Rosh frowned as I gave my report. “I don’t think this is quite enough to send a task force out, from a legal standpoint.”

“They’re creating artificial monsters, requesting aid from mercenaries to cover up that project, endangering the lives of adventurers, and apparently have some master running the project with sway over the government. How is this not worth investigating?”

“There’s limitations to what we can investigate without a warrant. All of this is hearsay, and nothing you mentioned is explicitly illegal, even if it is concerning.” She paused. “I do believe you, and might be able to pull some strings to get the place checked out, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up.”

“So no kicking down doors and taking names?”

“Did you get a name, or a mana sample?”

I looked down. “I did not.”

“Then no.”

“Well that’s disappointing… How about the tattoo on their hand? Any idea what that’s about?”

“I think I’ve seen it before, but I don’t actually know its significance. If it’s important, maybe you could ask Geistig.” She furrowed her brows. “Actually, why was he even there? He hasn’t taken any mercenary quests in over a year. Now that I think about it, I recall seeing you go in there alone. Why did he send you to pick out a quest?”

Ah, right. I’m still trying to keep my solo quest a secret. How do I get myself out of this? “Uh, I forgot to ask. I’ll do it tomorrow. Thanks for the advice!” I turned around and walked towards the exit.

“Sylas? Sylas, come back and explain yourself. Sylas! Ugh, you’re turning out just as impulsive as your father!”

---

“Oil toads?” The merchant asked.

“Oleum Rubeta is what they’re normally called.” I specified, phasing out a bucket of the stuff from my subspace. The merchant looked it over, dropping his hand into the bucket.

“This isn’t particularly high quality. I could give maybe a gold per bucket.”

“One gold…” They’re only producing about ten gold worth of the stuff per day. That’s about what the E ranks will cost just to feed. If I want to increase their oil output, they seem to respond to stress by producing more, but keeping them stressed would take too much time out of my day. Even if it was worth it, phasing out the oil takes mana, and I won’t get the space they’re occupying. “In that case,” I phased the oil out of the bucket, and replaced it with the tar of the D ranks. “How about this?”

The merchant placed his hand in the bucket again, and raised an eyebrow. “This is better. Ten gold.”

Ten gold? They take about twice as much food as their E rank counterparts, and put out around the same amount, but I’ll get about one hundred fifty gold a day in profit. “Sounds good. I’ll sell you what I have, and come back every so often to sell you more of the good stuff.”

I made about 18 mana crystals profit from what I sold today, since I didn’t actually end up feeding most of the toads for the time they’d been within me. Between that and the space they offer, just absorbing them alone has been quite a profit. I’ll be keeping the D ranks around for some time, so I’ll feed them too.

As for the E rank toads… Let’s just say I won’t need to worry about feeding carnivores any time soon.

---

The D ranks kept their 2,000 square feet they provided when absorbed, and a total of 14,400 square feet was added to the farm-to-be.

My gains for the quest amounted to 100 mana crystals, and the oil bumped that up to 118. Though I spent every mana crystal I crystallized on spells, Rhannu managed to make about 60 for himself. As it turns out, one can make quite a lot when they don’t have to worry about taxes, regenerating mana whilst in a mana well, rent, etc. Though, I’m sure Rhannu would much prefer the company of people over his prison.

After paying taxes, I was left with 128 mana crystals. I planned to go to the ranch to procure more slimes, but it was apparently closed for inspection for the week. Unfortunate, but it would only delay Rhannu’s expansion a few days.

---

“Geistig, good morning! Long time no see.” I waved to Geistig and crew, who were waiting at the rock we had first met at. The raven was still there, still silently watching… That’s a coincidence, right?

“Good morning, sylas. It’s been a week, yes. What’s got you so chipper today?”

“I took your advice to train on my own a bit, and made some decent progress. That Polypus form you suggested was helpful. When you said ‘brain power’, I thought that was just an insult. Turns out, it’s really quite useful for casting multiple spells at once.”

“Yes, helpful was what I was going for.” Geistig smirked. “But multiple spells at once? I know you’ve been diving right into the training, but don’t you think that’s a bit of a waste of resources? Besides that, it’s a bit dangerous to cast that many spells at once. If one fails, it sets off a chain reaction that would surely overwhelm your body enhancements.”

“Yeah, but the results were worth it.” I smiled.

Geistig narrowed his eyes. “Lad, how many times have I told you to take it slow and play it safe?”

“It’s a lost cause, I assure you. If it makes you feel any better, I’m at least keeping up with sleep now.”

“How reassuring.” Geistig rolled his eyes. “For Vorfahr’s sake, I have an obligation to remind you of how shortsighted your risk taking is. Are the gains really worth it?”

“All things considered, yes.”

“I doubt it, but let’s find out. How about another spar with Tishina? You’ve been working on resisting the voice too, right?”

“Not as much as I need to. I’ve been trying to stay in monster form for a few hours at a time, but I’ve been avoiding pushing too hard. It’s a lot harder to resist the voice, and I don’t have any real safeguards when you’re not around.”

“No, it’s good you haven’t pushed too hard when it comes to that. That’s something that you really shouldn’t rush.”

“It isn’t, but I’m not sure I can trust myself if I don’t.” I was lucky to have been only in bird form when I saw the tattooed elf. If I weren’t… I wouldn’t have been able to control myself.

“Then let’s make it a priority. You’ve got classes every other morning, right? We’ll work on it every night, along with anything else you want to practice. Sparring with Tishina should help, at least with getting over your fear of elves. Are you planning on using the same form as last time? Aranea Musculus?”

”The what?”

“Ugh, the spiderilla.”

“No, I don’t think I will. I may be able to overpower her in that form, but she’ll outmaneuver and outrange me. I think I’ve got a better idea.”

I took a step back, and shifted into the oil toad form.

“You’ve gotten faster.”

“What?”

“That only took you three minutes to transform. You used to take five. That’s massive growth for only a week.” Geistig started putting two and two together. “That’s also a form I haven’t seen you use before. When did you—”

“The ranch!” I interjected. “I got it from the ranch. I was looking for a more maneuverable, versatile form, and they were selling its corpse too cheap to pass up.”

“I went to the ranch a few days ago, you know. I don’t remember them having any Oleum Rubeta there.”

“I guess someone just brought it in for processing, then.”

“If they brought it in for processing, then why would they have been selling it cheap? Unless you don’t need the corpse fully intact, as you’ve said.” Geistig pointed out the obvious holes in my story.

“No, I do. I don’t know why they were selling it.”

“Hmm…” Geistig stared a hole in me.

I get the feeling he’s either losing trust in me, or is starting to build a picture in his head of the rest of my abilities. I just can’t shake the fear of having my abilities exploited, though he hasn’t really done anything to make me distrust him.

I stared at the raven. I know it’s a long shot, but…

“Geistig, have you ever seen a branding of a black sun?”

Geistig’s eyes widened. “Black sun? Where did you see something like that?”

“It was… Something I saw a few days ago. It just reminded me of the Elven sun logo. So you’ve seen it before?”

“I… I have. Where did you see it?”

“I saw someone with it just outside Aurelia, not too far.”

“Did you tell anyone about it?”

“Just Rosh, though she didn’t recognize it.”

“Just Rosh? Okay, let her deal with it, and whatever you do, stay away from them. Stay far away. Don’t investigate on your own. They’re not a group you should get yourself involved with.”

“They’re not involved with the elven suns? How do you know about them?”

“Not that I know of. Now stop asking questions, Sylas. That’s an order.”

So he’s really involved, then? I guess neither of us can trust the other.