After nineteen hours and forty minutes of rigorous cleaning, Mud was finally satisfied that its work was complete. Mud had given itself a buffer period in case of mishaps, but it was not needed. The combination of Mud's advanced, Akashic fueled knowledge of housework and the instincts of a Master Butler allowed the task to be completed without flaw.

Its task complete, Mud returned to the center of the room where the Earth Dragon Lutumocus now rested, curled into a tight ball.

"I am finished."

In response to the message, Lutumocus lept to her feet, back arched and tail raised into the air. After a frantic sweep of her head, her golden eyes locked onto Mud. Identifying Mud as the source of the message, she settled back onto the floor, acting as though her startled reaction never happened. "Ah, mud pie. You're finished with the cleaning then?"

"That is correct."

The dragon closed her catlike eyes for a moment. "Yes, you've done well mud pie. As per our agreement, you may leave my territory with your life." When Lutumocus finished speaking, she slowly opened her eyes and observed the unmoving Mud. "Why are you still here?"

This time, Mud would make sure that the intention to barter was clear. "I wish to negotiate the safety of the items removed from the mansion."

Lutumocus scoffed. "As a show of my magnanimity, I will allow the return of the objects I do not consider worthy of my horde. As for those few items that have caught my interest, I will not be relinquishing them." While cleaning the dragon's horde, Mud noted several of The Master's possessions sprinkled throughout. Of particular note was Ego Golem, who was strapped securely to a strong metal table with a multitude of chains.

Mud considered the rationale of Lutumocus. Presumably, her goal was to collect objects that showed signs of skilled workmanship, or which were constructed of rare and valuable materials. Unlike Mud's orders, which specified predefined objects which must be protected, Lutumocus's prime directive instead appeared to seek to maximize both the total number and average quality of the items in her possession. Therefore, there might be one scenario in which she would be willing to part with an item.

"If I provide an object of superior craftsmanship, can I then exchange it for the return of one of the items removed from the mansion?"

"Hmm, a trade then?" This caught the dragon's attention. Still, after a moment of thought, she shook her snout. "No, I can not allow an object I've collected for my horde leave this place. Such a thing harms a dragon's honor. We do not collect wealth merely as an investment."

"It will not be necessary for the objects to leave your horde once they have been returned to me."

"What do you mean?" Once again, Lutumocus's interest was piqued.

"Once the items have been returned to me, I will permanently store them at this location. What is important to me is that I own the objects and that they are safe. This location is extremely secure and has a powerful protector. Therefore, leaving my possessions here would be beneficial to me. My only requirement is that you promise to not allow harm to come to the artifacts left here."

"So you're offering to give me works of art, and all you want in exchange is to technically have ownership of some items, even though I will never let you bring those items out of this room? A co-ownership, in a sense."

The word 'art' was not a part of Mud's initial offer, but the golem took it to be an extra requirement from the dragon. "Yes."

"Ha! I really don't understand you. What's the point of owning something if you don't physically control it? Well, that's a deal that works for me."

[Negotiation Skill obtained at level 1]

A flow of negotiation related information flowed into Mud, but the golem pushed it aside for the moment. It would examine the knowledge more carefully later.

Mud dug through its muddy torso and extracted a small artifact that glowed brightly with barely contained power. Mud held it aloft above its head, filling the dark chamber with a soft white glow. "I will exchange this object to regain ownership of an item from the mansion." Mud was unsure if this was art, but it was certainly finely crafted.

"Oh, how quaint." Lutumocus carefully grasped the dungeon wave achievement recording device between two claws and brought it before her left eye. "Filled with the smallest fragments of passing souls... mostly tier one, but there's so many of them. I wonder how long the light will last." The dragon carefully handed the artifact to a Kobold that appeared out of the darkness. Just as suddenly as the Kobold arrived, it slid behind a statue and vanished from sight. "I will accept this as trade. The workmanship is basic, but it must have been time-consuming to collect that many soul fragments. I'll give you back... hmmm... the enchanted heating plate. I believe that to be a fair trade."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Mud was extremely pleased with this exchange. Not only did it regain one of The Master's valuable possessions, but it demonstrated that the dragon was willing to trade for the remainder. Even if it might take an extreme effort or a long amount of time to trade back for all that it had lost, there was now a clear path to reobtaining everything it had lost.

"My next offering is this artifact." Reaching once again into its torso, Mud extracted the mana magnet that had been removed from the Geltheas city dungeon.

Upon seeing it, Lutumocus turned her head away in disgust. "Oh abyss!" Before the golem could react, the dragon snatched the artifact from Mud's hands and passed it to a waiting Kobold. "Get this thing out of the mountain. Put it back in that crab house. Go! Now!" The Kobold quickly did as instructed, weaving around artwork and through the chamber doors with fluid movement. Once he was gone from sight, Lutumocus let out a sigh of relief. She then turned back towards Mud, anger clear in her eyes. "If you bring that thing back into my mountain again, I'll kill you. No wonder he air felt so thick..."

"Understood. This is my next offer." This time, Mud held aloft its metallic endoskeleton. Lutumocus took one look at the tangled mass of chains and blades and waved a dismissive paw. "Pass. That thing's hideous."

Mud considered its remaining possessions which it was willing to part with. There was the healing potion still being held by Jabrax, but other than that nothing came to mind. Even if the potion was accepted, It would not solve the problem. There were still five objects within the horde that Mud needed to retrieve, and it seemed unlikely the dragon would offer more than one object per trade. Two books taken from The Master's bookshelves, The Master's orange robe, a taxidermied Manticore, and of course Ego Golem herself needed to be retrieved.

There was only one solution that seemed immediately viable. "I will return once I have made art." With that, Mud turned and marched out of the dragon's lair.

After exploring the tunnels for some time and receiving directions from several Kobolds, Mud finally located its humans in what the Kobold's referred to as a 'sleep den'. Within the pile of countless sleeping Kobold, Mud quickly located the pleasantly snoozing Cob. Novus was off to the side, leaning against a wall and observing her surroundings warily. When she noticed Mud, the girl sprang to her feet and sprinted over to the golem, wrapping him in a hug.

"Mud, I'm so happy to see you." Novus sobbed slightly. "I thought they were going to eat me."

"Irrelevant." Mud used Telekinesis to jostle Cob, who slowly woke and rubbed his eyes. "Cob and Novus, come with me. You will assist me in making art."

"Art? What?" Novus didn't receive a reply as Mud began walking out of the den. Cob carefully crawled off the mass of lizards and followed behind shortly.

After a few twists and turns, the trio finally exited the caves and were greeted by cool night air and starry skies. Mud scanned the hillside they emerged on, and, finding what he was looking for, approached a large tree. With a blast of Force Bolt, the tree toppled to the ground. A second force bolt near the middle of the tree separated the top of the tree, leaving a section of trunk roughly two units long.

"Novus, come here." Curious what he had planned, Novus approached to stand beside Mud. As soon as she neared, Mud pounced onto her and spread its amorphous form to cover her entire body. "Arg, Mud, what are you, mph-" Novus's complaints were silenced as her mouth was covered in a layer of wet earth. A short time later Mud fell off of her body, returning to its humanoid form, leaving Novus to stumble backward onto the ground, gasping for air. "Mud, what the", Novus gasped, "abyss was that about?"

Ignoring her, as well as the laughing Cob, Mud began hacking away at the tree trunk with the blades and hooks of its endoskeleton. Metal, bark, and chunks of wood flew everywhere as Mud rapidly cut away at the trunk.

Eventually, Mud's attack halted all at once, the chains retreating back into its body. Mud reached down to the carved tree trunk and lifted it up, revealing it to be a statue of Novus.

Aside from the brown color of wood, the statue was a nearly perfect replica of Novus. Every detail was reproduced exactly, to the extent possible given the medium. Even blisters on her hands and the pores of her skin were visible on close examination. The folds of her clothing almost looked real. Mud balanced the statue on its feet and turned its attention towards the observing humans. "Is this art?"

Novus's face turned red, and Cob doubled over in laughter. "Mud, please destroy that statue," choaked out Novus.

"Why?" Mud was unsure what the problem was.

"I look horrible!" Novus pointed towards the face of the statue. "Look at my face! I don't look like that!"

"That is an accurate reproduction of your face. I even entered your mouth, nose, and ears to make sure the reproduction was as accurate as possible."

"No, I, hehe, agree with Mud." Said Cob. "He really captured that 'someone just shoved a bunch of dirt into my mouth and nose' look."

Novus scowled at Cob and continued. "Also the pose..." Novus waved an arm generally towards the statue, which depicted Novus clawing at the air near her face, leaning heavily backward and twisting. As it became clear that Mud did not comprehend what was wrong with the sculpture, Novus decided to try to explain things more simply. "Look, a sculpture isn't just about being a realistic depiction of something. That's not what art is about. You need to be trying to convey something. It can be something beautiful, or something horrible, or I don't know, even something normal is okay if you have something to say or can evoke emotion. But this," Novus gestured towards the statue once more, "is just what I looked like when I was unexpectedly engulfed. It doesn't mean anything and it doesn't even make sense without the context of knowing what happened."

"I understand. This statue is flawed because it is unclear what is occurring. I will add a sign which explains you are being engulfed."

"No, that would still not be... what about including yourself engulfing me in the carving? That would be better than this, at least."

"Aside from my choice of subject matter, how would you rate the quality of this art? Would you say it is more or less valuable than a book about rune language embossed with gold leaf? What subject matter should I depict to make the most valuable art?"

Mud continued to question Cob and Novus on the nature of art until the sun rose, and late into the morning.