Richard stepped forward and retrieved the items dropped by the two red capped Walking Mushrooms weren’t. But in the end they weren’t very exciting. And that was because they were the same thing that always dropped from the mushrooms. Mushroom Caps. Small little brown cap with a cream colored stalk.

  “Do these things even have a use?” Richard asked as he held one of the caps in his hand. “It's all they seem to drop.”

  Windry shrugged and Angel nodded her head and spoke, “I’ve heard that some people like to eat them. Like, they make dishes from dungeon drops and chase after new dungeon ingredients.”

  “Wait, people do that?”

  “Yup. though it may just be a rumor. I haven’t met anyone who claimed to eat them.”

  “Ugh,” Richard said and tucked it away. There was a chance for something better from the large Walking Mushroom. “What did the big one drop? Was it two?”

  Angel extended both of her hands and showed what she had picked up. One of them was a twig like the one that she had gathered on the floor above. While the other was a small off white pouch. The System said that the stick was a Still Living Branch while the pouch was Poison Mushroom Spores.

  “So you need the branches right?” Richard asked and Angel nodded. Before they set off he checked his recipe list and didn’t see anything new was added after handling both of the drops. Did the dungeon even have a use for Alchemists?

  They continued on clearing the floor. And by the time that their exploration came to an end they fought 3 more of the large mushrooms. As for the drops they found a Large Mushroom Cap, another branch, a couple more pouches of differing status effects, sleep and confusion. And finally a small mushroom that looked just like the red walking ones.

  “Red Mushroom Cap?” Richard asked.

  “I’ve never seen it before. And while it’s rare, it doesn’t sell for anything like most of the drops,” Angel said. She seemed to be happy with the number of branches that they had found. The way back upstairs wasn’t any problem, just some more mushroom bashing along with cap drops.

  Richard was rather worried about the profits for the day. And then he remembered that he had already bought his gear. So that pesky 10k dent was no longer. Though it was replaced by an $225k dent instead… He just needed to use the equipment another 22 times and then he would be making money…

  All told their loot for the exploration had been 18 Mushroom Caps, 1 Red Mushroom Cap, 2 Still Living Branches, 1 each of the Poison, Sleep, and Confusion Mushroom Spores, and 1 Large Mushroom Cap. The after tax total came out to be $22,163, of which Angel took the two branches as part of her share. While Windry had refused her share at first.

  “Why don’t you want a share?” Richard asked.

  “I don’t need it. At my age I have enough money to keep going for a long time. Got lucky with crypto, one or twice. Or three times. I’ve forgotten,” she said and then chuckled. “You kids need it more than I anyways.”

  “I can’t really say that it sits right with me,” Angel said. “You put in just as much effort as we did. So you should get just as much out of it.”

  In the end Richard and Angel managed to wear Windry down and she accepted a third of the earnings. They then made plans to explore again together next week, and went their separate ways.

  ****

  Bearing dropped set the crate of new potions onto the counter. The Crafter’s Union was a good friend to have. As they often sent him items that needed to have their effects verified. Such testing was really just an artifact that was left from before the System arrived. As from his experiences he found that as long as the System decided to ID something, it would do the thing that the System said it would.

  However, sometimes the tricky part was determining what an item was about from just the System ID. The names provided weren’t always useful in determining the effect.

  Something like a Healing Potion? It would heal alright. Same with Mana, Cure Disease, Endurance, whatever it was. Oh there could still be differences. Just not in the effect. But things like the taste can change between potions. Ones from the dungeon didn’t have much of a flavor at all. While ones made by alchemists tended to taste off or bad. It was a bit of a gamble as there was no way of telling until the solution was already assaulting one's taste buds.

  He wondered if the Union didn’t bother to track the crafters on purpose. Bearing figured that they always knew who made what. Just pretended that they didn’t in order to still give work to the alchemists created bad tasting potions. Otherwise those alchemists wouldn't get any work, as a bad tasting potion would always be left behind for one that was more pleasant. Though that would only be a thing when there was a choice. As no matter how bad it tasted, a Healing Potion was always welcomed when it was the only one left.

  There were a surprising number of potions in the current test batch. And as the Chief of Healing of the Sword Soul guild he needed to make sure that his people were getting the very best. Though the job was often dry and required things like cataloging new potions. He gave the box and the manifest a quick once over and decided to leave it for another day. It was already past 6pm and he had already been told off by his boss for working too much.

  Bearing checked his emails for anything that could be considered to be an emergency. And after seeing none he stood and tossed his lab coat onto the counter. Before he left he took a moment to look out the window. He always loved the higher floors of the guild. At least the ones that had views that went past the other buildings. Seeing so much of the world, much of it still in ruins, made him feel-

  There was a crash at the doors to the clinic as someone must have kicked them open. Bearing broke into a jog and pushed through the doors leading into the backroom before they could be damaged as well. “What the hell is going on here?” he asked as he looked at the party arrayed in front of him.

  Only it was all too clear what had happened. Aaron was there pushing in a gurney with a wounded person on it. His party was crowding the door all with pale faces. Bearing noticed that the party healer wasn’t capable of standing. And he was being held up by another, blood running from his eyes, nose, and ears. He had overused his skill. Bloody fool.

  “Get out of the way,” Bearing said, cutting Aaron off before he could say anything. Upon seeing the wound on the woman’s flank he hissed. There was a cut that ran from almost her belly button to her left flank. The bleeding had already stopped and it wasn’t too deep.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  It was such a wound that it could be cured with a normal Healing Potion. Or any of the healers in the guild could have taken care of it no problem. The issue was the black puss that was oozing out of it. While the veins that snaked away from the wound were a similar black. It seemed like it was sapping the life from her. Her breathing was rough and labored while her skin was pale and bloodless.

  Not wasting any more time, Bearing dumped his mana into his skill, High Cure, and attempted to heal the injured woman. Only he felt something push back against his spell and nothing happened. The spell had fizzled.

  “Tell me she’ll be alright,” one of the party members said from the door. “Kim will make it through right?”

  “Not right now,” Bearing said. He felt information coming on from his Diagnostic Skill. A System window appeared after the mana from his skill had finally faded.

  Subject is Cursed.

  He was happy it was at least something that the skill could give him information about. “What did this to her? To Kim?”

  “We were patrolling out beyond the walls. Something that we’ve done before,” Aaron said. It was usually a punishment detail since it was so boring. But it was an important task to keep the lands safe. Which was something that the guild stood for. And no matter how boring it was, parties were expected to do it safely and right.

  “There was an ambush. We walked into some woods and before our eyes could adjust to the gloom we were surrounded by ratters. Scores of the little assholes. They fled after we dealt with a number of them. But not before they tried to gut Kim. Phil,” he motioned to the healer that had moved to sitting on the floor, “healed her at first. But the wound kept coming back. Each time worse than the last.”

  “Ratters!” The little rat men would dig into the ground and make burrows after burrows. One of the harder break species to wipe out. If only a breeding pair made it through the purges they would bounce back before too long. “There must have been a shaman or something. She’s Cursed.”

  There was wail from outside the room. One of the party members had collapsed and started sobbing. “Is there nothing that you can do?” Aaron asked.

  Bearing shook his head. “Not right at this moment. There is someone in the city with the Remove Curse skill. But they don’t move lightly, if anything they hate being bothered by requests.”

  “A potion?” Phil had stood to his feet. Given the damage done to his body from his own skill he would need a Healing Potion himself. “We’ll go and get one. Run if we have to.”

  “She might not-” Bearing stopped. There was something bothering him about what Phil had said. And before he knew it he had walked into the backroom. To the test potions that he had just got from the Crafter’s Union. There, nestled in between two other potions with red vials, was one that had a stopper that glowed with a pale purple light. It might just be what they need.

  He grabbed the potion from the box, confirmed the System ID, and brought it back. Bearing stuck a hand under Kim’s head to raise it slightly, and then slowly poured the potion into her mouth. She choked on it at first, but then managed to swallow.

  Nothing appeared to happen. But then a small, yet warm, red glow appeared on her skin. Over a second or two it increased in brightness and Kim seemed to glow from within. On her belly the cursed wound writhed in inky blackness as puss was forcefully expelled. The curse fought against the glow and it finally disappeared with a small scream.

  After another moment the red glow faded away. The wound was still there, but Kim was looking better already. Her skin had lost the pallid color that it once had and her breathing had returned to normal. Not wasting any more time Bearing stepped forward and used High Cure again and the wound closed as if it had never been there.

  When he tried to manually use the Diagnostic Skill it came back clear of the curse, and only mentioned exhaustion. “She should be safe now.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth was the party cheering and hugging one another.

  Bearing sat down in the nearest chair as he found his legs suddenly felt weak. Soul Purifying Potion. It was a new potion, one that hadn’t been recorded in either guilds records. And it was just a weak one at that. But the effect had to have been something special in order for her to have glowed like that.

  He ran his fingers over the red diamond shaped potion vial in his hands. Why did it work? What was a curse? Was it something that affected the soul? He would have thought that it would have fallen under the ailments that affected the body. Only that wouldn’t fit with the potion curing Kim. Soul Purifying. If there was something out there using curses then they were going to need a whole lot more of the new potions.

  The Crafter’s Union might have some trouble keeping the Alchemist who created such a potion under wraps.

  ***

  The day after exploring the dungeon with Windry and Angel, Richard received a call from Em, the leader of the party who rescued him.

  “I’m surprised to hear from you again, truth be told,” Richard said after they had exchanged their greetings.

  “What? So cold after we saved your life. What’s a gal got to do to get some warmth?”

  “Well, sorry. It’s just that the Swords are rather high up in the explorer hierarchy. While I’m a lowly solo explorer.”

  “I guess that could be intimidating… The reason for my call was to inform you about the results of our discussion the other day.”

  “Ah.” Richard had told them about how he suspected that Calvin might have seen the book drop for him. How he was strangely insistent about recruiting him even before then. And how the invites escalated.

  “We looked into the man in question, and found that he had been suspected of being connected to a red guild in the past. And after reconnoitering his guild location we found all the hallmarks of one. The guild, Fist of Thorns, was a cover guild for the red guild Field of Bloody Roses.”

  Richard took a deep breath. “Did you… find anyone?” Any crafters, any one missing, anyone in need of saving. There were too many ways to continue the sentence. So many people to worry about.

  “We did. It is thanks to you that we were able to take out the guild. Which is why I called. You saved a lot of people with the lead that you provided us.”

  “I just happened to remember him at the time,” Richard said and rubbed his eyes. “It’s good that those people were found. I can’t imagine what it must have been like.”

  “The one thing about red guilds is that they take care of their crafters. Well, enough that they don’t die. But aside from that…”

  “What now?” Richard asked. Assuming that the guild had been crushed there wouldn't be much danger left for him. As the weight lifted from his shoulders he realized just how much he needed it.

  “The same as always, keep an eye out for anyone that has more than normal interest. Don’t go into dungeons by yourself, which can be hard for solo explorers. And otherwise gain as much personal power as possible.”

  “Power?”

  “Right. If you can fight back then they will find it harder to capture you. At least that is my personal philosophy.”

  “I see.” He would need to continue exploring dungeons then. Maybe find a proper party, without revealing his skills to the world. At least stay hidden until he can’t be taken unawares again.

  After a few pleasantries Richard thanked Em for letting him know, and told her how it made him feel. She left him with her number and the instructions to contact her if anything strange happens again. Otherwise she wished him luck.

  He spent the rest of the day trying to relax but found that he couldn’t. There was so much out there in the world that he didn’t know. And as much as Richard wanted to explore it, there was always the chance that something bad could happen. Either monsters, red guilds, or both.

  Richard found himself feeling restless with the need to do something different. And he pulled out his phone to see what options could be there. Worse case Windry had said that she would be down with exploring the first floors of some more safe dungeons. But they would probably need another 2 people to make it safer.

  It might be risky, but he decided to see who was looking for groups in the Crafter’s Union’s channels.