Lucas read through the list of options and thought hard about what he wanted to do. He was surprised that the new territory didn’t have any special contracts like the one Kegan had established with Waldberg, but given that Rowland seemed like a relatively new noble in Hesse, he didn’t think too much of it. He did, however, notice that the population of the town was low. Abysmally low. Fulda’s current total population was only 53, and about a dozen of those were just the guards that worked at the manor. The monthly income wasn’t great either at a paltry 14.8 gold.

Lucas looked at his group and wondered if he could make one of them a lord, but the only one who qualified was Nick. Technically, he was the only one who was Human and therefore an actual member of the Imperium. Without him, Lucas’s party would be short its only tank, and that was a position that Lucas wasn’t sure he wanted to leave empty right now.

But . . . Lucas sighed. I have to do right by the people with me. Even as he opened his mouth, he knew that he was somehow going to regret it later on. “Nick, there’s no chance you want to leave my employ and start your own dungeon, is there?” Lucas asked.

“Wait, we can do that?” Bonnie’s ears perked up. “And why him, boss? Why not me? I could use the extra dungeon cash.”

“It’s actually . . . not that cheap to run one,” Lucas told her.

“Oh, expensive? Nope. I’m the only one allowed to be high maintenance in my life. Can’t have my hobbies filling that role too. Thanks for the offer though, boss,” Bonnie said, completely forgetting the fact he hadn’t offered anything to her.

“You mean I’d have to go out and start my own party?” Nick asked. “Leave this one?”

“Yeah, it shouldn’t be hard. You can probably use random villagers to fill your ranks until you get up there a bit more,” he replied, watching as Nick’s face perked up for a moment but then soured.

“No, I’m fine,” Nick said, his shoulders hunching forward a little.

“You sure?” Lucas asked. It was a little odd that someone wouldn’t want to have a turn at being a dungeon lord.

“Yeah, I’m sure. I think I’m happy just sticking with this group,” Nick said, drawing a small smile across Lucas’s face as he empathized with the sentiment.

Lucas didn’t blame Nick at all. It was fun playing this game, not just because of what he was able to do with the dungeon but also because of who he was doing it with.