With a goal in mind, Theo dedicated himself to maximizing efficiency. Quickly earning enough money for a proper vehicle wasn't possible with just hard work, but aiming to prepare for the hunt, with all their advantages? Entirely different problem.

They'd left the inn almost immediately to conserve money, and it had been unnecessary luxury as soon as Nauda recovered anyway. Instead they slept in cheap tents outside, which also helped them get more used to the environment. Nauda had seemed a little discomforted at first, since she'd expected them to all crowd into one tent for warmth, but that was obviously not Fiyu's expectation, and she'd eventually accepted it.

Nauda herself was the cornerstone of several points of strategy. Soulcrafters were too common for Deuxan society to give them any real respect, but as an Archcrafter she could get them access to better work than menial labor. In truth, she did little of the work, since she needed to spend her time soulcrafting new rooms on her second floor, which was fine since Theo and Fiyu could handle the actual tasks. All they'd really needed was the proper credentials.

He and Nauda had just returned from a long guard assignment that had lasted several days, less action than standing around as soulcrafters and discouraging others. One of the smaller families intended to build a hunting lodge and needed guards to prevent targeting by their rivals. It didn't pay as well as some others, but the benefit was that they had significant time to soulcraft during the job.

"I don't like this." There was no real emotion in Nauda's voice, but the way she spoke heavily while staring into the forests was worse.

"This job? It might not have been the most profitable, but I thought it was a good use of time."

"Not this in particular, the whole system and how we interact with it. What we're doing." She rubbed her eyes with one hand as they continued walking. "Most of what we've done hasn't helped anyone, just shuffled a bit of money around. The court jobs are the worst, just playing meaningless politics."

"But it pays well, and it's mostly harmless." Theo wasn't sure he wanted another long discussion, but she seemed honestly troubled by her thoughts. "If you're looking to fundamentally change Deuxan society, or improve the world, that's just not going to happen with our current resources."

"I'm not saying that I have an alternative, I'm just saying I don't like it. Though... what would you say to a dangerous job, if it paid reasonably well?"

Theo shrugged. "If it's a simple threat we can survive, then the danger is just another benefit, because we need an opportunity to test our new soulcrafting. If you mean getting involved with the court, then I don't think that's worth it."

"Actually, it's the exact opposite." Nauda finally gave him a bit of a smile, though the heaviness in her voice didn't lift. "Apparently there's a town some distance from Anguedan that has a demon problem. There was an incursion a year or two ago that the court didn't quite finish squashing. Somehow several of the demons sacrificed themselves, so the second stage demon is hurting the villagers. They've put up a reward, but it's not enough to attract soulcrafters from any of the prominent families."

"Did they say what breed of demon it was?"

"The rumors say that it's beast-like, something like a large wolf."

"Then there's a good chance we can't kill it." The exact differences between demonic stages varied, but Theo had strong memories of his first encounter with a bear-like demon. "The beast-like demons are tough to start, and their second stage can be so powerful that it takes a Ruler to put them down. Even with the three of us combined and solid tactics, it probably wouldn't be enough."

"If it was really stronger than Archcrafters, it would have destroyed the village, wouldn't it? I'm not saying that it's harmless, but I think it can't be that dangerous. Just a threat that's fallen between the cracks, and something that we can do to help."

Seeing that she wasn't going to back down easily, Theo switched to a different strategy. "There's probably no harm in investigating, but we're not ready yet. You're still building up your second floor, and we have chambers in progress. Once we have that sorted out, then maybe we stand a chance."

"Well..." Nauda eventually shrugged and returned to her normal self. "If the courts haven't dealt with it for years, I suppose the villagers can survive a little longer."

When they returned to camp, they found Fiyu soulcrafting as usual. What wasn't so usual was that she stopped and hopped to her feet, lifting a bag to show them.

"Welcome back! While you were gone, Senka and I completed a difficult job!"

"What is it?" Theo glanced inside the bag and saw that it contained a large number of silver flowers. The first thing he noticed was that they weren't sublime materials at all, which puzzled him. They might once have been beautiful, but these had been jammed together in the sack and were now just a crumpled mass. "Are these valuable? I'm not feeling any cantae from them."

"They're not for soulcrafters, Theo." Nauda picked up one and examined it with satisfaction. "When properly squeezed, these flowers produce the silver dye they use in so many of their robes here."

"Everybody is wearing them, so how valuable can they be?"

Fiyu shook her head and pulled the sack closed. "The larger families have protected fields of flowers to produce the dye, but smaller families do not. This makes it very difficult for them to afford the type of clothes that everyone likes here, and they must wear less silver clothes. Though... I do not see much of a difference."

"Doesn't matter so long as they're willing to pay a premium for these." Theo took the sack from her, since he knew that she wouldn't want to go into the city to deliver them herself. "But I imagine they're rare in the wild, so how did you find them?"

"That is where Senka was helpful. She was able to locate small clusters of them, but now she is very tired. I am speaking quietly so we don't wake her."

Theo rolled his eyes. "Yes, let's make sure not to wake her. So that she can sleep, and not for any other reason."

"Oh, come off it. She's earning her keep." Nauda rapped him on the shoulder as she passed to grab a few things from camp. "We're going to go get paid for our work, Fiyu, are you sure that you don't want to come?"

"No. I am fine here." Fiyu sat back down in her tent, quite evidently happy to be away from the city.

"Then do you want us to buy any sublime materials for you?"

"I am working on soulcrafting the mirrorbark into reflective plates. I believe I could fashion even finer surfaces, but I am still learning how to work with them."

It wasn't the first time they'd had essentially the same conversation, and it wouldn't be the last. Theo grabbed some food from his tent and chewed it while he followed Nauda toward the city. Having Fiyu remain at camp was logical, both because she preferred it and because she could render it invisible to most. Meanwhile, he and Nauda could pool their skills and credentials in Anguedan.

By now, they worked together smoothly, delivering results and accepting payments without drawing too far apart, in case of a duel challenge. The flowers that Fiyu had gathered turned out to pay extremely well, worth over 100 Silver Crowns. Meanwhile, their token guarding earned them only 20, most of that to Nauda due to her rank. Not that it mattered, since they pooled their resources to try to maximize their strength for the hunt anyway.

As they walked away, Nauda rubbed a small badge emblem between her fingers. "Another one of these. Is this family's esteem worth anything?"

"It's not a major enough family, and we don't want to announce our allegiance to anyone. People are giving them to us more to recruit us than as payment. Any cantae?"

"Barely any." Nauda tossed it to him carelessly and he caught it in his palm. "The sublime materials used to make these are almost worthless, so I don't know why they bother."

Many of their jobs had given them emblems fashioned from weak sublime materials, which proved to be a major part of local soulcrafter politics. Since Fiyu said she didn't need them and Nauda scorned the concept, Theo had been taking them all for a temporary room. "In case you haven't noticed, they like ranks here. But most of their soulcrafters don't work fast enough to ascend, so they have all these emblems and trinkets to make them feel like they're advancing."

"You've seen this before?"

"Anguedan seems to like them a lot more than other Deuxan cities I've visited, but yeah. In other places, some are actually quite valuable. For example, a major court or family will give you a sublime material with their sigil, which generates a reasonable amount of cantae and also marks your soulhome so you get special treatment at the establishments they own."

"Huh." As little as she liked Deuxan, Nauda did consider that carefully instead of dismissing it. "I can see the value, but I'm guessing we're not getting any benefits like that here?"

"Probably not." Theo crushed the weak metal in his palm and it slipped into his soulhome. He'd put it with the others later, but for now he had higher priorities.

They returned to one of the city's primary markets for sublime materials. For the most part, it was just an errand now, Nauda picking up more sublime stone to craft new chambers. Many soulcrafters preferred that their primary building materials come solely from their home world, or even tried to fashion all their walls from a single material, but Nauda didn't seem to care.

"What about this?" Nauda spoke up from the other side, drawing his attention. She stood in front of a bright blue tent that he hadn't seen before, likely a merchant from out of town.

Theo walked closer and, though the man's wares contained many unusual items, he immediately understood what she meant. The dark lump of metal sitting on one side of the display rug looked dull, but he felt cantae flowing into it. At first he'd thought that the rug was simply bunched up around it, then he realized that the fabric was actually being drawn toward the metal. When Theo experimentally reach out to touch it, he felt it pull on his fingers and the rug seemed to cling to the metal.

"You like it?" The merchant gave them both a broad smile. "You're the first people to identify real value in this borderlands city. Have you ever, perhaps, heard of magnetized iron?"

"Of course." Theo tossed the lump into the air, noting how it sped back to his hand faster than gravity alone would suggest. "Is this a sublime material that follows similar principles?"

"Just so! Everything is drawn to it, not merely certain metals. If you rub it against substances, it will briefly make them stick together as well." He promptly demonstrated with two silk ribbons, though they didn't cling together strongly. "It can be extremely useful for construction, or it could be an interesting piece in your soulhome."

Given his blueprint, Theo obviously wanted it, but he pretended disinterest. Nauda pushed him to get it, as if it was a gift they didn't care greatly about, and they slowly wore down the merchant. But even with all of Nauda's negotiating skills, it wasn't cheap, costing them most of what they had just earned. Eventually they pulled back to speak privately.

"If we buy this," Theo said, "I'll let you have my share of all the jobs for a month."

"Don't need it. Sublime stone isn't so expensive." Nauda instead gave him a wry smile. "What I want from you is a promise that we'll make specific, concrete plans to hunt down that demon."

He hadn't really believed that Nauda would forget about it, but Theo had hoped that she wouldn't push. Still, this was one of the first valuable materials that fit his blueprint, with nearly Archcrafter cantae density. Thinking about the soulcrafting he could do, Theo shrugged. "Deal."