Chapter 11 - Adventurers Incoming

“Nervous?” Kassandra asked, as she and I approached the atrium. I was dressed up in my ballroom battle dress and accessories, and she was wearing something like a tropical priestess would. A long, dark purple sarong-like dress, a ton of jewelry, and four wicked-looking curved blades.

“Sort of… I have confidence in my abilities, I just don’t want to let everyone down on my first day on the job.”

The tall naga laughed, “Don’t worry about that. Even if you fail the team needs to go through two other wings, and face Lanivia. I doubt they’ll get too far.”

“You’re sure they’ll come after me first?” I asked.

“Absolutely. There are two types of teams that rush to book a run when a new dungeon boss is appointed, the glory seekers that want the first win, and the reward seekers that want to take advantage of an inexperienced boss. I don’t know which the ‘Raven Brotherhood’ is, but I have faith that you’ll be able to handle them.” Kass put a hand on my back and gently directed me towards the projection wing. “Good luck now!”

I half turned, watching her slither toward her projection room for a moment, before George rammed me in the back of the legs, in order to remind me we had a job to do. I slapped my cheeks to psych myself up, then headed into the ballroom area. Inside was a hive of activity, on one side of the hall spectres and vampires were busy herding spiders into their booths. I noticed a couple people that I’d met over the last few days, so I waved as I passed.

On the other side of the hall there were clockwork automatons, designed to look like furniture and light fixtures, carrying various breeds of mimics into their booths. In the middle of the bedlam was a rather tall figure dressed in a tailored purple suit, matching silk top hat, and porcelain comedy mask. He was talking to a group of grey-skinned, featureless humanoids, but paused as I walked by.

“Greetings young lady, I am sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I am Luther.” In a single motion he pulled off his hat and bowed low. I couldn’t help but notice that his head, and visible body parts, were all some sort of polished wood. After a moment he rose again, and as his arm passed in front of the mask, it changed into a tragedy. “Unfortunately we do not have the time to get properly acquainted right now, perhaps later?”

“Of course,” I replied. “I look forward to it.”

Luther nodded, then turned back to his companions, who were all waving good-bye to me in perfect unison. Slightly creepy.

With our conversation finished I jogged down the rest of the hallway. There was still a little time left before the raid was scheduled to start, but I had to admit I was starting to feel a little anxious. I pulled open the door to my projection room, only to find Bella sitting behind one of the desks in, what I could only assume, was her full regalia. An elegant, white, ankle-length dress with layers of overlapping sheer fabric to enhance her ethereal nature.

“Good, you’re here,” Bella said, “I’ve been pulling up information on the ‘Raven Brotherhood’, do you want to see it?” She turned the crystalline screen towards me, revealing a rundown of all six members of the adventuring group.

“Am I supposed to look up adventurers before engaging them? Is that normal?”

Bella shrugged, “Not everyone does it. We have static positions, and more established patterns, so it’s really effective for adventurers to be familiar with our setup, but it doesn’t hurt for us to do some homework too. You never know when you might find something useful, like one of the members has weak darkvision, or is afraid of spiders.”

“Anything like that with this group?” I asked, while skimming through the information.

“Unfortunately, no.” She sighed, “They seem like a fairly solid group. Nothing to write home about, but competent enough. If I had to guess, they’re doing recon for a more established group.”

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I looked up in surprise, “Recon? On what, me? People pay for that?”

“Absolutely. There are limits on how often a team can challenge a dungeon on the professional level, and big rewards for clearing, so there are a lot of teams that’ll pay for first hand knowledge about new bosses before they commit to a challenge.”

“That’s nuts,” I mumbled.

“That’s business,” Bella replied with a shrug. She pushed back from the desk, stood up, then headed over to check on the projection beds. “How are you feeling? Ready for your first day?”

“I’ll admit, I’m a little anxious, but I think everyone would be in this situation. How many people are going to watch my first appearance?”

“On average? Just over a million people watch one of our runs, since this is your debut I would expect more than double that.”

“Wonderful. No pressure then.” Truthfully, I felt a little light headed, that was a LOT of pressure.

Bella turned towards me, a gentle look on her face. “Don’t worry about it, I honestly shouldn’t have mentioned it. Our only concern should be beating those adventurers, forget the rest of it.”

I took a deep breath, then nodded.

She smiled in response, and pulled open the nearest projector. “Good, then let’s get into the dungeon. We should do one last check of the floor, and make sure everyone’s setup before the run starts. After the raid starts we can monitor them on some crystal displays hidden around the floor.”

While she transferred to the dungeon, I corralled George into his booth and started it up. Once I confirmed he was set up properly, I jumped into the remaining bed and triggered the process, sending my consciousness into the dungeon.

I appeared on the orchestra stage once again, staring out over the banquet hall. Unlike last time, or any of the practice sessions, the area was completely full. All the spectres were present, some doing some last minute practice, others just chatting; The vampires had gathered into small groups, discussing the upcoming raid, and Bella was floating between them all, checking to make sure everything was ready. Once she saw me appear she floated over.

“You should make a speech!” she suggested happily.

I looked at her strangely, “To who?”

“Everyone here of course. You’re their boss now, so you should say something inspiring on your first day!”

“Ummmm…” My brain went blank, I wasn’t exactly a people person, but that didn’t seem to matter to Bella.

The banshee turned to the assorted forces out on the floor and shouted. “Attention everyone! Before we engage in combat your new boss has something to say.” Every single eye in the place turned our way.

“Thanks…” I mumbled.

“No problem,” she replied happily.

My mind went blank, while staring out at all the people assembled before me, I opened my mouth a couple times, trying to find the correct words but nothing came out.

Bella nudged me in the back, “Relax, just say the first thing that comes to mind.”

I nodded, closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and started speaking. “I didn’t come here with a prepared speech or anything. If someone told me a week ago that I’d be standing here today, I would have called them crazy, but here I am. I’m honored that you’ve all accepted me as your floor boss, despite not being promoted from within, or a well known celebrity. I will do my absolute best to prove worthy of your trust, and do whatever I can to support you going forward.” I paused for a moment, trying to organize my thoughts. “This adventuring group will probably head straight here, in an effort to test me, and I don’t intend to show them mercy. Their run will end here. Let's show them that the ballroom is not an easy target, and that engaging us is a terrible idea! Who’s with me?”

There was a light applause, and a couple cheers, which is more than I expected; I’m usually a terrible public speaker. Somehow I DID manage to get my point across, and partially hype up the crowd. An acceptable result in my books.

Bella patted me on the shoulder, “Well done… I think.” She gave me a small, sad smile, “We’ll work on your speeches later.” I laughed, despite myself. “There’s a tablet over there, at the end of the stage,” she said pointing at a shadowed alcove. “You can use it to monitor how things are going with the raid. I recommend putting it away just before they engage Luther, so we still have time to get into position and look professional. Remember, relax and just do what you practiced. Good luck!” She patted me on the shoulder one last time before floating to her position.

I took one last glance over everything, took a deep breath, then went to retrieve the tablet. It was almost show time.