[https://www.tanyarochester.com/uploads/5/4/5/5/54553809/grace3_orig.png]

I glanced down at the burgundy floor and sighed. “Wouldn’t it go faster if we all worked together?”

“It’s fine for you to clean it by yourself," Eldin said. "Searching for clues is good but we can't take an enormous amount of time scouring a single area.

"Also, since you spent most of your time in the office, I decided that both Lore and myself will search for hidden compartments.”

“Wait, aren’t you guys gonna watch my back?”

“Since you’ll be constantly moving around, I think it’ll be fine for us to split up a little. We'll Just leave the doors open.”

Fine, whatever. We still get our necklaces even if we die. Though that prize money would let us leave right away bypassing our tail. Yeah, okay, we needed to win this thing for the PMk.

I headed over to the cleaning supply closet and picked out a broom and a dustpan. They didn’t have the same design as the ones I was used to, but their functions were obvious.

“Hey! That’s not a mop.” Eldin yelled from across the room.

I glanced at him and rolled my eyes. “I’ve worked in a restaurant before. If you’re going to mop, you have to sweep first or the job will be half-assed.”

He sighed. “Fine, just be quick about it.”

Fuck, did this guy have an issue with me? He seemed so different last night. Maybe, that was before he discovered I was a halfling.

I started sweeping methodically from the front left to the back right, then I went into each of the attached rooms and did the same. Since my strength wasn’t that low I even swept under heavy foodstuffs stored on the floor. It didn't take long before I finished.

The kitchen wall had three trash chutes — like the ones for laundry in movies— labeled, Trash, Compost, and Reusable in a beautiful Art Nouveau style font. I opened the one for trash and noticed something moving inside like an octopus caught in a jar.

I screamed, tossed my dustpan's contents at it, then slammed the lid closed. On instinct, I pressed my shoulder against the chute and used my body weight against it.

Whatever it was battered against the metal lid. The bangs reverberated through the room.

All the blood drained from my face and I turned to look at Lore and Eldin who ran toward me.

Each hit from the monster forced the lid open and the gap widened a little farther with each strike. Sweat dripped down my forehead.

The thing finally threw all of its weight against the chute knocking me back several inches.

Eldin threw himself against the lid just before a shadow-like tendril could creep out. Then the sounds vanished.

“The fuck was that?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Was that the thing killing people?”

“Considering that we’re still alive,” Lore said, “I doubt it.”

“Should... should we check the other chutes for clues?”

Lore and Eldin glanced at each other and nodded.

“You keep going, we’ll look.”

I agreed, glad that I wouldn’t have to dig around in trash. Besides, at this point, I wanted to run far away from those creepy-ass chutes.

I put my broom and oversized dustpan away then grabbed a mop bucket and a clean mop. Oddly, there were dirty mops too, but I knew from experience that you didn't use a dirty mop to clean a floor unless you want the whole place to stink. I also had to use my upgraded Observe skill to look at the items within the closet to find the floor cleaner they used.

I filled the bucket at the sink with hot water and threw a cleaner tablet into it. It immediately turned the water sparkly and bright as if it were filled with light. It was weird because I was expecting the usual chemical blue. Well, this was a different world.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I dipped the mop in the bucket and began cleaning. As soon as the fibers touched the floor the dark, dirty burgundy turned a bright jeweled ruby.

“Damn. When the fuck was the last time these people mopped?”

I started getting into it because watching the floor transform into polished gemstone like this reminded me of those YouTube videos of people power-washing things. Just super relaxing.

When I reached the pantry I had to pause because I needed to clean inside it first before I continued with the main floor.

“Hey, I’m going to start in on all the side rooms so finish your investigation there soon,” I called out to Lore and Eldin. They came out and told me which rooms to do first.

With a sigh, I started in on the ice room. I had to leave my bucket outside of it or the hot water I used would turn solid. I also had to keep dipping my mop outside the room or else the fibers would freeze.

After that, I had to replace my now chilly water. I felt a little bad about wasting so much of that awesome cleaning stuff, but no one was here to tell me how much to use and the floor was so dirty that it made me suspect that whoever cleaned it normally, didn’t use much of each tablet. They must be expensive.

I suddenly had a horrifying flashback to this one terrible restaraunt I worked at that was always concerned with the price of everything. Their motto was to cut all corners.

They used the cheapest cleaners and the smallest amount of it each time. To ‘save water’ they’d use one bucket for a huge area. Also, they wouldn’t use separate, specific mops between the main area and the restroom. After years of these corner-cutting measures, the floor, which was old linoleum to begin with, looked like shit and was eternally sticky in places. So, with relish, I continued using the floor cleaner tablets. And if they wanted me to pay for them all, I’d just grin and flip them off.

I finished the cold room and went to do the pantry but Lore and Eldin softly discussed something in there that sounded important so I walked over to the office and quickly gave it a good clean, then since I could still hear their low voices I scoured the floor of the cleaning supply closet. This gave them just enough time to finish. When I came back, I glared at them.

“Did you find anything?”

“No, we’re giving up and heading to the next room to try our luck.”

My eyes widened. “Don’t we need to find specific clues still?”

Eldin shook his head. “While the entire event isn’t exactly timed, we essentially only have a single night and we’ve already spent too much time here.”

“Okay, sure.” I didn’t like giving up on possible clues if we could help it but since they said so I’d follow their lead. “Where is our exit to the next room?”

They each pointed to a different spot. I sighed.

“It’s at least in here right?”

They both shrugged, Lore did so by elegantly lifting one shoulder while Eldin raised both nonchalantly.

“Well, you better figure it out fast because I’m almost done here. I just have this side room and the rest of the main area to finish.”

“Go ahead and start on the main area and leave this room for last.”

“Fine.” I started in on the corner opposite the pantry and methodically mopped in a tight ‘w’ shaped pattern. By the time I reached the pantry, they had discovered a hidden stairwell in the wall. I shooed them into it and finally finished the pantry floor, once again getting the parts under heavy ingredients.

I waited for a second. That was weird. Shouldn’t there be a prompt telling me that I finished? Maybe if I put my mop and bucket away?

I stored them in my inventory and then, to avoid getting dirty shoe marks on my sparklingly clean ruby floor, I teleported to a dry area that I had line-of-sight to. I ended up right in front of the stove we fixed.

Huh? Now that I looked at it a second time, the floor in front of the stove seemed odd. Instead of being the same shade as the rest of the floor, it had a deep blood color. That wasn’t right. Did I not clean it well enough?

I took out my bucket of magically cleaning water and dipped a washcloth from my inventory in it. When I scrubbed it clean, it revealed a tile that was still slightly darker than those around it.

Since it was only a few stone tiles that I'd missed, and since I was down here anyway, I scrubbed each one clean. As I got underneath the stove I heard a click and one of the off-colored tiles opened. I blinked. That was the exterior of an old safe!

Shit. We did miss something.

Well, I couldn't teleport Eldin over so I just grabbed Lore and brought him to the hidden compartment without explaining. He sent me a wry grin before taking out his weird looking lock picks and getting to work.

Meanwhile, I dumped the water in the ‘for washing’ sink and returned the bucket and mop to their correct spots.

Congratulations! Your team has finished the second Repair Task! You have 30 minutes to start on your next!

Well, that was a relief. But it also didn’t leave us a lot of time to look at the clues we found here.

Lore opened the safe to a pile of passive marks and some documents. He shuffled through them quickly.

“What did we find?”

“Some kind of worn out contract, I can’t make out the details… An article about the Inn’s owner and his friends earning a medal for suppressing a monster before it could destroy the outpost… Some financial records about special magi-machines used in the construction… and some random notes and recipes.”

“We should probably go through those more thoroughly.”

“Okay,” Eldin said, making me jump. This fucker had a habit of doing that. “But we don’t have a lot of time. Now here is the real question. Can we take the contents of the safe?”

He examined the obviously old and unused safe and nodded. “Yep. Take it and let’s go. If they ask for it back or if we need to present the evidence, we’ll give it to them, but we’re not coming back here. If they don’t ask for the money back then we’ll split it the same way as we’re planning to split the prize money.”

Since Lore was closer, he quickly grabbed everything in the safe. I saw it appear in our shared inventory as ‘Contents of Vermillionjoy’s Red Roof Inn’s Old Kitchen Safe.’

We returned and entered the short and thin hidden stairwell. It was just wide enough to give me an inch or two between my shoulders and the wall, meaning that the two broad-shouldered men who went first had to twist their bodies to fit.

Eldin brought out a lantern that lit the passage just enough for us to see our steps while I closed the secret door behind me and followed after them to the next room and our next Repair Task.