When Chisel, Yotuli, and Buru returned from their run late the next morning, they delivered a letter to Hans. Luther wrote down early data and observations for his part of the starcup experiments. They couldn’t test potency properly without Olza, but Luther observed that the growth of any plant in his garden was roughly twice as fast as what he’d expect on the surface. For the starcups enhanced for accelerated growth–of which there were two batches–they grew nearly four times as fast.

  Suspecting that dungeon soil was the cause, he sent up a bottle of dungeon dirt with his letter. He didn’t know how much Olza could glean from soil samples, but he suspected she would ask about such samples eventually. Hans agreed.

  Other than reporting his observations, Luther said nothing else about himself or his life. Hans hoped the tusk was doing okay by himself down there.

  Hans was on his way to the dorms. He wanted to talk to the Minotaurs and the new harvesters about their long-term options, namely if they wanted to live at the dungeon fulltime or rotate in and out from a home in Gomi. Either was fine. Three of the Minotaur tusks were refugees. The other tusk and the two humans–

  Young Charlie, Jonathan, and… Wait, is Jonathan right?

  –were Gomi locals. Staying in their current homes was an option as well.

  With his spiel sounding good in his mental rehearsal, he felt the sparrow land before he saw it. He sighed as he strolled off campus and into the woods.

  What now?

  The Lady of the Forest formed before Hans, her body and face built almost entirely from dead leaves and pine needles.

  “An orc band has entered the forest. Fifteen.”

  Hans cursed in his mind and asked, “How far from Gomi and where?”

  “Three and a half days. Buru and Petal already know where.”

  The Lady’s form broke apart.

  “Hey!” Hans yelled.

  The wind carried her voice to his ear. “I have not forgotten.”

  New Quest: Secure the dungeon and prepare to meet the orc band.

  Hans stood outside the dorm and addressed every person at the dungeon–builders, harvesters, Apprentices, Tandis, and the two Silvers.

  “We have three and a half days,” Hans said. “The orcs won’t expect us to have a headstart, but our lead will fade fast, so listen closely.

  “Builders and harvesters, pack your essentials. You’ll leave at first light tomorrow, and you’ll be inside the Gomi walls well ahead of any danger. If you have any kind of weapon, keep it within reach. Everyone will leave together in the morning, but I need at least four carpenters to stay behind.”

  Four carpenters stepped forward.

  Hans dismissed the rest of the builders and harvesters so they could begin preparing for the journey down the mountain, leaving only the adventurers and Tandis completely unaddressed. Every Minotaur but Young Charlie had gone pale, their eyes darting from one to another, panic building. The DCs present–Chisel, Buru, and Yotuli–were more even keeled, but they were still nervous, shifting awkwardly and taking slow breaths. Bel and Lee stood side by side with their arms crossed and their legs wide, their faces hard and focused.

  “We have a numbers problem,” Hans began. “Sven and Honronk will join us, but our people in Osare are too far away to help. Buru already sent a sparrow for Becky. That makes fifteen of us in total, but almost half of us are green, and don’t forget we still have to contain the dungeon.

  “Nothing about this is ideal, and none of this will be easy, but all of our problems are solvable if everyone does their part.”

  Hans instructed Yotuli to run to Gomi as soon as the meeting ended. She needed to tell Charlie and Galad to get everyone inside the walls. While she was there, she would alert Sven and gather a list of supplies Hans prepared for her. For the return trip, they’d borrow a pair of horses and ride them hard.

  Buru would show Hans the location of the orcs on a map and then depart with Petal. His orders were to scout as far ahead as he could and return with intel. He would send sparrows with updates when he found the enemy.

  Bel, Lee, Chisel, and Tandis would get the gear in order. Tandis had instructions to leave an emergency stash of potions behind while giving the team meeting the orcs the bulk of their supply, as much as was reasonable to carry at least. The rest of the gear was limited to essentials. Rations for two days, a bedroll, first aid supplies, a waterskin–empty if they could cast Create Water–their weapons, and their armor.

  “Minotaurs,” Hans said, addressing the newest Apprentices, “You are not responsible for culling the dungeon, but we do need to keep anything inside from escaping to the surface. The six of you will rotate watch the entire time I’m gone, so one person will always be monitoring the inside of the dungeon, and we’ll have another lookout topside to watch the woods.

  “I’m tasking our carpenter friends here with plugging up the hallway a few dozen yards into the dungeon. I don’t need anything fancy from you.” Hans addressed the carpenters. “Just jam it up and do what you can to make it durable. Any of the Minotaurs not on watch will move beds out of the mine dorms and pile them in the hallway. None of this has to look pretty. We just need to slow down any monster that might find their way toward the surface.

  “With how long we’ll be gone, you shouldn’t have any problems. The iron elementals don’t roam very much, and the goblins have to get through the bayou before they can think about leaving the dungeon. Everything I’m asking you to do is just in-case.”

  Hans took a deep breath.

  “Once the DCs are ready to depart, we’ll do a quick tactics meeting and then doubletime it out. If we surprise them, their numbers will matter a little bit less.”

  The plan was as good as it could be. The only problem he couldn’t solve was alerting Luther. At the bottom of the dungeon, he had no way of knowing what was happening on the surface, The left him in a fully spawned dungeon for several long days, wondering why a party of adventurers hadn’t culled the dungeon yet.

  “I’ll go,” Lee volunteered. “I can get down and back in time.”

  “I know you could, but we need you fresh for the orcs.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “I’ll be fine. I promise.”

  Hans considered her for a long minute. When he nodded, Lee took off into the dorms to grab her gear.

  In the meantime, Hans would draft the battleplan. He had to figure out a way for five Apprentices, one Bronze, Two Silvers, and a washed up Gold to take on fifteen orcs, rumored to be at least Bronze-ranked but might be as high as Silver. Among those orcs was likely at least one Blood Mage, but if rumors were true, the band might have two or three.

  If the Lady kept her promise, they could get through this with no one dying, but if she pulled any of that fae doublespeak bullshit and wormed out of contributing… This would be hard.

  Quest Update: Meet the orcs in battle to protect Gomi.

  Luther–who came to the surface with Lee–and a nervous team of Apprentices saw them off, Hans’ party setting out with Becky and Becki in the lead.

  They had two days left to intercept the orcs. They marched with urgency, trying to cover as much ground as possible while still having energy to fight after. A few hours in, two sparrows landed on Becky’s shoulder. She listened intently, every adventurer behind her unconsciously holding their breath.

  “Thank you so much. You’re both sweethearts,” Becky said to the sparrows. “Tell Buru to meet us at the bend in the trickling creek.”

  Becky turned to address Hans and saw his confused face. “Buru will know where that is. It’s a good spot for us to camp for the night. We’ll be close enough to hit them in the morning.”

  “Good.”

  “Uh, boss,” Becky said, her mustache bent by her frown. “Buru counted three mages. The rest looked like warriors. There’s a mix of swords, axes, and spears, but they all have bows. And…”

  “Becky. Out with it.”

  “Buru says three of the band are tusks.”

  They made camp without fire. Buru arrived after sunset.

  “You sure they’re tusks?” Bel asked. Everyone hoped Buru would change his mind about what he reported.

  But he didn’t. He and Petal both saw them. With the faint light of a mostly covered lamp, he pointed out the orc’s location on the map. He observed them moving toward Gomi, and their camp looked ready to pack up quickly, not surprising for a war band, orc or otherwise.

  “There’s a gully here,” Becky said, pointing to a point on the map between the orcs and Gomi. “It looks like they’re following a game trail for now. Makes sense. Easier walkin’ that way. If they stay on it, they’ll go right through there. We’re lucky there ain’t been much of a breeze, but if wind does blow, it always goes the same direction through the gully. We can stay downwind if we need to.”

  “Downwind?” Chisel asked.

  “Orcs have good noses,” Lee said. “Not as good as a gnoll, but good enough that it’s a problem.”

  Becky nodded. “The blessing about them being big is they’ll have to move single file to fit down that trail. If the gods love us, they won’t be in any kind of battle formation when we attack.”

  “What do we do about the tusks?” Sven asked.

  “We’ll try to save them,” Hans said. “The Druids can tie them up with vines. Chisel has Sleep. And if Honronk is close enough, he can hit one of them with Repel Possession.”

  “Only one?”

  “Can only be cast once an hour,” Honronk stated.

  Sven nodded, grimly.

  “Everyone, look at me,” Hans said. “We’re going to try and save them, but there is a real possibility we can’t. We have a town full of people we love counting on us, so until the tusks are incapacitated, they are enemies.”

  Chisel and Yotuli both narrowed their eyes at Hans.

  “I know it’s not what any of us wants to hear, but if an enemy has you or a party member in danger, you put them down. Tusk or orc. Eliminating the orcs is goal number one. Everyone here going home whole is goal number two. Rescuing the tusks is goal number three.”

  What Hans didn’t say was that if goal number one could not be accomplished without scrapping the other two, protecting Gomi came before protecting themselves.

  He didn’t need to say it because the Apprentices already understood.

  “Every one of you has trained hard enough for us to win this,” Hans said. “Adventurers are almost always smaller and weaker than what they hunt, but we win with preparation, tactics, and team work. Tomorrow is no different. Stick to the plan, listen to your party members, and trust your training. We all do that, we all go home with a new set of trophies.”

  Hans and Becky walked the group through the rest of the plan, which included a fallback position that kept adventurers between the orcs and Gomi. When everyone was clear on their role, Hans suggested they try and get some sleep while he took first watch.

  Becky sat down next to Hans a few yards outside of camp. Everyone else was in their bedrolls. Hans suspected none of them would actually sleep.

  “Listen, boss,” Becky whispered, “be straight with me. What are our odds?”

  “I don’t believe in suicide missions. The plan is tactically sound. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t move forward with it.”

  “But it’s bad, right?”

  Hans nodded.

  “Thought so.”

  After a long stretch of silence, Hans asked, “Can we count on the Lady?”

  “She’s on our side. If you don’t believe that now, you’ll believe it tomorrow.”

  “I don’t trust her, but I trust you.”

  “Hells, I don’t know that I trust me right now. I ain’t ever been in a fight like this.”

  “Sure you have,” Hans said. “Think of them as smaller, faster ogres. If you can put down an ogre, you can put down an orc. I promise you that.”

  “If you say so.”

  When Becky moved as if to stand, Hans put a hand on her arm. “There’s part of this that we aren’t telling the Apprentices. Me, you, Bel, and Lee–that’s it.”

  “Okay…”

  “If the opportunity presents itself, we keep one of the orcs alive.”

  Quest Update: Meet the orcs in battle to protect Gomi. Bonus Objective: Take a prisoner.

  Hans stared into the darkness blanketing the Gomi forest, watching and listening for signs of movement.

  He wouldn’t sleep tonight. He’d never been able to doze off with a fight on the horizon. He used the time to mentally rehearse his attacks, his counters, and his blocks, visualizing the movements with such viscerality that his body felt like it was moving even though it was still. He saw himself recovering from bad positions. He saw how he would counter any attack an orc might use against him.

  He replayed every one of his previous encounters with orcs. He felt their axes smashing into his shield. He smelled their stink. He heard their war cries and their haunting laughter. He relived the damage they wrought on dozens of innocent people, seeing their wounds, their wails, and their corpses.

  He saw his sword ending orcs a dozen different ways.

  Yet, in his mind, he couldn’t stop thinking about the entries left by Guild Master Otis in the manual. It was as though he could hear Otis saying, “My job has become sending children to their deaths.”

  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.

  Meet the orcs in battle to protect Gomi. Bonus Objective: Take a prisoner.