Training eventually concluded, and the two headed back to Mimiki’s home for dinner. Once again, they had a stew, but Nobina was used to them enjoying such a simple yet hearty dish. During this time, Mimiki droned on about the life of an adventurer, likely to fill Nobina’s mind about it. On her end, Nobina enjoyed listening as she gained a better understanding of what being an adventurer meant. Time passed by quickly, and she eventually returned to her inn room to see Pausers looking at the Mahjong sets.

“You play Pausers?” Nobina asked jokingly.

To her surprise, Pausers nudged the set towards her, making her wonder if it wanted her to play or if they did know how to play.

“I got the book to review, so don’t worry Pausers,” smiled Nobina.

At this point, Nobina took out everything and laid it out before her. There were a few items of immediate concern, but for now, she just wanted to understand what she should do with everything. As she thought about it, her Gaze bag glowed. She looked inside to find a comment page.

“If I fish long enough… will my path change?”

Nobina thought about it and shrugged.

“Perhaps, but I’ve only fished once. I’d probably need to spend years fishing to even get a fishing ability. Or at the very least get a fishing ability related to writing. Imagine getting an ability that allows me to know about fish by just seeing it or something… I don’t even know if that qualifies as writing related, but… it’d be cool.”

She chuckled to herself as she recalled the page, adding it to her list of ever-growing things she could recall.

“I wonder if I’ll be able to recall or summon my own library at some point.”

With that, she turned her attention to the other objects she had.

“Two Mahjong sets, and a book called Totally Legit Way to Play Mahjong… I’m almost certain this book isn’t the correct way to play it.”

Nobina wasn’t an idiot. She could tell this book was specifically there to troll her. However, she decided to at least skim it to see if it even gave an inkling of how Mahjong could possibly be played.

Opening it up, she stared blankly at the pages. The book immediately talked about Mahjong tiles being trading tiles to collect and play the game with. She went to one of the sets and looked at the tile, knowing that it was totally not meant to be a part of some trading tile game.

“I… Don’t know what to say.”

She continued to skim the book, but it continued to give her the rules of a different type of game. She contemplated just ignoring them completely, but then she’d have to make her own rules up to use the set.

“Worst case… I’ll… make my own game up,” she nodded.

The last thing she had to review was the Legendary Adventurer Identification Card. Summoning it, she could tell it had to be real. The material felt high quality, and the style of the card perfectly matched the style of their guild cards. It even had an identification number in the same style as their other cards. The only true way to confirm it was to give it to Eric, but if she did that, she’d be telling him she had somehow received it.

“I’m sure he’d be concerned,” said Nobina.

This could just be the tip of the iceberg. Nobina could imagine receiving something like a forbidden tome with some world-ending spell or something. If that happened, then wouldn’t that make her a massive threat? Even if she could recall it, having itself made her a danger she didn’t want to become. All she wanted was to be a writer.

“If I… asked the Gaze… to… stop sending me things…”

She shook her head. If the Gaze hadn’t sent her the gun, what would have happened to Merick? She wouldn’t deny the Gaze’s items if they helped her, but she couldn’t help but be worried about the future. With that, she decided to place the Mahjong set in the corner of her room for another time. She then sat down and filled out her diary for the day.

Once it was done, she headed to bed, hoping that she could finish the Ledger project sooner rather than later.

The next day, Nobina was sitting in the guild library working on the Ledger project. As she finished writing in the Ledger, she stopped and gave herself a mini fist pump.

“It’s done,” she cheered to herself.

At that point, Nobina felt something. It was as if she was feeling a sense of growth, but she couldn’t pinpoint what exactly had grown.

To confirm her thoughts, she held out her hand and tried to recall the ledger. To her surprise, it worked.

“Wait… but it didn’t work before…”

Nobina had tried using recall on it before, thinking it should work like her diary. However, it didn’t, which added to her confusion about her own ability. At first, she thought perhaps a numbers book wouldn’t work, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

“The ledger is clearly something I’ve solely worked on. I can recall the adventurer card, papers and books from the Gaze and my diary. However, the ledger didn’t work until now… but why?”

According to her research, mastering abilities was often a lifetime thing. Time allowed one to use their ability more and more, thus allowing them to figure out how they grew. It might be slow or fast, but it grows at least. Something clearly had prevented her from using her ability on the ledger before, but now that was no longer the case.

“Perhaps that growth… was being able to recall the ledger?”

She’d need to study her ability more, but for now, she had to report to Lare her success.

Nobina went into the back and knocked on Lare’s door.

“Come in,” he called.

When Nobina stepped in, Lare seemed surprised to see her.

“Anything wrong Nobina?” asked Lare.

“No. I wanted to report the ledger is complete,” she said confidently.

“Really? Where is it?” he asked.

She held out her hand and summoned it, causing Lare to be surprised.

“You can recall and summon it now? But…”

There was a bothered look on Lare’s face for a second, but Nobina was too excited to notice.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“I felt a sense of growth after completing it. I’m not sure if completing books progressed my path, but it feels like it could be a key to getting stronger.”

Lare gave a nod.

“Well… At least you can protect these books. Information like this is important and to lose it…”

Lare shut his mouth for a second, causing Nobina to become confused. As she tried to figure out why Lare was being silent, Sarah appeared behind her, giving her a hug.

“What’s this secret party about,” said Sarah, her head peaking on the side of Nobina.

“Oh, I finished the ledger,” said Nobina.

“Amazing,” cheered Sarah. “You can finally help me out more!”

Nobina chuckled, shaking her head.

“Is that the only thing your excited about Sarah?” chuckled Nobina.

Sarah was going to open her mouth, but Lare’s serious look made her pause.

“What is going on to have you so serious, Lare?” asked Sarah, still in a happy mood.

Lare looked at Nobina, hesitating to speak.

“Nobina… What happens… to the book if you die.”

Those words instantly brought the room into silence before Sarah’s rage poured out.

“How dare you Lare,” she yelled, her voice echoing through the room.

“Sarah…” said Lare, a bit apologetically.

Nobina’s eyes widened upon hearing those words. He was right. She had no idea what would happen if she died. Would the book be forever gone if she had recalled it? Did that mean she had to always keep a copy out to protect it?

She began questioning why she was thinking about what would happen if she died.

“Don’t worry,” said Nobina. “I’ll just never recall it and…”

Before she could continue, Lare immediately cut her off.

“Do you know summoned items disappear when the summoner dies?”

At that point, Nobina saw Sarah walk over to Lare and slap him in the face. The shock caused Nobina to cover her mouth as Lare himself merely took it without showing any change in his expression.

“Is that all you care about Lare? Money? Sure, that book is now linked to Nobina, but to be worried because it might disappear because she dies…”

Lare merely shook his head.

“It’s a big concern,” he said, looking at the Ledger in Nobina’s hand. “We can’t use it if we can’t be certain the information is safe. Imagine we use it for five years, and something bad happens. We lose all our information and have no back up.”

Nobina was going to say something, but her own worry appeared. If this applied to all her recalled items, did that mean that if she used her Recall ability on a book, would it disappear forever if she died? Did that mean she couldn’t use her ability on anything she wrote from now on?

Tears began flowing out of her eyes, making Sarah and Lare pause their debate.

“I… don’t want to lose everything,” she cried.

Seeing that, Sarah ran to Nobina, hugging her.

“Nobina… Don’t worry… You won’t…”

“Sarah,” she said, staring her in the eye.

“I… ran into a goblin yesterday.”

Hearing that, Lare told her to immediately explain what happened.

Nobina explained the situation, including her Gaze bag and the weapon it gave her. The only thing she didn’t mention was the Legendary Adventurer Card. As she finished the story, she shook her head.

“I’m such an idiot,” said Nobina. “I’m doing it again, treating my life without regards to the implications of dying. I wanted to help someone, but I put myself in danger with so many unknowns… I really haven’t learned anything, huh?”

“You’re not,” said Lare, surprising both Nobina and Sarah. “Your intentions there were pure. Can you really say that you were dumb for wanting to save someone’s life? Nobina. Recognize that people have sacrificed their lives for others. Don’t sully their name by saying it’s not worth the risk.”

Hearing that, Nobina nodded, her tears slowly stopping flowing.

“Sorry Lare,” said Nobina.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” said Sarah. “Sure… Dying is scary. Being a combat guild officer makes it so that you are more capable of defending yourself, yet it also puts you more at risk of getting hurt or worse. Don’t let this… deter you at least.”

Nobina shook her head.

“I won’t… If I hesitate… If I don’t take chances because of fear… Then… I’m back to being the person I don’t want to be…”

She had no intentions of backing off now. She had her worries, but she knew what mattered the most to her. She would protect the people important to her and work towards her dream. Perhaps she wouldn’t risk her life for her writing dream, but if someone she cared about was in danger, she’d do whatever was necessary to protect them.

“Sorry for ruining a perfectly good accomplishment Nobina,” said Lare.

“Don’t be,” said Nobina. “I… needed that perspective. Plus… we never know. Abilities do get stronger and perhaps I’ll be able to maintain these items even if… the worst came to pass.”

The two of them nodded, still feeling bad for ruining her accomplishment. All of them seemed to relax moments later though.

“So… I guess now’s the time to explain the ledger, right?” asked Lare.

Nobina gave a grin, which made Sarah and Lare a bit worried.

“Oh… It’s going to be a number filled conversation.”

With that, Nobina began telling them all about the ledger.

The ledger was a singular book meant to provide a more detailed tracking method for the guild to monitor financial transactions. It was far more complex compared to merely keeping a running tally of the guild’s day-to-day funds. Rather, it tracked the guild’s income and expenses, the two things that made up their income and dictated their funds.

“By understanding both our income and expenses, we can determine how to maintain a healthy income to keep the guild going or fund special projects,” nodded Nobina.

She opened the ledger, showing what was currently written on it.

Looking at the ledger, she began talking about how much money the guild was both making and spending. It didn’t take into account the previous expenses and income since most of the older documents had deteriorated to unreadable levels. Not only that, but the guild paid out or gave quests sometimes without any paper trail. It was a bit messy, but at the time, it didn’t matter.

“So, if you look here, a quest reward is often only monetary. It can range from a few coppers to millions of gold. Since our guild only goes up to C rank quests, that limits it to about ten gold per quest max. Any higher would be for B rank quests, which we haven’t historically given.”

Nobina then moved on to discussing the income.

“Naturally, the reward is the amount people are willing to give for any given quest. People can give more or less to increase or decrease the demand for a quest, but there are set limits to prevent people from abusing the quest system. It’s mainly depending on the quest objective and using that to determine the expected price.”

A simple quest to kill only a few goblins, for example, could pay out gold. However, that would require guild master approval to confirm the reason the quest is being overpaid. Any reward that’s less than ten percent more than the average for the quest could be processed without approval. Any reward of more than ten percent of the average but less than one hundred percent more needed a supervisor’s approval. Beyond that was guild master approval.

“We generally take ten percent by default, but we accept more if they want to give it and consider it a donation in a sense. The amount we are working with does help dictate priority in getting it done. It’s the reason Mimiki was often tasked with making sure high-priority quests are done, since she connects well with our adventurers.”

Nobina understanding of the guild had grown significantly ever since starting the process. It wasn’t all about numbers. It was understanding the function of the guild and each of its members. It’s what made this ledger all the more important and was the reason Lare was concerned about Nobina dying.

“Money is received by various sources, and we mark it down as received in the ledger. As much as I think an accrual system would work, I don’t think it’d be good to go against the system the rest of the guilds likely use. Adaptability is key here and…”

Nobina eyes looked around and noticed both of them were merely nodding.

“You guys… Understand what I’m saying, right?”

“Yes,” they both responded unconvincingly.

Nobina shook her head.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll be handling tracking everything for now. It might be time consuming, but the tracking will allow us to save money or use it more effectively. Eventually though, you both should know how to use it if I’m not available.”

“Amazing,” said Lare. “Great job Nobina.”

“Yeah,” said Sarah. “You’ve definitely earned your stay here.”

Hearing that made her smile. Her worries faded away as she felt excited for the future. The talk about dying earlier was still in the back of her mind, but she wanted to not worry about something that could happen at any moment. She knew she couldn’t let fear dominate her mind.

“With that…”

Nobina, looking at the books on the table, had a lightbulb go off in her head.

“Summon,” said Nobina.

Immediately, a second ledger appeared, amazing all three of them.

“How,” said Lare.

“I guess… completing the ledger helped improve this ability as well. Summon.”

Nobina summoned a third ledger, making her give the biggest grin. However, the fourth attempt caused her to tire, almost falling over.

“Nobina,” said Sarah, supporting her.

“Guess… it’s now three,” she chuckled tiredly.

“Nobina, be more careful. You can’t push yourself too hard.”

Nobina gave a nod, sitting back down.

“However… It looks like you’ve had multiple successes today. Congratulations,” he smiled.

Sarah did the same, making Nobina relax.

“Progress… is great…” she chuckled.

Nobina had made a great improvement to her current ability, pushing the limit of books she could have out to three. There were still so many more things to test, such as whether this limit applied to all books or if each had its own limit. However, for now, she was content with what she had accomplished so far.