Surprisingly, Mindy was incredibly easy to convince to follow along as we made our way toward the nearest Dungeon on our hit list. She accepted the letter from her sister, at least after she found the hidden message even [Essence Reading] missed. If Dad knew I’d become so reliant on it, he’d have found a way to suppress the Skill so I could get back to my old investigative peak.

  She handed it back to me wordlessly as she fiddled with her new spatial ring, packed to the gills with food, drink, and clothing for the journey. Tears streamed down her face, but she didn’t let it stop her from moving as we left the grove.

  Hitting the back of the page with a green light lit up a short message, something I’d never have thought of checking in the moment when I was plucking Mindy up and rushing out from the base of the Tower.

  {Mindy,

  Sorry to spring this on you, but Artie’s the Chosen of a goddess forgotten by the world. She’ll never let him break his word, so as long as he swears an oath to keep you safe, he’ll do it. He seemed like a decent sort and you seemed to like him, so I picked him to protect you while I’m away. Hopefully I’ll see you soon, but if I don’t, I hope you have a better life without me in it.

  The lead weight formerly tied around your neck,

  Marie}

  I made to hand her the letter back, but she refused it, stating that she’d rather not have it as a reminder of how little her sister thought of herself. I tucked it away in my ring and decided to wait a few days to bring it up again.

  ***

  Our first few days of traveling on foot, or shanks’ mare as Ylsa insisted on calling it, were uneventful. We walked beneath trees hundreds of feet tall, something that would have been impressive if we hadn’t just spent time back in the newly renamed Dominus’ Grove. Ylsa and I spent those days getting to know Mindy, her by talking about the barriers the former [Hydromancer] devised and me by getting her to teach me how to properly use [Raging Torrent], a Skill I’d had slotted for quite a while, but never used.

  While the Tiefling was reluctant to talk much about herself besides mentioning how she and her sister had always been together, bringing up her barriers lit up her face. She waxed poetic for hours about deflection angles and how allowing a tiny bit of flex saved more than thirty percent of the Mana most barriers would have used. She disguised it as the ripple of the water Mana she used to power the barriers, but she insisted any Mana with a bit of physical presence could be used for the same purpose, meaning fire and psychic Mana were right out, but others were fair game.

  As we jogged, she seemed to be fiddling with a screen the rest of us couldn’t see and it wasn’t until our fourth day of travel that she handed me a copper pendant with a tiny chip of alexandrite in it.

  “This is the first part of my payment for the spatial ring.” She turned around and walked over to join Ylsa, who shrugged when I looked to her for an answer as to what Mindy was talking about.

  Looking at the pendant, I found it was notably fine work, given she’d spent most of the time since we began traveling working with me on my water Skills. She couldn’t have had more than a few hours total to work on it, but [Essence Reading] didn’t lie. She’d produced an Uncommon [Barrier Necklace] with five charges I could refill with Mana in less than a week. It was set to activate whenever an attack came from behind me at the moment, but I saw a rune I could shift to adjust it to any side of me except the ground.

  Marie wasn’t kidding when she said her sister was the reason their shop was in the black. A barrier necklace like this can’t be cheap. How expensive are these spatial rings in my pouch if this is just part of the cost of one? Hers is an Uncommon, but there are a couple of Rares in there too…

  The next day, while Raiju was out stretching her legs doing her best impression of a scout for our small convoy, I sidled up to Gabby. The [Grovetender] was in rare form, smiling and whipping her neck around to look at different plants as we jogged through the dense woodlands.

  “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about how much things cost?” I lengthened my stride to match hers so we could talk more easily. “Jaegan used to give me hell about being out of touch about that and I’d like your help filling in some gaps.”

  She nodded before banishing the window she’d been using to document the plants we passed by. “I’d be happy to help you with anything related to finances. It’s kind of my job as your treasurer after all.”

  I found her wry smile infectious and couldn’t help but crack a small grin. “I guess you’re right there.” I pulled out the bag of empty spatial rings as we moved, being careful she had a grip on it before we leapt a small stream. “How much does your average magic item go for at each tier?”

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  “Commons typically go from one to fifty silver, depending on how useful they are and how hard they are to find. Uncommons can be found from fifty silver all the way up to five gold, with spatial rings as a notable exception.” She blinked a few times when I looked away, but finished explaining. “Anyway, Rares are really hard to find, but if you can, expect to pay at least five gold for even the least useful one and all the way up to five hundred gold if it’s got a really powerful function that’s in demand.” She elbowed me. “Do I need to explain how much the bag I’m now carrying would cost?”

  “Please.” I blushed and avoided her gaze. “I’m almost scared to hear the answer, but I need to know.”

  “Fair.” She opened up the bag and gasped. “Dominus’ tits! There have to be twenty rings in here!” She grabbed my arm with wide eyes. “Are any of them Rare or better?” Ylsa looked back, but when she saw me acting embarrassed, she kept on running with a shitty little smile on her face.

  Rubbing the back of my neck, I answered truthfully. “After I passed an Uncommon to Mindy and took a Rare for myself as a backup, there are twenty-three Uncommon and three Rare spatial rings in that bag.”

  She immediately pressed it back into my chest before hesitating and grabbing it back before I could get a grip on it and speeding toward Ylsa. She whispered a few things to the goliath, who let out a loud laugh and grabbed the bag of rings from the nearly frantic elf.

  My treasurer slowed down to let me catch up, running her fingers down her long braid in a gesture I realized was calming to her. She locked eyes with me and shook her head.

  I shrugged. “So it’s worth a lot?”

  “Yes!” She slapped my arm and I heard Raiju growl from behind me. It didn’t exactly hurt, but I didn’t appreciate it all the same.

  Still, it wouldn’t do for Raiju to hate Gabby, so I messaged her quickly. ‘Gabby is teaching me. She just slapped me to make a point.’ I paused to glare at Gabby. ‘It shouldn’t happen again.’

  The primal elf glared at Gabby as she darted past. ‘It better not. I don’t like her leaving her smell all over you.’

  Should’ve expected she’d be territorial, it’s literally in her blood. Noted.

  ‘Understood.’

  Momentarily mollified, Raiju burst forward and launched herself up into the lowest boughs of the trees nearby, nearly forty feet in the air before springing from branch to branch like she’d been born to it.

  Gabby shivered. “I take it she’s not happy with me?”

  “She didn’t like you slapping me.” I chuckled quietly. “Something about leaving your smell on me.”

  The [Grovetender] did a quick sidestep away from me before speaking again. “Got it. It’s never a good idea to piss off the newly reincarnated companion of the [Suzerain].” She adjusted something near her neck and then drew her braid up into a tight bun. “The reason I freaked out is that spatial rings break the price brackets wide open. They’re worth at least as much as any other item in a category two ranks up from themselves. Common rings, if they could exist, would be as expensive as Rares, et cetera.”

  She rubbed her hands together greedily. “Those four Rares, if we were to sell them, would probably go for at least ten thousand gold a piece. The Uncommons are less noteworthy, but a growing clan would probably pay at least five hundred gold each for them, assuming they’re looking to outfit their retainers.”

  I made to pull off my new backup ring and she motioned for me to stop. “No, keep it. Your storage items, along with the rest of the Party’s make up the Loot Storage function of the Party Interface. If you run out of space, things won’t loot properly and we’ll have to do it by hand like regular adventurers.”

  “You’re sure?” I frowned. “Ylsa’s spatial bag is only Uncommon, but it’s as big as a Rare ring, so it should…”

  She shook her head. “It’s full of building supplies for her clan. I tried convincing her to put all of it in the [Dimensional Trunk], but she wouldn’t do it. Something about a promise she made to her father.” She raised her hands up and dropped them dramatically. “You’re basically wearing ninety percent of our loot storage on your hands, so be careful not to lose them, ok?”

  “What about giving the backup to Ylsa or Raiju?” I wrinkled my brow. It didn’t feel good to have all that unnecessary pressure on me, with all the loot on my hands for no good reason.

  “Ylsa will refuse, something about not being able to punch as well with rings on. Volta will do the same, though merely for the fact that she feels it’s outside her sphere of influence. Raiju, on the other hand, might be a good pick when she gets used to fighting in her new body. But now?” She grimaced. “Not a great pick. She’s too likely to lose one of the damn things when she buries a hand in a monster she kills.”

  Over the past few days of running, Raiju had been working on getting used to her new body, but in doing so proved that she had a long way to go. We’d gone through a few katas together, using a training scythe Uncle Galloway had in storage, but she was far from ready to use [Soulreaper] in combat, so she’d defaulted to lengthening her nails and using them like she would have full on claws. The results were messy, but effective, as she tore through lower leveled monsters along our travels like a scythe through ripe wheat. Ironic, I know, but the results spoke for themselves.

  I wanted to argue, but knew it was futile. My treasurer was a master of her craft and if she thought me wearing the second ring was a good idea, I wasn’t going to convince her otherwise.

  Before I could talk to her about anything else, [Spatial Awareness] triggered. Something was approaching from behind us and to our right at great speed.

  Without hesitating, I threw a Party invite to Mindy and sent a message to the Party chat at the speed of thought. ‘Something’s coming up behind us on our right flank, fast. I haven’t looked yet, but I can feel it.’

  A loud roar filled the air as the ground shook around me.

  Turning to look, I found myself eyes to chest with a [Silverthorn Gorilla]. It cut an imposing figure, standing well over seven feet tall with a coat of silver spines covering its black hair covered body. They were known as the apex predator of the forest we were working our way through.

  At least they were until Raiju showed up.