“What?” Lacey talked over Kat’s swearing. “Why wipe the dungeon if you didn’t want to take over? I thought that was the only reason to wipe it!”

  “We seem to be talking about different things here,” Bernard rose from the pub table to try to calm Kat. “We have a treatise with the dungeon, and you broke the treatise. You went past the agreed upon boundaries and attacked the core of it. That, in and of itself, is quite enough for us to ban you from the dungeon forever, sir.”

  “You tried that already, but I’ll remind you that your treatise is limited to your kingdom,” Dom smiled cooly at that, crossing his arms over his chest. “I am not a member of your kingdom, nor do I wish to follow the rules of a people who would enslave a dungeon in legalese so that it serves you and your kingdom.”

  Colt bristled, but Bernard took up the fight. Lacey crossed her own arms half over her chest, using one hand to tap a colored pencil against her chin. Was Dom like the others like Hughe and Monty? Or did he have a point?

  “That is a heavy accusation,” Bernard protested, his normally calm features going a bit red at the insult. “We have no desire to enslave anyone.”

  “My beef isn’t with you, Bernard,” Dom tried to wave the older man off. “You made reasonable accommodations as an NPC and I apologize for the enslavement crack. Still, this isn’t what a dungeon is designed to do. A dungeon should be fierce.”

  “It was fierce enough to kill off you and your buddies!” Kat broke in causing Dom to sigh out an exasperated breath.

  “What I mean is that it should be feared and challenging,” Dom said. “What you’ve done is tamed it as a leveling machine.”

  “Are you getting tired of being referred to as an ‘it’ yet?” Colt rose from his chair.

  “I’m a little tired of being told what I should or shouldn’t be, too,” Lacey agreed with a shrug.

  “We’ve merely provided protection while the dungeon and its masters grow strong enough to defend itself,” Bernard tried with a bit more tact.

  “Then you did a great job Bernard,” Dom threw his hands up. Lacey watched Colt whisper to a few of the elites. “This dungeon is fabulous! Seriously, it’s the best time I’ve had in a dungeon since we started this whole thing. Though, the system is probably going to nerf something on me for saying it!”

  “I thought we designed the dungeon,” Colt whispered to Lacey.

  “Me too, but somehow, those don’t sound like kudos to us,” Lacey nodded, keeping her voice just as low. “I’m normally a fan of Bernard, but he and Kat seem to take credit for our dungeon a lot.”

  “But this dungeon has grown up,” Dom continued. “And I think I just proved that it can handle itself! Maybe it’s time for you to stop coddling it and let it defend itself.”

  “We’re not telling them how to run their dungeon,” Kat protested.

  “Really?” Dom drawled. “Would they have made all these dangerous entrances that would allow a full hundred invaders to come in if not for you telling them how to run their dungeon?”

  “Hey,” Lacey muttered sarcastically, “they remembered that we’re here.”

  “Should we thank them?” Colt said low enough for only Lacey to hear.

  “We structured it so that all levels could participate, but that was to help them with their quests as much as to accommodate our forces,” Bernard countered, all of them still ignoring the dungeon masters and their whispered conversation.

  “I didn’t have to obey that structured entry, and an invading force wouldn’t have done it,” Dom argued. “Your structure is their biggest weakness.”

  “You think you could have defeated all this with a higher-leveled army?” Kat blustered, but Lacey was pretty sure that the guy was right. The multiple entrances were their biggest weakness. She didn’t agree with his assessment of more higher levels being able to clear the dungeon. They hadn’t even gotten to the army. “You haven’t even hit the hardest set of challenges in this dungeon!”

  “You mean the 3 armies of monsters that they have in reserve?” Dom yelled. “They told me about them in that little puzzle. And could they have withstood a hundred of Bernard’s level, or my previous level? Care to wager on that?”

  Did they have enough of an army to withstand a hundred 60-70th level NPCs? Lacey let the thought sink in. There had been Monty, from the other kingdom, and he’d been far higher than their levels in the dungeon. They’d held him off. Now that they had dungeon closures, they could do it even easier. But a hundred? That would be pushing it.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “I’d take that wager from here to Bakersfield and back again,” Kat’s face was red.

  Dom hadn’t used any more dungeon time-extensions, and Lacey was pretty sure that it was as much due to the fact that he didn’t have many of them as the fact that he was trapped with nowhere to go. They could far outlast any coupon war. Their collection of closure coupons was a comforting cushion, but did they need it?

  “Then put your money where your mouth is and we’ll see who wins,” Dom challenged her, but Lacey was only listening with half an ear. Colt was planning shit with Ginger and the elites. Tempers were so hot that no one noticed that she and Colt had withdrawn from the conflict.

  Lacey was sure that they could defeat NPCs. The slaughter of Dom’s high-leveled cohorts was proof enough of that. Just the Manchester rooms were enough to turn back the tide of even the highest levels. Even with the earth mages, or more earth mages, the sheer mass of earth that was dumped on the rooms was enough to keep them back. That didn’t mean that Lacey wasn’t already queuing up a dozen more Manchester rooms for the next expansion.

  “I don’t want your money,” Kat yelled. “I want something from you that would actually hurt. I want you banned from this server in a way that you can’t worm your way around. I want you to admit that I can take care of myself and more than that, I want to be able to date anyone I feel like without you interfering!”

  “This had nothing to do with you dating Colt,” Dom yelled right back at her through their sound system. “I think I’d probably like the guy if I had a chance to meet him, but you want me out of your life and that’s never going to happen. I’m your dad and there’s nothing you can say or do that would make me…”

  “Are you half as tired as I am of being a chew toy in this thing?” Colt nudged Lacey and sent a meaningful nod toward a parade of Spunks, Elite Goblins, and burrowers that were heading past the arguing adventurers. Bernard might have noticed, if he hadn’t been set on trying to talk Kat down from making hasty or fury-based rantings.

  “More than a little,” Lacey nodded. “I like Kat, when she isn’t a ranting lunatic, but I’d rather not have our dungeon be used as an arena for their feud.”

  “We could just kick them all out,” Colt suggested, brow furrowed with a slight doubt.

  “It’s like raising tigers,” Lacey shook her head. “Eventually, the keepers get sloppy and forget that they’re dangerous.”

  “Then they deserve to get bit,” Colt sighed. “Think she’ll understand?”

  “I do not know, brother,” Lacey gave a soft chuckle. “If this is her temper, you might want to take notes. I will say that I’m being nicer than I would be, but more than that is up to you.”

  “I’m tempted to, but dang she’s sweet when she’s cooled down,” Colt crossed his arms. “It’s just so emasculating, you know? Even she’s talking like I don’t have a choice or will just do her bidding and take her side.”

  “I agree with her, mostly…” Lacey admitted.

  “Mostly…” Colt agreed.

  “You think she’d stop if you just asked her to stop?” Lacey pointed out.

  “You couldn’t raise the army anyway,” Kat was saying, as they’d gotten to negotiating the terms of the wager.

  “One month and I could, and you know I could,” Dom countered.

  “You’ll have to go through my forces first, before I’d let you enter the dungeon,” Bernard had transitioned from mediator to witness and enforcer.

  “See?” Kat waved her finger in the air as if her dad stood right there.

  “Kat,” Colt tried to interrupt.

  “Not now, Colt,” Kat snarled at him, then forced a small smile. “I have full faith in the dungeon, and we have him just where I want him. He can’t do this. Even he can’t raise an army that could take out Bernard’s forces and the dungeon afterward.”

  “Don’t lie to him,” Dom laughed, and he went on about his experiences in other worlds and some guy named Fizzbarren.

  “Do you think we could get a quest that would allow us to ban specific users from our dungeon?” Lacey mumbled to Colt as she slid through some screens to watch as the Burrugs started to burrow. They’d used the Georges to get from the army levels to the remains of the Manchester room below Dom, but the Burrugs would leave a path that could allow Kat and Dom to have at it in person. That and Lacey and Colt weren’t ready to risk their Georges with any of them at this point.

  “Kat,” Colt tried again.

  “It’s okay, Colt,” Kat held up a hand to Colt, and Lacey saw him bristle.

  “Dammit, Kat,” Colt gave her one last chance.

  “What?” she lowered her hand to place it on her hip.

  “I don’t think we want to be the grounds for your grudge with your dad,” Colt lowered his voice to try to be calm and reassuring.

  “That’s absurd,” Kat fluttered her other hand around.

  “We have a contractual duty to assure that your dungeon is safe,” Bernard assured Colt, like he was a child.

  “That’s not the point,” Colt took a deep breath. “Why don’t you go talk to him yourself and leave the dungeon out of it?”

  The Elite behind them tapped Bernard on the shoulder. With a grunt, the big goblin pointed behind them.

  “What is this about?” Kat turned on Colt.

  “Just go work things out with your dad,” Colt suggested.

  “Now you’re on his side?” she asked, dangerously.

  “No, but you’re not on my side either,” Colt’s tone snapped just enough to rock Kat back on her heels. “You’re bargaining with my dungeon, and you’re acting like we aren’t even a part of it.”

  “Of course you’re a part of it,” Kat frowned at him. “This is all about you. Your dungeon and protecting it so that you can grow your dungeon.”

  “If we’ve offended you,” Bernard started, and Lacey liked him for at least trying to see their point of view.

  “If we’re a part of it, why ignore us?” Colt challenged Kat. “You seem to have forgotten that you’re in our dungeon and that I’m not weak here. If we wanted to, we could slaughter all y’all and close the dungeon until everyone cools off.”

  “What!” Kat’s tone lowered and a storm brewed, this time directed at Colt.

  “I’m not some bargaining chip and I’m damn well not some tiger you can dress up and send out against your enemies,” Colt leaned forward over her even with the barrier between them.

  “Dungeons don’t move,” Kat’s brow furrowed.

  “Is that all you got out of that?” Colt’s voice was stern, but his eyes were soft. Kat watched his eyes carefully.

  “See?” Dom didn’t help by saying. “I’d probably like the guy if you’d leave us alone to talk it out.”

  Lacey cut out the sound system, effectively cutting off their arguments. It didn’t stop Kat from ranting, nor did it stop Bernard from trying to bring it to order. It was like they didn’t notice that they weren’t part of each others’ conversation for a while.