The mine turned out to be a large building called "The Dunkle Mine." To reach the entrance, one needed to traverse through an onslaught of shops, merchants, and hawkers, all selling their wares so randomly that it was likely to pass the same shop multiple times before reaching the end.

It was just as well for Fin and Brando, who were able to find and purchase a map, an extra pickaxe, and several jars of glowing moss. For an extra silver, the moss came with a container of 'super moss fuel' that restored its light when it started dimming.

A cool breeze preceded the mine entrance, which was refreshing in such a dense market. When the mouth of the mine became visible, the sight of it was both comforting and daunting. It was comforting because it was not just big enough for humans and whole carriages to move through freely if desired. That alleviated the worry of crawling through small holes made for dwarves. It was daunting because of the heavy traffic going in and out of the entrance, with each dwarf sharing unspoken customs and courtesies utterly foreign to Fin and Brando. They watched the circulating traffic for a while, trying to glean as much information as possible to avoid making any grievous customary mistakes being strangers in such a foreign place.

The dwarves coming out of the mine placed their tools and small sacks in a bin. Then, they subjected themselves to a search while someone else went through their items. If they came out of the mine with valuables, they placed them on a small scale, indicating a fee and possibly taxes they would need to pay. Sometimes, the fee would be taken from valuables, and sometimes, coins were exchanged. The pattern was clear: it was no problem entering the mine, but upon leaving, you had to undergo a rigorous search, and you had to pay the price for anything mined.

When Fin and Brando decided they had learned enough, they went inside. Glow moss lined either side of the pathway, making Fin feel foolish for spending money on it. Brando felt similarly and pointed out every new patch of the abundantly growing moss as more appeared.

Glowing green lines split as the road periodically diverged into multiple paths. Fortunately, with each new path came clearly demarcated signs that correlated with Brando's map.

Fin was using his Sense Treasure ability, already looking for gold, when they stumbled upon the oldest-looking dwarf they had ever seen. The old dwarf stopped what he was doing, greeted the two humans, and exchanged some small talk. His name was Rasengold Kel. He slapped his arms and boasted about hitting rocks better than anyone younger than him. The conversation and silly anecdotes elicited genuine smiles and laughter from Fin and Brando.

Before walking away, Fin pointed an arm's length to the right of where the old man had been mining. "Try digging here instead. Who knows? You might find something."

Finding enough gold worth the effort of mining took time and patience. Most of the early tunnels had sparse traces of valuable ore, even remotely shallow enough to start digging for. The first group of nuggets Fin found was only a few paces across from where three dwarves were already mining. Fin pointed at a place for Brando, and they both began excavating.

After long hours of digging, they only unearthed half of what was hidden in the walls. So, Brando marked the spot on his map, and they left for the day.

The next day, they checked in at the blacksmith, where they were remeasured in some places and asked questions, some seemingly ambiguous. One of the questions was, "What's your favorite animal?" Brando answered for both of them.

"I like horses and Fin as an uncomfortable obsession with dragons," Brando said with a wry grin. "So much so that he actually thinks he-"

"Thanks, Brando, I got it from here," Fin cut him off. "Dragons are fine. Why do you ask?"

Tory gave a 'wait and see' answer, which probably meant it was for armor decorations.

Before leaving, Fin gave Olhoff seven reasonably sized gold nuggets and promised to bring more. By the look on Olhoff's face, Fin ascertained that, though it wasn't much, it helped build a sense of goodwill with the master smith. Olhoff, in turn, offered to melt down all future gold they found into uniform molds that could generally be used as currency. What he didn't say was how he would keep the uniform parcels of gold in case the gems they brought turned out to be worthless. Fin was fine with the implied agreement because he and Brando still had over twenty gold between each other, which was more than enough spending money to tide them over.

Returning to their site, they greeted the old dwarf, who was happy to see them. He offered them lunch as a gesture of gratitude for Fin's mining recommendation, which they accepted graciously. He even took their moss jars and poured in a liquid from a flask, brightening the glow significantly. Brando asked what was in the flask, and Rasengold told him it was water. This infuriated Brando, who had paid a whole silver for the 'super moss fuel' but kept it to himself. Fin felt bamboozled himself, which he also hid. He and Brando had been more or less pooling their funds since they set out on their current quest, and a loss for one of them was a loss for the other.

When they reached the spot they had marked on the map, the three dwarves that had been mining across from them the day prior were now occupying their spot.

Brando cleared his throat and addressed the group, "I noticed you were working down there yesterday, and now you are over here… In our spot."

"Go home, lanks," one of them replied rudely. "Or will you try to kick us out of this mine too?"

Fin was ready to intervene and prevent the situation from escalating when Brando surprised him.

"I guess this has to do with Clive Rae kicking the dwarves out of the mine, huh?" Brando asked but continued when no answer was forthcoming, "If it's any consolation, I apologize on behalf of humans everywhere for your mistreatment. Not all of us are as bad as Clive Rae. Well, his daughter's actually worse, if you can believe it. I was going to kidnap her cat, but, well, things fell through, and I wasn't able to. If it was up to me, we would have let her die in those very mines you were banned from."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Brando noticed the looks of shocked confusion on the young dwarves' faces. It wasn't the response he was going for, so he cleared his throat and backtracked. "I understand your disdain, but not all of us are bad people. I have seen the real enemy and hope one day we can fight them together. For now, I can only offer my condolences for your mistreatment and move along."

One of the dwarves harrumphed, but another got a suspicious look in his eye and asked, "When we go to war, whose side are you going to stand on, the humans or the dwarves?"

"Neither," Brando replied. "We are preparing to fight another war, and I don't want to see the princess again, no matter what side she's standing on."

Fin clarified by explaining their circumstances and plans to fight the goblins. He felt they had wasted enough time already. Still, it seemed important to Brando to curry a sense of amity with this group. So, he sat down and told the same story that he had said a near countless times over. By the end of it, the disposition of the group had softened.

"You can have your spot back if you really want it," one of the dwarves offered, eliciting an angry look from another.

"No, that's fine," Fin stood up and brushed his pants off. "There's a few good chunks of gold in there, but we can find more."

The dwarves looked at the stone wall and then back to Fin several times with disbelief.

Fin sighed at the thought of doing a good deed to someone he wanted to pummel only moments earlier. He walked between them, took his pickaxe, and drew seven circles in the stone. Then he pointed to each circle and gave rapid instructions, apathetic to the possibility that instructions were not fully comprehended. When he finished, he wished them good fortune and strode for a new mining spot.

The next few days came and went with a sense of routine. They visited the smithy, went to the mine, ate breakfast with Rasengold, and mined for gold. The only change was the size of the group waiting for them with Rasengold. It started with the three dwarves who had initially stolen their spot and were now suddenly interested in mending the ties between humans and dwarves. Both Fin and Brando knew they were there for the same reason everyone else was.

The group grew from four people to fifteen overnight. Each person brought food from home to thank Fin for sharing the insights of his 'gold attunement.' The food and drinks were not considered payment. Still, it was generally understood that the donation was a small price to pay for Fin to draw one of his famous circles, signifying the location of hidden gold. The fifteen dwarves were a bigger crowd than either of them would prefer, but the home-cooked meals and drinks were too good to pass up, and Fin was able to stow all the extras for later.

The crowd seemed to double every day. It started getting out of control when they arrived to discover a group with numbers greater than fifty, all holding neatly wrapped lunches and jars of cream, juice, or ale. Fin was about to turn them all away when Brando saw an opportunity.

"Why don't you let them mine for you?" Brando suggested, waving his hand over the neatly organized row of dwarves holding treats and wearing looks of anticipation. "All you have to do is point at the wall, tell them what's in it, and they'll give you part of what they find."

Part of Fin felt weird about taking a portion of someone else's gold, especially since he hadn't paid the mine or the taxes on the gold he had accumulated. After all, what good is a secret storage space if you don't use it to evade taxes and fees? He could argue that the gold was for a good cause, but something inside him knew and judged him because he would opt to avoid payments no matter the circumstances. He decided to ask the dwarves what they thought about the idea.

Fin led everyone to a larger cavern and had everyone gather around. He spoke with a confidence that he had not known before he set out only months prior.

"Hello, everyone. For those who don't know me, my name is Fin, and this is my friend Brando. Someone has probably told you that I can tell you where to dig if you bring meals. That is not very sustainable with a group this large, so I want you to help me develop a more sustainable plan," Fin allowed the murmurs to grow and then die down before he continued. "We are only here for a limited time. If all I do is go around and tell you where to dig, I won't be able to gather the funds I need. However, if we work together, it is possible that we can find a way that is mutually beneficial. One idea is that I can show you where to dig; in return, you can give me a portion of the gold I directed you to. If we do it this way, I can only guarantee enough gold at your site to afford the cost. However, I do not want this group to grow any bigger. Something tells me that if our operation becomes public knowledge, we all could get in a lot of trouble. In return for your silence, I will not be searching you like they do outside. We will base our agreement on honor, something I have found to be a great strength among the dwarves."

"Tell them what the gold is for!" shouted one of the original members of their mining party from the back of the cavern.

Fin groaned inwardly. He would trade all the meals in his inventory to never have to tell this story again. He looked at Brando with exhaustion and waved him forward.

Brando didn't want to tell the story either, so he invited the helpful dwarf to center stage to retell their story. The story lasted longer than it should have, and the dwarf focused on things that neither Fin nor Brando would have, but the point was made and it seemed to resonate with the crowd.

Fin thanked the dwarf, making a mental note to get his name later, and tried to conclude the speeches as fast as possible. "I guess that helps you understand what our goal here is. Does anyone have questions or ideas?"

"If I come with you, can I use the mine?" A voice asked from the crowd.

Brando stepped in to answer, "If you fight with us, we will give you full access to the mine once we conquer the encampment. It will be dangerous, but we will gladly welcome all extra swords, hammers, and shields when the time comes."

Questions spilled from the crowd. There were questions about the type of jewels in the mine, the size of the enemy army, and trivial details like travel arrangements. One of them dared to ask if they could mine after the battle. The questions, however, had nothing to do with their current arrangement. Finally, Fin announced there would be time for questions later and directed everyone to form a line behind him. He led a multitude of dwarves through the mine without the slightest clue of what he was doing.

At his first stop, he drew three circles for the first two dwarves immediately behind him. He explained how deep they would have to go for each marked place and asked for one of the pieces of gold in return. The dwarves agreed and got to work. Fin pressed forward and repeated the process of periodically stopping, marking locations with his pickaxe, and directing the miners immediately behind him. Sometimes, he would set a price and other times, he would negotiate based on the quantity of gold. The process went on for long, excruciating hours.

Brando used the map to navigate new areas while Fin worked diligently to get miners dispatched to gold-rich areas. Fin needed time to recover periodically before continuing forward, so they all sat down, ate, and rested. The rest and meals had helped a little, but the constant activation of Sense Treasure made his head hurt. Still, he could not stop while he had miners left following him. After the last dwarf in the line was commissioned, Fin followed Brando to where Rasengold was mining and sat down. He gave one last helpful instruction to the old dwarf before curling up on the cool earth and falling asleep.