“We could have saved twenty copper apiece if you were not so merciful!” said Guido as he loudly grumbled at the recent purchase of foodstuffs.

Psh. As if copper is even in this Tree’s sight? Perish the thought.

“Sweating the small stuff is what has kept you as a mere Representative, Guido.” Mishra said, not forgetting to keep digging at the poor M’zven’s sore spot.

“That’s General Manager of Whitetree Incorperated, Miss Fluffytail.” Guido shot back with vigor.

On the other hand, Mishra does have a nice fluffy tail, so there’s that…

I enjoy the back and forth banter as S’neli carries me. Currently our shop has already been sold and we are preparing for travel. To that end, one of the portions of Elixir was used to purchase the airship we now own.

Airships are a marvelous invention!

Boats that fly!

Wings!

Sails!

Propellers!

I have no clue how any of it works, that’s for the gnome sailors that run it. On the other hand, I do love flying.

Sure I could fly on my own…

But it’s just not the same!

The Whitetree name commands respect now in the Sun Elven Empire. After her first success, S’neli went on to make large quantities of Elixir with all our remaining stock.

The crystal card that she has tucked inside her ring is enough full of enough funds to buy a small country now.

Of course, such paltry earnings were not enough to get ahold of a M’zven.

I used three mithril coins for that.

Watching a person to whom money means almost the world as their eyes bug out is fun!

With the increase in my forging abilities I have replaced both of the girl’s rings with mithril. Guido’s ring is golden though as per his request. I forged several other rings made from copper, bronze, tin, iron, steel, and silver.

Each of the rings has increasing amounts of Runes on them, to denote ranks.

The highest rings have Agelessness, Shielding, Space, Mind, Flame, Absorb, Luck, and Dexterity on them. That would be the mithril rings I have improved, at the highest level. Copper has just Mind to allow communication between ranks. Bronze rings have Mind, and Absorb to allow communication, and small magic defenses. Tin rings get Mind, Absorb, and Luck in order to improve on chances they might encounter.

Iron rings are given Mind, Absorb, Luck, and Shielding as the first mid-tier ring. Steel rings are given all the previous Runes along with Space to allow greater carrying capacity. Finally, the silver rings are given everything that steel has, along with Dexterity.

Gold rings get everything along with Flame, and lastly mithril rings are given the Agelessness Rune.

Guido is a small exception since I stuck Agelessness on his ring, aren’t I a nice Tree?

With this a proper management structure has been slowly developing under Guido’s guidance.

Sure for now there is only three of us, but so what?

It’s better to have stuff ready than need it later and have nothing around!

While making these rings I was thinking about an old earth movie with a giant eye as the main villain.

I don’t think I’ve gone that far down the path of ‘Darkness’ though, especially since I gravitate more towards Flame.

After everything is packed up, the group gathers around the map.

In order to experience a true adventure, and to help temper my future Chaos Alchemist, dice are used to select our next destination.

Doesn’t the Blood Plains sound like a great vacation spot!