2( Two may keep a secret… [ Maybe plot somewhere other than right outside the front door? ]

  As Trope held his hands out between the once again arguing Jermalin and Elf, he rolled his eyes.

  Their bullshit was getting really old. But…

  The Halfing like Jermalin Explorer, Gorb, fulfilled all of the roles of a classic Rogue class from the various tabletop and video games the Human Hero had played before he ended up being Isekaied into a LitRPG fantasy world.

  And despite the lack of pit traps, the actual, for real, Dungeon… or reasonable facsimile they had found, did end up having at least the one trip line, and might incorporate more traps as it grew.

  Plus, the little man was deadly with his knives, and Trope had found the guy reasonably easy to get along with.

  Aside from all the times that the Explorer seemed to gleefully get into it with the other member of Trope’s throw together group.

  Pierce. The easy on the eyes Elvin woman stood shoulder high to Trope, and constantly got on his nerves.

  As a Channeler, a wizard like class that created magical tools which the Elf could use to cast spells, Pierce could create light, which Trope had found useful while exploring the Undercity, even if the light was pink. But more importantly, the Elf could blast things with her weapon, a polished rod with a heavy spiked ring on the end she could use to smack anything that got too close.

  And Pierce could Heal.

  So the Elf was both blaster and healer, all in one annoying package. Well worth putting up with, no matter how annoying she was.

  Glancing over at the fourth member of his group, the teenager Lariss, Trope could see that the ax wielding Hobgoblin girl was nervously waiting near the tunnel they had entered the area from. The Hero gave the uneasy looking girl a reassuring smile that caused the young woman to visibly relax. The girl smiled back at Trope with her fanged grin in return before she turned to look off down the tunnel they had planned to leave by as she checked on her hair, which was practically tied back, neatly out of her way.

  Trope smiled to himself as he saw the girl making an effort to keep watch on their rear. The Chopper was by far the most reliable and least annoying member of his group.

  Meanwhile, the other two…

  “All right. Each of you take a turn explaining to me why we should sell out the Core, or why it’s a bad idea. Pierce, you go first.”

  The Elvin woman huffed and crossed her arms as she frowned down at Gorb. “We’re in the business of doing business, as in getting paid. That Core is worth money, a lot of money, to someone. It has to be. We can do your deal to raid the place and kill the Core’s Summoned creatures for Merit points for a while. Which I agree is a good plan, but sooner or later, someone else is going to find out about it. And then we are going to lose access to the thing, either by getting cut out, or have the Core get destroyed or carried off somewhere, by someone else.”

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  Pierce turned to glare at Trope. “We need to cash in for the best cut we can get, as soon as we can. If we wait too long, we get nothing.”

  Before Trope could respond, the Jermalin stepped forward until he was standing, looking up, right in the Elven Channeler’s face, waving a finger up before her nose.

  And, much to Pierce's surprise, Gorb agreed with her. “You’re absolutely right prong ears. The biggest payout we could get would be to sell it out right now, right from the start…”

  Then the Explorer lowered his hand, palm flat and off to one side. “But the question is, who do we trust?”

  Pierce blinked.

  Gorb began to pace back and forth as he explained. “Anyone with any real money isn’t going to bother giving anything more than a token finger’s fee to a bunch of rank one nobodies.” The little man turned from the end of the corridor near Lariss to glare back at the other two members of his group.

  “Why should they? You don’t get to have that kind of money from being nice. At best, we’ll get their pocket change, but more than likely we’ll get a knife in the back and a kick into a drainage channel after we show them the place.”

  Lariss looked troubled as Trope glanced up from Gorb to her. Looking back down to the Jermalin, the Hero asked. “What about insurance. Tell them we left a note with someone in our guild, telling them to make the Dungeon public knowledge if anything happened to us?”

  The Elf snorted. “As if anyone in the guild would even hesitate to sell the letter to whoever puts us down.” The Channeler kicked at the ground. “I, with the greatest of reluctance, have to agree with Stumpy. Anyone we go to will either cheat us or make us vanish once they understand what they've got their hands on.”

  Pierce snarled at the Jermaline. “So what are we going to do? I agree to go along with Stick Boy’s Cores for Kills plan. For now. But then what?”

  The Jermaline nodded eagerly. “We stick with the kid’s plan, for as long as we can.” He spread his hands out. “Then? Who knows? We even manage to ride this out to Rank two. All of us.”

  Gorb grinned. “At that point, we might even be able to survive selling this place to someone who would rather pay us off rather than risk picking a fight.”

  Trope nodded slowly.

  It wasn’t that he wanted to betray the Summoner Core, but he also wanted to become strong enough, high leveled enough, to not only survive in this world, but to thrive.

  Maybe even get back home, with all the powers that having a Class was giving him, and hopefully all the money he was planning on earning.

  Until then, he was stuck with the three people he had been tossed into a group with when he had signed up with the Adventurer’s Guild to go looking to collect a bounty on a man named Nictob.

  Of course... “What about the other two groups that were here. The Sewer guys and the Goblin. Torb?”

  The Jermanlin shrugged. “The Cloacoteers aren't going to tell anyone about this place, not when they are in service to the God of Purity, and this place is channeling Purification Magic. As for the Torb…”

  The Explorer glanced over to the now visible stairs midway down the length of the wide corridor.

  “If that book is what I thought it was, the last thing that Goblin is going to want to do is have us talking about this place, and what he managed to grab from here. In fact…”

  Gorb rubbed at the thin hair on his chin that some generous souls might have called a beard. “We might want to track the guy down, to make sure he understands how much it will benefit all of us to keep each other’s secrets. And arrange some of that insurance so we can tell him about it.”

  With that, first the Explorer, the Chopper, and the Channeler began to make their way out. Crawling down the long passage to the former lair of the Mother of Madness on their way back up to the city above.

  Trope, however, hung back for a moment to turn and look at the same stairs that Gorb had looked at moments before.

  “Fell, or your Fairy if it’s just her listening. I think Gorb’s forgotten that you are also going to keep getting more powerful after each of our future visits. And unlike him, I know you can gain the ability to come after us if we betray you, or leave this place before we can.”

  The hero grimaced. “Until then, I plan to keep to our agreement, and do everything in my power to make them do so as well.”

  Just before climbing into the tunnel to catch up with the rest of his group, Trope grinned. “So please keep this in mind. When they betray you, they are also betraying me. So when you decide to take them down, if you let me know, I’m not going to do a damned thing to save them.”