He opened his eyes to see Ruth sitting in a rocking chair nearby, looking out the window and sipping at a cup of something. He half-rose from the bed, and she looked at him.

  “Hey there, sleepyhead,” she said with a smile. She took a loud slurp from her drink. Something told Josh that it wasn't coffee. “You finally up?”

  He rubbed his forehead. “Oi,” he said, annoyed. “You gonna hassle me right out of the gate?”

  She grinned. “Yeah, that's the plan!”

  He gestured at the extra cup on the table, briefly cursing that he wasn't a magic class this time around. Telekinesis was a useful trick.

  Ruth raised an eyebrow, but handed him the cup regardless. He took a sip. It was coffee, as he thought, but her drink smelled different. He jutted his chin at her cup. “Hot chocolate?”

  She smirked and slurped some more.

  He rolled his eyes. “How long was I out? Why didn't you wake me?”

  “You were asleep,” she said firmly. “You make it sound like you were off on a job, but you fell asleep basically the second I got you in bed.”

  The door slammed open, making them both jump. “That's what she said!” Mary cried.

  Ruth stared at her incredulously. “Were you just standing there waiting for an in?”

  “She's got an unlisted ability for hearing innuendo,” Josh said. He tapped his finger, with his metal storage ring, against the cup. It made some noise, and both girls looked to him. “You're dodging the question. How long was I out? Asleep, unconscious, whatever.”

  Ruth bit her lip. “...sixteen hours.”

  “Hell and damnation,” Josh muttered. He downed the coffee in one long pull. It was only lukewarm, so at least it didn't burn. He set the empty cup down on Ruth's table, already feeling better. Potion sickness went away pretty quick, with some rest and coffee. “I've got to get back to work.”

  Mary leaned against the doorway, blocking him with a smirk. “Don't be daft, the world hasn't burned down in a day.”

  Josh loomed over her. He was good at looming. “We've got at least two high level enemies after us in this town alone. People have already tried to off me half a dozen times that I'm aware of.” He pointed at Ruth. “Figure there's a reason she's watching me. Less likely for her auntie to jump out of the shadows if she's sitting there, yeah?”

  Mary looked up at him, then leaned over to look past him. “You didn't tell him?”

  Ruth sighed. “When was I supposed to find the time? He's been awake less than five seconds!”

  “Oi,” Josh said. “Loop me in?”

  Mary pursed her lips. “We've been running dungeons.”

  “Wot? Just in the past sixteen hours?”

  “No, you dunce.” She punched him in the shoulder. It actually hurt, because her Strength was a couple points higher than his. “Been running them the past four days, while you've been playing the part of a machine shop. Figured dungeons were a decent place to level, you know? Plus close up any more threats nearby.”

  “Not sure Baara would like that,” Josh said. “Closing the dungeons, I mean. They're usually considered rich and shiny for the nearest town.” Running dungeons for the experience was common enough, even if the monsters tended to be lower-level than the area. It was decent practice.

  “Yeah... that's what's weird...” Mary shook her head, frowning. “There are a lot of dungeons nearby.”

  He frowned. “How many, exactly?”

  “In the past four days, I've personally participated in sealing sixteen,” she said, her face and her tone both dead serious. “There are more.”

  Josh stared at her.

  She stared back, not blinking.

  “Now, I'm not exactly what you'd call a historian or a statistician,” he said. “But I've always thought that most towns have two or so dungeons in their range. Four on the outside.”

  “That's right,” Ruth said quietly. “A lot of my father's work was about dungeons.”

  “How far are you ranging?” Josh asked.

  “Not that far,” Mary insisted. “And these aren't hidden dungeons. Well, most of them aren't. They're in caves and junk. Just yesterday, I ran a water dungeon in a spot where Anna swears she cleared a wolf dungeon two days ago.”

  Josh started pacing. “That's a bucket of trouble. Especially if you're missing dungeons. There could be more you don't know about.” He looked up. “Wait. How have you been finding them?” Dungeons tended to be pretty obvious, but finding one just two days after it spawned was a bit of a surprise.

  Mary jerked a thumb at Ruth. “Our Enchanters worked together and made a dingus.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Ruth brightened. “I made it a project with some of the kids!” Josh knew that most of the adults hadn't wanted to switch to Enchanter, though some had. Switching to a normal [Crafter] class was hard enough, becoming an Enchanter was like deciding to learn a whole new language at the same time. “We're calling them dowsing rods.”

  Mary pulled something out of her belt. It was indeed a Y-shaped branch, exactly like the ancient dowsing rods that were supposed to be able to find water. This one was covered in tiny runes, though most of them weren't in rune-chains. “It's pretty handy. Points you towards the biggest source of magic nearby.”

  Josh clicked his tongue. “That's not going to work once we start seeing more elemental monsters.”

  “Oh, we've dealt with that problem more than once already,” Mary said darkly. “Almost lost a whole team of fresh-faced teens who wandered into an ursa that was on fire.”

  “We also don't have enough runes,” Ruth added. “Dungeons aren't elemental, or at least they usually aren't. I don't have a rune for detecting general magic, so I've been faking it with as many elemental runes as possible. I have the four Basic-tier runes and the four Improved-tier elements, but not much for anything higher. There might be more dungeons out there that we're missing.”

  “That's probably not something you have to worry about,” Josh assured her with a smile. “They're called Basic for a reason. If you have all of them, then they should cover everything.” He wasn't actually sure about that, but there was no harm in being nice about it. Ruth was the type to beat herself up over every little thing.

  “Honestly, detecting them is the least of my worries. We find them easily enough,” Mary said. She fixed Josh with a level look. “My problem is where the hell they're coming from.”

  Ruth shrugged helplessly. “Sorry, I told you, I've never heard of something like this before! All I have are theories.”

  Mary kept her eyes on Josh.

  He sighed. “You know I'm not an expert on all this rot.”

  She shrugged. “I figure you can at least make a guess that's half as daft as I would.”

  Josh rubbed the back of his head, winced at the sensation of his missing fingers, and put his hand down. “My guess? Something is making the world go all mucky.”

  Ruth cocked her head in confusion. Mary glared.

  He held up his hands. “Hold up and hear me out. There's a rift at the bottom of every dungeon. That hasn't changed, yeah?”

  “Yeah,” Mary said. She rolled her eyes. “We've got a bounty and a half of rift crystals, that's for sure. Even if they aren't giving out as many as usual.”

  “It just reminds me of something Hou Zheng said about dungeons.” And a few things he had been taught as a kid, but that might lead to Ruth asking questions that he wasn't in the mood to answer. “The rift comes first, then the dungeon exists to seal it.”

  Ruth nodded along. “Okay, I think I see where you're going with this.”

  Mary sighed. “I don't. How important is this? Is this like how we were told when we were kids that monsters were made out of naughty kids? Every time someone dies out in the Jungle, they turn into a rift?”

  “Maybe,” Josh said with a shrug.

  Her head snapped in his direction. “What?”

  He threw up his hands. “I don't know! You find a full Master-tier mage specializing in the Space element, maybe they can explain this shite! I'm just a random idiot who has run more dungeons than you. I've never seen a rift made, that I can tell you. But I don't know anything about these dungeons. I don't know if they're any different than normal ones. Maybe the world cracks every time a smiling baby dies, who knows.”

  Mary let out a breath. “Bloody hell, should have known better than to expect you to have the brains of two monkeys.”

  “Well, why don't you run one?”

  Josh and Mary both turned to Ruth. “What?” they asked at the same time.

  She grinned. “Josh, you need to get a closer look at these dungeons! That's the problem, right? Mary telling you about them isn't enough. Besides, there's nothing wrong with getting a little more experience.”

  “I've got plenty of grinding to do here,” he said dryly. “Made seven levels in four days. Think I'm finally playing my class the way I'm meant to.”

  Ruth gave him a pitying look. “Josh. The grind was killing you. More than the debuffs you got from overusing the mana potions, just sitting there for hours doing nothing but crafting was clearly grinding away your soul.”

  “Oi, don't skip the mana potions,” Mary said dryly. She gave Josh a sideways look. “Did she tell you that we had to call in Sarah? You had more potions debuffs than I've ever seen. We racked up quite the bill, getting you cured.”

  Josh rubbed his forehead. “Look. I'm not going to pretend that I don't prefer more... active classes.” The irony that he, of all people, got the first non-combat class in almost a century was not lost on him. He was pretty sure it was divine punishment for his sins. “But this is the class I've got. I'm the highest level Crafter we have, and I can't throw that away.”

  “But you're not the only Crafter,” Ruth insisted. “You never were. If you don't want to step off your advancement path, that's fine, but at least go out and get some exercise.” She smiled. “Besides, we know that testing your designs in real combat can get you upgrades. Don't you want to see what you can do with actual metal weapons and armor?”

  Josh paused at that. He hadn't even tried to craft anything with his new skill yet. He had spent the entire time using his Repair spell constantly. Now that he could learn new blueprints automatically, if slowly, he didn't even need to pound out a sword on a forge. He had been avoiding it because he had no idea where to even start.

  “I'll go,” he said at last. Ruth grinned, while Mary just smirked. “I'll go,” he said again, before Ruth could say anything, “once I've made some decent equipment. And I definitely want to go with a full party.” He looked Mary up and down. “What level are you now?” She didn't have her mask on, but it would be rude to just scan her.

  Mary smirked. “Level 44 Arcane Mage Pistoleer.”

  Josh smiled. “Oh, Exemplary-tier? Good for you!” Then he frowned. “Wait, weren't you going for Gruff Gravity Gunner?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Ruth has got the gravity magic covered spick and span. Would be daft to double up there. 'sides, I told you I don't like the elemental classes.”

  Josh nodded. He'd had enough trouble running elemental combat classes, himself. God, he'd killed enough people by exploiting the weaknesses in elemental classes. “Pistoleer, though. That closes off some options, I'd think.”

  “Yeah, well. It wasn't like I was using much besides pistols anyway.”

  Ruth rubbed her hands together. “So we're all good?”

  “Not quite,” Josh said dryly. “Like I said, I want to make some stuff for myself, and then go in with everyone. Darius can probably find us the perfect dungeon.” He blinked as a thought occurred to him. “Where is Darius, anyway?”