After I finished cheg all my annous, Mahya turo Lis and asked, “Should we harvest here or oh?”

  Lis paused, tapping his thoughtfully before nodding. “Let’s do another round and then decide.”

  They left, their footsteps fading into the distance, only to return after a short while. Mahya sed the surroundings, her eyes narrowing as she assessed the area. “Looks peaceful,” she remarked, her voice carrying a note of satisfa. “I think we dealt with all the big threats.”

  “Excellent! Then we will harvest here,” Lis decred with a firm nod.

  In a fsh, a pile of monsters materialized in front of them. Most were snakes, like the green one I had killed earlier, but there were also creatures that resembled bears with squished faces aallic spikes, and others that looked like es with six legs and tails ending in stingers.

  I frowilting my head as I took in the se. “How e they are not dissipating?” I asked.

  Lis g me. “Those are mas, not monsters,” he expined.

  Lis took out a rge kraightened one snake, and cut the skin from head to tail.

  He turo me, saying, “Start peeling the skin off the flesh; you don’t have to be too careful; this skin is very tough and doesn’t lose its strength after the burrower dies.”

  I had a better idea and said majestically, “Behold.” I covered the sh a thin mana yer between its skin and flesh and popped the skin right off. With all my practi the bison, it took me two minutes, and the skin came off .

  They both looked suitably impressed, and Lis said, “Great, that’ll go faster,” and started cutting all the snakes lengthwise.

  I began popping off the skin of all the snakes. Beside me, Mahya worked with precision, slig eaake open one by one. With practiced hands, she carefully removed a green liquid sack about the size of a mango and a small crystal from each body.

  I paused, gng over at her as she held up the items. “What are those?” I asked, curiosity evident in my tone.

  “The venom sacks and the beast cores,” she replied without missing a beat, her focus still oask at hand.

  “And why do we hem?” I pressed, leaning in closer.

  Mahya looked up, meeting my gaze with a faint smile. “The venom sacks are an alchemy ingredient, and the cores are mana crystals, like the ones Lis told me you harvest.”

  I nodded, impressed. “Oh, cool,” I said, returning to my task with renewed i.

  I tinued popping off skins until we ran out of snakes.

  “You should harvest the meat, too,” Lis suggested, giving me a pointed look. “It’s much richer in mana than the meat you saturate.”

  I wrinkled my he idea of eating a scary snake was ly appealing. “I’m not sure I want to eat a nasty green snake.”

  Lis ughed at my expression. “Mana snakes are delicious, and don’t fet about Rue. He he mana-rich meat tress.”

  He had a point, and I k. With a relut sigh, I gave him a thumbs up, deg to make the most of the situation. As an idea formed in my mind, I decided to use the opportunity tress my loot spell, but I wao approach it differently this time. Pulling out the biggest pstic sheet I had, I spread it on the ground with a flourish.

  Lis raised an eyebrow, curiosity piqued. “What are you doing?” he asked, his tone a mix of skepticism and intrigue.

  I grihe excitement of my pn bubbling up. “Wait and see,” I replied, already eager to show off.

  Hey, you o use the circumstao your advantage.

  I lifted the sh telekinesis—God, the fucker was heavy; I could almost feel my mind sweating from the strain, like trying to lift a damn boulder with a toothpick. The snake hovered in the air, wobbling slightly as I brought it over the pstic sheet. Splitting my mind, I cast and Purify, the familiar spells washing over the creature as I zeroed in with my mana sehe snake’s insides lit up in my mind, a plex mess of a long digestive tract winding through its body and a few other internal ans that I’d rather not think too much about.

  With a deep breath, I encapsuted all the unneeded parts in a tight co of mana. Then, I created a precise grid of mana ihe snake, a mental blueprint for where I wao make the cuts. My focus sharpened as I applied the correct aspects to the grid, tweaking it here and there until everything was just right. Pushing a steady stream of mana into the grid, I held my breath and released the telekinesis from the steaks, letting them drop.

  A satisfying thud echoed as a stack of steaks nded oic sheet, each piece perfectly cut as if by the sharpest bde. The offal, still suspended in mid-air, hovered like a grotesque pi?ata that thankfully wouldn’t be part of tonight’s dinner.

  Lis and Mahya cpped, and Mahya even cheered, practically jumping iement. I couldn’t resist the moment. With a flourish, I took a theatrical bow, one hand sweeping low as if I were some kind of stage performer. “Well, thank you, dy aleman,” I decred with exaggerated pomp, trying not to crack a grin. Straightening up, I added with a wink, “And that’s how you do it.”

  With that, I went back to work, quickly and effitly cutting all the snakes and feeling pretty pleased with myself.

  Mahya stopped me just as I was about to hahe st snake and said, “I he venom sack; this one is poisonous now.”

  “He has ralized Poison,” Lis pointed out, his tone as matter-of-fact as ever.

  Mahya nodded but waved me off. “I know, but there’s enough meat. o sge damaged goods.”

  I couldn’t help but ugh, nodding in agreement. “Fair point,” I said, stepping back. Lis just shook his head at our antics, probably w how he ended up stuck with the two of us. Then I remembered the snake I had stashed in Ste and pulled it out. I tried to cut it lengthwise like I’d seen Lis do, but my knife just slid right off the scales, not even leaving a scratch.

  Frustrated, I turo Lis. “How do you cut them so easily?”

  He held up his kh a small smile. “It’s an ented mithril knife. I’ll do it, unless you want to build a mana edge on your knife and give it a try?”

  With a tired grin, I shook my head. “I’ve trained enough for one day. You do it, a’s get on with the harvesting.”

  Lis nodded, stepping in with his usual calm efficy, ready to finish the job while I stood back, tent to let the expert ha this time.

  We switched to the bears with the quills this time, and while the skin was about as useful as a s door on a submarih all the holes from the quills, those quills turned out to be pretty valuable. Who knearently, they’re used in crossbow bolts. You learn something new every day.

  It took me the better part of twenty mio figure out how to pluck the quills with mana—it wasn’t as straightforward as I’d hoped. After a lot of trial and error (mostly error), I finally cracked it. Turns out, you’ve got to coat the bottoms of the quills with mana and then pop them out like you’re opening a stubborn jar. Once I got the hang of it, though, it was smooth sailing. Ihan an hour, I had plucked over thirty bears, leaving them looking like oversized, defeated pincushions.

  The step wasly gmorous. I had to slice open their bellies, scoop out the internal ans—trying not to think too hard about what I was holding—and hang them upside down to drain the blood. It was messy, but necessary.

  Ohe bears were hanging, we moved on to the es. Same drill: open the abdomens, hang them upside down, a gravity do the work. But, of course, there was a twist—because why should anything be simple? There’s a specific teique to opening the abdomen without nig the venom sac of the tail stinger. One wrong move, and you’ve got a venom explosion on your hands, as I learned on wolfie wo.

  I asked Lis and Mahia, “How do you know all this? Have you been in this world before?”

  Lis shook his head, a small smile tugging at the er of his mouth. “No, but you’ll start reizing patterns with certain groups of mas over time. It’s all about knowing who buys what. Alchemists always snap up poisoed items, like those venom sacs. Leatherworkers will take aher, provided it’s not full of holes like our unfortunate ursine friend here. You’re already familiar with mana crystals, a ri mana is always in demand. And if the taste isn’t to your liking, there’s always Rue—he won’t pin.”

  I nodded, but something still puzzled me. “What about the quills and knowing where the poison sack is located?”

  Lis chuckled, gng at the pile of quills I had painstakingly plucked. “The quills feel metallid carry venom. It’s a no-braio use them as crossbow bolts. They’re too short for arrows, so what else would you do with them? As for the poison sack’s location, it’s fairly straightforward. Iiles, you’ll find it he head; in mammals, it’s usually tucked in with the other internal ans. Or, you could just get the Appraisal skill—it’ll tell you what’s valuable in any monster.”

  “I already have the Appraisal skill from my Mert css,” I replied, realizing I hadn’t been using it to its full potential.

  Lis nodded. “Right, I fot about that. Go appraise o we haven’t processed yet; you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

  Feeling sheepish, I nodded and turo appraise the beast in line, determio make better use of my skills. I approached one e, its six legs spyed out awkwardly on the ground, and focused on it, activating my Appraisal skill.

  Pelt 6–9 Silver

  Meat 3–7 Gold

  I felt my vision drawn to its belly.

  Venom Sack 1–3 Gold

  Beast Core 6–9 Gold

  I felt my vision drawn to its tail.

  Stinger 1–3 Silver

  Cool!!

  I asked Lis, “It says the stingers are worth oo three silvers; why aren’t we harvesting them?”

  Lis shrugged. “Log a bcksmith who crafts poisonous ons is difficult. They tend to face opposition and work i with assassins and the like.”

  “Got it,” I replied, nodding as the pieces fell into pce. “Why is there a differen prices, though?”

  “Supply and demand,” Lis expined, gesturing vaguely as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “This material’s quality is rare in medium-mana worlds, so the price is higher. In high-mana worlds, it’s more abundant, so it’s cheaper.”

  “It’s still expensive,” I pointed out.

  “Of course,” Lis agreed with a slight smirk. “You still have to kill a dangerous ma to get it.”

  Well, eics applies in every world, I guess.

  After we finished hanging all the beasts like some macabre dispy, Mahya turo me and asked, “ you cast on me, please?”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you buy it? You’ve got a ton of points.”

  “I ’t. I had it, and I verted it to an engineering skill,” she expined with a hint ret.

  “So now you ’t buy it ever again?” I asked, surprised.

  “I hope I’ll be able to buy a mage scroll with the spell,” Mahya said, crossing her fingers for luck.

  “You learn it from a scroll, but the spell struct has to differ from the one you verted,” Lis chimed in. “If the spell struct is the same, you e the scroll but don’t receive the spell.”

  Mahya looked at him, curious. “How do you know?”

  Lis sighed. “Happeo a Traveler I know. It took him over ten scrolls to find a different version of ‘Peaceful Night.’”

  “What’s ‘Peaceful Night’?” I asked, intrigued by the name.

  “It’s a spell to make your camp invisible,” Mahya said, sighing deeply. “I had it, too.”

  “Sounds useful,” I said, imagining the possibilities.

  “Yes,” Lis replied, then added, “but don’t rush to buy it; try to create or learn it instead. You’re lucky with your wizard css; you learn spells like you did with the barrel.”

  “Yes,” Mahya firmed, “He and Lyura both.”

  “Why Lyura?” Lis asked, looking fused.

  “Her mother is a witch who taught her all the spells she knew. Lyura also has the ability but is just starting to develop it,” Mahya expined.

  “It’s an ability, not a css?” I asked, trying to my head around it.

  “Yes,” Lis replied. “It depends oype of mana body you have. Because you have power orbs, you could be either a Mage or a Wizard. However, you ’t bee a Witch since you ’t store mana in your body, nor you bee a sorcerer since you ’t el external mana unless you advan your Wizard css and develop the necessary skill.”

  “This whole subjeagic is very plicated,” I admitted, feeling overwhelmed.

  “Not really,” Mahya replied, giving me an encing smile. “It’s just o you. After you get used to thinking with these cepts and tio study, it will bee sed nature and very clear to you.”

  “I’m not there yet,” I said, shaking my head.

  Lis, ever the practical one, said, “While waiting for the beasts to drain, we should start w orees. We have a quiet and undisturbed pce here.”

  “Why did I have to cut down so many trees?” I asked, still not clear on that part.

  “It’s for a project Mahya and I are w on,” Lis replied, as vague as ever.

  “Yes, but roject?” I pressed, trying to get more out of them.

  “Like we told you about the radio, be patient,” Lis said with a wink.

  I huffed, feeling like they were enjoying keeping me in the dark. “Keep your secrets,” I muttered, before pulling the first tree out of my Ste.

  We got to work removing all the branches from the trees. Once each tree was free of branches, Lis effitly stored the trunks in his Ste, his movements quid practiced. Meanwhile, I focused on coating the saw’s bde with mana—a task that, despite my efforts, remained challenging. Lis, of course, made it look easy with his ented saw, cutting through the wood swiftly, while Mahia trated on stripping the leaves from the branches.

  After a few hours, we finally finished with all the trees, and exhaustion weighed heavily on us. Just as I was about to discard the leftover branches, Lis stopped me.

  “Don’t throw those away,” he advised, his tone firm. “Save them as firewood. Mana-rich wood is excellent for fire; it burns for hours.”

  I g the pile of branches, realizing their value. It seemed even the leftovers from this world had their uses.

  I asked him, “Why did I have to cut down all these trees instead of saturatih’s trees with mana?”

  “You ’t saturate a tree with mana if it doesn’t have it in the first pce,” Lis expined. “No matter what you do, the tree will turn into mulch. It’s actually a great way to make money in medium-mana worlds—turning trees into mulch with mana and selling it to alchemists. They’re willing to pay siderable sums to grow more potent herbs.”

  This man was a fount of knowledge.

  We were too tired to cut all the beasts into steaks, so Lis suggested I keep them in my Ste for now. They’d mostly be for Rue, and since I’m the cook for all of us, it made sense.

  After we got all the beasts down from where they were hanging, Lis and Mahia divided the hides, crystals, quills, and venom sato three equal piles. They each stored one pile, and then Lis turo me and said, “This is your pile.”

  “Mine? But I didn’t do anything! You’re the ones who fought all the beasts and monsters,” I protested, my eyebrows knitting together as I looked between Lis and Mahia.

  “Yes, but you helped us cut the trees, healed our injuries, and helped us harvest the materials,” he said, his voice steady and reassuring. “The party rule applies here—an equal division for the three of us.”

  I tilted my head, curious. “What’s the party rule?”

  Lis folded his arms, adopting a more instructive tone. “When a party works together, if there’s no different agreement in the first pce, everything is divided equally between all party members, unless something specific is very suitable for a particur person. That persos it but must give up something of equivalent value.”

  “Good to know,” I mumbled, too tired to speak coherently.

  Once we had everything stored away, we made our way back to the Gate and bed. We were dead on our feet.

  On the way, I checked my profile; my Harvest Game was still [in Progress] ?