Appetites

Big City folk, people from Earth City and the Earthling Colonies had come in on a transport ship caravan. Their belongings filled the hold. Errit wondered why pocket dimensions were not used for transportation. So many people could fit inside, there was space, lots of it. There was an alchemy department and magical tools shop down the way, during his lunch break he had chosen to watch the ships empty one by one. There were still a dozen ships waiting in the harbor, summer was in full swing and the beast hunting seasons were about to begin.

The kingdom had placed restrictions on when hunting could take place, not to preserve the animals, beasts and materials that accumulated naturally. No. The Emperor imposed the rule so many people would gather and risk would fall. The influx of people coming to the City had the streets crawling with newcomers.

Errit rushed back to kinky appraisals and set some of his merchandise out, a pile of fruits stood outside of the doorway. He had a new hire, a doorman, though Errit wouldn't call the position a doorman, since the beastman only wanted the thousand CP per day to guard and make sure the line stayed orderly. His tiger like features and mottled fur made him look like he was from the Lynx branch of the Bastet races, Lynxkin were built like trucks. Bowlin pushed this way through the door, he did good not to damage it. His presence was almost as good as Vae's but he lacked the magical restoration techniques and had already broken a few things, which is why he was acting cautiously.

Money did strange things to some, mercs for hire were great but sometimes the strongest muscle was just meat. The customers came in because of the smell from one of the fruits, it had been cut up and sliced, laid out on a tray. Errit wasn't worried about them becoming Treants, in order to do that they would have to grow. Slicing the fruit in between customers, the smell intensified inside the shop.

Everyone that entered was given a taste, they all felt stronger and more connected with their core. Some of them even stopped caring about their own appraisals, focusing entirely on the fruit slivers that remained on the tray. "Only one per customer, one time only." Errit's words were put on a sign next to the tray as a reminder during his appraisals. Lisetya kept up flawlessly, the cost of her Elemental Essence diet was worth every drop. Errit was running out, he took the time during his dinner break to hit the Auction house and bought their remaining stock. six liters was a costly price, it nearly depleted the remainder of his funds, he would have to go out of his way to pick herbs again.

In truth, the back and forth to the depository was annoying as an appraiser, your work was double checked, scrutinized and then plagiarized if it was good enough to add to the next outgoing datashare.

There was little else he could do, in order to get the access he needed to some of the more rare materials, he had to have some sort of connection to their auction house. It was possible to create his own, but he would have to gather capital. The Monopolies of the Zao Sect were the primary targets of Errit's revenge plot. He would have to meet the Emperor himself if enough business came between them. He had chosen to give up his hate of the Emperor and focus directly on Zao Ho for his direct involvement.

All the information he had gathered told him that Ho was at the Empire's Capital acting as Chancellor. There was little chance to meet with him outside of official business, he would have to find another way.

֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍

Lisetya had been paying close attention to all of Errit's findings, slowly she was able to identify the items herself, likely a product of her daily consumption of the Elemental essence. Her core had developed significantly, her intelligence and ability also showed improvement. The thirst for more information was consuming for her, she powered through all of the shop customers and when there was no line, no more customers, she started to write notes.

Errit was concerned for a moment, then he read her notes. She was writing a writ, all on her own. It was a writ about her. It read like a character sheet from a video game, 'Ink Demon, Name: Lisetya. Age: Unknown, Third Evolution Ink Demon. Writing, copying, spell crafting, formation design, identification of items, directional ink layering. Once Demons learn to actively think for themselves it is only a matter of time before they evolve, evolution requires a lot of energy. Ink Demons can benefit greatly from the consumption of Elemental Essence, without the addition of more raw energy Lisetya could stagnate and the transformation could take considerably longer. Projected requirement is no less than 15 liters. 530 ounces at 10000CP each.'

The paper in his hand made him sweat, it was like looking at a food bill for a large animal. '5.3 Million CP' His head was spinning and he sat down on the rug.

"I am so sick of selling my herbs to the depository." Errit knew he didn't have much other choice but voiced his annoyance anyway. He already had to go out looking for materials to sell just to get his own plan underway, and now he was raising a Demon. 'There's got to be a better way.' Thinking it over he turned to Lisetya and started proposing a solution.

When She agreed, he started to unload herbs, setting the paper down in front of them along the countertop. He went in a circle, placed twenty herbs out and started at one end while she started at the other. When they met in the center, she had done considerably more writs, 13 of the 20 were from her and it was done very fast.

Each of the fruits were basically the same, minor differences could be noted from time to time but they were all Ransonor fruits with the same property. The seed was removed from each of them, so there was no loss of the crop to other growers. Even though Treants could grow rather large after a few centuries, he still didn't want to allow others to enslave the Treants. He tried not to give away seeds from the fruits he had collected.