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"Hey Lithco," I said. "Is there any way I could just… you know… pick up my equipment during the Harvest?" The Black Harvest was only around four months out. At this point, I felt it would be far more prudent to just pick it up.

Lithco materialized in person—unprompted—unfolding a chair and dusting it off daintily before sitting and crossing his legs. I wonder if guides materialized randomly for other people. I doubted it.

"No," he said.

My cheek twitched.

"Why the hell not?"

Lithco smiled thinly and snapped his fingers lightly, rapidly, as if he were thinking. "Technically, you can. Yes. But. I doubt you’ll get the chance. This’s a domain quest and hundreds of participants have arrived to challenge it. There’s a lot of talent, so at least a few of ’em will hit the halfway mark and gain the right to make the drop."

"Halfway mark… so what? All these people’ll die and I’ll still needa recover my stuff from the most dangerous part of this forest anyway?"

"Most dangerous part of this ring, yes."

I rolled my eyes. "What type of bullshit is that?"

"Do try to remember that you’re not a unique and celebrated dandelion," Lithco said with a mocking smile. "There are other people in this world."

"I know, but… I’m going to lose my access to the temporary shelter once there’s a delivery." The rule was that I could use the temporary shelter until I got my equipment, ostensibly to get access to a tent.

"Once you get a delivery," he clarified. "As long as you are preparing to make a trip to retrieve it, you’ll be able to keep your access to the shelter."

I bit my lip and remained silent.

"Listen, Mira. This isn’t about you. All neophytes must be part of my request network. It’s a requirement. You chose to come here with nothing but your supplies—you chose to order everything now because you’ll need supplies to survive the next few months. Now you gotta face that."

I looked away. There wasn’t much of a choice. There was already a domain quest, and I needed to add at least something.

"Besides, it’s not like you’re S.O.L. here. In the worst case scenario, you buy some new gear during the Harvest, and challenge it then. If you do, you’ll be able to go to the area your stuff dropped, cutting your challenge in half. You’ll be fine."

I looked away.

Lithco moved his body to try to catch my gaze. I looked at him, and he repeated himself. "You’ll be fine."

I swallowed and nodded.

Lithco slapped his thighs and stood up with a midwestern gesture and dusted off his pants. "In better news, you have a few days to do whatever you want. So… go foraging or… whatever you plant lovers do."

My heart fluttered. "Okay." I looked at Kline. "You wanna explore?"

Kline meowed.

"You wanna hunt?"

He meowed loudly.

Lithco smiled. "Then I’ll take my leave."

He did, and my little warrior and I slipped into the forest, adventuring into the great beyond.

It was magical to just explore the forest without direction or necessity. We came across a fallen tree a mile out that was more moss than tree, carved in sections by creatures decades long past. Whatever it did, it petrified the tree, preserving it as a home before the beasts died or fled, leaving highly poisonous fungi to grow in the nests.

We moved on.

Another mile out we found edible fruits on trees the size of bushes, each the size of cherries, tasting of tart apple pie. We snacked and then searched the area, finding dozens of important plants.

Now that I had an alchemy subclass, I got information on alchemic use cases for plants, so I collected them by the boatload, sealing them in preservation cases.

On the way back, we heard a crack in the forest. Kline pawed a log, sitting me down as he disappeared, barely rustling a bush before disappearing.

Ten minutes later, he came back covered in blood from a creature the size of a boar he had killed. It was strong, proof in the dark green core in its spine.

I skinned it in the hot afternoon and we both took a hind quarterback to the camp, one in my arms, one in Kline’s invisible jaws.

I didn’t ask questions.

Once we got back to the alchemy station, I took time to go over my equipment. There was a lot of it because I got a group-level request for every five levels, starting at zero to 24. It gave me one gold, two platinum, and two diamond requests for each category. I had used most for skills and spells, but I still had all five for equipment. I also got a platinum equipment reward for finishing the Confront Your Trauma quest, where I returned to the wandering reaper. I spent five of the six rewards and some free requests, saving a diamond, should I need to initiate another quest.

I decided to save my new rewards for a Bramble pickup.

I pulled up the first option that I bought. It still made the most sense.

-----

Name: Eldrion Ward

Grade: Diamond

Description: A paranoid hermit’s wet dream, this ward is a barrier that acts like the one hiding your temporary shelter—it protects you from attacks and makes you scentless and invisible, using illusions to mask your presence. It’s like the one around your shelter, but it can expand to the size of a town. Just make sure that you set it up correctly and have a steady stream of cores to feed it. The larger it gets, the more it costs to feed.

Warning: Certain beasts can see through illusions of this grade, and many can at least detect the scent block anomaly. It will help you against most beasts within the Fourth and Fifth Rings but would rapidly lose its efficacy in the Sixth.

-----

With this ward (the name of magical constructs fueled by mana cores or other magical power sources), I could have the protection of the temporary shelter—for an area the size of a small town. It also had physical protection, was portable, and could be used in battle if necessary.

This made sense more than any other object I could buy for a diamond. Perhaps there was a better one, but I needed this to concentrate on my threading and mental shielding training without getting eaten by wild animals. So I chose it without hesitation.

My next platinum request was also a barrier ward. I had bought it to protect us against creatures far more powerful than we could handle. It read:

—---

Name: Powerful Portal Ward Barrier

Powerful Personal Ward

Grade: Platinum

Summary: This ward sounds generic, but this bad boy can eat through a second evolution crystal to eat a fifth evolution beast’s attack (just one, but still). Persistent and stand-alone, this is the perfect barrier to give you time to heal in battle or place around your tent on the run.

—---

I thought that it was intuitive at the time. Now, I wish I had two, as it would serve the role of protecting the end point of my spatial dividers.

The next object also seemed like common sense.

—---

Name: Enchanted Tent

Grade: Platinum

Summary: A tent with heating arrays for cooking, cooling, and heating built inside, as well as enchantments to protect it against weak Second Evolution animals such as bugs and birds. The tent is small enough for your backpack but is large enough to fit eight.

—---

I felt that this decision didn’t even need scrutinization. The third platinum did require scruitization—but only the grade. It was necessary, but I didn’t know if I needed to spend a platinum on it. It read as follows:

—---

Name: Big Bag o’ Tools

Summary: Unless you think that pocket knife’s gonna get you places, it’s probably time to get some real tools. While this is called a bag, it’s actually two full-sized palettes of every tool that you can use in the wild. From enchanted axes, knives, and machetes to field notebooks, pens, water storage containers, and ropes. There’s even equipment designed for skinning animals and forging blades. With this one order, you can build a cabin and live a serious life.

—---

I reviewed it and nodded. There was a gold option with fewer items, but I felt like this was worth it. It gave me everything that I needed to live in the wild forever, and that was worth the cost.

My last stored-up equipment request was a gold and I spent it on the most important thing of all.

—---

Name: Advanced Survival Clothing

Grade: Gold

Summary: Unless you plan to die a brutally ironic death, freezing to death wearing a Darwin t-shirt in the dead of winter, I recommend that you obtain survival clothing. This pack includes a variety of self-repairing clothing and boots, yes, you heard me right, boots! Given that your mother would be ashamed of the amount of skin you’re showing right now, I’d recommend getting two of these to increase your chances of one of them reaching you.

-----

I looked at my shirt for the second time, examining the serious holes ripped into it. I probably looked like a punk rock floozy, or whatever my mom would say if she saw me. Inoffensively… of course.

I only used one free request past that. It was a gold, and it was for something I had a feeling I would need eventually. Cooking equipment.

-----

Name: Spirit Meat Stove and Culinary Equipment

Grade: Gold

Description: Everything you need for cooking spirit beast meat—an important skill for making the most of your soul force gathering—and a magical pop-out cooking stove you can port around on your backpack. Arrays really are something.

-----

That was it. I decided to leave the rest of my rewards for the Black Harvest when I would actually get them.

As for the Epic Alchemy Equipment, I could only sigh. It had too much to list. There was a full CDC-sized lab of equipment that would would need to be flown in—

—and it would probably be dropped in the Bramble with the Spatial Dividers.

Perfect.

I sighed and swiped away the notifications. There were so many things I wanted, but many of them could be made up for with magic. I mean, I could create water from scratch and increase my small knife’s power with raw mana.

It would have to be enough.

I stretched my limbs. It was still in the afternoon, and I still had alchemic creations to make, threading to do, and mental fortification training. The Trial of Survival was coming fast, and I had to be prepared for any.

Everan was speaking to two cute humans and a strange woman with animal ears when Aiden’s carriage arrived. There was still a week before the Trial of Survival—the trial that would determine eligibility to drop off Mira Hill’s equipment in the Fourth Ring—and Aiden was returning home to spend time with his pets.

Everan knew this because the Oracle knew this—

—and he paid multiple types of requests to obtain this information.

Aiden was in the most lucrative position in what sounded like First Domain history, and Everen wanted to help him capitalize on it—as a business partner.

"I apologize, but I need to go," Everan said to the women. "My friend’s returned."

"Aw. Come by the Wreal later on tonight. The missus is holdin’ a feast."

Everan eyed the woman’s cat-like ears, wondering just how far Aiden’s love for animals went. He smiled. "I’ll tell my friend about it."

He said his goodbyes and walked forward, listening to the swollen crowd of business folk rushing the carriage. The Domain Quest was a huge deal, and Aiden hadn’t invested in information control like Mira, so everyone knew about him and his special entrance into the Cursed Aviary—and they bombarded him with questions about it on all sides.

"Move away!" Alitalia yelled. "The vraxle refused, and Aiden declined the mission. Anyone who pesters him will be escorted out of the conservatory!"

Half the people left, but the calm and collected ones—the ones working for the Legacy Families—remained, daring Alitalia to back up her bluff. She didn’t, so Aiden was bombarded with dozens of subtle inquiries, with people passing him business cards.

Everan watched this all from the corner of the conservatory’s porch. Then he walked into the barracks, waiting at the door for the teen to throw his few meager belongings into a bag.

Everan whistled, and Aiden looked back, realizing that the barracks were empty and deathly still.

"Uh… Everan, right?"

"That’s right. Take this." Everan threw him a cloak.

Aiden smiled wryly. "Doesn’t matter much if we’re the only ones in here."

"That’d be true if it was true."

Suddenly, Brexton spoke, and Aiden looked up, noticing the man sitting on a barrack’s bed for the first time. Aiden’s face was priceless—clearly fearing that he had suffered a brain hemorrhage and lost his ability to see. Brexton was, after all, rather noticeable—when he was visible.

Brexton jumped down to the floor, wrapping himself in a hypnotic whirl of colors before coming out of it as a polar reflection of Aiden in appearance, height, and clothing. It was an exact clone.

"W-What the hell’s going on?" Aiden asked, stumbling onto a bed.

"Your getaway, obviously," Everan said. "Brexton here will play you, cringing and cowering under the crowd while you," He lifted two tickets. "Come with me."

Aiden swallowed and looked between them suspiciously. "What do you want?"

"Good will," Everan said.

"I don’t believe that."

"Well, you can roll the dice with…" Brexton turned to the door, "bad will."

Aiden looked between them like a cornered animal. "I don’t want to owe anyone."

"You don’t owe us a crow," Brexton said.

"So?" Everan asked.

Aiden swallowed. Then he put on the cloak as Brexton shrugged and opened the door, wearing Aiden’s face, skillfully cowering as he faced the bombardment of offers and inquiries head-on.