After telling us the story and handing over the jewelry, it doesn’t take long for the council members to take their leave.
“Are you going to go too, Ruva?” Hilda asks our Dwarger friend.
“I fear I have to, yes.” She nods. “Part of my reward for helping to save the city was a pretty big promotion.”
“You don’t sound too happy about it.”
“It’s okay, pay is a lot better and I get to decide my own agenda for the most time. But today is terribly busy. Visiting heroes and thanking the people who are rebuilding.”
“Ah, I see.” My sister scratches her chin. “Well, stay strong, friend. If you want to come visit us. We should be free… not this week… but…”
“I think I’ve figured out your schedule.” Ruva winks. “I’ll come by next time.”
“See you, Ruva!” Sam and I wave her off as she leaves. The Councilors were already starting to look somewhat agitated that she took too long but a glare from my sister quickly made their moods change.
When Hilda closes the door she turns back around to the group. “Let’s go and put our new treasure inside of our treasury. That’s what it’s for, right?” She gives us a wink.
“Does this include the jewel that belonged to Ami 0.5?” My sister teases me.
“Hmm… what do you want to do with it, Ami?” Hilda asks me, she’s stopped to let me reply first.
“Uh… I probably shouldn’t prance around the city with it…”
“Yes, I don’t want my girlfriend to be mugged for one of the city’s biggest treasures.” Sam protectively puts her arm around me.
“So, vault it is?”
I give a nod back. “Probably for the best, yes.”
Nikki and my sister go and take the big hunking chest out of the lounge and carry it over to where the door towards the basement is.
“This thing is heavier than it looks.” My sister breathes out a puff of air as she and her partner put down the chest for a bit in the main entrance hall.
“At least you have the strength stats for this, babe.” Nikki rolls her eyes.
“I do. Still heavy though.” My sis sticks out her tongue in return.
“Alright kids, behave, let’s not start a fight now.” Hilda shakes her head like a disappointed mom and opens the door.
“Can’t we just throw it down the stairs?” My sister proposes as she puts her hand on the carrying handle of the chest once more.
“Do you want to pick up all the coins if the lid opens? Or worse, if the chest breaks?” Hilda retorts.
“.... You’ve got a point my dear Hilda, I will now shut up.”
“Very wise.”
Going down the stairs, Nikki, Hilda and my sister decide to work together to make sure the chest tumbles down the stairs anyway. With Hilda and Nikki at the bottom to share the weight.
“Ain’t gravity fun?” Sam says as both she and I walk down the stairs after the group.
“Hush, Sam. Or I will make you carry me in full plate armor.” My sister jabs back.
Sam looks at me and chuckles silently.
“Just put it down here.” Hilda guides Lise and Nikki towards the small vault door. The treasure chest only barely fits through it. Although that’s probably more a treasure chest issue than a door issue.
With some tight maneuvering Élise and Nikki manage to get it inside.
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“That’s that.” My sister puts her end of the treasure chest on the floor. Nikki had already dropped hers. “Huh?” My sister looks up, quite surprised.
I am confused as to what my sister is surprised about until I myself get a popup. ‘New skill unlocked: Vault’
“I suppose everyone just got that?” Hilda asks around.
“If you mean the skill pop-up, then yes.” Sam nods.
“I got it too.” Nikki nods too.
Both me and my sister also say we did.
“Vault: This skill allows you to instantly teleport your valuables into your mansion’s vault. Distance, nor size, is a factor.”
“Uh… size is no factor?” My sister scratches the back of her head. “So, if we, let’s say. Stole a bote. Just purely hypothetically. And we consider that boat as ‘valuables’, wouldn’t we then just outright destroy our basement if we teleported it back here.”
“I take it it has some limitations… I hope it does.” Hilda chuckles awkwardly. “Let’s not try that, shall we. I somewhat like this mansion we got here.”
“I like it too, so I agree on the ‘not trying part’.” My sister agrees. “Ami, you heard, right?”
“What are you looking at me for?” I pout. “I’m not nearly that destructi-... well… I don’t do things like that!”
“Just teasin’ ya little sis.” She winks.
“We can try with Ami’s necklace if she wants.” Nikki proposes.
“Hmm, or we could just try a coin.” Sam quickly opens the treasure coffer, takes out a couple of coins and hands one each to everyone in our party. “That way we only lose one gold piece if it fucks up.”
“Smart.” Lise gives Sam a pat on the shoulder.
In the meantime I quickly put down the necklace on a little table at the corner of the vault.
After that, all of us walk out and go upstairs to test our new skill.
“So, how does this work?” My sister takes her coin between her index finger and her thumb. “Do I just stare at it and think it away?” She looks at the coin for just a second before it disappears from in between her fingers. “Oh… that was easier than expected.”
Nikki tilts her head at my sister and then does the same thing. Her coin disappears as well.
Sam and Hilda follow, and just like that, their coins are gone too.
The four of them are now all looking at me which somehow gives me quite a lot of performance pressure. It makes me go all blushy and shy.
“Girls, we should probably turn around.” Hilda chuckles and immediately does as she herself proposed, turning her back to me.
The rest of them follow, including my girlfriend. But somehow, that made the performance pressure even worse. -Why could I go into combat so much easier compared to just making a coin disappear in front of my family?-
I shake off the silly feeling I’m having and concentrate on the coin in my hand. The moment I think of the word ‘vault’. The coin also vanishes.
“Yay!” I call out, genuinely happy that I did it.
“Did you do it?” Sam turns around first.
“I think I did.” I give a nod.
Then the others turn around as well.
“Good.” Hilda smiles. “Let’s go and see if it worked.”
We once again go down into the basement and right there we find our five coins sitting neatly, stacked on top of eachother, next to the treasure coffer.
“Wow.” Lise crouches down and looks at the coins.
“I was wondering one thing.” Sam speaks up. “It’s all good and well that we can get our money and treasures over here. But can we get them back out?”
“Ah… that’s a good point.” Hilda scratches her cheek. “It would be a bit awkward to travel all the way back here to get some spending money… although Amica can practically teleport it would still be… inconvenient.”
“Maybe…” My sister holds out her hand and closes her eyes. “Purse.” She calls out and a leather pouch appears in her hand, filled, presumably, with coins from the coffer.
“Nice, a hidden skill, good job, babe.” Nikki calls out to her partner.
“Thanks, I try.” Lise opens her eyes again and gives her a wink. “It even tells you the amount of money we have in our treasury. You just need to think about what currency you want the amount to be in.”
“Okay, now that problem’s definitely solved.” Hilda smiles. “I guess with that we can finally go on our little shopping spree.”
“Hurray!” The group calls out all together.
We decide to split up into two groups. Nikki and my sister go to look for some furniture and clothes, while Sam, Hilda and I first head to the market to get some spices and foodstuff before going to buy some furniture and decorations for ourselves.
“Won’t we get into carrying issues if we want to buy big pieces of furniture?” Sam asks while we are walking towards the main market square.
“I assume we can pay people to come and deliver it at our mansion.” Hilda replies. “Especially with machines like they have here, I don’t doubt that they have delivery vehicles as well.”
“Speaking about which… where is our walker?” I ask.
“Good question…” Hilda tilts her head. “I suppose it’s still parked where we left it? We should probably get someone to go and get it…. Before the poor thing gets rusty.”
“That’d be pretty sad.” Sam nods. “It served us pretty well for the time we had it.”
“Yeah!” I agree. “Let’s give her a good wash when we get her back!”
“Wholesome as fuck, and I agree.” Sam laughs and gives me a quick kiss on my cheek.
“Alright, we’ll give her a good car wash when we get her back.” Hilda smiles. “But first, let’s get some nice spices!”
“Spicy.” Sam winks.
Both Hilda and I start laughing, soon followed by Sam herself.