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 Rift Availability and Ownership

Many believe all rifts have been discovered and are owned. So to advance, delvers have to pay the costs to enter.

That's a lie.

It's a lie the rift owners want people to think so they don't go looking for other options. It's also a lie many cities and guilds want everyone to believe. They have existing agreements with rift owners yes, but also unexplored rifts can be incredibly dangerous.

But they can be lucrative too.

New Tier 1 rifts happen all the time. They usually don't gain enough essence to Tier up or break so they might never be discovered. Mass swaths of Putijama are sparsely inhabited if they have sentient creatures at all.

Many Tier 1 unowned rifts are dissipated, either starved of essence by competing rifts or when an enterprising person or team finds them and delves the rift until it doesn't have enough essence to continue existing. But others persist, the secret of a small group gaining power and wealth while hiding the source from the world.

There are even some guilds – operating out of smaller cities or in secret – who set about finding new rifts to sell to enterprising individuals who would charge for the right to progress in cultivation.

If you do decide to delve an unexplored rift – or one without any information, called 'delving blind' – this Princess wishes you the best of luck.

You'll need it.

"Okay Steve, it really is time to think about my priorities," I said as I slipped into a bath at the inn. I paid a few silver for them to clean my rather gross armor too. A sniff at my armpit made me blanch. "Did they have us under an anti-smell enchantment at the feast? Good lord."

I continued to talk to Steve throughout updating my AAI priorities list.

"Okay, so number one is of course your safety. Then mine. It just seems like that's obvious. We have to look at that from the angle of actual safety first. But we can't forget preventing shackles, golden or otherwise." I made little bracelets from my fingers around his arms as he tried to throw shadow punches. "I was always afraid the Velez Council would just put me in a cage and drag me through rifts if I made too much trouble. I think we are probably past that – it would cause a rather big fuss I think – but still something to keep in mind."

At Steve's chittering, I nodded. "Very good point, the assassination stuff really has to be moved up in priority. When I get back, I'll work with Gabor on the sneaking into Zalano stuff and then also press on the Church of Unullification side." I made a check mark in the air as I updated my AAI notes app.

We continued to go down my list, including the second and third healing treatments for Steve, working on my essence allocation the next day, pushing Steve up the Tiers too, dealing with all the Barry bullshit, repairing my political standing well enough in Zalano and Pitola, and so many more.

I shifted the formatting enough times I was starting to worry the app might crash but I went back to the axiom of only focusing on your top three things. I could make progress elsewhere but what were the three key things to work towards?

***

"Terry, I need to speak with you," suddenly came through my door, jerking me awake. Jasna. I quickly threw on a shirt, opening the door as fast as I could.

She swept in with a fully loaded plate; Steve started sniffing the air hopefully, creating a small lake of drool on my pillow. "You need to be better about security. What if I were an imposter?" she asked huffily after taking a seat on the bed next to Steve, giving him some sausage.

"I… yeah, good point." [Task added: come up with code phrase for everyone] "But what are you doing here? Is something wrong?" The pitch of my voice raised slightly as my brain started flicking through reasons she might have come unexpectedly.

"Inara messaged. She said you have more files related to Barry's work. Then, as I was already coming to get them, she also told me about your spirit overflow situation. Too much essence is a good problem to have. Besides, it only took four hours to run here." She looked like that was an entirely reasonable thing to say.

Then I remembered she was Tier 5 and it probably was.

"I have to admonish your team, your spirit filling so much was an easily foreseeable outcome – they should have warned you. So, where are the files?" Jasna held out her hand for them.

Slightly overwhelmed at her jumping from topic to topic, I hesitated a second before bringing the box out of my ring. "Uh, sure but is it that urgent?" I asked, slightly confused.

"Our friend Joakim, the one who can potentially break the ciphers on the documents from the experiment and torture facility—" I cringed at that label, even if it was true, "—is going back into active military service in a few days. There are some rumblings of war with The MM."

Jasna waved her hand as if that wasn't anything to get concerned about. "After he reports in, his communications will be heavily monitored. Joakim says he's close to getting the documents partially translated but additional information to cross-reference will help him greatly."

I nodded and handed over the box. She began snapping pictures with her AAI to send.

"And you're sure that's secure?" I asked. At her second nod, I decided not to press further right now. "You said he's made progress? What has he learned?"

I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to know but my curiosity won out.

"The torture facility operated for over three years and we only found the latest batch of bodies. The other test subjects were disposed of in rifts. It seems Barry and his items were relatively new, not originally part of the experiments, which is why the facility was a bit mismatched."

"That makes sense. Horrible but yeah…" I was thinking about some of the incongruities, like the modest living quarters despite the incredibly high-tech lab.

Jasna sent me some pictures and then timelines as to when things were built at the site in the wood, then continued. "The first tests – before Barry – were about putting spells into people, forcing the test subjects to Tier the spells up, then ripping those spells out for someone else to absorb. The 'extraction' was fatal about 80% of the time. It's hard to even call them tests as they were doing it mostly to resell strong spells rather than for research."

I shuddered. "So Barry changed their focus?" I asked, trying to shift conversation away from the most heinous aspects of the experiments. While I was curious about how they got essence into the test subjects, it wasn't the most important question. "Any idea why the people running the facility were willing to do that?"

"Money. They were mostly a gang of people snatchers just getting by but Barry brought them interesting new things to test and a boatload of money to do so. Test subjects increased from two to about twenty. Essentially, they went from gang to legitimate if highly illegal researchers overnight," Jasna said with a sigh.

Confused, I asked, "How do you know all this?"

"The cipher comes in after Barry started working with them. Everything before that is in plain text. Some of the files with the cipher use the same formatting as other documents from before they started using it so Joakim broke that cipher pretty easily. The ones he's struggling to translate are the documents not in Verdantese. But he's close to breaking that cipher too."

"Okay but overall, it sounds like we have a lot of info on the day-to-day? We can figure out what they were doing in general if not the specifics. And we can inform families about what happened to their loved ones, right?" I asked. It really bothered me that so many people would have no closure with so many disappearances.

"They didn't record names or even where they kidnapped people… so cruel, really treated them as just objects…" She sighed loudly. "And again, they used this second cipher, usually when communicating with Barry directly. Joakim thinks there were only a few people that knew it. We have some information about the work with Barry from those who didn't use the second cipher. Unfortunately, what we can't translate yet includes what the missing magical objects are and how they were made. Those might still be dangerous."

Jasna was now working Steve through a martial arts kata that seemed to actually be helping him stay calm and focused. And for once that focus wasn't on food.

"And you think these documents will help too?" I asked, pointing at the pile beside her on the bed and taking some food. "Seems like a tight timeline to add more information."

"They already have. Joakim made a bit more progress on a few of the words from what I just sent him – his AAI has some incredible custom programs." She shared with me a few pictures of the papers with some translations overlaid. "Plus, this facility had more documents in the cipher we haven't broken."

I started reviewing the different pictures while absently feeding myself and Steve. "Wait, look at this one here. It says something about putting pressure on Lazar Fabianova and 'the potion'. That sounds ominous…"

Jasna paused for 30 seconds, seeming to really consider her words. "Indeed."

I couldn't help but chuckle.

Knowing we wouldn't make much progress until Joakim did, we spent the next twenty minutes talking about how to properly allocate my essence so I could absorb more of it quickly. My spirit was still about 25% full from the previous day.

"Yes, you're getting it," Jasna said encouragingly. "Keep pushing directly to your cores instead of letting it happen naturally. Though I think the null essence is a bit strange."

She hemmed and hawed while I felt her scan my spirit more than once. "You probably need to start working on your essence concentration early. I will stick with you for the day to give you lessons and measure your progress." It wasn't a question but I was still glad to have her with us for a number of reasons I wasn't entirely willing to examine at the moment.

As I allocated the last of the previous day's essence, we discussed my plans for a 10/45/45 split between my Innate Capability core, my physical core, and my magical core respectively due to my desire to be a mage or at least a blademage.

A starmage? A macemage? A crush-ball-mage? Not sure what you'd call someone with a heavy blunt weapon that is also a mage?

Jasna shook her head once, laying a hand on my shoulder. "Terry, you will never be a great mage. I can already see that. You are too invested in making sure the job gets done and protecting others. Admirable but not the right fit. Mages wait for the perfect moment to strike; you lack the patience and the will to let others suffer while you stand by."

Ouch. Probably fair but OUCH.

"You can still use spells as a frontliner but you have to face who you are, not what small Terry wished he would be." She nodded and stood up like she hadn't just delivered some crushing advice and analysis. "Inara sent me a message, the team is downstairs."

Without waiting for a reply, she motioned for me to follow her as she left the room.

***

Jasna informed our guide for the day – Merita – that she would be tagging along. The 4'10 (147cm) tall – and wide – head of a local delving guild had arranged our entire day. At first, I thought the guild leader might push back against Jasna but she nodded, presumably at receiving some information via AAI that Jasna was a legitimate delver, and shook Jasna's hand without a word.

"Roll out!" Merita called, turning to three separate assembled groups. She was dressed like she was going into the rifts herself but at Tier 3, that wasn't going to happen. Her bright red platemail and the blade of her halberd – the weapon was significantly longer than she was tall – were both adorned with pictures of kittens frolicking.

Interesting look.

Our merry band of six – Steve, Inara, Romie, Pavel, Jasna, and myself – headed out with Merita while two other groups headed for the next two rifts I'd delve as an essence sponge. They were to be the protection and clear squads like I'd had in the giant tortoise rift the previous day.

Our first stop, which was only a ten minute jog outside the northwestern gate, brought us to the slightly undulating tear in space.

Merita cleared her throat and stared up at each of us in turn. Her fast staccato speaking rhythm didn't give us a chance to interrupt. "Okay, you know the drill. Full clear. We will have you do this rift again tomorrow too – it's a bit too spicy. We want the corpses so just grab them when they're down – here are three spatial sacks. If these 'disappear', we're gonna have a problem."

"Why didn't we get the bags yesterday?" I asked, slightly miffed at having to drag so many corpses around in the first rift.

"Because whichever jackass was with y'all yesterday decided to play games. I don't do that. I run a tight ship. My interest is in getting the job done. Keeping everybody mostly happy aligns with that. You've seen the guides for this rift. It's not too hard but underestimating it is stupid. It killed a friend a long while ago, make sure that doesn't happen to you. Got it?"

The short woman snapped off a salute and turned to begin chatting with Jasna without waiting for a reply.

Inara shrugged and motioned for us to follow her into the rift.

***

The heavy crunch of my morningstar falling on rock made a discordant and worrying sound.

Luckily, the durability enchantment, which was where most of my mana was going, made sure my new and gorgeous weapon was safe. Pulsing a bit of mana through the minor repair enchantment every few fights brought the spikes back to their ominous glory too.

Knowing I didn't finish my opponent off, I dodged to my right, purposefully leaving myself open for an easy punch. The rock golem obliged, swinging for my chest just as I dropped to the ground prone as the fist to whooshed over my head.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Before it could regain its balance to stomp my brains out, Pavel yelled, "FIVE!" and swung my warhammer at its chest with reckless abandon, like the uncoordinated kid going for a homerun at a teeball game.

Though unlike my childhood exploits, he actually hit his target, striking dead center and caving the monster in on itself. On the ground, I touched the slowly disintegrating pile of rocks, putting it in a spatial sack.

"Ow, what the shit!" Pavel yelled, shaking out his hands and dropping the hammer.

I laughed. "See, told you using poor form would hurt your hands. Even when you get it right with a blunt weapon, it can still sting pretty bad. And you called me a baby." I put my hand out and Inara dropped a silver tenpiece into it. I decided not to correct him on using a golf term, the wrong golf term even, on a baseball swing.

Pavel looked mutinous.

"Babe, I bet on you," Inara whined. At a head tilt, she amended her statement. "Or at least I bet that you'd wait until we were out of the rift to complain. I offered Romie great odds that you'd never moan about out loud but they laughed at me."

Pavel sputtered while I picked up the hammer to examine my trusty second weapon he was using; his spear was not ideal for the rock golems and he had always let his brother Vidas use the blunt weapons when it was needed.

My old warhammer was nearing the end of its usefulness, though I guessed it wasn't likely to break on that delve.

I think it's time to finally replace this thing. I have my old morningstar but I'm probably going to get a backup one-handed sword, a spear, and another hammer. Gives me some great versatility and my bag can handle it, I don't carry that much. Gabor will be sad I'm not going with an axe.

"Tactics review," Romie called and we all retreated back towards the start of the rift.

Inara pointed to me, so I started. "Big battles seem to draw a lot of them. We need to keep containment on our fights or we might get hit with a sneak attack or just get overwhelmed. These rock golems are better able to meld into the stone than in any of the recordings we've seen so trying to use one of the rocky outcroppings against your back is a very bad idea."

"Good points. Baby hands?" she said, looking to her fiancé.

Pavel kept a completely straight face. "I'm not going to massage your gross feet tonight, just so you know. And they're going to be extra sore if we do three delves in a day. To answer your question team leader, right now only Terry and I are useful. The two of you are literally more of a distraction to us than to the golems. So getting to a higher vantage point and providing overwatch is about as good as you can do. Maybe try to see if there is anything interesting around." He looked to me and I sheepishly nodded.

Inara gave me a cold glare while Romie tipped their head as if considering. I cut in before they could refute our spear expert. "He's a bit out of line, but he's right. Neither of you are doing much damage and we have to protect you with our shields as much as ourselves. Plus, it's a waste of ammo and likely bad for your daggers respectively," I said pointing to Romie then Inara.

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #43: Sometimes you just have to tell it like it is. If it will potentially save lives – or at least prevent serious injuries – you have to do what you have to do. Feelings are easier to repair than bodies in most cases. Be tactful but tactical.

Our team leader's face transformed immediately from anger into one of pure joy. "Yay, you passed the test! That's number seven."

At my confused and nonplussed look, she laughed. "You're getting better at actual delving by the day. You'll probably hit Tier 1.3 in the next <twenty minutes>. But you haven't really been too involved in tactics and team politics. We were considering bringing in a friend to handle the external facing political stuff but I think we're good for now. You passed the seventh test on our checklist."

Wow, really missed the signs on that one. Inara was hamming it up…

I rolled my eyes. "Look, I get it but still, I'm older than any of you. By quite a lot. I don't need you giving me lessons on how to handle myself in social situations. Well, mostly…" I finished with a bit of a laugh. Dating on Putijama still seemed like a minefield.

She chuckled too. "Agreed but it's literally part of our contract. Standing up to your team leader when they are being stupid is something we need to make sure you'll do. I get to check that off and we won't have to test again until maybe Tier 1.6. You won't see it coming!" she declared excitedly.

"Okay, great, can we get back to the delving?" I asked and at a nod, Pavel and I set back to baiting out golems one at a time.

The rift was an excellent test of my defensive fighting capabilities so that's what we used it as: a training grounds.

The rock golems weren't the quickest but they also weren't slouches, making it hard to land a definitive blow without leaving myself open for a strong counterattack. The same could be said for their purely defensive capabilities: not overwhelming but still a strong challenge I couldn't just overpower. Their own attacks, whether punches or thrown rocks, needed careful dodging or blocking, and a moment of inattention could cost me dearly.

When we drew two of the hardy foes at once, Pavel watched my back and whittled one down while I focused on the other. Still, a few times I took on two by myself.

Merita grabbed us some potions from her guild's general stock – we purchased them with the previous day's delving proceeds – so we were willing to risk me getting potentially hurt in the name of training. Though I'd have to pay for it if the team deemed an injury was my fault due to carelessness.

No pain, no gain. Physical and financial.

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #44: Don't take unnecessary or uncalculated risks. But a life with no risks won't get you much of anything.

Pavel recorded my fights and gave me some live tips and commentary, though it was mostly shouting encouragement. Smartly, we both knew Risto and Jasna would have better insight and corrections when they reviewed the footage later.

We continued to battle, just the two of us, until we cleared all but the rift boss arena.

And it truly was an arena, a massive half oval with literal stands that looked a bit like The Colosseum in Rome if someone cut it down the middle.

We called in Inara and Romie to strategize before our archer fired the first shot to get the boss' attention.

The rift boss consisted of five separate golems that formed a contiguous whole or could split off to fight on their own. I tried explaining Power Rangers briefly and why it was relevant to the team but gave up quickly. Each of the golems were slightly weaker and slower than the general golems in the rift but still, five at once could be a problem.

From the stands, small golems could rise up and start causing trouble. Usually it was throwing small rocks but they could themselves combine into larger and larger golems.

If a team managed to kill all the golems in the rift prior to fighting the boss, they remained little and ineffective, essentially small rocks that could toss pebbles. But for every golem you missed – and the golems usually started hiding once you eliminated about 80% of the population – the rock monsters in the stands grew just that little bit.

Inara and Romie were assigned to clear everything other than the rift boss. If the munchkins were killed before they combined into larger golems, there were lots of superstitions the rift reward would be just that little bit better.

As our leader and archer – who was wielding a dagger as well this time – were off slaughtering the crowd, Inara keeping score for both of them, Pavel and I started our intricate dance with the boss.

I used a new charging technique Jasna showed me. Bellowing at the top of my lungs, I ran twenty paces and then stopped dead, launching my backup morningstar with as much momentum as I could in an end-over-end toss.

The boss easily batted it aside.

But that was the point.

In its moment of distraction, Pavel came in with two devastating strikes, my warhammer slamming heavily into each of its legs. As I strafed silently to the side, I saw the head of my weapon start to crack. I warned my teammate via AAI while charging from the blind side as quietly as possible, using lessons from Jasna on fast but stealthy movement.

I wasn't good enough yet apparently. The golem acting as the rift boss' left arm dropped suddenly to the ground to stop my charge.

Okay by me.

I overcharged my morningstar's heaviness enchantment, obliterating the golem in an overhead swing before it could get its footing, bringing up my shield for a brace.

When one of the entities making up the rift boss was destroyed, it started to attack more aggressively.

Specifically the last person to kill one of the bodies.

Which was currently me.

I channeled my dwindling mana into my shield as the boss' remaining arm smashed against it, throwing me backwards into a mostly controlled roll. But that opened up one of the boss' legs for a devastating strike by Pavel, destroying the appendage and hammer alike.

Down to only three bodies, the boss reformed into a two-legged beast focused on stomping and swinging down with its clubbed torso at Pavel with a manic anger. It was almost like a drinking bird desk toy, just far scarier.

Pavel materialized his spear but signaled for Romie to use the concussive arrow we hoped to save for a later delve – one free enchanted arrow per delve was the deal we had worked out, whether we used the arrow for the delve or not.

Romie quick drew the bow but I called them off.

"Pavel, can you hold off two without damaging your spear? 40 seconds!" I yelled.

With a nod of assent, I charged in, hitting the leg joint just as it missed a stomp on our spearman. While it wasn't a killing blow to the body I hit, the boss – or its constituent parts – realized it was in no shape to take on two people in its current form, disgorging the final three golems, all of which turned to Pavel.

I immediately shield bashed the one I had just hit and it made a hideous noise, turning and starting to wildly swing at me. One-two-three smashes on my shield before I saw my opening for a quick tripping swing.

As it landed prone, my morningstar was already headed for the center of its chest, caving it in.

Then I remembered the rules of the rift.

Both of the last two golems turned and rushed me immediately. Luckily they were weak enough to not overpower me instantaneously.

I called off Pavel. This is a perfect opportunity to train.

It was a battle of attrition, just how I had imagined my controlling fighting style the first day I landed on Putijama, speaking with Stannis and Liene in a beautiful Zalano guildhall.

I dodged left to mostly deflect a blow from golem #2 that clipped my shoulder over my shield.

It was a worthy trade. I drove a straight forward thrust with my weapon into golem #1's chest. The monster slowed just that extra bit.

More traded blows, all three of us fading slightly.

But I came out on top in every exchange.

Seeing my chance, golem #1 swung and I used the enchantment on my shield to create a small jagged cutout. I whipped it upwards, catching on the underside of the golem's arm so it couldn't pull back.

Got ya.

An overhead bash led to the beautiful music of rocks falling limply to the ground.

I spun to try to get my shield up in time, knowing I would probably take a pretty good wallop in the process from the last golem.

Instead, Inara swooped in and smashed the butts of her daggers into the final crazed golem's shoulders, knocking the arms off. She then did the same one-two smash into its chest, destroying it completely.

I didn't need to finish the last off, I got what I needed.

I smiled at my teammate in gratitude as a rush of essence entered my core, taking me to Tier 1.3.

***

As we exited, tossing the small lump of clay up between us, two women were waiting for us: Merita and a young woman with a large cart presumably for the bodies.

"Uh, where's Jasna?" I asked confusedly. It wasn't my smoothest moment.

"Said she had some business, to send her an AAI message when you exited," Merita replied. "Now, drop those bodies, we're running again to the next one. After that, we're getting fast horses for the trip to our third stop. Chop, chop."

"I need to allocate my essence first. Not entering the second rift without doing that." I wasn't going to have an incident like yesterday.

"Yup, got the notes about that. Once we arrive at the rift, you've got <twenty minutes> scheduled to work with Jasna before you head in. Look, I get you dealt with some moron yesterday but I literally never want to hear about this day again. I'm going to dictate everything but that also means I'm all about things running smoothly. I've got your back – just bring up potential issues and I'll take care of them." The short woman was incredibly confident in her ability but not in an annoyingly cocky way.

"Would you potentially be interested in a job?" I asked, curious as to how she'd react.

"Nah, you're not pretty enough. My husband is the vice guild leader and his short ass is far too sweet to leave, even just regarding employment, for a bit of coin. Glad you see my competence, it's my seventh best feature." She winked and then started chucking the golem bodies onto the cart while the driver stared in awe.

I chuckled as Jasna arrived. [Incoming Message from Jasna Zupan: Scouting. We'll talk about it later.]

***

As we exited the fourth rift of the day – and my second delve working with my teammates – I had a huge smile on my face.

And that was only partly due to seeing Merita's face.

Looking back at the day, I reached Tier 1.3 and was over 20% into Tier 1.4, Steve was getting a great amount of essence as we slowly increased his allocation with every delve – though most was going to his intelligence circlet – the rewards for the day were pretty good, and most of the people were lovely – only one of the teams at rift #3 was a pain in the ass. Even that was taken care of quickly.

In that delve, the clear team waited until we were actually in the rift to start causing trouble but it was basically just yapping, little dogs trying to assert dominance. I was going to let it go – other than not allowing them to work with us again – but my protection team sent Merita the video the second we exited. They were stripped of pay and banned from delving for three weeks – a pretty devastating state of affairs since the rifts around Struva were still relatively full, thus likely to give good rewards. With the long list of teams wanting to delve, all the goodies would be gone.

The second rift was a simple one: goblins. It was slightly disturbing to see humanoids cleft in two repeatedly but the ultra-professional clear team mowed through the rift room by room in less than twenty minutes. It dropped a dagger with a nasty bleed enchantment that went for about 40 gold on the market, netting our team ten after our initial cut of 50% on delves where our team wasn't fighting and another 50% tax.

Rift #3, my second time through the armadillo-hedgehog combination rift, was only dramatic for the fact of the company involved. The rift reward was a fist-sized lump of palladium, which was very useful for enchanting. Unfortunately, it was only useful for Tier 1 items but it still increased our coffers by twenty gold.

The small lump of clay from the first rift was a weird natural treasure. Whoever ate it no longer had to use the bathroom as their body could now fully process literally any materials if given time. It was very rare but also not that sought after to my initial surprise; it also severely dampened the ability to taste of whoever ate it. Struva sent it to Zalano to be part of a rare goods auction in a few weeks.

The flying spiders from the fourth rift were more terrifying than difficult.

While they could bite, my [Poison Resistance] made it comically easy. I could simply smash them once they landed on me, as their only real offensive capability had no effect. I still used the opportunity for more training, trying to avoid the bites. But the team mostly held back and laughed as I was covered in giant arachnids.

Strangely enough, the rift dropped bolts of mundane cloth. 73 of them to be exact. All patterned the same in a bright birds of paradise print.

We didn't have room in our sacks to carry all of it so we started tossing them out through the distortion in front of us. Rift exit portals maintained momentum of the person who left them – and the same went for objects.

Inara had the idea of marking a few of the bolts and having a competition to see who could throw them the farthest. It wasn't the brightest idea as it would probably ruin a few. But each of us – including Steve – throwing three only meant fifteen might be slightly scuffed.

Merita was giving us a very dirty look but we knew a Tier 3 and a Tier 5 could easily dodge the bolts. Otherwise, Romie might not have used their bow to try launching a different bolt than they usually used for one of their three throws.

"Uh, I know we don't have a corpse cart for this one – presumably the spider meat is bad – but could you send for someone to come grab these?" I asked, rubbing a hand over my head and trying to look innocent.

She rolled her eyes and then started putting them all in her own sack. "Yes, I'll get an extra cart to meet us at the next location, let's go."

An hour later – it took me a bit more time to allocate my essence as my spirit was still jam-packed – I was heading into the dungeon with the clear and protection teams.

It was far different from every other dungeon I'd seen – though that was really only one other than videos. It reminded me of a Scooby Doo episode of a haunted castle, including the skeletons and spirits, a medieval castle fallen to disrepair.

The entrance chamber was lit by softly flickering torches, casting an eerie light across the rough stone bricks that made up the walls. There was moss and ivy that seemed like they might win what seemed to be a century's long battle between man and nature.

I felt something brush my mind.

HUNGER.

"Stop screwing around Gabby," I thought back.

Wait… Oh, shit.

***

Notes App

Top-Level Priorities:

Priority #1: Personal and Steve safety

Tasks:

#0 Continue with Steve healing – treatments #2 and #3

#1 Continue to get stronger and harder to kill – pick up armor

#2 More training, especially against human opponents

#3 Develop code phrases with everyone to prevent imposters

#4 Get more potions

#5 Prevent future assassination attempts

Sub tasks:

#1 Get into Zalano to speak with Dorota Prendi – pair with Gabor on his plan

#2 Obtain more info on the Church of Unullification – pair with ??? Aleksandra Podlipa?

Priority #2: Prevent shackles – golden or otherwise

Tasks:

#1 Develop relationships with other cities – make it a political problem to shackle me

#2 Repair fractured relationships and reputation with Zalano (and Pitola?) – find who to partner with

#3 Continue to balance between reasonable and building out power base – no trying to beat everyone into submission; more contracts-based wins

#4 Build out financial services in other cities that need it to spread out power base

Priority #3: Figure out Barry issues

Tasks:

#1 Wait on Jasna's friend

#2 Start to figure out who Barry interacted with and get more info on him and his exploits – Stannis? Tilda?

#3 Finally talk with Cornelius

Everything Else:

Figure out essence allocation to be able to absorb more essence quickly

Investigate more on what is causing null essence in rifts and dungeons – either all essence or just concentration – to spike

Find a place to deploy Gabby as an actual dungeon

Decide relationship direction with Katarina Illeva

Purchase new backup weapons

Figure out build changes and which spells to take

HAIRCUT

Additional testing with Ratmir and Steve re Steve's intelligence circlet

Pay back Nikolaj 22.5 gold (due soon), Tiesa 88.5 gold, and Jasna 84.9 gold

Secure potion supply outside of Velez Council + agreements

Figure out who on the Council tried to pull some shit re getting Goran as one of the dual affinity cultivators

Get far deeper on AAI guarantees and contract agreements with Nikolaj

Self-reflect on why I've been so trusting

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