“I brought ya some slackers, Aoi!”
“Hey, I’m not a slacker! I just have a lot of free time, that’s all.”
The labyrinth was basically ready, and we were putting the finishing touches on the main gate in the forest when Fez showed up with a few visitors.
“This is Aoi, the manager of Labyrinth #228. Go on, introduce yourselves.”
“The name’s Donnel. I know the jokers behind me look like they just popped out of their mommies’ skirts, but don’t let that fool you. They’re experienced hunters, and I’m their leader.”
Fez had brought about ten grizzled hunters. Their weapons had all seen better days, and they were kitted out in metal-reinforced leather armor. Every one of them had a hand near their weapon at all times and exuded an aura of wariness. I would’ve known what line of work Donnel was in even without the introduction. He was a beastman... probably? At any rate, he was a muscular guy with a confident smile and cat-like features. He wore thick leather gloves on his paws, and the effect was so odd that I had to take a second look to make sure I’d seen what I thought I’d seen.
“This here’s an old friend of mine, and he’s worked from one side o’ this continent to the other. He ain’t the most social guy, so he’s been havin’ a hard time findin’ long-term contracts.”
Aha, so they had a history, and probably not the good kind.
“Now remind me again who’s bad with people? I remember a story or two where you...” Donnel gently needled Fez, his voice melodic.
“Ahh, well, I’ll just save that tale for later. Now, I heard you’re lookin’ for labyrinth challengers. My crew’s tough, and we’ve even got a medic, so you can do your worst, heh.”
He tried to smirk at me, but he couldn’t really pull it off. Donnel seemed like a trustworthy sort, but he still had something of a villainous air about him. Fez wasn’t kidding when he said Donnel was bad with people, huh? Some of Donnel’s party were beastmen—basically humans with cat ears—but most of them were more like plain old cats, with furry faces and whiskers. They had an air of quiet dignity, as befitted battle-tested veterans, but at the same time they all looked so soft and fluffy that my heart was crying out for me to pet each and every one of them before I let them challenge the labyrinth.
“Sounds great. We’ve just finished setting up, so if there’s anything you think we should adjust, I’d appreciate hearing your opinions. And I will of course be happy to pay you for any feedback you have.”
“Thanks, sonny. Let’s get right to work, then.”
After a handshake to seal the deal, Donnel tried to give me a friendly pat on the back. I was used to the fluffy sensation of Ann patting me, but instead I nearly got knocked off my feet. His paws packed a punch!
We signed a contract, with Fez as our witness. Mary used the back door to head down to the guardian’s room, and the challenge began.
“Let’s do this.”
I led them to the entrance, where we were still putting on the finishing touches. Donnel and his party divided into two groups of five, and they entered the labyrinth with torches in hand.
“How long you plan to keep this thing open, Aoi?”
“The whole thing is only one floor, so I was thinking maybe half a day? I’m planning to close it off by nightfall once we’re doing this every day.” Mary would need a lot of rest, so I’d settled on taking in hunters during the morning, and then not accepting any new ones after noon.
“Wanna go get some tea while we wait for Donnel and his boys to come back? It’s cold in here.”
“Sure.”
I was bored out of my mind. If this had been a game, I’d have been able to watch the intruders’ progress in the labyrinth, but we hadn’t installed any sort of monitoring system to keep an eye on them in real time. Man, if only I could at least watch from the golems’ point of view.
In the end, we decided to just return to the workshop and drink some tea.
A few hours later, just as dinner was being served, Mary returned, along with Donnel’s party, their fur looking a little ruffled.
“You did a good job. The place is well constructed, and it should do well as a training facility.”
Donnel sat down and took a few spoonfuls of soup before continuing.
“You’ve got some nasty trap locations in there. The traps themselves were pretty basic, but the placement was spectacular. You impressed our scout, let me tell you.”
Seemed like Barry had a good eye for setting traps for adventurers. What a random skill for a construction foreman.
“Those golems of yours put up a mean fight. Taking ’em head-on is just asking to get your head handed to you. All in all, everything up to the guardian’s room should be good training for bored hunters looking for something to do. The only problem is our lady guardian here.”
Donnel’s turned his cat face to Mary.
“What’s the problem?”
Mary seemed to be satisfied with her first fight in a while. In fact, she looked rather smug.
“Your guardian’s got some serious moves, and she puts her all into it. Makes an excellent guardian. If we hadn’t been an oversized crew, she would’ve outmatched us easily. Thing is, that means she’s too strong for a training labyrinth. Most hunters are in for a nasty surprise if they make it that far. There’s no getting past her unless you put your life on the line.”
So she was simply too strong? I supposed I would’ve been mad if I’d gone somewhere with the goal of training and then ended up almost dead. Hmm. Tuning difficulty was harder than it seemed. If the goal of defeating Mary made the labyrinth too difficult, maybe I needed to change the goal. I had to think of both the hunters’ safety and Mary’s, or I’d be a failure as a manager.
“Okay, what if I leave a certificate in the back of the guardian room? As long as you get it and bring it back, you can claim the prize. Rather than having to defeat Mary, all the groups need to do is make it to the guardian’s room and hold her off until they can claim the certificate.”
Kinda like a test of courage.
“Hmm, yeah, if you don’t have to actually take her down, that’ll make it much easier. Besides, hunters have a lot of practice at just holding off boss monsters.”
Donnel settled in to offer advice on a bunch of other smaller issues, like the location of traps and golem patrol routes. It turned out that proper QA was vital, no matter what you did. I gave Donnel a handsome bonus on top of the agreed-upon rate. His fur stood on end when he saw what I was handing out to him and his party: the same vitality potions I was planning to give hunters who passed the labyrinth’s test.
“Well, I’ll be damned. You’ll pull in every hunter on this side of the continent with prizes like this. Won’t he, boy?”
“Knew you’d say that, ol’ man.”
Donnel stared in awe at the magic potion in his paws.
“Fez, I’ve got an idea! You should open up a magic potion trading stall back in town. You’ll make a killing when all the hunters come!”
“And I knew you’d say that, too! Gonna have to change my schedule now, ain’t I?”
“Heheheh. I’ll spread the word around, so cut me in on the action, eh?”
“Chill out, Whiskers. I gotta make a profit for myself first.”
Every few minutes, Donnel would slap Fez on the back and offer up another business scheme. I felt a little bad for Fez, being told how to do his job by a grizzled old hunter.