A few more weeks went by, and boy did they get a lot done during that time. The plan was never to entrap Albert, she left that to the ‘Travel-nurtures-the-soul’-faction of Salcret, as Livia had come to think of them. She just provided a contract with Alberts signature saying he was signed up to go, the rest was left to Bunke and the rest of the people staking the future of Salcret’s brewing on the guy. The sight of Albert taking half an hour to write down his name with immaculate accuracy, while incoherently muttering about how he was ready to meet the bee-riders, was one to remember.

Livia did not really expect anything much out of the action, nor would she care if Albert used his village fund money to head straight back home on arrival in Dormata. He would be holding the wallet by then and nobody would be around there to pressure him, but he would be forced into giving the trip an honest shot at least.

What she had realized was that she was rushing things, trying to build relationships or determine if people were trustworthy on the spot. She needed to accept that it would take time, so now she was being casual. Not treating it like she was recruiting for a mission to save the world, which was the mindset Mr Beard had been putting her in with his constant input.

Come to Dormata everybody, a place I have never been but sometimes pretend to be from, the more the merrier! She was inviting whoever, talking about going constantly and just generally making herself a part of the town square vibe. Doing the opposite of putting all her eggs in one basket, just looking for anybody with the gonads for the road and by that point Livia would have bought herself plenty of time for observation and the chance for further recruitment. Nobody had really said yes yet, but it was clear a few of them were thinking about it.

Other trading expeditions would be heading out, but not until the summertime when they had actual produce to haul all that way. For now there was only the winter’s supply of timber.

So she unleashed the [Guild] members to their own devices and relied on Elin and Oscar to help her keep the funds growing. They sold stuff that the orchard no longer needed, services that Roldy and Kalle could provide now that they were totally open about their Classes, and just generally looking for chances to turn a profit. Her Class was loving it, that combined with the successful [Quests] had brought her all the way to level 8, it was just a shame that her capstone level would have to wait for after they left for the capital. The extra time should at least give her the opportunity to steer its direction some more since her options in Salcret were limited. She could not wait to make her entrance on the Dormata markets and finally getting to see about setting up some monopolies. No Skills, but oh well, you take the good with the bad, smile with the sad. Na na na.

They were all doing well progressing in general. Kalle was preparing to upgrade [Esper’s Balm] when given the chance, since he believed it was the key to tuning out the white noise and learning to focus in on whatever frequency the rituals required you to tap into.

Harold was spending most of his time out by Brunner, looking for Hyde who he could sense nearby, and using these final weeks to catch up as much as possible to the fighting prowess of Sten who they were seeing less and less of.

They had even managed to solidify their relationship with Elin, although it took a cooldown to accomplish it. [Market Palate] had been successfully turned into [Regional Player’s Barter], a Skill that helped you read the implications of different prices and what they could tell you about a region’s markets as a whole. It was a lucky break, the former version of the Skill would have taken quite some time to get used to things once they moved to a new and larger market in Dormata.

But this was what they were down to in the final weeks, they had recruited all the actual [Guild] members they were likely to get. The rest were a bunch of Hail Mary at best, just a matter of ensuring as many people as possible went with them to Dormata, both to improve their security situation and to cast a wider net. Once they arrived they would, in all likelihood, need to say goodbye to their final opportunity to recruit anybody from Salcret.

From that point on it would be a situation of having to put a lot of your trust in powerful, high level strangers and doing more with less, and Livia planned to be a hell of a lot better prepared for it than the trio who first left Salcret slightly less than half a year ago.