The se of the Pace dedicated to the assig boards was, as expected, packed. hree hundred delvers stood ihe hall, crowded around their respective boards. They were broken up by name, so some were more packed than others. Natalie and Vaa arrived a few mie to the reset, so people were already stepping aside to make space for everyone else.

  Expressions from the various delvers ranged from appreheo pleased to disgusted. Assigs were essentially a lottery system, especially to those with less adventurous tastes. Nervous, Natalie found her own board, squeezing her way to the front to find the paper with her name.

  Report to the Arena for your duo assig, the paper read.

  Natalie blinked.

  Duo assig? She eyed the paper warily. From what Acacia had said, the Arena was the least objeable assig. The Coliseum implied having a mandatory audiehe Pace Basement implied all manners of debauchery, and the Bordello was … well, a brothel. The Areainly wasn't chaste, sidering the staking system, but it was done in private, and the stakes varied in perversity. Acacia had made an off-hand ent that the Arena could include other people, but that it was usually a solo assig.

  Natalie couldn't say she was surprised her first task was non-standard. It ought to be more iing with someone by her side, at least. Who, though?

  She met up with Vaa to see what her teammate had gotten.

  "Arena," Vaa said, seeming wary. "A duo assig."

  Natalie paused.

  Ah.

  Apparently their earlier talk was ing into py soohan expected.

  "What? Why that look?"

  "I also got a 'duo assig'."

  The words sank in. "Ah. What are the odds it's a ce?"

  A ce? That it wasn't them that were the duo? Natalie looked at her dubiously.

  Vaa cleared her throat. "Right. Not high."

  Together, they headed for the Arena. Teically, it ossible they wouldn't be matched up, but Natalie would eat her boots if that ended up being the case.

  The Arena was one of the rger structures iy ter, a few minutes' walk from the Pace itself. It was smaller than the Coliseum, whiatalie found curious, si was supposed to serve many fights at once where the Coliseum only o hold one.

  There was a receptionist desk iran, along with two arched doorresumably leading into the arena. She watched one of the citygoers enter, and he just … fizzled out and disappeared a few steps in. Natalie blinked. Had he been teleported somewhere?

  Sihis was their first time, she and Vaa walked to the receptionist desk. The automaton servig the Arena was shorter and thihan most, though busty despite that. Something Natalie couldn't help but notice, sihe woman was naked. Not that other automatons wore clothes, but those ones didn't have nipples and … other parts of human anatomy.

  "How I help you, Miss?" the metallic creature asked in trademark cheerful style.

  "Uh, hi. I have an assig here. Duo? It's my first time."

  "Of course! Name?"

  Natalie gave it. The metallian scooted a thin book over and flipped it open, running a finger down lines of text before finding what she was looking for.

  "Here we go. Natalie and … Vaa. Do you need a description of her?"

  "A description?"

  "To find her. Assuming she isn't in the lobby. Looks like she has bck hair, gray eyes—" she paused before she finished, her attention flig to the girl at Natalie's side. "Oh! You two came together. How fortuitous."

  Natalie and Vaa g each other. They had hardly needed firmation, but there it was. They had been assigo the Arena together.

  "We figured," Natalie told the automaton. " you expin how everything works? Like I said, it's our first time."

  "Sure. It's simple. The two of you will enter, choose a stake, and fight through rounds of monsters until you're either defeated or choose to leave. Each round provides more enting energy, accumuting upon pletion to empower an amount of Tokens of Eros appropriate to what you've aplished. Yht Tokens, yes? On your person?"

  Natalie and Vaa hey each had a few dozen in a pouch, their reward for several hours of trekking to the city as a two-person party.

  "That's all there is to it," the automaton said brightly. "Do you have any questions?"

  Natalie did, as a matter of fact. Vaa beat her to it, though.

  "How do the stakes work? Specifically."

  "The City gives you three choices before the first round begins, in the form of stoablets that will expiails of each stake."

  "And if we don't like any of them, we leave?"

  The automaton seemed surprised by the question. "Well, yes, I suppose, but to turn down such a boon…" she trailed off, baffled that Vaa would even suggest it. She cleared her throat. "Upon successful pletion of a round, you may also leave without paying out the stake, should you decide." Even that the automaton sounded disapproving of. Perhaps she expected delvers to fight until defeat, every time. Regardless of the looming stake.

  "And if we do choose to leave, we'll still have Tokens ented? For the rounds we've pleted so far?"

  "But minus the amount you'd have gotten for stake pletion. Yes."

  "How mues from the stake itself?"

  "It depends oake and how many rounds you pleted."

  "Roughly speaking?"

  The automatoated. "For a citygoer of average strength, and an average stake, I suppose … half? Not a small amount. But if you're powerful and clear many rounds, and take a reserved stake, then the proportions will be different, of course."

  "Okay. And what if we die in there?"

  "The City will appreciate that you gave it your best effort," the automaton said cheerfully.

  There was a brief pause in which Vaa and Natalie looked at her warily, but the automaton blinked and corrected herself:

  "Oh, but you don't actually die, of course," she said. "Remember, the stake is the payout for defeat. All wounds will be cured upon session pletion, includihal ones. I should mention that in a duo assig, either of your deaths will t as defeat."

  Vaa didn't blink at the eous cim of revival, instead intrigued by the minutia. "What if we trade deaths? To finish the round, I mean. If one of us and the st monster dies at the same time."

  "The round ts as pleted for the purpose of rewards, but you'll also be sidered defeated overall ao pay out the stake."

  Vaa sidered this. She nodded slowly, then asked to firm, "But we always walk away after pletion of a round. It doesn't have to be to the death."

  "That's correct, Miss."

  Vaa g Natalie. "You got anything?"

  " we go more than once?" Natalie asked.

  "You have as many sessions as you please. But you receive half as mutment power with each subsequent session."

  Natalie gruhat meant a sed session might be worth it, and maybe a third, but after that, oh of the inal be was getting to the point it wouldn't be worth their time.

  "Do we get experience? For killing Arena monsters?"

  "No. But the Emporium sells experieions, so in a roundabout way, you progress in that manner if you so decide."

  "Experieions?" Natalie asked, eyebrows shooting up. Vaa too looked ied. "How much do those cost? And how do they work?"

  "I apologize, Miss. You'll o visit and ask the shopkeeper yourself. I'm not at liberty to discuss the details of the Emporium."

  "But we need a key to get in."

  "Correct, Miss."

  Natalie had already been ied in the Emporium, but now she was doubly so.

  She and Vaa shared another look. They had no more questions.

  "Well, thanks for the help, then."

  "No problem, Miss. Good luck!"

  The two of them hesitated at the arched doorway leading into the arena. She could see a gate blog the halfoint of the tunnel, and deeper inside was a rge circur room she couldn't fully make out. Another citygoer walked past them as they paused, and they fizzled and disappeared a few steps in. The dungeon definitely created private instances for eadividual or duo assigned here, hes retively small size pared to the Coliseum. She could ask the automaton, but it was obvious.

  "Ready?"

  "Let's see what we're in for," Vaa mumbled, not quite meeting Natalie's eye.