I sighed in relief as the evening sun hit my face. We’d spent another two and a half days climbing out of the cave network, our progress slowed by Linnea’s wounds, and being out in the open again was a joy.

While we still had to climb down the mountain to our vehicle, it already felt like we were nearly back. I guess it’s because traveling on the mountain is fairly easy now, I mused with a shake of my head. It’s hard to believe that we’ve come so far.

It wasn’t that long ago that I’d had trouble traveling up into the mountains with help. Now I could move around with barely any difficulty on my own, at least in the mountains around here.

I’d been told multiple times that the monsters grew tougher the further north you went, and I’d seen some evidence of that myself. I could already see a time coming when I had to push north to find enough of a challenge to continue leveling.

Luckily, I had vast areas of unexplored land within my domain, much of it extending further north. I would be in no danger of running out of areas to explore in the near future, I would just need to find someone to explore the southern areas for me.

I really need to talk to Bradford, I thought, not for the first time. It would probably have been polite to do so right after I got promoted, in fact. I just had so many other things to handle and wanted to avoid another responsibility.

I’ll do it as soon as we get back to Elendes, it’s clear that I’m going to need some help going forward. I can’t leave half my territory unexplored just because it’s too easy.

“Ready to go?” Linnea asked, laying a hand on my arm. “We can still make it to somewhere safer before dark.”

“Yeah,” I responded with a nod. “Getting away from the cave entrances is probably for the best.”

We moved off, managing another two hours of travel before night fell. We spent the night taking turns on watch, then continued down the mountain the next morning. A day and a half later, we were back at the gunboat.

While there were small signs of disturbance around it, they all looked to be from beasts. I’d been half worried that someone would have tried to steal it, but it looked like I’d been worried for nothing.

We were soon winging our way back to Elendes, as I had business in the city before we could return to the town. Not only did I have to talk to Bradford, but I had a message from Professor Henceforthe asking me to see him.

I hoped that meant he’d found someone to answer my agricultural questions. Why that would require me to come in person, I wasn’t sure, but my hope started rising as a thought hit me. What if it meant he’d convinced someone to come in person?

Having an expert on hand to help set everything up would be the ideal outcome, and I had to calm myself down to avoid becoming too excited. Odds were that wasn’t what was happening, so it was best not to get my hopes up.

Instead of landing directly at the palace, we stopped at Brian’s old landing pad. He’d sold his VTOL before leaving for pilot school and had offered us the landing pad. Having a dedicated space in the city was quite useful, so I’d leased it off him over the short term.

After landing, we split up, with me going to see Bradford and Linnea heading toward the palace. She’d asked for permission to return to the armory and look at weapon upgrades, and I’d been quick to agree.

The new armor I’d purchased for us both had been extremely effective, but our firepower hadn’t been up to the task. Linnea’s rifle had always been on par with my empowered pistol shots but had fallen behind when I’d gotten the new rifle.

That had been clearly illustrated against the dire beast, as she’d needed me to break through its amour before her shots could do any damage. With damage output being her primary role, this had been a significant oversight.

I sent her off with as much of my remaining funds as I could spare, which was somewhat limited given what I still needed to fund. The tax backlog that the Mayor had saved was dropping quickly, and I would have to stop making so many expensive purchases soon.

Thankfully, this was the last major equipment upgrade that I forecast either of us needing for a while. Anything smaller, I would be able to fund out of my personal income, which was still significant.

The main balancing factor there was how many of the beast cores I should sell. Elana had reported back on her progress processing the wyvern corpse, confirming that she had rendered most of it down to Psi fuel.

She’d provided a breakdown of the process, showing that the core had been critical in bringing up the energy content of the resulting liquid. While the corpse’s flesh had formed the bulk of it, it had been insufficiently powerful to be used alone.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Since we didn’t have an operational frigate yet, I decided to just split it fifty-fifty for now. I could always rebalance things later if my needs turned more toward money or fuel. With that in mind, I detoured toward my normal shop on the way to the Explorers Guild.

There I sold the bulk of my smaller cores, deciding to keep the larger ones for making fuel. It would be easier to just chuck in a few big ones when needed and it also kept them available if I found another use for them.

The dire core from the tentacle beast, in particular, blazed with power and it almost felt a shame to melt it down for fuel or to sell it.

With my sale complete and my account comfortably topped up, I continued toward the Explorers Guild. It felt like an age since I’d last been here, though that was more measured in frantic revelations than elapsed time.

Striding through the doors, I made a beeline for the reception desk to organize a meeting. The receptionist almost jumped out of her seat when she recognized me before hurriedly promising to help however she could.

I guess the news has spread, I thought with a sigh as I asked for a meeting with Bradford. Calling ahead would probably have been a good idea, I didn’t realize how disruptive just showing up at places had been.

I was just thankful that the shop assistant I’d sold the cores hadn’t noticed. I guess that’s the difference between already knowing me and just knowing that a new count exists.

Within minutes, I was at Bradford’s door, the receptionist having wasted no time in setting up a meeting. I knocked quietly and was called in immediately.

“Lord Hope,” Bradford greeted with a small bow from where he stood behind his desk. “It is good to see you again. How can I help you?” He finished, his deep tone oddly deferential.

It was an awkward experience, meeting the man who used to be my boss like this, and I quickly gestured for him to sit.

“Please, just call me Jared,” I said as I sat across from him. “While I may have risen to the nobility since we last met, the city isn’t part of my lands and we’ve known each other for a while now. There’s no need for all this ceremony.”

“All right, Jared,” he responded, visibly relaxing in his seat. “What can I do for you, then? Here to withdraw from the guild?”

“That’s part of it, yes,” I said, my heart twinging with the bittersweet feeling of the moment. While I had moved on to greater things, I still remember my time with the guild fondly. It had helped me to get my footing when I was at my most desperate, and I was now wishing I had done more for it.

“I’m guessing that’s usual in these circumstances?” I continued.

“I don’t think there’s anything usual about this,” Bradford said with a laugh. “I know a few explorers who’ve been promoted to knights and even a baron or two. A count, though, never.”

“Ah,” I said. I was still getting my head around just how unusual my circumstances were and hearing that didn’t help. It made me wonder just why the Duchess had gone down this path, and what she expected from me.

“Anyway,” Bradford continued awkwardly. “Cancelling your membership is easy enough. You’ve done enough to support the guild that you will be marked as leaving in good standing. I can handle that now if you want?”

I thanked him and waited as he type on the screen in front of him. A few seconds later a got a notification pop-up.

Quest Assisting the Guild (Path of the Explorer) has been canceled, and further path progression is no longer possible. Because of the circumstances behind this, there will be no repercussions for failing this quest.

Well, that’s that, I mused. It’s a shame I never finished it, but it’s just more viable to have my people harvest resources than it is to report them at this stage.

“And done,” Bradford said, looking up from his screen. “Did you mention that was only part of why you were here?”

“Yes,” I responded with a nod. “Can I show you something?” I asked, gesturing toward the projector on his desk.

He looked surprised but agreed and gave me the required permissions to access the projector. I pulled up the map of my lands on my watch and connected it to the device.

A large map appeared, hovering between us. Most of it was shaded out, showing that it was unexplored, while a few places were filled in. “As you can see,” I said with a gesture toward it. “I have vast areas of unexplored land allocated to me.”

“I see, and you want us to help with that?” Bradford asked, his tone interested. “We certainly take commissions, though this branch has never had one of this size. In normal years, it wouldn’t be a problem, but our resources are currently limited.”

“Because of the trouble down south?” I asked, remembering that he’d told me most of the explorers were recalled to try to find the weather control device causing the drought.

“Exactly. We have a few people I can put on it, but it will take a long time to explore all of that.”

“That’s fine,” I responded with a shrug. “I’m not looking to have it all explored right now, or even soon. What I’m after is for the guild to scout me a few suitable locations to establish villages.”

“I’ve got a general idea of the areas I wanted to be scouted, so I just need some people to go through, find the best spots, and scout for any danger. I’m going to be exploring as well, but I can’t be in multiple places at once.”

“That makes sense,” he nodded, a look of relief on his face. “That’s certainly something we can do. In fact, it’s the most common commission that we get asked to do. I can get a few people on it in the next week.”

“We just need to discuss price,” he continued, his tone turning eager.

I winced but nodded, and we began haggling over the cost. Thankfully, he gave me a discount as a former member, and we came to an agreement that was expensive but that I could afford, barely.

I definitely need to look for people to fund these villages, I thought, as I left Bradford’s office. With how much I’ve been spending, I probably won’t be able to afford even one in any reasonable timeframe.

Resolving to talk more about that with the Professor, I moved over to the station and took the next tram to the palace. It was time to see what he wanted to talk to me about.