"Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" the woman screamed, making her way towards me, hands extended towards my neck.

I quickly went to dodge but she was too quick, getting one of her paws onto my shoulder and grasping firmly.

"What do you think you're doing?" she bellowed and swiped her hand across my throat.

Just as suddenly, the woman was launched by a thundering punch to her side, flinging her away into a nearby tree.

Jasna stood next to me and gently patted the small creature resting on my shoulder. He was taking squished grapes from my fingers to gnaw on them, emitting happy noises and making a general mess.

Inara got up from the heap she found herself in and didn't seem to have noticed the rather forceful ejection from my personal space, her face just as elated as when she charged. "For all that is good and holy, that is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Will ever see. What do you think you are doing not giving it to me IMMEDIATELY to pet her for eternity!?"

At a scoff from Pavel, she turned slightly. "Eh, you are more handsome than cute. Plus, you can't come close to competing. What's her name? Is this what you got from shattering the dungeon core? How do I get one? What's her Cap? Can we get her a little hat? What about a vest?"

Inara's questions continued on into unintelligible squealing as she crept closer and stared at the little glutton dribbling juice and food down both sides of my shirt from my shoulder.

"Where'd you get the grapes?" Pavel asked and then, at the absolutely incensed look from his future wife, held his hands up and backed away. "I just wanted a few grapes…" I heard him mumble to himself as he headed back to the rest of the Aspirations of Ascendancy to share the news about what had Inara so riled up.

"It's a he and I don't have a name yet. And his cores aren't ignited yet. At least I don't think?" I said turning to Tiesa.

"Nope and yes, yes, he's adorable but we have a long journey back to the city and if we hurry, we can be there by early afternoon. I've sent word to the Adventurers Guild and they want a full debrief on the dungeon as soon as possible. Was told 'Selim Koval has deemed this important enough to allocate you some of his precious time,'" she said, putting on a pretentious voice and clearly reading out from an AAI message.

"Let's get a move on! <Five minutes> until we go!" Tiesa yelled so the carriage guards and the rest of Inara's team could hear the command and quickly make to finish their breakfasts.

As the carriage driver got the horses hitched and ready to go, Tiesa looked the Aspirations of Ascendancy over. "Good job getting ready quickly, most teams I've worked with would take triple that. Vidas, Pavel, with us. Jazzy, you're on lookout duty on the roof."

"Don't we have guards for that?" Jasna asked, mildly confused.

"We do but consider this part one of your hundred part punishment list." Tiesa opened the door and beckoned the two brothers and myself inside.

The little pest on my shoulder squawked indignantly at being taken inside the carriage and not being fed for the entire seven second journey but quickly settled down as I started to feed him some scrambled eggs from the heaping pile Tiesa had prepared and plated for me earlier.

"Uh, I appreciate being included but I'd think Inara or Romie might be a better person than me for whatever you want to discuss," Pavel said as the door closed. "I get that I'm this idiot's brother but still, I'm mostly fighting focused." He ran a sheepish hand over the back of his head.

"Yeah, Inara wouldn't be able to concentrate with this little guy," she reached up and fed some scrambled eggs to the small sugar glider, "and Romie doesn't talk much so it would be like pulling teeth. You are here to help a bit in the decision making but also to relay what we are discussing to the team. That way, Vidas can focus on planning and making choices instead of note taking."

"Got it," he said and then appeared like he was going into virtual scribe mode. "Wait, I can't record." He looked confused.

"Well, we need to get the story straight for the Guild, why would we want that recorded?" Tiesa asked, shrugging her shoulders.

"Oh… sodus," Vidas said.

***

"Okay, so we are clear on the chain of events, correct? The nice thing is they are the true chain, as long as we use a bit of creative interpretation," Tiesa said, laying a hand on both the men's shoulders, an intimidation move she'd used multiple times in the last ten minutes.

"Yup, got it. We were all tricked by the dungeon on the first run into thinking we shattered the core, Terry felt something strange and went to investigate and got pulled in and trapped, just like we did on the run we all did together. You tried to get in but Terry destroyed the core before you were able. Seems airtight, why were you worried?" Vidas asked.

His brother cuffed him on the back of the head and pointed to me. The sugar glider took that as a challenge, shrieking and raising onto his back legs to begin miming boxing while making noises I guessed were supposed to be intimidating.

"Pipe down, we're allies," I said. With that not working at all, I sent the feeling of being friendly through our burgeoning connection and the little monster settled down, mollified by more food.

Pavel looked at his brother. "Sorry, but think man. There are going to be questions about why he went in alone. It makes sense, especially since it had us all fooled. 'A sentient dungeon gave us all garbage when it realized we were going to shatter its core' is believable. It's that Terry, who is not the most beloved person around, through no fault of your own," he held up a hand like I was going to be upset.

I shrugged. It's true and actually not my fault so why would I care?

After a tentative pause, he continued, "So, we have someone people are already suspicious of and many are probably looking to attack or undermine politically. And then he just so happens to wander in on his own into a mythical dungeon that is sentient, defeats said dungeon that was exceptionally hard for a full team on our run-through with people at the peak of Tier 1 versus a single poorly trained delver at 1.1 – no offense meant – and then he happens to get a truly legendary reward? Even if it's not actually suspicious, someone is going to use false suspicion as a reason for making a move. And, again, no offense, but it's suspicious."

Tiesa gave Pavel a beaming smile. "Got it in one. But since we're all on the same page with the same story, it should probably prevent anyone from acting on said suspicion, real or fake, at least in the open. Now, on to Terry," she said, gesturing to me.

Somewhat surprised, I tried to look contemplative, buying time.

[Incoming message from Tiesa Gogol: Really? You need to figure out if you want to work with them going forward and how.]

"Yes, so Tiesa and I hadn't discussed this yet but I wanted to talk about our continued relationship going forward. You were really excellent in the delve, saving me more than once, and I'm starting to like you, even Inara," I said, giving them a genuine look of gratitude.

Pavel laughed at my joke and threw me a big smile.

Tiesa, Jasna, and I had spent most of my post-delve time discussing exactly this: were these the people I wanted to work with going forward and what would a good mutually beneficial relationship built on trust look like?

Consultant survival tip #7: Mutually beneficial. Say it with me. Always strive for something that also benefits the other party. That means understanding their wants and desires and crafting something that gets both sides what they want to at least a moderate degree. That way, it's about both sides versus the world instead of each other.

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #8: Build out the ally base and build it on something meaningful. Not just financially beneficial but something that can't be easily bought away. Find the shared vision and drive towards it together. Make friends and allies the same thing.

I looked both men in the eye, Vidas then Pavel. "I want to continue working with you but, as you can see, things are… complicated."

"Heh, you can say that again. But we are being well compensated, you are competent headed towards good, aren't an utter sickna-hat, and prepaid for quite a bit of time with us, some of which we already spent. Basically, we are pretty stuck with you." Vidas looked unashamed at being so blunt despite Pavel's wince.

"Okay, and if I said you can keep most of the money you've been paid and didn't have to continue with me. What would your answer be then?" I asked.

I need partners who aren't simply in it because they have to be.

"I can't speak for everyone but I still want to continue. The rewards are probably better than we'll find with another person but we've ended lucrative contracts multiple times because it was too risky protecting their dumb… their not nearly as wise as you selves," Vidas corrected himself, looking at Tiesa with some slight amount of fear.

I glanced at her and her face slowly morphed from angry to far more pleased.

She really is good at acting.

"Yes, that's actually a good point. Part of this agreement, I need someone to act as my public face when there are political issues. I will do it more and more as I work past the issues of my body double but it's still important after all. Are you comfortable doing that?" I asked.

"Nope, but we know just the person," Pavel said quickly.

Vidas groaned.

"Let's come back to that," Tiesa said lightly. "Back to the topic of are you prepared to spend the next year or so with Terry, getting him through Tier 2?"

"Through Tier 2? We are only contracted for getting him through Tier 1," Vidas said confused.

"And if we sweetened it?" I asked, picking up on what Tiesa was laying down.

"I mean, we'd have to know terms but honestly, the entire team would need to discuss and we'd need to spend more time with you than literally one delve that went terribly awry. I'm not prepared to give you an answer on that right now." Vidas looked apologetic but Tiesa and I glanced to each other.

"Right answer," we both said and then sent each other an AAI message of 'jinx'.

"Now, back to this public persona, let's hear who you have in mind." I was steepling my fingers and trying to keep the excitement from my voice.

***

Tiesa convinced me to dump my remaining decomposing wolf corpses well before we got back to Pitola.

"No one will buy them in the state they are in. And if they aren't worth money, is a rotting corpse stinking up your ring really worth anything?" she said. Even at my explanation that my ring had isolation, she wasn't hearing it.

Maybe I just don't want to forget my first real victory?

I bargained with her and she helped me clean the rift boss' skull as my only souvenir.

We arrived at the gates a little after midday and Tiesa, Jasna, and I were summoned to the Adventurers Guild to, as the AAI message said, 'Meet With His Esteemed Leadership, Selim Koval, Guildmaster, Adventurers Guild'. They sent a follow-up message that merely added '(Pitola Branch)' as if we wouldn't notice.

"This guy is going to be worse than I'm expecting, isn't he? And I'm expecting pretty bad…" I turned to Tiesa while Jasna was petting my as-yet-unnamed new beast bond while feeding him an array of different things, all of which seemed to somehow be his favorite.

"Yes. He's probably my third least favorite person. The first is the man that slaughtered my parents and the second is the man who got my uncle executed." Jasna used a babying voice while speaking as she was looking lovingly into the sugar glider's eyes.

Tiesa just sighed. "There are a few ways to play this but no matter what, he's going to be a sickna. I sent word to Katarina and she said we could throw her name around but that it probably wouldn't do much good as the Illeva name isn't all that strong in Pitola – and has gotten weaker with her main ally in Aleksandra Podlipa moving to Velez after losing her power here. We could play up Jazzy and my military and delving accomplishments, maybe Gabor's guard status?"

"That's a whole lot of maybes regarding power it sounds like he, at best, will ignore and more likely actively try to push back against," I said. "So, what does this guy want? What is the thing that gets him going the most?"

"Ego. Jinx," both Tiesa and Jasna said.

"Okay, is that private ego, like simply us fawning over his brilliance to send us to this dungeon? Is that public ego and we want to have him throw a ticker-tape parade in his name for 'eradicating a vile and dastardly threat' to the Kingdom?"

"What's something parade you mentioned? It didn't translate properly. And no, I do not want to throw him a parade…" Jasna looked very upset at the idea.

"It's a big celebration with lots of people showing up and being excited for someone or a group for some reason. And I meant we could provide him with the ammo to give himself all the credit while we don't get involved – he gets what he wants, we get what we want, and it doesn't really hurt anyone else too much. Maybe the city's coffers but that's it." I tried to lay out my general plan for dealing with powerful asshats that you couldn't avoid.

Isekonsultant Tip for Thriving #9: Sometimes you have to give 'the bad guys' something to keep the peace. When it matters, don't. But being able to give up concessions you don't care about in the slightest and playing them like you do can keep them away and mollified. You don't need to slay every metaphorical/political monster, especially the second you come across them.

We continued to discuss as our carriage wound its way through the streets. The Aspirations of Ascendancy offered to accompany us but we declined. They were able to report in to the gate-adjacent Guild office and debrief with a reasonable person, per their AAI messages. Then Inara took them all out for some food.

Twenty minutes after the rest of my delve team were already out on the town, we finally arrived at the Guild headquarters in the center of the city. We were escorted past the guards stopping all but the most important people and entered the extremely opulent, four-story building.

It had towering stained glass windows that depicted various heroic deeds, from fighting monsters in rifts, to healing a group of sick, to fighting off what I guessed were foreigners from their horrifying visages, to just looking heroic and attractive.

The actual décor was even more ridiculous. There were tens of rugs made from beast hides and skins, including one that seemed like it was sewn together orange-tinted squirrels. Everything was covered in leather, not just the furniture but the dark wood book shelves sported a leather lining down the dividing planks and every single one of the thousands of books was leatherbound. Even the glass trophy cases showing various monster parts and weapons had leather accents.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

There was a massive main reception desk with fifteen receptionists working but only two people actually speaking to one of them. All of the attendants had the posture of someone ready to serve but the facial expression of someone zoned out watching something on their AAI.

It truly was a sight to behold in waste in order to serve ego.

This is like that exec where we went to a dinner party at their house and he clearly had too much money and no idea how to spend it, just an innate need to spend to look sophisticated and important. His wife recently left him so there was no one to stop his awful interior decorating decisions. That was a bit sad but this is more ridiculous and infuriating.

We were escorted into a conference room off the main atrium that was closer to an interrogation room than a welcoming reception. Tiesa said they sometimes had someone that specialized in intercepting AAI messages in the building so we should keep the conversation light and about essentially nothing.

My bond fell asleep on my head immediately.

"So tell me again why you won't give him a name?" Jasna asked.

"I have a little superstition about this kind of thing. I haphazardly named a hamster as a kid and it died a few days later. Then it happened again. My friend did the same when she adopted a dog and it passed quickly. Don't ask about Cat Benatar. I didn't know I'd have a pet – or a bond, is that more correct? – about six hours ago so I want to really think. I don't have a name for a boxing sugar glider locked and loaded."

"You're weird Terry," Jasna said, shrugging.

After ten minutes of waiting, I started practicing with both women on my language skills again.

"You are still quite bad at this," Jasna said. Or at least that was what I picked up from a few of the words and her tone plus body language.

Tiesa turned and said something sharply at her, then returned to speaking to me like I was five. It was endearing she was trying.

At twenty minutes of waiting, a receptionist came and told us to follow her. She took us through the winding hallways and I was pretty sure we went in a circle at one point, she opened a door to another conference room.

We waited another fifteen minutes until a sharply dressed woman in a flowing dress that looked suited far more for an anime protagonist than an adventurer or someone who worked a desk job walked in and sat down.

"You aren't Selim," Jasna said in a dull tone.

"No I am not. Unfortunately Guildmaster Koval is occupied. Therefore, we ask that you come back later today to speak with him and he may be able to fit you into his schedule. You may leave." Without another word or even looking at us, she exited.

I was expecting a blow up but instead Tiesa started laughing uncontrollably until she completely lost her breath, an impressive feat for someone of her Tier. "What." WHEEZE "A." WHEEZE "Sickna!" WHEEZE "Uh, let's go. Jazzy, that shop you contacted is just around the corner."

***

To my surprise, the first place we stopped was a tailor. Jasna opened the door with the biggest sodus-eating grin I had seen on anyone in my entire time on Putijama.

"Uh, look, I love you guys but this is my first chance to shop in the big city. I don't really want to play dress-up. We have Deva back in Velez." We were waiting in the lavish intake area while the head tailor and her three assistants finished with a customer in the fitting area.

"Oh hush, this is important," Tiesa said lightly, then held Jasna's hands like they were preteens waiting on their favorite boy band – or I guess K-pop group now? – to come out.

The extremely gaunt customer left looking happy as the proprietor came over, all shawls, dangling jewelry, and smiles, bowing slightly and smiling brightly. "Now what is this I hear about outfitting a sugar glider?"

I rolled my eyes at the squeals of delight and peals of laughter from my two friends.

***

We left with some soft and stretchy pajama-like outfits with minor stain and mess repellant enchantments for the little slovenly food compactor – one of which he managed to stain within three minutes of leaving – and Tiesa and Jasna dropped a full three gold on further outfits, including one that looked like it belonged on 'White Collar', fancy hat included.

In a much better mood than that morning, the two women agreed to show me around the city as their limited experience in Pitola – and large cities on Putijama in general – was far better than my downloaded map and constant Planet Web searches.

I wanted our first stop to be a bookstore but instead, we went to a shop that specialized in enchantments, including identification. They were able to tell me a bit more about the storage bag I had gotten from Milica. They couldn't tell me anything new about my shield and, with the head of the shop away on holiday, the assistant lacked the expertise to actually properly assess my ring.

The bag was pretty middle of the road for a high Tier 1 cultivator without significant backing. They offered me 45 gold but I preferred the extra capacity and flexibility of having two storage items. It could hold 650 cubic feet (20m3) and had stability and toughness ratings in the mid to low C range. No item isolation but it did have rough compartments that would make it easy to keep messy things like carcasses relatively contained.

The appraiser immediately kicked us out once I brought out the scent bag so I couldn't get them to look at the AAI disruptor.

Though that did mean we didn't have to pay the fees we had accumulated, which was nice.

Upon entering the bookstore, I took a moment to just smile and take in the sights and smells. While they were far more rich and earthy – with a hint of some chemicals used to treat the bindings – than an Earth-based purveyor of the written word, it was still a momentary slice of heaven. A calm in the sea of turmoil and struggle that had become my life.

I walked out with fifteen more physical books, only six of which were for toddlers and five for young kids. I also added another two large digital compendiums. The proprietor was much more knowledgeable than at the shop in Velez and swapped AAI details with me so he could send me further information and potentially sell to me digitally if I had an account with their preferred local bank, Sprouting Jade Financial and Trade.

"Ugh, why do you want to go to a bank?" Tiesa whined as we exited the bookstore. "That is so boring. We can do that tomorrow. Or whenever. Or never."

"A few reasons. I need to understand how financial services work here. I could be like Twoflower and 'invent' insurance for the entire Kingdom. I need to understand typical loan terms. How do investments work? Equity? Bonds? The greatest way to build out a trading or merchant company is with strong financial backing. The best way to get that backing is to actually be the backing ourselves."

I turned to both women, and quietly took the dozing sugar glider from my shoulder, handing him over to Tiesa to try to win her over. "Plus, the people of Velez will suffer if they only have the Purveyors of Platinum to deal with."

A man spit at my feet and looked furious. "You dare mention those cads here? They wouldn't know fair practices if it bit them in the butt. Which would be pretty impressive for a concept."

He was wearing clothes that seemed once nice but were quite worn and soiled. Probably someone down on their luck.

"I just said they aren't any good…" I wasn't sure if he was merely generally hostile or not paying attention and didn't want to cause a scene. He muttered and walked off while I was surprised he had an AAI, though I received hundreds of acceptances of my translation request blast as we navigated the streets.

"Come in, come in. Welcome adventurers, how can we help you today?" A well-dressed man held open a door to the squat building. I looked up and realized we were already at the bank and then back at the grumbling man walking away. "Oh, don't worry about him, he'll be on his feet and rolling in the coins in no time. Those Purveyors did a number on his business but he's smart, he'll bounce back."

"We are here to learn how you bank so we might start up a competing firm. Well, he is," Jasna said pointing at me.

My face reddened and I tried to save the interaction. "Actually, I would like to open an account and start a relationship. We are from Velez."

"Oh, well as long as you don't try to raid our vaults or steal our employees, I'm sure that can be arranged. It's great to meet another person so interested in financial services. Most adventurers and delvers just want to hack and slash instead of build through smart investments and the like."

I was very confused but pleased with the person attending the door.

Uh, do they make the attendants learn all about financial services?

He seemed to read my mind. "Ha, our normal doorman's daughter went into labor this morning. I'm covering for him. Hey Denisa, come speak with these lovely folks. And get the treats!" he called into the spartan reception area for the bank.

The woman came out and immediately squealed at seeing the sleeping ball of fluff in Tiesa's hands. She rushed forward, which I thought was a terrible idea to approach multiple people in adventuring gear so haphazardly, especially pulling something from her waist.

It turned out to be a bag of treats and as soon as her hand was within two feet of the little guy, his eyes were wide open and he was making a racket, drawing the attention of the other customers dealing with tellers inside.

Denisa quickly handed over a treat into each of his hands and then gestured for us to follow while my bond two-fisted some dog biscuit-looking piece of crumbly food. Tiesa, the volunteer doorman, and Denisa all didn't seem to mind the mess he was making.

"Okay, so you want to learn more about financial services here so you might open something in Velez. We would be happy to help. Both of our partners in the city were shut down and it was a nicely profitable area but also is of special interest for me as the wife of my brother-in-law is from there!"

Okay, let's get down to planning the financial empire that will span the entire galaxy, nee universe! Or just, you know, allow us to build up Velez and help people out. Either way.

***

After the hour-long talk with Denisa, Tiesa smartly took us to a pet store that specialized in bonds as I had already fed the monster his bodyweight in treats and he didn't seem ready to stop.

As we entered, I thought I saw someone I recognized and realized we had seen them outside the tailors and the bank. I sent off a quick AAI message [We've got a tail.]

[Incoming Message from Tiesa Gogol: Yes, your bond has a tail. It's very fluffy. What's your point?]

[No, we have someone following us. I've seen the same person at the tailor and maybe the bank.]

[Incoming Message from Tiesa Gogol: You just now noticed? We've had at least six people that have been following us around to some degree almost since we exited the carriage.]

"Yeah, that's pretty normal, newly hatched bonds will eat almost non-stop for the first few days if you let them. You don't want to let it go much past that though, it sets really bad expectations."

I looked up as Jasna had been asking the pet store owner about what to feed my sugar glider.

We spent another full gold – provided again by Tiesa and Jasna – on supplies, including a rather fetching collar, and were able to secure a resizable allocation bracelet that would probably work for around his waist.

"Uh, did you want to do his Core Ignition here? We have the capability though are only licensed for bonds and can't give a reading. Neutral essence, guaranteed, none of that null tainted garbage you'll get out in the rifts. Five gold."

Surprisingly, as long as the food pile placed in front of him was stacked high enough, my new bond didn't seem to care one bit as we went through the process. Though now his tiny fists packed a slight punch.

As we exited, I tried to look nonchalant and check out our supposed tails.

[Incoming Message from Jasna Zupan: Do you have to poop? You look like you are having bowel problems. It is fine, we can find you a place to go.]

I gave a dirty scowl to Tiesa who genuinely seemed confused until I forwarded her the message and she literally had to lay down from laughing too hard. My little rascal bounded onto her and started also pounding the paved street, though treating it as a threat.

"Har, har, very funny ladies," I said and Jasna seemed perplexed. "No, I don't have to poop."

"Oh, okay. Well, you wanted to get that flower examined, there is a magical herbalist near here that a friend said has a huge ego and is pricey but only mildly shady. Though, if they specialize in plants, maybe the shade is good?" She let out a scream of mirth.

Wow, these two are attracting even more attention than I've been…

Suddenly, a woman ducked into an alley and then came out, wielding something in her hands, shoving for my chest.

Neither Jasna nor Tiesa seemed to move despite clocking the woman. I took a defensive stance, ready to dodge as attacking with my weapon felt too premature – she was barely moving above unignited speeds. She thrust a pair of bright red underwear into my chest, sent me her AAI ID, blew me a kiss, and gave what I thought was an attempt at a sultry "I'll see you later".

What the damn hell? Really? I guess if you were a gigolo, that's an easy client?

Then a man that was watching deployed some kind of obscurement array and did the exact same thing, though his boxer-like garment sported dragons both giving an exaggerated look at the front center.

I really hate Cornelius.

Gathering my gaggle of giggling gal guards, we set off for Melandra's Magical Moss and Multiflora. To my surprise, it was very close to a lawn and garden center in the middle of the city with a large growing operation and an associated alchemy store operated by Melandra's brother, Melaxander.

The stout woman, wearing something close to a beekeeper outfit that was glowing with runes, took the headgear off, revealing a rather toady and angry face. "Yeah, what the jebbie do you want?"

"Wow, great customer service," Tiesa said, smirking.

Yeah, gotta step in before they get into a snit. Time for Operation Charm Offensive.

"Oh great Melandra, we came to your fine establishment as we were told it was the fairest – and most fair – in all of Pitola. We ask that you share your great wisdom with us as we are but simpletons to your knowledge, herbal and beyond."

Not my best but still, probably a 6/10.

The look on Tiesa's face had me revising that down to a 3/10 at best.

"What? Why are you talking funny?" she said, giving me a dismissive scowl.

"Didn't you accept his AAI translation request?" Tiesa asked, genuinely confused.

"Why would I do that? It was some random blast. Rude as all get out. Anyway, stop wasting my time, what do you want?"

Tiesa was clearly not used to being spoken to like that but Jasna simply stepped forward. "Lora Zepa said you were egotistical and pricey but not overly shady. So we want you to tell us what this is," she said, removing the flower I plucked in my first real delve, when Milica tried to get me killed.

"Oh, I like you. Don't beat around the bush. And yes, that's a plant pun," Melandra said as her outer shell disappeared into a spatial item. "You can laugh."

Jasna obliged, genuinely seeming to enjoy it. Melandra smiled and gestured for her to follow to a room off the side of the open-air plant and garden center. Melandra tried to shut the door before either Tiesa or I entered but relented after a few quick tugs to try to move Tiesa's foot failed miserably.

"Two gold and a Tier 1 mana stone. That thing is going to exhaust my mana supply, I can already tell," Melandra said the second we sat down. At Tiesa's slight rise, she shrugged. "It's non-negotiable. I just don't have that much mana. And as curious as I am 'bout this beauty, I'm dropping my fee from five gold to two because I like her," she pointed at Jasna, "and he's only mildly awful to the eyes."

Jasna turned to both of us. "I like her too. We will charge this to Katarina as part of the general fees. I know she will agree when I speak to her." Turning back to Melandra, she shrugged. "I don't have any Tier 1 stones on me, do you have one for us to purchase?"

"At market rate," Tiesa added quickly.

"At market rate plus 15% like is standard for absolutely anything here. I have to carry them as inventory and I need to be compensated for that," the woman said with an air of finality.

Once Tiesa handed over a Tier 2 mana stone and got back some change, Melandra started to cast a spell, her hands glowing across the spectrum of colors and her eyes showing intense concentration. She started to sweat profusely, filling the room with a foul odor of wet fertilizer and a body in need of a bath. Or two.

As the light from her hands started to fade, she held the small Tier 1 mana stone and I could sense if not see the magical power flowing into her as the brightness emitting from her hands redoubled.

A full minute after she finished, the woman finally drew in a sharp breath. "Jebbie. Just where the jebbie did you find this? I'll buy it off you. 30 gold sounds like a good deal."

"First, tell us what it does," Tiesa said flatly.

"Yeah, yeah. Well, it's an Affinity Alteration Amaryllis. Basically, consume this – whether by eating it or via a treatment – and you can add a new essence affinity. You have to prepare it correctly though with a lot of other ingredients, otherwise you end up with just the affinity of the flower as is. And this one is null right now." She gave a shudder. "And it's deteriorating, even in your storage ring. Probably only good for another week or so unless you get a really strong ring."

Come on, it's not that bad. Wait, why am I defending null?

I sent Tiesa a message: [Find out first, how much it costs to make the pill or treatment, second how much it usually sells for, and then hit her with what she's probably going to try to hide with how many treatments or pills can one flower make.]

"And how much would it be if we asked you to make us this pill?" Tiesa asked.

"Depends on the affinity but probably 30-40 gold on top of providing the ingredient. Multiple days of both my and my brother's time and a lot of very expensive and hard-to-find ingredients. And it's actually a body paste you have to smear over your naked body while under the moon. Full moon preferred but with a bit more of the other ingredients, you can make it work under any lunar phase. Real smelly stuff, probably not something you want to get involved with."

Melandra is not doing a great job of selling us on not wanting it. I wonder if her brother is even worse.

"And how much would you be able to sell this treatment for?" Tiesa asked.

"60-70 gold, the cost of the flower would be the 30 in there," she said unconvincingly.

"Oh, you'd be prepared to take an AAI-backed oath that that's what you'd sell it for?"

"Uhh… okay, probably more like 100 gold. I'd probably keep it in case some poor sap got a null affinity and not anything else. That would be terrible."

Jasna laughed but Tiesa held it together slightly better. Melandra gave us a strange look but shrugged.

"Okay, and how many treatments would one flower provide?"

Melandra's face went from mildly annoyed to mutinous and she visibly clamped her mouth shut.

"Well?" Tiesa asked.

"…Three," the toady woman finally admitted.

I sent Tiesa another message: [Ask her if she'd be willing to do a profit share. We get 50% of total revenue that they sell it for.]

"And would you share your profits with us?" Tiesa asked like she had just landed the master stroke but I sighed.

"Uh, no? What are you on about? That's not how business is done."

Well, sodus.

***

After our negotiations fell apart on the final question, Tiesa said we'd consider the offer and come back the next day.

"Ah, so profit sharing means we get a percentage of the profits that is predetermined. That makes far more sense than asking someone to share their profits," Jasna said, looking like she was contemplating further. "But why would either side agree?"

"It means we are all incentivized to maximize profits. We are on the same side. If they sold the treatments for 150 gold instead of 100, both of us would get 25 more gold. It's mutually beneficial. It's not all sunshine and rainbows because they'd probably be supplying themselves and could claim high costs on the other ingredients but I wanted to see if that 100 was the actual price," I said, genuinely enjoying my conversation with Jasna while we ate a late afternoon snack. My little food trash compactor had three meat skewers to each of our two.

[Incoming Message from Jasmina Zizek, Chief Attache to Selim Koval, His Esteemed Leadership, Guildmaster, Adventurers Guild: The Guildmaster will see you now, you have 10 minutes before he moves on to other matters and your report will be considered delinquent. Consequences are yet to be determined.]

"We're halfway across town!" Tiesa said angrily.

"Jazzy Express, taking off in 3, 2, 1." Jasna scooped me up in one arm and Tiesa in the other, stuffing my sugar glider down the front of her shirt to an indignant screech. I quickly felt him go from angry to comfy to asleep in a food coma in about six seconds. Meanwhile, my face was being rearranged like I was using a souped-up leafblower to try to bat my tonsils out the back of my head.

Jasna is fast…

We reached the front of the headquarters with 45 seconds to spare and Jasna easily leapt up the twenty stairs in front of the building and hastily yet gently opened the door.

"Sent her a message that we are here," Tiesa said.

The same woman that dismissed us before gave a tight smile that didn't reach her eyes and led us into the same conference room we'd initially occupied earlier.

"I'll see if we can get you into Selim's schedule," she said patronizingly and left the room.

Looks like we'll get to wait again. Sodus-head.

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