The Warden office was completely crowded. Between five players and another five Wardens, there were ten people inside a room that was meant to comfortably hold about half that. And to make it worse, there were only three chairs, so everyone stood around instead.
“Why are we here?” Bunny asked a little nervously. “We haven’t done anything to get Warden attention.”
“You aren’t in any trouble,” Davis assured her.
“Is this about that Jace thing last week?” Ace asked, glancing to me. “I thought she was out already.”
“She has been released,” Davis responded with look of tightly controlled exasperation. “And no, this isn’t about her.”
Simon and Ramirez both looked like they were starting to get a little impatient, though neither of them said anything. The rookie, McNichols, watched this all with an almost bemused expression.
Ace turned to me. “How the hell did you take Jace down anyway?”
“I am a master of cheat-fu,” I answered evenly, not taking my eyes off the Wardens.
“Is this about those players you’re looking for?” Turtle asked. “I saw you put up the wanted posters.”
Davis took a deep breath. “No, this is not about those players either.” She hesitated a moment. “They’re wanted for murder, and there is a chance that they may emerge from the Labyrinth here in Gideon Heights…but that isn’t why we wanted to talk to you either.”
“We wanted to talk to you about a possible job,” Nash announced, immediately getting the rest of my team to pay attention.
Once everyone had gone silent, Davis gave Nash a nod of thanks, then turned back to us. “As Nash just said, I asked you all in here because we may have a job for you.” Then before anyone could ask, she added, “You would of course be paid.”
“Assuming we accept you,” Simon said, giving us a dubious look before setting his attention back on Davis.
Davis nodded at that and looked us over. “They are all relatively recent players, who have all respawned in the last year.”
“It might be better if we had more experienced players,” Ramirez said, looking just a little worried.
That caught my attention. Why would Ramirez be nervous about our level of experience?
“I recommended this team for several reasons,” Davis told Ramirez and Simon. “The first one is that they’re the only whole team that is currently in town. If you want a different team, you’ll probably have to wait another week or two.”
“And the second reason?” McNichols asked curiously. Davis made a point of ignoring him, other than to glance at me.
“So, what is this about?” Bunny asked, scrunching up her nose a bit as she tried making sense of what they were saying. “Are you looking to send is into the Labyrinth for something specific?”
“That makes sense,” Ace agreed.
Olivia shook her head. “I suspect that this is something else.”
“I’ve been authorized to make a Labyrinth run,” Ramirez blurted out. “And I need an escort.”
“What does that mean?” Ace asked, looking clueless.
Bunny and Olivia shared a look before shrugging.
“An escort?” Turtle asked.
“She wants to go into the Labyrinth,” I explained to my team. “And she needs us to keep her safe when she does.”
There were a couple blank looks at that before Ace asked, “But…why? Normal people don’t go into the Labyrinth.”
“It’s too dangerous,” Turtle immediately added.
“She said she wants to make a Labyrinth run,” I said, staring at Ramirez for a few seconds as I tried to judge what type of person she was and whether or not she even had a chance. “That means, she’s trying to become a player.”
The entire room went silent at that while Simon and Ramirez both stared at me with new interest. Davis just stood there with a smug expression that she was trying to conceal.
“It… It doesn’t work like that,” Bunny started to explain
“Actually, it does,” Simon said, still watching me.
I didn’t like my old friend paying that much attention to me. Then again, if I’d wanted to remain unnoticed, I should have kept my mouth shut. I let out a faint sigh, realizing that Simon wasn’t going to continue. He was waiting for me to do that, to see how much I really knew about the subject. Then with a shrug, I decided that I’d already stepped in it, so I might as well continue.
“Whatever energy it is that we absorb in the Labyrinth,” I explained, looking back and forth between my team members, “the stuff that that lets us level up…” Then I settled my eyes on Ramirez. “Normal people can absorb it too. And if they absorb enough, they unlock a status screen and become players too. No dying and respawning necessary.”
“You’re shitting me,” Ace blurted out.
“That can’t be real,” Turtle protested uncertainly.
“It’s just…dangerous,” I continue with a shrug. “Because they can’t absorb the energy next to an entrance. They need to go deeper in, and that means they need an escort to keep them alive.”
“If that is true,” Bunny said thoughtfully, “then why isn’t that common knowledge?”
Davis answered before I could. “It’s sort of an open secret. Most of those who know about this tend to keep it quiet.”
“This is dangerous knowledge,” Simon said in a firm tone. “Imagine what would happen if this became public…”
“Countless people would rush into the Labyrinth in the hopes of becoming players,” I continued for him. “Most of them would be completely unprepared and would get themselves killed almost immediately.”
“Holy shit,” Bunny gasped, her eyes going wide in realization.
“There’s another catch too,” Ramirez said. She hesitated a moment before explaining, “It doesn’t work for everyone. In fact, it works best for people between the ages of eighteen to twenty-eight…around the same age range as players who respawn. Beyond that… Well, the older you are, the less likely it is to work for you and the more likely you are to die trying to get there.”
“And THAT would probably explain why all Wardens aren’t players,” Olivia commented.
“Precisely,” Davis agreed.
Simon looked at Ramirez with a slightly worried expression which he quickly covered. “We only allow a very limited number of our people to attempt this, and then, only ones who’ve been trained to fight inside the Labyrinth.”
I nodded at that, remembering when I’d first learned that normal people could potentially become players. By the time we’d learned about this, it had already been too late for me. I’d already been far outside the age range.
“I have nothing against any of you,” Ramirez told us. “But you can probably see why I’d be more comfortable with more experienced players.”
“You don’t want a powerful team for escort,” I told her.
“She…Maggie is correct,” Simon said, still watching me carefully. “You don’t want your escorts to be too powerful.”
Ramirez looked a little surprised at that. “Why not?”
“It would reduce your chance of becoming a player,” I explained with a shrug. “You actually have to be part of the fighting yourself, otherwise, you won’t absorb enough energy to turn player. If your escorts are too strong, they’ll take care of everything and you can just stroll on through, but you won’t actually get what you need from it.” I gestured around at my team. “With us, you have a better chance of becoming a player yourself.”
“We haven’t agreed to do anything yet,” Bunny reminded me.
I shrugged. “Just clarifying the situation for all involved.”
“Thank you,” Ramirez told me while glancing to Simon, who silently confirmed that I was right.
“What I would like to know,” Simon said, fixing his eyes on me again. His brows scrunched up in a thoughtful look. “Is how the hell you know all this?”
“Just something I picked up in my old life,” I responded with a dismissive gesture. “You pick up all sorts of random things as a teacher.”
“You were a teacher?” Davis asked a little skeptically.
Bunny snickered, muttering, “This time,” under her breath.
“I thought you were a dog catcher,” Ace told me with a confused expression that made Bunny burst out into outright laughter.
“Should we do it?” Turtle asked the rest of us. “From what I’m hearing, escorting Agent Ramirez won’t really be any different than what we’ve been doing this last week anyway.”
“But we’ll be babysitting too,” Ace grumbled while Olivia silently nodded agreement.
“I can hold my own,” Ramirez insisted. “I might not be a player yet, but I’ve fought plenty of monsters.”
I looked at Simon, who was watching Ramirez with a look of pride that he was trying to hide. I narrowed my eyes at that. Between his presence here and that expression, it was obvious to me that he was the one who’d trained her.
“My vote is yes,” I said. “I know that I’m the newbie here, but I think we should do it.”
“She’s the newbie?” Ramirez asked Davis, looking a bit skeptical about that.
The older Warden just nodded with an amused look on her face. “Hard to believe, right?”
For the next couple minutes, the others discussed whether we should take the job or not while I remained silent. I’d already said my two cents, so there was no point adding more. However, once the topic of money came up and Davis gave us an actual number, the decision was quickly made.
“We’d be happy to escort you through the Labyrinth,” Bunny told Ramirez with a cheerful smile. “It’ll be our pleasure to help the Wardens.”
“And our wallets,” Ace added with a grin.
After a little more discussion, everyone finally began to filter out of the office. That was a relief because the whole place had been getting more than a little stuffy with so many people crowding the small area.
Once I stepped out of the office and back onto the street, I let out a sigh of relief and then took a nice breath of fresh air. Being under Simon’s gaze like that, without letting him know who I was, had been a bit uncomfortable.
“I can’t believe we’re going to be delving with a Warden,” Ace said with a shake of his head.
Bunny pointed out, “Wardens hire players all the time…”
“To fight monsters,” Turtle pointed out. “And sometimes other players.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “But this?”
“It happens,” I assured her. “It might not happen all the time, but it’s not exactly rare either.”
Bunny looked like she was going to say something more, but a voice said, “Maggie…”
I turned and saw Nash walking towards me, looking a little nervous. I remembered this morning…and last night, and suddenly felt a bit awkward as well. It dawned on me that this was the first time the two of us had actually spoken to each other while sober.
“You seemed…pretty knowledgeable about the subject,” Nash said, gesturing to the office.
I shrugged at that. “You know how it is. Sometimes, you just pick things up.”
“Of course,” he agreed, perhaps a little too quickly.
“Are you planning to make a Labyrinth run too?” I asked curiously.
Nash hesitated a moment before answering, “Eventually. Right now, I’m still getting a little more experience dealing with monsters, but hopefully, the higher-ups will authorize me to go in before long.”
“Whenever you do get the go ahead,” I told him. “Let me know if you need an escort.”
“I’ll do that,” Nash told me, brightening up.
“I’ll see you later,” I told him as I started to walk away. “I’ve got to get ready for another delve.”