Chapter 27 - Post Planning Anxiety

“This is just your preliminary research?” Kass asked, flipping through my tablet. I would have presented the data myself, but I had somehow managed to skip lunch so both George and I were starving. Neither of us minded though; tonight we were having chicken, the best of the surface meats.

I managed to stop shoveling food into my mouth long enough to answer Kass’s question. “I know, it’s pretty rough. Bella said there are some history and fan books about different dungeons in the library, so I’ll check those out tomorrow and try to clean up my notes a little.”

Kass just stared at me for a minute, which made me a little self-conscious since I was literally stuffing my face. “You have a section here on ‘Expected first moves’ in which you’ve listed the three most likely opening moves, ordered by how likely each one is, along with a fourth listed as ‘counter tactician opening’, which assumes whoever’s organizing the enemy wants to counter our most likely defensive setup.” She laid the tablet on the table, “You started looking into this yesterday.”

I nodded, mouth still full of food.

“It would have taken most people weeks to put together what you put together in days. You know, everyone appreciates the effort you’re putting in, but you don’t have to push yourself to get this done.”

“I’m… not?” I replied, slightly confused. “This is just how my brain works. I like analysing things, figuring out the optimal way to defend or attack dungeons. It’s unfortunate, because not many people actually appreciated my analysis. Most adventuring teams thought it was nonsense.” I took another bite, “I’m just glad to be using my skills again.”

“I can’t believe people just ignored your advice,” Kass said with a shake of her head. “If you were this thorough before, it would have made any run a cake walk.”

“Well… I was already used to people ignoring my advice before I became an adventurer, so it seemed like par for the course to me.”

“That’s pretty sad,” she said with a sigh, “I know everyone here will appreciate your work. It’ll make our work much easier.” I smiled, face full of food. “And no more skipping meals, even if you’re concentrating. It’s bad for you.” I nodded once again. No point in choking before I managed to share my results with everyone else.

I spent the next three days going between my office and the library, refining my notes until I was ready to release them to the rest of the staff. I expected there to be a ton of questions about them, however twenty-four hours after passing them out, not a single person approached me.

“You know it’s actually a good thing no one’s come to see you, right?” Bella asked, as I was trying to get some work done, but actually having a minor panic attack. “I don’t know why your mind always defaults to the worst possible scenario, but the reason why no one has asked for clarification is you pretty much already accounted for every eventuality. The only way someone would have questions is if they didn’t read the notes.”

I took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. “Ok, fine. Assuming you’re right, what do we do next?”

“Seriously?” Bella raised an eye in my direction, “Did you expect to be answering questions until the match next week?”

“Yes…?”

The girl floated closer to me, leaned over, and bonked me on the head. “Everyone here thinks you do good work, have some faith in yourself.” I rubbed my head, but still nodded. “Good, now since you’re full of anxious energy to burn, you should take part in today’s skirmish. You’ve spent most of the last month on the sidelines, time to remind people you’re more than an armchair strategist.”

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“That practice has been scheduled for days, isn’t it too late for me to swap in?”

“Yeah, well, Kass mentioned how you were bouncing off the walls yesterday, after completing your plans. It’s not healthy to sit in your office and do nothing but research, so we made some adjustments to the schedule.”

“I…”

“No arguing! Get into your gear. They won’t be set up for awhile yet, so you can do laps around the Ballroom until they’re ready. Report to the entrance to the Gardens in an hour.”

I struggled weakly as Bella pushed me towards my locker. “Wait! Who am I leading?”

“Calliope’s sirens and Rembrant’s Revenants. You know, the teams you assigned Kass on the day of the match. Not that it matters much, I’m sure you’ll come up with new tactics on the fly.” I half nodded as I pulled on my armor and grabbed my glaive. Once I’d finished I turned to find George already set up in his projection booth, and Bella waiting by my projector. I slowly lowered myself in, and allowed her to close the crystal canopy. “Good luck! I’ll be cheering for you,” she said, a few seconds before the office faded out, and I awoke once again in the Ballroom.

I was used to the area being busy, filled with bodies and music, but when it was just George and I it was kind of spooky. A massive, cavernous space filled with little more than gloomy lighting and cobwebs. I stared at George, who was surprisingly calm for being suddenly thrust into a projection booth. “Did you know about this? Were you in on it?” I asked him. He just stared back, and after a few seconds made a loud ‘SNIRK!’ noise, before turning around and walking away. “Fine then, keep your secrets,” I told the retreating Arachnid. It took me a moment to realize he was heading for the entrance, so I ended up following him out. It was strange to travel through the Manor on foot, especially when it was empty. Usually I either rezed in whatever section I was visiting, or watched remotely, rarely did I have to travel between floors manually.

It didn’t take long to walk across the ballroom, then Parlor, a couple minutes at most, but it gave me some time to take in the scenery. The Parlor actually had multiple short, identical sections. It was designed to disorient Adventurers, even slightly, and make them lose track of where they were. The ingenious thing was, even the smallest details were identical, like the wine stain in one corner, and crack on the eastern wall. I’d seen Luther and his staff use this trick during matches, but now that I saw the attention to detail up close, I had a new appreciation of his tactics.

Beyond the Parlor was the Foyer. Since the Ballroom and Parlor were located on the second floor George and I had to descend the massive central staircase in order to get to the main rest area. There were a couple of tasteful couches right by the main doors, and the exit to the Gardens were to the right, out the side of the main area.

George rushed right out the doors, apparently eager to begin, so I followed him at a more casual pace. The area beyond the doors was like a sauna, hot and humid. There was a small clearing at the entrance to the Gardens, designed to give adventurers a few seconds to reorient themselves in the overgrown environment. I thought I had some time before starting, but both the sirens and revenant were already present, checking their equipment.

As soon as she saw me Calliope came over, “Heya boss. Hope you’re prepared for a fun time today.”

I frowned, “Not really. I wasn’t exactly expecting to participate today, but I’ll definitely do my best. How about you? Ready to go?”

“I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure about working with the Revenants to start with, but after doing a couple runs with them, and reading your report, I know why you paired us up.” She looked over at the other side of the clearing, where the revenants were standing, and waved. I could see Rembrant, with his massive sword, awkwardly wave back. “They’re not exactly the most social group, but they’re still pretty easy to work with.”

“Good. I was worried there might be some difficulties, since you’re all fairly independent, but that also means the entire group will be good at adapting to new situations, and won't fall apart with the loss of one or two members.”

“I know,” Calliope giggled, “it was in your report.”

I felt the back of my ears heat up a little in embarrassment. “Oh… right,” I cleared my throat, “So… when are we supposed to start?”

“Any time now, just say the word,” Calliope replied. “We can’t wait to see you at work.”