In the end, they didn't take much with them when they left the dungeon. They didn't know enough about the monsters to know what was valuable, and the ants had already drank all the nectar and any other obvious treasures. There would definitely have been more of them deeper in the dungeon—there always was—but they weren't willing to risk taking one more step.

When they returned to their land, not only had all the grass regrown to almost knee height, but a few monsters had already moved in. Just a small family of Jungle-touched rabbits, but those could become a huge problem if they weren't dealt with quickly. At least they were all lower than level 20. Josh guessed that they had all been born recently, since the last reset, and grown at an accelerated rate. Or maybe not. No one actually knew how monsters reproduced and leveled.

One of the rabbits spit acid in his face. After it was dead, he had to take another of those stupid recovery potions to heal. He was beginning to feel like a punching bag. This was why he didn't pick the [Defender] role.

Ruth, of course, was more than happy to teach him runes once he gave in and admitted what he wanted them for. It wasn't until after dinner that he successfully managed to carve a runestone. Surrounded by dozens of hand-sized rocks that he had tried to chisel, covered in rock dust from the explosions when he tried to force mana into them, he finally managed to get one right. When he channeled his mana into it, not too hard, it glowed gently. He sat there, holding his breath, praying it wouldn't explode.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned the blueprint Runestone of Strength (basic). When worn as a talisman, this stone grants a +1 bonus to the Strength score. When crushed, this stone grants a +2 bonus to the Strength score for 4 minutes.

It wasn't much. But it was something.

Learning the blueprints for the other stat scores went faster, since now he had various Stonecrafter techniques like [Chisel Stone] to help the process along. Even with his missing fingers, it wasn't that hard. By noon the next day, while the others were still clearing the bushes and grass that had grown while they were gone, he finished learning the blueprints for Perception, Capacity, and Flexibility runestones.

The limitations were immediately apparent. First off, the bonuses didn't stack. You could gain the benefit of exactly one runestone and no more. That was a bit unusual. Most enchanted gear that provided stat score bonuses stacked. Josh suspected these talismans didn't count as true “equipment” like necklaces or rings, and were something else. Regardless, the point was that they each had to choose a single stat score to improve. Josh chose Capacity, Mary chose Perception, Darius chose Flexibility, and Ruth chose Strength.

Crushing the stones, thankfully, proved easy. It was more about making the willful effort than actually having the physical strength to do it. Which was a good thing, because none of them had Strength worth a damn.

Josh made two talismans of the chosen stat score for each of them. While they didn't stack, this way if they needed to use the temporary boost, they would still have a backup once the first one was gone. Again, better than nothing.

Josh was also surprised to discover that the runestones weren't considered variant blueprints. Each one was a new blueprint, and gave a decent chunk of experience for discovering it, and then more for crafting the stones. Once he had some spare time, he was going to grind out as many stones as he could until he stopped getting decent experience for them.

Unfortunately, that was going to take a while. He didn't have enough mana for [Instant Crafting] with these, since they needed a big chunk of mana to activate the rune. Well, for a normal person of his level it would be a relatively small amount, but he still only had a Capacity of 4. It went up to 5 with the runestone, which wasn't enough.

At the end of that first day, he was level 25. Mary had reached level 25 in the dungeon, and hadn't received a decent advancement at 24, so she had stayed a Gunner. Darius had finally caught up, for the most part, and was level 24. He also had stayed with his current class. He said he thought he had some ideas for crafting new shrouds, even if he still didn't have the materials for even the most basic. They would need to buy more.

That was the crux of their argument over their rabbit stew.

“I think we should sell the runestones,” Mary said between mouthfuls. “How much would you pay for a bonus to your favorite score?”

“I only have half the stats,” Ruth reminded her. She blew on her own soup. She seemed almost terrified of burning her tongue. “I didn't get any new Prime runes in the dungeon. There were lots of Secondary runes, though.”

Josh had already tried, and putting a Secondary rune on a runestone didn't do anything. He could do it, and he even received a blueprint for it, but it was a generic one just named “Runestone.” The runestone didn't seem to do anything, and he was pretty sure they were all missing something important about how runes functioned.

“I am certain that we will find them quite profitable regardless,” Darius said. “That is not the issue. The issue is what happens when people begin asking where these new enchanted items came from.” He nodded politely at Ruth. “I remain impressed with your grenades, Miss Moore. I simply do not think that is enough to keep us safe. People will soon ask questions, and that World Quest is impossible to ignore.”

Everyone grimaced at that. The big World Quest announcement repeated every day at noon. When they had spent time in the tavern, they had heard people talking about it. Some people found it annoying, some people found it enticing. But everyone knew about it. If they realized there were [Crafters] around here, word would get out sooner than later.

“We have to do something,” Josh pointed out. “We lost loads of money in that dungeon and got nothing out of it.” As much as he hated the recovery potions, they were expensive and useful. “I don't think doing monster hunt quests will get us enough glint to catch eyes and filch the goods.”

Darius looked confused for a moment. “What is that—you mean make money and buy the materials I need?”

Josh gave him a sideways look. “Yeah. That's what I just said.”

Darius sighed for some reason. He seemed to do that fairly often. “The fact remains, selling the talismans will bring too much attention. Sooner or later, someone will realize we aren't finding these in dungeons, and that we must be making them.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Well, we can't sell anything else, can we?” Josh gestured at Ruth. She dodged his spoon. “The grenades are too obvious. Those aren't the sorts of things monsters have on them, or that you find in dungeons. Same with anything else Ruth puts a rune on. The talismans are all we've got.”

“There's always the mad option,” Mary said. “We could trust someone with the bloodstones.” She said this in a casual tone. As if she was suggesting that they could get more water by leaving a bucket out in the rain.

Everyone turned to stare at her.

“Wot?” she snapped, sounding genuinely defensive. “We were always gonna go public at some point. Why not now?” She waved a hand at both of them. “Everyone will fall over to give Ruth enchanted glint to study, and Josh can build a house in a day or repair a wall or all sorts of other muck. Even more, now he's got stone added to the list.”

Oh, right. He had been so excited testing his new runestones that he hadn't even tried to do anything with his actual Stonecrafting. He had earned a few simple techniques for working stone, but nothing large-scale.

“I am curious as to exactly what constitutes 'stone,'” Darius said. He took another spoonful of soup before continuing. “Do you think you could build something out of concrete?”

Josh paused, spoon halfway to his mouth, as he thought about it. “...maybe?”

“If you used [Instant Crafting], would it instantly turn from cement to concrete?”

“Uh, maybe?” He didn't think so, though. None of his current blueprints required any sort of waiting period, but that didn't seem right. “That's jumping ahead a bit, innit? I haven't even made a bloody stone wall. Or cement.”

Darius took a deep breath and leaned back. “Apologies. I have been... overeager.” He adjusted his glasses again. “It is just that your skills have enormous potential, and require nothing more than testing and cheap materials. That makes it simpler to use than mine or even Miss Moore's.”

“It's okay, Dee-Dee!” Ruth cheered. “Your heart's in the right place!”

He glared at her. “Don't call me that.”

She pouted. For about half a second, before brightening again. “Oh, I know! Why don't we ask Miss Vashti?”

Josh frowned. “Who?”

“The mayor, silly!” she said with a laugh. “She only gave us a big plot of land for free!”

“Land infested with monsters, trees, and monster trees,” Darius said flatly.

Josh raised an eyebrow. “Oh? I thought there were no walking trees. I didn't see any, that's damn sure.”

Mary put her soup down, serious as an execution. “We really talking about this? Just walking up to the mayor and giving her a chance to stab us in the heart?”

Josh sighed. “It's not that bad.”

“Sounds that bad,” she snapped back. “Wot, you think she's just going to give us money and mats out of the sweetness of her soul?” She slammed her fist against the table Josh had made. “Best case, we're slaves until the next reset, then we get to watch the City burn from a good perch.”

“That's a bit much, don't you think?” Josh asked dryly.

“More likely,” she said, ignoring him, “this bird turns us in for the bounty.” She pointed at Ruth. “Her dad kills Josh—maybe all three of us—and she gets shoved in some bunker while the City burns.”

“I'd at least be able to convince him to fight the dragon,” Ruth muttered into her soup. “The Eight would come back. The City would be fine.”

Mary ignored this as well. “I'm not trusting some bird who we met once with a secret that could get us killed.”

“I didn't hear any other ideas,” Josh snapped. “You think this is a bad one, give us something that shines better!”

Darius cleared his throat. “Perhaps we should—”

Mary jumped up. “It's not on me to find something better! It's not a question of sell ourselves out or die, it's sell ourselves or keep doing what we're doing! We did fine in the dungeon, we can do that again!”

Josh clenched his fist. The one missing fingers. “Fine? We almost all died because we didn't have what we needed! We need money to make up the difference, it's as simple as that! You want glint, you need to talk to someone with polish! You should know that!”

“OI!” She stomped forward, making Darius and Ruth scramble back before she could bowl them over. “What's that supposed to mean!?”

Josh stood up too, looming over her. As usual, she didn't care that he was almost a foot taller and wider than her. “It means that not everyone got tutors and teachers growing up! Not everyone had a gun on their hip, ready and waiting to advance to Gunner on their eighth birthday! Not everyone is a bloody mafia princess!”

“What the hell is the mafia!?”

“Italian criminals!”

“I'M NOT ITALIAN!”

An explosion of light in front of them forced them apart. There was very little sound and force, but the flash alone almost blinded them, causing them to stumble back in sheer confusion.

“That's enough!” Ruth said. She was crying, and holding the disintegrating remnants of a small piece of wood she had put a Light rune on. She had overcharged it. “I-I don't know why you're both so... so angry about this, but I'm not letting it continue!” She looked between the two of them, then nodded to herself. “Josh, you're coming with me to talk to Miss Vashti.”

Mary bristled. “Like hell—”

“And Mary—” Ruth continued, talking over her. “You're going out hunting with Darius.” She took a breath. “Everyone needs to just... just cool off!”

Mary clenched her fists and ground her teeth. Josh breathed hard, focusing on the pounding in his ears.

Neither of them reached for their weapons. That had never been a possibility, Josh knew—he and Mary hadn't gotten into worse arguments than this without devolving into an actual fight. But he could see Darius ready to jump in between them with a shroud.

“Fine,” he bit out at last. “Let's see what the mayor has to say.”

At this point, he was just about ready to give everything to her just to piss off Mary.