Undergeared

Chapter 29 - Limits

The wall is closed for privacy and both girls are now soaking like japanese baboons in the milky waters. Xio has her head above the water while Ivanka is only submerged from the middle of the breast down. It's comical. Almost like a mother and her kid sharing a tub.
"So this little piece of heaven was made by the first geomancer." Xio plays with the bubbles like a little kid.
The redhead looks at Xio with glowing eyes of someone watching kitten videos.
"T-that's what my mission said. Yes" the redhead sighs with her muscular arms over the pool's edge. "The geomancer temple I did my class quest at, was covered in carvings of him. Actually they were supposedly made by him. As you know, we depend on our stamina to cast unlike mages and sorcerers. And stamina is a pain to replenish being that there are no stamina potions in this damn game."
"So the dude made this hot springs to recover stamina and had them hidden like a greedy asshole... I don't think I like that guy."
"Shut it goody-two-shoes. I'll seal this shit as soon as we get out. I don't want the other three hundred of my kind to get ahead of me in this mission! I need to find 10 of these motherfuckers, you know?"
"Stingy..."

After getting dry and changed, not without Xio giving the stink eye to the curvy redhead's body, they get back to the tunnels. Now with an amazing buff.

[The waters of Don Yang's Hot Spring refreshed your body and soul.]

[Your stamina will replenish 4 times faster for 1 hour.]

They jog across the tunnels to not waste the hot spring's buff. But even with Ivanka's mapping skill, the place is a maze of corridors and dead ends. None of them have ever come here to hunt or for a mission, so they don't know the way to the higher level places. And users laugh at them for just asking.
After half an hour wasted, they get to a big chamber where a bunch of NPC miners eat their lunches. They are all covered in dirt and look tired but high spirited. Xio approaches them to ask for directions, but as she hasn't complete that many quests in Bairan, the miners are not that friendly.
"Go away, cursed one! We are good honest workers, not privileged adventurers like you. You want information? Ask your kind." The short and sturdy guy spits at her feet.
"Hey, you little...!" Ivanka raises her fist in annoyance.
"Stop, stop!" Xio stops the redhead's arm. "I think I have another way to get what we want" she whispers that last part.
The two of them walk away until they are out of the worker's sight and then Xio turns her name tag green. She does the old switcharoo with her clothes and go back to the miners walking crouched like an old hag.
"Hi, young fellas!" Xio waves her hand at the miners covering most of her face in shadows." Do honest workers like yourselves know where I can find strong undying adventurers? I need help with a huge task and I need seasoned warriors to aid me."
"Good luck with that, ma'am." Says the same worker whom spat at her feet before. "Those ungrateful bastards only care for them. I hope you have a good reward or they won't even give you the time of day."
"I know... they are awful but, sadly, they are too strong to pass on them." She sits with them with false sadness on her face. "M-my dear granddaughter was kidnapped and I-I don't know where else to go!" She start's sobbing.
"Oh, d-don't cry, please! I was just being a smartass! What's your name?"
Xio's head quickly empties. Her name tag is hidden by the hood, but NPCs couldn't read it anyways. She could easily say her own name, but she's in too deep into her act that she says the first «name» that comes to her mind.
"Rags. P-people call me Rags..." In her head she's slapping herself. When she brain farts her brain goes on cruise control. So as she was seeing her clothes when asked her name, Rags was the only thing on her mind.
"D-on't worry, f-friend Rags." The uncomfortable miner stutters. "I'll tell you how to get to the deeper part of the mines. And when you find your granddaughter, please come back here and we will make a toast to you both!" He proceeds to give her detailed directions.
With a fake caring smile, Xio walks away to regroup with Ivanka, but she stops on the spot because a new notification.