"I had the weirdest experience today," Captain Bell said. He sat down heavily and grabbed a nearby tankard, taking a long drink. The sailor whose drink it was frowned, but didn't say anything. Captain Bell was not one to mess with. The man's tattoos rose and fell over the bulging muscles in his arm. Rumors were the man had leveled his Strength skill to Extreme. He'd certainly broken a few arms before everyone stopped armwrestling with him.

  "I met a buyer for plants of value, wanted to do some off-the-books purchases to avoid tax, you know, the usual." Bell reached over to grab a chicken wing off someone's plate, and started ripping it apart, pulling the bones out of the meat.

  "I did have some plants to sell, but you know how these deals go. He doesn't want witnesses? Poor luck for him. Only, this time, I didn't kill the bugger."

  This caused a stir among the crew sitting around the inn's table.

  "You... didn't kill someone who offered to buy goods in private?"

  "Did you spot secret security hiding in the room?"

  "Were ten... twenty crossbows pointed at you the whole time?"

  "Are you ok, Captain?"

  Captain Bell waved off all the noise.

  "I thought I'd play it safe."

  The room went deathly still.

  "What happened captain?"

  "He had this club attached to his belt. Real crude like. Something you might see on a troll. That is..." Captain Bell paused for dramatic effect. He loved doing this. He wouldn't tell a soul, but he actually earned a Story Telling skill just from doing pauses like this. "Until you see the glow."

  More silence.

  "Glow... like,"

  "A soft glow. Purple. Something you don't see often lads. Not in human lands. Not in Liston. Not outside the capital, that's for sure. The man had an enchanted weapon."

  The crew fell silent again. Except for Bom, who wasn't the brightest tool in the shed.

  "But that's not that special is it?"

  The captain turned and fixed Bom with a stare that indicated how upset he was for ruining the moment. Then he gave up and kept eating other people's food.

  "Hmph. I guess not. But tell me, lad, what color do you see glowing on enchanted weapons? Tell me the color of the last three weapons you've seen."

  "Well there's that everfrost blade that Kin has, that's blue, and uh... oh we killed a guy with a blue sword right? And we went to that archery competition in Luster, and there was that bow..."

  "Also blue?"

  "...also blue."

  "So you agree that purple is something interesting? Something mysterious?"

  "...yes, captain."

  Bell reached out specifically for Bom's mug, and drained the whole thing to Bom's dismay, keeping spiteful eye contact the entire time.

  "What I do know, is that there's someone new in Liston. Someone with coin. Someone with valuables. Fetch captain Sod, I saw his ship in the harbor. I think we'll play this one right and put someone else's crew on the front lines."

  Some of the crew shifted uneasily.

  "Sod's been missing for two days, captain. Nobody's seen him. His crew did notice all the plants had been taken from the ship's hold. They assumed he was doing some deal, but..."

  "Nobody's seen him."

  Jints wiped his brow, sitting back with a sigh. It was the third day of cleaning. The first, he'd removed the majority of the blood. The second, he'd carefully bleached the walls and ceiling back to a wood-looking color. Today was floors and furniture. It was back-breaking work. His arms were stiff, his back was stiff, muscles he hadn't realized existed were stiff. He was almost done with the floor when the message came.

  New skill acquired! Cleanse (Advanced)

  Jints' heart quickened. This wasn't a simple cleaning proficiency skill. This was... He stood up, stretching his aching back. He looked down at the chair he was working on, still covered in patches of red. He lifted a tired arm and pointed at the chair.

  "Cleanse."

  The splotches disappeared. The entire chair turned a lighter shade of brown as years of grime and gunk was removed from the surface.

  "Heh. Heheheheh."

  Jints was tired, but happy with this new power. It was like magic. He pointed at another chair.

  "Cleanse."

  The chair brightened into a beautiful golden oak color.

  "Cleanse."

  The table looked immaculate.

  "Cleanse. Cleanse. Heh. Cleanse."

  Jints pointed at various objects in the room, restoring each item to its original condition. He managed to do all the furniture and finally the floor itself before he fainted. There were limits.

  He awoke in a pristine room, cleaner than the day they'd rented it.

  That night, the Red Daggers met together at the Broken Leg. They didn't sit next to the fire, this time. With all the awkward confessions had come huge waves of emotional healing and inward resolution. The tragedies and traumas of each person's past hadn't disappeared, but they'd had a safe space and opportunity to process it. It was a very weird experience, and everyone had silently agreed to avoid the space.

  Zig opened the conversation by casually putting his club on the table. Gretta looked at in confusion. Hepp's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

  "You got it enchanted? What does it do?"

  "It makes people nervous."

  "It... some kind of fear enchantment?"

  "Something like that. People see it, and wonder what it does."

  "That's... that's not a real enchantment, is it?"

  "The effects are real, Hepp. Worked on you just now. What have you guys been up to lately?"

  Gretta tossed a pouch on the table, inside were 28 gold coins. Zig whistled.

  "Not bad, just from adventuring?"

  Gretta nodded.

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  "Teeth helped a lot. What about you, mister Alchemist? What's your haul?"

  Zig grinned and started taking pouches out of various places in his clothing. The pouches formed a pile on the table, until the seventh one landed like a cherry on top. All the pouches had gold coins. No silver or copper.

  "New club's working a treat. Transactions have been without a problem. Ah, without further problem. And Jints learned a new skill."

  "I did indeed." The steward inclined his head. He pointed to the patch of table in front of Hepp, covered in crumbs.

  "Cleanse."

  "Hey! Watch—woah!"

  Hepp nearly toppled his chair, looking at the transformation in front of him.

  "Jints! You're amazing! I will give you all my laundry from now on."

  "You already do, mister Hepp."

  "Ah, but now I won't feel bad about it!"

  "Hey," Gretta waved her hand in front of Hepp, "our big news?"

  "Oooh yea, Gretta found something in the forest."

  "Oh? What did you find Gretta?"

  "Something, Zig. Underground. Something that set off my prospecting skill. I was wondering..."

  Gretta looked around at the Red Daggers.

  "Do you guys want to start a mine?"

  "Here it is."

  Zig, Gretta, Hepp, Teeth, Jints, Gutters, and Knob were all hiking up a small hill in the woods. Gretta had stopped at a completely normal-looking patch of dirt.

  "Hepp, if you would do the honors?"

  Hepp hefted the sturdy shovel he'd been carrying. Since he had shifted his class to Extreme, his Dig skill was slightly terrifying. Now that he also had Endurance...

  Hepp attacked the side of the hill. Dirt started flying into the air, causing the rest of the Red Daggers to hastily step back so they wouldn't be showered in it. Hepp quickly disappeared under the constant spray of dirt flying out of the hole. After a while, the hole got too deep for Hepp to throw dirt all the way to the surface. He cut into the wall, digging his way back up at an angle to create a staircase back to the top. Gretta followed him back into the hole with some buckets. Hepp kept digging, widening and deepening the hole, while Gretta carried out the loose soil packed into the buckets. The buckets were too small though, and Hepp had to slow down.

  "We need carts," Zig suggested. "This is like the mine in Lancre. We need to widen the staircase and lay down a track."

  "That requires a lot of iron," Jints said with a frown, "we'd need to confirm that there's something down there worth mining."

  "We also need to do something with all this dirt." Gutters pointed at all the piles of dirt dotting the hill.

  "We could... build a fort? Walls at least, to keep animals out." Knob suggested.

  "Sure," Hepp called out from the hole, "make walls tall enough that giant wolves can't jump over. Watch tower would be fun too. Zig, could you clear the trees in the immediate area?"

  The half-goblin scurried over to a dirt pile and started shifting it to be more wall-shaped. Zig's goblin-crafting senses were tingling, and he knew with time and this much dirt, they could build something incredible. Zig didn't join the earthworks, though. He had another job only he could do.

  The hill was covered with trees, as was the forest that filled the land to the horizon. Just out of view was Liston. Perhaps it could be seen from the very top of the hill. If they were building a mine here, they would need to clear a space. At least to set up a camp. Zig took out his club, and turned it so the jagged stone pointed forwards. He walked up to a tree, lifted his club, and took a swing. There was a huge thunk and a crunching sound. To Zig's dismay, it didn't explode straight through the sturdy trunk.

  "Huh, I guess trees are tougher than people."

  There was a sizable chunk missing from the tree, so while it didn't happen in a single swing, Zig did manage to cut it down in about two minutes. Gutters came with a real axe and started hacking off all the branches. Zig moved on to the next tree. The team got into a rhythm, and Zig was enjoying work that for once was covering him in sweat, instead of the usual blood.

  As the day grew into late afternoon, and the Red Daggers were about to pack up and head back to Liston for the evening, there was a shout from inside the hole. Gretta came running out, holding in her hands two heavy buckets filled with clay. She burst out onto the hillside and waved the buckets around like they weighed nothing.

  "Extreme Strength! It's Extreme now!"

  "What? Gretta! No! Lift this! No, lift that tree over there. Can you push this boulder around?"

  The team immediately started pointing to various things for Gretta to lift and move. Buckets of dirt, even buckets of rock were no problem. A tree trunk was a little too heavy, though she could lift one end and drag it with difficulty. That kicked off a competition of what everyone else could lift. Zig and Knob rigged up some larger buckets that held more rocks, until they found something Gretta could lift at her maximum strength. They compared it to the amount of rocks Hepp could lift. It was about eight times as much. Even Teeth seemed impressed by the little dwarf. She picked up a short length of rope, and brought it over to Gretta, placing it down at her feet.

  "What's this, Teeth?"

  Gretta picked up one end of the rope. Teeth immediately picked up the other end and pulled. Gretta let go, confused, and the rope fell to the ground. Teeth huffed and brought the rope in front of Gretta again. Gesturing with her head for Gretta to pick it up.

  "What is it girl—oh!"

  Gretta picked up the rope again, and Teeth grabbed the end and pulled. This time, Gretta held on and pulled back. Teeth pulled a little harder. Gretta pulled a little harder. The two slowly added more and more tension to the rope. Zig was afraid the rope would break. Then Teeth gave the rope a final tug, and Gretta went flying forwards into the ground. She came up laughing as she picked herself out of the mud.

  "I guess Teeth is still the strongest!"

  Teeth snorted her agreement and did a little prance around the mine. Zig looked around at the now cleared hill, with tree trunks lying everywhere.

  "Well, we didn't mean to end up with all this wood. I wonder if we can sell it?"

  "Same problem as the rocks, we'd need a way to move it," Hepp replied. "But come see this."

  Hepp led the team into the mine. It was a long dirt tunnel, long enough that Hepp had lit torches to help light up the place. It wasn't anything fancy, just a straight corridor sloping down through dirt and clay. At the end, Hepp stepped aside to show that he'd struck rock. Hepp's Dig skill didn't include rock, so he'd gone sideways, along the surface of the rock. The rock wall was super dirty, but Hepp had washed away little patches. The rock underneath had streaks of black in it.

  "That's iron," Gretta said with a smile, "but I'm guessing the real prize is over there?"

  Gretta pointed further to the right and down near the floor of the mine. Hepp looked a bit put out that Gretta's Prospecting skill was ruining the surprise.

  "Well, yea, check this out."

  Hepp rubbed dirt off the wall to reveal more black streaks in the rock surface, this time with some thin golden lines running through it.

  "Tell me that's gold, Gretta."

  "That's gold, Zig."

  "So, let's talk money. How much do we have, Jints? And how much more do we need?"

  A surprisingly clean team of miners had returned to Liston. Jints had been cleansing each member as they walked back, so not a speck of mud was to be seen on the Red Daggers. They had gone to the docks for dinner, choosing a tavern with a nice view of the harbor. After a day of digging, Hepp was ravenous. All of them were. Creating a mine was not a small task.

  "This is a terrible time to ask such a question, mister Zig."

  The steward brought a wad of papers from within his coat pocket. He separated it into two piles.

  "Here are the purchases and sales of the Alchemist. Minus some bribes to the local authorities."

  "That sounds suspiciously like taxes, Jints."

  "...yes, I have come to regret this setup. No time for changing things now. We have made a tidy profit of five hundred and twelve gold coins."

  There was a wave of people spitting their drinks onto the table. Gutters looked around and, after a small hesitation, took a sip and spat his drink onto the table in solidarity. Jints waited for any more late spitters, then cleansed the table.

  "Five hundred? We could retire for life!"

  "Quite so, mister Knob, only..."

  Jints spread out the other papers.

  "Here are the deeds to a certain forest outside of Liston. I thought it might be prudent to own the land upon which we are taking resources. These here," Jints gestured to more papers, "are the beginnings of the Red Daggers Mining Company."

  "Where would we be without you, Jints? How much did that cost? And when did you have time for this?"

  "Probably jail, mister Zig. It cost us a princely sum of two hundred and eighty gold, leaving us with about two hundred, after various other costs."

  Jints looked significantly at Zig, who'd picked up the habit of flinging a gold coin or two at every person he came across.

  "As for efficiency, business is my area of expertise." Jints tried to look professional but a hint of smug smile betrayed him.

  "Ok, so two hundred gold... How much do we actually need?"

  "For food, lodging, and travel? I do believe we are set for life. For mundane equipment also. But I recall we came here with a certain goal in mind... Miss Jane has already been admitted into the academy, but every spell is an additional cost. She has kindly sent this document to us."

  With a flourish, Jints brought out one more piece of paper and place it in the middle of the table. It was finely made, embellished with golden designs on the edges. It didn't actually glow, but it felt like that to the Red Daggers. They all stared in solemnity at the precious paper.

  Gutters elbowed Knob and whispered.

  "What's it say?"

  Knob nudged Zig's foot and whispered to him.

  "What's it say?"

  Zig tapped Jints on the shoulder.

  "Some of us are not quite at the reading level yet. Could you fill us in?"

  "Seven spells, in all. At tier one, costing one hundred gold each, are Magic Bolt, Bless, and Cure. A small magical missile, a minor boost to strength and stamina, and healing from sickness and infection, respectively. I have heard Cure works on some poisons too."

  "At tier two, costing two hundred gold each, are Dispel and Summon Water Elemental. Dispel removes magical effects. I have never seen an elemental with my own eyes, but I hear they are small playthings unleveled, but creatures of war for a skilled mage."

  "At tier three, we have the famous Heal Wound spell, which all healers must learn before moving back to the various towns throughout Selwyn Empire. There is also Ice Bolt, an elemental version of the tier one Magic Bolt. These spells are three hundred gold each. I must note also that Water Affinity is required to learn tier three spells, so only our miss Jane could learn these."

  Zig stared hungrily at the list. He wanted all of them.

  "We're gonna need so much gold. Ok, team. Everybody pick one. We'll count up the cost and set that as our goal."