The Dungeon Inn - English

B02C20 - Outpost

The days went by and Bruno wasn't lying when he said he was eating more now. It seemed to me as if he was eating for two. However, the construction work was coming to an end, so the first craftsmen were already returning home and so it wasn't really a problem.

Paul also increased the pace and pressure in his lessons a bit so that we could finish our training on time. He also activated the outpost and from now on we had to confirm the supply orders. Of course, he was always there so that no mistake went unnoticed. After all, it wasn't just a matter of stamping, we had to inspect the goods.

"What's wrong, Marco? Why do you always leave the wagon inspection to Sven or Sarah?"

"I... have been living in the cave for too long. The sun and air out there are scary for me."

"But didn't you take walks on the construction site before, when there were no walls?"

"Yes, so I know that I don't want to go out."

"So you just pass it on to your subordinates?"

"Is that a problem?"

"Only when they're not available. Don't you want to pull yourself together?"

"No, if I don't have to, I won't set foot outside the door."

"So we couldn't end your reclusive lifestyle. But I won't let you get away with it that easily. We now store most of it inside the house. Then Sven or Sarah will inspect it outside and after it's been transported in, you'll do it again. So from now on you have to check every delivery and not every second one like the others."

"That's a bearable evil."

After we had checked the goods correctly, we weren't finished yet. We were also supposed to store the adventurers' items later, so we had to describe exactly how we would store them and what care would be needed and when.

Paul also started sending the adventurers, who had been injured while guarding, to us, so that we could treat them. Because of the good guarding, the wounds were always small and treated very quickly. So that wasn't enough for him and he had them hunt snakes and get poisonous plants to extract their poison. He then administered this to himself and we had to find out what it was from the symptoms and make an antidote. Of course he wasn't stupid and never administered a lethal dose to himself, but his efforts were still a bit excessive. At least no one was poisoned by coincidence. He was probably aware that the effect of a random victim would have serious consequences of the others' opinions.

At some point the quest board was hanging next to the entrance and we had to create sample quests. Writing the quests was actually very easy. What was more difficult was estimating which rank was required to accept them. It wasn't just about the strength of the monster, but also where you would find it. A goblin on the plain was less dangerous than one in a cave. Procurement orders were actually independent of rank, as they were based on knowledge and not on fighting ability, but here too you had to take the danger level of the environment into account. At what distance from mushroom men could you safely harvest mushrooms? What if a strong monster was spotted nearby?

All of this played a role, and the classification was not just intended to support the adventurers. If someone simply took on a quest without having the guild confirm their acceptance, they were punished. If the classification was above their level, it was set particularly high, which could lead to the withdrawal of the adventurer's license. The guild had no interest in its adventurers dying because of overestimation. Therefore, it was also important that the guild employee made an assessment when confirming acceptance of the assignment. Because what if an assignment is for silver level and the party consisted of two bronze and two silver fighters. Was it still strong enough? So, even though we had correctly estimated the level of the assignment, we still had to classify the adventurers.

There were six levels in total. Ceramic, if you had just started and could only defeat combative vermin. Iron for easy monsters. Bronze for common dangers. Silver for slightly stronger monsters. These four were quite widely represented and it was not uncommon to come across them. Gold, on the other hand, was rarer and was used for particularly strong monsters. Then there was the legendary Diamond class, which were true legends. According to Paul, I hadn't come across any of the last two levels yet.

Paul also seemed to let his imagination run wild. One time, four Silver-ranked fist fighter wanted to fight a Bronze-ranked ranged monster. Or the outpost was supposedly threatened by a Gold-ranked monster and we were asked to say how many Bronze adventurers we needed to win. Another time, there was a plague of locusts in the forest that was on its way to Watch Town and we were asked to assess which weapon was most effective and how many it could keep at bay at the same time.

It wasn't just monsters against adventurers, however. The guild allowed duels between adventurers, under supervision of course. So we also had to judge when a fight was fair and when it should be banned. If it was too unbalanced but the fighters insisted on it, we had to be able to set up rules that restored fairness. Paul said that sometimes the adventurers could only resolve their differences through a fight. No wonder if they were not held in high esteem by the others, if they could only calm themselves down with blood. Although I wasn't sure whether Paul was exaggerating and it was the most extreme exception that there was no other way to resolve it. Perhaps there were always just too many onlookers present.

So we had to demonstrate a great deal of knowledge about weapons, monsters and tactics so that Paul would trust us enough to assess an quest and accept it. Fortunately, there were also quests that were simpler. Procurement quests also had to be classified, but if someone came and already had the desired object, you could always blindly stamp it. The guild was only very critical of quests that involved fighting.

With that, we had almost completed our training. Paul spared us a test on accommodation and care for adventurers, he said that we already knew that well enough. However, there was still one test that he did not want to waive us.