"It's good to see you again Taxpatch" Grant said warmly, greeting his favorite tax machine.

  Hearing that, the dragonic spirit snorted before speaking bluntly. "Alright alright, just hand me the taxes." he said and Grant gladly responded.

  He missed having his old friend. Who else would do his taxes? Mastering the law of creation didn't mean mastering the law of cooking the books and taxes.

  That was best left to a spirit born from taxes.

  As a monetary-dragonic spirit, Taxpatch was one of the best in the field. Even in another world he was already caught up on the money conversion.

  As a pinnacle fifth level being, Taxpatch was not that strong. Just like strongmen amongst herbalists, alchemists and fortunetellers weren't as strong as others of the same level, Taxpatch had a similar flaw. As a spirit who developed by collecting wealth, his strength was underdeveloped and was more suitable in fields of money.

  Every bad has its good naturally. As a monetary spirit, his path to power was pretty clear. Gather wealth. It was a smooth path too. As long as he could collect enough money, he could grow to the next level.

  And though he wasn't a strong fighter, he was very aware in the affairs of money and transactions able to exert the laws and take things from others and completely sever cause and effect, as long as he was willing to pay the corresponding price.

  That was partially because he stole the artifact lubao money and incorporated it into the dragonic spirit's foundation, but he wouldn't be able to absorb it if he wasn't already a strong monetary spirit.

  Unfortunately, he'd hit a barrier. In order to hit the 6th level, the amount of money he'd need to collect would be staggering. A tenth of the world's wealth/resources would probably have to be in his hands.

  As rich as Grant was, he wasn't that rich. Not yet anyways. Theoretically, as long as he kept pumping out resources and handing them to Taxpatch to manage, he would hit that level, but it would take ages.

  Taxpath didn't care anyway.

  He was a money spirit after all.

  what mattered to him was money.

  Taxpatch sorted through the taxes calmly before asking. "So what have you been doing to make so much money so quickly? Tjought if you had another chance you'd just "enjoy life".

  Longevity pills?"

  Grant shrugged. "elongevity pills"

  Hearing this, the taxing spirit snorted. "Figures. You fleshy mortals go crazy over those. I don't even know why you sell them as longevity pills. Just sell them as the other thing and you'll make more money."

  Grant rolled his eyes. "It's not about the money, it's about reputation. It's already bad enough that I'm selling pills that have that side effect, it can be seen as a "happy accident". If I start selling them as growth pills then my reputation is going to be the guy who made male growth pills."

  "Thought you didn't care about your reputation?"

  "Yeah, as a crazy psychopathic madman! Not a lewd person who makes those kind of pills! It was bad enough in the last life when people started coming to me for other things afterwards.God that was embarrassing! I almost became a god of pleasure because of that!"

  Taxpatch ignored his complaining as he continued sorting out the revenue. "Whatever. This is child's play compared to what I used to do. Is that all? If so, I'm going back to sleep."

  Grant finally remembered how tiring it could be dealing with such a blunt spirit. "Yeah, yeah, go back t sleep ya grouchy skink." he said, and the spirit disappeared near immediately, leaving a conflicted Grant there. He did miss his tax calculator, but he was a touchy thing.

  Maybe he'd act better if he were given more money to manage. Grant decided to ponder on this as he walked away, deciding to go visit his apprentices.

  And he found the three coming, face to face.

  Though they were somewhat surprised, they were not too surprised when coming into contact with the newly made rookie's forest.

  Grant had done plenty of ridiculous things in front of them before.

  Making a new forest? Not so surprising. It was still plenty interesting though. The place was a place of peace, quite unlike the other, more competitive locales Grant had shown before.

  "How interesting. A plant that produces meat. Don't you think it's weird Dain?" she asked Dain and he nodded in agreement. It was weird.

  Well, it was more interesting than anything else.

  Natalie started speculating. "It's clear that he wants to avoid infighting in this locale, contrary to his other ones. And his new apprentice is here. D you think he's a beast tamer?" she said, and Dain raised his eyebrow.

  Beast tamers were uncommon after all. It was a hard profession, often requiring a great deal of resources and good monsters to raise. All of it was difficult to get.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  A monster with great potential and capable of being domesticated? That's already hard to find. For most people, the idea of a monster evolving is exceptionally rare, save for monsters capable of quick evolution and low potential such as goblins or slimes, which evolved easily but had low combat ability.

  Creatures like drakes or wyverns with high combat ability and higher potential were rare.

  And if you had the opportunity to catch such a rare creature, chances were that you lacked the resources to cultivate such a monster, and gathering such resources was eye catching to say the least.

  But for their fellow student, she was sure that neither of these were a problem for Grant with the plethora r resources he seemed to have at hand.

  As for threatening him? It was a nightmare at best, with the power shown.

  So the path of beast tamer was not an unreasonable path for them to take.

  This was merely her speculation of course, and something that required verifying by meeting the new student.

  She was also curious about this new student, and his standing in Grant's heart.

  Natalie was aware that their current jump in strength was thanks to Grant's efforts.

  She wasn't ungrateful, but it was hard to find a way to repay him. What could she offer him that he couldn't have?

  But a student? That was different. Though she couldn't offer him anything, helping his student should be a way of repaying him.

  There was another point she didn't mention, to not bother Dain. Dain's charm was his simplicity. When he found out Grant had accepted another student, she felt it was important to see him with her own eyes for a simple reason.

  To verify his status. Natalie and Dain were chosen by Grant on a whim in the end, and it was clear that the relationship between them wasn't that close.

  Although she couldn't confirm it, from the way he spoke, she felt that Grant had a greater fondness for this new apprentice.

  Although it was instinctual, it was important if it was true.

  Their strength currently was in no small part because of Grant. And if they wanted to grow stronger?

  That was likely to rely on Grant as well. Whether it be further methods of advancement, or guarantees of safety, his favor was necessary.

  Currying favor with his newest student was one way to ensure a connection to Grant even if he grew tired of teaching them one day.

  Natalie knew she was different from Dain in this way, having these endless little thoughts and calculations. Perhaps she didn't even need these thoughts; perhaps Grant would support them regardless.

  But Natalie didn't feel safe if she wasn't constantly calculating the people around her.

  Only Dain truly made her feel at ease in his simplicity and steadfast mind. He likely never even thought about any of this, simply seeking to meet his new student.

  It was with this calm and focused mind that he pursued the way of the sword, And with this mind that he stood in front of her and protected her from wind and hail.

  She would never tell him any of these small thoughts, so that she could protect him in her own small way.

  She would deal with these things.

  It was this quality about her that Grant appreciated. Not the calculated and cunning nature, but the decision to bear all of it on her shoulders. That dedication. It was familiar to him.

  He saw much of himself in both of them.

  The two finally encountered Grant's third apprentice.

  And though she was surprised at first, it made sense soon enough.

  The red skin had caught her eyes.

  'A demon?'

  Red skinned orks were rare after all.

  And then she stared more carefully, quickly realizing it was an ork.

  He was an orc.

  But she understood now. He was a child.

  Grant was eccentric and weird, but from the stories he told, his tender spot for children and misfits were clear.

  Many of his previous students were weirds.

  Orphans.

  Outcasts.

  Thinking of this, and observing this child, she could only imagine the tragedy that such a child had endured.

  And watching what he was doing, it seemed that her speculation was correct.

  The boy was feeding a little lizard-like creature, which had eagerly lapped out of his hands.

  It was none of the critters the boy had scouted out previously, but a different critter he hadn't seen in the forest before.

  A soldering little lizard.

  Natalie walked over carefully, observing the boy's reaction to her approach.

  He flinched a little as they approached, warily watching them approach, but forced himself to remain calm.

  This was Grant's realm after all. How else could they enter but by his will?

  Even the boy noticed this, barely seeing any other form of life other than what was safe to him.

  So if these two humans were here, than they were safe.

  He was just, unprepared for their presence. Dain observed the boy carefully, and seeing that he didn't seem overly hostile to them but wary.

  That was reasonable. Anyone who was not human was expected to have poor impressions about humans. To say they acted poorly in the wild was understating it.

  As an adventurer, many races were welcoming to the human race, but whether that be of good will, or fear of humanity's strength was a different discussion.

  Getting down on one knee, Dain carefully approached the boy, making sure he was in line with the child's height.

  He was rather tall.

  "We are your fellow classmates.

  We haven't been back in a while, so master told us to come visit you and greet our new classmate." he said bluntly, yet that bluntness had a comforting feeling to it.

  The young one's wariness dissipated slightly at this blunt fellow student.

  Seeing this, Dain felt it safe to continue.

  "My name is Dain. The woman next to me is your other fellow apprentice Natalie."

  Hearing herself being mentioned, Natalie stepped forward with a charming smile as she whipped out a bag of candies naturally, as if out of habit.

  "Hi! My name is Natalie and I'm your senior sister. It is so nice to meet you! Would you like some candy?" She asked excitedly as she offered some candy, waving it in the child's face, appearing as an excited senior sister.

  Of course, in the modern new york city, it looked more like a man in a white van offering candy.

  Actually, no matter what city or civilization you go to, a man in a white van offering candy is suspicious.

  Alas, the poor child was uncivilized and did not know any better as he carefully took the candy, showing a smile in gratitude.

  Even though Grant could guess some of her thoughts, he was too lazy to say anything.

  Besides, it was good for the boy to meet two people closer to his age on friendly terms so that he could better fit in amongst his peers.

  ignoring the sweet sister luring kids away with candy, Grant curiously looked over to the animal the young orc was feeding only to stop in his tracks out of pure surprise.

  He knew what that creature was, and that was precisely why he was so surprised.

  A small lizard like flame elemental. At first glance, it didn't stand out that much.

  Fire salamanders were common after all as low level monsters and even as cheap familiars for those practicing alchemy.

  But it wasn't a fire elemental. It was a lava monster.

  ANd it wasn't a lizard.

  It was a lystrosaurus.

  An ignystro, part of the evolutionary line of the lavaspino, a dragon level monster.

  They were already extremely rare outside the realm of Muspelheim.

  But he recognized that ignystro.

  No, to be precise he recognized its bloodline.

  A precious egg stored in his vault, containing the essence of the great fire giant surtur and the strongest lavaspino bloodline.

  One of his prized eggs, to be given out of his secret realm as a price for the next generation once he passed.

  Only-

  when had it hatched?

  ANd how had it managed to sneak into his forest?