“Gentlemen, thank you for taking the time,” Hans said to the Bassassins.

  The tusk and two dwarves sat across from Hans in his guild apartment. Escorting Gomi exports kept them busy for the summer, but now that winter approached and Gunther–their sole frontliner–was back from Kohei, Hans felt they should speak.

  “Let me start by saying I appreciate how open-minded you’ve been about bringing Gunther along for dungeon runs. Not a lot of people would take that risk, but you gave him a chance, and that’s done a lot for his development.”

  “Kid pulls his weight,” one of the dwarves said. “That’s all we really care about.” The other two Assassins nodded their agreement.

  “Are you spending winter in Gomi?”

  “Was planning on it.”

  “What about after that?”

  The party looked between themselves. The same dwarf answered on the party’s behalf. “We were thinking about going back out for jobs. Gomi is home, and we like pitching in, but we’re… uhh…”

  “Bored and worried that your skills are rusting since you’re not being challenged.”

  “Well, aye. That’s accurate.”

  “You don’t need to justify your thinking,” Hans assured them. “I get it. When you head out in the spring, would you take Gunther with you?”

  “Permanent part of the party you mean?”

  “Yes.”

  “Like I said, Gun’s odd at times, but he does his part. We all decided a while back that we’d be happy to have him full-time.”

  Hans tilted his head. “Is there a ‘but’ between those lines?”

  “But we figured he would stay with Kane, and it looks like Kane and Quentin are pretty close too. We don’t have a need for that many swords, and we definitely don’t want to come between family.”

  “Did you talk to Gunther about any of this?”

  “Well, no,” the dwarf said. “Did you?”

  “Not yet. I wanted to understand where your heads were at before I started throwing suggestions around.”

  “He’s got a lot of growing up to do,” the tusk said, “but we’d run with him. Would make good money too, I imagine. Do you think he would separate from Kane?”

  “My gut says he wouldn’t, but it’s also not right for me to assume that.”

  “Are you going to talk to him?”

  “This is my last backroom conversation about Gunther. He’s young, but we’re expecting him to behave like a grown man out in the world. When I realized I was struggling with that, I suspected others were too. If you all don’t mind, I’d ask that you revisit this conversation amongst yourselves but treat Gunther like any other adventurer when you do.”

  “Leave out his age, you mean,” the same dwarf from before said.

  “And what you know about Kane. If you decide he isn’t the right fit after that, no problem.”

  The Assassins looked between one another again.

  The tusk spoke softly. “If he was anyone else, we’d talk to him directly.”

  The dwarves nodded.

  “I appreciate it, guys,” Hans said.

  Active Quest: Complete the next volume (Bronze to Silver) for “The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers.”

  Hans rubbed his head. Talking to the Bassassins about what was right for Gunther reminded him how far behind he was, but writing had not come easily for him as of late. He knew the material was in his mind, and he probably had just applied those concepts in a real class, but turning that knowledge into coherent paragraphs proved difficult. Right now, a group of Irons was running the goblin shaman room for the first time. With his foot on a dungeon root beneath his desk, he watched them breach.

  Maybe Olza is right.

  He was distracted. Thoughts of the dungeon and its core flowed into the smallest gaps between ideas. If a moment lulled, experiments and tests and observations rushed in.

  In fact, he realized, Chisel had gently prodded at the same problem during their Cursed memory sessions. She wasn’t as direct about it as Olza was, but she did ask him if he had something else on his mind or if he was preoccupied with anything he’d like to talk about. If his mind strayed even then, when the seriousness of the moment was obvious, how poorly did he handle the rest of his daily life?

  New Quest: Reclaim your ability to focus.

  Hans stowed his incomplete manuscript when Chisel, Galad, and Yotuli entered the guild hall.

  “Classroom?” Chisel asked.

  “Yeah. I’ll be right in.”

  And he was. Hans shut the door behind him and took a seat. With brick walls and a heavy wooden door, the guild classroom was surprisingly private. The noise of adventurers socializing was there if you listened for it, but the room was quiet and contained otherwise. They could speak freely here.

  “Our plans are nearly set,” Galad said, beginning the meeting. “The biggest change is that we’re sending the cave crawlers out before the Fall Festival. Chisel pointed out that they may not handle winter well, so we want to be in the warmer climates before winter hits.”

  That meant the departure was a little more than a month from now, maybe less.

  “I think that means the delegation should leave as soon as the snows come rather than partway into the winter. I don’t like having a lot of time between when the crawlers leave and when we do. If they’re caught before we get to Hoseki… That won’t help our cause.”

  Hans nodded. That seemed wise.

  “Does that timeline mess you up?” Galad asked.

  “In what way?”

  “That would leave you and Mazo on culling duty several weeks earlier than we had discussed. I know the Tainted Caves make that dangerous, so I don’t want you to feel rushed on that front.”

  Training with Devon and Mazo had been going exceptionally well, actually. “We’ve got it covered. Thank you for checking with me, though.”

  Chisel, Galad, and Yotuli glanced nervously at each other.

  “Oh gods. What is it?”

  Chisel took a deep breath. “Vaglell figured out Devon’s Sense Truth ability, so we can’t be sure if we’re getting straight answers even if he’s in the room. Bridun proved that someone can dance through it if they’re clever enough.”

  “Yeah, that’s unfortunate,” Hans agreed.

  “I have a workaround, but you’re not going to like it.”

  “I have no idea how, but it involves mimics, doesn’t it?”

  Chisel nodded.

  “This is your idea, not Mazo’s idea in Chisel wrapping paper?”

  “It’s mine. In fact, it’s made me want to go with the delegation so I can do my part to help.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “How does transporting a mimic across the kingdom and into the royal courts help our cause?”

  Her wince was subtle, but Chisel felt the edge in Hans’ words. “If we leave a mimic behind, it can report what it hears the way a familiar would. We’d know what they’re saying when we’re not around, when they’re more likely to be open about the truth.”

  “Through telepathy?”

  “Yes.”

  “And this got enough traction that we’re all here considering it?” Hans asked.

  “Nothing is decided,” Galad said, “but Chisel’s idea is interesting.”

  “No.”

  Galad cocked his head. “Was it quick because it’s a mimic, or was it quick because it’s a bad plan?”

  “All of the above,” Hans replied. “Hoseki is crawling with high-level magic users and adventurers. If I were the one catching you with a mimic, I’d assume you meant to assassinate the King or someone else important, and you probably couldn’t convince me otherwise. Even if you could, it’s still a crime to knowingly transport a mimic.”

  “The chances of getting caught are that great?” Galad asked.

  “Yes. I don’t like that we’re even talking about this.”

  “We’re considering all of our options,” Galad said.

  “This was never an option,” Hans said with more force in his voice than he intended. “Is the dungeon still my purview?”

  Galad nodded.

  “Then why the fuck are we talking about mimics, again? At what point does anyone take a ‘no’ from me seriously?”

  The room stilled.

  “When I died, how long did it take Mazo to talk about using mimics outside the lab?” All of the faces before him looked at the floor. “How long?”

  “Two weeks…” Chisel managed.

  “Two fucking weeks.”

  Galad looked up at Hans. “Our intention was not to anger you, nor are we suggesting your recommendations aren’t taken seriously.”

  “The last time I was this emphatic about a no, an army of liches appeared in the dungeon.”

  “We wouldn’t go behind your back,” Galad insisted.

  “If you’re asking me about mimics, that means someone saw enough wiggle room that they could work around me somehow.”

  “That’s not-”

  “No mimics. What else do we need to discuss?”

  The tusk trio looked at each other again.

  Yotuli spoke for the first time. “I wanted to talk about using your story as an example of Daojmot at work. The greater powers at play in Gomi illustrate how important this place is.”

  “No.”

  “May we ask why?” Galad probed.

  “Because it wasn’t Daojmot. There was no divine plan or force at work there. Someone killed me, and I got lucky with the dungeon core.”

  “But with the Merchant’s story and your-”

  “You mean the Merchant that took my eye?”

  Yotuli’s face fell.

  Galad leaned forward. “I think what Yotuli was trying to was-”

  “Galad.”

  Hans and Galad held eye contact for a long stretch. Finally, the tusk stood. “Thank you for your time, Guild Master.”

  Chisel and Yotuli didn’t immediately follow Galad out of the room, but when it was clear that he was leaving, they did as well.

  Luther asked Hans to hold a piece of trim in place while he drove nails through it.

  “How do you work this fast?” Hans asked, doing the same with the next piece. “I was still cleaning shit out at this point, and you’re already on finishing touches.”

  “Practice, I suppose.”

  “Might as well be magic.”

  Laughing, Luther stood back to check if his line was level. “You had more responsibilities to juggle than I do.”

  “Different, sure, but I wouldn’t say more. Galad’s prepping you to run the city, right?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “That’s not a small thing.”

  “Maybe not. Does that look straight to you?”

  Hans stepped away from the wall to stand next to Luther. “I think it’s the ceiling. The plaster isn’t even.”

  “I think you’re right. I can fill that in later. Won’t notice it after that.”

  Hans watched while Luther measured and cut the next piece.

  When the handsaw was all the way through the wood, Luther blew away the sawdust and ran his thumb over the edge of the cut. “I heard there was a bit of a disagreement this morning,” he said as he turned the trim to look down its length.

  “What’d you hear?”

  “Only that a meeting went poorly. Galad thought most of it was preventable and felt bad.”

  “Most of it?” Hans thought. “I was probably too hard on Yotuli. I got worked up about the mimic bullshit, and I think that splashed onto her.”

  “For what it’s worth, I understand the mimic frustration.”

  “Thanks.”

  “It’s only been secondhand, but I’ve heard enough about it to know you’d not go for it.”

  “I did this to myself,” Hans said, putting the next piece of trim in place. “Vaglell always said, ‘Don’t make friends with your students.’ This isn’t the first time ignoring that advice has bitten me. It’s not even the first time it’s bit me in Gomi.”

  “Do you think he was right?”

  “I know that when he answered a question, that was the end of it. He never had to say ‘no’ twice.”

  “I see.”

  “And here I am encouraging my students to be creative and to ask questions and to challenge ideas. Then I wonder why I’m not taken seriously when I actually put a foot down on something.”

  Luther measured for the next piece. “Strict obedience does sound easier.”

  “So much easier. Problems like these make me question whether my entire method is flawed. Gods, Luther, they wanted to take a mimic into the heart of Hoseki, into the same room as the King. That’s crazy, right?”

  “I can offer you a different perspective, but it may sound like I’m disagreeing with you, even though that’s not what it is.”

  “Speak your mind.”

  “The decisions we’ve had to make-” Luther looked at his pencil mark and frowned. He stood to remeasure the space he intended for the next piece of trim. “The decisions we’ve had to make are far from typical, and the rule of law has been a guideline for us at best. I think our people have learned that no solution is perfect and that sometimes we have to cross lines for the greater good.”

  “So it’s my fault?”

  “Let me finish. I don’t think it’s about blame. It’s about understanding where each other are coming from. Chisel probably didn’t mean for her idea to come off how it did. She was just trying to solve a problem with what she had.”

  Hans passed Luther some nails. “I was just as clear with Mazo about the liches, but it didn’t matter.”

  “Is that what this is about?”

  “Some of it, yeah. Probably.”

  “There’s too much history there for me to have any opinion on that dynamic,” Luther said. “Chisel isn’t Mazo, though. It’s not fair to judge her based on something someone else did. Has she ever ignored your direction before?”

  Hans sighed. “No.”

  “Again, I’m not disagreeing with you, and I think the frustration is justified.”

  “But I handled it poorly.”

  “I wasn’t there, but it sounds like everyone handled the situation poorly.”

  “Maybe,” Hans said.

  “Listen. These are just observations. I don’t think there’s a clear right answer here, but your students having the freedom to explore new ideas is why Honronk figured out enchanted tattoos. You could have told him to focus on his real work, but you let him roam. Yotuli is a Cleric for the same reason. And Buru is bringing a lake to life. As far as Chisel goes, I’ve heard you say yourself that she’s a bigger part of the monster taming project than she lets on. I think you even said that ‘it probably wouldn’t have happened’ were it not for her.”

  “I did say that.”

  “Would you trade away any of that if it meant Chisel didn’t ask you about mimics?”

  “...No.”

  “That tells me the problem isn’t your policy. There are some rough edges in it that you either have to learn to live with or find a way to sand down.”

  “Nice carpentry metaphor.”

  Luther laughed. “Seemed appropriate.”

  “How do you see all of that?”

  “It’s easier to spot when a board isn’t cut right than to be the one to cut it straight in the first place. You see as much as I do when you’re on the outside observing.”

  “But I’m blind when I’m in it.”

  “Something like that.”

  Hans thought. “I should apologize to Yotuli too.”

  “Possibly.”

  New Quest: Apologize to Chisel and Yotuli.

  “Thank you for this,” Hans said, sighing.

  “You can repay me by going outside to the lumber pile. I need two fresh pieces.”

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Complete the next volume (Bronze to Silver) for “The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers.”

  Learn to help your advanced students as much as you help beginners.

  Relocate the titan bones to the dungeon entrance.

  Master your Diamond boon.

  Get Dunfoo the materials he needs for a Holy enchantment.

  Brainstorm more competitive dungeon games.

  Run future tests in a secure part of the dungeon.

  Apologize to Chisel and Yotuli.