--Aster --

I spent the next day or two in bed just recovering, though I did end up throwing out my clothes from that day. They were completely in tatters and died red, and frankly, they smelled. I had long healed my wounds but there was deep exhaustion from being hunted through an entire city. It didn't even take twelve hours.

The thing that surprised me the most after recovering was that the amount of energy I held was much less than it was before the mission began. The power I could draw on was still exponentially higher than when I was at twenty-nine but it was less than half of what it was. When I thought about it, it cemented the idea in my mind that any experience I accumulated from now on, would just be converted to pure energy for me to use.

But if that was the case I had a massive excess of experience from reaching thirty, that carried over.

I threw my blankets over my head, "Ah, it's too much thinking right now." I yelled. It doesn't even matter. I now know experience is just energy what does that mean. I don't know.

"Grah" yelled out in frustration just trying to rest, but these thoughts kept going through my mind, and the fact I should be preparing was not helping.

I laid on my back and pulled my covers down to stare at the ceiling, "I really need to prepare." I stare up for a while before turning over, "Tomorrow."

I drifted off to sleep finally able to just think about nothing.

-- James --

I found myself in the gardens with the Preaceptor. The entire city had been on edge ever since the blue screen informed us that the city had lost. My guild seemed to take the loss particularly hard, as some of them raged just destroying anything around them, or just sulking in their room. It all seemed disproportional to the loss.

I had heard there was a lot of damage all over the city, but when I looked more into it. I found that the shadow did almost no damage to the city. It was all the people chasing him that did the damage, but everyone was still blaming him.

I snapped back to the reason I was here and asked, "Preaceptor what is the deal with our guild, and the shadows. I just don't understand the level of animosity." She gave me an annoyed look as I continued, despite it, "That challenge happened, and the entire guild dropped everything to stop one person. Why?"

She tried to stare me down to back off but I stared back just as hard. I had resolved myself to know and I wouldn't let her stop me. Seeing this she let out a sigh, "Our two guilds have a long and complicated history."

"That's a non-answer."

"Honestly, no one remembers how it started, but" She looked lost for words when she changed directions, "You know how we have missions to stop shadows?"

"Yeah?"

"Well...we think it actually started as a form of training between our two guilds. Then it kinda spiraled."

She wasn't really explaining anything, "Not following."

She tried to explain, "When you start taking out their best shadows, and they lose everything, over, and over resentment is inevitable. And, when it built up enough they started to attack us in retaliation, and we retaliated back." She sounded tired, "We started to take more missions targeting us, and they took missions to make us look bad. At one point there was an all-out war. I was there for that one." She said the last part with a smile.

"So...it's like a sports rivalry?" I asked tentatively.

Preaceptor was quiet for a long time before responding, "Don't put it like that around the others. They may take it personally."

I guess that explains our guild's animosity, but not everyone else's, "Ok, but why are they hunted by everyone?"

"Simple, the reward. Catch one and you get a fifty percent finders fee of everything they own."

"What?" How could that motivate so many people?

She laughed as she answered, "They tend to take some precious things when they are higher ranked."

"But. Just for money?"

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"No, not just that. They also do a lot of...much less savory missions to, sabotage, spying, subterfuge, stealing kills, assassination, and even kidnapping. Things no normal person would willing want to do, but these creatures revel in it." She said seriously.

"But don't all rogues do that?" I asked thinking they all did the same things.

"No. Shadows are unique. They are constantly pushed to the limit." She looked around making sure we were alone when she finished, "I hate to admit this, but they are the best, rotten to the core, but the best. It's how they figure out who our recruits are, and tend to beat them before joining."

I remembered my beating, "That. That is just cruel."

Praeceptor put her hand on my shoulder, "It is a cruel world and we give as good as we take."

"What about the shadow who challenged the city?"

"He won. It's a sad detail, but he won fair and square. If I ever run into him again I will not make the same mistake. I will break him then and there." She said with determination.

I thought her response was disproportionate but I only vaguely understood their hatred for these people. From what she was saying, she made it sound like she had a grudging respect for them, but would kill all of them if she got the chance.

I bowed to the Preaceptor and left the guild. I was finally going to take her advice. For me, the best way to prepare was to study. There was so much of this world we didn't know, and it might get us killed. I needed to find out as much as I could before we all met up. So I made my way to the library.

-- Bay --

I finished my last crystal feeling the drain and handed it off to Violet, "I've been hesitant to ask, but how many is that?"

Violet began to count the massive pile of salves and crystals. We had spent the last day or two just making these non-stop. I was completely drained and contemplating how many we should keep for emergencies.

"Looks like we have seventy-one salves and thirty-six crystals."

I turned to look at Violet sensing something was off, "Seventy-one that's an odd number. I thought we both made the same amount. That number should be even."

Violet turned cagey with her reply, "Well...."

I thought back to when she disappeared for a few hours during that hunt. When she left she was supposed to be getting more ingredients. I just thought she was having trouble finding someone to buy from. Then I realized what she did, "So you helped him?" I asked curiously. I had no strong feelings either way, but I thought she would want to try to catch him for the reward.

"Yeah, and it felt great. And when he won I couldn't help. but smile." She said wistfully before adding, "Did you know he got caught for a minute? He was even able to break out. It was well worth it." She said satisfied

"Oh." I just stared at her before adding, "That's coming out of your half then."

"NOOOOOOoooooooooo," she wined.

"It was your salve to do what you willed."

"But. But." Violet said stuttering

I decided to throw her a bone, "Relax it's just one silver less. you're still making.... one hundred and twenty-four silver or one point two five gold."

Violet stared at me and then to the pile shocked, "Is that total or each?"

"Each."

Violet just stared for a while at the pile of items, before she breathlessly asked, "Are we fucking rich?"

For the first time it hit me how much we were making, "Shit, I think we are."

"How is everyone not completely loaded? We made this in two days. This is a couple months' salary." Violet said confused.

I stared down at our money pile trying to understand how we could have possibly made so much. There must be something we are missing. Else everyone would have nothing but gold, and it would be nearly worthless. An idea started to form when I turned to Violet who was salivating over to what I think she now saw as a money pile.

"Hey."

Violet jumped, then quickly looked chagrined, "Yeah?"

"How long does it normally take to get to twenty?" I asked, as I never bothered to look up the information.

"Um." Violet took a minute to switch gears, "From everything I've heard, twenty is a massive hurdle for some reason, and should take around five to ten years to reach it once you hit level nineteen. Then it's supposedly easier."

"And after that?"

"If I remember correctly they said...three years a level then about one and a half times that with each level. But those numbers are if you are just living daily life. Supposedly, it can be much faster but that's the average." She clarified.

Using that as a base I started to do the math. Three years for twenty-one, four and a half for twenty-two, nearly seven for twenty-three, about ten for twenty-four, and about fifteen for twenty-five. "If I add in a conservative ten years for level twenty. We've done the equivalent...." I began to shake at how much we leveled in just the last two months.

"What. What is it Bay, you're shaking." Violet put her hand on my shoulder, "Is it that big?"

I nodded.

"Well tell me."

"We've done the equivalent of almost fifty years worth of leveling. In two months"

Violet let out a long whistle, "Well that explains why these salves and crystals are so expensive, and not everyone is rolling around in money."

I shook my head at the number that Violet didn't even seem phased by. Then I realized what she said, "Come again.

"Do you know what the average level is for everyone?"

"um..." I had a vague memory of it being somewhere in the twenties, "Isn't it like twenty-four."

"Twenty-two." She said with confidence.

"What but how?" That number seemed way too low.

"People die, people get scared, people stop pushing themselves. Hence stop gathering experience. People get bored. We both know alchemy has limited uses here. It's almost exclusively healing, and energy crystals. Blight we even use healing drinks for poison, and the only difference between that and a salve is the base."

"I guess that's true."

She gestured to the workshop, "Who would want to do alchemy for fifty years doing the same thing over, and over. I mean even upping our ranks they just want a higher quality of the same thing. So people get bored and stop, or just change jobs." Violet explained.

"But that doesn't explain the price."

"Think about it. Even if every alchemist in the city made these non-stop it would just be a drop in the buck for a city of hundreds of thousands."

"O...OH," I started to understand the scope and why everyone wasn't rich.

Violet saw my comprehension, "Yeah."

So I looked back to the pile, "So we're rich."

"Oh yeah, but that just means better stuff. We make our money and then we spend it, for better stuff, and then we're broke again.

"ah, the cycle of brokenness," I said.

We both laughed as we gathered our completed products and went to sell them.