“OK, get your gear back on. Harry wants us to investigate the portal, and you’re the investigator in this house. Time for you to be doin’ some investigating. I’m just the driver.”

  Blaze shook with laughter. It took her a few seconds to recover. “If I’m the investigator, you’re the analyst. I just made a fresh pot of coffee. Should we take some with us?”

  “Yeah. What’s a cop without coffee? If I make a quick detour, we can pick up donuts on the way.”

  She gave me a thumbs-up and headed for her bedroom, and I went to mine to put back on the clothes we’d just taken off.

  A half hour and two chocolate donuts each later, we stood on the slope of an embankment, looking down at a glowing blue circle. Making our way carefully down the incline, we stopped in front of it. It was a little taller than me, so if I had to guess, about two meters. It looked cleared out.

  The clearing was oddly bare. Trees pressed close on both sides, but the half-circle in front of the portal had been swept clean. The slope wasn’t too hard to climb, but it wasn’t fast either…and from the road, the glow was invisible.

  “That feels important. Hidden until it’s ready? But the guys who found it swore it wasn’t there when they chased the spawn.”

  “I think there used to be trees here, like the ones still standing on both sides of us,” I said.

  “Agreed. Smooth arcs like this rarely happen in nature. I think it’s System-made,” Blaze answered.

  Grinning, I asked, “So, do we tell Harry it’s a dungeon, or just say, ‘yep, it’s here all right’?”

  “I think he believes it’s here. What do we do about it?”

  “Good question. Stand back, I’m going to try something.”

  I crossed to the tree line and came back with a couple of fallen branches. The first I threw against the embankment beside the portal. It bounced off just like I expected. The second, I lobbed at the glowing blue surface.

  For an instant it seemed to pass through, then shot back out at the same speed, ricocheting at the opposite angle like a cue ball banking off a rail. It clattered harmlessly to the ground, unchanged from when I picked it up.

  “Do you want to chance going through it?” Blaze asked.

  “Nope. I think I’d bounce. Worst case, I’d end up somewhere I couldn’t come back from.”

  “I’m thinking the same thing. So, what now?”

  “Now we go home, decide what dungeon-diving equipment we need, talk to the others, eat dinner, and come back in the morning,” I told her.

  She nodded. “Let’s go. There’s another donut in the van with my name on it, and I’m hungry.”

  “The other one’s mine. Don’t get greedy,” I called after her. She was already halfway up the slope, moving fast. Yeah, she was hungry.

  We were hungry for more than donuts, so we detoured through the nearby town of Monroeville. Maybe 500 people lived there, give or take.

  Dave’s Diner sat on Main Street, a squat brick building with a faded sign. Inside, it was like stepping back to the 1960s. It had vinyl booths, checkered floor, wood-paneled walls with sun-faded photos of softball teams and county fairs. It was probably because they hadn’t remodeled the place since they opened it back in the late 60s.

  The smell of frying oil and strong coffee clung to everything. It was one of those small-town diners that actually has good food.x

  The food was good, hearty, and heavy. Blaze and I tucked into our meals in a back booth while scribbling notes on what we’d need for the dungeon. Without her jacket, she blended in easily with her tan slacks and a pale blue collared shirt. I was just as plain: one of my wife’s handmade shirts, slacks, no armor or hat. Nobody recognized us, or at least nobody said anything.

  “You’re assuming just the five of us? Why?” Blaze asked.

  “Standard party limit. Common in a lot of games. We could test it with a bigger group before we go in.”

  “We should. How long do you think we’ll be in there? Hours? Days?”

  “If it’s small, maybe a dozen rooms, a few hours. If it’s multi-level, longer and each level will be harder, and have bigger monsters. If it’s themed, it could be quick. Dungeon Core stories usually have them grow wider and deeper over time.”

  “I played a few games with dungeons. I’ve seen both. Assuming we don’t know what we’re up against, which do we plan for?”

  “If we over-plan and it’s small, we’re fine. If we under-plan and it’s big, we run out of food, water, light…and that’s deadly when you’re first in.”

  “Gotcha. So, food and water for a couple of days. Backpacking gear.”

  “That’s my thought too. I don’t think we’ll need tents, but sleeping pads will make it more comfortable. Dungeon floors are usually stone or dirt.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Do you have this stuff? I don’t.”

  “My wife and I used to camp at SCA events. I’ve got gear stuffed somewhere in the garage.”

  We both laughed, thinking of the clutter crammed in there.

  “What else? Food, water,” Blaze said.

  “Dense calories that don’t spoil. Water will be the worst, it’s heavy. Camping supplies again. Bhaarrt’ll be the hardest to feed and hydrate. The rest of us could make do with jerky and trail mix if needed.”

  “What about MREs?”

  “Hmmm. If we can get Army ones, faster and lighter than buying civilian versions. Maybe two days’ worth. Good idea. I’ll check. No food or water spells like in WoW. Those just buff you anyway. And we’ll need Mana and Health potions from the STORE if we can afford them.”

  We bounced ideas until dinner was gone. The waitress gave us a couple odd looks but didn’t ask questions. Maybe she’d heard stranger talk.

  On the drive back, Blaze got in touch with Bhaarrt, Ingrid, then Shadow. She told Shadow we’d need her Thief skills as much as her Ninja skills…traps, locks, chests. Shadow was in.

  At the Convention Center, we found a meeting about the dungeons already in progress. University and military analysts were arguing about what to do with the dungeon when it opened. They were shocked we’d almost finished planning.

  “Look,” I told them. “Your highest-level people are at level 5 or 6. The lowest in our group is Level 5. I’m Level 10. We’ve worked as a team since day one. You don’t have anyone better suited to survive first entry. We don’t even know if we’ll be able to leave once inside.”

  I laid out the case: we could map it, giving future parties a better chance. And Ingrid’s REVIVE gave us a safety net nobody else had.

  Some of them hated it, especially Captain Park. He wanted his soldiers to go first, guns blazing.

  “Captain Park,” I said, “are you willing to risk five men just to prove you can do it? You don’t have Healers higher than Level three, maybe four. We’ve got more experience and more firepower. Let your people gain levels before risking them.”

  I turned to Blaze. “Is Matt still in town?”

  “No. Back to Washington this morning. Why?”

  “Get ahold of him and tell him what’s going down here. He probably knows a few people who can help keep Captain Park from making a major career mistake and getting people hurt or killed.”

  “Why don’t you call your friend the President?” Park snapped, face red.

  “Will. Shut up,” Blaze cut me off, stepping forward, hands on hips. She wasn’t the woman I’d been working with. This was the FBI agent.

  “Captain Park, I’m federal law enforcement. The FBI has jurisdiction here. Mister Banister is right. You’re endangering troops needlessly. We don’t have time to fight this in court. If you insist, I’ll arrest you.”

  Her voice was calm, hard. Park opened and closed his mouth like a fish before deflating into his chair.

  This was not the young woman I’d gotten to know. This was the career FBI agent taking charge.

  “We have soldiers in Eddington, temporarily, I hope. No matter why, they’re here. They’re here to do three things.”

  “First, protect the citizens of this city and county. That’s their third job. Second is to handle communications and research into what the hell happened a few days ago and understand it as best we can. Their primary job is to learn and disseminate this information to save as many lives as we can and to protect our country from collapsing.”

  Blaze continued, “That includes learning how to do things the Game way. The more we understand this, the better they can do their job. Dying for your ego is not on the list. Yes, I said dying. The President was here to learn from Will. He doesn’t teach classroom style. He makes you get out and do it.”

  Her voice was calm, hard. Park opened and closed his mouth like a fish before deflating into his chair.

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [Thank you for getting me out of an awful place. Sorry I got there.]

  [Blaze] [William of Brinsford] [Let me take it from here. Sit down. I have our notes.]

  [William of Brinsford:] [Blaze] [Roger that.]

  I dragged a folding chair over and sat while Blaze briefed the group.

  “The Irregulars’ Party One, as we’ve been calling it, has already been working on what we need. We want to gather the most information we can and get it out of the dungeon. Safety for all of us is our primary goal.”

  Her finger moved up her phone repeatedly like she was scrolling through a lot of material. “Nice touch,” I thought.

  She walked them through our ideas about security, supplies, equipment, and logistics. Cutoffs, perimeters, MREs, hydration packs, medical kits, packs and vest. STORE potions if we could afford them. I chimed in about Alchemy and Healing potions.

  “First off, security. Captain Park, this is where the army comes in. We’d like to have road access cut off while we’re in there. Also, a perimeter in an arc around the entrance to keep people from approaching through the woods.”

  “If we’re right about the timing, it’ll open at the 7 am spawn time tomorrow morning. You people need to be in place either tonight or by an hour before that tomorrow. You also handle communications with the command center here and the Sheriff's department. I’d like as little confrontation as possible and no one else getting within sight of the dungeon.”

  “Second is supplies. We don’t know how long we’ll be in there. We’re guessing anywhere between an hour and four hours, minimum. That is, if it’s a dungeon. If it’s something else, we might be back in five minutes. We need to travel light, but we have to plan for at least a day, maybe more.”

  “This means easily carried food and water. I suggested MREs, as they’re easy to carry and don’t weigh much. I know the military units in Afghanistan and Iraq had ways of carrying water. Whatever they’re called, we’d like at least one each. Also, water purification, in case there’s water in the dungeon.”

  “If you can spare a few packs and vests for carrying things, we’d appreciate it. Medical kits too. We won’t need them with Ingrid there, but we’d like to have them in case we get separated. We don’t know how much we can carry, but we don’t want to overload ourselves if we can avoid it. Bhaarrt, well, we really don’t know how much he can carry.” She turned towards me. “Will?”

  Shaking my head, I answered, “I don’t know. But his shield is at least 50 pounds and his maul is close to that. His breastplate is about the same. We won’t know until he can’t carry something else. He moves sheets of steel around like they were cardboard.”

  “OK. That’s it for the army. We’ll use the clothes we normally adventure in, as Will has enchanted our equipment and will top us off before we go in. We’ll check the STORE for things like potions and such if we can afford them.”

  Finally, I added: “If this is a dungeon, you’ll need a way to track who goes in and out. Maybe even schedule entries. It could allow one party, or a hundred. We won’t know until we test it.”

  Blaze, without missing a beat, added portable toilets to the list. She wasn’t wrong about them being needed.

  The room went quiet at her closing line: “We’ll have answers by tomorrow evening. If we come out alive.”

  We left soon after. Blaze told me to think through what else we’d need and how to carry it. She’d handle coordination with the others.

  It shouldn’t have surprised me what she was capable of, but she’d mostly taken second place to me when we worked together. The exception was when she wanted to de-escalate a situation. She’s a better negotiator than I am.

  At home, I went straight to the garage, ready to dig out old camping gear and build extra Mana Batteries.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBsPZV14I-k

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