"Okay, okay, not my best opening," Gabor said holding up his hands in defeat.

"Also, which time do you mean?" I asked.

"How many times are there?" Gabor asked, looking perplexed.

"Just the two we know about as of now: the rift and then some people followed us from Pitola. Maybe the dungeon was also an attempt but I don't think so," I said contemplatively.

"Okay, didn't know if we added another to the list! With you, we never can tell. I meant the rift. Wow, you really make a lot of enemies. Been here half a month and everyone is out to kill you!" Gabor laughed and Tiesa punched his arm rather hard. "Ow. Fair but ow. At least you aren't wearing the gloves."

"Let's maybe not make too many jokes about our friend here getting assassinated? Do I really need to make that clear?" Tiesa asked, staring daggers at her husband.

"Sodus, even I know that one. Plus, they weren't actually funny. So it was double bad. Boo." Jasna crossed her arms.

"Children, back to the topic at hand please," Katarina begged. "Gabor, pretend I am the Captain. Give me your update."

He put on a casual demeanor. "Hey Marek, we were able to trace the money back after putting some pressure on the Purveyors of Platinum but it was a dead-end. It was a company that was owned by Elvis Prendi; yes, that Elvis Prendi."

I snorted at the name but waved him to continue when everyone stared. "We are trying to figure out who the partner is that kept it going. It's still solvent after all. But the Purveyors sent someone from both Zalano and Pitola – and threatened to send people from Panla Luska, Dobojna, and Grandinski – to tell us to back off."

"Holy sodus, they threatened to send people from each of the main cities? This is big. Do you think it's the royal family?" The usually stoic Maksim had walked over to the couch his wife now lounged on, resting a hand on her shoulder and locking eyes intensely with Gabor.

"Nope. Probably just the Purveyors trying to flex in a new city. We think it was someone who was sloppy and used an old company to funnel the money to get it done quickly. Essentially, they used an existing asset that they set up to use for untraceable money movements. But there were only a few investors who might still have had access after Elvis was executed. We don't have the political power to push further, at least not right now." Gabor shrugged.

"Why the hell were you so excited to share then?" Tiesa asked. "You haven't figured it out, you're blocked from figuring it out, and he's just as in danger!"

"Uh, I guess because we did good work and I want to be praised?" He looked unashamed.

Tiesa rolled her eyes and I thought she was going to say something but just took a calming breath instead, giving me a look that was half exasperated and half worried.

"Good work Gabor, thanks for pushing as far as you can. I'm not happy with the results but that doesn't mean I can't be happy with the effort and work," I said, giving him a warm smile. His chest pumped out at the praise.

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #12: Make sure your team knows you appreciate their effort. While results are the most important path to success, to get future positive results, you need people motivated to put in the effort. And Kobayashi Maru – sometimes you do everything right and still fail. Plus, Gabor is basically a puppy and needs constant praise.

"But Tiesa is right, you made us think you found something big. You have to manage expectations." At the slight admonishment, I put my hand on his. "Buddy, I really appreciate you doing the work. But letting people know what they are going to hear matters. What if I said 'we have to talk' with nothing else. How are you feeling?"

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #13: Gently guide the team to be better. Sometimes in public, more often in private. Show them you understand where they missed and that it's okay, just to do better going forward.

Wait, why am I thinking like I'm leading 'the team'? Oh great, I'm gunning for upper management aren't I? Better invest in a pole for my butt.

"Yes, yes, we get it. Gabor, great work. We have more leads but need to gain political power to press further. And that's where this little guy—" Katarina held Steve up like she was Rafiki to his Simba, "—can really give us the leg up." To emphasize, she lifted one of his tiny legs. He shrieked, and I could feel through our link it was half in indignation and half in delight.

"I'm going to ask a question where I think the answer is it's a terrible idea, but let's get it on the table. Is there a reason we don't use me as bait to lure them out? And is there a safe way to use me as bait?" I asked.

Jasna looked contemplatively at me, really considering what I said. Which was impressive considering the other four people in the room, soon joined by Steve at the noise, all started yelling overlapping. My AAI gave out at even trying to interpret within three seconds.

I held my hand up. "As I said, I think it is a terrible idea. But bad ideas should be considered in case they are only bad on the surface or spark good ones. Also, I couldn't understand anything you all said. Well, mostly, I caught a few words thanks to Tiesa and Jasna's language help the last few days."

We discussed future plans and options for the next hour before I headed back to Vana's inn. Gabor and Tiesa were upset at me staying there but we didn't have a great other option. Katarina invited me to stay at their estate but warned me that past guests complained about 'the noise' emanating from her and Maksim's bedroom, throwing me a cheeky wink. Tiesa thought their 'safe house' was compromised as I had been seen leaving there a few days ago.

I walked down the road in a bit of a daze but with Tiesa, Gabor, and Jasna as escorts, chatting about nothing. When we arrived, the other members of The Order of the Ever-Consuming Glider were still in the common room and I ordered a bowl of stew and a pint while the ten of us – nine humans and one tired fluff-ball – chatted about lighter fare, with Vana entertaining us with a few bawdy songs, until it was time for me to retire.

I decided to write out how I was feeling to better process it before sleeping and then update my priorities list. Steve was none too happy I wasn't lavishing attention on him but I built him a little nest of blankets and he quieted down, sleeping quickly, letting out little noises every few seconds and throwing his tiny fists around.

***

Notes App – 17th day of Fourth-Month, 147th Year of the Verdant Calendar

Mental Health Check-in

I killed a person. Yesterday. Didn't really even try to process it until today because we were still in travel mode and I had to be alert to another group of people trying to kill me. Do I like being able to put that off, just setting 'killed someone' to the side for over a day? Is that healthy? That I can just delay processing trauma like that?

Sometimes it feels like this body is just one big anti-depressant, like it mutes the downside feelings. Maybe that's the point? Is that really so bad? Is that just what essence does to you? Makes you more numb so you can gain more?

Do I even mind that I killed that person? That we killed them all? Was there a better way? Probably, but I don't seem to care and that scares me. A lot. That this was the easy way to deal with the problem and because I/we have the power to do so, it's fine. I don't want to become bloodthirsty but if everyone else is, being the pacifist doesn't really work if you want to thrive or even really survive.

And why am I so happy when I'm fighting? Maybe I wasn't quite as elated to fight a person but I still felt the swoop in my stomach. Is it merely the adventurous side of it? Is it the bettor in me, where I am actually risking something important – am I just chasing that gambler's high? Didn't that cost me thousands – okay, tens of thousands – on Earth? Why am I enjoying it so much more when it's not just money?

Again, are these bad things? I feel like they should be bad things but I can't get myself to care, which makes me feel bad that I don't care much. I hate this weird guilt but it also feels muted. Is that me or this body or essence or…?

Hah, three days ago, I was planning to check in to see how I felt about lying to Tiesa when we hid the dungeon from her. Just… I feel like I should hate it here – it took away everything I claimed I love: security, low surprises, stability, etc. – but I absolutely love it. I love carving something for myself with my own damn hands. But it feels strange to not miss much from Earth. I guess I already have better friends here than I did there by the end…

And why am I so okay with people trying to kill me? Shouldn't that terrify me instead of just being something that is happening in the background of my life? It's background radiation, not Chernobyl. Why am I so calm? I don't want this to be taken away but still, it just isn't bothering me as much as I feel it should.

How do I feel about Steve in all this? Seems like I should feel more responsible instead of just amused. We are connected at the soul but he's more pet than child. Should he be a child to me?

---

I wanted to write more, talk about our plans, talk about what my own goals were, but just thinking about all of it was too much and I realized I needed to simply sleep.

Are therapists a real thing here? I feel like I could use a good one.

***

I was riding in a car, a boring black town car with a nondescript driver, going along nondescript country roads, headed for the airport to fly back to Chicago. It had been an especially tough week.

Ugh, that presentation to the sales department was brutal. Telling them to raise prices because margins were compressed while also increasing volume quota was… yeah, I thought someone might pull a bottle of booze from a briefcase and throw it at me.

I looked out the window and tried to remember where I even was. Somewhere in New England and flying out of one of the decent but not huge airports. Baltimore maybe? The countryside really did look the same in much of America no matter how much every state tried to claim they were extremely different with their very specific unique charms.

Vermont, every state has leaves that change colors in the fall… That's what deciduous trees do…

Instead of working on the write-up and summary of my disastrous presentation – my internal sponsor at the client needed it for the next day – I read some LitRPG on my tablet in the car.

I'll do it on the plane. Typing in a car is awful. I'm good enough to get it done in the few hour flight back.

It wasn't the first time I'd lied to myself about when I'd get my follow-up presentation done.

Just as I was getting to a really good fight scene in the book, I woke up suddenly. I heard the same horrible noise and felt a phantom pain all down my right side as had happened a few times before when I was shocked awake.

Straining to remember the dream – was it a dream? That was pretty much my last week on Earth, though I couldn't remember anyone at the client clearly anymore. That's weird… – I felt a sudden blossoming concussive pain down my right side then quickly switching to all over and heard – or rather felt – the horrible symphony of metal scraping against metal and glass exploding.

A light and furry furious bap to my face brought me to the present and made me open my eyes. And in that present I saw Steve, dancing from foot to foot and squeaking, triumphant in his great knockout – or I guess wakeup – punch in the dull lighting of pre-dawn. He gave a scream of delight at seeing me awake and jumped to my arm and started 'making biscuits' like a cat, inexpertly moving a small bit of flesh around like the world's smallest masseuse.

I picked up the glider as I stood up and stuck him on my shoulder, heading down for breakfast, while he continued to just push on random parts.

"Someone's up early. So, you went on quite an adventure. How are you feeling about things?" Vana said, handing me a larger-than-usual tray of food. "Tiesa sent a note about what your little one likes to eat so I added that. No charge for today but we probably need to renegotiate your rates." She laughed and then reached down for Steve. "Can I hold him?"

I nodded, plopped the little monster into one of her hands and some of the scrambled eggs in the other before she could say anything. She gave me a scandalized look until Steve started reaching for the pile with grabbing hands and little yips and she realized this wasn't an odd negotiation tactic.

"By the way, has Marko Azarov contacted you yet?" I asked between a huge bite and a yawn.

"That was you? Well, maybe we don't have to renegotiate rates so soon if you are going to be providing me surprises like that," she said with a little shoulder shimmy and then cooed as Steve somehow missed his mouth, smearing more food on his little face.

"How else did you think it happened?"

"My stunning good looks, wonderful personality, immaculate hospitality, utterly unmatched cooking skills. Basically, pick at least one; two if you want to stay on my good side. That's how I usually accomplish things."

I laughed at her unrestrained glee in throwing out some cheek this early in the morning.

[Incoming Message from Risto Lazarov: Jasna forwarded me all of the recordings. I'm sorry you had to do that but it was necessary… I'm also sorry I apparently taught you nothing as that footing was atrocious. Even from your own recordings, I could tell. And those swings? Seriously, I feel like I'll have better luck with that ball of fluff. See me before, during, and after class, you need that much instruction.]

I rolled my eyes, grabbed the glutton of a glider, and headed off to start my day.

"Oh, mister, uh Lord? No Mr. Carver, please, do you remember me?" a woman said the second I exited the inn, approaching wearing a hood over her head.

Need to be on better guard. If that was someone who meant harm…

I barely prevented myself from rolling my eyes directly at her. "Of course Vesna. We need to talk but I have a few things I have to take care of. Very busy day. Perhaps later?"

"Oh, I could take care of them for you sir," she stammered out as I started heading down the road, her trailing me by a few feet.

"Nope, we'll talk about all of that later," Tiesa said as she appeared suddenly, picked up the woman in a bear hug – eliciting a rather silly squeak – and sprinted away just as suddenly.

"Ah, gotta love that woman," Gabor said longingly at his quickly departing wife. "You need better situational awareness, we were testing you and it's a big fail." He tried to give me a stern look with his hands on his hips but the man couldn't keep a straight face to save his life.

"Okay, let's get you off to Risto since we apparently are changing your fighting style. I don't think you're going to be a solo delver anymore…"

As we headed off, Gabor informed me of some of the particular aspects of his plan that he didn't want Katarina to know to root out whoever was pulling the strings. He apparently didn't trust her all that much and I remembered the hungry expression when she looked at Steve.

Yeah, I'm not sure who or how much to trust. Aren't new employees supposed to get an orientation training?

***

After over an hour of one-on-one instruction with Risto – or sometimes one-on-two as Risto tried to teach Steve but that went about as well as trying to teach a snake to box – Gabor took me to a local blacksmith to talk about getting a weapon crafted and enchanted. It was surprisingly affordable and Gabor charged it to Katarina.

The specs were quite easy to rattle off: longer, heavy head, fewer but slightly longer and bigger spikes, extreme toughness, an easy ability to enchant, top-shelf materials that might be able to upgrade to Tier 2 with some essence, and a better mechanism to prevent it getting ripped from my grip.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

The stocky woman said maybe fifteen words the entire conversation, quoted us 25 gold, and nodded as the payment went through with a small delay from her tablet. It almost took longer for her to clean her hands thoroughly enough to use the tablet than it did for Katarina to agree to the payment.

Heh, Vidas will be happy.

As we exited, I looked at Gabor. "Wait, don't you have work today? How often are you off?"

"Ha, I was 'personally requested to handle a difficult political assignment.'" His sodus-eating grin was infectious. "Katarina, much as I am wary of her, has been a boon to my standing and free time. And for that, I will be ever thankful."

"Let's go someplace to chat that's secure," I said.

Arriving at their home, and after Tiesa checked for snoops, I started. "Okay, so I know Katarina is a boon but I want to see how much we trust her. The way she looked at Steve set me a bit on edge. I am not sure we want to put all our eggs in that basket."

"I'm not sure we have much choice at the moment," Tiesa said, looking thoughtfully.

"We don't?" Gabor asked with a confused expression.

"She knows a bit too much of our – well, mostly your," she said, pointing at me, "secrets. Or at least not widely-known information. It's going to be tough to pull away from her much at this point. That doesn't mean we have to tell her everything."

"I am slightly disappointed I told her about the Affinity Alteration Amaryllis and treatment. I know she is going to try to rush our decision. But I guess the flower wasn't going to last that long anyway, per Melandra. And I really didn't know how to feed it to Steve – how do you tell a baby beast bond to choose null essence affinity? What do you think about him getting the treatment to cultivate null?" I wanted to hear their honest opinions because it felt slightly cruel to make such a huge decision for the small creature even though bonds rarely got intelligent enough to reach sapience.

Tiesa looked conflicted. "We have no idea if this null situation will last. It might be solved in a few weeks. Then, he is essentially capped in growth, only able to take in essence at a 25% efficiency. I can see he's going to be a handful but I think he honestly wants to fight. Bonds supposedly grow mildly intelligent pretty quickly. I think artificially capping him like that has downsides. That said, right now all essence, outside of the extremely expensive unaspected stuff that we can't get our hands on, is only 25% effective."

"So, you're saying you have no idea?" Gabor said, giving his wife a little grin.

When she sighed, Gabor seemed sad. "Yes, dear husband. I don't know what to do. Luckily, we have a bit of time before the flower is ruined because of Katarina's ring. But you, dear Terry, do not have such time. I'm to take you to Ratmir. Jasna wanted to come as she enjoys the old weirdo. Is that okay with you?"

"Yup, always great to have her along. Wait, what did you do with Vesna?" I asked as we headed for the door.

"That's for me to know and you to never find out," she said with a smile and clap on the back.

***

We spent the first 30 minutes of the meeting with the eccentric man going over my voice notes one by one.

"Right, but what did you mean when you said 'nothing too unusual'? That means that something was at least slightly unusual. What was it?" Ratmir grilled for at least the fifteenth time on a small technicality.

"I don't recall. I was almost killed. That's more of what sticks in my memory. Now, I translated everything for you and gave you your bracelet back. It even has data on a few more delves. You should be happy."

"Not when there is more to find out! Never be happy until you know it all!" The man cheerily danced to himself around the shelves in his lab/home.

"Anyway, let's focus on the point at hand. Ratmir, check his essence channels to make sure everything is going all right," Tiesa said, holding the man's focus for longer than any had thus far.

Ratmir took out an entirely new machine, not the one he'd used on my last visit, and poked and prodded me for a considerable period of time, including taking some of my blood and saliva. The three of us drew the line at anything else the man requested.

"Just being thorough!"

Apparently, that was only to calibrate it. The real scan felt like it was a warm water rushing through every aspect of me, both the physical and the not. It wasn't painful but it also wasn't as relaxing as I hoped. Like a vein enema. The whole time, the odd man was muttering to himself in such a way that my AAI couldn't translate and looking at me through various pairs of spectacles.

"All good," he said, giving Tiesa a thumbs up then walking over to his chair and taking out a book to read. It was about how moon cycles impacted blue essence rifts and cultivators.

"Uh, we need a bit more information here," Tiesa said, hands on hips. I put up my hand placatingly.

"Ratmir, you know how you hate it when others withhold information from you? It feels like you are doing that now. What is 'all good'? Are there any issues with my essence channels?" I asked each question as though to a confused child and he looked utterly surprised.

"I said all good. That means everything is good. What other interpretation is there?"

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #14: Verify and clarify. It is incredibly easy to assume you know what someone means but when things are likely life-and-death consequences, annoying them a bit more with a few additional questions is a worthwhile tradeoff.

"Okay, so that means my essence channels haven't sustained any damage, correct? And that you don't see anything odd?"

"Oh no, there are a lot of odd things. Your channels seem wider than most, like they are more resilient to damage. I bet you could channel more of your essence into spells and skills than the average person without sustaining damage. The null essence seems to have eaten away at a number of the impurities most people have in their channels as well.

"I don't have the numbers and would need to test you for a few days but you could possibly even absorb more essence per Tier than most people. But you asked me if your channels are damaged. They are not. They are 'all good', as I said." The old man looked like a child that was frustrated they did what was specifically asked instead of the spirit of it and people weren't thrilled and giving them ice cream.

You are technically correct, which is… yeah, I miss memes.

After an examination of Steve, who Ratmir wanted to run a huge number of invasive tests on, many I thought might severely hurt the little bugger but didn't even faze him, we said our goodbyes.

"He does great work but we just can't trust his judgement. I am still not sure whether to hand over the research from the facility to him…" I said with a sigh as I scratched Steve between the eyes.

"Let's back-burner that for now. There isn't anything that feels urgent. And the link to you is… yeah, let's not." Tiesa looked contemplative.

Jasna reached out and plucked Steve from my arms. "I am going to go and take this guy to lunch. Unfortunately, you have a meeting to go to." She disappeared from sight almost instantaneously.

With that, Tiesa and I headed to meet Nikolaj to start our plans for my Galactic Trade Federation Empire 2.0.

***

"As you can see, most of the financial products you discussed actually exist here. We have private shares of companies – though this idea of a public market where people can buy-in and vote on important matters sounds like anarchy – and insurance is quite common. Though life insurance seems like a very interesting one, I just don't think it makes sense really. There are variables we don't have good data on and as you said, that is the key.

"Futures contracts on commodities are super fascinating though your specific lack of knowledge does hurt a bit. We obviously have pre-negotiated prices but it's not nearly as regulated."

Nikolaj and I had gone through how banking and financial services in general worked on Putijama, especially in the Kingdom, and I likely wouldn't be revolutionizing the way everything worked through Earth-based ideas. Tiesa looked utterly bored out of her mind.

Why does everything have to be well-established here? Why can't I just have one hack that changes it all to give me free capital?

"Still, banking seems pretty similar here. Most of the people in the Kingdom are Tier 1 or barely Tier 2 and deal in physical currency. I'd say probably 70% of households in the Kingdom have a tablet but it's far higher in a city. But most have a single one, not a tablet for each person. And few have AAI chips unless they served or saved up enough from delving. Or are nobles or merchants of course. So if you can find a good way to bank with those people, you might have some interesting ideas." Nikolaj was taking great notes and sharing them live to my AAI, which I appreciated.

"What about credit and the idea of credit cards?" I asked and a 40 minute conversation on how lucrative charging transaction fees plus essentially high-interest loans were for the card companies but that having to develop all aspects including card processing technology, credit tracking systems, – and how awful and immoral they were on Earth – balance tracking technology, etc. was simply too much for the time being. We did settle on potentially considering debit cards but that also had issues as the ones who would need them most were also the least wealthy.

"Okay, so what it all boils down to is that the common person needs better banking as the rich are already being taken care of?" I asked, somewhat exasperatedly. Tiesa was clearly just playing a game on her tablet, having checked out over an hour ago.

"Yes, though the services provided to the rich are exceedingly expensive. Very, I believe you used the term, 'white glove'. I think some will continue to pay for that but most merchants, especially the traveling type, will happily go with less service for better terms." Nikolaj was stroking his chin lightly in thought.

I decided to lay out the three places I saw as the biggest opportunities to get the ball rolling. "Let's start with debit cards. We have to figure out how to build strong account balance tracking – it will allow us to do some interesting other things but there's this thing a friend used to rant about called the CAP theorem that could bite us if two people on one account try to buy in two shops at near the same time – as well as identity verification for people who don't have AAIs so we don't have people stealing from accounts through fraud. Basically, we need to know that the person using the credits is actually the owner of the credits and that they have credits to use." I laughed as Nikolaj nodded. "Can we use essence signatures?"

Nikolaj shrugged but said nothing, letting me continue. "I'd also like us investigate providing loans and maybe insurance for farms in the areas, especially if we are going to be stopping the rift break issues and maybe even finding ways to drain down the null essence in general. We know more than a lot of places about the situation but we'd have to move fast. Maybe we partner with someone that is in that business?"

"I know a few people and will start putting out feelers. It's a good idea but a tough business to get into quickly," Nikolaj said and I had to agree, much to my chagrin. Capital was necessary to actually loan to people and I had essentially none and Nikolaj wasn't exactly rolling in money nor was he able to risk a huge amount anyway.

"I think we want to start first with free money changing services though. It gets our name out there, generates a ton of community goodwill, and people get used to transacting with us while sticking it to the Purveyors. The biggest two issues are capital and Council approval. Then word of mouth. And locations I guess." I groaned.

"Ha, taking the world by financial storm isn't an overnight thing. But I think we can get there."

"And in the medium-term, I have some ideas about people depositing their money at their favorite vendors and getting a bit of an up-conversion, say they deposit 97 coppers to get a silver and 98.5 silvers to get a gold as long as the money stays deposited with that vendor for a period of time. Then, the vendor can take that money and use it as collateral for more inventory. We'd have to only run the program with vendors we trust and have access to their books and audit them but first, we need to even work out the feasibility of the debit card idea." I ran my hand through my truly terrible hair and sighed.

We discussed the feasibility of each issue and Nikolaj sent me a few AAI IDs for people who might know how to get the ball rolling on the debit card side of things as I was leading that.

"Now, on to your more personal problem," Nikolaj said, shuffling hundreds of papers we had been poring over and writing ideas on into a storage ring in one big swoop of his hand. At my incredulous look, he laughed. "Specially designed ring. I can sort them later mentally. It costs a ton and has very little volume for goods but is incredible for those of us who have a lot of paperwork, even if most of it is done on the tablet now. We vendors tend to like using paper as it's just more tangible.

"Back to the next point though. So, to get someone in with a strong enough Scanner for your Cap, I think we need to go outside my trusted network."

"What about Alena in Zalano?" I asked.

"For a Scanner, no. For contacts to someone who has a Scanner, yes. I had no idea you knew her. She still has some people she knows from her time as a traveling merchant. Why don't you send her a message?" Nikolaj asked, then looked slightly confused. "Ah, you don't have her info do you? Or you would have already done that… I'm sending her a quick message now to get approval to connect you."

Twenty seconds later, I received her AAI ID. Before I could even compose a message, I received one from her. [Incoming Message from Alena Rimkus: Hey kiddo, heard they tossed you from town.] Then I realized she was that friend who sends rapid-fire texts instead of composing her thoughts.

[Tell Nikolaj he still owes me for that wine shipment.] [And yes, I know someone with a good Scanner.] [I actually know three someones, will send you more info as I hear back from them.] [Stannis says hi I'm sure.] [I didn't check.] [If you need to pass him messages, let me know.]

I replied back like a normal person [Thanks Alena, been a crazy few weeks. If you can get Liene's AAI ID as well as Axe's from Liene's guild, that would be very helpful too. Stannis should have them. Esmeralda turned down my connection request and I think she'll regret that… I'll have some interesting things for you in the near future. Nikolaj, I assume you trust him? And if we get something going, you want in?]

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #15: Sometimes you need to make bets on people, even if you don't know them that well. If it's advantageous to the relationship, make sure they know you are making a bet on them, show you believe in them, because it can make them lean in as well. Trust your core group and be wary but mostly trusting of people said core group trusts.

After a few more messages, she agreed to reach out to people she knew though most were not willing to go near the null zone. She promised to get back in touch in a few days at the latest.

Nikolaj clapped his hands excitedly. "Okay, so we have the financial services 1.0 plan to start rolling out – I will talk to my contacts and then you can press on the political angle given your recent success there. I assume you also want a way to sell your goods from delving? Tiesa, you don't already have a connection for that?" Nikolaj asked, clearly checking something off in his AAI.

Coming back to focusing, at least slightly, on the conversation, Tiesa said, "Nope, all my contacts are from post my military delving days so they are Tier 3+ goods and/or are too aligned to the Pitola Adventurers Guild branch where Terry isn't the most popular person of all time."

Nikolaj hmm'd for a few seconds, thinking. "For now, I'll serve as a good point of contact to sell the goods but I'm not equipped to handle the volume Tiesa implied if you are delving so often with relatively full rifts. Depending on the goods, some things are easy to sell but gear for adventurers is harder to move around this area right now and taking on a bunch of inventory can get me overextended quick. I'll get you plugged in to people as the need arises, I've got a few that I'll ping on it." Nikolaj stood and that was clearly supposed to be a signal.

"Uh, I guess our meeting is over?" I said at the abrupt change.

"Oh, sorry. Yes, we don't have anything else to discuss do we? If not, I have a lot to work on. I'll send you the contact information for people on this idea around 'debit cards' but as you said, the technological challenges will be high. Partnering with the insurance and loan industry to work with local farms while also lowering the risk of rift breaks sounds like a great idea. You need to run with the money changing stations as that is far more political than anything since it isn't technically banking. Overall, this puts a ton on my plate and I have to digest and come up with smart plans." He ushered us to the door and shut it quickly behind us without another word.

At my look on the doorstep to his shop, Tiesa shrugged. "I mean, you want someone who is going to focus on business instead of small talk, right?"

"Kind of. I don't mind him doing that with me but if we want to build relationships with the nobles or other important people to get capital and make better connections, especially to prevent anyone trying to kill us in retaliation, we need to be able to schmooze them appropriately."

As I explained the concept of business schmoozing more in-depth to Tiesa, we headed back for more training with Risto.

***

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful with some more bawdy songs from Vana over a nice meal while Tilda swung by for some language practice – though it seemed she was more interested in free food. I headed up to my room and worked on my notes app to try to figure out my next steps, falling asleep feeling relatively contented.

NOTES APP

Current Status:

Terry: Peak of Tier 1.1 – no spells/skills

Steve: Bottom of Tier 1.0 – no spells/skills

End of Day 10 Notes:

Current Wealth: Hard to determine… Need to establish so there are separate finances from The Order; at least 15 gold and a horse

Key Goals, Short Term:

Find out who tried to assassinate me:

1) rift – talk to the Council to pressure the Purveyors of Platinum

2) ride back from Pitola – talk to Katarina?

Make decision on Affinity Alteration Amaryllis

Continue to make progress through Tier 1 – peak of Tier 1.1, Steve at bottom of Tier 1.0

Training, training, training

Get more healing potions – Katarina has a hookup for discounts, negotiating before we start delve

Continue to avoid shackles

Meet with Council to determine monetary split for delves with The Order

Get money changing locations figured out; start work on debit card idea – contact Ratmir on essence signature?

…Fix my hair

Key Goals, Medium to Long Term:

Back to the drawing board on getting scanned – Alena has contacts but not sure of timing and I have to go elsewhere?

Figure out enchantments for new weapon and pick it up

Get Steve's delving cage design tested and done

Find and complete more Adventurers Guild postings – become full member of the Guild

Further build out financial services plan – keep in touch with Sprouting Jade Financial and Trade

Figure out what to do with the sentient dungeon – work with Jasna to find a place to deploy?

Cultivate better contacts: political, financial, and otherwise

Start Steve training and figure out what people typically do with bonds – seems like they are fighting animals rather than family?

Other Goals:

Rename "Tips to Thriving" – too dorky

Continue to advance with the language

Talk with Marko (and Dahlia?) – patch over the relationship?

Physical fitness improvements – need to up stamina, not just fighting capabilities

Build deeper relationships in Velez –Councilors?

Get in contact with people in Zalano –Axe, Liene, Stannis, Miklos

Find a girlfriend/partner. Whatever they call them here.

Start to design a new sigil or house insignia?

Figure out Cornelius situation further – confront him? Is there a face changer?

Accomplished Previous Goals:

Get registered with the Adventurers Guild since in town

Continue to solidify partnership with Aspirations of Ascendancy

Get a new weapon – need a heavier head for better control and longer shaft, a standard morningstar isn't cutting it; enchantments too – progress as commissioned

Start looking through jobs from Adventurers Guild postings – one down, nine to go before full member

Build out financial services plan – keep in touch with Sprouting Jade Financial and Trade – progress as initial plans with Nikolaj

Get back to Ratmir to give readings and recalibrate allocation bracelets

Get in contact with people in Zalano – Alena

Build deeper relationships in Velez – Nikolaj

Mental Health Check-In:

Felt way too blasé about killing someone; not sure how to deal with that – it needed to be done so it was done, they came after me so they got what was coming to them – is that really all that needs to be said?

Yet more problems with Cornelius – not sure how to deal with this; I know it's not my fault but I can't help but feel like it's just a hot mess that I am causing – do I need to get a disguise? Can I be disguised? Do I want to walk around looking like Groucho Marx all the time?

Still not feeling great about lying to Tiesa but couldn't destroy an innocent intelligent creature – why am I picking up the weirdest menagerie in history? I never wanted to be a parent but now I'm at least partially responsible for two beings' literal continued existence?

Why does Putijama feel more like home than Earth really was by the end? I know everything was going to hell in a handbasket but still. Maybe that there are more immediate and brutal consequences to actions? That people really can ascend to being better through hard, if risky, work where on Earth that was starting to feel like a convenient lie?

Why am I still not freaked out about now multiple assassination attempts? This body feels like it is dulling my emotions. Or was my one on Earth just too tuned into emotions? Is this me or is this me with suppressed body chemistry? I mean, Barry was designing the perfect bodies…

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