While Orrin’s ability to use [Analyze] multiple times in a row had increased, the number of bones in the side room ended up being too much for Madi and him to go through. When the rest of the party came searching for them, not one additional dragon bone had been found.

“Did you get everything on the list?” Madi asked Daniel as he pushed a rolling cart into the room.

“Almost everything,” Daniel answered. “We couldn’t find arrowleaf root or any ghost essence.”

Emily picked up a small bottle from the cart. “I’m quite sure a competent tailor can use captured shade instead of ghost essence.” She kicked her toe at the pile of bones Orrin had already worked through. “But I’m not confident enough in alchemy to suggest an alternative to arrowleaf root. We might need to just pay for those potions.”

During their planning session for the dungeon, Emily suggested a few items that might help combat water and steel monsters. Potions of water breathing were expensive, mostly due to the multitude of rare ingredients needed. The plan was for them to all carry at least one at all times, in case a monster attempted to seal them in a watery grave.

Another item she’d suggested was sigil thread. A tailor could sew a specific spell or design into a piece of clothing for quick casting. Emily wanted an [Incorporeal Escape] spell for each of them. Sigil thread itself wasn’t expensive, but the ingredients for each specific spell differed. [Incorporeal Escape], just like it sounded, turned an adventurer intangible for a handful of seconds, letting the person escape from situations that they deemed too dangerous. Emily was adamant the sigil was necessary in dungeoneering.

Other than that, Daniel had fully stocked the cart with the remaining ingredients for potions of healing and mana they’d wanted, along with a few better-known poison antidotes. Although they’d discussed possible armor upgrades, Garret had declined. His current leather was from a Steeltooth Bristlebear and he doubted the Guild would have anything stronger collecting dust. Emily wore her red robe, with some tactical pieces of armor underneath during actual quests but most eschewed more formal types of protection. Madi, of course, was outfitted better than anyone in the group, although her house colors of golden yellow and green clashed with the more muted armor of Orrin, Daniel, and Garret. Only Emily’s red robe had more color.

Orrin and Daniel still had their armor from Esme, the quietly scary seamstress/armorer Silas Catanzano had hired to outfit them. Orrin’s half-sleeve cuirass appeared to be fully leather but had layers of metal under it for added protection. The cloak he wore also had metal links sewn into it to deflect strikes. Daniel would be using his magic chain mail, with a twisting design that drew the eye and hopefully blade away from vital areas. He rarely wore the full getup unless they were going out monster hunting.

“We’ll find what we need,” Madi said, turning back to Orrin. “How long until you can look again?”

Orrin rubbed his head. “I’m getting a headache. I might be at my limit for the day on [Analyze]. These bones have all been for two-to-three-star monsters anyways. I really don’t think I’m going to find another dragon bone in this mess.”

Madi sighed. “Ok. Can you fit everything on the cart into your storage?”

He groaned as he stood up from the ground and cracked his back. Picking up a potion in each hand, he started to stuff items into his pockets. His cloak had a lot of them. Each item disappeared into his [Dimension Hole].

Garret was standing by the door, flipping a long arm bone up in the air and catching it. “If we need to carry some stuff, I saw a few extra packs in the front room.”

“It shouldn’t be a problem,” Orrin answered. He pushed the narrow end of a large flask into a cloak pocket. Items seemed to shrink at one end as he put them away, getting sucked into wherever he stored things. “I took out the water barrels so… actually…”

Orrin turned and started to pull the cart toward his pocket. The cart and all the remaining bottles, flasks, containers, and loose alchemy ingredients disappeared.

The bone clattered to the floor as Garret missed his catch. “… That’s not something you see every day. Do you have more room? Why don’t you just push all the bones in? I saw a stack of pretty decent swords and maces back in the front room. We could sell those for quite a bund-“

“We aren’t here to raid the Guild,” Madi cut him off. “We are only taking what we need… and the things of value that we found that were trapped.”

“And the gold,” Garret said with a smirk.

“I thought we were turning that over to Pritus?”

“Emily! Whose side are you on?” Garret cried, his hand on his chest.

The fire mage rolled her eyes. “We don’t need that as much as the Guild does and you know it. With the lords of Dey in disarray and so soon after coming off a Horde, the Guild is stepping up in a big way. Guild members are being sent out on reconnaissance of the Pass and helping plug the holes left by all the deaths of so many guards. Not to mention finding new dungeons and letting nobodies like us,” she pointed at herself and Garret, “tag along with a real [Hero] to defeat it. Instead of complaining and flirting with the support members, how about you get your head out of your ass and realize how lucky we are.”

Emily’s more reserved nature built throughout her speech. Orrin watched as Garret backed up from her building temper. Daniel stood back with a smirk on his face, while Madi bounced from foot to foot, ready to jump in and play peacemaker if necessary.

Garret looked at the group abashed. “Sorry. That’s just a lot of gold. It makes sense to turn it over.”

Daniel sauntered up to Garret and put his arm around his shoulders. “You know, we don’t have to raid the Guild… but maybe we can pick a few choice items to resell for other supplies we most definitely are going to need. I think that’s fair… right Madi?”

Orrin stood silently by as Daniel slowly convinced Madi to let Garret and him sell off a few of the random but rare items sitting around the main room.

“When did I become the packhorse?”

The functionary that had led them to the storerooms arrived within minutes of them leaving the first door.

“I thought your trip inside would take less time and be more fruitful,” he sneered.

“I’d say we found what we came for and more,” Madi retorted. “However, we do need to speak with the Guildmaster as soon as possible. We found something we’d like to give her.”

The clerk’s eyes rolled dramatically. “If you’d like to make an appointment with her receptionist, I can show you the way but know that she is very busy and what the fuck is that?”

Orrin had pulled one of the bigger bars of gold from his pocket.

“Like she said,” Orrin slipped the precious metal back into his magic storage pocket, “as soon as possible.”

They were ushered to a meeting room and within ten minutes, Pritus arrived.

“Why is one of my clerks telling everybody that you found gold in the storerooms?” Her piercing eyes glanced at Garret and Emily before they settled on Madi. “The agreement was whatever you carried out was yours, but if you really want to try and steal tangible money from the Guild then you –“

“Guildmaster Pritus,” Madi stepped up and spoke over the head of the Guild. “While we were clearing out the storeroom at your direction of the multiple traps and threats left unchecked by previous heads of the Guild, we discovered a safe containing gold and silver behind a tapestry in the westernmost room. Orrin, if you will.”

Orrin stepped forward and started slowly pulling the gold and silver bars and ingots out of his [Dimension Hole], just as they’d discussed before leaving the storerooms. He could hardly contain his smile at Pritus’ shocked face.

“Of course, as upstanding members of the Guild, we immediately sought you out to turn over this small fortune for the use in Guild activities supporting Dey,” Madi continued.

Pritus glanced at Madi. No words were spoken but Orrin felt an entire conversation happen in the quick eyes of the two intelligent women.

Orrin slapped the last bit of gold down and faded back into the line the rest of the party had created. Good soldiers delivering a boon to the commander.

“Such a magnificent treasure would surely need a commensurate reward,” Pritus said, testing the waters.

Madi smiled serenely. “The reward was in clearing the storerooms of traps for the Guild. Now, staff can safely catalog its contents, sell off the excess, and return that profit to helping Dey rebuild after all the recent troubles.”

Pritus narrowed her eyes. “I’m assuming that Lord Catanzano would be best at distributing those profits?”

Madi shook her head. “As the Guildmaster, I would trust you to put the people of Dey first.” Madi’s voice changed from her politically suave tone to a friendly and more personal tenor. “Jen, no strings here. Use it to help the city.”

Pritus raised her eyebrows at Madi’s use of her first name but swiftly clamped her shock back down. “The Guild and the people of Dey owe you.”

She opened the door and barked orders. Three of her people, one the young man with the shocking power, entered and stared at the heaps of gold.

“Now,” Pritus ordered.

The table was cleared in minutes.

Daniel rolled off the wall he’d been lounging on. “If that’s all, we’ve got a dungeon to get to.”

The Guildmaster held up a hand. “If that’s what you turned over, I’m hesitant to ask what else you found.” She sighed. “A deal is a deal, though. When do you plan on leaving?”

Daniel glanced at Madi, who shrugged.

“Maybe this afternoon? We have a few last-minute errands but I’d like to get there sooner rather than later.”

Pritus nodded. “I’ll send a portal specialist over to the Catanzano manor. Good luck to you all.”

She swept out of the room.

“That saves us some time,” Madi said, clapping her hands together. “So, who wants to go shopping?”

The party spent the next few hours selling a few items discreetly, paying for an [Alchemist] to make as many potions as he could with the ingredients they supplied, and spending a hefty amount on the ingredients they still needed along with an [Incorporeal Escape] sigil for each member of the party.

Orrin fingered the thread running along the bottom corner of this cloak. “This isn’t going to ruin my clothes, right?”

Emily chuckled. “No, once it’s used, the thread disintegrates. Your cloak will be fine.”

The final place they visited was Bartholomew’s. The clerk had gladly bought three of the skill books they found, along with two of the spell books. He didn’t have enough knowledge on the [Way of the Water] or [Life Tree] books to give a fair offer and didn’t need the extra copy of the last skill book, [Artificer, Level One].

Garret and Emily went their own way around lunch, promising to meet back at Madi’s house in two hours. Orrin and Daniel returned to their room, pulling Madi in as well. With all of Orrin’s stuff on his bed, he dropped the rest of the loot they had on Daniel’s side.

“Garret is going to want to keep that bow,” Madi announced.

Orrin had no doubt she was right. The bowyer they’d visited had sold them a few of his strongest strings but they’d decided not to bring the Citrandish bow out in front of him. Garret was practically salivating at the thought of using it.

“Should we really have given that much Mythril to Jovi’s assistant to just make a few arrows?” Daniel complained.

“He smelted Mythril and cold iron bars for Garret,” Madi answered. “That was a major reason we went in the storerooms, to look for rare metals for him to use.”

“Lorren didn’t really smelt the Mythril,” Orrin said, picking up items and sorting them into keep and leave piles. “It just sort of melted into a puddle. It was funny watching him get upset when he couldn’t set it quick enough.”

Jovi’s assistant, Lorren, had warned them that Mythril was tricky to work with. He’d barely gotten one arrow-sized length of metal out of the sword into the proper shape. They’d left the rest of the metal with him to work with as payment.

“I think I have everything sorted here,” Orrin announced. “The only thing left for me is to buy a few spells and hopefully get specific wards.”

Orrin had already spent the one ability point on [Water Ward]. After he’d purchased [Water Reservoir], the new ward had appeared on his status page with the customary blinking cursor.

“Madi, maybe you can help,” Orrin pulled up the spells he’d been looking at for a potential poison ward. “[Venom Bite] is cheaper but [Toxic Touch] just seems like it would be the better purchase, right?”

Madi looked at the blue screens Orrin tossed her and shook her head. “You realize you are never going to be specialized if you keep buying things randomly like this?”

Orrin shrugged. “Who needs specialized? I protect you guys, you protect me.”

“I told him [Venom Bite],” Daniel said. “It’s not like he’s ever going to need to use either, so he might as well save the extra point.”

“I still think he should buy [Sword Proficiency],” Madi argued. “They even have the skill book if he doesn’t want to use ability points.”

“That was two hundred and fifty gold,” Orrin cut in. “That’s more than Daniel spent on Gerty.”

“He could always use the water fighting book,” Daniel suggested. “Bartholomew didn’t even know how much it was worth so it’s probably really good.”

“The guy who works at the store is not named Bartholomew,” Orrin groaned. “That’s Gregory.”

Daniel shrugged and picked up the book off the bed. “[Way of the Water]. That sounds kind of cool.”

Madi watched their back and forth and made for the door. “I’m going to get all the food set up for Orrin. For what it’s worth, Orrin, I think you should go with your gut. If you don’t like [Venom Bite], don’t get it.”

Orrin went back to sorting.

Daniel sat on his bed, knocking over the piles he’d been making.

“What do you think?”

“Huh? About what? Dude, you just knocked over the extra blankets. I just folded those.”

Daniel wagged the book in front of him.

“I don’t need to fight,” Orrin said, shaking his head. “I stand in the back.”

Daniel ignored him. “You said this is a fighting style, right?”

Orrin nodded.

“Do it. For my peace of mind.”

Daniel caught Orrin’s eye. He had his serious face on.

“We could sell that and use the money for-“

Daniel pushed the book into Orrin’s arms.

“We can always make more money. We are about to go into a dungeon. We are going to be fighting monsters and defeating a floor boss. I need to be able to worry about that and not you defenseless behind me.”

Orrin looked at the dark blue cover. The book was beat up and had been forgotten in a lost false wall for who knows how long. He brushed his hand over the stitching.

“Fine,” he agreed. “Just promise you aren’t going to throw some monster at me to test it out.”

Daniel held his hand up and visibly crossed his fingers. “Sure, buddy.”

Orrin tried to hit Daniel with the book but missed. With a sigh, he sat down and opened the book, triggering the skill learning.

Would you like to use Skill Book: Way of the Water?

Yes or No

Orrin hit Yes and the world went dark.