Jackal stood before the court and gazed up at the man sitting on the ceremonial throne.

  The silence stretched for a long moment, and Jackal turned to the nobility sitting at the long, curved table that served as the court of the city.

  “It was my understanding you had some questions about our little operation at the Drascol estate.”

  “That’s Count Drascol to you…” a noble started, but stopped speaking as Zap stepped over to the table in front of him.

  “Who are you?” Zap asked bluntly.

  The man’s eyes shifted to look at the other nobles, but no one met his gaze.

  He straightened his posture and stared defiantly back at Zap.

  “I am Lord Carstairs, appointed to this court by the Lord of Scofrey himself. The real question is, who are you? I don’t recall a troll being a citizen of this city.”

  Zap grunted and turned to Jackal, who gave him a nod.

  Turning back to the noble, he grinned at him, his prominent tusks on full display.

  “I am Zap of the Adventurer’s Guild, and I have some questions for the assemblage.”

  Not waiting for the noble to respond, Zap placed his gauntleted hands on the table and leaned over the man.

  “I take it you were friends with Drascol?”

  Unflinching, the noble laughed and sat farther back in his chair to put some space between them.

  “I don’t have to answer to the likes of you!”

  “Actually, you do,” Jackal said.

  “Actually…he doesn’t,” The Lord of Scofrey stated, his voice echoing magically through the chamber.

  “The Guild has no authority in the kingdom’s running, and you have far overstepped your bounds, Jackal.”

  Jackal nodded his head and shrugged.

  “Normally, you’d be correct. The Guild can have no direct involvement in the running of the kingdom. However, we are not here as members of the Guild. We are here as the city founders.”

  The Lord’s eyes went wide, then he stared off into space for a moment, before refocusing on Jackal.

  “I…see. However, you must understand that, when that clause went into the city charter, the founders living for millennia, wasn’t expected.”

  Ignoring the comment, Jackal turned to face the gathered assembly.

  “There is a corruption in the city. One that needs to be stamped out.”

  He turned his glare at the lord sitting on the throne.

  “And since you have not done so, we have had to step in and make sure the city is on the right path.”

  The nobles began to mutter amongst themselves, and Jackal watched them for a moment, before piercing Lord Carstairs with his gaze.

  “We’ll start with Lord Carstairs.”

  The noble blanched but remained defiantly silent.

  “Do you know where Drascol is?” Zap growled.

  The noble’s face remained passive.

  “Answer me!” Zap roared, his voice echoing through the chamber.

  The noble sneered.

  “I don’t care who you think you are. I will not be questioned by a savage!”

  Zap turned to Jackal and grinned widely.

  Jackal looked around the hall and spotted a servant, staying well out of the way of the commotion.

  “You,” Jackal said, pointing at the young man.

  The man straightened and bowed.

  “Please retrieve Captain Peridew and one of his men. You’ll find them just on the other side of the door.”

  “It’s High Commander Peridew,” Zap said.

  Jackal nodded.

  “Sorry about that. Please retrieve High Commander Peridew and one of his men and have them join us.”

  The runner bowed again, then ran over to the door, attempted to open it, then gave it a rap with his knuckles.

  After a few moments, Peridew and one of his guards entered the room and walked up to the council table.

  “Sorry about this. I wanted you here in case things got messy,” Jackal said.

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  Peridew sighed, then nodded to Jackal, then up to the lord of the city.

  Zap faced the noble, and red stripes began to glow softly from his armor.

  “I’ll ask again. Do you know where Drascol is?” he ground out.

  The man’s sneer turned into a smirk, and he looked around the table, making sure all eyes were on him.

  “No.”

  “Lie,” came a voice from the noble’s seat.

  The man’s eyes widened, and he looked down at his chair in confusion.

  Zap pointed a finger at the noble and fired a Stunbolt.

  The noble slumped in his chair, and Zap reached over the table, grabbing the man by his tunic and set him on the floor nearby.

  The rest of the nobles began to rise, and Jackal’s voice cut through the chamber.

  “Please retake your seats, or you will be stunned and questioned back at the Guild!”

  Most of the nobles quickly retook their chairs, but many began making their way towards the door.

  A previously unseen figure seemed to materialize from where he leaned by the wall by the large doors.

  Dirk grinned at the group, and from a small metal box on his belt, bees emerged and flew at the nobles.

  The nobles screamed and swatted at the insects, but as they were stung, their movements became sluggish, and they fell to the floor.

  A large bald man seemed unaffected, and a black dagger appeared in his hand.

  He charged at Dirk, and the rogue made a throwing motion, and three knives sunk into the noble’s arm.

  The noble dropped the twisted black dagger but only grinned back at the rogue.

  Opening his mouth wide, a black miasma poured forth and snaked through the air towards Dirk.

  The rogue spoke a word that hung in the air, and thorny vines grew out of the stone floor and ensnared the man.

  The noble grunted in pain as the thorns dug into his flesh.

  Holding a hand up to his face, a black vial appeared in his hand, and he thumbed off the stopper.

  He tossed the liquid back and laughed as black lines started tracing out the veins on his face.

  After a moment, his body went limp, and Dirk dismissed the vines.

  He whistled, and the bees returned to the box on his hip, and he nodded to Jackal.

  Shaking his head, the guildmaster glared at the city lord, who had risen from his seat to watch the fight unfold.

  “So, a member of your court walked the Dark Path of the Divine. Interesting…”

  The city lord’s eyes widened as he realized the implications and retook his seat.

  His eyes hardened, and he stared at Jackal, then at the rest of his court.

  “Ask your questions, Guildmaster. It seems I was unaware of a great many things.”

  Jackal gave a bow of his head to the lord, then turned to Zap.

  “Let’s get started.”

  ***

  “What did we get?” Gideon asked.

  “A Tier Two core, ten reagents, ten portions of Deep Dweller meat, and six teeth,” Forge answered, as the dust from the creature he’d looted was absorbed by the dungeon.

  “Tier Two?” Gideon wrinkled his nose at where the creature had lain.

  “I would have thought it would be higher.”

  Forge shrugged. “It’s probably due to my Looting skill only being at Tier Two.”

  Gideon puffed out his cheeks and released a breath. “Makes sense I guess.”

  With the monster’s corpse gone, the chest that had appeared in the center of the maze was visible.

  The jets of oil that had been geysering up from the black pool had stopped after the monster had left its hiding place, and it was a simple matter to cross the pathway and collect the chest.

  They continued fully across the pool until they reached the door and looked it over.

  Falcon studied it for a moment, then reached out a hand and grasped the black knocker on the door, yanking it open.

  They all stepped to the side, awaiting something to pop out and attack, but when nothing happened, they peered into the room.

  It was a small stone chamber with a circle composed of complex glowing glyphs.

  The air seemed charged with energy, and Lioness stepped forward to examine it.

  She turned to them with a giant smile. “It’s a dungeon portal!”

  Falcon looked at the portal in disbelief.

  “A dungeon portal in a Tier One dungeon?” she questioned.

  The cleric shrugged. “It should take us to the first room.”

  Returning to the boss chamber to do a careful search, and coming up empty, the party entered the portal.

  They arrived at the entrance of the first room and made their way up and out of the dungeon.

  The dungeon guards congratulated them for getting out alive and invited them to sit and talk about their time inside.

  “That dungeon was much shorter than the first one we ran,” Falcon said.

  “And the dungeon portal was a pleasant surprise!” Lioness added.

  “Oh, I’m breaking out the good stuff,” a guard said.

  He left the room, and the party turned to the two other guards in the small barracks.

  “What’s going on?” asked Falcon.

  A guard laughed. “This dungeon is way too hard for most Rank One adventurers. We make sure to keep it culled so Guildies can leave, but we still lose many people to its depths.”

  Gideon nodded in understanding. “Between the swarms and the boss monster, it was crazy dangerous.”

  The guard captain nodded emphatically. “This dungeon isn’t available to new recruits because of that.”

  A guard returned with a wine barrel and inserted a spout, then began filling mugs and handing them out.

  “Which boss did you get?” a guard asked.

  “It changes?” Lioness asked.

  “Oh yes. There seem to be six iterations that the dungeon presents,” the guard captain said.

  “We had a weird pool of oil with a bunch of stone pathways over it, and geysers of hot oil shooting up out of it. Then we had to fight a…” Gideon said, then looked over at Forge questioningly.

  “A Deep Dweller,” Forge supplied.

  The guard captain whistled. “Yeah, that’s the worst one, alright. Tell me, did you have a puzzle room?”

  The party described their journey through the dungeon in detail, while a guard took notes.

  Finished transcribing their adventure, the guard shut his book and smiled warmly at them.

  “Well, you guys got a new iteration,” a guard said, retrieving a small glowing tool from a footlocker.

  He moved to the far barracks wall and began carving into the stone.

  Turning to them, he grinned. “You’re the first to get this one, so you get your names recorded.”

  Pleased, they provided their information, and soon their names were etched into the wall next to Iteration Seven.

  By unspoken agreement, none of the team had checked their System point gains and were waiting to check them on the long ride back to the city.

  “A first. I wonder if that means we’ll be getting an extra point or two?” Gideon whispered to Lioness.

  “Fingers crossed,” she whispered back.

  Forge ignored the comments. Once they’d become Rank One adventurers, they’d gotten the opportunity to learn about the many Guild customs, as well as the faux pas’ that were considered poor etiquette.

  And discussing dungeon loot and point gains in earshot of other guildies was at the top of that list.

  The Guild driver came in and waved them over. “Carriage is ready.”

  Excited to get back on the road, the party thanked the Guards for their hospitality.

  “Hey, this was a good time for us as well. You realize we don’t usually bring the good stuff out for successful teams, right?”

  “Ah. Yeah, that makes sense,” Lioness said with a frown as she gazed at the wall that held their names, and the opposite wall that held the names of the fallen.

  It was yet another reminder of the danger of their jobs, and the longevity of most guildies.

  “You did a great job today, Cinder,” he sent the dragon.

  “Thank you,” the dragon sent him from his soul space.

  Forge smiled. No one would ever accuse him of raising a rude dragon.

  With that, the team boarded the carriage, excited to go through their loot and System points.

  While culling any dungeon meant not only a reset, but ensured that no one else would die attempting to cull it, Forge couldn’t wait until they could hunt dungeons in the wild.

  That’s where they could really make a difference.