Well, that was a bust. For those just joining us, Finn had recently gone on an intense mission as a spy! It wasn't exactly his forte, of course. He was more of the wreck them and deck them kind of guy, going in swinging with his blade and his abilities alone to resolve the issue. Sometimes he could use his wit, other times his sheer ability to get lucky. This past time was suppose to be something completely different. This was a sort of stealth infiltration mission, where he was going to be discovering a secret cult. There was going to be action, chaos, combat, and mystery galore. It was going to be quite literally the best time he had since he'd gotten to Magnolia, aside from getting to know the people whom he had met, and the familiar faces he had seen. It was going to be his chance to find enjoyment in a solo activity, something that he could really liven up his day with.

Instead, it turned into a complete and total flop. He didn't have to do anything intricate to infiltrate the cult. He literally just went around asking about a cult until he found someone dumb enough to, quite literally, lead him to their front door. Once there, he repeated the same monotonous sentence until he had reached inner sanctum. Only there, likely by some stroke of genius, could someone piece together that they shouldn't be allowing some guy who was just asking about random cults into their secret cult. That was the kicker. It was a secret thing. How stupid could those people get? Their only saving grace was that the leader put two and two together to realize that Finn was the spy. At that point, they held him down and-

No. Actually. They didn't do that either. Finn knocked one of them out and ran. That's all it took. It was ridiculous that this was what passed for a B rank mission. Back in my day-

Let me stop. Get off my soap box. It should be made clear that none of these things had passed through Finn's brain. Finn was not that type of person. He was a pure soul, to the extent of what it could mean to be pure. This was not to be mistaken for someone who avoided harming others.

Finn's sense of purity came out during his combat. His fighting senses were not at all dulled by any outside factors. He did not hesitate due to the fear of death, for him nor his enemies. Combat was just that; The pitting of one against another until one was clearly victorious. He had learned in the wild, where the rules were very different than what most learned by. There, it was to be the prey or the predator. He chose the latter. Now he was no different, and it was with that attitude that he took on this quest.

(wc: 501)

Finn made his way into the East Forest, sword firmly strapped to his back as it always was and arms to his side. At his side, his brother Jake with a half eaten sandwich. "I'm telling you," he said, pausing to take a bite. He waited to chew the food enough to move it into his cheek before continuing to talk. "There were a bunch of people here, just standing around a hole for no reason!" Swallowing the bite of food, he continued eating and drew a slightly grossed out look from Finn. It was not the sandwich that grossed him out, just the fact that he'd talk while eating. Finn use to do the same thing, but then grew out of it with time.

Jake explained it as being old enough to not care again. "It's a cycle of caring and not caring until you reach the sweet, sweet age where not caring just overwhelms everything. Except love. And sandwiches... Sometimes soup." He didn't understand himself, but apparently he'd understand it when he was older. Like most things Jake tried to explain to him, really. As they reached the group of people, Finn and Jake began to shimmy their way through the crowd, making it to the front and seeing a group of Rune Knights blocking the people.

"Hey man, what's going on?" The rune knight attempted to shoo Finn away, telling him the area was restricted. Offering a laugh, Finn refused and tried to get on his toes to look past him. "Look here you imbecile, you have five seconds to stand back or I'll-" A hand went to his shoulder, belonging to none other than Barras. "S-Sir," he said with a nod, Barras shaking his head. "Trust me on this one, I'm just saving you. Jake, Finn, would you two please come talk with me?"

Shrugging, the two of them stepped through the rune knight blockade and were taken further away, out of the hearing ranges of even the rune knight squad that was guarding the cave. "Hey Barras, your dudes are rude.
Rude dude." Finn nodded sagely, obviously agreeing, and Barrus laughed it off in his awkwardly stiff way as always. "What can I say, when you're as over worked as they are you get to be stiff. Anyways, I need to talk to you about something..."

He began to explain the rumors of the cavern, and how it supposedly had a rare and valuable metal stashed deep inside. This was not just an item made of the mineral, but apparently an entire deposit of unknown size, within a relatively unknown location of the cave. There was nothing but rumors, but rumors were enough to peak his interest. They were on a budget, unable to always get exactly what they needed. If they found a supply of this mineral, aside from just being able to finance themselves more, a big enough supply would get them more resources from Era as well.

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"So you want us to go in there and look for that blue glub, and you'll pay us for it?" Barras nodded with a grin, asking if it sounded like a deal. "Waiiit a minute... If it's so valuable, why don't we just take it?" "We can't Jake. That would be stealing. Plus, we don't have anything to mine it with." "Oh yeah... The mining thing. Not the stealing thing." Glaring at Barras, Finn shrugged and agreed to the terms. It seemed straight forward and easy enough, and if he'd be paid while they were at it then it was most certainly worth his while.

"What do you think ol' Barras did to be allowed that close huh?" Finn thought about it for a moment before answering. "Well he is a smith, right? He probably makes most of their gear, and repairs it. Sure they enforce their rules on him, but they probably can't afford to be too mean to him either. Plus, they trust him you know?" Humming and shrugging, Jake and Finn quickly found a way to sneak into the cave. One could expect description of how here, but the details were far too intricate to put into words. Safe to say though that however they did it went beyond normal reasoning, and was very impressive. So impressive that Jake even said he was impressed once they were inside!

Once inside, the vision was limited to say the least. Finn had no way of providing light, nor did Jake with his form of magic. Such a thing turned out to not be an issue though, as Jake was still a dog despite his unique abilities for one of his race. His sight was still extremely effective in this light, his sense of smell and hearing being more than enough to help with the task at hand as well. Before long they had made their way deep into the cave. Luckily, whatever crystals grew out of the wall reflected light far down into the tunnel. It was feint, but enough to allow at least minimal levels of vision in those deep confines of earth.

Several of the areas they came to were almost completely blocked off. This turned out to be no problem for Finn and Jake who quite easily moved the debris from their path, from multiple paths, to speed up their search. During the time, Finn had even begun singing.

"Lets go in the garden... You'll find something waiting... Riight there where you left it lying upside down," His voice was soft, surprisingly well managed for who many thought him to be. Jake's face had taken that of a smile as he cleaned, humming a deep back melody to Finn's song which reverberated throughout the cave perfectly. "When you finally find it... You'll see how it's faded... The underside is lighter when you turn it around." Throwing the rocks aside, he stopped and closed his eyes. [i]"Everything stays... Right where you left it. Everything stays... But it still changes. Ever so slightly... Daily and nightly... In little ways, when everything stays..." His voice trailed off, Jake coming up and putting a paw on his shoulder.

"You okay bro?" Concern was in his voice, and Finn smiled weakly with a nod. "Yeah... Just realized something is all." And with that, they continued in.

WC: 1636

As they made their way further, they had discovered a larger part of the cave. Jake and Finn did some minor talking as well, Jake understanding the reason for the song and the emotion behind it. "You just have to tackle it head on man. It's life! Don't worry so much. Life will happen no matter what you do. So enjoy it!" It was good advice. Advice that actually helped him sort out his mind and his feelings. Now, they could go back to just goofing off and getting this quest done. It was almost over, after all.

Once they made their way into the much larger area, they were surprised to see a pillar of light in the center of it. It illuminated the room, allowing Finn to see just as clearly as Jake finally. "Woah," "Woah," they said in unison, looking around the massive opening within the earth. Going around the hole, they saw three new paths they could choose. Splitting up for the first two with a nod, they both quickly made their way back to the beginning after discovering the two were dead ends. "Okay I'll ask it- Who the heck built this cave?!"

"Right? It's weird... This seems planned out. But how does no one up their know about it..?" Deciding not to question it further, the two of them made their way down the final path. This path was much shorter than the other two, and also partially blocked. Removing the blocks slowly, as it didn't look too stable around here, they cleared the path in front of them and then proceeded ahead, moving towards what had to be the finish of this cave. After all, they'd been in here so long, how deep could it go?

This area was relatively small, but it was not in vain (get it? vain? mines?). They found a small amount of the blue material, though they obviously did not have the resources to mine it. Looking at each other and exchanging a nod, they began to make their way back up. The path back did not take nearly as long as the path there, seeing as how they had already explored the rest of the cave and were now merely retracing their steps.

Once they reached the mouth of the cave, the rune knights were discovered to still be there, although the crowd that had formed around them had seemed to have dispersed completely. Sneaking away from the rune knights in a way that was almost as intense and wonderful as the way they managed to sneak in, they found their way to Barras in order to convey the news. Upon telling him of the mineral, the mans face lit up with joy and excitement. "Great! That's great! I'll go mine it as soon as possible, thanks boys!" And with that, the quest was finished. It might not have been intense, but they felt accomplished.

WC: 2150