by Charles Dean
“What’s your angle?” Lucas asked.
“Nothing at all,” she answered coyly. “As far as all the rest of what you need, well . . .” She paused and reached into her corset, taking her time while she fished around inside the cup, and then pulled out two palm-sized pieces of paper. She handed one to Lucas and then one to Liu. “This is the information you need. Oh, and”--she stopped and giggled--“I’ll also need 1,000 pieces of gold as admission and lodging fee for you and your people.
Liu slammed her teacup on the table as she shouted back at the headmistress, “That’s ridiculous! Everyone knows that tuition is only ten pieces of gold per person, and lodging is only five! What are you pulling?”
“I’m sorry, but everyone knows the price of tuition for a regular student and for regular accommodations. Lucas is special, and his accommodations are too. I’m sure you’ll find this price is more than generous.” She casually took a sip of her own tea and then grabbed a blueberry crumpet before standing up. “But if you don’t have it, or you don’t want to pay, you can always just leave. I don’t need either of you here. In fact, it might be easier if I were not responsible for you at all.”
Lucas didn’t even pause as he pulled out his coin purse. His “special” rate of 1,000 gold was roughly half of the earnings he had managed to pocket from his dungeon after wages and buying everything he needed. There was no way he was going to back down from this first challenge. Even if it meant taking a loss and throwing around that much money just to prove himself, it was a loss he had to take to move forward. He didn’t hesitate as he took the plate of pastries, dumped the baked goods onto the floor, reached into his coin purse, and began counting out the 1,000 gold coins right onto the empty plate.
“There,” Lucas said when he was finished. “This should cover my people.”
“It will indeed. And now I must be going. A lady’s matters are never resolved,” she said, extending a hand to Lucas.
Lucas stood up and took her hand to shake it goodbye. He felt cold metal pressed against his palm as he took her hand, and she left the object inside his as she withdrew her delicate fingers. “Toodles,” the headmistress said to Liu. She then winked at Lucas and left.
With only himself and Liu still in the room, Lucas took a quick glance at his hand to see a key with a note attached to it. He wanted to open up the message and read it right there, but he didn’t. The woman had given him the key in a way that only he could see it, so she clearly didn’t want it to be something he shared with Liu.
Fine. I’ll respect your wishes this time, Lucas thought, slipping the key into his pocket and instead opening up the other piece of paper that she had left with them.
The scrap of paper was incredibly small, and the text on it was even smaller. It reminded him of a cheat sheet that a college student might have made during finals, hoping that it was never discovered. In incredibly tiny letters, it had a list of instructions for how to register, a map of the campus, and a list of available classes and their potential teachers. Some classes, like those in physical combat, had multiple instructors.
“That woman was eerie,” Liu said as she squinted to make out what was written on the paper.
“I don’t think anyone would disagree with you,” Lucas said, nodding along as he stepped out of the building. “I can’t imagine a single woman I’ve ever met that was missing more screws than she seems to be.”
When he stepped out, he noticed that the party of four he had left was now a party of five. Bonnie, Nick, Viola, and Katie were chatting with what looked like a student. She was dressed from head to toe in a pleated skirt, a blouse, and a coat that matched the skirt and looked like it had never been properly cared for. There were a few spots of dirt that were visible around the skirt’s hem and a small tear on the cuffs.
“Hey!” the girl said enthusiastically, pushing her spectacles before waving at Lucas and then extending her hand in greeting. “You must be Lucas! It’s so nice to finally meet you! Everyone here has been saying such nice things about you.”
“Thanks,” Lucas said, extending his hand to shake hers. “It’s nice meeting you too . . .” He paused at the end, letting her fill in the name.
“I’m Tiffany,” she said. “Sorry, my introductions aren’t the best. Anyway, I was just on my way to class. Glad I bumped into you all, but I really must be going.” She turned around to walk away, but then paused after a few steps to turn back around. “And Nick! You better not forget to take alchemy so we can be in the same class together!” She then turned back around and took off before anyone else could say another word.
“Well, that was interesting,” Viola said flatly.
“I’m as surprised as you. Boss leaves for a few minutes, and Nick gets himself a girl,” Bonnie laughed.
“It’s nice to see you’re taking it well,” Liu said. “I thought you’d be much more jealous of the new girl than that, Bons.”
“What? Why? No. Stop that already!” Bonnie insisted. She quickly shifted so that she was standing right next to Lucas, her chest pressing into his arm as she started looking at the piece of paper that Lucas was reading.
“Nnn. Because Liu likes Lucas,” Katie murmured.
“So, where are we staying?” Nick asked. “Did you buy us the fanciest place here?”
“You know he did,” Bonnie said.
Everyone seemed to have faith in Lucas’s desire to have luxurious places. They had, of course, remodeled Kegan’s place to be a veritable hot spa luxury hotel, coming close to turning it into the ultimate guild base. They had refurbished it with smoking rooms for their bacon and cooking, giant heated baths that were large enough to accommodate twelve people, and lounge rooms for when the player activity died down. They had only been there for about a week before the level cap kicked them off the island, but Lucas could tell that everyone had been spoiled by the in-game opulence.
“A great villain needs a unique dungeon,” Viola explained as if it were obvious. “Even if you end up with a place like the ones around us, it won’t be interesting. You need to renovate it.”
“Right,” Lucas said as he began following the map toward their living quarters. The instructions said that he couldn’t begin registration for an hour or so, as most of the people would be at lunch, so he figured he’d stop by their new home so that he could see what he was dealing with and drop his stuff off.
“Wow!” Bonnie was the first one to be amazed by what was around them as they rounded a few corners and made it to the residential side of the campus.
Even though Lucas was prepared for small estates, every single one was more grandiose and beyond anything that Lucas would ever find in a city back in the real world. Each compound was surrounded by a twelve-foot-tall fence, and the ten-acre yards were capped with mansions in their centers. The buildings in the middle of the yards were bigger than many of the fraternity or sorority buildings Lucas had seen back in his college days, and while their colors were white and gold, just like the class buildings on campus, their designs were nothing like the simple, blockish structures. Instead, they more closely resembled the British mansions that Lucas had seen on TV, just smaller. He also quickly noted that each of the houses seemed to have non-Humans in maid or butler outfits standing at the door, as if to let the outside know, “Yes, we are so rich we can pay someone to just stand there and hold the door.”
“The homes are beautiful,” Liu said, joining in on the admiration.
“So . . . why exactly didn’t you want to work here?” Nick asked.
“Because these are students’ homes,” Liu answered. “They are mostly worthless brats, and many are just waiting on someone old to die and pass on a rank to them. I would have had to find a building in the rest of the town and then commute to work. I already do that in real life, and there’s no way I’m going to do it inside of a game as well.”
“I think the bigger question is this: if this is an Imperium town, why would they need a GM?” Nick asked. “There aren’t exactly pl
ayers coming in and out of this place.”
“Oh, yeah, there are. Just not on the Imperium side. I basically would have been playing the role of a teacher and overseeing the development of the Imperium Academy, garrison, and merchants’ quarters so that, if there were glitches or oddities in the code and the NPC behavior, I could create an accurate ticket and log it before it became too much of an inconvenience for the players going around in their Reputation-farming murder sprees.”
Nick grunted his acknowledgement. “Yeah, I suppose that tracks. Although, if they made you teach classes to a bunch of NPCs just to create realism, that’d be crap.”
“Stop being so Nick,” Bonnie said. “You’re looking at things the wrong way. If your boss pays you enough, you should just jump at the chance--even if it means teaching someone with the long-term memory and attention span of a butterfly. Just do what you’re told and earn that gold. That’s the merc’s way of life.”
“I know we’ve asked this before, but what is with you and your need for money?” Nick pressed.
“Just mind your own business about it,” Bonnie snapped.
Bonnie was usually quite pleasant and cheery, even when teasing Nick, but Lucas could tell from the way her bushy tail stiffened, her ears laid back, and her eyes narrowed that this was clearly a subject she didn’t want to get into. Not being confident that Nick would know when to drop the subject, though, Lucas preemptively stepped in. “Hey, don’t try to go talking my merc out of gainful employment. I don’t want to have to go find another one,” he said jokingly, hoping that would lighten the mood.
Bonnie’s expression didn’t lighten up any, but her mood didn’t bleed into her words when she said, “Yeah, the boss needs me, so what’s wrong with needing a little money? Not all of us have parents that are willing to help support something that they consider a terrible waste of money and time that might ruin my life.”
Well, that’s rather specific. “But you found a way anyway, and we’re glad to have you with us,” Lucas said. For some reason, he didn’t think twice about playfully ruffling her hair. It seemed to do the trick, and she calmed down for the moment.
“Is this . . . No way is this the place they have for us!” Nick exclaimed as they came up to the spot marked on the tiny, little map drawn on the tiny, little cheat sheet. It was the only lot they had come across that not only lacked a fence, but also a building. Strangely, there was a large free-standing wooden gate closed and secured with a heavy iron chain--despite the fact that anyone could just walk around the gate. “Man, forget the rest of this crap. This? This is garbage. This is absolute garbage. What the hell was the headmistress thinking?”
Lucas scowled at the gate. He had been hoping for some great mystery, some wonderful secret that let Lucas know the headmistress might have actually been on his side and that she had just been putting on a show. But the lock confirmed a suspicion of his. Sighing and ignoring Nick’s rant, he walked up to the gate and took out the key she had left him.
“When’d you get that?” Liu asked as she saw him pull out the key.
“From our new friend with a bad sense of humor,” Lucas said as he felt the key go into the lock without an issue, smoothly sliding in place. He felt a little give as each of the pins was pushed into place, the key turned easily, and the lock snapped open without a problem.
“Well, I guess that clears up any doubts we may have had as to whether they’d shaft us with this terrible place,” Liu grumbled. “I guess we’re going to need to find a residence after all.”
“Maybe,” Lucas said, walking past the gate to the middle of the empty field. The yard itself was rather flat, but Lucas didn’t think the unusually level terrain was intentional, just something that games sometimes did with dungeons and other parts of a map that wouldn't be seen often. Even AIs cut corners and failed to properly randomize the terrain so that it would feel natural. “But I don’t think we’ll need to.” He quickly crossed the small field and approached a parcel that he noticed had been left there.
Even though he was annoyed with what had been dealt him, he saw potential. The yard was at least fourteen acres, much larger than the other lots that they had passed, and it was territory that he now had control of. He had paid his 1,000 gold to get it, and if someone tried to move him out of it after he fixed it up, he planned to kill them. They’d just become another victim in his dungeon.
“Tent supplies,” Katie said as she started emptying the storage bag, which seemed to operate much like the size-condensing backpacks that players had on. “There are five tents in here. That’s enough for all but two of us to set one as our binding residence, and two of us can share the last one.”
“If the last person can’t bind at one of these tents, then we can just bind at the local inn. Either way, the tents don’t look very big, probably not even spacious for two people. It’s not like we need to spend time here with them though,” Liu said.
“It’s fine,” Lucas said, dismissively waving off the suggestion. “You five use the tents to bind here. I don’t need a binding place.” There is no “if” for me. If I die, this game is over for me. My hard work will be lost, everything ruined.
“Hardcore, boss,” Bonnie said. “I like it.”
Katie nodded her enthusiasm. “Boss is boss.”
“Hey, stop stealing my nickname for him!” Bonnie chuckled as she grabbed one of the tents and began erecting it next to Katie, and eventually Liu, Nick, and Viola all joined in. While the others were busy, Lucas surveyed the land. He bent over and touched the ground, happy to feel that it was soft. Then, wondering if his Imperium title would let him do what he wanted with this land too, he brought up his dungeon master screen. He was happy to see that his Hesse dungeon had been successfully pawned off on someone else, as he had no access to that region at all. Instead, he only had access to the region near Dover. There was a small block designating his dungeon, but it wasn’t labeled in the same way it had been on Hesse, and many of the facets were missing entirely.
Territorial Gold only had an amount that Lucas just assumed was the final tally of his gold earned from his Hesse dungeon before Hanna had managed to pass it off, but the Territorial Income, Treaties, and all other fields were blank. The map only displayed a blank fourteen-acre space that matched up perfectly to the proportions of his current lot. There was no larger map of the surrounding area, there were no Dungeon Points, no Evolution Points, and no guards for him to position. There was, however, a small message flashing above the map:
No territory suitable for the placement of guards or distribution of Dungeon Points. No location suitable to create a boss monologue or combat avatar. Please build rooms.
Lucas hadn’t really given much thought to what was required for a space to be suitable as a dungeon, and he mentally directed an inquiry to the game so that the system would clarify exactly what was needed.
The requirements to generate a dungeon are as follows: In order for a territory to be capable of being turned into a dungeon that will have its spaces awarded Dungeon Point distribution values, a minimum of five rooms is needed. Rooms are defined as enclosed spaces with at least one entrance that can be accessed by players. An entrance may be a natural barrier of any size, a door of any size, or an open hole that is not large enough for more than one person to pass through at a time. The five mandatory rooms must take up at least 250 square feet with no more than 10% of that area obstructed by obstacles that hinder player or dungeon guard movement. The rooms must be connected in a cohesive manner, and there must be a minimum of 5% of the dungeon’s space used as hallways, tunnels, or other passages linking the rooms together.
Lucas found the requirements pretty standard and straight forward, but he did note that at no point did it require the rooms to be above ground, nor did it require them to actually be made of anything. It just defined rooms as enclosed spaces. This meant that Lucas would have a lot of leeway with what he wanted to do in terms of actually making the dungeon. He wanted to be mad at the f
act there wasn’t even so much as a basic foundation for a building set, the ground was soft and would need to be worked and reinforced for him to do anything, and he had spent a 1,000 gold coins for essentially nothing, but he wasn’t even annoyed. The woman had tried to make him suffer, and all she had done was give him new ideas for a better dungeon.
“This is going to be beautiful,” Lucas thought aloud as he looked at the place. “The only thing we need now is a little bit of imagination and a lot of money.”
“You’re not exactly short on either of those, boss,” Bonnie said, throwing down the materials needed to make a tent in frustration as she looked over at Lucas. “But can we maybe stop by an inn? I’m not going to be able to get this.”
“Have you never set up a tent before?” Nick asked.
Bonnie didn’t answer. She just shot him a glare that would strip paint instead. Yet, despite her request, Katie had already slithered over and begun working on Bonnie’s tent.
“Dang, girl, you’re freaking awesome at that,” Nick commented as he watched Katie put together Bonnie’s tent in less than a minute and a half.
“Nnn,” Katie said. “Those who follow Lee must study all types of crafting.”
She’s a Follower of Lee? Lucas was a little surprised. He had heard about that growing movement. It had sprung up in one of the big cities almost overnight, and although it was often associated with the mafia, its members were considered some of the best builders and craftsmen in the world. Even though technology was constantly progressing further and faster every day, the Followers of Lee were responsible for a small renaissance in old-fashioned craftsmanship.
Normally, people went to churches and studied a book that taught them all the tenets and stories of their religion, but the Followers of Lee were different. They were required, from as young an age as five, to spend their free days building things. The church didn’t care what they tried to build or craft; it just made sure that they were either building something or working on learning some craft. They were both part church and part business as a result, and the religion was filled with die-hard zealots.
