“Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective than the one derived from fear of punishment.”

  Mahātmā Ghandi, Indian Activist

  “Oh my gosh! I get an employee!” Rain gasped in utter delight. “I’ve always wanted an employee.”

  Xavier stopped reading over Rain’s shoulder and glared at her in disbelief.

  “Really? Everything in that description and it’s the Tutoria that gets you excited?”

  “Do I pay her? Does she take holidays? Ooh, I’ll have to make her a schedule!”

  “That’s… that’s not what you should be taking away from this, Rain,” Xavier stammered, increasingly concerned about her choice. “You’ll lose out on forty attribute points. No battle skills. No magic. It’s not even a combat support class. Everyone will just take advantage of you and… Rain, don’t…”

  Rain smiled at Xavier as she accepted the sub-class. Her eyes flashed with a tinge of green as the sun-class screen vanished.

  Xavier grabbed Rain by the shoulders and gave her a frantic shake. “Seriously Rain! Why on Earth would you pick that sub-class? Your level is already lower than mine, and your equipment is pathetic. You’re just going to fall further behind. You’re going to die.”

  Rain gently swatted away Xavier’s hands and touched him on the forehead.

  “Boop!” Rain said playfully. A tiny green dot appeared at the base of his hairline. “Guess who just got a job as a product scout?”

  “What?” Xavier cried, rubbing his forehead as if he were trying to wipe away a spot of ink. “I’m not part of your stupidity. Get it off!”

  “Nope,” Rain answered dismissively. “I need you to help me test this out. Tutoria?”

  The Emporia Tutoria popped into existence on the beach a few feet away. She sat at a small wooden desk with an old-fashioned cash register. Behind her was a screen that displayed a constantly scrolling menu of items available for purchase. Beside her, stuck in the sand, was the mission board. One of the missions was flashing, ready to be turned in.

  “Hello, Tutoria!” Rain greeted her new employee chipperly.

  “Good evening, Mistress Rain,” Tutoria said formally, seated straight in her chair with her hands folded together on the desk. “How may I help you today?”

  “You don’t need to be so formal, Tutoria,” Rain answered. “I run a casual business, where my employees can just be themselves.”

  Tutoria breathed out a hefty sigh of relief as she threw her feet up on the desk and slouched. “Oh, thank the Gods. If I had to spend this entire Contest acting like I had a stick shoved up my ass, I wouldn’t have been a very happy Tutoria.”

  “Yah, because you were such a fucking delight before Rain owned you,” Xavier muttered. Tutoria glared at him.

  Rain chuckled. “Well, I look forward to working with you, Tutoria. Can you show me the product scout purchase screen?”

  “Sure thing,” Tutoria answered. The screen behind her flashed, revealing a blank menu.

  “Right. Xavier, pick something up,” instructed Rain.

  “Like… what, exactly?”

  “It doesn’t matter. A handful of sand?” Rain suggested.

  “He’s got to add it to his inventory for it to take effect,” Tutoria said helpfully. “You know how to do that, right Xavier? I can show you if you want.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Xavier glared back at her as he scooped up the sand and placed it in his inventory.

  A new entry appeared on the menu.

  “That’s some pricy fucking sand,” Xavier scoffed. “The Castle of Glass is literally next to a beach.”

  “You’ll be thankful for that price in a moment, Xav. Tutoria, I’d like to buy ten square feet of sand, please,” Rain ordered.

  “Where you do want it?” Tutoria asked.

  “Oh, it doesn’t matter,” Rain said wistfully. “It’s just an experiment.”

  Tutoria grinned at her employer mischievously and snapped her fingers. The sand appeared five feet over Xavier’s head and rained down over him.

  “You fucking little…” Xavier snarled angrily, reaching for his blade.

  “Dude, you so much as draw that blade, and I’ll ban your ass from the Emporia like I did last time,” Tutoria warned.

  Rain raised a curious eyebrow in Xavier’s direction.

  “I was a misunderstanding,” Xavier said dismissively.

  A thick file folder filled with paper appeared on Tutoria’s desk. “You’re welcome to take a look, boss,” Tutoria said, her arms splayed out over the file. “It’s an interesting read. I’d recommend starting with the one where he tried to sell me a half dozen goblin heads. Or when he shattered a novelty enchanted mirror that insulted him and refused to pay for it.”

  “That mirror had it coming,” Xavier scowled. “Everything you sell is garbage.”

  “I’ll show you garbage, you little piece of…”

  “Why don’t we count this as a fresh start for both of you?” Rain offered, trying to hold back her laughter. “Tutoria, did Xavier get his product finder’s fee when I purchased the sand?”

  “Really? Do I have to give it to him?”

  “If you would be so kind,” Rain responded, with just a hint of managerial expectation.

  Tutoria gave a reluctant sigh and snapped her fingers. A screen popped up in front of Xavier.

  “Excellent! It works,” Rain said gleefully. “Then my share of the profit should be, ah, there it is.”

  “Xavier, try out the mission board,” prompted Rain, her excitement growing.

  Xavier approached the mission board and selected the slime extract mission.

  Xavier withdrew one of each color extract – which appeared as tiny, solid balls the size of a marble – and selected ‘complete’ on the board. The extracts disappeared.

  A few seconds later, a screen appeared in front of Rain.

  “You are going to be a wealthy woman,” Xavier admitted, questioning his earlier assessment of new sub-class.

  “It’s not able getting wealthy. It’s about helping people, Xav,” Rain said, happy with her successful tests. “This sub-class benefits everyone. When I opened Rain on my Parade, that’s all I wanted to do. Help people feel just a bit better each and every day. Now I can do that in this world. Speaking of which… Tutoria, how much gold to enhance the Mission Board?”

  “The first enhancement is one hundred thousand gold.”

  “Hmm… that’s pretty much everything I have left. But why not? You need to spend money to make money.”

  Rain opened her inventory and watched her money drain away, leaving her with less than ten thousand gold. The mission board flashed, and a ‘Level 2’ label appeared in the upper right corner. The number of available missions doubled, and a new category named ‘Dauntless Isles Missions’ appeared below the general mission list.

  Xavier rushed over and scrolled through the list. “Location-specific missions? You know, this would have been handy to have three days ago. It might have made all this time on the Dauntless Isles worth it.”

  Xavier selected a mission he was eligible to complete.

  “The missions give experience now, and more gold,” Xavier announced, his excitement suddenly matching Rain’s own. “Is this a repeating mission? Damn, if I sold all these slimes, I’d add ten thousand experience and seven thousand gold to the rewards we got for killing the slime pack. That’s massive. You couldn’t have leveled up the Mission Board before I turned in that last mission?”

  “Gods, you’re a miserable prick,” Tutoria spat.

  Xavier ignored her. He had already turned in the five slime extracts and was impatiently waiting for the mission board to refresh.

  Rain chuckled as she withdrew the Slime Cap of Water Resistance from her inventory and held it out for Xavier. While the cap’s attribute enhancements were beneficial, its form was that of a head-sized ball of slime, making it useless as equipment. Slime dripped over Rain’s fingers as she held it, making them sticky.

  “Come on Xav, you can turn in those missions later. We’re still experimenting. Here, sell this to Tutoria.”

  “Gross,” Xavier blanched. Grasping it between two fingers with disgust, he tentatively carried it over to Tutoria and plopped it on her counter. “How much?”

  “For you? One gold, and I get to slap you for fun. For anyone else? Three thousand.”

  Rain laughed as Xavier scowled. “Tutoria, be nice. We’ve got to keep it fair for everyone.”

  “Fair for everyone is going to get you into trouble,” Xavier muttered as Tutoria made the slime cap vanish and deposited three thousand gold into Xavier’s inventory. “Not everyone can be trusted, Rain. Not everyone is worth trying to save.”

  “Yes, that’s what Calista keeps telling me, yet here I am with you. So you’d best appreciate that I give people second, third, and fourth changes,” Rain countered, swiping away the commission screens that appeared upon the sale of the cap. “Tutoria, I don’t need notice every time I earn gold. Can you just send me a list at the end of each day?”

  Tutoria pulled up an options screen and disabled the notification setting.

  “Now, Xav, how about we get you the Wilderness Logistics talent…”

  They spent the next hour with Tutoria, selling items and turning in missions. After his initial concern faded, Xavier began to dart around the beach, picking up rocks, branches, and anything else he could get his hands on to expand his product scout list.

  Rain laughed as she watched him run. While they had spent time together back at the Castle of Glass, this day had been the first time Rain had managed to crack through Xavier’s tough outer shell and see the man that lay beneath. She knew he had demons in his past, and, although Calista refused to believe it, she knew he carried tremendous guilt for what he’d done to Passi’s clan. She could see it in his eyes when she caught him looking at Passi.

  “Deep down, he’s not an evil man,” Rain muttered to herself. “He’s as broken as the rest of us. And he, like all of us, needs someone to help put himself back together.”

  Eventually the sun began to set, and Rain convinced Xavier to forgo hunting more slime head back to camp. As they walked down the beach, Rain was thankful for the day.

  And for finally being able to call Xavier a friend.

  The Non-Canonical Aftermath: