Around the same time, one of a recently arrived team of adventurers had their first unsupervised run. It rarely happens that the local guild master imposes such rules on everyone. Usually, only novice and sometimes apprentice-level adventurers, need to be part of an experienced team. Here however was a new and peculiar dungeon. Also, Lucius wants to minimize the risk of someone dying which will upset the Dungeon Mistress. It will take a lot of time before she accepts the harsh reality of life and her destiny.

  “It’s room number seven.” Read Billy, leader of the team. He was twenty years old human and still acts like a teenager. “Sel what did they write about this trap?”

  “We must turn thous cranks simultaneously to move steel plates blocking doors. When it will move by one foot, we will be shot with steel balls.” Selphie, or for her friends Sel read. She was twenty-six years old elven sorceress. She prefers reading scrolls to adventuring, but access to libraries is costly, and buying scrolls requires even more money.

  “That is easy.” Said Stris. He was a faun and was twenty-three years old. He was their archer and scout.

  “I will help him,” Abby shouts. She was twenty-one years old and played the role of healer. Right now she was Stris's girlfriend last month it was Billy.

  “How is your mana?” Conor asked Selphie. He was a twenty-two muscular human and carried a large shield with him. His question wasn’t dictated by real concerns, however. He was lazy and had a hangover from drinking last night.

  “I should manage. I was in room six, there was a similar trap.” Selphie answered.

  Opening doors took them half an hour. They were undisciplined and argued and joked all the time. The sorceress sat down next to the exit after using up all of her mana. The rest of the team starts searching the room for hidden treasure.

  “Look at that! I found gold!” Stris shouts. All run to him to see.

  “Gold? Wait it’s a trap!” Selphie shouted but it was too late. Instead of a deadly trap, a hidden door opened.

  “Trap? I will say hidden vault full of golf rather.” Billy smiled.

  “In the scroll, it is written that this coin will trigger a trap,” Sorceress answered not understanding.

  “You read too much. Life is simple. Nobody gets rich by sitting around shuffling papers, but the Adventurer's Guild is rich. And because only the guild master can talk with the dungeon master it’s simple for them to negotiate a vault with a lot of gold for their exclusive use.” Conor explained.

  “Time is running. Let's move.” Billy hurried them.

  “No. We shouldn’t. There is a reward for finding these doors.” Selphie tried.

  “Sorry Sel, but there is a chest full of gold there. Not just one or two gold coins.” Billy pushes her inside a tunnel and steps forward. The doors shut with a bang when the last of them step in.

  “Maybe we should return?” Abby was scarred.

  “We have amulets, and the challenge in this room should be easy.” Billy laughs.

  The supposed vault has five statues and, a big pile of gold in the middle. Selphie immediately saw that everything here was full of magic.

  “Don’t touch anything!” She warned them, but they didn’t listen. Her friends run to the gold to get as much as they can. When they touched the gold, the trap sprung and water started flowing to the room.

  “What is happening?” Shouts Abby.

  “It’s a trap. Again you all weren't listening to me,” Selphie answered.

  “Relax. We have amulets. Right?” Billy said.

  “They will not work until the trap is working.” The sorceress shakes her head and walks to the statue to look for clues. Her friends stood stunned. Conor grabbed the amulet and screamed.

  “Kansas!” But nothing happened. “Kansas! You stupid junk. Kansas, Kansas, Kansas!” He tries angryly. Then everyone realized what they had done. However, instead of looking for the way out they started shouting and blaming each other.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The statue closest to Selpie was the statue of a warrior. He holds a sword in his right hand and an unrolled scroll in his left. On the scroll was a picture of a pile of coins, a sword, a shield, a shirt, and pants. What surprised her the most was the face of the statue. It was very similar to Billy's face. She hastily moves to the next one. Water was higher with every moment. Next one statue looked like her. On the scroll was a pile of coins, and her staff. She looked at her staff. Leaving her staff will be equal to resigning her as being an adventurer. Even worse. This staff was bought with money borrowed from the adventurers guild. If she is lucky she will be assigned to support other teams until she repays her debt. If she is unlucky she will become a debt slave. With a heavy heart, she placed her staff and the purse containing all her money on the altar, in front of the statue. They disappeared and the scroll was now blank.

  “I know how to resolve this challenge!” She shouted.

  “What?” Billy asked surprised.

  "I know what we need to do, to get out of this trap."

  “Great. Tell us.”

  “First find a statue that looks like you.”

  They needed some time because the water was up to their waist.

  “Now what?” Conor asked.

  “Look on the scroll. There is what you need to place on the altar.”

  “Are you joking? It’s almost everything !” Stris shouts.

  “This is only the way!” Selphie shouts and shows them her return amulet. In the dim light of the vault, they saw it glimmers.

  “But you don’t place anything.” Conor accused her.

  “I placed my staff and all the money. I’m no longer an adventurer. I’m debt slave!” The sorceress shouted and started crying. It was the first time when she so strongly replayed them. They started slowly placing things on the lists. However, they immediately began shouting and accusing each other.

  When the last thing was placed on the altar they were teleported outside. The boys, almost naked, shouted at each other and everyone around them, and the girls were crying. It took an hour until the Guild Master finally understood what happened.

  When an unfortunate group of friends had their last joint adventure, Naomi started building a tavern. Next to the entrance, she placed a rectangular building with domes on the roof and four towers on the corner. It wasn't built from mud bricks like usual. It was built from scavenged metal plates and a few statues from the ruins. The walls had three layers, to ensure that the inside didn't turn into an oven in the scorching desert sun. The whole wall was a half meter thick. The walls inside were decorated with fabrics, and she placed enough benches for almost one hundred people. On the opposite entrance, she organizes a place for the tavern master and staff to work. Next to it were two sets of staircases. One was for staff and led to warehouses and private rooms. The second stairs lead to underground rooms prepared for adventurers. Regardless of the number of beds in the room, there was a second room with a small pool with clean running water. A simple toilet was in a third small room.

  Naomi was pleased when she realized that the dungeon immediately absorbed waste. She doesn’t need to build sewers. She overheard that in towns there were public bathhouses. As a person lowing long baths, she decided to create her own. She wasn’t sure about if they were separated by gender, or mixed. Naomi shrugs and on a separate floor builds three different bathhouses. On the entrance, she placed a set of bronze statues. At the entrance to the men's bath, there were statues of a man and a minotaur. In front of the women's bath, she placed an elf and a halfling female statue. For the mixed bathhouse, she chose a wolf woman and a dwarf man. The water in all of them was warm and pleasant.

  “You are so much fun!”

  “What?” Naomi said and the next moment someone tackled her and they fell into the pool.

  When she managed to stand on her legs someone hugged her.

  “Goddess?” Naomi asked uncertainly.

  “Yes. I’m Tabitha. Goddess of fun. And I love your prank.” Goddess looks like a young fox woman.

  “Thank you. But I don’t remember any prank.”

  “You forget? I'm talking about room thirteen on your first floor.”

  “Thirteen?” Naomi needs a moment “Oh no. I need to go. Are they fine?”

  “Relax. They are fine. Until the Guild Master starts shouting at them. Anyway, I feel like, you're trying to create something funny here.”

  “Funny? Well, sort of. It’s a tavern, so maybe adventurers will have fun here.” Naomi answered.

  “Great! I also take care of taverns.” Goddes laughs. “But this is not a tavern, more like a noble guest house.”

  “I again overdid?” Naomi sighted.

  “Yes! And I can’t wait to see the faces of people who will see this floor. But I have a question. Do you plan on creating golem servants, or will you do everything yourself??”

  “Oh, that? I plan to rent this tavern.”

  Goddess blinked, then started laughing hysterically.

  “From now on you will be my sister.” She stated when she calmed down.

  “Thank you.” Naomi wasn’t sure what was happening.

  “Let me help you a little with some details. I’m the patron goddess of people working in taverns and guest houses, so I’m an expert.”

  “I appreciate your help. But I was told that gods can’t act personally in the real world.”

  “No problem. You forget that your dungeon is only partially in the real world. And besides that, I will be just talking. You will be making decisions and doing things.”

  “Oh. it’s a loophole.” Naomi smiled.

  “Exactly!”