While the others slept off their sweet potato casserole, I portaled into my subspace to check on its inhabitants.

The spiderilla was limping as it walked around its terrarium. When I broke the spiderilla’s leg in its form, the injury transferred to it. Geistig healed it as best as he could without a relevant detection, but it’s still a bit tender. I’ll need to avoid using its form for a week or two, lest it reinjure itself.

The two new Caprae Nimbos occupants were in one of the terrariums I had prepared for new monsters, now 1300 square feet, but mostly barren. Currently, the goats are lazily floating in the air, bumping into the top of the Terrarium to their confusion. They’re going to need a lot more space to roam around, or mountains to climb, but wasting space and mana on getting them a suitable terrain is a luxury I can’t afford yet. They’re also going to need to be fed, but that’s easier to deal with, and they should hopefully earn their keep. I could use the seaweed in the Polypus Terrarium to feed them, but it's only been two weeks since I started growing the seaweed, and it will take another four to six before harvest time. Until then, I’ll need to purchase some food for them. They’re monsters, so I’m going to want higher quality stuff than the random grass or hay I’ve been giving to the other herbivores. Beast monsters typically require twice what their non-monster counterparts eat in a day, so that would be about twenty pounds of food for both of them. If I splurge on them a bit, that would be twenty gold per day.

I can already tell food costs are going to be a major concern in the future. I’ll be running out of spare meat for the Spiderilla in a few days, and between everything I have in all the terrariums, that’s going to be about 170 gold per day. And I don’t have nearly as many monster forms as I want yet. My costs will only skyrocket from here, unless I find a way to supplement my income or recover costs.

I should try preparing more terrariums for livestock and plants. Something that can feed all my terrariums’ inhabitants. Perhaps mother’s corn would be a good thing to grow next. If I recall, her corn would grow full size in a day, ten times as dense as any regular corn., all of it mana-rich. None of my powers would assist in farming in the same way as hers did, but perhaps I could pick up a few seeds and start growing them once I prepare a space.

As for livestock, that will be a challenge to raise in quite the same bulk for me. I don’t have nearly as much experience with animals as I do plants. I’ve barely been getting by with what I left in Rhannu’s terrarium, and I’ve basically been neglecting the monsters and animals in my terrariums besides providing them food. I think I’ll just stick to plants and a few of Rhannu’s fish for now, sell what excess I end up having, and buy the meat I need as I have been. Maybe if I can get one huge terrarium capable of housing a whole ecosystem that I don’t have to micromanage that will change, but until then, no mass livestock. As for growing the corn, I’ll just smoosh all but one of my unused terrariums together, and make a layer of dirt for it over the next few days. Then I’ll head home and ask mother for some seeds to get me started.

Not wanting to spread myself too thin as I had been for some time, I merged four of the terrariums together and called it a night. There would be time for filling the space with dirt or making mana crystals on the way back.

---

We left Sadovoye Pole, and headed straight back to the IGAG guild office, stopping by the stables to drop our horses off on the way back. Roshanee was there yet again to greet us.

“Congratulations on your first official quest, Sylas. I hope there wasn’t much trouble.”

“Only trouble we encountered was him.” Geistig quipped.

Roshanee glared at him, giving a wordless implied threat that she would smite him again if he didn’t correct himself.

Geistig defused the situation with a few words. “Kidding, only kidding. He did pretty good for his first outing, truth be told.”

It’s nice to have someone like her on my side. Makes dealing with Geistig’s nonsense so much easier.

Geistig cleared his throat, changing the subject. “So, about our payment…”

“Let me inspect your inventory. Anything you’re going to want to sell on your own, or quest-related kills not in here?”

“I think we’ll get more for that drake on the market than from your policy, since it wasn’t one of the quest targets. Two E rank Caprae Nimbos also went to Sylas, and apparently he can’t bring them out to inspect.”

Roshanee raised her eyebrow at me, to which I shrugged.“Something about the way my specialization works makes it so I can’t bring once-living creatures out.” I explained.

“Do you have a mana sample, then?” She asked.

“A what?”

“Every creature has a mana signature. Enchantments exist that can take a sample of a creature's mana and detect, and store its mana signature. If a creature is dead when the sample is taken, death mana with that creature’s mana signature will be included in the sample, which can usually be taken as confirmation of death in the case a monster’s corpse can’t be retrieved for any reason. As you already know, these mana signatures can also be used to identify or track people.” Geistig explained. “And no, Rosh. We didn’t take one.”

“In that case, I can’t give you credit for them. Give me a minute to write you a receipt and transfer your inventory’s contents to storage, and I’ll provide you with your mana crystals.” Rosh went into the back room again, and came out holding a long sheet of paper. I looked over Geistig’s shoulder to see what exactly we gained, and my eyes bulged

`

10 E rank monster corpses 100 Mana Crystals 2 D rank monster corpses 80 Mana Crystals 10 E rank quest targets 25 Mana Crystals 2 D rank quest targets 20 Mana Crystals Additional corpse value 10 E rank cloud-fur pelts 10 mana crystals 2 D rank cloud-fur pelts 8 mana crystals Gross rewards: 243 Mana Crystals Fees: 10% processing fee -24 Mana Crystals Net rewards: 219 Mana Crystals

‘

“219? For a day’s work? But it was so… easy.”

“Easy, eh? Do you think it’ll always be so easy, Sylas?” Geistig grumbled with an edge to his voice. “First and foremost, this was a D rank quest. The only reason this party is taking it at all is because I’m here, and Tishina is strong enough to perform above her level. Had you been with a party with your experience level, you wouldn’t be making nearly this much. Secondly, we all had expenses that weren’t listed on there. Even you used up about two and a half crystals worth of mana. Kaz and Tishina both used about five, and I ended up using 40 casting spells.”

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking about it that way.”

“No you weren’t, and I haven’t even gotten to the important part. What do you think would have happened if that drake we encountered was a dragon? Or if the quest target was misidentified? Just because things went smoothly this time, doesn’t mean they always will. Every time we leave these walls, there’s a chance we won't come back.” Geistig took a deep breath. “Sorry, but it has to be said. Now, let’s discuss how to divvy up the loot. 219 split four ways is 54 mana crystals and 75 gold. Sylas already claimed 25 worth, and I used the most mana of everyone here. Any objections to Sylas getting 30, 55 to Kaz and Tishina, and 79 to me?”

“That’s alright with me.” Kaz said.

Tishina nodded.

“Are you sure I earned even that much? As you said, I’m not really performing at everyone else’s level yet.”

“You didn’t, but you will in due time. Besides, you have taxes to pay in a few days, and I doubt you’d be able to afford paying them yet without this.”

“There’s about 5 days left until then. I could have made it, but it would have taken most of the remaining time.”

“Lucky Dryads and their photosynthesis. Basically free money..” Geistig grumbled. I assume he’s misinterpreting me going into my subspace and absorbing neutral mana as me photosynthesising my mana back.

Geistig continued. “On a lighter note, how about we go sit down at the bar and celebrate your first mission? Drinks are on me.”

“I can’t say no to that!”

The four of us walked over and sat down at a table.

Geistig called over to the bartender and ordered for us. “Your biggest mug of ale for me and the newbie. A glass of whiskey for Kaz, and — No, Tishina. You’re too young. — some apple juice for the young’un.”

The bartender just nodded, and brought over our drinks a few minutes later.

“Cheers!” We all shouted out — or at least mouthed out in Tishina’s case — as we took a swig of our drinks.

A few minutes passed, and the others started getting tipsy. Even Tishina, though she was obviously just going along with the flow of things, as she often does.

I can’t put my finger on it, but something feels odd. Or rather, nothing feels odd, and that’s strange.

I gulped down the rest of my ale.

“Oh, we’ve got a big drinker here!” Geistig shouted.

“Another.” I called out to the bartender. When he arrived, I immediately drank that mug as well.

“A really big drinker.” Geistig said again, a little less excited.

“Another.”

“Uh, Sylas?”

“Another.” I cried out, nearly on the verge of tears.

The bartender came over again, and I downed that glass as well.

“Sylas?” Geistig asked, genuine worry in his voice.

“I don’t feel anything.”

“What? What don’t you feel?” Geistig touched his forehead and pumped some mana into it, casting some sort of mental detoxification spell.

“The ale. The booze. I don’t feel drunk. My restriction. First it took my body. That’s fine, I got more. Then it took my soul. Who cares? But this… I can’t get drunk.” I looked Geistig in the eyes, openly crying now.

“What is an adventurer without alcohol?”