The atmosphere in the room was very strange, out of nowhere. Seriously? Just talk about Goldguard, and does that happen? What exactly is his goal? As soon as Ayla finished devouring all the food, I started to prepare to go out.
“Well, I'm going to hand over the things I found in the ruins to the Sheikh, or else he will be bitching about it.” Finishing the remnant of coffee in the mug, I put on my coat, and reached for the doorknob. “After that, I go to the city, look for the things you asked for. And also…”
(When is Kenji-Sama going to rest then?) Kasumi interrupted me.
“Probably later. I have to finish making changes to Vollstrecker. Speaking of Vollstrecker, I'm going to need to put it inside my Digi-Storage. And, Ah! I almost forget, but… since we will be fighting soon, you girls will want to train a little bit more.”
As I closed the door, I heard sighs, and a few murmurs.
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Arriving at the courtyard, the horsemen were looking at me curiously. As if I were a type of attraction. I approached Vollstrecker, extending my hand, and keeping it inside my Digi-Storage.
“Well, now it's to hand things over to the Sheikh.”
Walking back to the castle, I reached the research room, where both the Sheikh and his attendant were. I started talking about the list, and informing them about each item. I am struck by the fact that I can simply write the language of this world.
Going to another room in the castle, this room, which is the place where all the Relics and Artifacts are being kept, I start to remove things one by one.
The place was more or less full, I think, what, 15% of it? After taking everything out of my Digi-Storage, the room had already occupied more than 80% of it. And after all that, it was past noon, I went to the city.
“Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to the city. I have shopping to do.”
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The city was in a strange mood. I wasn’t sure why. It had the exactly same mood from the castle servants and knights. Like they all had a really dreadful nightmare.
Walking around, I asked about where I could buy furniture for a house. From everyone I asked, all of them said the same thing. I could find everything I was searching for, if I reached one place, The Merchant’s Guild.
In short, the Merchant’s Guild wasn’t a place made for only Merchants to get legally their own business, but dealt with other things as well. Their main objective, was to help people get started, on the life of a Merchant. In my opinion, it was simply a way to get more money. Since, well, Merchants!
The second objective, was like a HUB of businesses. You could arrive at the Merchant’s Guild, and point out what exactly you was searching, and they would point the way you could choose. The city of Xerssas, has a variety of stores that could help me. The problem is: All of them, needed me to have a specific card, so I could buy anything. Shady Merchants!
“This is such a hassle.”
If you didn’t had this stupid card, you wouldn’t be able to buy anything. It’s like they wanted you to lose time. Well, it was what I believed. And boy, was I sure.
“Please, sir. Follow me.”
An attendant, made me move around rooms, with different people in each room. Each one, was for a certain type of business. It’s like Telemarketing. They mention every, single, shocking option, and then! After mentioning every single option available, that you don’t need! They mention the one you need. A. COMPLETE. WASTE. OF. TIME!
And like telemarketing, I walked through each room, until finally arriving to the one where I could ask where to buy the furniture I wanted. I should have done the furniture myself.
“Welcome, Dear costumer. How may I help you?”
A guy, using dandy clothes, with lots of gold and red, with handkerchiefs hanging from almost every single pocket, spoke to me. He even had a monocle, which when I entered the room, I Scanned, and it revealed to be an Artifact that could Appraise anything. Shame that Scan was better, so I blocked his Appraisal. Oh, he’s pissed. That’s for the time you made me lose, dumbass.
He tried to hide his displease with that, but Scan gave me the information about his wave of emotions. This is new. Or was already there, and I never used? Scan blinked green. Ah, okay! Ignoring the man’s twitching eye, I cut to the chase, and asked about where I could buy furniture, like bathtubs, wardrobes, couches, those kinds of things.
“Hmmm… Would you perhaps have access to our facility cards?” I shook my head. “So I apologize, Dear Customer, but you will not be able to conduct business with the stores in our jurisdiction.”
“And why’s that?” I asked, sarcastically, having a small hunch as to why.
“Since the Sand-Whale started to get more aggressive, our clientele has decreased a lot. It would be so nice if an adventurer could help us by selling us at a favorable price for our guild.” He said so, with a dramatic tone of voice. “Ah! But I heard about a certain adventurer with a high ranking, having appeared in our city. But he did not appear in our guild, unfortunately. Would you perhaps know where he is?” Never trust a merchant too much. And stop rubbing your hands, and take that nasty expression off of your face.
“No. I don’t.” I say so, faking my emotions. “Well, guess that will need to wait. I’m sorry to have wasted your time. Now if you excuse me.”
He widened his eyes, and tried to say something, but his mouth only opened and closed, like he was some fish. He expected me to sell the monster parts, and receive little to no money? Shocking merchants.
Honestly, I wasn’t very keen on coming to the Merchant’s Guild since the beginning. Why? Rumors of course.
You see, the GM of the Adventurer’s Guild informed me previously, that the Merchant’s Guild was paying little money to the people who tried to sell their catches. While the Adventurer’s Guild was buying things for a fair share.
If you sold things to the Adventurer’s Guild, you would receive around 85% more than from the Merchant’s Guild. Not only that, but she also informed me about their ‘Card’. Those things were basically loyalty cards. But what you know? You wouldn’t receive bonuses by having it. Loyalty Cards are made for that! The more you use, the more bonuses you get.
The card was stupid, and! To top it off, you needed to keep using it monthly! You would need to buy a certain amount of things, within a certain range of prices, and then! You wouldn’t lose the card’s function. In short, the Merchant’s Guild of Xerssas, was trying to monopolize things. Why do I have a bad feeling about that place? Like something very bad will happen more down the line.
“I don’t want to be here when that happens. I just wasted my time.”
Walking through the streets, I passed by the shops with wardrobes, bathtubs, couches, things I wanted to buy. There was even some ovens, that worked exactly like the ones back from Earth. The main difference, was that it used Fire Stones to power it up, and you could regulate the flames from it.
“I have some blueprints of ovens and other furniture, but… I wanted to see the ones from this world myself.”
Instead of relying on things back from Earth, I wanted to see the ones from this one. Wait a second. I can’t buy things, and that’s okay. But they never mentioned something about me entering the shops and taking a ‘look’, right?
I think I had a nasty grin on my face, cause the people around looked at me strangely. I walked to each shop I passed by, and I looked through the Furniture, with a small notepad in hands. I started taking notes of whatever the owners talked about.
And boy! Did they talked a lot. And to spicy things up, I made sure to mention other shops too, making the owners mention something the other owners didn’t said about their furniture.
“Okay. I’m just waiting for my card on the Merchant’s Guild to arrive, so I’ll be coming back here. Thank you very much!”
That’s what I said to every shop owner. Since I can’t buy them, I’m gonna simply create my own. And thank you very much for telling me. So many useful info! I’ll be sure to put it to work.
Closing the notepad, I walked back to the castle, not before taking some food around, and finding more ores to build these things. I bought Iron, Steel, Mythril, Adamantite(more Alloy!), Copper, and other weak metals, like Tin, Lead, and Silver. Oh! And I’ve found more Tungsten too!
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Back at the courtyard, I saw the girls having mocking battles The Knights were in a daze, though. Honestly speaking, the girls are way stronger than Knights. The Knight commander is another thing though. Of course, the Knight’s Order relies on numbers, AND the main point: Coordination. I feel like, even if I had a ginormous amount of power, I wouldn’t be able to deal with numbers.
Anyway, the girls were training really hard. Lucy was fighting Amara in her giant She Viper form, while Kasumi was… mopping the floor with Ayla. Why do I feel a slight amount of blood lust from those 2? It’s like one wants the other dead. Or is it just me overthinking it? I have a feeling I shouldn’t meddle with them. But do please NOT, destroy the place.
Ayla used her 2 swords, the Katana, and Wakizashi, deflecting the shadow whips, blades, arrows, and other things that Kasumi tossed at her. And Kasumi was in so much an Advantage, that I honestly thought: I’m still the weakest, huh?
In terms of AGI, and DEX, I overthrown them all. But… Even Kasumi has a lot more of STR and CON than me. If I were to fight her seriously, I think I would be killed. No, I WOULD be dead already.
I kept glancing at them, while making the things to the inside of the vehicle. I already had Vollstrecker, and I entered to see the inside of the back part.
It was completely strange. It was like an empty warehouse, honestly. The inside was crude, with some pillars made out of metal at the ‘walls’. Not only that, but… I could hear everything from the outside.
“So, first things first. I need to make the walls soundproof. Sigh~ It’ll be a bother~”
It was hard to make the walls soundproof. I checked my Digi-Storage for anything good, related to that, and thankfully, found something good.
You see, there is a lot of materials I had in hands, but what you know? The ONLY material, able to replicate what a soundproofing wall could do, was… I’m gonna regret this… The Desert Titan’s feathers.
“Haha! I can’t believe I’m gonna use these for this… But should I?”
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Since the feathers were really big, I didn’t need to worry much. I mean, there were some feathers that were smaller, but… Seriously? A feather with more than 1.5 meters in length, and over 2.5 in width? Not only that, but the heat dissipated when touching the feathers.
The feathers were cool, not hot, nor cold, but simply cool. Analyzing it further, gave me the result that the feathers of the Desert Titan, had the effect of cooling down. It would help the guy to regulate his temperature, and not overheat. That’s a nice thing!
And so, starting the procedure, I put the feathers on necessary spots. Like the driver’s cabin, the place where I thought the bedroom would be, the kitchen of course, and lastly, the ‘living room’. I had lots of feathers, since I sold 1 to the Adventurer’s Guild. I did gave the Sheikh some tattered ones. Meh,
I divided the entire back part of Vollstrecker, as such:
• Upon entering, the living room would be in front of the door, with the driving cabin entrance from the back part, on the left.
• There would be a small garden right between the Living room, and the kitchen. It was really small, only to Amara’s liking.
• The division of the half the place, was the passage to the Driver’s cabin.
• The kitchen took the remaining space of the back, around 2 meters in length, and around 7 meters in width.
• At the opposite side of the Living room, would be the Bedroom, with access to the bathroom.
• The wardrobe, would be the ‘wall’, between the Living room, and the bedroom.
• The bath, took around 5 meters, of the 15 in length. And half of the meters in width. I needed to make a the bathtub on top of a platform, since I didn’t had height below the floor.
“This should do it… Am I forgetting something?” I counted on my fingers. “Yeah… there’s a bathroom, but no toilet. How can I make something like that? I don’t have a sewers to bui-… Wait. I can use something else!”
The idea I had, was to simply destroy the sewage. How? C’mon, we’re in a fantasy world. If I couldn’t think of something, I would really be stupid.
Well, did you remember the Core I used to build Vollstrecker? It was a lightning core. And, Lightning is in which state of matter? Plasma. You got the idea now? The sewage would fall on plasma, and would be annihilated. I just need to think of a way for the steam to NOT come back. Some kind of air flow… Idea thought! Things created!
The bathtub I had in mind, would be made out of… Well, Mythril. Too exaggerated? WHO CARES! There was a good reason for me doing it so. Remember! Mythril dissipates heat! So, if hot water is poured on it, it won’t burn the person’s skin, when touching it. And also, that will allow someone to lean on the bathtub. That, was one of the main things about the bathtub.
Honestly speaking, I finished the bathtub, making the water go through the same place as the sewage, directly into the plasma.
“Okay. To heat the water, I need some Fire Cores.” I had very little ones. “Those Fire Elementals sure were useful. Hm?”
Just then. Just then! Scan showed me some info. You know, in some games, when you need to give a +, and so on to a weapon, you do that by using high grade stones, right? Each stone, will give a certain amount of stats to the weapon.
Another function on those games, is that you can fuse 2 stones of same grade, into one stone of a higher grade. I don’t need to say more, do I?
“Are you kidding me? I mean, the chances of success goes down, as the cores climb up. But even then…”
Yep! I could fuse 2 cores, into a better core. Well, it was what I hoped for.
Fire Elementals(that looked more like Lava Golems), were all of B-Rank threat. The cores were of same rank, too. They were dangerous, not because of their fire, or anything like that. They were dangerous, because they could team up, and toss fire(magma) balls at you.
“But they can also fuse together, and become stronger.”
Maybe it was because of that, I thought. So, to see if that was exclusive to only the cores from the Fire Elementals, I took out some of the cores from the Scorpions I defeated. I had extracted some of their cores. Their cores were all B-rank, and I had 6 of them. And, yep! I could fuse them too.
Sapphire Scorpions didn’t had much interesting things, and their cores had affinity to Earth. I also need to make the Mythril resistant, cause I think it’ll degrade if I don’t enchant it or so… But enchanting Mythril is a pain… Can I use Cores to Enchant? Scan answered me about that.
► Core Enchanting – Extreme Augmentation Sub-Skill ◄
It is possible to enchant equipment, among other things, with cores.
That is due to the Class Enchanter reaching Max Tier, and the Skill, Extreme Augmentation being acquired. This cannot be done, unless the Cores are of High Quality.
Cores Capable of Enchanting – B~A Ranked.
“I can’t enchant things with an S-Ranked and up?” Scan blinked green. “Okay then. But I can upgrade these B-ranked ones to A-Rank. What about this skill?”
I looked at Core/Stone Fusion. It was exactly as it depicted. I could fuse cores, stones, into a higher grade. I could even make a Core and Stone fusion. Cores are used in the creation of Artifacts, and Stones, are usually used to power things up.
You can power things up with a Core, but that’s too expensive to do so. Stones are affordable for everyone, so Cores are sold and used in other things. There are Artifacts that can be used with ONLY stones, and with ONLY cores. Mines are flexible though. I love my Relifacts!
► Core/Stone Fusion – Extreme Augmentation Sub-Skill ◄
It is possible to fuse, 2 cores/stones, of equal quality/rank together.
This skill, allows the user to fuse cores and stones. The user can fuse 2 Equal Ranked cores, to get a better version of that Rank Core. 2 B-Rank, to 1 B-Rank+.
To make the core reach a new rank, it is necessary the fusion of +5 Cores. In other words, you’ll need 5 B-Rank+ cores, to make it an A-rank Core, and so on.
Cores of lower rank, like C- and lower, will not need such thing. They can be transformed into the next rank, by simply fusing normal cores, with each other. The same applies to stones.
“Nice. Okay, so I’m lucky. Since I have 10 Fire Elemental cores. Oh, wait. No I’m not. My LUK is really low.” I stopped right there. “Actually… If I face hard times, I get better rewards. So… Isn’t I lucky, for getting those better rewards?”
This is a paradox, and I don’t like it. Was I lucky? Or unlucky? That’s a hard question to answer. Anyway, after finding out about that, I tried to fuse the cores. The Sapphire Scorpions, I had only 3 B-Ranked cores, so, I simply fused 2 together, making a B-Rank+ core.
Then, I tried to enchant the bathtub with it. My objective, was to make it durable enough, so that I don’t need to worry about it.
The Bathtub, glowed, and a pattern appeared on the entirety of the tub. I had the [Protected Senses] skill, but I always closed my eyes when a new thing I created was about to come out. That was to preserve the feeling of surprise.
The bathtub, had on the outside, a pattern, with Liz flowers around. They were all of a Dark-Blue color, and with vine-like shapes connecting to other flowers around the bathtub. The Shiny silver of the Mythril made a perfect fit with the Dark-Blue of the Liz flowers.
“This is really beautiful. A work of art.”
Activating Scan, I checked the bathtub… Oh! It’s not a Relifact! It’s actually an Artifact! There wasn’t much info about it. Just that it had an Unbreakable enchantment on it. The enchantment was only that it would degrade 2x slower than normal. Still, 2x lower? That’s a nice thing.
“Now, for the next part. The fire cores, and a water one. Good thing I never used that Crab Snake’s core. It’s still rotting on my Digi-Storage.”
It was an A-Ranked core, though. I need to search about those types of monsters one day. Apex, Alpha. There is also 2 other ranks above Apex too. I’ll ask the Witch when we get back. I made a section of the bathroom, before entering the tub, so to not dirty the water. I used the Core, to produce water, simple as that.
I may have not Affinity to water but…
“Wait. What are the Elements I can acquire?” Scan showed me I could acquire all of them, but some would evolve faster than others. “Okay. Water and Ice are doable! But why Ice has higher affinity with me? Water is just ice, but melted.”
I acquired the [Water Magic], which, became [Water Manipulation] after entering my Skill’s list. And [Ice Magic], too. Now I had those two, and so, I enchanted the ‘tap’ that would fill the Bathtub, and a sprinkler to the part outside of the tub.
It worked wonders. And, I finished by fusing the 10 cores of Fire, and enchanting the tub with the ability to heat water, with the press of a button. Nice. My affinity with fire is getting better. But… My STATUS are still locked.
While I was having those thoughts, I had finished the bed. I used the remaining feathers of the Titan, and walked to the kitchen. I also finished the Wardrobe.
The kitchen’s oven were also simple. I had a Fire Core from that dungeon where I faced the Terrae Drake, so I used that to build the Oven. Man, it was hard. Oven’s are not to trifled with. The mechanism to regulate the flames, and to transport the flames to the upper side of the Oven were the hardest.
After a few more trial and errors(lots of errors), I was able to finish. Again, it wasn’t a Relifact, but an Artifact. I also made a fridge, that connected to my Digi-Storage. Why not a normal fridge? Because I didn’t had Ice Cores, so…
I was able to transform a section of my Digi-Storage, reserved ONLY, to meat, and other things that could expire. It was a nice experience. I was thinking of making Digi-Storage Relifacts(I was sure something like that would come), for the girls as well. They might want to store things there.
After that, I finished the living rooms, using some leather to make some couches, but… I didn’t had feathers, nor other things to build the couches, so I settled for just a middle table, with a carpet on the floor. It was a fluffy carpet, so it could be used to lay while traveling. I can’t believe that Black Warg’s fur is so fluffy. STILL GOOD THOUGH!
The small garden would have to wait though. I didn’t had any idea of what to put inside. And so, Vollstrecker was finished. Almost… I still needed more feathers to put ALL around the walls. And to make the place cooler, because of the desert.
The door was closed, but I could feel some heat. It was bearable, so I didn’t had any problems. By the way, I used some wood to make the floor. Black wood got really nice. The walls were removable for future upgrades. While the floor was black, the walls had a silver glint. The perfect fit.
So, I finished most things. The kitchen had some drawers, fridge, oven, and a small counter with some chairs on the other side, so someone could sit and eat there. The back part of Vollstrecker wasn’t affected by the bumps on the road, so that was a plus.
The bedroom, was the coolest place of the entire vehicle. And that was for a good reason, of course. The bathroom too, it was the second coolest place, and the third, was the drivers cabin.
“Since I have a feeling that I’ll face that guy again, AND! Knowing full well about his feathers capabilities, I’ll only try to cut him down, and not damage the feathers.”
And that! Was the end of the preparations. I felt really proud of myself, like I was changing places. It was a nice feeling. It was… satisfactory.
“You guys can enter now.”
The door opened, with the four girls, plus the Sheikh, his Attendant, and Suzuki. They almost entered the vehicle with their dirty shoes, except for Suzuki, she took them out first. After seeing Suzuki doing that, they all did the same.
“Eh? Where’s my garden?” – Amara
“Sorry. I don’t have any plants for now. Actually. Why we don’t fill it with the travels we’ll be making?”
“Eh?”
“Yeah. We gonna travel around, so… You can collect different plants, tree saplings, flowers, all of that stuff.” I say so, while putting my hand on her head. “But… That’s your responsibility. Think you can do it?”
“YES!”
Amara smiled brightly, and looked at me with shining eyes. I moved to the kitchen, and it was Lucy’s turn to smile brightly, with a look of: I! CAN! COOK![Author’s Note: Got the reference?] She hugged me and looked at my eyes. She wants the same thing I did to Amara.
I caressed her head, and she smiled shyly. Kasumi jumped on my shoulder, and I walked to the bedroom, with the wardrobe. And Kasumi jumped on the bed. She did what usually cats do, that thing with their pawns, on the bed, and then she lay down.
“Yeah. Thought she might do that.”
The bathroom was the biggest thing though. Even the Sheikh asked:
“How much for this bathtub?”
I could make one like this for him. Of course, when I mentioned what the materials I would need, he simply said.
“Guess next time, huh.”
I wondered: Why people were so shy to use some specific materials? The tub was made out of Mythril, sure, but anyone could do it!
I later found out, that to use Transmutation with Mythril was a super hard thing to do. But that’s story for another day.
After that, Kasumi asked if we could use the vehicle to sleep this night. I said why not, and asked for the Sheikh for one bed. He was confused, but when I mentioned girls, and Suzuki, he nodded, and I brought the extra bed on the castle’s room.
“You really gonna sleep on that, Kenji-Sama?” – Lucy
“I mean, yeah. You girls can use the big bed for yourselves. And the bath. Don’t worry about the water, it’s basically infinite. I think.”
They all nodded, and I put the extra bed on the living room. When the Sheikh asked if the vehicle’s inside was hot or cold, and I mentioned what I used to counter that, his entire face twitched, and he collapsed. Yep! People are not prepared to hear that I use such good materials, for something so simple as a wall, and a cool down mechanism. Hehe!