Darius' work with the Woodcrafter bloodstones went much more smoothly.

Josh hadn't met any of Abraham's friends before, but apparently he had reconnected with some of them after the whole town had gotten turned upside down. One of them had been a Mender who hadn't had much of a chance to level since the reset. Somehow, she was only at level 15 by the time Darius went looking for volunteers.

One bloodstone later, and she was a brand new Enchanter. It took barely a day to get her to level 24, and another Mender bloodstone let her advance to Alchemist. It was, as Josh had vaguely remembered, a psychical-type [Crafter] class. All its abilities were non-magical analysis and mixing techniques.

Now they had healing potions. Terrible healing potions, even a level 8 Mender could do better with a basic spell, but they were still genuine healing potions. Little bottled miracles distilled from basic Jungle materials. On top of that, they tasted like bland tea at worst. Far, far better than the muck they had been using before, which had often made Josh consider if dying was really that bad by comparison.

Josh's missing fingers throbbed. If an Alchemist was good enough, with good enough reagents, they could regrow lost limbs. Not so early; Josh would be surprised if she could do it before level 80. Still, he could wait.

As long as they kept Mary from killing her before then.

“Bloody hell, lady!” Mary cried, throwing up her hands. “I'm the one who brought you the mats! I'm not trying to shake you down for your lunch money! I just want to make sure I can keep my guts in while I'm out getting you more!”

Sarah was a wiry young woman with a darker skin tone and a narrow face. Her hair was cut short, and her eyes focused. Everything about her seemed sharp, like a war machine just waiting to crush the unwary up in its jaws.

She was also completely unimpressed by Mary's little tirade. “I have not been able to produce potions in large quantities yet,” she said, her tone clipped and professional. “The majority, as you might expect, have already gone to the hospital for emergencies. The remainder I will sell at a reasonable price.”

They were in one of the homes around the outer ring, meaning it was little more than a wood shack that someone had thrown a bed into. Sarah had found a large cauldron and some glass beakers in order to practice her class.

Mary massaged her forehead. “We don't have a Healer. I told you that, yeah? We need something to keep us in one piece out there!”

Anna tried to sneak a potion from behind Sarah's back, but Sarah whacked her on the head without even turning to look at her. “Hire a Mender,” Sarah recommended calmly. “Soon, once I can produce more, perhaps my prices will fall enough for you to be able to afford them.”

Josh smiled. His sister would like this girl, he was sure. She had always said that if a [Healer] let people walk all over her, she wasn't worth her name. He was also reasonably confident that Sarah was genuinely pricing her wares reasonably. After all, she was buying the materials that Mary had brought her.

Mary turned to him and pointed at her angrily. “Josh! Do something about this shite!”

He raised an eyebrow. “Wot? You think I can talk an angry Healer around?”

She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean, you spoon. You're the mayor, right? Be all... mayoral at her!”

He grinned. “Is that a word?”

She scowled. “You know what I mean. You have money, give it to her!”

“Oh,” Sarah said, as she pushed Anna away by the face. Anna continued to flail with her arms, trying to grab potions. Sarah hardly seemed to notice. “I thought you were going to have him threaten me.”

Mary gave her a disgusted look. “What do you take me for? If I wanted to beat people with my connections, I would've stayed in the damn City.”

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“Eh.” Josh shrugged. “When we left the first time you still could have turned legit. Your family would have been pissed, but you could have managed it.”

Mary waved her hand. “Yeah, but I'm not gonna start that now. Especially not using you, of all people.” She crossed her arms and pouted.

It was just the four of them in the shack. It was too small for any more. It was probably too small for just four, in fact. Still, Josh hadn't come here just to deliver herbs—or to watch Mary and Anna make fools of themselves. “Miss Sarah. How is your leveling going? I understand you did not find any recipes in the library.”

Anna was, for some reason, literally gnawing on Sarah's bare arm like a dog. Sarah looked down at her for a moment, then back up to Josh. “Hm? Oh, my levels are going fine. I suspect recipes would be counterproductive on that front, in fact. I am gaining most of my experience through raw experimentation. Every combination produces something, even if it's something useless, and that counts as crafting.”

Josh nodded. While officially each class only had a single role, unofficially there was a lot of crossover. Alchemist was tagged by the System as a [Crafter] class, but it had elements of both [Healer] and [Scholar] classes. Using research to gain experience was pure [Scholar], but she had to actually make the items rather than just do the research.

“So you need more mats?” he asked. He rubbed his hair. “What I wouldn't do for a decent Gatherer bloodstone...” An Herbalist class could clear out the entire pit in an hour, but really, he'd take anything. Just the inventory system would increase their efficiency, even if the class didn't have any skills with plants.

Mary gave him a look. “We still heading back down? I thought you wanted us in the Jungle looking for her muck.”

He sighed. He was getting a headache. “We can send parties out to get herbs and muck easy enough.” They wouldn't even need to tell anyone that there was an Alchemist involved, though the secret was most of the ways out by this point. “I'm still the only one that can search for bloodstones.”

Anna had finally gotten bored poking at Sarah. Now she leaned against a wall, as if she was too cool for any of this. “We're all going to feel like idiots if you find an Alchemist bloodstone down there.”

“That would still be an advantage,” Sarah said, not so much as blinking. She stirred her cauldron. The scent of burned sugar rose out of it. “When does the first unclassed child gain access to the System?”

“Tomorrow,” Josh said with a grunt. “Doubt we'll find anything before then.” He was annoyed, and annoyed that he was annoyed. He had known from the start it was a long shot, but he had still gotten his hopes up.

Mary rolled her eyes. “Oh, don't act like it's the end of the world, yeah? There are a bunch of other kids after this one who still need classes. 'sides, if we can find some bloodstones, people will hold onto those until the next reset. You're not gonna see them wasted.”

Josh sighed, then forced a grin. “Yeah. Yeah, I get it.” He shrugged. “Just... need to get my head on straight.” He clapped his hands. “So! Big D is busy...”

“You know he still hates that name.” Mary didn't seem like she was telling him to stop. Just... sharing an interesting fact.

“I think Ruth was spending the day with Baara. Wanted to plan out the citystone upgrade and all that.” They had reached the point where they could upgrade it at any time. Except no one wanted to trigger another monster horde too early. “Is it just going to be you and me delving down there?”

Mary huffed out a breath. “If little miss penny-pincher here won't give us any freebies...”

Sarah scoffed.

“...then yeah. I can go down there.” Mary shrugged. “I was getting bored out in the Jungle. Anna and her kids can handle that without us for a day.”

Anna looked up from where she was poking a shelf full of reagents. “Hm? Oh, no, I'm coming with you.”

Mary and Josh both turned to her at the same time. “Wot?”

Anna grinned that too-wide grin again. “I promise, my hunters can pick a few plants without me. I'd much rather spend time with you two.”

Josh frowned. “I feel like I should be uncomfortable with that, but I'm not?”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, don't be a prude, I don't mean that. You're not my type.” Josh noted that she was specifically speaking to him. “But you two attract trouble like honey attracts giant monster ants. I think I'll stick with you.”

“We cleared everything out of the tunnels.” Well, everything that had already been there, and they had finished off the dungeon. Ruth had been very interested in the rift crystals. The point was that while new monsters might have spawned, they wouldn't be anything too impressive. The most dangerous would likely be a walking mushroom that shot poison spores.

She just shrugged. “Sure, kids. Whatever you say.”

Josh looked at Mary. She shrugged too. Well, he couldn't think of a good reason to keep her away. “Kinda creepy” didn't count.

“Sure,” he said. “Let's see what we see, yeah?”

Anna waved goodbye to Sarah as they left. “Bye, sis! Say hi to Dad for me!”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “If I put any of this in my letter, he's going to come out here and drag you back to the City himself.”