Dungeon Tour Guide ch. 40 (Patreon)

Reminder: I edit before RR, so let me know if you spot anything.

“Hey,” I greeted them. “That was fast.”

“I work fast,” Iris said, a hint of a boast in her voice. “Will this be satisfactory?”

“One moment.”

My dungeon senses were far stronger than any regular human’s perception, so assessing them was a lot easier than it would’ve been otherwise.

The two new adventurers were both men. One of them was an [Arcane Archer] just like the level 1 who’d overused her arrows, and the other was a [Shieldbearer]. They had potions on them that looked healing-flavored—presumably provided by the Alder Corporation or Guild, since neither of them had any potion-making spells—so at least they had some source of healing.

At a glance, I guessed that their party composition was designed around only having two people. They’d be effective enough—their weapons seemed magical, the [Shieldbearer]’s defenses could protect the both of them while the [Arcane Archer] sniped at enemies, and their potions could keep them in the game and make up for some of the lost firepower—but even with their synergies and backups, I still would’ve much rather had a full party of four.

“Just the two of you?” I asked. It’d be a little embarrassing if I made all those assumptions and then it turned out that they actually had a full party.

“Yep,” the [Arcane Archer] drawled. “Me n’ Jack.”

“We’re all we need,” the other man added. “I defend, he shoots, and we have the items to keep it up.”

“Ol’ man’s got the right of it,” the archer said, pointing a thumb at him.

“Come off it, Ed,” the [Shieldbearer] said, setting his trademark weapon down. “I’m one year older.”

“Anyway,” Iris said, drawing out the word. “They are the only guards I have near Ketz. Edward, Jackson, the task continues as planned. Until I can get another few shifts of guards, the two of you are going to be watching this area for intruders. Our client’s request.”

“Fine b’ me,” Edward said. “You brought the equipment, Jack?”

“Of course I did,” the [Shieldbearer] said, vaguely offended. “I’m always prepared.”

“I hope this is sufficient,” Iris said.

“It’s fine,” I said. I’d still like more people, but… “Getting more shifts of guards sounds good. I’ll look forward to that.”

“Noted,” Iris said. “Apologies. I must take my leave. I am a rather busy woman, if you have yet to notice.”

“For sure,” I said. “Good luck with building settlement.”

“I appreciate it,” she said, already leaving. “I look forward to doing business with you.”

And just like that, she was gone.

“Well, that was certainly something,” I said. “Uhh… nice to meet you?”

“Nice to meetcha,” the [Arcane Archer] said. “Edward Laksin. Call me Ed.”

“Jackson,” the [Shieldbearer] introduced himself, planting his shield in the ground. “Jack, to my friends.”

“Sorry to drag you out here,” I said.

“Won’t lie to ya,” Ed said, “I’d much rather be home with a nice jug o’ mead.”

“Manners, Ed,” Jackson said. The weariness with which he said it made me think that they’d had this conversation before.

“I understand,” I said, a little annoyed.

It was my life on the line here, after all. Maybe they hadn’t been informed on the exact reasons why, but I would hope that Iris would’ve notified security about what they would be protecting against.

Unless she’s trying to set them against you.

I didn’t want to believe that, but then Iris’ interests were always going to be her own. If she wanted to stiff me on the request I’d gotten without technically violating the kinda-terms of our kinda-agreement, pairing me with a weaker pair of adventurers with no good reason to like me would be pretty high up there on gestures.

No. I couldn’t go out automatically assuming the worst in people. That way lay paranoia, and falling too far down that path would see me become a bona fide killer. I’d let myself be consumed by my impulses in my last life, and that had gone poorly, to say the least.

I’d killed once in this world so far, and I was willing to do it again, but I couldn’t let my mindset devolve into one where I assumed everyone was an enemy.

Sometimes, people really just weren’t having the best day.

“I really am sorry about this,” I said. “I assume you were stationed somewhere better before?”

“Yes in-deed,” Ed said, his accent growing heavier. “Nice place, too.”

“Don’t mind Ed,” Jackson said, sighing as he took a seat. “He likes to complain. It’s a habit of his.”

“I resent that,” the [Arcane Archer] said, sitting on the ground across from him. “You have ‘em?”

“I did say so just now,” his companion replied, reaching into his cloak.

Jackson withdrew a solid steel case of cards from his pocket, flipping it around in his hands and popping open a cap.

“There we have it,” Ed said. “Chips or coins?”

“We barely got any coin from the Lady Alder,” Jackson said. “Chips.”

“Cards?” I asked. I’d just been standing there awkwardly, but I hoped the interruption wouldn’t feel too unnatural. “What will you be playing?”

“Drops,” Jackson said. “Standard rules. You play?”

“I know a little,” I said. “Deal me in?”

“You play!” Ed said. “Shoulda said so!”

“I’m not the best drops player,” I said.

“Ah, that’s half the fun,” he replied, taking the cards from the [Shieldbearer] and dealing them out, three to a person. “Give him some chips, Jack.”

“We could play with coins, if you’d like,” I said, surreptitiously using [Replicate] under the palm of my hand as I leaned back.

They didn’t see me awkwardly readjust myself to cover the sudden appearance of the coins, but they sure did notice when I revealed that I had them. Ed’s eyes practically bulged out of his skull at that.

“Like I said,” Jackson said, smiling thinly, “we’re short on coin.”

“I didn’t mean for you to bet your own,” I said. “I’m dungeonbound. There’s plenty to spare inside here.”

I flipped them the coins. I’d made them smaller than usual, so I was able to fit fifteen of them in my hands, enough for each of us to have five.

“Southern currency,” Ed said, inspecting one of the coins. He bit it, wincing as his teeth ground against metal, lightly deforming it. “Seems real enough to me.”

“Seriously?” Jackson said, pocketing the coins almost as soon as he got them. “Just like that?”

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” I suggested lightly. They both looked confused at that, so I shook my head. “Ah, don’t worry about it. Turn of phrase where I’m from.”

“Right,” Jackson said, a little confused. “We can have this?”

“Well, I’d hope you’d bet it,” I said. “We can split it with chips, if you’d like. Like I said, though, I’m not much of a player.”

“Let’s get to it,” Ed declared, picking his hand up. “I’ll bet first. We’ll start at a quarter coin.”

Cards were a bit different in this world, so it’d taken a bit to get used to it. Decks were sixty cards, not fifty-two, which meant there were five ‘face cards’—the warrior, the royal, the dungeon, the dragon, and the goddess, respectively.

Drops worked pretty similar to poker, which I’d never been very good at, and it needed a lot of thought put into it to consistently win.

I picked up my three-card hand. Good thing I’m not here to win.

My attention split. With one part of my mind, I made small talk and analyzed the cards at hand and in the deck, making at least a cursory effort towards playing competently. With the other, I focused my senses in the testing room, ready to start work on another [Combine].

“I’ll drop one,” Jackson said, sliding one of his cards facedown to his partner. Ed shuffled the deck and gave him a fresh card off the top.

I looked at my own hand. A blue dungeon, a red royal, and a green seven, with a… red warrior in play. I had to smirk at the contrast of the dungeon against the royal and warrior. That was a promising hand with a fair amount of significance to the Kingsguard situation I found myself stuck in. Five bucks that the goddess is fucking with my luck.

“I won’t drop,” I said.

“The same,” Ed said. “Next two cards out.”

A yellow two and a green six. Nothing that really contributed to my victory, though the pair of the greens was nice to see.

Elsewhere, I’d managed to get another [Displacer Snake] going without a hitch. Excellent. Maybe I’d move onto attempting the process on a construct next.

“No drops,” Jackson said. “I’ll raise the bet by a quarter coin.”

“Nope,” Ed said, throwing down his cards.

“I’ll match you,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “Was Iris’ pay really that bad?”

“It was better than nothing,” Ed grumbled. “Next card.”

A red dungeon. That gave me a dungeon pair and a triple red, which wasn’t bad, but not something I’d go insanely hard on betting on.

Not that it mattered. The point of this game wasn’t for me to win. I was trying to build connections with these people, warm up to them and let them warm up to me in turn.

“Lady Alder pays enough,” Jackson said. “Just enough.”

“Lady’s stretched too much,” Ed snorted. “Payin’ enough mercs to storm the kingdom’s capital with.”

“That’s for sure,” Jackson said. “I’ll raise another quarter.”

“Really?” I asked. “I haven’t heard much news about that. I’ll match you and raise another half-coin.”

“Bold move,” Jackson said, his eyes betraying nothing. “I suppose I’ll match you. And yes. It’s quiet, but word is that she owns half the mercenary companies this side of the Omen king. Tens of thousands of us adventurers and mercs, maybe.”

Well, shit. It made sense that she’d own some amount of private force, but that extensive? That was practically a private army, and I wasn’t sure I trusted Iris enough to give her a free pass on this. She’d seemed like a pretty good person so far, but the impression that she’d do anything to turn a profit had stuck with me.

I’d have to keep an eye out.

“Last card,” Ed said. “Awful confident today, Jack.”

Yellow three. Useless to me.

“I’ll keep my bet,” Jack said. “No final drop.”

“No final drop here, either,” I said.

“Let’s see ‘em,” Ed said, rubbing his calloused hands together.

“Dungeon pair and triple reds,” I said, revealing my cards. “That’s… nine points?”

Jack revealed his cards, grinning. “Triple dungeons. After the two-point loss from the drop, that’s ten.”

“Ah, you got me,” I said, chuckling. “A full coin to you.”

I flipped him a single coin, and Jackson chuckled too.

“You got him good,” Ed said, joining in. “Shuffle ‘em up, yeah?’

This was nice. It wasn’t quite the same as leading a party in an adventure inside the dungeon, but it was still fun. It was a different kind of entertainment, but it was still every bit as social as advising M-1 on their party policies was, and there was something magical about being able to sit down with a couple of strangers and slowly break the ice through, well, losing at cards.

“We ready for the next hand?” I asked, focusing a little more on the conversation at hand. My [Combine] wouldn’t be off cooldown for a bit, so I didn’t have to worry about it much right now.

“Yes,” Jackson said. “I’ll deal th—“

We all noticed the mana shift at the same time. In an instant, we stood to attention, the deck of cards left forgotten on the ground.

“Who’s there?” Jackson called out, beginning the process of activating his shield.

In the dying light of the late afternoon, the shadows cast were long. As such, I almost missed the figure before my dungeon senses caught it.

He’d used some kind of teleportation skill or item to get in. There had to be some spell going that masked his location, because the other two with me evidently couldn’t see him, and even with the dungeon senses I barely perceived him crouched just inside the door.

A level 15. He had a greatsword, one with a now very familiar insignia carved into it.

“Kingsguard,” I whispered.

Time to see if my new security force could earn their keep.