“I guess I’ve never asked because deep down I didn’t want to know,” Olza said, dangling her bare feet over the edge of a small dock. She gently kicked them back and forth in the water.

  “Because you’d think less of me?” Hans asked. He had his pants rolled up and also had his feet in the water as well. He didn’t kick like Olza did, though. He leaned back on his hands and tried to imagine the dungeon brick being a blue sky.

  “Not at all. If I asked, that makes it seem like the answer matters to me. I mean, it does matter, but I wouldn’t want you to think I’d think less of you if the answer was ‘yes.’ It matters in the sense that I wouldn’t want someone I loved to go through that.”

  Hans chuckled. “You’re fine. I understand what you mean.”

  “It must have been awful.”

  “Yeah… The first one wasn’t even a bandit. We showed up at this town for a job only to find that it had just been raided by orcs.”

  “Did you tell me about this job before?”

  Hans nodded. “It was pretty early in my career, and it was the first time I saw firsthand what orcs did to people.”

  “But you left some pieces out.”

  “I don’t think it’s my place to share someone’s worst moment. If any of that spiritual bullshit about stories keeping the memory of people alive is true, it shouldn’t be because of a story like that.”

  Olza pursed her lips and looked down at the ripples in the water.

  “We didn’t get there in time,” Hans said after a while. “She was the only one still alive, but… She… She was in a lot of pain. If that was today, even Theneesa would have struggled to save her. Back then, there wasn’t a decent Healer closer than a two-day ride. But her death was going to be slow. Really slow. Because that’s what the orcs wanted it to be. She asked me to, so… I did.”

  Olza’s feet stopped kicking.

  “She smiled at the end. Knowing it was over brought her a little bit of happiness, I guess.”

  “That sounds awful,” Olza said, weakly.

  “Not as awful as it was for her,” Hans replied. “I had to do that two other times. One was orcs, the other was goblins.”

  “I didn’t mean to drag you into talking about this.”

  Hans squeezed Olza’s hand. “You didn’t drag me anywhere. The other four were bandits or raiders. Three in one attack, and then one in a separate incident. I was Silver by then.”

  Olza squeezed back and didn’t let go when she relaxed her grip.

  “I thought I’d feel something after the bandits. Mazo had an alchemist friend who needed to do a big delivery, so we played escort for him. They tried to get us in the night, and it was very obviously an us-or-them scenario.”

  “Even if they forced your hand, that sounds hard.”

  “That’s the part that still messes me up,” Hans said. “It wasn’t hard. It was easy. They were so shit at fighting that I wasn’t even breathing heavily. They made a dozen mistakes in the first second, and that was it. They were dead.”

  “I meant hard for you to process.”

  “I know. That was easy too, and that’s what bothers me. They weren’t people to me anymore. They were monsters, and I was really good at killing monsters. I thought I’d feel some kind of guilt or remorse, but I never did. Even now, I can see the faces they made when they knew they were going to die. I can look them in the eye in my mind, and I don’t give a shit.”

  “Do you want to talk about why that bothers you? We can move on if you want to. I don’t want to make you dwell.”

  Hans itched beneath his eye patch and fiddled with it until it was back in a comfortable position. “If you exercise a muscle, it gets stronger. If you don’t, it atrophies. I wonder sometimes if there’s a part of me that has shriveled up to nothing, some piece that’s essential to being human. If I’m worried about that after seven kills and a lifetime of adventuring, what does that mean for kids like Bridun? Their lives have only just started.”

  “What are we looking for on this run?” Terry asked, walking with Hans through the Bone Goblins. Bridun’s party was ahead, partway through running the first two floors.

  “I want to see how they operate. What do they do when they see a problem ahead? How do they plan? Who coordinates what? How well do they execute that plan? How do they adapt if something unexpected happens?”

  “So… We’re looking for everything.”

  Hans laughed. “Kind of, but I’d say it’s more macro-level. Big picture. We know that Bridun struggles with leadership in tense scenarios, so this is us understanding the basics of how the pieces on the board move.”

  “What have you noticed so far?”

  “What have you noticed so far?” Hans asked in reply.

  Terry frowned. “Should have expected you to do that. I haven’t seen as many adventurers in action as you, but compared to our usual groups, this party seems much more relaxed.”

  “In a good way or a bad way?”

  “The goblins aren’t challenging them any, and I think that’s got them looking overconfident. They’re a little too quick to turn a corner or run a room.”

  “I agree,” Hans said. “Does overconfidence with a goblin run have any impact on how they behave in an encounter with a higher rank?”

  “Can’t be good for their habits.”

  Hans smiled. “That’s my suspicion. They don’t get challenged often enough, and they’re all supporting each other’s bad habits. Probably not intentionally, but the problem is there.”

  As if on cue, Hans heard Bridun’s party talking about how boring goblins were.

  “How do you crack that nut?” Terry asked.

  “This is one of my weaknesses as an instructor,” Hans admitted. “I can only say ‘take this more seriously, please’ so many times. If a student doesn’t listen, I’m at a loss as to what should come next.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “I know what you mean. Can’t teach someone if they don’t want to learn.”

  “It might not even be about want exactly, but yeah, that’s the gist. We’re going to push them into progressively harder encounters. We won’t run that to total failure, but once we see some glaring cracks that even they can’t ignore, we’ll have a teachable moment. I hope. Maybe.”

  “Whatcha thinking?”

  Hans turned to Terry. “How about you tell me what you’re thinking.”

  “Alright. Shit Shrooms and Rock Cocks are pretty consistent humblers. Puts ‘em nose to nose with what would have been death if it weren’t for the backup potions. I don’t know if that will work for these guys, though.”

  “Why not?”

  “I used to think Blue Mages were the scariest adventurers, but I think it might be Bards. I’ve seen goblins die in just about every way possible, but watching them strangle and stab each other is something else. A little tune is all it takes to bend their brains that way? Eesh.”

  Hans chuckled.

  “But that’s the issue, isn’t it? With large groups of low-ranked monsters, Bridun could handle it by himself. I don’t think the shrooms or the chickens have the right smarts to resist that, so they might never see the danger that most of the first-timers for those sections do.”

  “What would you recommend instead?” Hans asked.

  “I was thinking lamias,” Terry answered. “They’re smart, good with magic, and there’s enough bodies in the fight to make it interesting.”

  “That’s a pretty good answer, but there’s a chance Bridun’s Bard skills are already beyond a lamia.”

  “No shit?”

  Hans nodded. “Vaglell thinks he’s the next big thing. He usually doesn’t put this much effort into what a Bronze adventurer needs to improve.”

  Terry thought. “If lamias don’t challenge them, what would be next? I wouldn’t want them running the Tainted Caves. Those demons are nasty, and those kids for sure ain’t ready for gazers. Armorbacks are a little all-or-nothing for my taste. Getting humbled by one of those is pretty close to getting dead. The underdark trolls might resist the music, but they attack one at a time…”

  “Want the answer?”

  “No, hold on. Couldn’t be the centaurs. They’re as bad as armorbacks. Sedimanders are too slow. The swiftheel is a loner, so no. Maybe the diamond elemental or the far-dorocha?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then I’m stumped,” Terry said.

  “Shadow scorpions are immune to Bard spells.”

  The old guard scrunched his face. “Really?”

  “You didn’t do the reading, either.”

  “I… I skimmed.”

  Hans shrugged. “That’s the trap with beast-type or bug-type monsters. You know what a scorpion is, so once you know that these are bigger and have Illusion abilities, you kind of figure there isn’t much else to it. Same things happen with dire varieties. ‘Dire wolf? So it’s a bigger, meaner wolf? Got it.’”

  “You’re that sure the kids will make the same mistake?”

  “Yeah,” Hans said, “but I’m not sure the lesson is worth the risk. A scorpion stinger through the throat or heart is too real of a possibility.”

  “Gotta say, I agree with you there.”

  “So we’ll see how they do until then. I don’t need them to face a mortal wound for me to decide there’s nothing I can do for them.”

  “Got a minute, Guild Master?” Ewan asked, standing alongside Hans in the training room, watching sparring rotations.

  “What’s on your mind?”

  “Been reading up on your methods and watching how ye do things, and I have a question. Why isn’t fitness a bigger part of your classes? Ye do some, but I’m used to a training session being thirty minutes conditioning, thirty minutes of drills, and thirty minutes sparring.”

  Hans chuckled. “My opinions about adventurer fitness are controversial to most folks.”

  “Let’s hear them.”

  “It’s a waste of my time and the student’s time for me to watch them doing push-ups and squats for half a class. The point of a class is to expand and sharpen knowledge, and barking about cardio doesn’t serve that.”

  Ewan crossed his arms. “But you can’t have a hunter’s fire go out in the middle of a run. You need that endurance to keep your sword arm up.”

  “I agree completely,” Hans said. “It’s definitely important, and every adventurer should mind their fitness, but they can do that outside of my class. If someone can’t figure out how to get themselves to go for a run each day, then their fitness is going to dive as soon as they aren’t in classes regularly because they’re doing jobs. They can’t rely on someone like me reminding them to stay in shape.”

  Ewan nodded as he listened.

  “And to be clear, that doesn’t mean classes aren’t demanding. If someone isn’t keeping themselves in good condition, they’ll get that scare of being too exhausted to fight but having to fight anyway.”

  “I heard some of the boys saying ye ruffled some feathers in your day,” Ewan replied. “I can picture every one of my teachers turning red over skipping conditioning in classes.”

  “I don’t pick that fight very often. If an instructor likes that tempo for a class, fine. I’d rather spend my time convincing them to do better drills.”

  “Fair. Fair.”

  After a stretch of silence where both Guild Masters watched students training, Hans spoke again. “Is there anything you do in your classes that you’re not seeing here?”

  Ewan stroked his beard. “I like to do disadvantage drills fairly often. The others call them DDs.”

  “I’m not familiar.”

  “I take something away from them while they’re sparring. They might have one arm strapped to their side, or they’re wearing a weighted tunic, or they’ve only got one boot. Anything that messes with their mental balance and forces them to adapt.”

  “I do some drills that you could call DDs, but I’ve never thought of using them the way you describe.”

  “Let me warn ye then, be careful hitting them too hard.”

  Hans tilted his head.

  “I was running this one class where one person had to escape being pinned by two people. The fella on the bottom… We tapped into his ancient dwarf somehow. He outright bit one of the others, drew blood.”

  “Oh gods,” Hans said, laughing.

  “But get this. He wasn’t one of the crazies. He was as normal of a dwarf as you’ll find, and as soon as he realized what he did, even his beard went white. He was so embarrassed. Just kept saying, ‘I dinnae why I did that.’”

  “Survival response?”

  Ewan nodded. “Aye, that’s what I think it was. He felt cornered, and it was real enough that he stopped thinking. I try not to do that to folks anymore.”

  “How do you judge what’s too much or too little?”

  “I watch for them getting mean,” the dwarf replied. “As soon as they stop thinking about solving the problem and just try to hurt their way out, we’re taking a break and doing something else.”

  “That makes sense.” Hans looked at the sparring adventurers and smiled. “Today was all shield work against speed and range. Defending against sword and spear thrusts mostly. Got a DD for this?”

  Ewan grinned.

  Hans shouted for sparring to pause. “We’re going to do the next few rounds a little differently. Ewan?”

  “Alright, lads. I want your swords in your sheaths, and then hold your shield like this.” Ewan held a targe with two hands but gripped the outside edge instead of securing it on his arm. “The other person will have a spear. You’re welcome to use your swords, but you have to draw them without getting run through.”

  And the room was chaos when rounds began again. Hans loved it.

  Open Quests (Ordered from Old to New):

  Monitor for independently grown sections of dungeon.

  Complete the next volume (Bronze to Silver) for “The Next Generation: A Teaching Methodology for Training Adventurers.”

  Manage the ongoing establishment of a Hoseki-grade library in Gomi.

  Learn to help your advanced students as much as you help beginners.

  Decide how to manage breeding requests for monsters like mimics and shadow scorpions.

  Relocate the titan bones to the dungeon entrance.

  Prepare Bridun and his party for Silver.