With so much on my mind, work in the fields crawled by without any sort of boredom. In many ways, it would’ve been better to have been bored. But with all the revelations that had just taken place, there was just way too much to be thought about. Deep in thought, I completely missed the signs of the sun starting to set. As twilight was well underway and I was still out in the field with my vision not quite yet failing enough to burden my work.

“Are you okay?” Mia’s voice rang out from the shack. “Its really late, do you need any help finishing up before coming in?”

“No, I just lost track of time. I can head up now. Do you want to start dinner or do you want me to? I’m not sure what we have and what we don’t.”

“I started boiling some eggs. I figured we can eat them with some cheap salted meat that I bought the other day preparing for when you got back.” Mia told me as she met me halfway on my way back to the shack.

“Sounds good, I can’t wait to try it.”

“I would not hold my breath while hoping that it is amazing. Remember, we still are not well off. We are not completely broke anymore, but we are definitely still poor.” She warned.

“That’s fine, I am sure that our business is about to take off with all the loot and harvest that we are about to sell!”

“The harvest will be a very welcome injection of funds. Do not plan on spending much of it though, we will need to reinvest it for a few short term crops to finish off the Spring season. If we can get a few more short harvests then we will be well set for Summer.”

“What about the funds from looting, are they not very valuable?” I asked.

“Oh, they are also a great source of income. I am trying not to factor them in as a primary source of income though. I am treating them as a one time source of money, so that we do not become reliant on them. We do not know if they will continue for long, Rumble is well on his way to exterminating the local population of monsters.” Mia happily explained while we made our way into the shack.

“That’s a good point… I wonder how many there are and if the depopulation will get filled back in by nearby land. Regardless, I am just happy that he is able to level so quickly while helping to fill our meager coffers.”

“Speaking of which, what level is he now?” She asked curiously.

“Not sure, let me check. While I’m at it, I might as well check all of my notifications.” I said.

Pulling up my menus I first checked my skills and their progress.

“Plant familiar is at 6 and Bountiful harvest is at 3. It's pretty surprising since I haven’t really harvested anything. Do you think it's because of Rumble? I asked.

“Probably, but it is hard to know. I doubt we will meet many Druids anytime soon in order to ask. We might be able to check the library in town though. I heard that they have some literature on it.” she responded thoughtfully.

“That's true, I doubt there are many to begin with. I don’t even know how I had the option.”

“We will probably just need to read up on it during the winter downtime. I doubt the library will have too much though, otherwise almost everyone would have a legendary class.”

“Well, we will see. For now, I need to check out what all of these notifications are for.”

Opening the notification tab I was met with a long list of notices. The list contained what seemed like every possibility imaginable. Notifications concerning the business, notifications containing achievements, and some containing warnings.

“Wow, I should’ve probably checked this earlier… I didn’t realize that there were so many.” I said.

“How many do you have?” Mia asked curiously while trying to finish preparing dinner.

“Uh-oh… it says 44.” I responded as my face started feeling cold from the blood draining.

“What? Did you say 4 with a stutter? I really hope that you did, otherwise we will need to talk about being more proactive.” Mia said with a voice full of disbelief and hope in equal portions.

“No, I said 44. I’m just not sure how I got so many. I didn’t have any until I got back to the farm!” I quickly explained. “Do we not receive them away from our home?”

“No, we definitely receive them outside of our homesteads. I get them here, but that could be explained by our business… Well, I have definitely gotten them while in town too. It must be something specific to you.” Mia stated thoughtfully.

“Maybe, I guess I just need to check them and find out.”

As I started to scroll through the list I noticed a pattern, every other notice was a warning notification. The exact message on the warning was the same for all of them.

“So I found out why I have half of my notifications and also why I got them all at once.” I told Mia with a hint of disbelief still flavoring my attitude.

“And that reason is what?” Mia asked while handing me my plate.

Taking a moment to check its contents, I was greeted by a boiled egg, some scrambled eggs, berries, and a burnt piece of meat of a dubious cut.

After having stared at it with what had to have been a stupid look I turned to Mia and asked: “What is this?”

“They said that it is meat from a ‘tunnel-boar’. Its kind of frightening to imagine a boar running through underground tunnels.” Mia said thoughtfully and with a hint of deflection in her attitude while answering.

“Honestly I don’t mind what the meat is, I was asking about your cooking.”

“Well I was not sure what kind of vegetables you liked, but I wanted to fill out your first meal back!” Mia answered while desperately avoiding eye contact.

Having watched her for a moment, I started laughing. “Thanks Mia. I really appreciate the meal! I know you really tried, and I can’t wait to dig in.”

And with that said, I started to eat. Within moments I started to feel my gag reflex kick in. The “tunnel-boar” meat was charred on the top and near raw throughout the middle. Looking up, while struggling to keep the disgust off of my face, I saw Mia looking horrified at her own plate.

“Well, I think I may need some additional practice cooking.” Mia said matter of factly.

Not quite suppressing my chuckle completely, I added: “Thats fine, I will take over cooking if that is fine with you.”

With a quick laugh between us, we both choked down the eggs and broccoli before tossing the meat outside.

With the meal finished Mia got back to work sorting all of our loot into piles while I started the task of going through the entirety of my notifications.

The vast majority of my missed notices were about bestiary entry completion achievements along with a few business related ones. There were two notable exceptions though…My Domain had leveled up and a Skill evolution.