“You got a name?” I asked, eyes lazily scanning the door.

  The hybrid hesitated, visibly squirming at the question. Twirling her black hair round and round her finger, but relented in the end with a sigh. “Phima.”

  “Great, so let’s address the elephant in the room.” Pointing at her other hand clutched at her side again.

  “What’s an elephant?”

  I’m starting to see a pattern here.

  “You arrived here clearly wounded and hate humans.” She slowly nodded. “So in order to help you, I’d need some information first.”

  “What kind?” She answered with shifty eyes. At this point, any information was more than I currently had.

  The kind that starts making me money, duh. “Maybe you can tell me more about dungeon b-22?”

  “Well… B stands for the rank of this dungeon, which is on the upper end of difficulty, since F is the worst.” She stopped to grin at the next part. “22 is the floor we’re on right now.”

  “How many floors?” If games can be followed, there should be about a hundred I recon.

  “A lot. This Safezone is actually quite low to the start, most adventurers of adequate level make it down here.”

  *Ding*

  [Information Gained: Safezones aren’t fixed within a dungeon. You can acquire floors, effectively funnelling other zones into yours]

  Interesting.

  “Thank you, that gives me a bit to work with.” Hobbling past her and into the lounge room, leaning onto my ramp—looking at the medieval door. “If you’re mostly extinct, why would you enter a dungeon?”

  “Strength.” Her voice cold, but determined.

  “Like levels?”

  “Among other things… so how are you planning to help me now? I gave you information, now hold up your end!” She hissed.

  “What do you need most?” I calmly responded, eyes now fixed at my family’s board above the door.

  I didn’t turn, but I could hear her shifting uncontrollably. “A-A place to stay, but safe from the humans. I don’t want to come back here to pitchforks and daggers trained at my heart.” Fair enough.

  I looked over to the 4 munted looking beds in the adjacent room. Smacking my lips at problem. “That’s not going to do.” Then crippled my way back to the office and opening the bottom drawer of my counter.

  A folder for the house, left by my father in case I needed to make adjustments. Like I had the money…

  “What’s that?” Her elbows propped on my table and peeking onto the opposing side.

  “Blueprints.” I sighed. “Plans… A way for me to organise a place for you to stay.” I followed up, tracing lines up and down the blue papers.

  Dad had left me his massive estate in bumfuck nowhere, and now I was tasked with upkeep. One last “responsibilities form character son” in form of a ticking time clock.

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  I smacked the side of my cheeks, snapping myself out of it. Focus Greg, get this shit organised! Then refocusing on the blueprint to spot a storage room just beyond my room. It looked walled off on paper, so smashing a hole through it would provide means of entry. Plus, I can just hang a poster or curtain over it.

  “There. That’ll be your spot for now. Just need to fix you an entrance and we’ll be golden.” I looked over to the bag of barbecue chips on the counter. “Here, you can eat this while I get your lodgings in order.” Plopping the bag into her open palms and puzzled looks.

  “Sorry, this must be strange for you.” As I took it from her to pop it open followed by a shower of barbecue dust. “Enjoy and… don’t break anything!” Or you can bet your ass it’s coming out of your bond.

  **

  “Fuck me, what’s this wall made of—mythril?” Dropping the sledge hammer for the 10th time, with the noticeable indentation in the wall. The kind you’d see when pressing your thumb into play-doh. “I really need to work… on my fitness.” My ribs screaming at me to stop already.

  I might need some help with these types of renovations going forward. My ass now firmly placed in front of the wall, in forms of a non-aggressive protest.

  When the sound of yelling emerged from down the stairs. “Shit, adventurers?!” I got myself up and started runn… let’s be honest, power limping down the stairs.

  “You lot better stay back, I will burn you filthy humans to ash!” Phima growled, hiding behind my counter and hurling insults at the band, in quick and somewhat clumsy succession.

  The group of 5 just looked at me as I entered the room. Then pointed almost in full synchronicity at the dragon-hybrid. “What’s her problem?” One asked.

  “You know dragons and humans have come to an understanding years ago, right?!” Another chimed in, before the obvious leader approached me with an awkward tone.

  “Good… good day Sir. We’ve heard talks of this zone being occupied and being made hospitable, so we came to find out for ourselves.” Then coming in close for a whisper. “We’re not here to cause trouble, is that lady over there going to be alright?”

  I shrugged. It seemed some information I had received wasn’t as true as once thought. “She’ll be alright, just keep to yourself.” Then counting the group visually for dramatic effect. “Just you five?”

  The group nodded with the leader adding his own requests. “We’d like the beds yes, but can I be honest with you?”

  Oh, this can’t be good.

  “We’ve heard rumours of a, product… a certain, box of goods?”

  Hold up, no freaking way—the GRANOLA?! Play it cool G-man. I leant in closer, waving the group together. “You guys are after some premium, top-shelf granola?”

  The group acted like it was some sort of illicit substance. One person even getting so nervous, his face turned red like a smacked ass. “Sshhh. You shouldn’t be talking about it so casually.”

  What?

  “Ummm, ok? Anyway. Payments are upfront, but I’ll make you a group-deal, if you can pay me in the coins I want?”

  “How much and what type of coins?” The leader asked.

  *Ding*

  [Price Recommendation: Since you have upgraded to beds and proper seating arrangements, the cost can now be adjusted accordingly.]

  So I still get updates from time to time, guess that’s cool.

  [Cost for one adventurer stay was 50 silver each, but due to an increase in beds and overall quality, can now be set to 60]

  Not bad.

  “I’d normally charge 100 silver each, but you’ve caught me on a good day. Let’s call it an even 200 silver split: 1 gold, 80 silver and 200 copper.”

  The leader turned slightly to his companions, followed by a sequence of nods. Like a bobble head rave. They all reached for their respective pouches afterward and when the leader finally turned, he had produced the large pouch of coins.

  I snagged it and smacked my lips at it. “The product will be provided in the evening.” Making them nervously look into every direction.

  This wasn’t “you just go busted” fellas. So to ease their nerves, I gave them a wink and moved away. “Enjoy your stay.”

  The hissing hybrid was still hiding in my office. Shooting me death glares with her crimson eyes.

  “What?”

  “Don’t what me… human!”