they call Ogre Valley ‘Harpy Hill,’ which also doesn’t quite make sense to me.”

  “I knew Hans was holding out on me,” Devon said. “Luther Land is so much better than New Gomi.”

  Luther sighed.

  “Sorry, brother,” Hans said. “I think we’ve lost this battle.”

  Everyone around the table laughed. From there, the group drank and talked, their conversation wandering from topic to topic as gatherings with friends often do. Throughout those moments, Devon seemed to deflect any question about him or his adventuring days, to the point that the table stopped talking about adventuring completely, focusing instead on traveling, books, childhoods, and so on.

  Maurice appeared in the doorway to Luther’s house and chirped at his master. Luther said he needed to sleep, but the rest of the group was welcome to stay and talk as long as they liked. When Luther climbed two of the three stairs to his door, he paused, turned around, grabbed his remaining bottle of fool’s root from the table, and then departed.

  Devon looked around again, savoring the last of the vodka in his glass. “I should have known that you’d turn retirement into an adventure.”

  “Wasn’t on purpose,” Hans said.

  “I don’t think any other Guild Master would discover a dungeon and think, ‘we should put a vegetable garden in there.’”

  “That wasn’t my idea. A lot of this wasn’t, actually. I got very lucky with the people I’ve met.”

  Thuz said that was true. “There are many kind hearts in Gomi. When we visited with Miss Mazo, the town threw a party for us within three days of our being there. Mr. Hans was on a job, so he wasn’t present to influence the people when that decision was made.”

  “That was the first time they met you guys?” Devon asked.

  Hans nodded.

  “This is truly a refuge,” Thuz continued. “This was the right place to go to collect your thoughts.”

  Devon went quiet.

  “How long do you plan to stay?” Izz asked.

  “A while. Maybe for good. I feel like I’m just now thinking clearly. More clearly than I have in years.”

  “Have your thoughts about your quest changed with that clarity?” The “quest” was the group’s subtle way of discussing the Takarabune without naming it out loud. Few people knew the device existed and fewer knew that Gomi had the plans to build one. The adventurers aimed to keep it that way.

  Hans had taken on the quest even before Devon arrived, but now that the Paladin was here, its significance in his mind had changed:

  Active Quest: Complete construction of the Takarabune (still need scarlet steel, celestial steel, and mimic blood).

  Devon shook his head. “I believe in it more strongly.”

  “Why?”

  The Paladin paused to think carefully before he spoke. “I need to know why he chose me, and I need to understand how he thinks of ‘doing good.’ I’m not what I think a Paladin should be, and he’s never come to me when I prayed. Not a word. Not once.”

  “How much have you spoken with him?” Hans asked.

  “Not since my oath.”

  “But you’ve gotten more boons since then?”

  Devon said that was correct.

  “Then how do you know about them or what they’re called?”

  After looking at the bottom of his glass with disappointment, Devon set it down and rested his elbows on the table, hunching over them. “I wake up with the knowledge. It’s just there. I’m aware of memories when it wasn’t, and then it just is. This knowledge… It feels tacked on to my mind. That probably doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I know the feeling, actually” Hans offered. “Not to your degree, but I’ve had a few encounters with a dryad where she ‘gave’ me memories. It’s like my brain can tell they’re not mine. It feels wrong to have them in my head.”

  “Dryad, huh?”

  “Yep.”

  Devon asked how much of the Takarabune they completed.

  “None,” Hans answered. “We recently got a diamond big enough for the bottom piece, but it needs shaped. Still need scarlet steel, celestial steel, and mimic blood.”

  “You have my armor. Melt something down for the celestial.”

  Quest Update: Complete construction of the Takarabune (still need scarlet steel and mimic blood).

  The entire table looked at him in disbelief.

  “I’m serious. I don’t need the costume anymore, so that leaves scarlet steel and mimic blood. We could get that done tonight if we walk down to the core now.”

  “It’s not that simple,” Hans said.

  Devon looked around at Luther Land. “Seems to me you’ve got it figured out.”

  “Anything we grow could potentially escape the dungeon, so we always have to have the means to cull whatever we add. Not culling two imps this cycle would mean four imps next cycle, and then six the one after. There are exceptions to that, but they are few, and I can’t explain why those exceptions happen.”

  “Spawn what we need. Kill it. Then replace it like you did for the terathans.”

  Hans shook his head. “When I thought you were taking me back to Hoseki, it became very clear to me that any dungeon suggestion could be my last. Something could stop me from doing the rewrite, and eventually, the core will be fully recovered, so there’s that too. I’ll have my last suggestion some day, one way or another. I have no way of knowing when that is.”

  “I’m here, though,” Devon said.

  “You won’t always be, but the dungeon core will. Some day, you’ll move away or grow old and die. When that happens, how many people could handle an average Gold encounter? The more likely result is the Gold encounter monster figures out how to escape the dungeon. Gomi would be the first to suffer.”

  Devon leaned back and pursed his lips. “You need more adventurers.”

  “Dozens more,” Hans agreed.

  “If this is one third of the dungeon’s total size, you’d need as many as the Hoseki chapter to keep up the cullings when it’s complete, especially if the encounters are any kind of challenge.”

  Hans nodded.

  “I apologize for returning to this topic,” Izz began, “I am still trying to understand the ultimate goal of this endeavor. As far as I know, there is no discussion of locating gods in the manual.”

  “Gret had ideas for that. I figure you guys and Mazo could get the rest of the way there.”

  “That compliment may also be an overestimation, but alright. Provided we solve those puzzles, what will you do when you find your god?”

  “I want to ask my questions and then give all of this back.”

  “If he should refuse?” Thuz asked.

  “Kill him, I guess,” Devon said.

  Active Quest: Do your part to let the rift with Devon begin to heal.

  Does that mean I’m hunting gods now too?

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Do your part to let the rift with Devon begin to heal.

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

  Await the arrival of a safe for the Gomi chapter.

  Complete construction of the Takarabune (still need scarlet steel and mimic blood).

  Fix the two broken drawbridges.

  Make and test valorite armor. Bonus Objective: Think of more cool items to test.

  Plan the next expansion to prevent the dungeon core from acting on its own.

  Test the Gruwalda shield with the smith.