Shara led Natalie off the street and deeper into her fe, giving them space to speak. She crossed her arms, leaned against the wall, and tilted her head inquisitively, indig she was listening.

  Natalie cleared her throat, seemiant. "So …" she started. "How much do you know about unique ores?"

  Shara's attention sharpe the ued opening.

  Unique ores? The vast majority of smithing was doh the same aterials. In the early levels, that meant mostly iron and silver: iron for standard armor and ons, and silver for jewelry, accessories, or certain magical equipment.

  She was aware, however, that the dungeon couldn't be ly categorized. While it mostly spat out the same old deposits, there were rarer materials to be found. Sometimes, the dungeon fabricated entirely new resources. Ores, or pnts, or whatever other materials, that were pletely unique.

  "I know of them," Shara said carefully. Her heart started beating faster in anticipation. At the implication. Why would Natalie bring this up, except if she herself had run into such a deposit?

  Shara didn't o crify that she'd never worked with a ual. Even some high-level craftsmen never got the opportunity. Because unique resources were just that: unique. More than rare, enough to be called one-of-a-kind. Not something a journeyman would ever have access to.

  And—this was just hearsay, as anything rare reted to the dungeon—but unique resources were supposed to grant enormous experieo the craftsman that ha. Refining and f entire cartloads of iron wouldn't be half as valuable for Shara's progression as getting to work with something like a uerial. Hence her excitement.

  But Shara might be getting ahead of herself. She waited—with anticipation—for Natalie to expin.

  "I think we found some," Natalie said, making Shara's heart jump with the firmation. "Well, kind of. It might not be teically unique, because I think I get more of it. But it's not an ore I could find any information on. Even the mining guild was useless."

  Well, if eve's mining guild didn't have informatioailing what the ore was, then Shara herself certainly wouldn't know anything about it. And the identifier of 'unique' would be at least half accurate—if perhaps not at the most teical level.

  While curious, Shara knew better than to badger Natalie about the situation. These sorts of topics were trade secrets: Shara herself, and Master Lee or anything bcksmith of repute, hoarded information as greedily as anyone. A practice standard across the world. So, Natalie would offer whatever oopic was relevant, and Shara wouldn't be nosy and press.

  "I see," Shara said with what she hoped was a cool, sidering nod. "What's the name of it?"

  There was a brief pause before Natalie answered. Shara could guess the reason behind her hesitation. Natalie hadn't fully made up her mind oher she wao give the task to Shara. Shara holy didn't know why she would e to her with this. She didn't think of herself as a poor bcksmith, but w with a rare resource was an insane opportunity; why not take it to someoer suited to the task?

  "Erotite," Natalie finally said. "Ever heard of it?"

  Unsurprisingly, Shara hadn't. She shook her head in a ive.

  "It's pink. Kind of lustrous. Here, I'll show you."

  Natalie scooped out a small gss ball from a pou her belt: a monster core. With a mental and, a thick lump of the mined ore separated from the orb, materializing into Natalie's hand. She passed it over. Fasated, Shara took the k of rock.

  It was as Natalie had described. The lump of ore in her hand was a lustrous pink that seemed to glow with an inner light. She tur over, iing it from every ah an expert smith's gaze. It felt pleasantly warm, warmer than made sense, seeing how it'd been sitting i ihe monster cazing at the material, she felt a sudden urge to curl her fingers protectively around it. For a sed, the rock's soft glow seemed thten, and Shara got the impression, almost, that it was blushing. She was struck by a strange sense of e, an affinity she had never felt towards the mundane ores she'd spent so much time w with. There otential here. Shara se. The ore ecial. It held a promise of something intangible, but signifit.

  She shook her head to clear it, the impression ing on suddenly and intensely. With an oddly stroance, she forced herself to hand back the clump. Her heart was rag.

  "And you need someoo refi?" Shara asked, still trying to keep a calm, professional demeanor, though it was being harder by the moment. Did Natalie even realize what kind of opportunity she was giving her? As a Teudent, she had to; Teudents were the st category of people who would be clueless on how the dungeon worked.

  "Yeah. And make something with it, too."

  "Oh? What were you thinking?" Theating, Shara realized she couldn't, in good scious, accept the offer without crifying. "And I might not be the best person for the job." The words came relutly, but Shara had to say them. It wouldn't be right, otherwise. "For a unique ore, you could have a master smith take the job—for free. Hell, they'd pay you."

  "Yeah, probably," Natalie said. "But I want you to."

  "Why?"

  "Because of that," Natalie said, her lips quirking in amusement. "That discimer you just gave. I did a bit of shopping around, and you've got a reputation for being straightforward and ho." She hesitated. "And I want this to stay on the down-low. For no oo know about it, besides me and you. If that's fine?"

  Shara blinked. She bit her too stop the questions from ing out. Why would Natalie even want it to be a secret? For urpose? Possibly to keep it from being stolen, but Natalie was a Teudent. She hardly had to fear someone would e after her. Nobody was that stupid. Te was famously protective of its students. Some would say excessively, gleeful-in-their-retribution, so.

  Though the questions only kept piling up, Shara simply said, "Then I won't tell a soul."

  Natalie nodded, seeming relieved.

  "I'll need some details, though, w with an ore I've never seen," Shara said. "And you didn't tell me. What do you want from it?"

  "Not sure. Whatever it's good for. 't you feel that out? As a craftsman?"

  There was a signifit amount of intuition that came with crafting csses; that was what Natalie meant. Oftentimes, it felt like Shara's skills and css guided her more than her many years of experience.

  "We . But it'd still be o have a general idea. A starting point."

  Natalie shrugged. "I guess a breastpte," she said. "Or other armor. But really, I just want to see what you do with it. Have plenty, anyway, and I think I get more. So it's not a huge deal."

  Shara certainly would have thought a unique ore would be a 'huge deal'. It felt like Natalie was ag far too bse about the situation. But it was hardly on Shara to question her, however intrigued iails. But really, a unique ore that Natalie felt fident she could track down again? How strange.

  "Then I'll do my best."

  "Is a rush order fine? I e baorrow?"

  Shara nodded. She was being offered the opportunity of a lifetime; a rapid turn-around for the task was the least Natalie could ask of her. Shara would stay up all night w on it if she had to. Hell, she probably would have anyway; she'd be restless until the task was finished.

  "Perfect," Natalie said. "Well, okay, I'll see you then."