Three voices pushed through the doors of Luther Land.

  “I told you!” Sven yelled.

  “Yeah, okay, okay,” Chisel replied, defeated.

  Yotuli led the two bickering adventurers into view. Luther had heard the party as well, and he stepped outside his home to visit his latest guests. Hans considered hiding in his cabin until his boots and socks were dry but accepted that he needed to go be a Guild Master for the Apprentices who had just arrived.

  In his mind, Galad’s voice echoed, “We don’t get to crack. When we do crack, it’s in private.”

  Hans started across town. When he reached the group, Sven was partway through arguing his side.

  “I told you he said to skip the shift! You didn’t believe me.”

  “Wish we would have,” Yotuli said. Hans noticed her wearing her wooden Gomi medallion around her neck. “Would have spared us the hike down and back.”

  “In our defense,” Chisel began, “running the dungeon alone didn’t sound like the Mr. Hans that I know.”

  The Guild Master apologized for disrupting their training.

  “Don’t be sorry, Mr. Hans. They should have listened to me.”

  Luther asked if he should prepare food. The party debated among themselves whether they should walk back now or after a night in Luther Land. With only floors slick with blood to delay them, they reached the bottom far faster than usual. It might be late by the time they got back to the surface if they left shortly, but they would gain a whole day back for the effort.

  They decided they would drink some water, rest their legs for a few minutes, and then begin the return trip, but first, Yotuli had a question.

  “How’d you get the minotaur to kill the shaman?” she asked. To give Luther context for the question, she described finding the shaman opened up like the husk on corn, the minotaur axe wedged somewhere around the goblin’s pelvis.

  Hans shrugged.

  “I told you he wouldn’t tell us,” Sven gloated. “Again, no one listens to the Rogue.”

  “How is training with Thuz going?” Hans asked Chisel.

  In her excitement, she nearly dropped all of her gear. “He’s been incredible. After teaching myself for so long, having an instructor like Mr. Thuz feels like cheating. It’s so much easier. Not easy, but easier.”

  “Glad to hear it. I know it sucked having to train magery alone, but I promise you will be better for it in the long run.”

  “I can see how that would be true. Without help, it might take me a month to get down a new spell. With Thuz, I’m learning Agility, Heal, and Strength. I’m not very consistent yet, but I managed to cast Agility on Sven when we were hunting in the Poop Puddle.”

  “It was amazing,” Sven added. “I felt like a Platinum. I was going through arrows so fast.”

  If Chisel is making this much progress, I wonder how Honronk is doing.

  Yotuli asked if Hans would join them on their hike back. He declined. After so many jobs in rain, mud, swamps, or flooded dungeons, Hans came to loathe soggy socks. He accepted they were a reality of adventuring, but if he had the option to not walk around with his foot wrapped in damp cloth, he’d take that option every time.

  “Daojmot guide you then,” she said when the party departed a short while later.

  When they had gone, Luther asked what that meant. Hans told him it was the spirit of wanderers and bastards, and it was the basis for Yotuli’s attempt at becoming a Cleric. He went on to explain how Clerics used their abilities.

  “That class sounds… quite strange.”

  Hans agreed.

  Hours passed, and Hans decided he could delay his responsibilities no longer. Luther and Maurice saw him off.

  After a few minutes of hiking through the dungeon, Hans wished he had started sooner. The smell from his mess was more powerful than any single monster he killed, and seeing the various corpses of gnolls and goblins made him embarrassed for the whole of his behavior.

  ***

  The staging area in the iron mines–Honronk’s front yard, essentially–had become the de facto training area for the adventurers. It was open, it was flat, and the weather never changed. Hans found Kane and Quentin sparring in preparation for the tournament in Osare. Kane’s size continued to grow at an astounding rate, his orc heritage helping him to pack on muscle as he grew taller.

  He was always bigger than Quentin, but the difference had become more stark in recent months. At sixteen, Quentin was still growing, and the intensity of his training made him lean and athletic. Yet, he still looked a little gangly and awkward, like his bones outpaced the rest of the growth, leaving him with odd proportions and a shockingly thin body.

  When Hans told the boys that Uncle Ed had given his blessing for the tournament, they whooped and hugged.

  Quest Complete: Confirm Uncle Ed’s decision on the Osare tournament.

  He should have closed that quest yesterday when Galad gave him the news, but he wasn’t thinking clearly enough then.

  “Any advice for our first tournament, Mr. Hans?” Quentin asked.

  “Technical, physical, or mental?”

  The boy picked mental, admitting he was a bit nervous to fight someone he had never met.

  “For a lot of people, that nervousness never goes away,” Hans began. “That’s just your body and mind respecting that a potentially dangerous challenge is ahead. What screwed me up for a while was being afraid of losing–and not because I didn’t get the win. More so because I thought losing would be humiliating. Are we heading down the same road so far?”

  Quentin nodded.

  “First of all, nobody cares if you win or lose. I want you to win because I support you, but if you both lost your first and only match and got booted, I wouldn’t think any differently of you. No one will, and by the time the next match is underway, everyone there will have forgotten you fought at all. How much better does that make you feel?”

  “Uhh…”

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  “Not at all, right? That’s always how it goes. You’ll believe me after. So here’s the second part: You can eliminate tournament regret by how you prepare. If you do your training right, the best version of you that’s possible at that point in time is stepping into the arena. You will still get better after the tournament, but what I’m emphasizing is that there’s a point where there is nothing else you could have done to prepare. Nothing. A loss in that context isn’t something to be ashamed about because you gave your literal best.”

  Hans continued, explaining that their training schedule was likely more demanding than the vast majority of Apprentices in the kingdom. Not only did they do regular dungeon runs, they took lessons from upper ranks, they drilled and sparred on their own time, and they managed to cram in a fitness routine as well. Hans had given them a few bodyweight movements to use and suggested they practice sprinting up and down a long dungeon hallway with varying lengths of rests in between.

  A lot of adventurers ran for miles and miles to prepare for a tournament, but Hans believed that was the wrong way to go about building combat endurance. A fight was a series of extremely fast flurries and intense bursts of activity. Sprints were far closer to mirroring those physical demands than long jogs.

  “You will be as prepared as you can possibly be. From there, matches are pure learning experiences. A strange opponent with a style you don’t know is very different from sparring with the same people all the time. You can pick up a lot of useful insights from a tournament if you take a little bit of pressure off of yourself.”

  Soon, the boys returned to drilling for the tournament, with Hans offering tips and critiques as they worked.

  He suggested they think of the arena like the dungeon. The Apprentices should assume they are in danger at all times. Some competitors used the tradition of shaking hands at the start of a bout to set up a cheap shot. Referees might be slow to stop the fight in either direction when they really should. An opponent might hit you after the bell, so don’t drop your guard or turn your back.

  If an opponent rushed in right away, think of them as a gnoll. Outside parry, circle away from their sword hand, counter, and press the attack.

  If an opponent was timid, hanging back to set up a trap, think of them as a geode gecko. Poke at them a bit to feel out what the trap might be–or better yet, watch their previous matches–and then press with an attack that takes their trap out of the equation or turns it back against them.

  The boys were drilling their parries when Becky and the Silvers entered the mines. Returning from ogre valley, they each sat down near Hans. Bel and Lee shared a waterskin.

  “How are our boys lookin’?” Becky asked quietly.

  Hans didn’t want Kane or Quentin to know, but the boys might not find a worthwhile challenge in the Apprentice divisions. Not only did they have the advantage of dungeon access, but both of them began training seriously before Apprentice. Conversely, many Apprentices were at the very beginning of their development, starting their training the day they accepted their apprenticeship. They could still match up with someone more experienced, but the more rural chapters typically weren't as competitive as the denser cities.

  “Kane will make many people angry,” Lee said. “His style is very frustrating even when you’re familiar with it.”

  “How do you mean?” Becky asked.

  “Adventurers with his bulk are typically slower as a result, but not so for Kane,” Lee answered. “He moves like a lightweight, and I’m guessing he’ll end up as a middleweight. As the weight classes go up, usually speed goes down. And that’s just him moving.

  “The first time we sparred, I made the mistake of underestimating him. Nearly launched my sword across the room with his first parry. Every one of his strikes is hard, but they don’t look it, and he doesn’t overextend himself. The first time swords meet, the person across from him is in for a shock.”

  Hearing Lee compliment Kane’s ability filled Hans with pride. He knew the Apprentice improved quickly, but having other adventurers confirm that was validating and fulfilling for him as an instructor.

  Becky asked Hans for his take on Quentin’s style.

  “He’s very calculated, always,” he answered. “Students like that often struggle against strength or extreme aggression, but he’s been training with Kane every day. He still might be vulnerable to the aggression side of that, but if he loses a match, I’d expect it to come down to skill, someone calculated like him but with more experience.”

  “I wish I could go,” Lee said.

  “Why?” Becky asked. “Ain’t you undefeated in Osare already?”

  ***

  Emerging from the dungeon, Hans marveled at how much he missed because of his late night arrival. In daylight, the campus looked much different from when he saw it last.

  The road was finished, making it possible for wagons to come and go. A delivery run could drive up the mountain and return to Gomi in the same day. Speaking of horses, the stables had a roof and the walls were halfway finished. The builders would start on the armory next.

  The two cabins he saw Luther helping with many days back were complete, and a third was in progress. Eduardo’s father and the husband-wife pair of harvesters knew more people would join them soon, so they used their free time to get a headstart on making homes for whoever decided to live up the mountain full time. A few young teenagers had joined the builders, trading labor for an apprenticeship in carpentry or masonry.

  That covers the major trades for apprenticeships for now, I think.

  Quest Complete: Expand the dungeon with resource-specific monsters for each of Gomi’s major trades.

  Hans noticed new footpaths extending from the campus like spider legs. The people living here were likely taking walks in the forest or making trips to hunt or gather. When the idea of people living at the dungeon permanently was first proposed, he couldn’t picture it being pleasant. Seeing the campus now, however, the dungeon entrance felt downright cozy.

  The Guild Master stole a glance up at the ever-present Dead End Mountains. No merchant, today.

  Izz and Thuz stepped out of the dorms. When they saw Hans, they smiled and walked across campus to greet him.

  “Mr. Hans,” Thuz said, “It’s good to see you. We had heard you were in the dungeon.”

  “Just a quick run. Chisel spoke very highly of your lessons, by the way.”

  The lizardman dipped his head to humbly accept the compliment. “She is a motivated student, and her mind is exceptional. She will be a great White Mage if she continues her training.”

  “How’s Honronk doing?” Hans asked Izz.

  “He sees the world far differently than I do,” Izz answered. “I struggled to connect with him at first, but I feeI I grasped the proper approach by the time we had our second lesson.”

  Hans asked how Honronk’s learning style impacted the way Izz taught.

  “Honronk is far more technical in his thinking than most of the Apprentices I have encountered. Students at his level are typically unprepared to discuss the minutia of casting, but not him. We were working on the gestures for Lesser Fire, and he asked what specific muscles I was flexing for one of the steps. Then we compared lizardman hand muscles to tusk hand muscles to confirm the accuracy. I have never heard such a question before, and I admit, it took me some time to form an answer.”

  “How’s his progress?”

  “He is proficient in Lesser Fire and Lesser Ice. He is practicing Duplicate, currently.”

  “Great. Another mage obsessed with Duplicate,” Hans joked. The lizardmen chuckled too.

  “He is still uncertain of the path he wants to take as a Black Mage, but that’s to be expected. I suspect he’ll find his way before summer has passed.”

  Hans thanked them for helping the Apprentices. The lizardmen said the experience was insightful for them too. As a sort of bonus, Honronk offered to put a Nightsight enchantment on one of their items. Izz could cast it himself, of course, but he wasn’t an enchanter, and not having to cast and refresh Nightsight during a crawl would be very convenient.

  The idea of Honronk producing Nightsight enchantments for the other adventurers had crossed Hans’ mind before, but that was shortly after the tusk completed a marathon tattoo streak. At the time, Hans didn’t want to burden or distract the Apprentice Black Mage anymore than he already had.

  But permanent Nightsight sounds fantastic.

  “We have appointments to keep, unfortunately,” Izz said to politely exit the conversation. “When you are not occupied, Mr. Hans, we would like to request a new monster for the dungeon.”

  “Oh?”

  ***

  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.