"So, what's the consensus."

[... did you perhaps negotiate on what kinds of magic tomes you would get in the trade.]

"..."

[These grimoires are convenient but not usable in their current state. This one, for example, is just an encyclopedia of hand gestures to help facilitate spell casting. It doesn't even have spells.]

"..."

[The second would be helpful if my fire affinity was higher. It'll be more efficient to fly blind than allocate all of thisss one's time into learning fire magic.]

"Shit. Sorry, Duchess. I thought any magic book would be fine."

[Thisss one didn't specify what thisss one wanted, so don't fault yourself. Maybe indict yourself for not inferring what you were trading your time for.]

"What does the last grimoire contain?"

[Theorums regarding magic. Exactly what thisss one was looking for. Thisss one can use this as a starting point for spellcraft. Also, thisss one can adapt aspects of the fire grimoire to thisss one's light magic could boost my damage.]

"I think you should look into what 'light' magic is. If the 'element' of light is only 'fast and hot,' there would be no distinction between light and fire."

[Noted. But thisss one must say that 'fast and hot' is a crude distinction of what is considered electromagnetic radiation. My current light cantrips were created for combat since that was what the situation called for.]

"Are you implying that light magic can influence radio waves and gamma rays? Aren't those also EM radiation?"

[It's a possibility thisss one wishes to look into.]

"The magic is called [Radiant Magic], not [Electromagnetic Radiation Magic], so maybe don't bite off too much right now."

[Radiation, Radiant. Who knows, thisss one knows that you didn't get a light grimoire, so our topic of discussion will stay hypothetical.]

"..."

[Can we stay in the manor for a few hours so thisss one may read?]

"Sure. One more thing. Eventually, you should check out the dungeon and tell me what all those weird magical-looking things are."

[...]

I pass by Rob, who is smacking the gentlemancer's safe with a shovel.

I activate my [Lexicon] and select something that would help Rob open that safe. "Lockpicking for Dummies (legal)."

I hope I find the illegal version. It probably has better techniques.

After handing Rob the book and patting his head, I check on Khan since I have a few hours to burn. He's fine.

Speaking of time to waste, I head to the warehouse and find the sack of seeds that an injured farmer gave me after healing him. Apparently, he's the only one in Goldenfield that grows potatoes commercially. So I have a sack of potato seeds.

He said it was potato seeds. It's a burlap sack of sprouting potatoes. I guess this counts?

I go through the necessary steps and start a small potato garden where the manor designated a vegetable garden. I hope the manor's magic will compensate for my shortcomings as a gardener. My only experience is helping my mother, then being told to not help anymore after messing up.

Now I need a gardener as well as a maid. If I hire people, I'll need a chef to provide meals. Then I'll need a doctor to provide care if anyone gets injured. I can't do the job since I won't be here 24/7.

Then I'll need guards to keep my help from stealing. Shit, maintaining the manor with only one person would be torture. So I'll need a few maids. Then an accountant handles the paychecks. Do I need an accountant?

Fuck. If I need to hire many people, what's one or two more? I should get a personal masseuse. One for me and another for Flash Gordon. Someone to maintain the library, someone to warden over anyone I would keep in the dungeon, a groundskeeper, maybe even a steward.

I need passive income.

I manually check my treasury. I have 113 golden coins on the stone brick floor with 9 smaller copper-colored coins in separate piles.

133,009 credits left.

Any other chores that I need to do? Maybe I should check up on that seed I planted from that forbidden fruit.

I check my orchard, and it's as bare as the day I got it. No signs of any growth.

I might as well kill time by sleeping and leaving in the morning.

~

I finally leave Goldenfield, which was supposed to be a pitstop, and continue on the road.

There are a few more cities on the way to Auroran, but if I pass them by, I'll be tempted to stop. They border a forest that's honestly a public safety hazard. Luckily the creatures that dwell inside don't tend to leave the woods.

If I cut through the forest, I should theoretically save some time. Flying over the forest is an option, but I'm worried about the aerial beasts rather than the forest creatures.

If I come across something too dangerous, my beasts can evacuate me to the skies, but if that creature can fly. I'm fucked.

It should be fine for me to travel through the forest. Guilds venture inside all the time for natural resources. I should just avoid any hotspots.

It's still a few days to reach the edge of the forest. Unless I do some shenanigans to speed up the slowest member of our party.

I use [Master's Gift] to give half of my Agility to Khan. He still couldn't keep up with Duchess' top speed, but we will go much faster. I only have to ride on Duchess' back with Rob and Flash Gordon, and all is good.

I start utilizing my massive mana pool to train a few of my skills that don't rely on cooldowns.

So only [Empower] and [Bolster Resistance]. I can spam [Empower] on Khan every ten minutes to let us go 20% faster for a minute. [Bolster Resistance]'s mana cost is determined by how high my resistances are.

There is no limit to how many times I can use the ability. However, the bonus of doubling the resistance doesn't stack if I use it on the same stat again.

I bolster the weird one every five minutes for around one mana. It takes about three hours before I need to consider stopping so I can regenerate my mana back.

Unfortunately, there weren't any level-ups before getting to the forest.

I'm glad this forest isn't some weird predominately night or constantly snowing biome. Just some good old fashion flora and fauna. The closest settlement is a logging town with the least amount of guild headquarters compared to the other towns bordering the forest, so this is probably the safest place to enter.

Druid classes are rarer than I thought amongst humans, but those with "nature" magic are widely sought out by almost every company that deals with agriculture, Especially the logging industry.

Renewable resources are crucial to sustainable business practices so having "nature mages" expediting farming is pretty nutty. If I was a nature mage, I could probably be a multi-millionaire within a year.

Unfortunately, there aren't enough corporate druids to let all of humanity's resources be grown without farmland. It's understandable because the mental image of a formidable druid developing and cutting down trees for profit is oxymoronic.

I'm probably on private property now that I think about it.

I need to go straight north to exit the forest, then I could probably find my way from there.

There should be a river connecting the capital to the forest. I could follow that all the way up, but I don't want to deal with all the creatures that would naturally congregate at a water source.

I don't stop moving until I'm sure that we ate no longer on private property. I don't want to piss off the wrong person.

~

I don't have a compass, so using the sun's position to determine north is the only way I could direct myself. Pity that it's night.

Experiencing what the world offers is calming, especially since I haven't entered a fracture. I can see why so many humans are mad about losing so much of the world.

The tournament in the capital should start in less than a month. The organizers wanted to let the institutes from all over the Prime Territories experience life in Auroran before forcing them against each other. It also allows the teams to train with the same equipment for fairness.

I really want to see what the hype is all about.

I forgot to hunt for something to eat, so I roasted a log and ate it. It needed salt, but besides that, it was decent.

I'm taking this shortcut through the forest to save time, so If I have to stop every night, I might as well take a long way.

There is a way to find north with the stars in the sky, but I'm not sure how. It's not as simple as finding one celestial body in the sky and following it. I first need to find the correct star.

During the Collision, the night sky changed. Something that humans got over surprisingly quickly. I guess they had more important things to worry about since armageddon was basically at their doorstep.

My [Lexicon] has some star charts I can use to calculate north, but I'm not sure how reliable these things are.

Regardless we keep moving.

~

Most beasts wouldn't approach our group since we should have the number advantage.

Unless an animal is starving or protecting its young, it shouldn't attack us. Those beasts have to be very desperate or stupid.

Or maybe if they think they can take us all on.

I didn't know that this forest was absolutely crammed with monkeys. It's a little strange since this isn't a rainforest, and most of the monkeys I spot are out of place.

We noticed something off almost instantly, but that still wasn't enough to be surrounded by hundreds of primates. None of them are touching the ground. Instead, they are looking at us from the treetops.

[Howling Monkeys], [Flying Monkeys], [Spider Monkeys], and more! There are so many species!

I especially like the monkeys with wings, but I think Duchess influenced my choice on that one. I thought [Spider Monkeys] is a part spider, but these don't seem to be arachnids, so I'm probably thinking of a [Monkey Spider].

This primate is just a monkey with six limbs and two tails. Still fascinating.

They seem territorial but nonhostile. We probably went deep into monkey territory without noticing and just now detected our presence.

They are whirling up a racket with incensive chatter, but at least they aren't throwing shit at us. Figuratively and literally.

The noises they make are almost like a language, and they seem to be trying to intimidate us into leaving. They really don't like Khan.

"Don't eat any monkeys, Khan. It wouldn't be smart to start a fight right now."

"..."

"Don't look at me like that. Undercooked monkey meat is dangerous for consumption. You might get sixty-five different stomach aches."

Before I could eye a way out, a voice with a strange accent yells over the cacophony of monkeys.

"QUIET!"

Every single monkey goes dead silent.

A yellow-furred monkey man standing around five foot six inches breaches the tree line and draws the attention of everyone.

He wears armor made from turtle shells and a headdress that makes him look more imposing.

"Introduce yourself human, as you are in the presence of a king."