“I think there are worse places to stay,” said Verity as they finished their tour of the League house. “Relatively few people around though, for all that they have three rooms of five beds each.”
“Most parties who do the local dungeons are themselves local,” said Alfric. “And most parties who are from outside the region looking to do a full clear will camp rather than stay in town, or they’ll have their own ways of getting around, or their own mobile housing, which means they don’t need to use League housing.”
“So why have it?” asked Verity. It was rare that she showed any interest in dungeoneering, and Alfric was thankful that she seemed curious.
“It probably gets used with some frequency,” said Alfric. “Though the ideal time for doing easier dungeons is early spring, like I said, so we’re probably in a lull right now.”
“And we could have stayed here for free rather than going to the hotel?” asked Verity.
“Probably,” said Alfric. “Some of them charge, but having met Priya, I doubt this one does.”
“It’s good for a town to have dungeoneers come through,” said Hannah. “Most try to make it easy. Same reason we don’t get taxed.”
“We don’t?” asked Verity.
“Why, were you keepin’ a ledger?” asked Hannah.
“I don’t think I’ve ever paid a tax,” said Verity.
“You should look into that,” said Alfric, frowning a bit.
“We used to have someone who did that kind of thing for us,” said Verity. “An accountant.”
“Sounds expensive,” said Hannah, wrinkling her nose.
“If we’re on this for long enough, we’ll be picking up people,” said Alfric. “Someone to handle the money is usually pretty vital. Vertex has a counterparty, which would probably be two porters, a merchant, a coordinator, and an entad specialist, though a counterparty usually splits up their duties a bit more than that, and with fifty dungeons done, my guess is they’re not quite there yet. Maybe two or three people.”
“You planned that far in advance?” asked Verity, raising an eyebrow.
“It’s the family trade,” said Alfric. “A counterparty is the natural outgrowth of a mid-level dungeoneering party. At a higher level, there can be more than one counterparty, though it would be a bit unusual for them to travel to every dungeon, depending on what entads are available.”
“And your parents employed hundreds, ay?” asked Hannah.
“Not for dungeons, no,” said Alfric. “They do a handful a year, maybe a large handful. But once you have enough entads, you’re usually able to build some kind of business around them, and those businesses employ hundreds. Maybe more.”
“It was a joke,” said Hannah, sighing.
“Ha ha,” said Alfric.
“How far away from hiring someone are we?” asked Verity.
“Not far at all,” said Alfric. “If we can use the stone to move the whole party through the dagger, then it might make sense for us to hire a cartier, though if we’re going at a more sedate pace through the dungeons, it wouldn’t be full-time.”
“There’s a cartier who services Pucklechurch,” said Verity. “She comes by the Fig and Gristle every now and then. She’s a friend, of sorts. Xy.”
“A friend?” asked Hannah.
Verity gave her a look. “Yes.”
“A special friend?” asked Hannah.
“A bit special, yes.”
“Oh, ay,” said Hannah. She seemed a bit flustered. “Sorry for the confusion, earlier.”
“I’m not sure I understand,” said Alfric. Neither of them offered any comment. “Relevant to our core mission?”
“No,” said Verity. “Definitely not.”
“Well, I’ll speak with her, then, and see what her terms would be. It
would only be once a week, running the dagger over to whatever the next
dungeon is,” said Alfric. “And then, I suppose, running it back and
getting it in position.
“Well, I’ve had enough talk about dungeons for the day,” said Verity.
“It seems like the last thing we need to do is to figure out whether the
stone can hold us.” She hesitated for a moment.
said Verity.
There was a brief silence.
“We’ll have to use this place next time,” said Verity. “I think I would like it better than a hotel. All together?”
“It’s more traditional accommodation,” said Alfric. “Though different regions of Inter have different ways of handling the inevitable flow of adventurers. Ready?”
They both nodded, and Alfric double-checked that he had everything he needed and then cast the warp.
He’d had a knot of tension at warping, because this was the most likely place for him to run into Lola and the others, but instead it was just his people, quickly moving off the warp before the attendant could wave for them to move.
“Nice to see you guys again!” said Mizuki. “Productive time?”
