“Literally everything the Mesh wants is a challenge,” Anna said with a worried frown. “Are you certain you didn’t get injured?” “Capital C,” Arwin said, summoning his class information. Sure enough, the Challenge sat at the bottom of it, just below the Achievements. “It came with a message from the Mesh and has multiple tiers of completion and rewards. Kind of like an Achievement with a bunch of extra steps.” “What do you mean?” Lillia asked. “I’ve never heard of anything like that. Can you tell me exactly what it was?” Arwin read off the description of the Challenge word for word. Everyone looked at each other once he’d finished. “Never heard of it,” Reya said. “But I’m not sure if that means much. I really don’t know that much about the Mesh.” “I haven’t heard of it either,” Anna said, pulling at her hair and frowning in thought. “Those rewards are absolutely nothing to laugh at, though. Every single one of them seems strong. Adding an extra option for a skill specialization is already huge. Getting a free Title out of the ordeal, not to mention some sort of item – ridiculous. That can only mean one thing.” “Yeah,” Arwin said as he came to the same conclusion. “Solving this is going to be really goddamn hard. The Mesh doesn’t give anything away for free.” And there’s even more we don’t know about the Mesh than I thought. I’m not special, so if I can get Challenges, other people can too. Are they suppressed somehow, or is this relatively commonplace for adventurers that accomplish something significant? “I take it this means the crystal is safe?” Reya asked, squinting at the stone with a suspicious frown. “It’s not going to make your condition worse, is it?” “Probably the best idea,” Rodrick agreed. Lillia set her bag down and opened the top, and the group went about digging up the top layer of blood-soaked ground and tossing it into the bag. It only took a little while and they did their best to smooth everything out afterward before heading off to Milten. The guards at the gate didn’t bother them. Arwin was grateful for that, as he wasn’t sure how they’d explain a bag full of smelly metal, a deadly crystal, and a pile of bloody dirt. It was suspicious at best. I’ve never been happier for a city to have guards that care more about appearance than actually doing their job. I can’t believe these idiots had me thinking Milten was some prim and proper city. After getting past the gate, they headed out to their street. Lillia brought the bag over to the ditch behind the smithy and dumped all the dirt into it, adding to the other trash and debris resting in its depths. “We should really find a better way to dispose of stuff at some point,” Lillia observed. She held the sack out to him. “Probably,” Arwin agreed, taking it from her with a nod. “Thanks for lugging this around. We didn’t really get any material for you to cook with, did we?” “Got unlucky with the monsters in the dungeon.” Lillia shrugged. “It happens. It’ll be a little while until enough monsters come back to that dungeon to fully repopulate it. We might have to find a new spot to hunt.” “For now, I’ll give you a portion of the money we make from selling the armor to buy new ingredients,” Arwin said. “You did a lot in the dungeon, so it would only be fair. No arguing.” Lillia pursed her lips, her argument cut off before she could speak it, and sighed. “Fine. I won’t say no to that. I don’t think it would break any rules with my Class since I did earn my cut, but I’d rather avoid pushing it in the future. Thank you, though. “Don’t need to thank me,” Arwin said as they walked over to his makeshift smithy and headed through the rickety door. “You were invaluable in that dungeon. Reya too, for that matter. I should try to make her something. I know she misses that dagger she lost.” “You’ve got a lot on your plate. Don’t try to take on too much or you’ll end up dropping everything,” Lillia warned Arwin. He set the bag of materials down in the corner of the room. “Yeah. I know. The first thing is just making some armor to sell. We need money, and I’m pretty low on it already. I’ve only got twenty gold left over, plus a few scraps of metal and leather.” “Enough to cobble anything together?” Lillia asked. “Or are you going to use the smelly metal?” “It’s not that bad,” Arwin said defensively, but his own words were hollow to his ears. He could smell the bag sitting in the corner from where they stood on the other side of the room. “That metal is too useful. I think I can put together one or two pieces with what I’ve got left over. It’ll help that I’m intentionally avoiding making anything magical. That’ll draw too much attention and we’re not ready to deal with it. I also don’t want to make really good gear for people I don’t know. It’s just not a good idea.” “Agreed. You never know what’ll happen to them or who they’ll give it to,” Lillia said. “Better to vet anyone that you sell the really nice pieces to and sell the other normal ones to whoever has the money. We just need some attention on our street. Not too much yet – but more than what we have now.” “We’ll get there,” Arwin said. He looked down at the anvil. “Once I get some armor made and sold, we can split the money up between some food for you, building materials, and metal to make more armor and earn some more coin. That should let us start building the street up enough to get some attention on it.” “Sounds like a good plan to me,” Lillia said with a shrug. “Not like I can do much right now but practice cooking with what I do have so I can be ready when the time comes. If you need anything, come let me know.” “I will,” Arwin promised. Lillia nodded and headed out of the building, letting the door swing shut behind her. A part of him had hoped that she might stick around while he was working, but another part was glad that she’d gone so he could concentrate. There were too many things to deal with to let himself get distracted by anything other than work.