Malefic Sage

  Astrid was showing Zack around the first floor of their dungeon when they received a notification that someone was at their door. They both quickly exited the dungeon and Astrid hid the core inside a storage cabinet as Zach went to see who was at the door. As he placed his hand on the security system crystal near the entrance, he saw two obviously young but extremely large, muscular men. One held a folded piece of paper in his hand.

  Setting the security system to ready mode, he had the door open and stepped up to greet the men. They both bowed respectfully before raising their heads to meet Zack’s eyes. The young dungeon author was confused. The powerful men seemed nearly overwhelmed with nervousness and …hope? “How may I help you gentlemen?”

  One of the men cleared his throat before saying, “Are you Zachary Oliver Garth?”

  Zack turned slightly to face the man who had spoken and placed his hand on the doorframe before sliding it over to make contact with the security crystal to speed its activation time if needed. He nodded. The two men met eyes quickly before the other said, “Mr Bivouac sent us with his recommendation to seek employment.” He held the piece of paper out to Zack who took it and quickly read the note.

  Zack, I heard you had acquired a dungeon and I hoped to assist two fine young dungeon technicians who have had a difficult time finding employment in their desired fields due to complications that I will let them explain. I personally vouch for their character and work ethic. Give them a chance. Garrett Bivouac.

  Zack inspected the note and confirmed that it had been marked by the essence of Garrett Bivouac. When he looked back up at the two men, they were eagerly holding out standard certification crystals for him to review. Zach accepted the crystals and reviewed their credentials.

  The pair had a variety of top or near top scores in maintenance, system creation, creature design, creature training, ecosystem management, and many other certifications that should make the two highly sought after technicians.

  Zack invited the two into one of the meeting rooms Astrid had set up. “Your credentials are very impressive. I would love to work with you, but we could barely afford to purchase our core and are just beginning to work on it. We can’t afford technicians at this time.”

  Astrid walked into the room and Zack passed the note and credential crystals to her. She sat down and read the note before looking up at Zack with a confused look. One of the men spoke up, “We are aware. Mr Bivouac said working with you would be the opportunity of a lifetime and that we could trust you.”

  The other brother added, “We won’t require any pay to start and we can work out the details when you become successful. We’re just looking for someone to give us a chance.”

  “Mr Bivouac says that you have had trouble finding employment despite your qualifications. Why is that?” Astrid asked with what Zack recognized as her, I want to be friends but don’t piss me off, smile. .

  The men met eyes once again before one answered, “We can’t pass the security checks.”

  Astrid and Zack’s smiles fell and she asked, “Why is that?”

  Another long pause before the man said, “Because we’re dragons.”

  Zack laughed and the man insisted, “Seriously.”

  Shaking his head and holding up his hands Zack spoke, “i wasn’t laughing because I didn’t believe you. I was laughing at the idiots that were stupid enough to turn down the opportunity to hire technicians with the certification scores the two of you have because you are dragons.”

  “You seem to have reason to trust Mr Bivouac and Zack and I have the utmost respect for him, so I guess it’s decided. Welcome to the team. I’m Astrid,by the way. Do you boys live nearby?” Astrid asked.

  One immediately responded, “Yes.” but the other obviously paused. Astrid raised an eyebrow. The one that spoke lowered his head and the other explained. “We’ve been mostly working for Mr Bivouac and saved money by staying in the mountains outside the city in hopes of buying a dungeon.”

  Astrid looked at Zack. He shook his head and she ignored him. “Well, that won’t do. We work long and sometimes unusual hours. You can make a temporary place in the dungeon.” Zack looked at her wide eyed.

  “We can’t ask that of you.” One of the young dragons said.

  “Yes. You can. Having you boys around will make up for our security system not quite being up to snuff yet. We live upstairs, so knock before coming up. That will give Zack a chance to hide his harem of monkey women.” She said conspirationally. What sounded like a snorting laugh came from the corner of the room and everybody turned their heads to look for the intruder, but could only see shadows. After a slight pause as everyone investigated the strange sound, Astrid continued. “Now which one of you is Rollo and which is Ragnar?”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  The dragons raised a hand as each one's name was called. Astrid nodded. “Come along. Might as well show you what we’ve got done so far in the dungeon and see what you suggest.”

  *****

  Lemonsquisher opened up Patreon and saw that Bluetaco had left a strange post asking how someone could possibly have known something. “What you talking about taco man?”

  Josetta answered, “That crazy guy that hasn’t been around the last couple days wrote a book a few months ago and he’s predicted a lot of stuff. Conversations we had in here. Things that happened in the story and even that he would get banned. We’re pretty sure he’s the one Z.O. was complaining about in the author notes the other day. I only made it through the first couple chapters, but it’s weird.”

  Atallchevy added, “I made it to the last chapter. He describes us meeting in Los Angeles in a few months and going on a trip through time to save Z.O.’s dungeon. Some corporate dicks stole it from him by kidnapping his friend.”

  “A lot of that random stuff he would post was references to things that happened in his book.” Carl Always explained.

  DefinitelynotVilly chimed in, “Yeah, but he also claimed Z.O. is actually from the future. Supposedly he’s a dungeon author that spent time here writing his dungeon story and leveling his skills. Nutcase. However, his explanation as to Z.O.’s addiction to cliff hangers is kind of funny.”

  Renfraud joined, ‘So…”

  “So…what?” ZacAx asked.

  “So… is anybody going?” Renfraud finished his question.

  “I AM!!!!” Bluetaco announced.

  “Of course you are. You’ve never met a crazy what if scenario that you didn’t want to investigate.” squisher typed while rolling his eyes.

  “I am too.” Sliphie answered. “Err…I mean. REEE!”

  “You’re from Los Angeles. I would go too if I was from there.” Janos answered.

  Squisher opened up Royal Road and searched for brjenkins to see if the weirdo used the same name. Nothing was found. Jenkins didn’t find any results that looked right. BRJ, as the maniac sometimes referred to himself, brought up nothing. Then squisher realized he hadn’t selected author search and cursed. Malefic Author. That had to be it. Clicking to the page he knew he had found the right one.

  After an hour of bouncing back and forth from Patreon and Royal Road comparing dates and times and doing a few google searches, squisher didn’t know what to think. There was so much, it was almost as if the book had been written to prove that brjenkins was really a time traveler.

  Logging back into Patreon, he began furiously typing, but froze when he paused to think and noticed the blue text. Z.O.Garth: ANY MENTIONS OF THAT CRAZY STALKER OR HIS BOOK WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE PERMANENT BAN. NO REFUND. So Squisher held down the delete button and did the logical thing, opened up Reddit. Sure enough there was a post in The Hunter sub.

  Squisher logged into his company's HR site and booked a vacation then checked on the price of plane tickets and a rental car. I don’t really believe any of this, but it will be funny to see how many of the weirdos show up. He told himself.

  *****

  “Give me those.” Astrid scolded. “You completely forget about anything you put into your inventory.” Zack shrugged and handed the free viewer only entrance tokens to their opening day celebration. Dungeons were great places to train, but a great dungeon author would draw in crowds of people who just wanted to move through the world that had been created and observe the story as it unfolded.

  Viewer only mode had been originally created by the Dungeon Delvers League to allow teams to recon the dungeons prior to a competition, but as soon as the networks started broadcasting the strategy sessions of the teams, the public demand for the mode became obvious.

  “Boss, you sure you want to end the first week’s release right after he finds the trial dungeon?” Rollo asked with concern in his voice. “Won’t that just piss people off not knowing what was happening?”

  Zack just smiled as Astrid rolled her eyes, “He’s been doing that since we were children. Trust me. It works. The visitors will be talking the whole week about what they think will happen and that will draw other people in and everybody will want to come back to discover what happens.”

  The security system chimed announcing the guest of honor's arrival. Ragnar walked out to the foyer and quickly confirmed who it was before opening the door. “Garrett. Come on in.”

  Garrett Bivouac smiled and patted Ragnar on the shoulder as he stepped in. “You’re looking healthy Ragnar. Things working out pretty good for you and your brother?”

  Ragnar smiled, “Yes, sir. There is no way we could repay you, but if there is ever anything you need help with, just let us know.”

  “Hurry up money bags. We’ve got just enough time to give you a tour of the dungeon before dinner.” Astrid's voice rang out from the room they kept their temporary dungeon access. Ragnar was horrified at the lack of respect, but Garrett just chuckled before quickly moving down the hall.

  Rollo volunteered to man the door until the food arrived and the others entered into the dungeon. When they came out a few minutes later, Garrett turned to Zack, “Ending the level right as he enters the trial dungeon, how malefic of you.” Zack’s eyes went wide and his eyes wiggled in the way that they do when someone is making a note in their system interface.

  “Dinner’s ready.” Rollo’s voice rang out from the dining/meeting room. The group entered to see all of the models, maps, and story boards neatly removed from the tables and stacked along the walls so that there was room for everyone to sit at the tables.

  They chatted about the dungeon as they ate. Garrett had one concern, “Mr Eat Shit and level go fuck yourself? Don’t you think that’s a little cringe so early in the story for a character that many will struggle to feel empathy for?”

  Zack shook his head, “Jake is a socially awkward introvert struggling with adapting to his bloodline. He’ll grow out of it as he adapts and gains better control.” Garrett nodded and settled into a thoughtful silence while Astrid badgered Zack about changing the line.

  “So you’re obviously not against taking a little risk, can I make a suggestion?” Garrett asked. Zack nodded and Garrett spoke for several long minutes explaining his plan. As he spoke, the others at the table stared at him struggling to comprehend what they were hearing.

  As he finished there was complete and utter silence. Zack spoke first, “What are you? What you suggest. What you claim to be able to do…how..why…I mean, who comes up with something like that? Are you some sort of sage with a deeper understanding of the system than any others will ever understand?”

  Garrett sadly shook his head, “I am no great sage.” He let out a sigh. “I am merely the phoenix risen from the ashes of a man who had his dreams thoroughly crushed refusing to accept the world as it is. Determined to make it a better place.”

  “Okay. We’ll do it” Zack said. The heads at the table turned to look at him in shock.

  “Just like that?” Garrett asked with a mischievous gleam in his eye.

  Zack shrugged, “Sounds like fun.”