Warm sun and a cloudless blue sky greeted Alisanne the next morning when she left the inn. With the exception of a stop by the dungeon in the afternoon for a pre-run briefing hosted by the [Dungeon Master], the day was hers to spend how she liked and she was determined to explore Yew’s Rise a bit more and see what it had to offer.

  Armed with her clubs, a tourist’s map provided by the adventurer guild, and a growling stomach, she marveled at the sights and looked for something to eat.

  At first, she feared that finding food might be harder than she expected: signs of industry were everywhere around her and Alisanne didn’t see a single restaurant in any direction for several blocks. Most of the shops were focused on woodcraft – as was to be expected given everything else she’d seen so far – but among the mass of stained bowls, pieces of furniture with complex joinery, and hand-turned wooden pens there were also plenty of [Potters], [Smiths], and [Jewelers] offering their wares too.

  The upscale nature of the businesses did contrast somewhat sharply with the average citizen Alisanne saw walking, who tended to be wearing thick and practical clothes that showed signs of heavy use. People wore saws and axes on their belts, or even on their backs the way adventurers did swords, and even a good number of children had loaded toolbelts around their waists.

  She passed by a towering wooden pillar that was wrapped in thick rope and, oddly, covered in scratches. After seeing a few more in short order she decided they must have been rather common in Yew’s Rise. Some were surrounded by long, luxurious platforms securely bolted to nearby buildings, and Alisanne saw a few citizens – primarily kitrekins – lounging atop them and reveling in the sunshine. They looked comfortable, but the lack of stairs or a ladder leading up, or more importantly, down, gave Alisanne pause on trying to make her way up to one of the unoccupied ones. Maybe after she found something to eat.

  Which, speaking of, she followed her nose to a small cafe where for a single silver fleur a [Cook] in a dirty-apron served her a plate of eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns that was as big as her torso with four slices of toast thick enough to stop an arrow on the side. The food was cheesy and greasy beyond belief, but probably even more delicious as a result, and Alisanne suspected she wouldn’t need to eat lunch – or maybe even dinner – given how full she was at the end.

  After pausing to watch a group of kitrekins work on a large wooden sculpture of something that was either a large fish or a poorly shaped tree, or possibly some combination of the two, Alisanne continued on.

  Other details of the city stood out as she walked, like the elaborate murals that looked like they were painted but were actually made of wood. According to a passerby she asked, they were examples of marquetry, a craft that used different bits of wood veneer to make a larger picture. There were, apparently, several workshops in the city that specialized in said craft, and sold smaller versions of the mural images in addition to other original work.

  Alisanne made a mental note of the shop names, resolving to buy a piece for her ma, who loved that type of thing, and headed toward a small park she could see in the distance.

  The park was nice, with a large sand garden in the center that could be raked or re-organized by visitors. Alisanne used a rake to make a few snaking paths, decided she didn’t have the patience or desire to make more, and then spent the next fifteen minutes or so on a nearby bench listening to the songs of the various little birds who called the park their home.

  After another delicious meal – as it turned out, walking around for a few hours did stimulate the appetite – Alisanne followed the signs pointing to the Toy Box and found herself standing in a large crowd of adventurers outside. The conversation was light and snappy, and filled with actionable insights Alisanne fully intended to take advantage of. Like the fact that this dungeon, like Crestheart, had guides for sale, though they weren’t particularly detailed.

  A clock somewhere struck the hour that the meeting was supposed to start, but nothing happened. The adventurers fell silent, and an uncomfortable feeling filled the air. Where was the [Dungeon Master]? Why was she late?

  The answer arrived some minutes later, when a buzzing sound above Alisanne’s head got her attention. She looked up just in time to see a blurred form whiz by on a rope much like the one that had carried her on the lift into town.

  The [Dungeon Master] – or at least, that’s who Alisanne hoped it was – let go of the rope and landed on the stage near the dungeon’s door, raising her arms into the air and delivering a hearty bow. She was a broadly built kitrekin with shaggy brown fur, and her toolbelt was so full Alisanne feared it would snap at any second. One of her paws was wrapped with bandages, and she tucked it behind her back before she started to speak.

  “Welcome to Yew’s Rise, adventurers,” she shouted. Her voice was gritty but not unkind. “My name is Amity Sureclaw, and I’m the [Dungeon Master] of the Toy Box. I’m excited for you all to challenge my dungeon, as so many of your peers already have done. While I don’t want to give you too many hints and spoil the fun, allow me to give you all a brief introduction to what you can expect. How’s that sound?”

  Alisanne added her voice to the rising cheer all around her, and the [Dungeon Master] waited for it to die away completely before resuming her spiel.

  “The Toybox is a three floored dungeon. Normally the layout of those three floors changes randomly every day, but in order to be compliant with the union’s rules regarding fair challenge, there are a few standardized layouts that we’re using instead. Details on all of these can be found in the dungeon guides you may or may not already be aware of, which are for sale in the office across the way.”

  She pointed to a building with a yellow awning, which was both the “Dungeon Office” and “Gift Shop” according to the signs in its windows.

  “Now, as I understand it, during your last dungeon challenge you were tasked with showing off your Faith. My dungeon also tests one of your primary stats, but instead of Faith I am interested in Wit. After all, that is the virtue we citizens of Yew’s Rise value above all others. We are a city of builders, dedicated to finding the best ways of preserving the traditions we’ve inherited from our forebears while also growing and solving new problems. I’m sure that you have seen some of our golems at work in the city, and so I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that they’ll play a role in the dungeon as well. You might be thinking…how? Let me explain

  “When you enter the Toy Box, you will be given a {Golem Core} and a choice of three bodies to socket it into. The golem will accompany you from room to room and will be crucial for opening certain doors or accessing specific areas. Defeating minions or solving the puzzles inside each room will allow you to select new parts to upgrade your golem. Now, don’t worry if you’re better at breaking things than building them, each room is equipped with a modification bench that will handle all of the details of upgrading your golem. Your only job is to pick the best parts.”

  “How do we know what the best parts are?” an adventurer in the crowd yelled, and the [Dungeon Master held up her injured paw to quell the ensuing chorus of similar questions.

  “For ease of understanding, the dungeon golem uses three stats of its own. Strength, Durability, and Speed. Each part will offer some value of one or more of those stats, and you can decide what you want to optimize for as you navigate the dungeon. More details are available in the dungeon guides, and the golems themselves inside the dungeon offer further explanation as well.”

  Another question from the crowd: “What will we do if the golem breaks? Or even just a part of it?”

  The [Dungeon Master] smiled and said, “Your golem will play a key role in beating the dungeon, so if any part of your golem is destroyed during your run, the broken piece will be replaced by the base version of that part. Should your entire golem be destroyed, you will be given another {Golem Core} and a second copy of the initial body shape you chose. No matter what, you will have a golem with you in the dungeon’s final room. Everyone understand?”

  Alisanne started thinking. A golem assistant in the dungeon? What stat should she focus hers on? Assuming that the stats all meant what their names implied – which wasn’t always the case with artificial stats, to be fair – probably Strength? Depending on the types of challenges she ended up facing, maybe Durabilitty?

  She’d have to read more and do some thinking before her run. To that end, she started sidling closer to the dungeon office/gift shop to get ahead of the crowd while continuing to listen to the [Dungeon Master]’s speech.

  “Should you manage to complete the dungeon’s final room successfully, you will be entitled to an entry-level golem from my own personal workshop, or the equivalent fleur value of eighty silvers. For convenience and speed we ask that you let me or one of my assistants know your preference before your run begins. If you’re unsure and would like to see what the golems are capable of, there’s a collection of them in the workshop next to the dungeon. Best of luck on your runs, adventurers! I look forward to seeing how many of you manage to defeat the Toy Box!”

  Before the kitrekin was even finished speaking, Alisanne was heading to go buy her guide. She felt the crowd stir behind her a few seconds later, their bodies turning like one as the masses realized that whatever they knew about the dungeon aside it was probably for the best for them to brush up a bit more on the details.

  She was the first person into the dungeon office-slash-gift shop and ignored the variety of wooden statuettes on the shelves along the wall. She hurried to the counter, grabbed a guide, and handed her coins to the increasingly scared [Receptionist], who looked wholly unprepared to handle the absolute swarm of adventurers that burst through the door and filled the place to bursting.

  Feeling for a moment like she was in a dungeon, Alisanne dodged and danced around her peers on her way out, careful not to get sliced by any errant exposed blades. Something almost like a rhythm formed in the back of her skull as she did it, but it vanished into nothing as soon as she was outside.

  After a moment’s consideration, Alisanne decided to head back to the inn for the afternoon. She wanted to do some reading and some thinking. While walking, Alisanne flipped through the guide. It wasn’t particularly impressive. The paper was thin and flimsy, and the printing was splotchy and weak. Some words were missing entirely.

  “It’s nothing at all like the ones back home,” she said as she flipped past what was supposed to be a diagram of a common type of trap inside the Toy Box that was nothing more than a large black square in the middle of a page.

  Disgusted, she closed the guide back up and tucked it into her pocket. Clearly she hadn’t realized how good she’d had it back in Oar’s Crest, and Alisanne made a mental note to thank Mister Torres for all of his efforts. His guides were veritable works of art compared to the one here.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Still, she hoped she’d be able to glean some interesting insights from the bit on the golem parts at the very least, and maybe get some hints for how to tackle the puzzles she was sure to encounter inside. After all, a dungeon that was focused on Wit was unlikely to be filled with anything else.

  Back at the inn, Alisanne closed the guide once again and leaned back in her chair. Shutting her eyes, she thought through what she’d just read and started trying to put together a cogent plan about how she’d tackle the toybox.

  The golems were simple but their role was complicated. They were both a permanent ally that could be controlled with simple voice commands and a hindrance that needed to be protected in every room. Her job, according to the guide was to “Escort” the golem to the final room, where it would assist her in her bout against the de facto [Dungeon Champion], which was also a golem.

  There were some rooms the golem would need to “solve”, and her job as the challenging adventurer was to make sure that none of the dungeon minions destroyed it while that process, whatever it was, happened, lest she “fail” the room. Alisanne didn’t know what that exactly meant because the guide didn’t explain it beyond those terms, but she could bodyguard a golem for a while if that was what she had to do.

  The section on the golem’s body parts was similarly underdeveloped. The parts themselves were divided into four different subtypes that corresponded to various parts of the body. Heads, chestplates, arms, and legs. Each part could have a primary stat and a secondary stat, but there was little description of what those stats did beyond the obvious implications of their names.

  In fact, the more she read about them, the more it seemed that the stats were simply there to serve as point aggregators; the dungeon would measure if a golem had a high enough score of a given stat before allowing certain things to happen, like unlocking doors or chests.

  She’d have to figure out if there were any benefits beyond that once she got inside, but Alisanne couldn’t help but feel a bit deflated at the fact that there wasn’t much to analyze. The guide really wasn’t worth that much – heck, a reasonably short conversation with another adventurer who’d gone through the dungeon would have probably been just as instructive, if not more so – and she halfheartedly wanted her fleurs back.

  WIth that done, she got her [Fighter] manual back out and spent the rest of the afternoon reading through it once again, looking for a new skill she could try and learn to help herself through the dungeon.

  One caught her eye. It was called [Cartwheel Kicksmash], and the description made it sound simple enough that Alisanne thought she had a decent chance of picking it up with a few hours of practice.

  Admittedly it had been a while since she’d last done cartwheels, but after a few awkward falls and failures her body remembered the way to best carry its momentum and she started trying to get her foot to slam down hard enough for the skill to trigger.

  It didn’t take long for the [Innkeeper] to knock on her door and ask her to be quiet on account of complaints from other patrons, but the woman was kind about it and told Alisanne there was a park nearby where she could practice to her heart’s content.

  Apologizing for the ruckus, Alisanne followed the [Innkeeper]’s directions to a small, rocky square. There were a few heavily battered training dummies evenly spaced throughout it, and Alisanne took that to mean she wasn’t the only adventurer who’d come to practice her techniques.

  Out of habit and for good measure she went through a warm up with her clubs, activating [Kinetic Tempo] and striking the dummies until her hands started to feel warm. Then it was back to trying to learn [Cartwheel Kicksmash], aided once again by the freshly battered dummies.

  When her first few efforts didn’t manifest results, Alisanne found herself wondering if she needed more momentum. She took a few steps back, got a bit of a running start, and then threw herself into a cartwheel as hard as she could. As she started to bring her foot down insight flashed through her mind – it needs a slide! – and after landing a solid kick on the dummy’s head, she slammed her foot down to the ground and pumped her fist when a notification appeared before her eyes.

  [Congratulations! You can now use the skill Cartwheel Kicksmash!]

  She dismissed it and paused, taking a sip of water from the nearby fountain. It was late afternoon now, and while it wasn’t exactly hot it was warm enough that she found herself looking for a bit of shade to sit in.

  “That’s quite the skill you’ve just learned,” a voice behind her said, and Alisanne spun around to see Bentley standing just outside the park. He was smiling and waved at her, and Alisanne became acutely aware of the sweat on her brow and the fact that her hair was probably a mess.

  “How’d you know I learned a skill?”

  “Your entire body quivered mid-air on that last one, and then you System tranced right after,” the [Wandering Knifesman] said with a shrug. “One doesn’t have to be a genius to put two and two together. How’d you do in the Ribs?”

  “Got knocked out by a stupid leech monster,” Alisanne said with a shrug of her own. “How about you?”

  “I managed to get to the [Dungeon Champion] but didn’t win. He dragged me into some kind of pocket dimension and attacked me with every deeply held fear I’ve ever had. I had to duel a gigantic version of my older sister’s teddy bear and a six-eyed vein ripper at the same time. Got surrounded by pickled onions too. It was awful.”

  Alisanne smiled. “Pickled onions?! Pickled. Onions?”

  “Don’t look at me like that! They’re scary. Or at least my mom’s were. She had this spice she liked to add to them for some reason, so the sweetness of the onion would get jarringly messed up by this like dragonfire-level burn.”

  He paused, then shook his head. “Anyways, the onions aren’t important. When’s your run through the Toy Box?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  “Oh? Me too. It’s weird that we keep lining up like that, eh?”

  There was something in the way that he said it that made the back of Alisanne’s neck feel a bit warmer than it should have, and all she could say was, “I guess.”

  Bentley swallowed and coughed into his fist with his eyes closed. A moment later he opened his eyes back up and said, “Since you learned your skill are you done practcing? Or were you going to keep going for a while?”

  “I hadn’t quite decided yet,” Alisanne admitted. “Why?”

  “Well,” he said, squaring his shoulders and looking her in the eye. “If you’re not planning to stay, I was wondering if you’d like to join me for dinner. My treat, of course.”

  Alisanne thought for a moment – long enough for her heart to hammer half a dozen times in rapid succession – and then nodded. “Let me get cleaned up first? I’m a bit of a mess.”

  Visibly relaxing, Bentley nodded and said, “I think you look fine, but do as you’d like. I’ll wait here until you return.”

  Alisanne hurried back to the inn and went through her clothes in a panic. While she’d brought plenty of outfits, they were all for traveling, training, and completing dungeon runs. She didn’t have anything suitable for dates, and this was a date, right?

  Obviously!

  She really should have predicted something like this, she thought as she fussed with a top and wondered if she could make it into a cute outfit with a pair of training shorts she had in the bottom of her bag. Romance was legendarily common for adventurers on the road.

  She held up her top and shorts in front of the mirror and studied it. It was fine but not great; the clothes were too plain for a date but it was the best she could do, and so it would have to suffice.

  After changing and fixing her hair, Alisanne returned to the park and rejoined Bentley.

  “That was quicker than I expected,” the [Wandering Knifesman] said. “You look very nice.”

  “Thanks,” Alisanne said awkwardly. “Where were you thinking of going?”

  “Well, that depends in part on you. Are there any foods you particularly dislike?”

  “I’m not a huge fan of fish,” Alisanne said.

  Bentley smiled. “Well, I’m afraid that rules out some of the nicest places in the city. Kitrekins, as you can imagine, a huge fans of fish. That’s fine though. There’s lots of other options.”

  “You seem rather familiar with Yew’s Rise,” Alisanne said. “Been here before?”

  “I actually lived here for a few years,” Bentley said. “It was right after I left home. Before I was a [Wandering Swordsman] I was a [Lumberjack]. Eventually I decided that I didn’t want to cut down trees for the rest of my life.”

  They stopped to let a heavily-laden carriage pass by before continuing and Alisanne said, “Where’d you live before coming here?”

  “I grew up in a small village called Emberine. It’s near the base of Saltshine mountain. Do you know where that is?”

  Feeling slightly embarrassed, Alisanne admitted that she didn’t, but Bentley didn’t seem to mind. “It’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and almost everyone who can manage it leaves as soon as they’re old enough.”

  Now that was something Alisanne recognized. “Same for Oar’s Crest. Most of my friends want to get out as soon as they can. Go live in New Sally, or Teckintott, or even Bardis.”

  “Eh. Big cities are overrated,” Bentley said. “Of those three Bardis is probably the nicest, but it’s still not a place I’d like to live. Here, turn right. The restaurant is down this way. It’s the spinning disc over there.”

  He pointed to a large pillar down the street, and sure enough there was a great wooden disc rotating slowly a dozen feet in the air.

  “Don’t let the spinning bother you,” Bentley said. “It’s slow enough that you won’t even feel it. Come on.”

  There was another platform beneath the disc, and it took Alisanne and Bentley up inside.

  The restaurant was decorated nicely, with dark colors and an open kitchen where [Chefs] and [Cooks] – it was sometimes hard to tell the difference between the two – prepared food over open flames and in wood-fired stoves.

  Their table was big and glossy, though the menus were not. Given the prices they were charging on said menu – while most dishes were listed in silvers a few of the most expensive items were marked in golds! – Alisanne thought they probably could have afforded to make the menus look a bit nicer.

  That aside, Alisanne now had to navigate the maze that was deciding on a meal. Since it was Bentley’s treat it technically didn’t matter what she ordered, but her parents had raised her right and so she picked a few different options at varying price points with the intent of picking one that was close to, and ideally a little cheaper than whatever Bentley ordered for himself.

  Of course her plan wouldn’t work if she ended up needing to order first, but that was the kind of unavoidable coin flip that happened in life sometimes.

  Their [Server], a towering kitrekin with black and white fur that matched her outfit came over and asked if they’d like anything to drink before their meal.

  “I’ll have a Blossomgold Sour,” Bentley said.

  “Excellent, and for the lady?”

  Alisanne hurried to look at the drink menu. A blossomgold sour was a whiskey drink that was mixed with blossomgold syrup and sparkling water.

  “I’ll have one of those too,” she said, thinking of the kitrekin she’d seen gathering sap before coming into the city. She wondered if that was the sap they used to make the syrup.

  With a deep bow, the server left, leaving Alisanne and Bentley to small talk while she went to get their drinks. The conversation was light and friendly, and Alisanne found herself laughing far more than she’d expected. Bentley was funny and interesting, and he ordered first when the [Server] came back which made Alisanne’s life a lot easier.

  The food was good – though more than a little overpriced relative to its quality – and the drink, which consisted of golden syrup swirls tangled around ice cubes, was sweet and refreshing.

  They talked about adventuring, and dungeon sports, and books they’d read. Alisanne was pleased to discover that Bentley liked Alrick novels almost as much as she did.

  It was a lovely meal, and when they were done, Bentley walked Alisanne back to the inn and bid her a good night.

  “Best of luck in your run tomorrow,” he said with another winning smile.

  “Thanks,” Alisanne said. “You too.”

  Then, feeling rather bold, she added, “I had a nice time, Bentley. Maybe we can do something like this again in Amespool or Shontsdale.”

  “I’d like that,” the [Wandering Knifesman] said. “Until then, Miss Henret.”

  Alisanne watched him walk away, dozens of stories she’d read over the years crystallizing for her in a way they never had before.

  And then, after taking a few deep breaths and pushing some new and somewhat uncomfortable thoughts to the back of her mind, Alisanne went upstairs to her room and did her best to fall asleep.

  The next day she was going to challenge the Toy Box.

  The next day she was going to win.