Trash Mountain Dungeon

Two months had passed since their dungeon associate had fallen silent, and two months had passed since the construction of their future home consumed their lives. Of course, it was doubtful that either of them would be given regency of this land. Arthur was fated to rule the main territory and Edward couldn't inherit land, perhaps some money and items of personal value, but land such as this was off the table. But he didn't let it get to him, he knew his lot in life and was content with it. Speaking of being content, Ed faced a rather ever-infuriating task of group morality. Ever since they began to push the men and few women to the bone on progress things had started to become dicey, the laborers were complaining, soldiers were growing discontent, and the mages of their group were beginning to suffer from mana overburn, using too much mana in too short of a time consistently. Then there were the incidents, of people getting violent with one another, the women no longer feeling safe, food and equipment going missing, and the mixed blessing and curse of the monsters that were unfortunately spreading fear.

For the most part, they were simple problems to address, each issue had known solutions and while Ed usually worked alone, he had commanded small groups before, so he was familiar with how to act. The problem came in the form of the aforementioned incidents, for all the gold they were being paid, none of the men had anywhere to spend it, no brothels to indulge in, no inns to rattle with drunken revelry, and no organized games to bet and lose on. All that was out here was the dungeon, the ogres, and themselves, in fact, he had heard of attempts on the women mages, a stupid idea given any half-decent hedge wizard could put down enough wards on themselves to kill multiple men.

No

What Edward needed to do was find an outlet for his brother's men, and in the absence of the usuals he'd have to invent some, or perhaps steal them, all he needed was a mage or two.

Perhaps Lily would be- no, not Lily, things were far too awkward still.

Hmm

"Are you alright ser Edward?"

It was a young man, some kind of fire mage Ed guessed. He had a youthful attractive face, with olive skin and blue eyes, uncommon traits in this region, but by the feel of him, he was some kind of fire mage, but oddly, sunny?

"Hmm, you'll do I guess, come with me fire mage, I require your talents."

He gave an amused face but fell behind him all the same, Ed didn't know where he was from, but he'd have to talk to his father about hiring professionals instead of graduation-high mages.

"Our task is to provide some kind of healthy distraction for the men, they've already started but if we let them stay idle more problems will start, now, I was thinking that we could implement a more mundane version of the 'academy sausage' course."

He looked like a cat that ate some prized canary, but whatever his thoughts he kept it to himself.

"A good decision ser, but perhaps we could use something from my home, a sort of contest of might?"

"Eh, you suggest we hold an arena somewhere?"

"Hmm, not quite, more of a competition, a chance for each of them to show off their strength and perhaps earn something on the side."

"Oh, hmm, it's not a bad idea, any equipment and trail we could whip up with magic and the acclaim among their peers could be an incentive to join, we simply don't have the coin to pay them more than we are already."

"Perhaps you could use something else then, if not gold then why not power, the dungeon is over there, and did you not already agree to feed it the sweat of the soul?"

True, the dungeon did say to keep people coming regularly, even if they wouldn't be able to bargain for the later floors for a while, and... hold one a minute, no one is supposed to know about the deal?

"What is your name mage!"

But turning to his side, all there was remaining was a puff of smoke and the whiff of magic. The magic was divine, no, not divine, but similar, where the holy power of gods felt like a crisp cold yet hot breeze on the face, this felt more akin to the elemental nobles. A quick spell turned up nothing, whatever he-it, was, it wasn't human, and it didn't leave using magic. Something did stick out though, the not-quite-magic, felt familiar, nostalgic even he'd say, a scent or feeling he'd never experienced but felt normal despite that, probably the work of some fae.

Great, now he'd have to overwork the others into putting up more wards.

But at least the idea had merit, the men needed something to occupy their time outside of standing guard or sweating in the burning sun cutting stones all day. His idea of using the dungeon as a prize was also rather genius, if complicated, at present the 'Second Company' as they were calling themselves, were stuck constantly redoing the first floor each day, absorbing mana and learning what they could from fighting machines and the black hound. Giving them a chance at going in would take away from the kid's progress, but they could also probably use a break or two. Perhaps he could convince his brother to go ahead with it.

"No, their training is far too important to deal with some bad behavior, find something else to occupy their time."

The he went back to his usual paperwork, Arthur was becoming unusually like their father, a terrifying prospect. Still, if he couldn't use the dungeon then perhaps something he could make? Edward wasn't the best at it, but he was sure one of the mages could cough up a sharpness or polish enchantment.

"No," said the earth mage, smoothing out a dozen large blocks of stone.

"No" shouted the air mage, gathering and coalescing dust into bricks.

"Nada," wrote the alchemist

"Sure" came from a friend.

As their resident frog whisperer was chasing a frogin of all things running around with her wide hat.

"No"

"You sure Ed?"

"Absolutely"

Helvina gave a non-committal shrug back, they had gotten friendly since he met her, bonding over yelling a his brother for being stupid sometimes.

Ah, good days.

Still, he needed to find someone soon.

Tap, tap

"Wha-?"

It was Lily, his not-quite companion, maybe lover, and technically still underling, yeah things were that awkward between them.

"I heard from Gerret you were looking for an enchanter, surprising that you didn't bring one."

"Well, ah, yes, father was to send a proper enchanter once we were ready for them."

"If you say so, but if you need help, I did graduate with the seal of Enhancement."

Damn, that was pretty good, that seal meant she was qualified as a journeyman enchanter.

"I mean, you could if you wanted to, but uh, no pressure if you don't."

"mhm, stand aside good ser then, let your enchanting lady do the work for you then."

"Har Har, but I don't need you just yet, I plan to give out minor enchanted items to the men for a distraction I'm coming up with, but that won't be until I've made something resembling a competition."

"Well, when you need me, you know where to look, but I have the feeling that this whole thing might not work out all that well."

"What, na, it'll be fine."

And he truly believed that it was just going to be a bit of fun for the men and maybe, just maybe, things would turn out just right.

One month later.

"-AND IF I EVER HEAR YOU DOING THAT AGAIN, I'LL THROW YOU OFF THE BLOODY MOUNTAIN MYSELF!"

Ok, things did in fact not turn out right, rather the opposite.

"But milord we-"

"YOU SHUT UP UNTIL I SAY YOU CAN TALK."

Arthur was not taking it too well.

But after a moment, and a bit more yelling, he calmed down a bit and turned towards Edward.

"Deep breath, now brother mine, would you like to explain what exactly happened, and how this MESS, began."

"Well-"

It all started the day after he got the idea and spoke with Lily, first, he got the news out about a competition to earn some enchanted gear as well as some entertainment. Next, he used some help from the local earth spirits after he bribed them with some metal to create a small arena. The idea from there was that the laborers, soldiers, and even the side workers would get the opportunity to let off some steam.

What he hadn’t anticipated was that his not really innocent but definitely simple scheme would become a bloodbath. No one was hurt (too bad) and they’d all be back to work in a day or two, but the fact that nearly half of the camp showed up and proceeded to beat the shit out of one another created a bit of a situation. Suffice it to say his efforts to calm things down were unheard, and his later efforts to beat everyone into submission only seemed to feed the chaos.

Surprisingly though, people actually had fun, despite the yelling, and the latrine and trash duties being choked full for the foreseeable future, people enjoyed themselves. Of course, his brother and most of his council were far from impressed, despite the lessening of the tension and improvement in those who were lucky enough to escape getting hurt.

“So, you mean to tell me that your idea of fun is to prop up a dirt circle and have almost everyone wail on each other like this is some gladiatorial arena!?”

” To be fair it wasn’t supposed to go that way.”

” Hmph, I somehow doubt whatever you had in mind would have worked, now half the camp is stuck in their tents, nursing wounds that were probably inflicted by you at some point.”

” Ah, well, at least everyone had fun, eventually.”

” As much as that boggles my mind, yes, camp dissent has somehow disappeared overnight, I’d say it was a miracle if it weren’t for our coming opponents.”

Arthur pinched his nose for a bit, then opened his eyes to his brother.

” Despite the ridiculous method, you did help things calm down, and for that I’m grateful, but from now on your job will be to aid the mages in their studies, I’ll have Helvina take over the camp’s state of mind.”

” And I imagine you two will take care of each other’s states then”

“Out brother.”

He did it less these years, but it was always fun to needle his brother now and then. Although, Helvina did bring some ideas, as things were going the two would be together for a few more years, and as unlikely as it was, the possibility of a child created foreboding clouds. If his brother kept his course, they’d eventually encounter problems with their father, and if Arthur was like their father in terms of lost loves, there might be a second Nightingale bastard by the time that particular conversation came up.

Regardless, the love life of his brother is not his to dictate, even if he might jest about it from time to time. Right now, he has to speak with the mages, something about magic rats.

However, just as he was headed toward the mage's corner, his brother ran up behind him.

"Change of plans, the first are already here."

Frowning, that should have been possible, any decent-size caravan would take a while to get here, even with the aid of magic.

"Who?"

"Reick's people."

It just had to be those assholes.

"Well, shit."