Going back down into the pit without Mary felt strange, somehow. Ever since Josh met Mary a few years ago, they had done practically everything together. It wasn't like he had many other friends. In the early days, she was the only person who understood, at least slightly, what he was going through. Even his sister had been distant at best. Then, as time wore on—especially after they fled the City and joined the reclaimers—it just became normal for them to do everything together.

They weren't codependent. They did have their own lives. Today wasn't the first day that Mary had gone off to fight a dungeon without him, or the first time he had searched for treasure without her. Still, it felt strange. Going down the elevator without her making comments felt like something was missing.

It probably didn't help that all the delvers on the elevator stared at him like he was liable to start attacking them without provocation. Which he hardly thought was fair. All he did was execute a coup of their town's leadership. Did that make him untrustworthy? He hadn't even killed anyone!

Deserved or not, no one tried to attack him. No one “accidentally” pushed him off the platform. When the elevator reached the bottom of the pit, no one even tried to passive-aggressively block him from getting off. Everyone just seemed interested in getting out of his way as fast as possible.

Josh, Ruth, Darius, and Beor headed towards the west. As they walked through the forest of bioluminescent mushrooms, Josh spoke quietly to Darius. “What's the status on getting those shroud focuses made? How long until we can equip the town?” That would certainly improve people's opinions of them.

“I can start making them soon,” he promised. “The town already had much of the materials I needed in stock. The materials for a Basic-tier shroud focus are not rare.”

Josh chuckled. “I suppose this town, of all places, has plenty of magic materials.”

“You are not incorrect,” Darius allowed. “However, most of the materials harvested from the pit are better used for potions and poultices. Shroud focuses need monster materials. Anna has been more of a boon to those stocks than anything from this pit.”

“Oh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” Speaking very generally, plants were more useful for potions and anything else that was supposed to be ingested. “Speaking of, any luck getting someone with an actual Alchemist class?”

“Not so long as we're trying to keep the bloodstones at least marginally a secret,” Darius said. He brushed aside a glowing curtain of vines. “I have a few theories for how to advance someone to that class, but I believe it will require an Enchanter at minimum. We are going to need to give someone a bloodstone, and then it will take them eight more levels at least.”

Josh sighed. “Yeah, I know...” He swung his hand, releasing an [Empty Chop] to clear some vines from their path. With his ridiculous Perception and Sensitivity, the powerful art only cost one point of stamina and mana. It was still his only combat ability, but the fact that it was a combat art made it more valuable than either a technique or a spell. It was a miracle he had been able to get it at all, with his non-combat class. He was operating on the assumption that he'd never get another.

“I'll think about it,” he said finally. He gave Darius a grin. “With you cleaning up the paperwork, I'm running out of excuses.”

Darius had the look of someone trying very hard not to sigh in exasperation. “Indeed. I have a list of potential candidates. One is the friend of that man you came to town with. Abraham.”

“Oh? All right, I'll look into it.” He sighed and cracked his back. “I guess we're moving in the right direction.”

“Speaking of...” Ruth said, slipping up beside them with a weak smile. “You do know where we're going, right?”

“Of course.” Josh pointed at a small, circular hole in the wall. Most of the stone was covered in bioluminescent moss and fungi, so the hole in the stone was like a dark void in a beautiful shifting tapestry. Even though it was barely big enough for them, it was still hard to miss. “Some worms broke in through there. The worms were killed, of course, but I figure it's still a place to start.”

Ruth scrunched up her face. “If we're looking for bloodstones... shouldn't we search away from the monsters that might have eaten them?”

“Probably,” he admitted. “But this isn't just a bloodstone finding mission.” He didn't mention how low the chances of actually finding a new bloodstone were. “The delvers down in this pit aren't used to finding monsters. Oh, there's always a handful of fungus monsters, but they can kill those in their sleep. Real monsters mean real danger, and someone needs to track them down to their source.” He shrugged. “May as well be us.”

Slowly, Ruth grinned. “Don't let me make it sound like I'm not going to enjoy it.”

They entered the tunnels one at a time, which turned out to be more of a headache than it needed to be. Ruth wanted to be first, because she had the biggest hammer. Darius suggested he go first, because he could overcharge his shroud. They all had shroud focuses at this point, of course, but Darius had started as the Shrouder class, and he still had half a dozen spells and techniques for improving his shroud.

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In the end, Beor settled the issue by moving into the tunnel while Ruth and Darius were arguing. There was something to be said for the strong silent type. Besides, as Josh pointed out while Ruth and Darius were both moping, Beor did have the highest Constitution of them all.

Thankfully, the tunnels widened out pretty quickly, and they were able to travel in more than single-file. Ruth had a Light rune on a helmet that acted as a decent torch, so they could see where they were going reasonably well.

“Have you tried putting your rune inside a headlamp?” Darius asked, as they walked down another wide tunnel. The walls were smooth, but uneven. Josh recognized the signs of worm monsters having traveled through here repeatedly. “If you replace the bulb, you should be able to get the same effect.”

Ruth shook her head. “I tried it back in Gilroy, and it worked okay. The problem was, I could figure out a way to easily reach inside the flashlight to touch the rune and power it.” She shrugged. “Now, I guess I could do it easily with my Activate Rune spell, but that wouldn't make it easier for anyone else to do it.”

“Yes, I can see how that would be a problem.”

They continued talking on that topic for a few more minutes, but Josh was largely ignoring them. Ruth had a lot on her plate already with trying to master runic magic items. Your basic +1 Sword or whatever. He wasn't sure trying to restart the old rune magic revolution was a fair extra burden to put on her.

“The City has plenty of books on using runes like that,” Josh said, once there was a break in the conversation. “Just to start with, magic can replace electricity as easy as changing a circuit.” As he understood it, the main problem was ensuring it was the right kind of current and then regulating the flow. He'd never taken a rune class himself, though. Seemed like too much of a bother. “Once we get back there, we can do the whole thing where we upset all the established monopolies and trade guilds and so on.”

Darius raised an eyebrow. “You seem confident that we'll be making it back to the City safely.”

Josh shrugged. “It's not going to happen tomorrow, but, yeah. Sooner or later, Ruth's dad will give up on the world quest. Either because he stopped being crazy, or because the Eight came back and knocked some sense into him.” He let out a long sigh. “This would all be a lot easier if they came back.”

Darius gave Josh a complicated look that he couldn't quite interpret. “You believe it's so simple?”

“Simple would be if I had them on speed dial.” Everyone gave him blank looks at that. “It's—it's a City thing. You know, with phones?” More blank looks. He threw up his hands in exasperation. “You people know what phones are!”

“I've never had a phone,” Ruth said. “I mean, I've had personal radios and satellite phones, but I think you're talking about the fancy kind with the touch screen and stuff?”

“That's—I mean—” Josh glared at them. “You're all messing with me. The meaning was obvious in context!”

Beor shrugged. He stepped forward to brush aside a thick wall of moss hanging down covering another tunnel entrance. They all filed through.

“Anyway,” Josh said, annoyed now. “The point is that we should be good as long as we can talk to the Eight. They'll order a stop to this madness, and we can all go home in time for a cuppa.”

“I would not put so much faith in anyone, even then,” Darius warned. He looked around the small cavern they had found themselves in, frowning.

“I've met the Eight,” Ruth said. She had her hammer out, and moved to cover Josh almost by instinct. “They seemed reasonable.” She smiled to herself. “I think Saint Elizabeth liked me.”

Josh rolled his eyes at her in a good-natured way. She stuck her tongue out at him.

“I meant more because an Operative has more pull with them than any of us,” Darius said dryly. “It is quite likely we will never even see them. They will just approve more resources, and then we will all be killed.” He nodded at the corpses in the cavern. “I do not like this.”

“If the Eight come back, we just need to get their attention,” Josh said firmly. “They'll be on our side.” He pulled out his ax. “Anyway, that's enough gabbing for a day and a half. Look alive.”

The cavern was pretty big as such things went, maybe the size of a football pitch. If anyone ever played football any more, Josh thought wryly. There were multiple exits among the rocky walls, not even counting the one they had come in through. There wasn't much plant life, though, just bare rock in every direction. If Josh didn't know better, he would have thought the cavern was new, carved within the past few hours. The mana was still thick here, so the Jungle should have accelerated the growth of any mosses and fungi.

Wait a moment. Why was the mana still thick here? They were deeper than the tunnels the elf had taken him to near Gilroy. Was this all because of the pit? If enough life leaked in through the pit...

He shook his head. That wasn't the point right now. Right now, the most important thing was the pile of bodies in the center of the cavern... and the glowing mushroom monsters growing out of the pile.

On the one hand, plant monsters were never a real threat on their own. They were common, slow, and not very smart. He had taken enough turns at guarding the gardens at reclaimer bases that he was reasonably sure he could kill a corn monster in his sleep.

On the other hand, there were a lot of mushroom monsters there. Without Mary and her fire spells, which did not inspire him with any extra confidence.