You have 16 Days Until Your Place of Business is Shut Down

>This is your chance to complain! This woman seems sympathetic towards you so perhaps she can help you out with your useless master by suggesting someone who can help or at least a book you can go off of. PROGRESS THROUGH SELF-TEACHING!

(Now we understand the title at least...Thirty days and counting...WAIT, WHAT IS TODAY?!)
>Confirm actual due date of first assignment with current date.

OH and finally
>Ask if she can help you figure out your affinity or someone who can.

> Ask Miranda what the monster problem is exactly. Do we know what monsters, and where they live? That would help to combat whatever their specific murder technique is, if it's cuts or magic or bites or whatever.

> Also, shit. Are we good at making potions? Send Dave to report to master; you stay there are keep asking questions. Anything that comes to mind.

"I guess I'm on my own with this," you sigh. "You don't know anyone with books on alchemy or anything, huh?"
"Yeah, sorry. I've only heard vague stories about it myself."

"So, since today's the first of the month...I come back on the last of this month for evaluation?" you say.
"Well..." Miranda thinks for a second. "Actually it'd be better if you came in the morning on the first of next month. That way if your evaluation's okay I can just give you your next assignment right away, and I don't have to get up early an extra day. Whenever you want to turn in stuff for the current assignment, I'll just be...here I guess, or out in the hallway if they needed this room for something, about halfway through the afternoon every day."

"Just out of curiosity, you don't know anything about Mana affinities or anyone who would know that kind of thing, do you?"
"Uh, no, sorry...the only Mana I know personally is Hagel. You know, the blacksmith. Actually, you should probably see him sometime, if you have to go out of town for materials he might be able to get you some weapons or something."
"We...might have met before," you say a bit nervously. Hagel is a fire Mana with impressive hair everywhere except on top of his head, and a surprisingly even temper about everything except for making fun of his baldness. A few months back you and Dave made a bet on which of you could get him to either set you on fire or blow himself up in rage first, but never quite managed to accomplish either of those things despite deploying a vast array of bald jokes. It's not really even in the ranking for 'stupidest bet in the last year'.

"What kind of monsters are there?" you say.
"Well...where?"
"There's different monsters in every place," supplies Dave. "You know: animals in the forest, rock things in the mines, it's crazy! Punis are pretty much everywhere, though. Blasted jelly dome things."
"...Yeah." Miranda nods.

"I think that's about it. I guess I should tell Master what's going on, even though she probably doesn't care..."
The knight nods. "Well, good luck."

You return home to find a Master in a ridiculous-looking dress with several bags hanging off of her and a rolling bag held loosely in one hand behind her. "Oh, good, you're back!" she says cheerfully. Leaning to one side to see Dave behind you she adds, "And you picked up a stray dog, too, how nice. I trust the meeting went well?"
"I have a month to make a bunch of healing things or they kick us out," you say flatly. You don't turn around to look but you know Dave is attempting to glare a hole into her face.
"Yeah yeah, I read it all on the paper," she says, waving a hand. "That's why I made two--no, three decisions!"

"First of all, you're allowed to use the cauldron from now on! And I've set out some stuff for you to use it with, like the Alchemy for Beginners tome on the desk," she says, waving at the objects in question. "Secondly, I'm going on vacation. I'll be back in, uh, a month or two I guess. You can do whatever you want while I'm away with only a few exceptions like burning the house down or getting us kicked out!"
"Yeah...of course," you say. "I guess you'd be disappointed if I failed, huh."
"Really, terribly so," she says with a half-serious frown. "That's why I made my third decision! I'm giving you a good-luck charm my master gave me." She reaches into a bag over her shoulder and produces a pocket watch, shoving it into your hands. "It tells you how much of the day is left. I expect you to keep it on you and not use any other watch to tell time!"
"Uh-huh.." You take a closer look at the watch. It's a strange watch which only has four markings dividing it into quarters, and only one hand, but it also has a display of four numbers saying what month and day it is, 1/1.
"If I hear someone saw you carrying another watch I'll be really disappointed, and I will hear about it," she says with another partial frown. "Anyway, that's all! See ya!" Marie gives a cheerful wave and then leaves, tearing off down the street faster than you can say anything to interrupt her.

In watching her go you turn around to face Dave again, who's looking fairly agitated with his arms crossed. "That woman is like a living tornado."

Date: 1/1
Time: About a quarter

You take a moment to quickly skim Alchemy for Beginners. It covers a few important topics:
-Creating items
-Gathering ingredients
-Interacting with people

What will you read first?

>

SpoilerShow

Just a few tutorials we'll do in some order or other, and then commands will basically have free reign.

From now on, each post will be headlined with 'date and time' as above, given in essentially the form the watch displays. Time is an important resource to keep track of.