Azhar's presence let the builders fixate on something they believed was strong, and so they calmed down a little. Their tense and panicked movements went a little more slack, though their eyes still glanced back to the nearly sleeping wyrm every so often as they tiptoed away.

"This is covered by some kind of warranty, right?" called out Li as he pointed to the hole in the cottage and the destroyed greenhouse. "Legitimate accident and all."

The builders stopped. "Ehrm, well, sir, I do not believe-"

The wyrm in Li's arms perked up, its head crawling over his shoulder to glare at the builders. Its mouth opened, its teeth glistening in the sun as a guttural hiss began to rumble from the depths of its throat.

"Looks like the kid's rearin' to eat somethin'," commented Azhar, his voice nonchalant and observant.

The builders stared at Azhar, taking in his words.

"Yes, yes, sir, most certainly." The builder nodded five or six times to Li before turning to his flustered companions. "Right, boys?"

The other builders nodded, and now that the responsibility of essentially giving Li a free job had now spread out among them, they felt much better about leaving, a few of them heading to the stall where they could probably down something for upset stomachs and shaky nerves.

"Don't all of you feel bad bout' any of this," said Azhar as he waved the builders off. "Guild'll cover ya, even for the new job, and if they don't, then knock on my door. I'll cover the difference. So scram, we got things to talk bout' here."

--

The fireplace roared, making the cottage a little hot in the height of summer. But the hole in the wall let a nice breeze flow in every now and then. Li made a mental note to cover that up with a tarp before random critters and bugs came in, but honestly, so long as his presence was there and it registered pests as hostile, not even the tiniest of insects would dare to step in the cottage.

"Oh, why doesn't it like me?" Jeanne pouted as she tried to reach her hand again to the wyrm.

The wyrm, resting its head on Li's cross-legged lap, snapped at her hand, hissing.

"Look at its head. Its so smooth and so pettable!"

"Stop it, Jeanne," said Sylvie. She put a concerned hand on Jeanne's shoulder. "You might get hurt."

Jeanne pulled her hands back to her lap, her armor clacking with the movement. "I thought I had a way with animals with how the puppy liked me."

Li raised a brow. She had an innocent optimism that prevented her from knowing that she very well might have died from picking up Zagan.

"What're you on bout'," said Azhar. He was standing, blow slung around his chest, eyes observant on the wyrm. "That dog was squirmin' like it was gonna' bite your head off. You ain't got no sense of how wild animals can be, and yet it boggles my mind that ya got such a sharp sense bout' huntin' monsters."

"Monsters and pets are different," said Jeanne.

"Sometimes, the dividing line is mighty thin." Azhar nodded towards the wyrm. "Like her."

"Oh, so its female," said Li. "There doesn't seem to be any distinguishing features to tell male from female."

"It's the eyes." Azhar pointed at the wyrm's eyes, and it tensed up when it saw the movement. "Look, now that it's got attention on my hand. Eyes are glowin' yellow, almost. Males got dull eyes. No shine."

"I see." Li nodded. The wyrm's mother had gleaming yellow eyes too. He had thought it was just a feature of the whole species, so it was interesting to learn more about the creature he was going to raise. "Speaking of, how do you know so much about it?"

"Hinterlands are dragonkin country," said Azhar. "Our western borders hug the Mire Bogs where a whole hell of a lot of em' nest up."

"Azhar is also an expert on beasts and monsters of all kinds," said Sylvie. "When we separated for our adventurer's training, he went to the southern guild of the bow."

"Like how Riviera's adventurer's guild is the guild of the sword?"

"Precisely." Sylvie nodded. "Of course, all three of us learned how to hunt monsters, but the guild of the bow has far more expertise in hunting, trapping, and all the knowledge of monster behavior and habits that comes with that expertise."

Azhar shrugged. "Ain't much I learned down there, honestly. Lotta book smarts, mostly. Spent the last two years of my trainin' in the hinterlands, with my people. Ain't gonna find better hunters in the entire continent than there."

"In summary, Az is amazing," said Jeanne. "He knows anything and everything about monsters."

"Yeah, yeah, enough flatterin'." Azhar motioned to the wyrm. "Keep the fire goin'. First couple of days, it'll be cold and weak. It's gotta stay near warmth. But afterwards, ya gotta make sure you get it outside and train it. Build up its legs. Buy up a supply of meat, cause' that's all it's gonna eat, but try and get it to hunt soon as you can."

Li nodded, remembering the information for later.

"My aged heart beats in excitement," said Old Thane. "When the little lizard grows, perhaps I will be the first northman ever to ride a dragon, haha!"

"Depends how much you push her," said Azhar. "It ain't gonna get much bigger and stronger than this unless ya get it to fight, risk its life, gets its heart beatin', make it eat the flesh of strong creatures."

"I see." Li recalled the Lerneas's words about essentially just letting her child go to fend for itself in the woods. It seemed the mother wanted her child to grow as strong as possible, to face as many hardships and hunt as many strong creatures as it could to evolve to its highest heights.

"Well then, what brings all of you here?"

Sylvie scooched forwards, her legs tucked under her in her usual sitting position. She placed her hands atop each other on her lap and straightened her back in a calm and elegant, distinctively eastern position.

"We wanted to discuss the commission and lay out a timeline for it." She smiled. "And also to check up on you two."

"Us, lass?" Old Thane laughed. "A farmer's life is a simple one. Not like the rough tumble that is the adventuring way. We'll tend the land and plant again today, as we did a week ago, and will do so for many weeks from now."

"So if you need any elixirs, you'll know where to find me," said Li. "Commission-wise, I just need the right materials and I can get the job done. With Iona helping me, it'll only take a day, at most."

"Hm." Sylvie had an almost imperceptible pause when she heard Iona's name, but she continued. "We will be hunting in the Winterwoods and the Chattering Forest."

"The chattering forest?" Old Thane scratched his beard. "Lass, that's a half days ride south, and far more dangerous than the Winterwoods."

Sylvie nodded. "That may be so, but we've decided to take some risks to obtain the necessary ingredients for a [Insectbane]."

"A smart choice," said Li. "I wondered why you didn't plan on using that in the first place if you're fighting a Gigantopede."

"Our party is distinctly unsuited for the chattering forests, so I thought the risks too high, but we will face even higher risks facing the Gigantopede without the elixir."

Li searched his memory to pull up what he knew of the chattering forests. Where the winterwoods flanked Riviera to the west and north, the chattering forests surrounded it to the south while the east had been cut down and cleared for the most part to give easy access to the capitol.

The chattering forests were, from the monsters described inhabiting it, higher level than the winterwoods. Around level thirty to fifty, potentially. It was so named because it was packed with insect-based monsters, and many of their parts could be used for crafting an [Insectbane].

"That does make sense," said Li. He looked to Sylvie, then Azhar, then Jeanne. "All of you together are highly suited to taking down a single big and strong creature. But I get the feeling you wouldn't do well with swarms of weak monsters."

Sylvie nodded.

"My, you have quite the sharp sight," said Jeanne, admiration lacing her voice. "Were you perhaps an adventurer?"

"No, but you don't have a mage. It's just common sense that mages are the ones doing most of the spread-out damage."

"Don't underestimate Li, lass," said Old Thane. "Young he may sound; he has many years of experience and worldly insight under his belt. It surprises even me, sometimes."

"You only get surprised because you're forgetful, old man." Li continued talking to the adventurers. "Now, I'm assuming all of you are geared up because you're on your way for this hunt?"

"Yes, we will depart now to reach the forests by night when it is most active," said Sylvie. "But since we will be gone for the better part of two days, we wished to lay out our plans so you know where we are and to discuss payment."

"Five gold coins is the average price for a set of three [Insectbanes], but since you're getting the materials for me and risking your lives, I'll cut it down to two," said Li. "We can work out most of the payment related details once you actually manage to get the materials here."

"Enough talk about coins, the numbers do confuse my head," said Jeanne. "We wished mostly to know what you had planned for the future. If possible, now that we are free to do as we wish as a gold-ranked team, we want to be here for when anything celebratory happens."

"Harvest will come again in three days," said Old Thane. "If that little thing be worth interest to you three."

"Not just that, old man," said Li. Old Thane cocked his head in surprise.

Li had thought about this yesterday after seeing progress with Iona's training. He knew the farmer's life was small, contained, monotonous and humble, but he had plans just a little grander than that.