While they left the palace as a group of four Lone looked to Yulia and asked, "Which is closer; Mason and Sons, or the strongest branch of The Adventurer's Guild?"
Yulia furrowed her brow. "I do not know. My familiarity with this city is limited despite me having called it home for six centuries now. I know the ins and outs of the magical district, the location of a few auction halls, and every branch of the C.A.A. Anything else and you would be better served asking a guardsman."
"I guess that makes sense. What's the C.A.A. by the way?" Lone asked as he looked around for a knight or guard of some sort to ask for directions. 'On another note, dwarves rank up super slowly, huh? I'd say it's humans that rank up quickly but I don't have a big enough sample size. Gilbert isn't even 400 yet but he's an SS-ranked beastkin.'
"You are unaware? Your summoning must have been recent. It stands for the Continental Alchemical Association. It's the best place to get healing services if you're not a fan of religions like the Church of the Primals," Yulia explained.
"Ah, I don't really use potions and I heal extremely fast on my own. It's why my adventurer nickname is Immortus the Immortal. I'm sure I'll get involved with them sooner or later if they're continental though," Lone responded. "I wouldn't say no to some alchemy-based skills."
"You need only ask and I would happily give you a letter of recommendation," Yulia offered.
'Ah, membership is a bit stricter than The Adventurer's Guild? Shame. It's downright criminal to limit who can learn things, especially skills,' Lone thought as he approached a guard.
The man was dressed in full plate and had a very serious look on his face as he ensured no one who did not have permission entered the palace gates.
"Excuse me, would you mind giving me some directions?" Lone asked.
The man didn't turn to face Lone but his eyes did wander. They widened when they saw Yulia. Thankfully, she had changed out of her damaged dress before they had left the palace so the guard had no excuse to stare at her stomach.
"Of course. You are Princeling Andrew's guests, Lone Immortus and company, yes?" the guard answered. "And it is my greatest honour to greet esteemed Lady Yulia."
The prince's seventh daughter snorted. "How dare you call me 'lady' but not him 'lord'. I will forgive your ignorance since as an S-ranker, you would only see him as nothing more than a C-ranker, but know that he defeated me in an exchange that lasted all of two seconds."
That got the guard sputtering. "I-I apologise! I d-did not know. L-Lord Immortus, where exactly d-do you need directions to?"
Lone smiled wryly. This level of unnatural respect was nothing but uncomfortable to him. Still, if it resulted in him getting the information he wanted, well, then he couldn't rightly complain, could he?
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"Ehhh... So you only ever leave the palace when you get invited to balls you can't afford to refuse or when something comes up that might help your research? That's some dedication," Lone commented as the four of them rounded a corner.
Lone was holding Soph's hand while Breena followed alongside her. Meanwhile, Yulia was on Lone's righthand side. At this point, they'd been chatting for 20 minutes and were only a couple of streets away from their first destination.
"I consider myself quite lucky," Yulia admitted. "Many of my siblings have failed to develop a passion as I have. So a good number of them just wish to please or surpass my illustrious father."
"I can kind of relate to them," Lone said. "My real dad was a piece of shit who ended up hanging himself. I've found during my self-reflective meditation that I latch onto potential father figures. I'm not sure yet if that's healthy to me or hurtful considering one such figure was nearly killed protecting me and was then teleported over an ocean, while the other I murdered with my own hands this morning at his request so he wouldn't die in his sleep or at the hands of the disease that was eating away at him. Is Prince Keining a good dad? I can't imagine it's easy with so many kids."
Yulia flinched, clearly not expecting such heavy information to be dumped upon her so casually. "I'm sorry for your loss and internal struggles. Lord Keining as a father though... He's fine, I suppose? Our mothers raised us more than he did and does but Lord Keining still makes an effort to be in each of our lives, doubly so if we prove ourselves worthy."
"Lone," Soph called. "We're here."
"Ah." He looked up and saw that the placard above the entrance to the building on their right read 'Mason & Sons: Outfitter and Examiner Extraordinaires'. "We can continue talking about your dad once we're done here, I suppose."
A group of five well-dressed and well-armed adventurers exited the store and their leader raised a surprised eyebrow upon seeing Yulia. "Lady Yulia, a pleasure."
"To you too, Little Brother," she said dismissively, upon which, he and his retainers left.
As he entered the building with Soph and Breena, Lone asked, "So which princeling was he?"
Yulia shrugged. "I have no idea."
"What?" That certainly wasn't the answer Lone was expecting.
"I could feel our bloodline skill in him but you can hardly expect me to know the name and position of every child of Lord Keining's. He has over 100 children," Yulia expressed with a shake of the head.
'And I thought I had a problem being in the mood every night and almost every morning,' Lone privately commented.
"Ah, Princessling Yulia! To what do I own the pleasure of you gracing my establishment with your ever-elusive presence?" a tall and handsome man asked as he appraised their group before bowing his head respectfully.
'SS-ranker, I think,' Soph conveyed to Lone, having used her Mana Sensing to assess his rank. 'Awakened mana organs but very, very little MP. I bet he has one or two spells needed for his trade and everything else is physical or profession-focused.'
Yulia shook her head. "It isn't me who needs your services, Lord Mason. I'm simply accompanying Lord Immortus here as he performs some errands around the city today."
"'Lord' Immortus?" The man Lone now knew to be the proprietor of this business widened his eyes in shock. "A C-ranker being so respected by Miss Yulia? Well, that's certainly interesting. How can I help you, sir?"
"Can we go to a private room first? Even if we're the only ones here in the lobby, I'd rather not have my valuables identified in public," Lone said. 'If it's a skill he uses to determine what an item truly is, after seeing it a few times I should get it myself and thus eliminate the need to come to a place like this again and run the risk of theft attempts or info of my items being sold.'
"Ah, examination services. Of course, sir. Will you be coming alone or should we use one of our larger rooms? As a word of forewarning, personal rooms have a fee of a single gold coin per hour of use with a minimum of one hour. Each following room of a larger size requires an additional golden coin per hour. With a group of four, you'd need at least a grand room, which is three gold coins per hour. What is the largest item you need to be identified, however?"
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'He's immediately aware I have a storage device of some sort. Question is, is he assuming it's just my adventurer's pouch? Still, he's clearly a professional,' Lone thought as he stroked his chin. "Eh, my carriages have varying levels of damage and I'd like some accurate insight of what kind of work is needed to repair 'em, so a room big enough to hold a carriage and the five of us comfortably."
Mason smiled rather happily. "Ah, of course. The grand suite it is. That'll be six gold coins per hour. The first hour does need to be paid upfront. I'm sure you understand, but even with Princessling Yulia's company, we do not wish to be taken advantage of."
Lone shrugged and reached into his pocket before pulling out a white-gold coin. "This should cover all expenses plus a tip, but let me know if I end up spending more. Do the individual examinations cost money too?"
Mason graciously retrieved the coin and bowed his head. "They do indeed as some items' facts are harder to determine than others. Well, if you would all follow me."
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Three hours had passed and Lone was staring at a multi-paged list Mason had written out for him which detailed everything his skill was able to determine regarding the items he had examined.
Lone read it in silence as he, Soph, Breena, and Yulia made their way to their next destination with Soph leading them.
'Item 1. Superior Ring of Dimensional Holding. The client stated it formally belonged to an SSS-ranked mage who specialised in blood, explosion, and wind magic. It seems the former owner was either an enchanter as well or hired the services of one such mage as should the ring be accessed without the correct blood magic spell from the correct host, a hidden security enchantment will detonate the ring along with all of the blood of the one attempting to open it. It contains thousands of objects. Logical reasoning would suggest a lot of notes, coins, and small baubles make up that number.
Estimated value: 4 gold coins. 16 white-gold coins if the enchantments can be removed or bypassed somehow.
Item 2. Wilbur Steamson's Steamforged Bag of Holding. This is an incredible piece forged by the soon-to-be-epitomised Wilbur Steamson. What really differentiates it from other items of holding like your typical adventurer's pouch is three things. One, it has been crafted in such a fashion that it would require the force of a Strength-focused SS-ranker to damage it beyond repair, making it substantially more durable than most holding items. Two, it can store items much larger than itself which is highly uncommon for a holding item. Three, it requires neither aura nor MP to access, making it functionally usable by anyone, even those cursed to a life without either of those resources.
Estimated value: 11 ruby gold coins. (As an aside, were it not the future epitome of steamforging who had created this, then it would have been valued at 3 ruby gold coins.)
Item 3. Steamforged Carriages. Carriages 1, 2, and 4, were manufactured by the popular steamforging company Baltod's Brass Bits & Bobs. Carriage 1 has a broken engine, a bent chassis, 16 missing screws and 8 missing cogs of varying importance. Carriage 2 is missing its entire top half (my professional opinion is that this cannot be repaired due to the damages being far too extensive). Carriage 4 is missing its front left wheel and two of its essential cogs have missing teeth, making the entire device inoperable until repaired.
Carriages 3, 5, and 6, were manufactured by a steamforging workshop owned and operated by the Greater Council itself. They are enchanted to prevent tampering, so even trying to repair them will result in the carriages crumbling to dust while a magical signal will be sent to the enchanter with some basic information about the tamperer's identity. As details of the damages were requested despite the dangers, I will now list them. Carriage 3 seems to only be missing its gyro calibrator, which while not an easy thing to replace, it is easy enough to work around when operating the device. Carriage 5's entire horse-holding mechanism is damaged beyond repair and the seats and engine have been melted, enchantments and all. Carriage 6's only fault is that the mechanism to begin the device isn't working but everything else seems to be in perfect condition.
Estimated value: 10 gold for the lot. The specialisation needed to repair these and remove or work past the enchantments of carriages 3, 5, and 6, would cost more than the value the carriages would provide. They are collector's items and nothing more in their current state.
Item 4. Wilbur Steamson's Steamforged Horses. These devices are the product of the future epitome Wilbur Steamson and are truly marvellous. They are identical in that they can be charged with either sunlight or MP, both uncommon forms of energy for steamforged devices given the dwarves' aversion to the surface and lack of mages. They also possess a self-repairing function but it does require metals of any type to be fed into them. They can gallop at full speed for 15 days nonstop before needing to be recharged. When all 6 are used together, they activate a formation that conserves energy and allows them to move 1.2x faster.
Estimated value: 5 white-gold coins per horse, 1 ruby gold coin as a set.
Item 5. Steamforged Weapons. A dual-ended spear with sword-width blades, a pair of shortswords, and a set of 21 needles.
The 'swordspear', as the client called it, is rather peculiar. Its length can be increased and decreased by the push of a button near the upper hand grip while a button near the lower hand grip can siphon the user's MP or aura to add a mystical steam edge to either or both of the blade's ends.
The shortswords have no special functions but they are incredibly light despite the machinery in them. So despite being very sharp, durable, and easy to maintain, they are also incredibly easy to wield.
The needles are the least special of the bunch but I have never seen a set of steamforged needles before. They can be propelled forward via a mind link, again, requiring MP to be injected into them to activate like with the swordspear.
Estimated value: 1 white-gold coin for the swordspear. It is simply too novel and specific of a weapon for it to have any value outside of being a steamforged item created by the future epitome Wilbur Steamson. 20 white-gold coins for each individual short sword, 50 as a pair. 50 gold for the needles. I have never heard of a powerful person wielding needles as a weapon so they are a set of steamforged curios at best.
Item 6. Wilbur Steamson's Steamforged Mini Forge. A mechanical wonder crafted by the future epitome Wilbur Steamson. It would not surprise me at all if this was the work that cemented his ascension into becoming an epitome. It functions just like a top-of-the-line master forger's workshop but is condensed and portable. It contains all of the needed facilities to steamforge as well as forge normally.
Estimated value: Incalculable. Only an auction (likely one hosted by Lord Deposit) could ever come close to seeing this item selling at or near its true value.
Item 7: Steamforging tools. A large assortment of various steamforged tools designed to make steamforging and regular forging as easy as possible. What is odd is that these tools have been crafted with a taller species than the dwarves in mind. The client tells me they were made especially for him by the future epitome Wilbur Steamson.
Estimated value: Considering they are not tailored for dwarves which is typical of such tools, and considering their maker, this set could sell for upwards of 5 ruby gold coins to the right buyer, more if sold in conjunction with the steamforged mini forge.
Item 8: Wilbur Steamson's Steamforged Dwarven Puzzle Box. This little device is incredibly intricate and is designed to change its puzzle once completed. A curious thing, to be sure.
Estimated value: 10 white-gold coins if sold to a collector or someone in desperate need of certain skills.
Item 9: Steam-wheeler. This is no different from ordinary steam-wheelers except it seems far more durable.
Estimated value: 10 gold coins, a white gold coin if the client is able to prove future epitome Wilbur Steamson forged it to the buyer.
Item 10: A sword made of bone. I will not ask how the client forged a sword out of their own arm bones, nor will I ask why they are black, blue, and purple. The sword is perfectly balanced even if a bit heavy and the hardness of the blade makes it strong enough to endure considerable damage. There is also a strange attraction the sword has to the client as if it wishes to return to his body. How peculiar.
Estimated value: Do not sell this, please. Many a mage could take advantage of the connection the sword has to the client but if you must, I expect it could go for anywhere between 50 silver and 50 white-gold coins. I have never sold such an item before so I cannot give a perfectly accurate estimation.'
Lone had included that last item just to test Mason's ability. He fully intended to merge the sword he'd made out of his arm bones back into his body. He had no intentions of letting some rogue necromancer, bone mage, or anything else of the sort get their hands on the weapon.
It was worthless to him anyway, he just wanted to know if the new skill he had just earned was capable of examining organic material and it seemed it could, indeed, at least to some degree. It was also his backup to earn the skill itself if he couldn't learn it himself from intense observation. Speaking of his new skill, Lone idly conversed with Yulia as he checked his notification log.