In addition to signing up another business for our debit card idea, I secured a small potion supply in Velez at the apothecary.

I couldn't get the highest quality potions nor could I get more than one or two potions a week, but it was still better than nothing. I also grabbed a few general Tier 1 antidotes – the store's specialty – which worked on most poisons and toxins.

After the meeting, I was at Vana's house, only accompanied by Steve.

The innkeeper had given me temporary access without a key. When I asked how that worked, she simply said 'don't worry your blindingly reflective head about it'. I kept saying I thought she had 'taken a shine' to my new hairstyle – or lack of hair – but the pun didn't translate too well to Verdantese.

At least I know I'm hilarious.

"No, you're not," Gabby said in my mind at my idle thought. I rolled my eyes and crossed the threshold to the room Vana gave her, the dungeon core floating in the air and pulsing slightly with a greenish light.

"Hey, let's not today, okay? Please. For the sake of our child," I said, pointing to Steve. The little bugger thought he was being sneaky while approaching the floating dungeon core. He pounced and tried to sink his teeth in before giving me a shocked look it hadn't worked.

"Please wipe the slobber off me… And, you know I can't actually see, right?"

"Yes, but you somehow can read my mind so I'm sure you can piggyback my senses somehow," I said exasperatedly.

She let out a hmm and then I felt a slightly stronger presence in my head. "Ooh, this is cool! I can kinda see through your eyes. Is this what 3D movies were like for you?"

"If you mean mostly blurry and headache-inducing, yes. And let's not talk about Being John Malkovich. But I didn't come here to just chat. Though maybe I should more often," I murmured, suddenly feeling guilty.

Is she lonely here alone most of the day?

"Nah, I have their version of the internet here and it's got a lot of pretty good entertainment. Lots less lewd cartoon drawings compared to what you remember from Earth though."

"Are you saying that as good or bad? You know what, either way, let's never mention that to anyone please… But anyway, I wanted to see where you were in your essence recovery and if it might be a good idea for me to delve you soon. I'm not really in need of essence but didn't know how you were feeling, if you needed a null purge," I said, rubbing the back of my head.

There are just too many analogies about delving a dungeon that I don't want to talk about. Most sound like a poor euphemism for a romance novel.

"Yeah, second that thought there sailor, keep the thoughts squeaky clean please. I am back to nearly full on essence but it still feels like I'm missing something." She put on a heavy, poorly-done French accent. "Maybe that's just general ennui, that to think is to feel empty? Hon, hon?"

I could tell her follow-up laugh was a bit forced.

"I mean, you did rip part of yourself out to hand to me… do you think that has something to do with it?" I asked, referring to when she'd created a shard of her core to help me fool people into thinking I'd destroyed the dungeon core.

She sighed in my mind. I could tell she just wanted to go back to our typical light banter but this felt important.

"Couldn't hurt?" she asked as much as said. Then, in a barely audible whisper despite it only being in my mind, she mumbled 'thank you'.

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #54: When someone opens up to you, especially if it's their first time doing so, let it be. Don't even look to acknowledge it unless the moment calls for it.

"Great, so that's a good next step then. I'll see if I can get the shard. What about bodies of rift monsters? You said previously you wanted them to harvest their essence or something?"

"Yeah, I was thinking about that disgusting corpse you used in your first delve. Hell, that taste might have been what woke me up fully. So awful. Don't ever feed me rotting wolf again… but I feel like when… when delvers died in me," she said in a halting and slightly haunted voice, "I didn't absorb the essence when they actually died."

"Wait, how does that work?" I asked as it didn't make sense to me.

Gabby made a shrugging noise. "It was once I absorbed the corpse. When someone died and their party took the corpse with them, I didn't get any essence. Or at least that's how I think it worked. It was really only the last two parties that died in the last few months that are at all clear in my memory. One were assholes and left their dead members behind after stripping them. Like down to naked – they took the guy's soiled underwear…"

Ignoring that last part, I started to consider what she said. I knew that people ate rift monsters all the time but didn't think they got any essence from it. Or if they did, it was negligible.

There were even special precautions for chefs preparing Tier 3 and higher meat because it could kill someone who was unignited. But it still wasn't used for cultivation.

We went back and forth for a while on the challenges of getting rift monster bodies to feed to Gabby. The biggest concern was raising red flags because why would I need the bodies.

I could put out a general call for monster corpses through the Adventurers Guild – though I wasn't a full member yet as I needed to complete more quests myself – or I could grab them from the rifts I was delving already with my team.

The first would grab the attention of whoever did the delve and there were logistical challenges of getting the bodies to Gabby – plus it was just plain expensive – while the second would probably create some awkward questions from my team.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

As I was pondering, Steve pulled on my pant leg, sending me the typical feeling of hungry. Without thinking, I pulled some cheese from my ring.

Whoops, experiment compromised.

"Wait, do that again!" Gabby shouted with excitement. I gave her a confused look. "Wow, you actually do tilt your head when you are confused like a dog. That's cute."

At my groan, Gabby asked me to use my ring again. It resonated strangely with the dungeon core.

After a few more tests, Gabby asked, "Can you try putting something directly from the ring into me? Instead of pulling it out into regular space, try doing it into me."

After ten minutes of testing, I finally got it to work.

"Ugh, a rotting tomato?! Really?!" she yelled indignantly.

"Payback," was all I said and she chuckled in response.

We decided my follow-up from our visit was threefold:

First was to talk with Vana and Jasna about securing a rift monster corpse supply line – Gabby thought absorbing the monsters would allow her to improve any delve rewards she gave out from consuming their concentrated essence.

Second was related as I probably needed an additional spatial bag or three to transport bodies around.

And finally, I needed to try to get Gabby's core shard back from Tiesa.

***

As I got back to the inn for dinner, I pulled Vana aside for a quick word. "I was wondering if you had any ideas for getting some monster corpses. Especially if we could do it on the cheap. You know, given the resale value is pretty terrible…" I raised my eyebrows and then made a hand gesture we'd come up with to mean we were talking Gabby-related things.

"Ah, yeah. Hmm. Well, you were considering trying to use their blood for your debit card machines right?" she artfully lied, picking up on why I was asking quickly. "I can possibly get some bodies that are not considered great eating. But, they are still expensive overall."

"I am going into enough rifts, maybe if I had enough spatial storage, that might solve the issue, at least for initial tests?" I was hoping Vana had some spatial bags lying around from her adventuring days.

"Yeah, that could work. You'd need to explain to your team. And I don't have any extra, sold them all off long ago. Hell, half are probably destroyed by now as I usually used the cheapies."

"That's not great, any idea where I could get said cheapies?"

"It's been a while but I might have a line on getting more. Now, go off and enjoy your meal." The innkeeper shooed me away with her hands.

I decided to just focus on the wonderful panini-like sandwich she made. I had to dice Steve's up for him but he made appreciative noises all the same.

I mean, who doesn't love melted cheese?

Overall, I was impressed with Vana's ability to convey what information I needed while making the conversation still feel natural, if a bit stilted.

There were already a few people speculating, mostly just giving Vana grief, about how often we chatted. It was all in good fun, a good ribbing for being Putijama's version of a cougar, an older woman going after younger men.

Still, she asked me to not pull her away too often or too conspicuously to quell any rumors.

If people thought we were involved in some way, it would ruin a bit of her reputation as a flirt but only a flirt. She thought there might be 'a swarm of people trying to chase her skirt' if the rumors got any further.

After dinner, I headed over to Tiesa and Gabor's house for some board games with Risto.

On a break after I was thoroughly trounced and Gabor came in an also-distant third place, the vice-captain of the guard and I were casually drinking on the front porch, our legs dangling off towards the ground.

They really need to get a nice swing out here.

Gabor looked at me and blurted, "I think you should do the rift but you need to train more first. I am forbidding it for now!"

At my confused look, his eyes wandered towards everywhere around us but my face. "Who told?" I asked, figuring out he meant the rift where Steve and I had been injured and that one of my teammates probably let him know.

"Inara," he said with a chuckle, finally meeting my gaze.

Yeah, that's who I would have guessed.

He sighed. "Look, I do think it's a good idea but that rift has killed so many people higher in Tier 1 than you even when it's not full, I want you to train for it pretty hard. Hell, it killed a Tier 2 team that tried to delve it last year. And they weren't too terrible. Basically, this feels long-term like a good idea but no rushing?"

I nodded. When I first thought of the idea, delving the rift perfectly – no injuries or even any close calls – almost felt like a form of revenge, like I was proving something wrong. Then it started to feel like I needed to prove myself worthy, good enough in some way, almost to the rift itself.

When I shared this with him, Gabor somewhat predictably laughed at me. At my affronted look, he laughed harder. "No," *wheeze* "it's not that," *wheeze* "you just sound," *wheeze* "so stupid."

Actually getting upset, I went to rebuke him.

Before I could, he put both hands on my shoulders and shook me with a huge smile on his face.

I spluttered and he calmed down enough to say, "I had almost the exact same feeling about a delve that went wrong when I was in the military. Tier 2 rift. I was younger than you but far more experienced. Lost a good friend," he said, turning a little more solemn.

He took in a long breath. "The feelings are valid but man are they dumb." He knocked on his head while subtly knocking on the wooden porch with his other hand, making a loud sound. "See, empty block of wood up there," he finished with a chuckle and sigh.

"Yeah, maybe laughing at a friend trying to share their feelings isn't, you know, the best way to go about it?" I said testily, though most of my anger was fading.

"I know, I know, it's just, god I wish someone had put that into words. It's such a stupid feeling. But all delvers have it. Like you know it's just a rift, it has no conscience or consciousness yet you still want to prove it wrong all the same. See," he said, starting to chuckle again, "stupid!" He finished by raising his hands straight up like he'd just secured a great victory.

Tiesa stuck her head out. "What dumb thing did he say now?"

Both of us started responding, figuring she meant the other man said something dumb, leading all of us to start laughing.

As the night wound down – and after I finally won two rounds in a row of the game that was based on building out a group of Tier 1 delvers to take on dangerous missions – I took Tiesa aside.

"So… I was wondering if you still have that shard of the dungeon core," I began.

"Yes, after they were done testing it, that dipshit Selim and the Adventurers Guild in Pitola didn't think to keep it. But why?" Tiesa asked.

"Well, I wanted to have it as a memento. Like a trophy of my accomplishment. I did survive a sentient dungeon's traps and trickery," I replied, hoping I was maintaining an aura of calm.

I thought she'd just say yes and hand it over.

"It's a highly magical artifact, not something for the mantel. Plus, you don't even have a mantel, you live in an inn. You can't put it in a spatial storage item, it will degrade both the shard and the spatial storage quickly. You don't really have a good way to store it. Plus, I'm not sure what would happen if Steve got his hands on it." Tiesa started to look around like she was considering the consequences of that inevitable outcome.

"I could get a lead-lined box with a lock," I tried.

"I'm not against giving it to you but… you haven't really given me a good reason why I should. At the end of the day, it's yours but you lack the ability to safely keep it right now," she said, seemingly annoyed.

"I might want to show it off to women that come to my room," I said, trying out a wink.

It failed.

"Terry, you've always been a bit weird about that delve. You have wanted to talk about any other traumatizing delve—"

She cut off at my indignant noise. "I don't think that's fair, why shouldn't I want to talk about it?"

She held up her hands. "I'm not saying it's bad, just saying you do. It's healthy to talk about things like that, get them off your chest… anyway, my point is you don't talk about it. You came out of that delve with more scars than you went in with. I know you had one potion but… is there something you need to tell me?"

Well, shit.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.