Excerpt from The Profound and Pretty Princess' Ultimate Guide to Cultivation, Captivation, Cuteness, and Carving Your Way to the Top, English Edition (the worst-selling guide in the history of Putijama)

On The Essence Rebirth Cycle

There are five main essence zones in the Kingdom of Verdant Earth: green, brown, blue, red, and yellow. Each zone operates on its own rebirth cycle.

For centuries, every ten years – give or take a few months – the ambient essence in each zone depletes over about a six-month timeframe. Where there was once a significant amount of that specific essence being generated and pushed out into the atmosphere, said generation falls to essentially zero.

Over the next decade, the essence generation and concentration for that specific zone slowly build back up to reach their zenith before they again fall to near zero and the cycle starts again.

Those falls in colored essence can greatly impact not just the rifts but the land and the people. Where rifts were regularly recharging from the dense ambient essence, meaning they could be delved very often while still giving out good rewards, they might give out a few lumps of silver and/or take significantly longer to recharge. Thus, delvers move to another area to chase better payouts. That is a big negative impact on the local economy but it's planned for – the rebirth cycles happen like clockwork.

Non-delvers also move as opportunity is better elsewhere across a range of job times. Those people are called rebirth nomads.

The land impact is varied by essence color. The brown zone is known for its excellent mines from gems to metals. But those mines suddenly go fallow at the start of the rebirth cycle before reaching an overflowing status, sometimes with iron deposits slowly growing in front of your very eyes, just a decade later.

The blue zone sees less precipitation, causing a host of issues for the environment and businesses alike; the red zone sees weakness in all living things, including less resistance to diseases, negatively impacting their animal farms; the green zone sees crop yields fall and forests struggle; and the yellow sees its industrial output fall due to lower electrical efficiency.

The biggest issue with the new null zone is that it is strengthening quickly, meaning the issues happening now are only the start. If it increases on its current trajectory, the null will overtake all the existing green ambient essence in about a year. No one really knows what will happen then. The green zone is still the greatest source of food for the entire Kingdom.

I decided to speak with Aleksandra Podlipa by myself but our meeting was delayed slightly on her end. Luckily, Gabor came with good news instead, so Jasna and I followed in his happily humming wake.

As we entered his office at the central guard building, he smiled broadly. "Well, looks like I'm the big damn hero again. Did it all by myself too. Finally got a name from the Purveyors of Platinum: Dorota Prendi, the widow of Elvis. Remember, it was his company that was used to pay off The Rakish Raiders so they could be replaced with Milica's team for your delve? Dorota's the only one that could move the money in the old account, at least technically."

How could I forget a name like Elvis Prendi?

"Yes, and I'm sure the pressure we put on the Purveyors via the Councilors had nothing to do with it, all you Gabs," I said, trying to inject as much sarcasm as possible.

"Yup, I'm the best. As we all know," he replied nodding and with no hint of irony. "The big issue is she's willing to talk but only in person and only with you present for some reason. Says she wants to apologize since her inattention cost you dearly. But… she's in Zalano. And still under house arrest. So we need to sneak you in. I'm working on it," Gabor said, rubbing his hands together.

I always loved heist movies but I am guessing this is headed for more Monty Python than anything cool…

"Do not trust this fool for camouflage advice. Tiesa and I will make sure no one recognizes you," Jasna said with a sparkle in her eye, which worried me slightly.

"Okay, but not now please," I replied as I headed to the door to get changed for my meeting with Councilor Podlipa. Both Gabor and Jasna gave me a sour look as I waved goodbye.

[Task Added: Figure out how to sneak into Zalano to speak with Dorota Prendi]

***

Aleksandra and her wife, Asta, showed me into a space that was oddly familiar, bringing back memories, both good and bad.

Ah the good old windowless and soulless meeting room…

It even had the screen on the wall for showing information and cheap looking wood paneling.

After a few pleasantries, Asta left and it was just the two of us, faced across a large and beautiful dark wood table, seated in leather-backed chairs on small wheels that made slightly indecorous sounds with every movement.

"Thank you for joining me. I understand you have a few questions?" Aleksandra seemed wary and her tone was clipped.

"And thank you for hosting me, you are doing me a favor and I appreciate it." I paused and, at her non-response, I plowed forward.

"Yes, so I am trying to dig further into who might be behind my attempted assassination or kidnapping and why. Well, specifically the one on our trip back from Pitola. It's all a bit off and seemed rather rushed. These were definitely not the cream-of-the-crop," I said with a shrug, trying to show a bit of nonchalance.

If she wants to make this a non-cooperative meeting, I'll simply play it casual. No need to signal I am desperate or anything and have her try to pounce. Not going to be leverage for a Councilor again.

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #36: When meeting with someone who is behaving adversarially, pull back on showing your hand as much as possible. There's no reason to show your neck for a strike. Try to tease out their motivations and slowly move them to your point of view but don't act like you need them.

I continued, "Everyone who's looked at the footage of the fight – or the arguments amongst the group before the fight even more so – says they were a bit of a joke. It was four against five but they were all Tier 2s against a group of Tier 1s."

I looked to Aleksandra who was already looking confused and bored. "I'll just be blunt: I'd love to know more about you so we can figure out the best way to get information from your contacts in Pitola. I don't want to make an ask of you that wouldn't be reasonable or possible. I hope to make it worth your while of course."

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #37: Always make sure to incent people who aren't already on your side to help you out and make it known it's a clear expectation of the interaction. That can be positive incentives: the carrot. Or it can be negative incentives: the stick. You don't have to lay out exactly what you'll do but getting a reputation for following through on both types of incentives is important.

"You came to my house to get to know me?" she said slightly incredulously. "You realize why I'm skeptical, right?"

"Katarina? Yes, well, I didn't mean to bring the house of cards down around her, small as I think said card-based building may have been. I was just as surprised as anyone else in that room. Maybe don't try to use me to steal from the town? If you aren't a criminal, do you have anything to worry about?" My joke landed flatter than a balloon near a five year old who just found a thumbtack.

"Okay, you say you'll make it worth my while. How do you plan to do that?" the Councilor asked, trying to look angry but I could see her leaning forward just that little bit.

Got ya.

"Well, it honestly depends on what you want." I paused and spread my hands to let her imagine what I might be able to deliver, to get her leaning that little bit more forward. "I am very flexible but I have a few ideas. The simplest is I would forego my rewards on a few delves – pre-selected by you of course so you don't know the rift reward ahead of time – that you could use for greasing some palms or filling your own coffers." I paused to get her reaction but the only thing I got was a slight head tilt.

Taking another angle, I said, "There's also 'helping my team choose which delves to take' so you can again, work out some deals with other cities. I know you're new here and building your power base so it's important to have those relationships with important people in your sister cities. If you have additional ideas, let's hear them. We can figure them out later too, there's not some massive rush. And yes, I am indeed being extremely blunt because I see no need for subtlety. I want you on my side, let's find a reasonable way to make the happen."

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She gave a nod like it was sealed but so far, the suggestions only benefited her so I made sure to bring it back around to what I wanted. "Of course, I am not going to just give anything away without some promise of progress and information from your side. Let's say one free Tier 1 rift delve for the information you're about to provide and then we set some milestone rewards for as we progress through figuring this out? For each milestone, you earn more delves to give away?"

After a 30 second pause to consider, she sighed, then nodded. Giving me a wary look, she asked "Where do you want to start…?"

Over the next ten minutes I learned she was originally from a mid-tier noble house in Pitola that specialized in magical research. They were very well regarded and a number of other noble houses paid them to investigate an incredibly diverse range of magical topics.

It had been the family business for generations and earned them a good reputation.

It wasn't the most prestigious work but it was lucrative.

And enlightening.

In a cultivation world, knowledge is power. Even if they were restricted from disclosing a lot of what they learned because of their contracts, her family and their retainers still were likely the most knowledgeable group in all of the Kingdom on many subjects, especially essence affinity.

When the rebirth cycle – the natural cycle every ten years of the essence zones in the Kingdom depleting and then slowly renewing in strength over the next decade – started going awry, it was a wonderful opportunity for the Podlipas.

Or so they thought.

Instead, after a small mountain of wealth had been spent – by the Podlipas, their sponsors, and Pitola itself – with nothing to show for it, Aleksandra's family were painted as frauds, only there to prey on the good intentions of the city for the benefit of their own coffers.

Aleksandra and family also didn't uncover much useful information on why the rebirth cycle failed so the Kingdom could prevent future cycles from going awry. That didn't make them popular with cities outside the former green essence zone.

They figured out even less on how to tackle the null issue itself.

It was an abject failure.

Unable to combat the narrative and made the scapegoat for a myriad of the issues surrounding the null essence debacle, Aleksandra's family decided to fight back.

The current rebirth cycle was strange in many ways, not just for the outcome. First, it began half a year earlier than expected. Not unprecedented but still an unusual occurrence and one that started to throw things off in the region very quickly.

The economy was built on cyclical predictably, including storing food for when the land was not as productive. The first six months after the ambient green essence concentration neared zero, crop yields typically plummeted around 75-80%.

The drain-down period, when the ambient essence went from its zenith to essentially zero, was only three months this time instead of the usual six. It had never been less than four and a half for any essence zone in recorded history.

That meant a number of what they called rebirth nomads – people who moved elsewhere when the land went fallow for the first year of the rebirth – were caught unaware and many were destitute with no job prospects in other parts of the Kingdom. While riots hadn't started yet, it was a near thing.

The delvers – the most important source of income for most of the largest cities in the Kingdom – went elsewhere months earlier than expected too. During the draw-down period, the rifts were refilling slower than expected so there were more profitable opportunities elsewhere.

And that was all before the null essence issues started.

There was a quadruple whammy economic impact: far fewer delves driving direct revenues from delve fees, far fewer delvers to spend their significant coin, a looming food shortage, and a glut of labor.

Essentially, it all went to shit far quicker than anyone expected or planned for.

All of which was now being heaped onto the Podlipas for not foreseeing and preventing it.

It didn't make sense but blame rarely did.

Her parents were currently battling for their reputations – and likely their lives, as her mother barely survived an assassination attempt the previous month – in Pitola but they had sent Aleksandra away almost two months ago.

The Velez Councilor had reached out to a number of larger cities but with the family name being mud at best, no major city was willing to even have her and her wife move there, much less occupy any place of power.

A few of the smaller cities similar in size and power to Velez barred her from even visiting.

"Crap, I'm sorry Councilor Podlipa, I've been in similar situations if not to nearly the extent of the stakes and consequences," I said, really feeling sorry for the scapegoat of such a major challenge for a few million people.

"Please, call me Aleksandra. I appreciate your concern and condolences but I appreciate my time more. Can we get to the point?"

Blunt but sharp. I can deal with that.

"Yes, sure. I was hoping you might be able to help me get more information about the attackers to see who sent them. It seems it was a noble-sanctioned attempt, which has some other significant challenges. I was hoping you might have strong connections and it seems you know a great many important people in Pitola."

"Send over their pictures. If their faces were maimed during the fight, please send the best pictures you have," she responded dispassionately. "Unfortunately, you are wrong to a certain degree. I do not have nearly as strong of connections as I once did; most either believe the bullshit about my family or are playing political games, which amounts to almost the same reaction. And my wife's family are commoners so they will be no help. Essentially, don't expect much."

I used my AAI to package and send the photos I had collected from everyone present – the four we killed and the noble that fled – and then Aleksandra forwarded them on to a few people. We made small talk about my attempts to start a bank and just as I was considering leaving, she started getting replies.

"Well, this is unexpected. I even received messages from a few people I didn't send the pictures to. Including a few who I thought would never speak with me again."

As she put up a lot of the information on the screen on the wall, I had to admit it was concerning.

"So, let me get this straight. The three on the left here, they were generally people for hire that were known for shady dealings but mostly petty stuff. But Elson, the one I killed that had tattoos all over their face and body and no hair, they were part of a null-worshipping cult?" I was confused as to how a cult sprang up in just the few months since the null issue even emerged.

Aleksandra hmmed for a few seconds. "Yes, it appears so. The cult members have been causing some minor disturbances in Pitola – even my parents had to deal with some small harassment from them – but they've done nothing overt enough for the government to crack down. I wonder what the connection is. Was this just another random person for hire who happened to be a cultist?"

"Their beliefs that the null is here to cleanse the world and people's souls, to take away the bad and leave a better tomorrow, is one I've seen in some form or fashion in a few of my own world's religions. But it often leads people to perpetrate evil without really considering it, simply because it furthers the cause. I can see why the government wants to stop it," I said, reviewing the information again.

After a prolonged pause, I asked, "Do we have any information on the presumed leader and noble, the woman on the horse that ran off? All they called her was 'my Lady' or similar so we didn't get a name."

"No, the only information any of my contacts have is a noble contract was indeed initiated. It's a small price to check if a noble contract happened and one of the families that was harassed by the Church of Unullification – such a silly name – happily did it. To actually get the information on who put out the noble contract, that will be a considerably larger sum."

We went back and forth for another twenty minutes but didn't make much headway beyond that so I chose to leave, much to Aleksandra's relief. She had earned her Tier 1 and Tier 2 delve in just under an hour and looked pleased as punch at least on that point.

I asked her to give my AAI ID to anyone who wanted to speak more on the Church or the noble but didn't really expect much in the near future. On the off chance it might 'sweeten the pot', I gave her the right to provisionally offer to trade delves for more further information or productive meetings with Pitolan or Zalanan nobles or officials.

***

Before heading to the affinity change ceremony, I took Steve back to the inn. The two of us had a nice early-evening meal in our room.

"Okay, just this last thing for the day and then we get to start doing regular delving soon. You're gonna be able to use that circlet a lot and get really smart. I hope… I'll still love you even if you're a himbo." My bond was flexing his arms and sent a feeling of delight through our link.

"Plus, we have that meeting to get our money changing stations into a few places soon. Should be in the next week. And I think we're close to going live with a few businesses where people can deposit their money at the stores so the stores can use it to buy more inventory. Crap, we'll need to hire someone to audit their books won't we…"

I rambled on about the different things we still needed to do for another twenty minutes, covering the assassinations, my dream build with spells and skills, how I didn't actually want to stop using my morningstar – up close fighting was just too fun – who I thought was behind the money movements with Dorota Prendi's accounts, and much more.

Coming out of my reverie, I looked over to see Steve was lounging on the bed, again 'making biscuits' by gently pressing against the mattress. I called out "Incoming!", our code word for when I tossed him food. The grape struck his face before he saw it. I wanted to chuckle at the scene as he scrambled to grab the waylaid food but instead, I started sniffling.

"It's funny, not sad," I tried admonishing myself but to no avail. I looked to my bond sadly. "Hey Steve, look at me. No, not more food right now. Just…" I fully broke down for a few minutes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought you into the rift. This isn't really what I wanted, never planned to be a parent or anything. But…"

Violently jerking my hand through my hair, I looked in the mirror. What I saw was someone still trying to deflect. Trying to make excuses. Someone who hadn't actually accepted they were the one 100% in the wrong. Maybe the Council shouldn't have sent us. But that didn't matter. I made a choice and needed to accept that.

They might send me on more, and I needed to make better decisions. I didn't control my own destiny.

Yet.

I need to stop pretending I'm just some guy. "Time to actually step up Terry. You want to change this world, start acting like it. Be the change."

I hadn't even realized my internal monologue had become external. Steve released a shriek of joy and sent excitement at the thought of a fight through our bond.

Realizing my tangent, I looked back at my bond. "Crap dude, I'm bad at apologizing to someone who is literally sending love to me right now. And yes, I'll feed you more in a minute. I… it was my fault. I am going to make sure I protect you with my life going forwards. There will be risks, but we need to calculate them. Plus, you're going to be as strong as I am soon! We're going to do this together. But that doesn't only mean the benefits, it means the responsibilities. I'll do right by you going forward."

I felt extremely cheesy but Steve didn't care. Though at the idea of cheesy, he perked up again.

I handed the small sugar glider his favorite kind of cheese and relaxed, a few gentle tears rolling down my cheeks.

Time to start the job.

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