“Hey, Iris,” I greeted the Alder Corporation’s… CEO? President? I didn’t actually know what the equivalent here was. “I have a lot of questions.”

“I’m sure you do,” she said. Iris turned to the adventuring party, addressing them with her next words. “One moment. This is the external factor I informed you of. I understand you need resources, but you will need to wait a bit.”

“Got it, boss,” a boy a little younger than me said. A level 1 [Moon Cleric], by the looks of it. “We can wait as long as we need to.”

“Not too long, please?” a girl—a [Time Mage], this one—the same age added.

“Of course not,” Iris said. “Now if you’ll excuse us, I’d like to maintain some level of discretion when meeting with my partners.”

The four of them took the hint and exited the dungeon, walking just a bit beyond the boundary so that they wouldn’t be able to hear Iris if she didn’t speak too loudly.

“These adventurers are freshies,” I told her. “Didn’t you say that they were coming from another dungeon town?”

“They were in training for much of their time there,” Iris said. “By the time the dungeon broke, they still hadn’t cleared anything beyond its first room.”

I winced. “Their composition is so good, too…”

“It is,” Iris said. “As with anything, they need more training and more experience.”

“That aside,” I said, “how in the hell did you create such an expansive settlement in, what, twelve hours?”

“Closer to nine, actually,” Iris said, preening. “A more comprehensive build will come in the following days, weeks, and months. This is just the most basic setup, really.”

“And how did you manage that?” I asked. “It’s quite impressive.”

Even with my [Reshape], it would take me a while. Without much wood to work with inside the dungeon and without great wood manipulation skills beyond [Create Door], some of the settlement was actually beyond my reach to replicate. That said, I could probably recreate the brick buildings with rock, but still. It was an accomplishment.

“It’s standard for the Alder Corporation,” Iris said. “I have one of the world’s best [Artificer]s with me. He creates advanced technology that assists in the creation, and in combination with the [Fabricator] that we brought in and my support abilities as a [Tactician], creating simple buildings is trivial.”

“Interesting,” I said. “I’m not familiar with what [Tactician] does. Never saw it at the Guild.”

“It is very useful in times of war and times of peace,” Iris said. “Not much so for adventuring. As the kingdom is officially never at war, I have not utilized it in combat for decades now.”

That was new to me. I’d known there were classes that weren’t suited to adventuring directly—[Blacksmith], the aforementioned [Fabricator], and others like them—but I hadn’t seen a class meant for war like [Tactician] before. I wanted to ask how she’d gotten it, but I had more pertinent questions right now.

“Good to know,” I said, dropping the levity from my voice. “I do have something I need to discuss with you.”

“Go ahead,” Iris said, raising an eyebrow. “You seem serious about what you’re about to say, whatever it is.”

“What do I get out of our deal?” I asked. “Yeah, more people come by, and that’s always nice to have more adventurers coming here, but I can’t help but notice that I don’t get anything else.”

“You didn’t name any terms,” Iris said. “It was your first meeting, however, and I may prove amenable to other requests you have. If they exit the boundaries of reason, however, I will have to deny them.”

Don’t get magnanimous with me, I thought. It wasn’t like I had the weaker negotiating position here.

“I’m looking at it like this,” I said. “The dungeon provides a lot of loot. Sure, I can’t use any of it, but I can tell it to stop giving loot or give it less.”

“I won’t deny that,” Iris said. “If there wasn’t already enough coin in circulation, I would fear that this dungeon would destabilize the economy around these parts.”

“You know how much comes out?”

“I have my sources.”

That was a little unnerving, but it checked out. “What I’m saying here is that all the power is on my end. I don’t lose anything if I stop opening the dungeon.”

“You’d lose Rose’s companionship,” Iris said, her eyes boring into mine.

I didn’t react. I could recognize a barbed comment when I heard one, and I wasn’t going to let her provoke me off that.

“The only way I’d lose M-1 is if you stop them,” I said. “Which, remarkable shittiness of the idea aside, is unlikely. On the other hand, you’d lose however many tens of thousands would be coming out of this dungeon.”

I knew those words were a mistake from the moment they left my mouth. Thanks to my dungeon senses, I could register the ever-so-slight twitch in Iris’ mouth, the tiny shift in her posture.

Was that an underestimate? An overestimate?

“Roughly that, yes. Accomodations can be arranged,” Iris said. “Name your terms, and I will evaluate them.”

Underestimate. Fuck. She’d regained just a bit of confidence, which most likely meant she thought I was undervaluing my dungeon. If I’d overestimated, she almost definitely would’ve pressed the point, since as the leader of a corporation she was seeking profit.

Well, at least I’d caught that. If she started to deny my requests, I could bring it up.

“First,” I said, “the dungeon needs building material.”

“Your communication with it,” Iris replied. “It seeks more?”

“That’s what I interpreted it as, yes,” I said. “Wood, brick, steel, glass, all that.”

“I can arrange for those four,” Iris said. “So long as the quantities are reasonable, I can arrange for most materials.”

“If it needs more beyond those four, you better believe I’m sending you a list,” I said.

“That works,” Iris easily agreed.

Not a problem there, huh? I supposed that it was easier to get rare materials when you had a kingdom-spanning corporation.

“Second,” I said. “I need security.”

“Security?” That question actually caught her off guard. She was able to avoid breaking her facade of calmness, but I caught the momentary shift in her features as the businesswoman received the question. “What for?”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” I said, deadpan, “but there’s been a rather marked increase in Kingsguard activity.”

“Ah.”

“I’ve had three incursions into this dungeon,” I said. “The dungeon’s been helping fight them off, but I’m still risking my life every time. If you’re going to profit off this place, I’d like to take comfort in the idea that nothing will sneak up on me and stab me in the middle of the night.”

“We can post guards outside the dungeon,” she said. “There’s a safe room that I had intended to set up services in, but your presence invalidates them. I can have them posted outside that.”

“Have them inside,” I said. “There’s been cases in which something has teleported straight into that room. I don’t want guards to come here after something’s already inside the dungeon.”

Iris hid a wince. “That’s… also doable.”

Also, it’ll clue me into whether they’re Kingsguard.

“Thank you,” I said. “There may be more terms, but that should be it for now.”

She looked faintly relieved to me, and though I couldn’t tell if that was my imagination or not, it made me think that I hadn’t pushed her far enough.

“For now, would you like to have the party run the dungeon?” Iris asked. “I can make arrangements in the meantime.”

I nodded. “Let’s do it.”

When I’d told Iris that the party composition of the four level 1s had been good, I hadn’t been lying. They were all around the same age—sixteen, seventeen, maybe? Definitely on the younger end of adventurers. Even with that in mind, though, they shouldn’t have been stuck at level 1.

The two boys—the [Moon Cleric] and a [Swashbuckler]—covered the healer, blaster, support, scout, and striker roles. The girls, who had the [Time Mage] and [Arcane Archer] classes, respectively, covered utility, battlefield control, damage output, and ranged attack roles. While there were gaps that could’ve been filled by a fifth party member, they had super solid coverage.

That meant that there was probably something else that was stoppign them. Whether that was inexperience or incompetence, they hadn’t leveled up despite apparently attempting a dungeon before. Hopefully, I could change that.

“Welcome, everyone!” I said, giving them a sweeping wave. “This is the Ketz Dungeon—well, that’s what it’s called for now, there’s no true name yet—and I’m Lucas, your tour guide!”

“Nice to meet you, Lucas,” the [Swashbuckler] said, stepping forward and extending his hand.

I shook it. “Are you ready to begin? And could I get your names?”

“I’ve got my arrows,” the [Arcane Archer] said. “We’re ready.”

“All of our skills are set,” the [Moon Cleric] added. “I’d declare us prepared.”

“I can handle this,” the [Time Mage] said.

“It’s Arthur,” the [Swashbuckler] said, tapping the knives at his belt. “Sorry about the rest of the party. Let’s go.”

Well, there’s problem one. Aside from the fact that three of them had just straight up ignored my request for their names, the party wasn’t cohesive at all. I didn’t want to directly comment on their attitudes now, since they probably wouldn’t take me seriously if I brought it up before they even saw any monsters, but each of them was trying to take the leadership role in some way or another. None of them were considering the rest of their party as equals.

That wouldn’t lead anywhere good.

I tried for a more indirect approach instead, talking as I showed them the way through the first tunnel. “This is a challenging dungeon. It’ll test your own abilities as well as your ability to cooperate. Working well with your team and maintaining good communication with them is critically important to clearing any adventure unharmed, and this dungeon is no exception.”

“Got it, boss,” Arthur the [Swashbuckler] said.

“Can we hurry it up?” the [Moon Cleric] asked. He was a redhead, I saw, and he really pulled off the ‘annoyed teenager’ look. I wondered what his deal was.

“We’re just about to enter the first room,” I told him.

I opened the door, revealing the sculpted snake statues and the trapped path that lay ahead. For this run, I toned down the air vents and the number of earth constructs. Air cannons turned into pressurized cans of heavy wind and nine constructs became three.

“This room is dangerous,” I started, preparing to launch into my monologue. “Beware of—“

The four of them took off, each of them sprinting in a different direction. Two of them made to go towards the sculptures that had snakes slithering on them for some reason—well, I supposed there were coins and daggers hidden there, so they weren’t entirely wrong if they were loot-chasing—and the other two went towards the door.

“Or just piss off without saying anything,” I muttered.

No fucking wonder these guys were still level 1.

“Be careful!” I yelled. “You don’t know—“

They were being anything but, so it didn’t surprise me when I heard the hiss of an air vent activating, tossing the [Time Mage] into the air. At the exact same moment, the [Swashbuckler] slid to a stop as the room’s only three earth constructs rose from the ground in front of him.

Mana tinged with an unusual flavor flashed in the air, the [Time Mage] executing a [Minor Redo], and then the blonde-haired girl flickered. A moment later, she reappeared in the same position she’d been in just a second or two ago, feet firmly planted on the ground.

Meanwhile, the [Swashbuckler] was activating his own spell, initiating a [Duel]. From the feel of the mana, he was gaining a decent speed and strength boost against a single chosen enemy, which in this case was one of the constructs in front of him. To his credit, he was hurting it pretty badly.

At the sides of the room, the [Moon Cleric] and [Arcane Archer] were dealing with the snakes that had started slithering out from the sculptures that they’d been fishing around in.

They were engaging in the dumbest way possible. The [Moon Cleric] had burned his [Moonlit Clarity], a powerful support spell that significantly strengthened the body both offensively and defensively on himself, and he was beating at a handful of snakes with his staff. On the other hand, the [Arcane Archer] was killing the snakes with extreme precision, but every shot she fired was a [Exploding Arrow] when a regular arrow would’ve done. Each hit was massive overkill, reducing the snakes to ashes instead of just killing them and letting them fade back into the ground.

I massaged my temples with my hands.

This tour isn’t going to last very long.

At least none of them needed my healing.

I watched as they wasted more and more resources. The [Time Mage] used a second [Minor Redo] when a snake bit her, not even asking for a heal, and the [Swashbuckler] apparently was out of [Duel] uses after successfully downing the first construct.

As for the other two, the [Moon Cleric] had managed to kill a fair amount of snakes and find some of the loot hidden in the sculptures’ mouths, but he’d done it at the cost of two more [Moonlit Clarity] usages and his own [Healing Word]s. The [Arcane Archer] had probably used her role the most effectively, eventually realizing that the constructs probably warranted her [Exploding Arrow]s more.

Even after all three constructs went down, they kept going. Both primary casters used more mana, activating a [Detect Monsters] on the [Time Mage]’s part and a [Moonbeam] that I knew was a once-a-day type of deal at level 1 from the [Moon Cleric]. Both martial fighters wore themselves out chasing down the remaining snakes.

I hadn’t said another word. They hadn’t noticed.

At length, the room was clear. Every air vent had been triggered, every single snake killed, and then they were searching the room for loot. That took another ten minutes in itself as they examined every nook and cranny of the place, jostling for chances to look in and around every sculpture and crack in the ground. That made… twelve coins? I hadn’t hid all that much in this room.

By the time they were done, I could feel that at least one of them was on the cusp of a level-up, but I was pretty sure they were fresh out of mana to the last.

“Hey!” I called out, finally catching their attention. “I’d like to talk to you a bit about how you cleared that room.”

They did at least respect me enough to gather together to listen to me, so that was nice.

“That,” I said, “was fucking embarrassing.”