Daniel officially invited Garret and Emily into the party and the five of them made their way down the streets of Dey to the Guild. It was still early enough in the morning to not be too congested and the walk felt nice. While the sun was out and hot, a cool breeze from the south swept across the city. Orrin’s cloak rippled in the wind until he pulled it close.

“Garret, Orrin had an idea about making a metal shirt for you to summon arrows from,” Daniel said after a stretch of walking in silence.

“I’m sorry, a what?”

Orrin sighed. “I thought maybe if we get a few tiles of different materials, you could wear them to be able to summon arrows whenever you need them.”

Garret caught on quickly and nodded along. “Yeah, it’s not a bad idea. The problem is that whatever I use to make the arrow has to have enough mass to make an arrow in the first place. It’s why some archers with [Create Arrow] carry around a quiver full of different arrow types. So, a shirt probably wouldn’t work,” he said with a laugh.

“Damn,” Orrin muttered, trying to think of another way to get the same result. “We could try and get you a quiver and arrows like that.”

Garret shook his head. “And ruin my look? I appreciate the thought, truly. If I’m going to be fighting something specific, I’ll plan ahead and bring a bar of steel but the way my skills work, unless I had a bunch of Skymetal or red iron, nothing else would really be worth my time.”

“What do you think you’ll use against steel monsters?” Madi asked, taking an extra quick step to keep up with the longer legs of Garret and Daniel. Orrin found himself hurrying along a bit as well. Emily’s robes made her look like she was floating along, so he couldn’t tell if she was also doing a half-jog to keep up with the two taller men.

“Stone works well against most types. Water monsters can usually be displaced too. Look, it’s not that it’s a bad idea to have a few options. It’s just… bringing a few bars of steel, granite, or some other materials I’ve used in the past would mean one more thing we’d have to lug around in the dungeon.” Garret waved his hands around as he talked.

“Orrin could probably make room for some-“ Madi started.

“We’re here,” Daniel said as he rounded the corner to the Guild. “Let’s get looting.”

When Daniel told the receptionist he was there to raid the Guild storerooms, the man almost had a stroke. After Madi smoothed the situation out and presented the letter from the Guildmaster declaring that they could take as much as they could carry, the man sent for a Guild clerk.

A bored-looking teenager, probably a few years younger than Orrin and Daniel walked up a few minutes later. He looked at the letter and waved his hand over the top. The Guildmaster’s signature glowed for a minute and he shrugged.

Without introducing himself, or even talking, he walked off again. When nobody followed, he finally opened his mouth. “Come on, then. I haven’t got all day.”

Daniel exchanged a look with Orrin and chuckled. They followed the clerk as he walked the group through a series of hallways, opening three locked doors before arriving in front of a nondescript wooden door without a handle. He pointed dramatically at the door and handed a small square of paper to Madi. He didn’t say a word as he began to walk off.

Daniel grabbed his shoulder. “Do we just knock the door down or what?”

The boy looked at Daniel’s hand on his shoulder and smiled. Daniel let out a gasp of pain and pulled his hand off quickly.

“Please don’t touch Guild employees. The door cannot be knocked down. Put your Guild ring against it and it will swing open. When you leave, I’ll know and be back to escort you out.” Despite his age, the boy’s tone hinted that he was used to being listened to.

“What was that? Lightning? That’s awesome!” Daniel’s excited grin disarmed his imperious attitude for a moment. The haughty smile changed quickly and Orrin saw the young boy underneath.

“[Electric Touch] but close enough,” the boy’s cold demeanor warmed markedly. “I didn’t really hold back, either. That would normally put a Guild member on the floor.”

“I’m going to remember that one,” Daniel reached up to slap the clerk’s shoulder, but pulled his hand back up at the last minute. “Maybe I won’t touch you again.”

Orrin rolled his eyes. Daniel’s easy nature at work, making friends again.

“Let’s get to it then,” Madi nudged Daniel. The clerk waved and made his way back down the hall.

“What an asshole,” Daniel muttered as soon as he was out of earshot. “He fucking tazed me.”

“You could have just asked him how to open the door, you didn’t need to grab him, “ Orrin said, not really trying to defend the action but still feeling some satisfaction as Daniel shook his shocked hand.

“My hand is numb.”

Emily let out a snort of laughter.

Madi was reading the small piece of paper. “It’s a map… sort of. It’s really just four squares positioned against each other and an X to show this door. At least, I think that’s what the X is.”

She looked up and motioned for Daniel to open the door. He was still absentmindedly rubbing his hand and didn’t notice. Madi closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out in a dramatic fashion. “I’ll go first then.”

Her ring flashed in the air as she rapped against the door. It slid up and she walked into a room larger than the Guildhall.

“Magic fuckery,” Daniel muttered as he stepped into the room, glancing at the thirty-foot-tall ceilings.

Orrin couldn’t make out the sides of the storeroom. It had to be a few hundred feet in every direction. It should have been overwhelming being in a space this large when he knew in his mind that the entire Guild was smaller than this room. That wasn’t what nearly broke his mind though.

The storeroom was filled with junk.

Right next to the door was a pile of broken wooden practice dummies. Three steps in, a weapons rack had been erected and every item actually stored on that rack was rusted and crumbling. A broken table and two chairs were haphazardly placed against the wall.

“What a dump,” Daniel said, speaking Orrin’s thoughts out loud.

“How are we going to find anything worthwhile in here,” Emily moaned.

Madi smiled. “Teamwork. We’re going to comb one room at a time.”

Orrin and Garret groaned at the same time.

Two hours later, they finished the first room. Other than a half-burnt quiver that Garret turned his nose up at, they found nothing of real value. Orrin’s [Analyze] hadn’t been any help, only showing him what his eyes could already see. The room was full of trash.

Madi wasn’t too deterred. She’d been able to scavenge enough camping materials to save some gold, but Orrin didn’t really see the point in the daughter of a lord of Dey saving pocket change.

“Let’s try to the door to the left first,” Madi said as she piled up the extra sleeping bags and two-man tents in a pile near the door. “It’s a standalone room. The third room has a small antechamber, so we can hit both of those last.”

Daniel, eager to do anything but stay still in the room of detritus, opened the door and stepped in. His voice echoed back as if he was in a cavern. “Hey, guys. This might take longer than we thought.”

Madi and Emily were on his heels and blocked Orrin’s view as he tried to get through. When he nudged the women to the side and saw the room, he was shocked.

They had spent two hours doing a methodical search of the first storeroom. It was a big room, filled with narrow passages burrowed out between the heaps of thrown-together junk.

The new room was easily three times as large. Two small paths broke left and right from the front door. Mounds of pelts were stacked up to the left. A few had fallen down and blocked the small alley between the animal skins and the bookshelf filled to sagging with various bottles. The right path was not better, with bones, teeth, and skulls stacked in a manner that gave Orrin a little fear that the entire thing would come crashing down. Further in, he could just make out more shelves, stacks of what looked like weapons of all sorts, a few dummies with armor strewn about, more piles of animal parts, and what looked like cords of firewood piled high enough to tower to the ceiling.

“This is ridiculous,” Garret whispered in awe behind Orrin. “We could spend months in here.”

Madi clapped her hands. “Search for metal or anything obviously magical in nature. Orrin, I hate to ask you, but can you try going through the bones? Maybe we’ll get lucky and find one that’s from a dragon. Emily, can you try and use your [Mana Sense] to pick up on any traces of magic?”

Daniel started walking down the right path.

“Daniel,” Madi stepped quickly after him. “You’re with me.”

“Huh? Sure. I want to see what’s in those jars,” he said, pointing at the far wall. Orrin couldn’t make out what he was pointing at.

“I can’t see that far,” Madi said, confirming Orrin’s suspicion that Daniel was using his [Telescope] skill to see into the distance.

“It looks like something’s floating in the jars,” Daniel said, starting off again.

Garret laughed and began picking through the hides like they were rugs. “Are we really going to go through this entire room?”

Madi turned back, then glanced at Daniel as he was walking forward again. “Just… just do a sweep. We’ll meet back here in thirty minutes and decide,” she said to the archer, then ran after Daniel.

Emily sighed and tapped Garret’s shoulder. They started walking down the left path. Emily winked at Orrin as she dragged Garret away. He mouthed a silent ‘thank you’ at not being stuck with the incessant flirting. He would need to concentrate while using [Analyze].

At first, the skill only returned a single word.

Bone

However, after five minutes, he started to receive additional information on the different items but learning that this stack was femurs and this stack was incisors didn’t really help much.

Finally, the skill upgraded enough to show him what he really needed.

Fillium Femur (Bone)

Torchclaw Incisor (Bone)

His allotted thirty minutes passed too quickly and Orrin found no dragon bones. He didn’t hear Madi and Daniel returning. Instead, he smelt them.

“-many times do I have to apologize?” Daniel was saying as they came into view.

“Wait there!” Orrin plugged his nose and took a step back. “What is that smell?”

Madi’s entire frontside was covered in a gooey blue slime. Daniel had some along the bottom of his legs but looked like he had mostly evaded whatever it was that hit Madi. She was glaring at Daniel.

“I touched something after she told me not to,” Daniel said sheepishly.

Madi turned on Daniel with a fury normally reserved for charging monsters. “You grabbed the chest after I specifically told you it was trapped.”

“I didn’t know it was going to burst out with… whatever got us.”

Madi’s anger cranked up another notch. “Whatever got us? You have some Ichitial stink on your shoes. I’m covered!” She was screaming toward the end of her sentence. Just in time for Emily and Garret to round the corner. Garret stepped back and held his nose.

“What happened?” Emily asked as she approached, with a small bundle in her arms.

“Daniel decided to trigger a trap and evaded it while I took Ichitial spray all down my front,” Madi said, tears in her eyes. “Damn it. It’s even in my eyes. Orrin, I need some water.”

Orrin paled and shook his head. “I left everything behind so I’d have more room.”

Madi looked from person to person as they shook their head. Nobody had planned to take this long in the storerooms.

“Wait. I was going to get this anyways.” Orrin remembered his planned skill purchase right before Madi started to cry in despair.

[Water Reservoir] – create one gallon of water. 10 MP. 1 AP

Would you like to purchase for 1 AP?

Yes or No

Yes.

Orrin looked around for something to hold the water and used a large skull with a concave shape. He cast the spell. The water overfilled the skull, and he handed it to Madi.

She took the skull and dumped the water over her head. The slime moved slowly but did start to puddle around her feet. She held the skull out in question. Orrin refilled it four times before the stink started to evaporate.

“Did he just buy a water creation spell?” Garret asked as he crept forward, smelling the air until he got too close to Daniel. “Oh, you should get his feet, too.”

“No, he can keep stinking,” Madi said petulantly. Orrin ignored her and filled the skull before handing it over to Daniel.

“Seriously, did you just waste ability points on water?” Garret asked again.

Orrin glanced at the look on Garret’s face. “I was planning on doing it anyway. I can save a lot of room in my storage if I don’t have to carry gallons and gallons of water into the dungeon.”

Garret just looked stunned at the perceived waste of AP.

Orrin realized something. “Hold up, you said you found a chest? Was there anything in it?”

Daniel grinned and held up a small ring. “It was behind a stack of books that were placed differently than the rest. It wasn’t bigger than my fist, but we found something at least.”

Orrin tried [Analyze].

Ring

“Do you know what it’s made out of?” Orrin asked when his skill failed. He tried again but nothing changed.

“Nope,” Daniel said proudly. “But you know, if there was one trap in here…”

“There might be more,” Orrin said with a hungry grin.