The previous Fall Festival was sullied by the news that thousands of tusks perished in the war. Having a town-wide celebration after that was difficult. No one felt much like partying, but the town gathered anyway, and the residents on the surface came down to Leebel’s Rest to break bread with their new neighbors.

  That day had its bright spots, but the general tone was melancholic. The news was sad, and much of the town didn’t know much about each other. Even the refugees knew relatively little about the people they traveled in with. They all came from different towns, and the time they traveled as a group varied drastically across the refugees. Some of them made friends, but most hadn’t.

  Hosting this year’s Fall Festival on the new fairgrounds was an even more drastic adjustment than going from hosting the event on the surface to having it in the dungeon. A brick sky may have hung over their heads, but last year was still a gathering surrounded by farmland. And farming was something the people of Gomi knew well. Now they were surrounded by glimmering trees, bright flowers, and a city that steadily grew.

  For Hans, and likely for many of the other residents who had come to view bronzewoods as commonplace, the real shift was in how the event felt.

  Hans’ very first Fall Festival felt like a big bonfire, a large gathering of friends. He didn’t have the familiarity with everyone yet, but stepping into that felt like walking into a family reunion of sorts.

  By comparison, what Hans saw now in Leebel’s Rest was like a proper town festival. The streets around the grounds were dense with people. The tables for food had lines like food stalls at a fair. And families came and went throughout the day with casual timing. Losing the intimacy of years gone by was sad in its own way, but the feeling of Leebel’s Rest being a normal town with normal festivals was meaningful to Hans.

  That’s all the people of Gomi wanted: to live a normal life.

  “Damn, Galinda,” Olza said when she and Hans stopped at the bakery at the edge of the fairgrounds. “You look amazing.”

  Galinda, who usually wore the same style of clothing as her brother, wore a pastel green dress that was loose at her shoulders and flared at the base but cinched at the waist. She had strong shoulders that made Hans jealous, but contrasting that obvious strength with an elegance suited Galinda. The flow of the fabric balanced, rather than attempted to hide or obscure, her visible strength.

  Galinda’s usual unflappable confidence was replaced by timidity. Shandi’s work was excellent, but Hans could understand how not wearing a dress for a long time, or perhaps ever, would make Galinda hesitant to debut hers to such a large crowd.

  “My wife is beautiful, isn’t she?” Charlie asked with a grin. “Frankly, I’ve had to restrain myself.”

  “Gods, Charlie,” Hans said, chuckling.

  “These things are natural. And like Olza said, damn. That’s a woman.”

  “Thank you,” Galinda said, meekly.

  “How has the Festival been so far?” Hans asked, hoping to spare Galinda some discomfort by changing the subject.

  Charlie gestured to the bakery window behind him. “Can never bake enough. I figure if people have the stomach for sweets, they’re probably feeling pretty good.”

  “I’ve heard you say something like sweets were the perfect cure for sadness.”

  “Yeah, I said that.”

  Hans blinked.

  “Makes perfect sense. The sight of the cookie cures the sadness, so the stomach is ready by the time it gets eaten.”

  “It looks like it’s going well,” Olza said, looking at the crowd moving through the park. “Seems like everyone is having fun.”

  Charlie crossed his arms. “They are, they are. It’s been tough for us. Can’t help thinking about our people out there. By now, the Osare statue has gotten the snip, and they’ve all gone their separate ways.”

  The people Charlie referred to were the Gomians traveling from town to town with cave crawlers to break the wards influencing tusks.

  Galinda rubbed Charlie’s back. “They’ll be fine, my love.”

  “I know. I don’t mean to dampen anyone’s spirits.”

  “We’re fine,” Olza assured him. “We worry too. It’s only natural.”

  “Don’t let us keep you,” Charlie said. “Go, eat, drink. Enjoy the day!”

  Hans and Olza did as Charlie suggested. When an adventurer pulled Hans into a conversation about goblin hunting, Olza volunteered to get drinks.

  When she returned, she smiled and told the growing group of adventurers, “I’m stealing him back now.”

  As Hans and Olza stepped away, she added, “I ran into Dunfoo. He said to please stop sending Holy Water to his lab.”

  “He has enough?”

  “Sounded like more than enough. He seemed grumpier than usual.”

  Quest Complete: Get Dunfoo the materials he needs for a Holy enchantment.

  “These kinds of things can suck for halflings,” Hans explained. “They get stepped on in big crowds, people spill their beer and their food, which means right on your head if you’re a halfling."

  “Is that why Mazo isn’t here?”

  “I’m sure she has several reasons, but yeah, she’s complained about that to me before.”

  “It does sound awful,” Olza agreed.

  “Dunfoo’s still an asshole, to be clear.”

  Olza laughed.

  Galad and Luther were surrounded by townspeople, but they managed to wave to Hans and Olza as they passed. Kane and Quentin played a game with several of the children, something that involved tossing bean bags at targets in the grass. Hans recognized two of the children from his meeting with Yotuli on the surface.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  If they were with Kane, then they must have chosen to move in with Ed. They still seemed a bit timid, but Hans could recognize when even a shy child was enjoying the moment.

  Uncle Ed appeared behind Hans and Olza with a tray full of food. “Enjoying the Festival?” he asked.

  “It’s nice,” Olza answered.

  “Good to see you two out and about. I owe you both a beer, but right now, I need to feed some hungry mouths.”

  “Growing kids, huh?”

  “Oh, this is just Kane’s tray. I have to go back for the rest.”

  Uncle Ed held a straight face for only a moment before cracking.

  “Hold me to that beer,” Ed added as he stepped away to rejoin the beanbag game.

  Hans and Olza were stopped several more times as they walked the grounds. Parents of Olza’s apprentices were especially interested in speaking with the alchemist, so it was Hans’ turn to fetch refreshments while Olza mingled. He returned shortly with a plate of kabobs and used them to lure Olza away.

  They found a picnic table in a quiet–or rather, quieter–part of the fairgrounds to eat and to drink.

  Olza sat next to Hans rather than across from him, and she paused mid-bite to give him a long hug.

  “What was that for?” Hans asked as Olza pulled away.

  “I had a moment where I pictured you not being here.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Olza dabbed the corner of her eyes. “No, no, I’m fine.”

  Hans opened his mouth to speak, but a sudden gasp from the festivalgoers pulled his attention away. He followed their eyes to the sky and saw a griffon leaning to gently circle Leebel’s Rest.

  “Is that Dev?” Olza asked.

  “Yeah, he’s doing griffon rides today.”

  “Hard to believe that a griffon is a fair ride for children now, as normal as a pony ride.”

  Chuckling, Hans replied, “Yeah. It’s a strange kind of normal.”

  That was all the longer the crowd needed to return to enjoying the day. They had all seen griffons flying over Leebel’s Rest dozens of times now.

  “I’ve been thinking,” Hans said after a time. “You don’t have to stay in Gomi because of me. Just because I can’t leave doesn’t mean you have to be stuck here too.”

  “Why did that come to mind?”

  “We talked about all these places I wanted to show you, but that was before we knew that wasn’t possible for me.”

  “I don’t need to leave Gomi to be happy. I’m happy here.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Completely.” Olza glanced at Hans’ beer. “I can get you another.”

  “Actually, do you want to get out of here?”

  “Ready to head home?” Olza asked.

  “How would you feel about taking a trip right now? I have something to show you, but it’s a bit of a walk. We’d probably need to camp and then come back.”

  “In the dungeon?”

  Hans nodded.

  “Sure. The whole town will be hungover tomorrow. I can’t see anything important happening.”

  Taking Olza by the hand, Hans led Olza back to their home to pack their gear.

  “Wow. This is pretty.” Olza followed behind Hans as they moved through the Underdark Valley, a less-traveled portion of dungeon that Hans added purely to have access to Holy Water. This was the quest where he hired Irons to carry water for him, and Devon was among them. The Irons, however, encountered an underdark troll and very nearly wiped as a result.

  “I like it too,” Hans replied.

  “I don’t hear anyone talk about this part of the dungeon. Hardly ever.”

  “Pretty boring. The troll is a lot less dangerous without the element of surprise. Other than a quick cull, there’s not a lot to see here.”

  “Except for a beautiful forest.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I do,” Olza said. “Are we getting close, or no?”

  Hans had asked Olza not to ask where they were going. She honored the request, though it clearly pained her to hold her questions in. Naturally curious people were rubbish about enjoying surprises.

  “The top of this trail and we’re done. I promise.”

  The trail wound up a steep mountainside. The hike was harder for Olza than it was for Hans. She wasn’t an adventurer and hadn’t been reborn into a fully healed body, but she managed.

  The top of the trail ended at a shimmering door embedded into the mountainside.

  Olza stopped partway up the final rise. “Is that… Is that the same door by the dungeon core?”

  “Yep.”

  “How the hells did you convince Dunfoo to come all the way out here?” she asked, looking back at the climb.

  “I didn’t. I made this.” Before Olza could ask another question, Hans spoke into the door. “Polzas.”

  The door gently opened, as if only slightly ajar.

  “That’s the password. If you ever need it.”

  Holding her hand, Hans led Olza through a small cave and onto a large outcropping. From here, the dungeon ceiling was only a few stories over their heads, and they could look out over the Underdark Valley. This part of the dungeon was a permanent summer sunset, painting rocks with reds and oranges.

  “Is this a hot spring?” Olza asked, stepping to the edge of the water.

  “Yes.”

  She knelt and traced her fingertips through the water. “You made this?”

  Hans nodded. “It’s not the Heiwa Hot Springs exactly, but it’s close enough.”

  “The core let you do something not from a job?”

  “It hasn’t rejected a single suggestion since I came back. It made the trail, replicated Dunfoo’s door, and made the hot springs. No resistance. I was going to show it to you earlier, but I realized I should have put a cabin or something up here.”

  “No, it’s beautiful.”

  “Well, I’m adding a cabin up here eventually.”

  “Who knows about this?”

  “You. I don’t plan to tell anyone else.”

  “Why not?” Olza asked.

  “I might not be able to leave, but I still need the option to get away. This isn’t as good as seeing the real thing, but it’s something.”

  “It’s better.”

  “You don’t have to say that.”

  Olza stood before Hans and took both of his hands in hers. “It’s true. This is so much better.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “Who else has their own mountain hot spring? ”

  “You like it?”

  “I love it.” Olza kissed Hans. “You did good, Mr. Hans.”

  Quest Complete: Reclaim your ability to focus.

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Complete the next volume (Bronze to Silver) for “The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers.”

  Learn to help your advanced students as much as you help beginners.

  Relocate the titan bones to the dungeon entrance.

  Master your Diamond boon.

  Run future tests in a secure part of the dungeon.