The following morning, I met up with my team for breakfast.

I announced, "I have good news and I have great news. The first is that we can stay for an extra day here. I know you all got some shopping done yesterday while I dealt with some crap, but we don't have to leave this morning. That's the good news. The great news is that I reached an accord with Selim Koval so we don't need to worry about getting thrown out or harassed while we stay that extra day."

There was a mild 'yay' from Pavel while Romie and Inara shrugged their shoulders.

"Okay, thought that might be a bit of a bigger deal," I said sheepishly.

Inara said, "It's great and all, but it doesn't really impact us too much. I was actually looking forward to getting back to Velez to have some more peace and quiet."

Romie nodded while Pavel said, "We've been here so many times before, even lived here off and on. I guess we can do dinner with some friends, but it's just not a big deal to be here." He chuckled apologetically.

"Well crap, I guess I thought with that extra day and getting promoted to elite rank in the Adventurers Guild might actually get you all excited," I said.

"What! You just said we weren't getting kicked out. This is huge!" Inara said, punching me in the side. "Oh man, I can't wait until we get to see those sweet, sweet special missions." She started rubbing her hands together.

"Shouldn't we go over team funds and a summary of our delving from the last few weeks?" I asked.

"Fine, fine, we'll do that first. God, you suck at announcing things, you know that?" Inara said.

Romie gave a small nod while Pavel put his hands up to say he wasn't going to get involved.

I sent the team a small analysis of the numbers from delving near Pitola. "I guess since I'm the main point of contact, even if Inara is team lead, Pitola sent me the final tally. My overall take was quite a bit but the team take wasn't bad at all either."

I had made nearly 300 gold in total, though I was trying to figure out how to recycle a fair bit back to Vesna. I considered granting one of my skill purchases with Gema's Grand Gems to her but wanted to run it by Tiesa first. I thought that might pay down the nearly 100 gold she passed my way through her life debt agreement.

The oil we received as a drop from our very first rift had finally been identified and it had a very unique property. When rubbed into armor, it could prevent enchantments from being dispelled. It didn't work on weapons for some reason but since it worked all the way up to Tier 2 armor and shields, we had received 40 gold as a team for that alone. I had sent Inga a note to make sure we could delve that same rift again in the future.

The magical fishhook from the final day was also unique. Rahila pushed me hard to use my right of first refusal to buy it for fifteen gold, which she paid me for immediately. It had some really interesting illusion capabilities that she thought would be great for her family involved in the sea fishing business. The hook could detect what types of fish were around it and adapt to what would be likely to attract that specific fish, using a minor bit of mind magic in addition to illusions.

Other than that, nothing really stood out that much. Most days there was at least one good drop between one of the four team delves for our team or Vesna's, and often multiple good drops from the other eighteen delves when Steve, Vesna, or I was carried.

It meant we had a pretty big budget for team purchases too.

Inara looked around excitedly at the group. "Romie, I think it's finally time. The team budget can support it!"

Our archer's face lit up more than I'd ever seen. "You sure? It's 120," they said.

Pavel smiled. "Not with Terry's discount," he said. "That's what's so perfect. You can get an even better version and it's only 50 gold!"

I blanched. No one had talked to me about it, so this was not great. I said, "Did anyone think to run this by me?"

"Why would we? You get all Tier 1 spells for 50 gold," Inara said.

"No, I only get a few Tier 1 spells for that price. I don't even have unlimited access to Gema's. I have two more trips there at most right now," I said, rather annoyed.

"Oh, never mind," Romie said sadly.

I waffled on whether to just give in but instead decided to think on it.

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #79: Resources are limited. Make sure you spend them well. Don't hoard like a dragon but limited opportunities need to be saved for where they'll give the biggest impact.

I said, "Give me today and I'll have a decision. I'll see what I can do. What spell did you want anyway?"

"[Dagger of Darkness]," they said, looking a bit embarrassed.

I was surprised but it made at least some sense. From my few conversations with Romie, they were getting increasingly frustrated at not being able to contribute as well in many fights, especially when enemies were heavily armored. Either having to use expensive arrows or being only a liability in a delve like that didn't sit well with them.

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On that slightly awkward note, we decided to all go to the nearby branch office of the Adventurers Guild. My agreement with Selim had been rather specific to still avoid the main Pitola headquarters and I gladly agreed.

Upon entering, I asked to see the Vice Guildmaster, the head of the specific branch office. The clerk looked annoyed. "Forever green, faithful I shall be," I said, reading from my AAI. It was some silly coded message Selim gave me that changed every day.

She perked up and ushered us towards a plain meeting room. However, I requested we have one with a large-screen tablet on the wall instead.

About five minutes later, a man in full plate armor clanked in. Or at least tried to, barely fitting through the doorway by going sideways.

"What's with the getup?" Inara asked and I facepalmed.

"Oh, you are not… very well." The armor disappeared, clearly into a spatial storage item of some kind. Underneath was a suit with a tie. The man with a pencil mustache looked nearly on the verge of tears but I thought that was just his face, not his current feelings.

At our continued confused looks, he sighed. "I apologize young miss, most people earning Elite status here are nobles and I must play the part sadly."

Inara smiled. "No need for that bullshit with us!"

Rather than happy, he looked even more resigned.

"I'm Terry and this is Inara, our team leader. Romie, our archer and rift expert. And Pavel, our fellow frontline fighter," I said, pointing to each in turn. Steve batted me on the ear. "And this is our mascot Steve. He's why we're called The Order of the Ever-Consuming Glider."

"Yes, yes, interesting name. And I see you were elevated… this morning… with no review…" the man said, looking perplexed. "It was by… ah. Very well."

He adjusted his tie, putting on an officious voice. "I am Fadil Tasev, a Vice Guildmaster here in Pitola. I proudly promote you to Elite rank in the Verdant Kingdom Adventurers Guild."

Inara looked extremely pleased. "So we can take on any Elite jobs? That's so awesome, I'll have Vidas look at what's available in Zalano. Can we see those here too? I can't see anything on my AAI interface for the Guild."

Fadil looked embarrassed. "While you are at the Elite rank for all of the Kingdom, by agreement, you may only take on Elite-level jobs from the Pitola Guild branch."

It was pretty easy to see why. If people were reaching Elite rank from politics instead of competency, at least in Pitola, other branches wouldn't want to hand over the best or most complicated jobs to said faux Elites.

I asked, "And the interface? Is it one of those 'in person only' type of things for getting Elite-level jobs?" I figured if there was a sensitive job, only letting the people who could handle it also made sense.

"Yes, yes, that is a good summation, well said," Fadil replied.

"Oh, you don't need to suck up to us," Inara said. "But you do need to show us what missions we can take." She pointed to the large tablet on the wall with anticipation.

"First, I need you to read through this and agree to the terms," Fadil said.

[Incoming Message from Fadil Tasev: Document]

The attached file was filled with pomp and circumstance as to what being an Elite of the Adventurers Guild meant and why it was so prestigious but it was also filled with a lot of dos and don'ts that I thought were particular to Pitola.

We all agreed to the terms but something was bothering me.

"Can you tell me how many Elite-level people there are in the Pitola branch of the Adventurers Guild?" I asked leadingly.

"347," Fadil replied crisply and seemed to see where my next question was heading. "There are nearly 800 total Elite-rank members of the Adventurers Guild in the entirety of the Verdant Kingdom."

"Do you have the breakdown for Tier 1s?" I asked.

"35 for Pitola and 145 for the entire Kingdom," he said, clearly embarrassed.

I decided to let up but the ratios made sense. Most nobles or other wealthy people were rushed to at least Tier 3, carried or on their own merits, quite quickly. So having such a top-heavy group of Elites in Pitola told the story I expected.

While I had reached an accord with Selim Koval, I still couldn't respect the man.

I asked, "Well, as Inara said, can we please see the jobs available for a Tier 1 team?" The screen filled up with over four dozen results though only three had a golden hue. "Can we see only the Elite-level Tier 1 jobs?"

The three remaining jobs then took up the entirety of the large screen. Given my mid-Tier 1 cultivation, I could easily see the large amount of text under each one despite it being small.

My general summary was that Elite-level Tier 1 jobs were about discretion rather than something being extra difficult, at least for those given to the Pitola branch.

The first was a job escorting an alchemist through a rift that was 'known to occasionally grow rare magical herbs with interesting effects'. It required 'extreme discretion' and 'a strong constitution' in addition to combat capability. It sounded more like someone who wanted to try making magical drugs. I sent a message to the team we should probably leave that one be.

The second was to carry a noble through a series of delves while he was naked the entire time. That was an immediate no from everyone but Inara who said it would at least generate a great story. When I pointed to the required AAI-backed guarantee to tell no one about it, she crossed it off immediately too.

The final one was far more interesting, if slightly more disturbing.

A local enchanter wanted to try using the skin or carapaces of rift monsters for some experiments.

While collecting beast carcasses was very standard, this was a bit more unique. They had theories about the monsters in twelve different rifts, none of which were named until someone took the job. They wanted a team to help them capture the creatures to experiment on, including enchanting their skin while they were still alive to see how the enchantments changed after they were killed.

It paid extremely well but was also a little gruesome. The job also had extreme penalties if the enchanter was injured by the rift beasts themselves. The phrase 'if an enchantment explodes, the Adventurers Guild team shall not be held liable for resultant injury, up to and including death' was a bit comical to me.

"Can we take just one of the rifts with the enchanter?" I asked, just seeing our options.

After looking up some information on his personal tablet, Fadil said, "Yes, they are willing to do each rift individually. However, while the entire job pays 250 gold if completed perfectly, doing any individual rift is only fifteen gold."

I turned to my team. "I think I'd feel weird doing that with a flesh-and-blood rift monster but if there is something like a golem, I'd be interested. What do you all think?"

Romie spoke first. "I won't be helpful but yes."

I winced slightly since we had just talked about that sore subject. "I think you could be our resident restrainer. Do you have any experience with ropes?"

Romie nodded and Inara chuckled.

Not touching that one.

Pavel and Inara both looked interested so we put out a conditional acceptance that we could do a delve if there was a non-flesh-and-blood rift monster and that we could do the delve the following day since we planned to head back to Velez.

Within a few seconds, we had our answer.

[Incoming Message from Adventurers Guild, Pitola: Your job with Olga Nukic has been accepted.]

I figured she must be related to the enchanter who had helped repair my shield, Emil Nukic. She might even have some ideas about helping gear to Tier up when it normally couldn't, like Emil had managed with my shield. And if she was as odd as he, it was going to be very interesting.

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