The Dungeon Inn - English

B01C17 - The fate of the adventurers

Then one day there was a knock on our new door. The crystal had already warned me about new guests. Luckily, Bruno was there at the time and he opened the door a crack at eye level. One advantage of our design was that we could only open the door partially and, for example, only pushed the trunk into the wall at eye level so that we could see who was knocking.

"Hi Bruno, it's me, Simon. Can we come in?"

"Of course, welcome to the Inn "To the Rising Sun"!"

Bruno pushed the remaining logs into the wall and Simon entered the cave with three other adventurers.

"Ah, Marco, you're here too. Thank you for the sign outside, I was unsure if I would find you again."

"Then it was worth putting it up. What about the others from your last group?"

"Well, as you know, things didn't go so well last time. Sorry for the trouble we caused you back then. We were probably still a bit in shock. The doctor said that it was a small miracle that we were able to get our injured colleague to him. He was able to save him, but unfortunately he still has consequential damage and can no longer be an adventurer. Our old leader couldn't handle losing someone in the forest and then bringing someone back with permanent injury. He also gave up his adventurer job. So I'm the only one left. I first had to process everything that had happened, but unfortunately life goes on and I had to see where I could get money again. So after a while I joined them here and we were of the opinion, that I should confront my trauma. We've already seen Aron bring the monster's corpse into the city. So there's no real reason to stay away. Of course we won't go into the depths of the forest, but at least we should be able to manage in the outer area."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I hope the hunt is uneventful this time."

"It will work out. Aron said, that he was needed somewhere else and gave me the cooking pot for you. He added a wooden spoon to it. He said, you had already paid for everything."

"Ah, thank you very much. Of course I'm happy, that I get it already."

"A lot has changed here."

"Yes, we got some tools, that allowed us to make some improvements."

"I'm glad you're making good progress. Then the quests will be easier for us. Apparently you've even found a name for your inn."

"True. What do you actually call the plain and the forest?"

"Didn't we ever mention that? The forest is called Doom Forest. So far, no one has managed to get it completely rid of monsters. Something always goes wrong in the end, which is how it earns its name. If the forest is left alone for too long, monsters come to the plain here and that's why it got the name Monsterback. So that they don't end up heading towards our princely city of Wachstadt, we stop by regularly and kill a few in the Doom Forest. If they are already on the plains, we will let the guild know and they will send more adventurers over."

"The prince has no interest in completely clearing the forest."

"It's probably a question of cost and it also serves as a natural border to the other kingdoms. Of course there is a risk of a dungeon being created, so we are keeping an eye on it. That's why the guild wanted to examine the monster's corpse, to see whether it might have come from a dungeon."

"They can find out?"

"Well, not clearly. But dungeon monsters sometimes carry things that are atypical for their race."

"I see. Has the investigation been completed yet?"

"Yeah, there's no real evidence of a dungeon. Otherwise a larger group would have come by long ago."

So that should also mean, that they haven't become suspicious yet. So I should probably stick to my approach, that only inconspicuous creatures are allowed into the danger zone, which means, where you can be seen. Hilda would probably still pass for a crazy old woman, but Heinrich is clearly too conspicuous. Therefore that she doesn't accidentally bump into the adventurers, we had previously agreed, that we would pick her up from the sleeping chamber. At first I thought the entrance to the cold room would be enough. But after Hilda came riding on Heinrich a few times laughing, which echoed through the cave, I moved the meeting point further into the dungeon to be on the safe side. Once we had the door, there was also less risk of someone getting in and I allowed her to go into the cold room with warnings to be quiet. I had made a small hole near the water source towards the cold room so that you could, for example, roll a stone down. So I could simply give her a signal, when guests are present, that no one would come to pick her up. She was then free to choose whether she waited until I sent someone down with food or simply helped herself in the cold room.

We talked for a while and they also asked Bruno, what the situation was like in the forest, since he was out at the outer edge almost every day. Afterwards, I praised our meatless dishes, but the adventurers preferred to have some meat between their teeth. I should create alternatives soon. Hilda was already on the mushrooms, that should be fixed soon. As long as I have mana, the slimes aren't a problem. But I haven't started anything like that with meat yet. If we always have a high consumption there, we will probably soon have wiped out all the horn rabbits here on the plain. Therefore, I should look for alternatives like snake meat. But can I really risk sending Bruno deeper into the forest to kill other monsters or animals? When even the adventurers say that the forest is dangerous, I'd better listen to them, and Simon's old group showed that even experienced adventurers sometimes barely escape. Training together with Bruno helps us both improve, but I wouldn't call Bruno a veteran yet.

But before I could deal with it any further, it was Hilda's turn.