By the time the new recruits showed up, Colt and Lacey had finished another 15 dungeon levels, 43 creatures, and three quests. Bernard’s village had grown into a full-blown garrison, complete with both barracks and dining hall with roofs. They’d blown through the Dungeon Progress Level requirement for Tier III, and they were less than ten monster types away from that part, but there were a daunting 25 more unique dungeon levels to complete to get into the new tier. Their quests had wracked up another 30 acres to the back yard, and a new modern, outdoor kitchen for their patio.

  They were ready for the new waves of adventurers that appeared. There were 40 new Mages accompanied by plenty of Fighters, Rogues, Rangers, Clerics, and even a few Bards, all with bright shining faces eager for the chance at hitting the new dungeon. It was more than they’d expected, but not enough to overwhelm the new levels and gauntlets. They had gauntlets for all of them. Those had been the easy levels to make.

  Spark and Beka had settled into an easy companionship, as long as Beka put up with Spark riding on Beka’s back on walks in the woods. They competed over squirrel chases. They had free run of the back yard’s village, once Colt had figured out that the back 70 acres had an invisible barrier around the perimeter that kept not only Colt and Lacey in, but also all the minions. Since that included Beka and Spark, they’d started leveling up on squirrels, birds, and oversized insects. If they ran into something too big for them, they ran to the village, where the denizens defended the new little sweethearts of the dungeon.

  Since they’d gotten word of the new recruits’ arrival, Colt and Lacey were headed out of the dungeon at lunchtime to be there for the big welcome BBQ. The current Rangers had brought in both bear and deer for the occasion and they were shutting down the dungeon for an afternoon. Colt had wanted to bring potato salad, but they’d settled on a bucket of BBQ sauce instead. The potatoes weren’t normal local food, and they could add the BBQ sauce to the drop list in the dungeon. They also brought a few trays of mac and cheese, something the dungeon was dropping in the new levels.

  Colt and Lacey had held back on running most of the new dungeons until the new recruits arrived, making this almost a reopening ceremony after a major renovation. That was another reason that they’d closed the dungeon for the evening. While Colt and Lacey were out enjoying the evening BBQ, the minions were doing a bunch of routine crap to make everything ready. Colt and Lacey had spent the last hour doing their part, so there wasn’t much.

  They stood at the fort entrance between Bernard and Kat as the new mass of people crested the hill. The sight made Lacey’s stomach clench with nerves. At the head of the pack was the runner that Benny had sent off on the errand. He walked next to a set of Knights on horseback.

  “Knights?” Lacey asked Bernard out of the side of her mouth.

  “Their heraldry represents the royal family crest, but these are likely their raw recruits,” Bernard answered, his smile perfect in a way that made her think they’d made even Bernard nervous.

  “Should we have made a new gauntlet for Knights?” Colt asked over Lacey’s head.

  “Don’t kill yourself over it,” Kat rolled her eyes at the whole pageantry of it. “They may not even stay. If I was going to hazard a guess, I’d bet they’re probably just here for an inspection and will turn right around and report back to the crown on it.”

  She would have lost that bet. Two hours later, they were up to their necks in pomp and circumstance. There was an inspection, but only a small contingent was being sent back to report on it. The Knights were there to level, and only a few of them were at the lower levels.

  “I’m sure glad we have a few levels at 50,” Lacey told Colt and Kat as she walked them back to the dungeon’s entrances. The sun was setting, and they had work to do. “How much do they expect to level when they are almost beyond our level cap?”

  “It’s not like they can remember the dungeon anyway,” Kat shook her head. “I don’t know what the system is playing at, but I will find out tonight.”

  “Could there be players in there?” Colt asked.

  “I suppose,” Kat waved a hand like it hardly mattered. “The system doesn’t really tell us whether the adventurer is a player or an NPC. Can you tell from inside the dungeon?”

  “Not normally, except that players remember,” Lacey kicked a pebble, sending Spark chasing after it, Beka hot on her heels.

  “Usually, players will admit it readily,” Colt whistled to call Beka back to his side, a trick they were working on. This time it worked. It didn’t always. “They’re happy to talk with other players in the game.”

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “Usually,” Kat pondered that with a crease of her forehead.

  “Are we really staying up to make a gauntlet for those pompous Knights?” Colt pat Beka and tossed her a treat.

  “They aren’t that bad,” Lacey kept her hands in her pockets.

  “They wouldn’t even talk to us,” Colt rolled his eyes.

  “I noticed that and I’m going to give them an earful about it, that’s for sure,” Kat crossed her arms over her chest with a creak of leather. She hadn’t left their side for the whole picnic, and it wasn’t just to sit next to Colt. Kat had buffed up their security with the highest levels of Bernard’s people, the ones that were going back in the morning because they’d leveled out of their highest dungeons. “My mom says to never trust a person that won’t break bread with you.”

  “We appreciate it, Kat,” Lacey said. “They just strike me as an entitled lot.”

  “Rubs me the wrong way after that guy, Montgomery,” Colt admitted, stopping at the dungeon entrance and looking over Kat’s shoulder at the celebration that was only now starting to wind down. “He was that kind of entitled.”

  Kat pursed her lips, “I hear you. I get it, I do. These guys don’t outrank Bernard, though, so they’ll have to follow orders now that they’re here. If they don’t, he still has the power to eject them.”

  “I trust Bernard,” Lacey put her back to the stone entrance.

  “That’s why he still has the power to eject them,” Kat put on a smile, but Colt didn’t believe her. “The crown wants to keep the dungeon happy.”

  “Still,” Colt frowned, and leaned over to kiss Kat’s forehead.

  “Still,” Kat agreed, slow to pull back.

  “It’s best that we keep a dungeon closure close at hand,” Lacey nodded and entered the dungeon, a whistle and clap to call the pets.

  Colt didn’t stay outside very long. Lacey waited for him, tossing a ball that Bernard had fashioned out of scrap leather for Beka. Lacey did trust Bernard, but this kind of political stuff had a way of changing people. As long as Bernard was producing results for the crown, they had enjoyed a honeymoon period of growth. Now they were being judged again, and Lacey wasn’t comfortable with it. Beka didn’t seem to mind the fact that Spark dug her claws into Beka’s collar to hold on while the puppy raced the length of the bat cave entrance.

  “Are we really going to make a gauntlet for them before bed?” Colt bent to pick up the slobbery ball and toss it again.

  “I’m thinking of a jousting arena for the Knights,” Lacey told Colt as they walked toward the elevator.

  “They should be good at that, but what do we get out of it?” Colt asked. He wasn’t wrong. The Rangers fletched arrows for the murder holes in other levels. The Bards created music, or instruments at higher levels, that the Rejects coveted as gifts for each other. The Clerics made healing potions. The Mages made spell scrolls, and even the Fighters honed weapons. The gauntlets were designed to produce for the dungeon in return for places on the leaderboards set up outside the dungeon.

  “Horse training?” Lacey suggested. “Are they all knightly and all that if they can’t tame a horse?”

  “Or a unicorn?” Colt put in, summoning a pedestal in their elevator room.

  “Now that we have them,” Lacey shrugged, pulling Spark off of Beka to cuddle.

  “Can we make them joust in a beetle-infested arena?” Colt mused, patting the puppy as they rode to the control room.

  “That sounds good,” Lacey smiled from behind Spark’s fur. It seemed that they both needed a bit of pet solace.

  “We can repurpose the bat cave,” Colt scooped up Beka, more to scoot her out of the elevator than to hold onto her. “It’s big enough for a jousting arena.”

  “Who are we going to pit against them?” Lacey let Spark go, and the two pets raced each other to the outer door. Spark only outran Beka because the puppy was still a tangle of awkward limbs. After an afternoon of needing to stay close, they were both ready to run loose for a while.

  “I’ve been thinking about a new mob that would work really well for this,” Colt rubbed his hands together. “Do you remember the cave on Dagobah where Luke met himself?”

  “Oh, that’s sinister,” Lacey let a grin take over her face. “But how are you going to draw that?”

  “It’s mostly intent, right?” Colt shrugged. “I figured I’d try to draw myself?”

  “And end up with you as a dungeon mob?” Lacey’s eyebrows took a jump up on her face.

  “You have any ideas?” he challenged her, settling at his desk in the control room as she walked to the door and leaned on the exit, close enough to smell the fresh air.

  “A few,” she nodded. “You work on the map of the level, and I’ll work up that mob.”

  “It’s a deal,” he said to her retreating back. Her desk was outside, but he could see her send him a thumbs up from the other side of the glass.

  It turned out that Colt was on the right track, but it took her three tries to make the mob. When they got that right, she helped Colt with the rest of the details for the gauntlet level. In one hour, those Knights would need to calm a herd of horses so that one would respond to them, making extra points for taming a unicorn or a nightmare. They’d also have to defeat themselves in a joust. Their final task was to complete a task of honor, choosing between tasks that each held a certain point value.

  “What are we going to do with mini-Colt?” Lacey asked as they dropped the final plans into the pedestal and fine-tuned the results.

  “You were supposed to draw you, not me,” Colt gave her a bit of stink-eye.

  “I drew you fighting you in the mirror,” Lacey smiled.

  “And got a guy so full of himself that he’s totally useless,” Colt’s stink-eye got stinkier.

  “How was I supposed to know that’s how the system would interpret that?” Lacey gave him an innocent look.

  “Where are you going?” Colt asked her as she headed for her room, Spark cuddled in one arm. The pets had exhausted themselves.

  “Bed,” Lacey said over her shoulder.

  “You’re going the wrong way,” he called to her from the outer doorway.

  “What are you talking about?” she turned to him.

  “Your bed isn’t in here,” he crooked a finger at her.

  It had been dark by the time they’d gotten home; dark enough that she hadn’t seen the little shed on the other side of the patio. It was set back about ten feet from the patio, and it was covered with a mud and thatch roof. It wasn’t much, barely four walls, a door and a roof, but it did have her bed in it. The floor was the split logs like the patio. It was worse than their first apartment, but it was heaven to her.