“Walk outside of the manor for five seconds and then come back in,” he instructed.

When she left, Lucas noted that her name fell off the list of usable entities for his dungeon design. As soon as she stepped back in, her name reappeared.

Does this mean that I can move them, too? Lucas clicked on Bonnie’s name and dragged it to the throne room, but she didn’t disappear and teleport like the monster spider or his guards had when Lucas had moved their dots previously. When he tried to close the menu, a system notification popped up.

Your current active Dungeon Quest, A Captive princess, requires that the princess be placed somewhere within the dungeon. Please resolve this issue before closing the menu.

Alright, alright. Fine. Lucas positioned her behind him in the throne room. Next, he placed Bonnie near the door, where she wouldn’t be immediately visible to anyone entering. It was a spot just perfectly in the shadow of one of the doors if it were opened. He wasn’t sure where to put Nick, so he put him halfway between where Lucas and the throne would be and exactly where the enemies coming through the door would look first. While he was at it, Lucas also organized the rest of the dungeon accordingly by moving all but two guards to defend the area just outside the throne room in the hallway. The two he held back were positioned on either side of Nick with the hopes that the three of them would actually be able to do a lot of tanking. Lastly, he placed the new girl, the Naga, to his left so that she’d be almost directly in front of the princess and only leave enough space so that any approaching player would be able to catch a glimpse of her but do nothing more.

If all parties are ready, would you like to begin Dungeon Quest Level 1 simulation?

[Yes / No]

“You guys up for killing some idiots?” Lucas asked.

“Sounds good to me, boss,” Bonnie said as she reentered, “but please don’t make me do heals again.”

“I can take that role,” Viola offered. “I unlocked the Sage class a while ago through a stupid four-month quest chain. I should be more than adequate to cover our party’s healing need.”

Lucas looked at the dungeon setup again and then said, “Well . . . Actually, I don’t know if you can.” She was his hostage in the scenario, so he wasn’t sure whether or not he could actually use her as a party member when she had to convincingly be “rescued.”

The knife somehow reappeared in her hand again, and she was gripping it so tightly that Lucas could clearly see her strained tendons. “I said I will be taking over the healing role, or someone will be losing a kidney without so much as the luxury of an ice bath,” she insisted, her cold voice dripping with poison.