By the time I arrived back at the Adventurer’s Guild, my new backpack had half a dozen potatoes in it. Conjuring potatoes was slow going. They only cost 4 MP each, so I would have to conjure another hundred before I got my MP down to normal levels. The only thing stopping me from doing that was how hot the Brand kept getting. It was hard to tell exactly how many I could summon before I’d risk destroying the Brand, but I was playing it safe because I didn’t want to find out the hard way.

It took concentration to focus on the dampened pain signals, but after initially summoning three potatoes in a row, I noticed the subtle smell of burning flesh. That seemed like a warning to slow down. Instead, what I did was reach under my shirt occasionally while I walked and when the Brand felt like it had cooled off a bit, I held out my hand and summoned another spud. That potatoes existed at all in Earris seemed a lot less of a coincidence once I learned there was a Brand to summon them. They probably weren’t any more native to this world than I was.

Lounging out in front of the Adventurer’s Guildhouse was the same group as always. The Beast Breakers. I was still bitter about the money they stole from me, but wasn’t ready to do anything about it on my own. Knowing how expensive dragon scale armor was just made it more frustrating that they’d steal from me. They had at least two sets. I failed to understand how a group capable of raising half a million in funds would care about a few Marks. It seemed like all they did was take breaks and pressure lower-ranked adventurers to give them tribute money. I kept my head down and tried to get past them quickly.

“Hey look, guys,” the woman with the feathers in her hair commented. Goma, I think her name might have been. “Dearie’s back from his errands. Isn’t he cute with his new dress?”

The rest of the Beast Breakers broke out into fits of laughter. A man in blue scale mail said, “Hey, stupid! You ain’t s’posed to wear spider silk on the outside of your armor.”

“Doesn’t look like he has any other armor,” the feathered woman jeered. “Poor sap.”

“Maybe it’s his wedding dress,” the black knight rumbled. “You get married, Dearie?”

“Don’t think we’re gonna forget you cried to Dealla about the money you gave us!” the scar-faced leader of the group called out. “You’re black-listed, boy!”

I didn’t react. Didn’t even look up. That’s what they wanted. They wanted a reaction, and I wasn’t going to give them one. The black knight was near the door like before, but this time he didn’t try to stop me from entering. If their “black list” didn’t involve keeping me outside, I wasn’t sure it really mattered. So they didn’t like me? Boohoo! They weren’t actually in charge of anything. I let out a sigh of relief as soon as I was inside. It frustrated me that the guild even allowed them to hang around harassing people all day. I was almost certain that if they weren’t the ones that hired those muggers to go after me, they were at least responsible for word getting out about how much money I had and that I had an “aunt”. I couldn’t prove it, of course, but it was obvious. Maybe once they realized their lackeys had gone missing, one of them might try to come after me themselves. That I might actually enjoy.

Dealla was on shift when I came inside. She gave me a smile and a wave. “Vincent!” she called out. “I have something for you!”

I walked up to her, curious. I gave the chubby lizard a tentative pat on the head as I asked her, “What is it?”

She reached under the counter and pulled out a handful of glittering triangular coins. She handed them to me. “Six Marks,” she announced proudly. “I had a talk with the Breakers. They admitted they received them as ‘tribute’ from you. I told them they could give them back to me, or I’d turn the theft over to the city watch because you were saying they stole it.”

“No way! Thank you, Dealla! I’d all but written that off as a loss.” I took the coins and dropped them back in my money pouch. As I did, a pop-up from my overlay updated the running tally of how many Crosses I had on my person.

86 Crosses >>> 572 Crosses

If I combined these with the one still in my locker, I was well on my way to being able to afford another decent Brand. That stamina-boosting one Gora had promised to order would be a great start, but with all the Brands from his pamphlet I’d stored in my overlay for later, I was sure I could review my options during any downtime for other interesting options. While I was putting my money pouch away, I conjured another potato and dropped it in my backpack.

MP: 507 >>> MP: 503

I was still positively bursting with MP to spend. There had to be something I could do with it to pay Dealla back for what she’d done. “Hey, how would you like to try some food from my world?” I asked her.

“I’m not supposed to eat when I’m on duty,” Dealla said. “And there is no need to pay me back. I was just doing my job. Someone has to keep those layabouts in line.”

“No, no,” I insisted. “It wouldn’t be real food. I got a new Brand that can create temporary objects. It’ll just disappear in an hour. You won’t actually get any sustenance from it.”

Dealla chuckled. “Okay,” she said. “If it’s not real food, I suppose I could try it.”

I smiled. It was time to show off. I was reminded of a joke I’d read online about a single dorito having more “extreme nacho flavor” than a medieval peasant experienced in their entire life. That was something I suddenly had the power to test. As an added bonus, I could use the opportunity to experiment with the maximum limit of my Manifest Inspiration Brand to make large objects. I closed my eyes and imagined another 12-pack case of coke with a mountain of party-size doritos bags stacked on top. I knew the Brand couldn’t actually generate a mountain of doritos, so I figured it would just make the coke, then stop making doritos when it reached whatever its limit was. It also functioned as a test to see if I could make multiple things at the same time. Doritos and coke were completely separate items. It would be useful to know if that was even possible to do. Would it just fail to work at all? Would it only summon either the coke or the doritos? What would happen when it cut off? Would it make as many full bags as it could, then stop, or cut the last bag into pieces?

MP: 503 >>> MP: 448

I heard the creaking sound of aluminum foil rubbing against itself, followed by an exclamation from Dealla of, “Marketh save us!” Someone behind me shouted. I opened my eyes to find doritos bags spilling over the counter, nearly to the ceiling. They fell forward in a wave, forcing me to brace myself as they swept past. Despite how people liked to complain about the chip-to-air ratio in the bags, they were decently weighty as they bludgeoned into me. Dealla was up to her waist. “What did you do?” she demanded.

“Sorry!” I apologized immediately. “I didn’t know it would make so many!”

Dealla grabbed a bag. “What is this? I thought you were making food.”

“What’s going on here?” a tall rissian with a mohawk asked. He walked over from the mess and kicked one of the bags.

“This is food,” I said. “Conjured food, so it’s going to disappear soon, but it’s delicious.” I grabbed a bag, pulled it open, and handed it to him. “Here. Just smell it. Smells great, right?”

He had to lean down to my level to get his nose close to the bag. “Smells weird,” he said.

“Try one,” I said. “You too, Dealla. Just pull one of these bags open and take a bite. They’re called chips.”