The Flying Emporium

Mr Lee acted more decisively than most outsiders might have expected him to.

It had nothing to do with sympathy, though he did feel for Magda’s loss.

It wasn’t because of the close proximity between their two branches, either, that he felt the woman’s troubles concerned himself as well.

The reason Lee acted with little hesitation was because he understood what was at stake.

First of all, he knew the Society would have a vested scientific interest in this matter as it concerned a dungeon that greatly deviated from the norm in more than one aspect; if the investigation somehow furthered their understanding of dungeons and dungeon core’s as a whole, the benefits would be immeasurable.

And secondly, the more immediate and arguably more important concern, was how this would affect their image.

The Society had a reputation to uphold.

That wasn’t just a matter of petty vanity.

Their reputation was their currency, their legitimacy.

The main reason the Society held the power it did was because their work had always been beyond reproach.

Not that mistakes never happened, but they happened seldom, and never when it truly mattered.

And now, with what felt like half of Hanvia and the whole of the Golden Mountains watching closely, it did matter; failure was not an option.

And it certainly wasn’t the time to play politics.

Mr Lee clearly understood this when additionally to his direct support, he promised to put in a good word for Magda with HQ.

When the woman left, she was accompanied by nine other people, all wearing grave expressions.

Those people knew little about what had happened, the reason for Magda’s visit, or about their upcoming mission, except that it involved a new dungeon and the Emporium.

But the fact that they had been dispatched on such short notice only highlighted the severity of the matter.

Magda wouldn’t brief the group in public and on the go, and so their journey proceeded without much words being exchanged.

But it was only a short trip to begin with; soon all ten of them stepped through the portal just outside the city walls.

And found themselves in a curious situation.

Usually, people would only remain for a very short amount of time in the inner courtyard of Jasmine’s small fortress, only as long as the queues in front of the portal would necessitate.

Only a small minority of people, usually either supplicants vying for the [Princess’] favor or a rare merchant with tax concerns, would engage with Jasmine’s small contingent of officials stationed on the mountaintop.

Now, however, a huge gathering of people-clearly adventurers-crowded the space and could be seen and heard arguing.

“We demand answers!”

“Why do you keep us from-”

“The audacity!”

“You’re not the Society! We have a right to-”

“Aren’t these neutral grounds?! Yet Maloconean troops dare to-”

Just some of the snippets which reached her ears were intelligible, but those were enough to even further worsen Magda’s already terrible mood. And now she had a bad premonition.

Trying to avoid drawing attention, she didn’t linger and quickly led her group of reinforcements outside and onto the open area of the mountaintop.

And indeed.

Even at this distance, she could see that her branch was similarly besieged.

Unsurprisingly, the crypt-like building, located even further away, also seemed to be surrounded.

But despite all, the last day of the Emporium’s event-by now in full swing-didn’t seem any less packed than during the previous days. It was still as popular as before; if not more so. The area of the open air festival was packed.

But Magda had no interest dealing with either those pesky adventurers set on finding themselves an early grave, or to observe how a somewhat familiar looking [Duelist] was making a fool of himself on the big screen.

Determined, the woman simply continued on while secretly praising herself for her foresight.

Again mindful not to draw unwanted attention-easier said than done when being accompanied by such a large group, no matter how busy and preoccupied everyone else was-she circled around the building with the green tinted windows. Only then did she actually approach the building and, outside of everyone’s view, led her guests through a hidden backdoor into the empty main room of the building.

Tired and not much concerned about appearances anymore, Magda exhaustedly collapsed onto a nearby chair located in one of the spacier seating arrangements, designated for raid groups to hold their strategy meetings; her office would’ve been far too small to host all these people, even if she was so inclined in the first place.

She wordlessly indicated for the others to follow suit and to sit down as well.

Their sudden departure meant these people couldn’t have possibly been briefed by Mr Lee beforehand. Their questioning expressions only confirmed this assumption.

She pondered for a minute.

In the end, she decided, that suffering through this whole ordeal once again was probably the shortest and easiest way to explain the situation.

Reluctantly, and for the umpteenth time on this day, she again took out the crystals and played the first recording.

Incomprehension soon appeared on the faces of her curious guests, a reaction she had grown tired of by now and didn’t bother commenting on; not even after the recording had ended and when she was bombarded by questions.

At this point she simply started up the second recording.

And again, the reactions were just as predicted. Only that this time around, the mood turned much worse than on the previous occasions.

Unlike bureaucrats like Lee and Jasmine, these people worked in the same line of business as those four they had just seen dying.

Even if they didn’t know them personally, those were their comrades.

The image of the desperately crying man, the sole survivor, trying to drag the lifeless bodies of his fallen compatriots through the exit portal left even the most hardened of them with an aching heart.

Also, by now, everyone understood their upcoming mission, even without Magda having to explicitly explain the situation. That certainly didn’t improve their mood.

Unpredictable dungeon were scary, no matter how experienced one was.

The stout woman was the first to speak up, her usual smile nowhere to be found,

“as you can see, we don’t quite understand what we are up against.

It doesn’t help that I’m unfamiliar with you guys. All I know is that you come highly recommended by Mr Lee and that you usually work as two independent teams. I suggest you stick with that arrangement. No experimenting, no unnecessary risks.

Also, I’ll leave it up to you guys to decide which group goes first, but one of you has to. That is to say, I won’t let both groups go at the same time. The reason should be obvious. With these things,” Magda pointed towards the crystals laying on the table before her, “we can gather information about what’s going on inside, even if you don’t make out. That’s too huge of a benefit for us to forsake simply for the sake of fairness; I hope you understand.

“And for what it’s worth, with the right setup, these things also allow for a bidirectional line of communication; should the need arise, we’ll be here to support you as best we can.

Finally, I will ask the owner of the Emporium for assistance. So make sure you stock up on consumables.

The rest will be up to you.”

Serious nods all around; the discussions started once anew.

“I get that you don’t have much more information than us, but you must have at least a theory, no?” This question, asked by a particularly buff woman, was naturally directed towards Magda. “The boss was definitively stronger the second time around. But what else?

That trap, for example. Do you think the first group simply got lucky? That the trap got stuck somehow?

And that Bonespray attack that wiped the second group? Was it really a new ability? Or do you think it simply used a different attack pattern because of the different group composition? You know.. with no tank in melee range and all that…”

Magda could only helplessly shake her head. “We don’t know for certain. But I spoke both to the sole survivor of this last expedition, as well as to all members of the first group. Having compared their impressions and, based on what we know about dungeons, I can only speculate.

I believe that the issue lies solely with the core’s growth-rate. Its leveling speed.

As for how something like that could be possible? I have no clue. Maybe because of its lack of regular monsters, so it has more free energy to invest elsewhere.

It will be your job finding out for certain, but so far, I, as well as Mr Lee, believe that in between the diving attempts, it had somehow leveled up. It simply upgraded.”

***

“It didn’t simply upgrade,” Severin explained as he pointed towards the screen. Ever since that screen had been installed, his store’s backroom had become somewhat of a community room during break and off time.

After Magda, with bloodshot eyes, had approached him and requested his assistance-which, of course, he was all too eager to provide, given all of this directly concerned the opening of his dungeon to the public-he invited his [Employees] to join him to watch Magda and the Society continue their investigation.

“Though it certainly looks like it,” he had to admit as after just a few steps, this new group triggered the first trap; one which was arguably more devious than the one that had skewered the poor fellow the night before, as its poisonous gas affected all five of the group’s members, not just the one at the front.

Severin paused with a serious expression, ready to cover Emily’s eyes if the situation should call for it; he hadn’t any more of an idea what exactly they were facing, than the group itself.

Only once all five of them were in the clear, did he continue,

“And that in itself is problematic for us as well.”

“Why?” the girl didn’t understand.

“Because they don’t know what we know,” Bandur explained without taking his eyes from the screen. “Look at it from their perspective. Each time someone entered this dungeon, it became more deadly than before.”

“Even if they thought there might be something more to it, they can’t take the risk to find out. They can’t suddenly decide to let a weaker group dive the dungeon when the more experienced ones were already struggling,” Mylana also chimed in.

“It would be akin to a suicide mission. Impossible for Magda, or whoever is in charge of this investigation, to justify their order.”

“Exactly. And quite frankly speaking, the idea of a dungeon actively adjusting its difficulty to match its invaders’ strength is simply unheard of. Absurd!

Sure, the thought of a dungeon evolving at such speeds is also quite absurd. But still. Far more reasonable than the alternative. It goes against all that they know about dungeons. You can’t really fault them.”

“Ah!” Em suddenly understood. And then, with the innocence of a child, she suggested an easy and obvious solution. “But can’t we just tell them?”