“...that’s what I’m saying,” Windry said. Richard had met up with her at the Beetle Dungeon after her pestering. “You need to not be scared to reach out to others. More so if they are actively looking for group members themselves.”

  “Yeah, but-”

  “No buts. Go to a safe dungeon first and see. Then a second floor, continue on until trust has been built between you. I’m not going to be around forever.”

  Richard shook his head and tried to hide his smile from her.

  “I mean in this area. I still got another 50 years in this old body of mine,” Windry said and tapped her armor over her heart.

  “That’s good. It didn’t take me long to realize that you’re probably a much higher level than I. Thanks for the carries by the way.”

  “Also, you need to take a step or get out of the way. You’re blocking the entrance.”

  Richard looked behind him and found another party had stopped right behind him. He gave them a quick sorry and stepped into the side tunnel that Windry had already gone down.

  “Don’t worry about the carries. I’m used to being a bus for people. Even if I have to smurf,” she said with a smile. “I started playing that MMO all those years ago to play with my grandson. Little brat couldn't even hack it past 6 months.”

  “Oh?” Windry never shared so much about herself in the past. “What was that like? Did he dps?”

  “Right! A ranged class at that. The one that people always complained about the weaker players picking. But he was so worried about people knowing that he was playing with his grandma.” She shook her head.

  A beetle ambled around a bend in the tunnel. Richard walked forward and one shot it. His new club was working wonders, but that might have been the two handed grip. As it allowed him to deal heavier blows. He pocketed the carapace that dropped. “You’re a good person for putting up with him like that.”

  “Nah. I just wanted to play with him like I did with most of his siblings and cousins. Though it was my first time using a voice changer.”

  “Ah. So that was the reason why,” Richard had always wondered. But took it all at face value and didn’t pry.

  “What? Can’t you at least seem to be interested?”

  “I mean, I am. But I’m also surprised at how candid you are suddenly being.”

  “It’s cause you know the rest of who I am. Also I’m showing you how people build trust. By sharing parts of their lives, sharing their experiences, a bond grows step by step.”

  “I thought that we already had quite the bond?”

  The next beetle that appeared was taken care of by Windry. She stepped forward and slashed it all at once. Her short sword already sheathed again before it slumped to the ground.

  “Lucky!” Richard said when a stomach dropped.

  “What? Why do you like those so much?”

  “It’s an ingredient-”

  “Wait, are you sure that you want to be telling me that?”

  Richard squinted at her. “What? I thought that we were building trust?”

  “That’s that, and this is this. Trade secrets are secrets for a reason. What if I’m some bigwig at a corp and take all your secrets to make scads of money?”

  “Don’t you already have scads of money?”

  Windry cackled. “I could always use more, you know?”

  “Anyways, it’s for a potion. I’ll leave it at that for now,” he said and they continued on. Having her there was a big help to dealing with the anxiety that the dungeon gave him. It helped to have a person there reminding him that he wasn’t alone. And the banter helped to keep his mind off of darker thoughts. “And while I’m not sitting pretty. I have enough money for the moment.”

  “It’s important, you know? Having a handle on the markets that is. Let's say that you’ve heard that Healing Potions are on the rise. Then you check the markets and find that yes, people are buying more of them. So you go out, find a recipe, and churn out as many as you want. Then wouldn't you be poised to make a fortune?”

  “That’s only if I get my potions to the market before everyone else. It’s fully possible that the market could crash before that point. As well as if I make too many and release them all at once the market could likewise crash.”

  “Right. But you can’t make any if you don’t take chances. Especially now since a lot of potions only drop from dungeons. We haven’t figured out how to make too many of them yet.”

  “Ah? I hadn’t heard of that. People have been really cagy online about skills and what crafters can do,” he said and stopped. The place where they were standing looked like where Richard wanted to be.

  “Where are you even looking?”

  “Eh? Just searching the internet and DungeonClues wiki. Nothing fancy.”

  Windry shook her head. “Do you really think that people would be putting information that others would buy from them out for free? It’s all behind paywalls and guild portals. That’s where you’ll find the best stuff.”

  “Okay. While probably true, how much does it even cost?”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “I dunno, maybe 100k a month?”

  Richard coughed. “You realize that’s like, more than two times my monthly budget right? Both food and rent.”

  Windry looked at him a moment before she shrugged. “You just got to get good is all.”

  There was a scrabble at the end of the tunnel. And when they looked there was a beetle trying to climb the wall. Richard jogged forward and smashed it before it got too much higher. He ignored the drop for the moment. And reached up and snagged the tendril of the pale moss that was just within reach.

  “Was that what you were looking for? And isn’t that a gathering spot?”

  Richard handed her the Pale Hanging Moss and nodded. “It is. I didn’t think about it at the time. But then after exploring with Angel it sort of made sense. I hadn’t been able to find any information about it online at all either. Like not even a listing for the moss.” He bent down and picked up the carapace that dropped.

  Windry thumbed the moss before handing it back. “What is it used for?”

  “I thought that you didn’t want to know?”

  “Well yes. But also if you show me something like that I don’t think that I’d be able to hold back my curiosity at all.”

  Richard laughed. “I’ll show you in a bit. Now we can go down to the third floor for the big ones.” Windry scrunched her face at his words, but fell in line beside him as he walked towards the stairs down to the second floor.

  ***

  Alison watched as Richard exited the dungeon. She was surprised to see him at first, but even more so when she noticed who his party member was. He had been almost kidnapped by a red guild, one that was later crushed by the Sword Soul guild. But it wouldn’t have been surprising if he had never shown up again. And as for his party member, she was the Queen of crypto. Alison’s recognition of her was noticed and promptly silenced when the Queen made a shushing gesture with a smile.

  “Check out please,” Richard said as he approached the desk. He looked over the empty lobby and then continued speaking, “Also I wonder if this is something that is okay to remove from the dungeon?”

  When he emptied out his drops into the counting tray there was a bunch of what looked like grey moss. Alison picked it up to see what the System called it and found out that it was called Pale Hanging Moss.

  Strange. She had been working at the Dungeon Center at the Beetle Dungeon for over a year. And yet she had never seen such a drop. When she checked the lists in the system nothing came up. Since it appeared to be a new item there she could just use the protocols already in place.

  “This isn’t something that is registered in the system. So the minimum payment for such a thing is $1,000. Is that alright?”

  “That's fine,” Richard said. “And I want to take it out with me. So I’ll pay the taxes on that. As well as the stomach, one of the carapaces, and the bulb, please.”

  Alison looked at what he had in the tray. 6 carapaces, a stomach, a large carapace, a bulb, and the moss. “Alright. So the total I owe you will be $5,125. That’s less the $781 the tax on the items that you wish to export. Will it be two payments?”

  “Just send it to him, it’s fine. I don't need a share,” The Queen said. Richard glared at her while she only smiled back at him.

  “Alright. I’ve sent the payment,” Alison said. Better not to get involved and let the two of them fight it out.

  Richard thanked her for her help and then stepped away from the desk. Alison could hear the two of them arguing about splitting the spoils from selling the drops. But it sounded like the Queen wasn’t going to take any of it. She was probably so rich that she earned more money from the markets while she was arguing with him than it was worth.

  Alison sighed and looked up at the drop ceiling that the Dungeon Center had. The problems of some people would be boons to others. It must be nice. To not have to worry about money. She shook her head, put on her business smile, and got back to work.

  ***

  Windry insisted on giving Richard a ride home instead of letting him take the bus. Which worked for him, since he wanted to speak with her about his alchemy. It was rough having to keep it all to himself and he had been considering getting her input on how to proceed.

  The car that she led him to was a large black cruiser class vehicle. All function over form, which was considerable given that it was a self driving flying car. Something that had been seen in cartoons over a hundred years ago was finally real. The gull doors popped open once they approached and Windry jumped behind the driver’s wheel. Something that Richard didn't even know that they still put in cars.

  “This is a really nice car. It can’t have been cheap?” Richard said as he looked around the roomy inside and leather interior. The back seat had been folded up which left the front two seats with plenty of legroom. At his question Windry only smiled and punched in his address. A moment later the car slowly lifted off of the ground and started navigating itself along the roadways.

  Richard took in a slow breath. And instead of worrying too much over the conversation he just dived in. “So how much do you know about crafting?” he asked.

  Windry gave him a look before she shook her head. “Not too much. It’s not something that I ever bothered to pursue. Crafting books can get rather expensive, and then it’s a job to level them. Exploring was always a hobby for me that I did to get away from work.”

  “Okay. So you wouldn’t be able to tell if this is something strange or not?” Richard said. He called up his inventory and removed the Large Black Carapace Vial that he had stored there back when he first leveled up. When he looked at Windry her eyes were wide.

  “Where did you just take that from? It couldn't have been sleight of hand, my stats are much higher than yours.”

  “It’s an Inventory. I have a slot now that I reached level 1.”

  “Level 1? And not level 9?” She crossed her leg over top of the other. Placed the fingernail of her thumb in her mouth and lightly bit at it. “It couldn't possibly be that. Then it must be that the rank is high enough to grant an inventory.” She looked at Richard and shook her head. “I don’t want to know what is rank is, do I?”

  “Well. I was hoping that you would help me decide how best to proceed with it is all. It’s a little beyond me. And,” he gestured to the car, “you seem to know your way around money. Plus it’s not like there are many people I can trust with this information.”

  Windry sighed and looked out the window. “Please tell me it’s not A-Ranked.”

  “It’s not A-Rank,” he said. She seemed to relax. “It’s S-Rank.”

  Windry’s head snapped around so fast that Ricard was afraid that she might hurt herself. Her mouth was open and her hands balled up into fists. “Why did you think I didn’t want it to be A-Rank?” Richard shrugged at her question. “Because that’s the level where someone is able to affect the country. Their skill is so high level that they can change everything. And with S-Rank! You can change the world Richard. The entire world would bend over for you. Either to get onto your good side, to stay off of your bad side. Or worse! To take everything from you like the red guilds do!”

  Richard was somewhat taken aback. He knew that his skill was powerful. Just not to what level. And yet Windry seemed to know just what it was that he had on his hands. It was also strange to see her with so much emotion. When they played games together the voice synth would have striped out anything extreme. While the time that they had spent together in real life she always seemed to be rather calm and balanced.

  Windry slapped the handle of the car door several times with the flat of her hand. “You really get me going, do you know that? I was so scared when I heard that you had almost been kidnapped. And now you spring this upon me.” She placed a hand over her heart and took in several deep breaths with her eyes closed. “Does anyone else know?”

  “What? About the S-Rank? No. A few know that I’m an alchemist. It came up in the debriefing from the red guild attack. And then the Crafter’s Union should now as well. Since I’ve been selling potions. And I guess Angel. Cause you told her.”

  She looked at him and shook her head.