Dungeons Are Bad Business

Cog was an attentive, if quiet listener. The fiend simply stood still and watched Vee work, its presence serving as a great inspiration for the [Dungeon Master] to narrate his every action. In addition to detailing the processes he hoped that Cog could eventually help him with, talking out loud also gave Vee a chance to reflect on his current setup and find places he could make efficiency improvements.

As it stood now, it took the [Ghost Maestro] between four and six minutes to make a full batch of six basic ghosts. He didn’t think that was a terrible amount of time, per se, but even shaving a handful of seconds off that number would mean a substantial increase in the amount of ghosts he could make in any given session.

The helmet ghosts were significantly slower, taking ten minutes for a batch of four. That was because one of Vee’s machines for making them required two adjustments mid batch. He had to grab a lever and pull it so that a rod of ectoplasm would move down and punch out the helmet’s eyes. Surely there were changes that could speed this up, Vee thought.

One of the biggest timesinks was the actual physical process of carrying his sheets of ectoplasm from one machine to the next. There were several steps of space between them, and Vee wondered if he could move the machines closer together to cut that time down. He tested his weight against the machine he was working with and frowned. It didn’t budge.

That was fine; Vee had Alforde and the [Dungeon Maintainers] for heavy work like that. Still, he would have liked to have had something he could do now.

With the turn of a big crank, Vee finished a batch of helmets and watched them roll down the small ramp onto the floor. Now that was an idea, actually. Could he add other ramps to his setup so that ghosts in progress could seamlessly move from one station to another?

The more he looked at his machines, the more Vee became convinced that such a thing was not only possible, but intended. There were several jutting shelf-looking things on the end of each machine where the ghosts came out after being finished, as if Rortenferry had planned for Vee to discover this opportunity and address it at a later date. Vee smiled. Hiding a lesson in plain sight sounded exactly like something his old [Professor] would do.

He was somewhat pressed for time, but getting this into place would hopefully speed up the rest of his work. Pinching his thumb and forefinger together, Vee activated [Shape Ectoplasm] and grabbed a few blocks of refined ectoplasm. Using his [Ghost Baton] as something of a ruler, Vee stretched and shaped the material into a series of long, flat sheets that he used to connect each machine to the next in the sequence. Getting them to move on their own required a bit of finagling, but it wasn’t too bad. They were rough and flimsier than they probably should have been, but for now they were just a proof of concept and Vee didn’t want to give them any more time than necessary. He’d come back and make better ones once he got the machines rearranged to his liking.

An odd thought filled his mind. He remembered hearing about how apprentice [Smiths] of all kinds weren’t allowed to start working for themselves until they showed their masters that they were capable of making their own tools. Was this the same sort of thing?

Maybe? That was something to think about later.

“Do you have any questions so far?” he asked Cog. “I’d be more than happy to explain anything that you’re curious about.”

Cog started to shake its head but stopped. It pointed to the crowd of ghosts aimlessly bobbing around near the end of the last machine and said, “Messy, no? Proper storage technique?”

Vee’s cheeks flushed. Muttering to himself, he scurried over to where the ghosts were and started squishing them down into their smallest size, which was a little box.

“It’s a bit like folding up a shirt,” he said to Cog by way of explanation, only to be greeted by quite possibly the blankest stare Vee had ever seen. Right. Fiend. Probably not a lot of experience with folding. Or shirts.

“Come here,” Vee said with what he hoped was an encouraging smile. “This is pretty simple, and then you can fold up the ghosts and keep watching while I make the rest, okay?”

Cog nodded, approaching slowly. It was a bit clumsy in how it handled the ectoplasm, probably because it wasn’t used to controlling its strength all that well.

Vee winced when two helmets snapped under the fiend’s pressure, and Cog’s shoulders slumped.

“Apologies,” it said quietly. “Will stop.”

Vee shook his head. “No, don’t worry about it. It’s fine. You’re still learning. I can fix those pretty quickly too, so it’s not a big deal. Just try to be a bit more careful going forward. It should fold down pretty easily, so if the ectoplasm resists, try changing your angle a little bit.”

Cog seemed to perk up a bit at that, and a few minutes later it was happily folding down all the ghosts without issue. It stacked them in the corner of the room, forming a neat little tower that was organized by type of ghost.

Reaching up, Vee rubbed his eyebrows and closed his eyes. He was definitely starting to feel the first signs of a headache, and while he needed to keep making more ghosts he decided to go ahead and slow down his pace a little bit.

On the bright side, his little makeshift ramps were working better than he’d expected, feeding his in-process ghosts to his next step without any need for direct input from the [Ghost Maestro] himself. That helped offset his slower pace, and by the time Reginald and Alforde came to collect him, Vee had made enough ghosts to ease his worries for the next day’s run.

The [Ghost Maestro] leaned back and wiped the sweat from his brow.

[Congratulations, you are now a level 33 Ghost Maestro!]

[Wit +1]

[Your ability to passively refine ectoplasm has improved!]

[Reminder: Class Upgrade options are available!]

[Preparing additional upgrade encouragement!]

I know, I know, Vee thought, dismissing the notifications. He briefly wondered what sort of form the encouragement would take, but didn’t worry much. It would probably be something that was hard to miss and he’d recognize it when the time came.

“See that these are delivered to Do, the [Dungeon Maintainer],” Vee ordered Cog, gesturing at the fruits of his labor.

“Will do, Master.”

Bidding Cog to return to its fellow medium section members after that, Vee and his friends returned to the boarding house for the night. The [Dungeon Master] was so tired that he barely spoke or ate, choosing instead to hurry to his bed and fall into a dreamless sleep.

***

Vee woke up half an hour later than he should have and glared at Reginald before rushing to get ready.

“Why didn’t you get me up earlier?”

“You looked like you really needed the rest, boss,” the [Majordomo] said. “Your eyes were all bright and shiny when you went to bed, and it’s not like we need to be at the dungeon super early anyways. We don’t need to set anything up or do any prep work this morning, so we can take our time and get there a little later.”

He paused for a moment, and then added, “Besides, I sensed that you had a conversation with that snake around your shoulders, and I know that dealing with Expectations can take a lot out of a person.”

Vee raised his eyebrow skeptically. “Got a lot of first hand experience with that?”

Reginald just flashed him a felty grin, and Vee didn’t have time to press the matter further. He needed to get to the dungeon.

Over on the far side of the room, Alforde was practicing a few different footwork patterns, and it almost looked like he was dancing.

“I lost too many fights yesterday,” the armorsoul said when Vee asked him what he was doing. “In at least two of the fights I tripped over my boots and lost stocks that I shouldn’t have. I don’t want to repeat that mistake today.”

Vee watched his friend repeat a few more cycles of the steps, chugging down two cups of coffee to chase away the fatigue that still lingered behind his eyes and in the back of his skull and then it was time to go.

The trio headed to the dungeon, exchanging friendly greetings with the people they passed by. Several of the [Shopkeepers] thanked Vee as they did so, saying that they were seeing lots of new faces inside on account of the circuit and asking if there were plans to have more similar events in the future.

“I’m afraid I don’t know,” Vee answered honestly each time. “Making plans like that isn’t really my specialty.”

For some reason, more than a few people laughed at that every time he said it. A couple [Shopkeepers] even clapped him on the shoulder, like he’d made some sort of grand joke.

Vee didn’t totally understand that, but he didn’t really bother giving it much thought either. Instead, he focused on the day ahead and quickened his pace to reach the dungeon a little faster.

While he was walking, something in a nearby alley glinted and caught his eye. When he looked though, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but had the strange, tingling sensation that he associated with someone watching him carefully. He craned his neck and looked around, but nobody popped out of the darkness.

Weird.

He wasn’t the only one who noticed something amiss; Alforde shifted uncomfortably a second later.

“I keep feeling like I’m back in your family’s house,” he said when Vee asked him what was up. “Like I’m back on cleaning duty and Edukaiser is scowling at me or something.”

Vee scratched his chin. He activated [Third Sight] and looked around, but there wasn’t anything unusual there either.

Seriously. Weird.

Anyways, there were a good number of adventurers gathered outside the gate, but unlike the last two days the atmosphere wasn’t particularly festive. Many of the would-be challengers checked their weapons and gear in sullen silence, sitting in groups of two or three and poring over copies of Crestheart’s guide. Vee spotted Torres over near the guardhouse with a smug grin on his face. He returned Vee’s wave but didn’t come over to say hi or anything.

Once Vee got inside the tower, he confirmed with Do that all the rooms were fully stocked and ready for the day’s runs. The [Dungeon Maintainer] foresaw no problems with the minion supply for the day, since Kai had brought over a few dozen slimes and elementals the night before and Vee’s ghost making efforts had been productive.

Still, Vee figured that he probably had another round after that evening, although his head was already starting to ache. He bid good morning to the agents when they came into the office and turned around when they went to start their card games.

“Try not to push yourself too hard, boss,” Reginald said when he noticed Vee’s sigh. “It won’t do us any good if you make yourself sick before we finish this all up.”

“Yeah, I’ll try my best,” Vee said, sipping on some water and leafing through the day’s applications. The day’s first challenger was a level 14 [Lumberjack] who didn’t look like anything special. Vee doubted that the man would get terribly far in the dungeon, since this was his first foray into adventuring and his class didn’t seem like it would be well suited to combat.

After that there was a level 11 [Cleric of the Wind], a level 16 [Deep Thinker], and a level 20 [Trident Afficionado]. None of them looked like much of a threat, so Vee figured that he’d be safe to go ahead and take a little cat nap. He wasn’t going to use [Boost Drops], and the dungeon’s base setup could probably handle itself.

“Wake me up if anything bad or unusual happens,” he muttered to Reginald, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes.

“Sure thing boss,” the hat said before putting on his [Announcer] voice.

“Welcome, adventurer! You are about to enter Crestheart! Steel yourself for a challenge!”

Vee’s thoughts emptied, and he slipped deeper into his seat. Before he knew it, he was fast asleep and dreaming of a hallway. It was a strange, somewhat familiar place, where no matter how much he walked, he never got any closer to his goal.

Cupping his hands to his mouth, Vee called out, “Is anybody there? Hello?”

A steady hammering sound reached his ears, and suddenly Vee understood where he was.

This must be his encouragement.

Main Character Sheets:

Vee Vales:

Primary Class: Ghost Maestro (Locksmagister University), Level 33 (+1)

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 24

Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 6

Might: 15

Wit: 41 (+1)

Faith: 25

Adventurousness: 7

Ambition: 16

Plotting: 19

Charisma: 17

Devious Mind: 28

Leadership: 22

Guts: 14

Intimidating Presence: 11

Citizenship: 24

Public Relations: 8

Determination: 7

Persuasiveness: 6

Bargaining: 4

Patience: 3

Competitive Spirit: 1

Pragmatism: 1

<3<3 Infatuation <3<3

Alforde Armorsoul (Unchanged):

Primary Class: Hammer Specialist (Self), Level 6

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 18

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 18

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 11

Might: 58

Wit: 15

Faith: 28

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Endurance: 33

Intimidating Presence: 15

Heart of a Champion: 14

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Vigilance: 11

Vanity: 2

Single-Mindedness: 1

Reginald (Unchanged):

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

#$&Q#$)(@#$#@#$%!@#$##%#%()@#$**@@##

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 43

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 21

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 13

Additional Class: Hyperthymesiac (Self), Level 5

Might: 1

Wit: 37

Faith: 17

Ambition: 28

Greed: 24

Deceptiveness: 27

Manipulativeness: 42

$#&*!@!!: !!!

Loyalty: 46

Patience: 11

Irritability: 25

Remorsefulness: 17

Expository Prowess: 23

#%$Pragmatism*#$: @#61$5

Hop@#!! @#$@!@#

@#$@%%^

#4^5#*&_!+++#(@$#

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 9