The Nimble Hogs had more rooms than Owin had originally thought. There was a hallway behind Chorsay’s office with more private quarters, including Artivan’s old room. Sanem had shown Owin where it was, saying it was his to use as he saw fit, even if he didn’t need to sleep.

For now, Owin kept everything with him. It felt odd to leave something in a room. What if he needed it?

Sanem led him back down to the main lobby. Potilia sat on a stool, leaning on the counter, with a book open almost right in front of her face. She was so absorbed in the book that she hadn’t even realized they stood right before her.

“Po,” Sanem said calmly.

“Shit!” Po shrieked and accidentally launched her book off the counter. Owin reached to catch it, but fumbled and dropped it right at his feet. Potilia leaned over. “I don’t know what page I was on.”

“What are you reading?” Sanem asked. She picked up the book and set it on the desk.

“Uh, I don’t want to tell you.” Potilia wrapped her arms around the book and pulled it back.

Sanem rolled her eyes. “Okay. Is Miya downstairs?”

“Why would I know?”

“Po.”

Potilia gestured to a door hidden to the side behind the counter. “Go check. Where else would she be?”

“You’re the worst. Come on, Owin.” Sanem led the way behind the counter, through the door, and down a dark staircase. It wasn’t as dark as the doorways between floors, but the combination of stairs and darkness was too similar.

“Miya,” Sanem shouted.

“Huh? Who is it?” The voice that responded was a little raspy.

“Who is she?” Owin asked.

“Our alchemist. A citizen.”

“I’m sending Owin to you,” Sanem shouted. “Good luck,” she whispered before going back up the stairs and closing the door.

“Good luck?” Owin whispered. He tried peering down the stairs but it was too dark. He inched down, causing the stairs to creak with each small step.

“Are you the ugly one?” the raspy voice shouted.

“Why does everyone keep calling me ugly?”

Owin stepped onto the basement floor, surprised to find it covered in such a thick layer of dust. A harsh light shone through a doorway just beyond, too bright to make out anything specific.

A silhouette appeared in the center. “You are the ugly one.”

“I guess.”

The light dimmed just as another bulb above Owin’s head flicked on.

A woman stood in the doorway with long, tangled hair. Thick goggles covered her eyes and a purple mask with a thick coating of dust hid the rest of her face. She wore colorful, mismatched clothes with a dark, stained lab coat over it all. Stained fingertips peeked out from her fingerless gloves, gripping onto shining bottles that looked like they held liquid fire.

Citizen

Miya Fururo

Alchemist

Nimble Hogs Hero Company

Owin had seen her sitting near Myrsvai while he was telling his story, but she hadn’t been wearing the goggles or mask. Her pink tie and green shoes were the same as she had been wearing before. They were hard to miss.

“How are you level 1?” Miya asked. Her voice was hardly muffled by the mask.

“I don’t know.”

She lifted her goggles and let them rest on her forehead. “What’s in the bag?”

“Ingredients.”

Miya wiggled her eyebrows. “For me?”

“I don’t know.”

Miya flipped the glowing bottle in her hand and caught it without watching. Owin flinched as the bright liquid inside bubbled with the sudden movement. “Do you know anything?”

“Not a lot,” Owin said.

“Self awareness is important.” Miya flipped the bottle again. “Sometimes.” She lowered her goggles and strode right back through the doorway, leaving Owin standing near the stairs.

Confusion wasn’t new to him, though for a short time he had felt like things were starting to make sense. That lasted maybe an hour.

The only other alchemist he had met was Naxile, and she had tried to murder him. While it didn’t appear that Miya planned to murder him, he didn’t want to put it past her.

The light inside the next room was still harsh, but it had dimmed enough for Owin to see a counter with a variety of papers, scrolls, and books scattered across the top. He leaned to the side, seeing Miya with a butcher’s knife and a cutting board on the same counter. It looked like she was about to start chopping at the scrolls.

“Are you coming?” Miya shouted.

“Was I supposed to?”

“Why else are you down here?”

Owin slowly approached the doorway and stood at the threshold. Miya chopped down on what looked like a fish with arms and legs. Its head popped off and fell to the ground. She looked back with a bit of fish blood on her goggles. It dripped onto her mask and rolled right off.

“What are you doing?”

Miya glanced back at the headless fish thing. She held the knife up, letting fish blood drip onto her gloves. “Chopping.”

“I know, but why?” Owin inched forward. The room was split into four quadrants. Miya was on the close right with a stove, various cooking equipment, and the counter covered in papers.

Boxes were stacked to his left beside a table that reminded Owin of Naxile. Glass devices were spread haphazardly over the top of the great stone table. Random bags filled the space below the table as if Miya had shoved bag after bag into what little space there was underneath.

Miya set the headless fish creature down and walked around the counter to a brick kiln. Bright firelight shone off her goggles as she pulled the metal grate open. She grabbed tongs and carefully pulled a crucible from inside.

“What are you doing?”

“Smelting.” Miya hurried around the counter back to the stove where she set the crucible.

Owin inched closer, trying to see what was inside. Something bubbled and popped from inside the crucible, sending a flash of green liquid into the air. Miya picked up the dead fish creature and tossed its whole corpse into the crucible. The smell of cooking fish immediately filled the room.

“What was that?”

“The herengo? It’s a fish person.” She peered inside the crucible. “I’d show you, but it’s gone.”

“Was it a mob?”

“Yes, of course. Fish people don’t exist outside.” Miya used a metal rod to stir the contents of the crucible. “I suppose goblins don’t either.” She shrugged, grabbed the crucible with tongs, and carried it across the room to the cluttered metal table.

“What are you making?”

“You ask a lot of questions. If I have the recipe right, I think this is a potion of water breathing.” With precise movements, Miya tilted the crucible, pouring its molten contents into a metal tube. It filtered through, rapidly cooling as it passed through a series of glass pipes. It finally reached the end where a solid drop of metal splashed into a small container of water.

The water lit up in a rainbow before dimming to teal. The metal drop was nowhere to be seen inside. Miya picked up the container and swirled it.

“Looks like I nailed it.” Her index flashed over her goggles. “Only journeyman quality.” She poured it into a potion bottle and placed the cork. “Want it?”

Owin nodded.

Stolen story; please report.

Miya walked over, crouched, grabbed Owin’s bag, and placed the potion inside. While she was there, she tried peeking inside the bag, but Owin pulled it back.

“You know, most Nimble Hogs bring ingredients down here. I buy them and use them. That’s one of the ways our group actually makes money. Do you think I found the herengo on my own?”

“No. You’re a citizen.”

“Right. I have no interest in the dungeons. But I am good at this.” She reached back into the bag and pulled out the potion of waterbreathing. “See?”

“I saw it the first time.”

Miya stood up and held her hand out. “So, what did you find?”

Owin walked over to the stone table. It was barely taller than him, so he grabbed a nearby crate and jumped on top. He looked inside his bag. There was still some loose specter slime, though most of it had been placed in bottles. He pulled all of those out, setting them down one at a time. Next were the rat tails from the labyrinth. He hadn’t grabbed much of anything else. The ocular heart he had found would have been a useful ingredient if he hadn’t eaten it right away.

The last thing he pulled out was the Bone of the Withered Shade.

“What is this?” Miya immediately grabbed the bone and brought it close to her eyes. She turned it over as her index flashed in front of the goggles. “I can’t get any information on it.”

“It gave me a world quest.”

Miya lifted her goggles. “A what?” She took one more look at the bone before handing it back. “I don’t think that’s an ingredient.”

“It said I can summon the Withered Shade if I find more pieces.” Owin stuffed the bone back in his bag.

“Fascinating. Keep me updated. If I hear anything with the same name, I’ll pick it up and show you.” She jogged over to a table in the far left corner. It only had two old chairs left, as the other two were placed in other random places around the room. Miya took one of the chairs and brought it to the alchemist table and took a seat.

Owin had a feeling the chair would now remain there forever, just as the others never seemed to return to the table they had originated from.

Miya pushed some of her devices aside and looked over the jars of specter slime. She kept her goggles on her forehead as her index stayed flashing in front of her eyes. The rat tails were partially dried and wrinkled. Some were still spotted with dried blood.

“Nothing incredible, but I can give you three gold for the tails and thirty for the slime.”

“That seems good.”

Miya reached into a pocket of her lab coat and started pulling out individual coins. She counted each one, setting them on the tabletop right in front of Owin. After what felt like hours, she stopped counting and pushed all the ingredients off the table into an empty crate on the side.

Owin pushed the stack of gold into his bag. “I forgot I had these.” He grabbed the random gems he had acquired. Miya picked one up and set two more gold.

“For each?”

She grabbed a few more pieces of gold. “They’re pretty common, but they are great enhancers.” She shoved the gems off into the same crate as the other ingredients.

“Can you make health or buff potions?”

“Yes, but . . .” Miya looked over her shoulder at the opposite corner. Just past the kiln were some planters with mushrooms growing out the top. “Those need another week before they’re done. Buffs are expensive and difficult. I’ve only figured out apprentice level ones so far and I don’t have the items needed. Health potions are simpler, but still expensive to make. I can sell you some for twenty gold each.”

Owin looked inside his bag. He had just gotten thirty three gold, which wouldn’t even buy two health potions. And whatever he paid now would cut down on his money to use the portals in the future.

“Is everything expensive?”

“Oh, yes. Life will cut your throat and drain it for the gold.”

“I don’t get things for being a Nimble Hog?”

Miya’s eyebrows raised. “Twenty is a discount.”

“Oh.”

Owin counted twenty gold and gave it right back to Miya. She dropped them into her coat pocket, then stood and disappeared through the doorway beside the alchemy worktable. Her footsteps quickly retreated, vanishing altogether.

Owin pulled one of the Bones of the Withered Shade out of his bag. It felt dusty. Any other pieces would likely be in other secrets, but how easy would those be to find? Owin hadn’t done a thing to find the two secrets he had been part of. Artivan had already known about them and led Owin to both.

The only thing Owin had done was accidentally fall down the stairs into the lich’s chamber. He couldn’t go back to the Great Forest without risking the wrath of Ruvaine, so if Owin was going to conquer a dungeon, it would need to be one of the others. But which one would be the best?

Finding secrets as he climbed was going to lead him to more powerful weapons or enhancements, which is what he really needed. No amount of training was going to carry him to the top, no matter what Sanem said. He needed buffs, armor, and new weapons.

Miya returned with a health potion that she handed to Owin. “We’re running low. I blame Lera.” She sat down heavily in the chair. “You looked deep in thought.”

“Do you know about the secrets in the dungeons?”

“I don’t know anything about the dungeons. But instead of thinking, want to light something on fire?” Her eyebrows raised again.

Owin put the bone and the potion into his bag. “Why?”

“It’s fun?”

What was fun about lighting things on fire? Was fire fun? Owin sat a little more upright, which Miya took as a clear “Yes.” She scurried away, grabbed a few random items and a metal pot. She crashed back into the chair and dumped everything on the table.

“This is the best.”

“Why?” Owin tried to stand on his toes to see into the pot.

Miya ran to the counter, grabbed one of her chairs, and ran back. She gestured to the other chair for Owin, which was a little taller than the box he had been standing on. He stepped up and easily looked into the empty pot.

“You haven’t burned things before?”

“Didn’t you hear my story?” Owin asked. He swore she had been in the dining hall when he told the whole story.

“I assumed you left out a few key details. Like your arson streak.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

Miya placed a couple pieces of what looked like angular blocks of metal into the pot. “We’re not going to worry about definitions right now. My past with the Stelsodo Security Regime isn’t important.”

Owin picked up a piece of metal and used Examine.

Tinder Ore

“I don’t recommend holding that,” Miya said.

Owin quickly dropped it back into the pot. It sparked as it landed, causing the other blocks to spark in succession. After a few seconds, everything calmed back down.

“Tinder ore is highly flammable.” Miya picked a block up and twisted it in her fingers. “You could probably guess that from the name.”

“Yeah.”

She tossed it up, causing it to spark in the air before she caught it. “This is just our fuel. What do you want to burn?”

“What are my options?”

“I have some mob corpses. Those—” Miya scratched her head. “Is that insensitive?”

“I’m not a mob. Not anymore.”

“So . . . not insensitive?”

“My feelings aren’t hurt,” Owin said.

Miya gave him a thumbs up. “Or we can find some useless plants to burn. Not all plants are worth growing, you know? We can also burn books. Books burn well. Don’t tell Chorsay I said that. His heart is already massive. We don’t need to push it any farther.”

She was so excited. Owin couldn't even imagine what was so fun about burning any of those things. “I’ll let you choose.”

Miya scrambled away again.

Owin grabbed another piece of tinder ore. “Can I keep one of these?”

Miya stuck her head in from the next room. “Tinder ore? Sure. Don’t light yourself on fire.” She disappeared again.

Owin grabbed an empty bottle and carefully put the little block of metal inside. It sparked as it hit the glass, then calmed down once it settled on the bottom. “Where is it from?”

“The Subterranean Dungeon. It’s common and it lasts a long time. You can buy a bag for a gold if you want, but it’s dangerous to carry. Plenty of heroes have lit themselves on fire trying to make an easy payday.” Miya reappeared with a dried corpse of something small and a bright yellow flower. She grabbed a scroll from the counter and set it all next to the pot on the alchemy table.

“So, mobs can’t leave the dungeons, but mob corpses can?” Owin asked. He had harvested items from mobs like the rat tails and the ocular heart, but he hadn’t heard of anyone taking a full corpse out.

“Yes and no. They have to be preserved in some way. It’s not common for the bigger mobs. Carrying those around just isn’t realistic. But small things like this?” She picked the snake-like thing up again. “Easy to toss it in a bag like you did with your ingredients.”

“What is that?”

Owin used Examine as soon as Miya set it down.

Dried Corpse

That taught him nothing.

“It’s a scaltari newt.” Miya cleared her throat. “A little fucked up, if you ask me. But as we know, they’re not actually intelligent, so . . .” She shrugged and dropped the dried corpse back on the table. “It’s better to not think about it. Those are used in shield potions. Literally no other use for them.”

“Couldn’t we make one of those instead of burning it?”

“Nah. I don’t have the other ingredients. And this is more fun. What good is a shield?”

“Shields saved me a lot.”

“Oh.” She picked up the dried corpse again. “We’re still burning it.”

Owin picked up the flower. “What about this?”

“That’s a daffodil. No alchemical use. They grow in the small gardens around the portals outside.” She leaned close. “I picked it without permission.”

“You stole a flower?”

“When you phrase it that way, it makes me seem like the bad person. Do you want to burn things or not?”

“I still don’t know why you’re saying this is so fun.”

“See this?” She grabbed the scroll and unfurled it. “This is a tax record. Do you know what taxes are?”

“No.”

“Well, no need to know.” Miya placed the scroll into the pot. She grabbed a small metal rod nearby and jabbed at a piece of tinder ore. The pieces bounced off each other and all sparked, quickly lighting the paper on fire. Yellow flames burned brightly, consuming the scroll as they climbed and grew brighter.

Owin watched with wide eyes. He could feel the heat on his face, and just as soon as it had started, the flames died, leaving only a pile of ash on the pieces of tinder ore.

“Thoughts?” Miya asked.

“What’s next?”

Miya nodded excitedly. She grabbed the flower and placed the end of the stem between some pieces. “Would you be interested?”

Owin took the metal rod and jabbed at a piece of tinder ore. Sparks exploded through the pot, causing the end of the stem to catch fire. It sent a thick stream of smoke as the flames grew hotter, slowly crawling up. Above, the petals wilted in the head, curling until the flames consumed them.

Owin watched silently. Miya placed the dried corpse inside next and gestured for Owin to strike the ore. The corpse burned green in a huge flame that filled the inside of the pot. Even the tinder ore caught fire, causing the whole pot to burn for minutes.

Miya nudged Owin a few times, but both watched without words, letting the colorful flames dance before them. Over time, the flames faded and the body collapsed into ash. The tinder ore was untouched at the bottom of the pot.

“Was I right?” Miya asked.

“You were right,” Owin said. “Do you have anything else?”

“I’ll burn the whole fucking building if I get the chance.” Miya scurried away again.

“Wait, don’t do that!”

Miya didn’t answer.

“Don’t burn the building,” Owin said.

Miya reappeared in the doorway. “Not today. But if I get bored tomorrow . . . who will stop me?”