“What were they?” Victoria asked as she looked around the burned and deliquescing bodies.

“Some form of Goblin.” Sunny replied looking at a small mound one of them had left. “Looks like mostly trash loot.” She replied as she picked up a few items.

“Some form of goblin?” The teenager asked as she looked around at the scene of the battle. “There are more than one kind?”

“Yeah, they are usually classified as being ten different races or kinds of goblins. Though Harry Potter threw a spanner in the works for a few years with their goblins. Seriously goblins running a bank?” She shook her head. “Though that was a fun one,” Victoria noted her smile.

“What happened?”

“Oh, we got to rob the bank. Killed the goblins and somehow they had even manifested money. I finally got to play Bonny and Clyde.”

“Uhh, didn’t they die?” The teenager asked.

“Not the way we played it.” The older woman said with a radiant smile on her face.

“I’m almost afraid to ask. How did you play it?”

Sunny seemed to think before she responded. “They were downtown in the financial district. The entrance just popped up one day and covered an alley that had been there the day before. You entered the place and it was bigger on the inside.”

“Like a Tardis?” Victoria interrupted.

“Whats a Tardis? Never mind.” She said as she looked up at a sound in the darkness. “Get ready” She hissed as she ducked down into cover. “Victoria had hardly gotten into cover when a small flight of arrows came out of the darkness. With them came the guttural cries of more goblins. As they came into the meager light Victoria shot out energy darts to pepper the first of the creatures. She saw as Sunny hit them in the right flank killing one of the rear most goblins. There had been a total of six of the creatures.

As she stooped to loot her attention was drawn to the messages she had blinking. Pulling the first of them up she was elated to see she had gained her fourth level. “Sunny, I leveled.” She said with elation.

“Great, we can talk about your leveling strategy. Can you send me your screen?” The teenager did so and the older woman took time to review it as the teenager looted the new and old bodies. “How many starting points did you get?” She asked.

The teenager looked up. “Five.”

“It looks like you put them all in luck as a luck stat strategy?” The older woman asked.

“What? No, I put them in wisdom and intelligence.”

“Your natural luck was nineteen?”

“No eighteen. Did I gain a luck point?” She asked in bewilderment as she picked up a silvery looking pickaxe from off the ground.

“Wow, You have got to be one of the luckiest people I’ve ever met. Want to go to Vegas?” the older woman said with a smirk. “Why didn’t you put it all in luck?”

At that, the teenager looked self-conscious before she spoke. “I remembered what my dad always says about it. Luck doesn’t mean its always going to be good. It just means I can expect the most extreme thing to happen. I was also reminded of what Heinlein said about it…” The teenager closed her eyes and then quoted from memory. “There is no such thing as luck; there is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe.”

Sunny gave her an appraising look. “So for you, it all comes down to being prepared?”

“Being prepared to take advantage of a situation. Yes,” She nodded. “I’ll admit though there are aspects to all of this I don’t understand. What do the hunters say about luck?”

The older woman thought for a moment. “I guess it comes down to this fear the luckiest hunters for at some point it will break bad.” The teenager nodded at her words.

“Look at this,” Victoria said offering the mining pickax she had found to Sunny.

Tiny’s Mining pick:

+3 Mining

Damage 2-10:

Durability 95/120

“Now that's a nice item.” Sunny said, “You can probably get a couple of hundred dollars for it.”

Victoria looked at the pick admiringly. “Where do I put it?” She asked.

“Did no one explain to you your storage space?”

“Not yet.” Came the faint call of a pixie on the other side of the mining expedition. The older woman snorted.

“We are each given a small area for storage at our activation. It will grow over time given feats and exploits or awards. Right now just think about storing it.” Victoria looked at the pick in her hands and then suddenly they were empty.

“Wow, will it….” She started to ask.

“It will only fit the system generated or registered items. And if you think inventory, your storage space should come up.”

The teenager did so and saw that she had twenty-five space for items of various sizes. “Nice.” She said as she started looking around for more items. “Most of this is rags and garbage.”

“Eave it. The system will eventually reclaim it. Now, what were they mining?”The older woman asked.

“I’ve found a few lumps off copper and iron. But notice the area against the wall. “Victoria said drawing the older woman's attention to the work area and the scene of the massacre. “If you look these seem to be pipes.” She said pointing.

“There is definitely something going on here.”

“Yeah, I have a bad idea of what they were doing.” The teen replied thoughtfully.

“Do tell,” Sunny said encouragingly.

“They were going to poison the water supply with that potion,” Victoria said. The water pipes here…” She said pointing. “Then the potion. They would need a way to open the pipes and get it int but you said the Goblins were often engineers?” she questioned her mentor.

“There is something over here you should see,” Lacey said as she came over hovering. “I think its what you are looking for.” She motioned the women over towards the back of the flattened truck. There they found a tarp-covered device. “It looks like it should wrap around the pipe.” The small pixie said gesturing.

Victoria leaned in to examine the creation. “Yeah, and it would clamp the pipe. Then this part. SHe said gesturing at a section that had a hardened cone. “Would have been used as a tap. The potion then injected into the water supply.”

“Causing the more peaceful creatures to go crazy.” Sunny finished as she reached out and the device disappeared into her storage space. “We need to see where this tunnel goes.” She said looking around. “Victoria we need light.” The teen nodded and obliged the woman as a ball of light ascended into the tunnel. Though it was the size of a softball the light illuminated out for about a hundred feet showing the adventurers an opening in the wall not too far from them.