“By Crustacia’s twintails, making these runes was a real chore. I don’t know if it’s ‘cause of the fact this is a space-time spell or ‘cause [Room] is just hard to turn into a magic rune, but this was a real bladdarg job, ha! Still, it’s nothing a true runesmith can’t do. Here.” Showing me one of his proudest smiles, Grimnir tossed a rock at me. Inspecting it, I noticed an alloy sheet wrapped around it like a cocoon, probably to protect the rocks.
After walking out of the RV again, Grimnir turned around and once again opened the door to reveal his smithy; the wooden room from before was gone. He then picked up two more of those rocks from the bottom of the walls.
These had cylinder-like tops with a hexagon bottom, perfectly fitting into the slots Grimnir took them out from. A grey rune was on the top of it, shining small letters. When I asked Grimnir, he explained those were dwarven words. As runes took inspiration from magic circles, they also copied the practice of inscribing the chant onto the runes.
“I made them extra durable. Best ingots I could find from our stockpile and I fused them with your shed carapace, lass. Unlike runic tattoos, a scratch or crack won’t destroy the rune, but if a piece were to break apart, it’s gone.” Grimnir then took the objects back and showed me the three rocks and how they shared the same runes. “Similar to the runes on Ellaine’s whipsword, these are connected with each other. You need two to create the subspace, as that was the only way I found that could stabilize the portal and maintain it for an extended period.”
“So that really is Lady Hestia’s [Room]. Amazing,” Tasianna expressed her admiration. “[Room] should work differently from [Storage Magic], correct? Time won’t stop if we enter it?”
I nodded to her question. “[Room], just like [Storage Magic], creates a subspace where items and people can go inside. Time moves normally there, it’s just that we can’t perceive it well since sunlight can’t enter it. From testing it myself, [Room] apparently creates a breathable and liveable space, so it’s perfect if we need emergency lodgings … or an isolated space to fight.”
“We and others also require your permission to enter it, right?” Saori presumed, to which I nodded. “Grimnir, does the rune version work the same way?”
“Aye. Runes are created by imprinting a magic circle during the inscribing phase, where I draw the rune with the liquid iron. This action makes sure the spells will activate once you pour your mana into them.” Grimnir then placed two of the alloy-covered rocks back into their slots. “Well, all three of them were made with the lass’s help, so she would know best. You remember what I told you?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, remembering my discussion with Grimnir after he showed us how runecrafting worked. After I suggested the idea of turning the inside of our RV into a [Room] to add some space, he decided it would be better if we turned the spell into a rune for better safekeeping and to move our “mobile base” around.
I turned around to face Saori, Tasianna, and Ellaine. All three were still in their ball dresses but they had the look of curious adventurers. “We made three runes, each made using my blood as we had no idea how mana intensive [Room] would be. As Grimnir said, to access the [Room], two of the three runes must be active for the subspace to form and you will need my permission to enter. Obviously, you guys, Grimnir, and the garms have full access even if I’m not around.”
“Wroof!” A bark suddenly came from Saori’s shadow. Considering how the garms got used to staying outside and Saori had been keeping them inside her shadow for the entire evening, she reluctantly gave them the okay to come out.
“You four are unbelievable,” Saori said with a smile, caressing her garms as if they were actual pets.
As if she didn’t want to be left out, Klea’Hatma spoke up, too, [“And, what about meee?”]
I sighed deeply. “Yeeeees, of course, you have permission too, but only if Ellaine or anybody else from Aurora is carrying you in. Otherwise, no.”
Klea’Hatma gave a sour “boooooo” to my answer, but I wouldn’t give somebody I didn’t trust access to our safe space. I still was aware of who she actually was.
Ignoring her pouting, I stuffed the rune into my storage before continuing the explanation, “Each rune holds the ‘save data’ of our [Room]. Even if two of the three were to be destroyed, the [Room] will stay intact in the last one and we can always forge more runes to make more ‘safe files’ and access the subspace. Until we make a fourth, the third is unnecessary so I’ll safeguard it.”
Ellaine then raised her hand. “Why did you not make more? If Saori can keep another one, wouldn’t it be even safer? Also, would it be possible to open multiple access points with additional runes? For example, if we had four runes, couldn’t you open one here and Saori another one from the gates? Would we all enter the same space?”
I shrugged. “Grimnir and I thought of that possibility but we kept it at three for this initial testing. Grimnir’s time is precious since he is also responsible for your sword’s runes, his armor, and also the weapons he was planning for Saori and me. Considering he took two weeks for these three runes …”
Grimnir grumbled, scratching his stubbly chin in annoyance. “It’s hard work, that’s for sure. I can make them faster now that I have the experience, but I would rather spend time on other projects that can increase our overall strength instead of focusing on just this one thing. Without a proper armor set, I am only useful to our party as a craftsman. For now, let’s furnish the subspace—our home.”
Everybody agreed. We could test Ellaine’s idea out another day, but for now, we had to get things sorted.
“One more thing, if all runes were to be destroyed, our items won’t be lost or something. The [Room] will simply disappear and all items we had inside it will just pop back into this reality. Imagine it like a bomb, just with a bunch of furniture.” I then activated the runes Grimnir had placed in the RV, opening the portal. The view of that empty wooden space from before returned, including the minor changes I had made.
I continued before we entered the [Room]. “You can get into the subspace through the two doors leading into Grimnir’s former smithy. Without permission, you would phase through the portal. Grimnir aligned the portal in such a way that nobody will notice the outline of it, but they can still see into the subspace. To make sure people aren’t aware of this trick, we have to leave the wooden room inside the subspace similar to the one inside our RV. Don’t worry, inside my subspace, I’m like a dungeon master. I can just make more rooms.”
“What if somebody were to take those runes? Would that not be a problem?” Saori worriedly questioned me, making everybody imagine that disaster scenario.
“[Room], whether in spell or rune form, is something only I can control, ” I reiterated. “Strangers can steal the runes but they are practically useless to them. Even then, the only issue of somebody stealing them would be that our ‘mobile base’ would become exposed. In fact, if somebody were to steal them, I could just manually open them and retrieve them myself. As I said, I am the master over the subspace and all these [Room] runes.”
Tasianna clapped her hands in understanding. “I see, so what you are suggesting, my lady, is that we have to personally safeguard this rune pair. Whoever is the last to leave the RV must take them with them. No matter if somebody is inside the subspace or not.”
Grimnir and I nodded. There was no practical way until Grimnir could make a pair for every member. Once he did, we didn’t need to leave the portal open inside the RV and could just open the subspace wherever we wanted. This would be the ultimate form of our “mobile base.”
I continued, “Oh, and don’t worry. Grimnir and I already tested it. If Saori or I have the runes inside our [Storage Magic], and somebody were to exit the subspace, you would simply fall out of the storage as well. It can only store inanimate or the dead, after all.”
I then pointed everybody’s attention to the door we used to enter this [Room], highlighting it before pointing at the wall directly opposite of it. There, a door magically formed with the same appearance as the former. Finally, I then created two windows next to each door. With that, I began explaining how the entry and exit system of this subspace worked.
In essence, regardless of which door you left the subspace with, you would always return to the original rune pair you entered the subspace with, which reminded everybody of my initial [Room] testing and the fact I invented fast travel with it. It got more complicated if the original rune pair were to be destroyed, as your exit location would switch to the closest pair and you had to pay mana to leave the subspace.
“Take care of the damn pair once you have it, essentially. Understood?” Grimnir growled, forcing everybody to agree.
Now, to the windows; as mentioned before, nobody could enter my subspace unless I permitted it. Unfortunately, that didn’t include non-living objects, so spells, sunlight, or even a flood could forcibly enter my subspace, warning everybody to be careful if we got attacked. Sound was also included, so yippie me.
“Oh, my garden!” Tasianna clapped again, having figured the meaning behind my last explanation. “So, if we wanted to, we could relocate our garden inside the subspace and expand the area. Our garden wouldn’t be restricted to size then!”
“I love this idea,” Saori snapped her fingers, eyes glowing from smelling the potential money making. “Although, that does mean we have to leave the portal open for the sunlight to enter. That does make it riskier, as people may see it. It might be better to leave the garden inside the RV for now until we need the extra space.”
I nodded. “In addition, as the subspaces are created through the Divine System, you are still connected to it even within it. So, any skills, spells, or whatever is perfectly fine to be used inside.”
“You did mention an isolated fighting zone, no? We can turn some of the space into a training field for us to fight, which includes your dragon and Saori’s fenrir forms,” Ellaine surmised. “If skills work, Master Grimnir’s workshop could also stay inside! We can even expand it once we need more tools or forges!”
“Our workshop, lass,” Grimnir corrected her. “You think I’d leave my apprentice outside? Once you’re properly trained, I’d need a clerk for my shop and an artificer for my mechanical weapons. This will be our project, ha! Imagine yourself selling some of our wares to nobles, hahaha!”
Ellaine’s face started to glow, turning meek at the thought of his words. “N-nobles? I could sell … Goddess.”
Hearing my friends get all excited over their future projects made me feel fulfilled. It was the correct decision to upgrade our living quarters into a more ambitious area. [Room] would, without a doubt, become one of our most important possessions.
System voice, change the name to ‘Aurora’s Mobile Base.’
Only Aurora? Ahh, so even if I wanted to grant her permission, I wouldn’t be able to.
Saori’s garms were connected to her as she registered them to her tamer license through a Divine System Crystal, but Klea’Hatma wasn’t acknowledged by the Divine System. As I gave her this news, she sighed so deeply it began to sound slutty, but quickly recovered. While she was stuck with Ellaine, the demoness could still come in as a “possession,” so it didn’t matter to her.
With the explanation done, it was finally time to expand this whole place. Leaving our main entrance as it was, I created a new room next to it. This would be our living room.
Taking out some dragorade, I touched the wall and imagined the room becoming larger. The more I changed it, the more mana left my body, forcing me to sip the dragorade. I then erected some walls to create five more rooms, one for each member of Aurora. After adding some windows and doors, I then created a communal room from which we could enter our rooms.
“Privacy, nice,” Saori nodded. Even if the rooms were small now, we could adjust them to each person’s preference. “Hestia, could you make the door to my room larger? The garms have to accompany my shadow to enter the subspace in the first place, but I would prefer if they do not have to once inside.”
You better go on many walks with them, Saori. No dog poop inside our base! Hmm, speaking about poop …
I then turned to Ellaine, wanting to ask her about a previously discussed topic. “Ellaine, would you be able to help us acquire some of those toilet slimes? We need a better method to get rid of the waste. We can probably install a water system to give everybody a warm shower and bath—oh, wait, wouldn’t a hot spring be possible? Anyway, getting rid of our bathroom business could become pretty nasty, so let’s make it easier on ourselves.”
She nodded, showing some curiosity when I mentioned the hot spring, but kept it restrained. “I can, of course, which reminds me of something. Saori, would it be all right for you to turn a slime into one of your shadow beasts? The slime we buy from the shop is small and cannot multiply, but I heard slimes of a higher rank can multiply into smaller bits, which would help us save money.”
Oh, that is true. Saori being a tamer could help the slime level up and evolve … but then it will turn into an eldritch monster. Urgh, just gotta deal with it, Hestia …
After Saori agreed to do so, against the objections of the garms who were less thrilled to share their Alpha with a slime, Tasianna came forward with a question. “Lady Hestia, how many windows would be needed to let enough sunlight in for the plants?”
Oh, that is a problem.
While it was relatively easy to allow light inside for plants to use for photosynthesis, we had to adjust the outside as well. This meant we had to add more windows onto the RV to let more light in. It wasn’t a problem when we had our garden on the second floor of the RV, but it would prove to be a problem now since Grimnir’s smithy was pretty small. There were only so many windows we could add onto it until it became more or less a safety hazard.
“That’s fine, then I’ll keep the garden up on the second floor as Miss Saori suggested. With everybody moving into the [Room] to sleep, I could expand our garden into our former sleeping area. I’ll make sure to grow the produce we require the most, like fulinoe leaves and Belzac herbs.”
I gave her a thumbs up. Considering we already renovated Grimnir's wagon, it would have been a shame to leave the upper floor empty.
I then turned to Grimnir. “Do you know how to make glass? If we can make some sturdy glass like, uh, bulletproof glass, we can turn the upper floor into a greenhouse.”
“What's ‘bulletproof glass’ or a ‘greenhouse?’ Lass, could you not use your world’s language without explaining what it is?” he grumbled, forcing me to apologize and explain it to him. “Ahhh, I see. Well, to be honest, glassmaking is something the elves specialize in. Well, it’s still a craft involving fire so we tazongs ain’t lacking in ability, but I only know the basics of how to perform glassblowing. I never did it myself, so I can’t even start on something Peolynca hasn’t even invented yet like this bulletproof glass.”
Yet, Grimnir’s expression didn’t match his words and tone. His eyes sparkled at the idea of inventing something Peolyncians haven’t yet. He was a true craftsman. This would solve our window problem for now.
After Ellaine left us to go to bed, as the academy fair was tomorrow, the rest of us began unloading our stuff from the RV to put them inside our subspace. Since this would be our actual living space, we made sure to add everything you would want in a normal house first, like toilets, a kitchen that doubled as a bakery, and a library for magical experimentations.
Since the subspace’s doors worked similarly to portals to move around the subspace, we figured we could go wild with the possibilities. A hot spring made using manatech to create water and then to heat it up, a fancy restaurant to serve nobles or rich merchants, and a whole adventurer shop with a forging area for Grimnir. Of course, we didn’t have all the furniture and equipment just yet, but we could work on it over time.
The training area Ellaine mentioned was probably the easiest room to make, since I could just leave it as it was. I just had to make it large enough for my dragon form to fit it. It turned into a humongous cavern, probably perfect for me to roost inside, if I wanted.
“Is this your armor, Grimnir?” I asked him as our party was packing his entire smithy into the subspace. Since his old set was destroyed, he had to make an entire new one using my scales.
“Aye, it is. It still needs runes to fully function, but it’s a good piece of craftsmanship if I say so myself. Should allow me to tank more, ahahaha!” I took Grimnir’s boisterous laugh at face value and didn’t appraise it. However, that was when something came to mind.
Isn’t he a bit small?
I told him how I was a bit concerned his tanking abilities wouldn’t work too well when I’m in my dragon form. Sure, while Saori and I were in our humanoid forms, Grimnir would be able to properly act as the frontline, but I questioned how he would do this if we were to fight against giant monsters or transform into giant monsters ourselves. Which brought me to my idea.
“Have you ever thought of making a suit of armor that makes you even larger and taller than you currently are? Like a robotic suit or maybe a gundam, oh shit, or a power armor would be a better description.” I then mimicked the pose of somebody holding a minigun and began shooting with it. “A paladin of steel or a chainsaw sword-wielding marine. Earth had a ton of weapons involving long-range firepower and explosions! If you could have a mana-based power armor, you could strut around being an absolute boss on the battlefield. Aaaand …”—I smirked—“From your look, you have no idea what it is. Don’t you want to make Bleidla furious with envy, Grimnir?”
“Hmm, from the sound of it, it sounds like Earthshaker armor. Our dwarven knights, you could say. Their armor is so bulky and heavy, their every step causes the group to shake.” Yet, Grimnir began stroking his chin. He then huffed fire from the edge of his mouth, looking inspired as never before! “… Once Ellaine is back, you will tell me everything, lass. If it’s mechanical, I’ll need Ellaine’s help with the mana wiring.”
Did I say too much?
Regardless, we continued decorating our subspace into the night. None of us wanted to go to sleep. Sleep truly was for the weak.
Still, while enthusiasm was nice, we still needed to buy or make new furniture. We could probably do so tomorrow with the festival going on, but what we also needed was more manpower.
With some creativity and resourcefulness, we could handle maintaining our subspace and the different projects inside, but not forever. We could assign Tasianna to handle our house chores, but that would only go against proper work ethics if we had her handle everything.
All of us had to contribute, but I already felt a bit unmotivated cleaning everything. Saori would also need helpers for her restaurant, and maybe Grimnir wouldn’t be able to handle all the forging. Then again, who would want to join us in the near future, right? No normal person would want to constantly risk their lives with our terrible luck.
Once morning came, Ellaine had to forcefully drag us all out as we had agreed to come with her to the royal academy. While Saori, Tasianna, Grimnir, and I didn’t need to sleep for different reasons, we did feel like vampires when the morning sun blared at us. Yes, even I flinched back. The sunfang dragon flinched back from the sun like a basement-dwelling gamer.
The royal academy fair was decent. After what I did at the ball, people naturally noticed me and wanted to converse, but with Tasianna blocking their path with her icy attitude, they simply kept themselves at a distance. I also met the three professors I kidnapped during my mage guild entrance exam.
Experienced mages themselves, we made small talk about magical theory, but aside from the practical stuff I learned from Master Kush, I couldn’t really keep up with their theoretical knowledge. Like, how mana formed in Peolynca or how empty vessel magic was invented. It made me aware of how lacking my formal magical education was compared to a normal mage.
Moving along, we separated from Ellaine and Josine, who had come with her mistress, after we reached the area where the magic-focused students were to perform. Ellaine, having become one of the more capable mages after traveling with us, was to perform some of her magic with the others as her duty as a student. As such, the rest of us roamed around to check out the other venues. Strangely enough, if you took away the student uniforms from the boys and girls, this whole place felt pretty similar to a Japanese cultural festival, or “bunkasai.” Then again, I had some school festivals in the US which resembled this, as well.
For example, students from the Greenveil and Equevanna duchies were competing amongst each other on how much their faction could earn in total, manning stands to sell food and promote small magic games.
Lecartiglio and Groushia students were holding knightley competitions like jousting, sword fights, and sport events with their magical version of rugby or american football.
Those from the Morgiana and Myrrdin duchies were responsible for the magical events, one of which Ellaine would perform in. From this, I understood the overall factions were hosting these events, but students from any duchy were allowed to participate in them.
The two “factions” who didn’t hold any of their own events were those from the Olivus duchy and those from a commoner background. The Olivus duchy didn’t really have a rival to compete against, and since commoners required a sponsor to join the royal academy, most of them would support their sponsor’s or friend’s side in this whole event. It did make it questionable if the commoners should be considered a faction in the first place.
“Well, I would rather spend my time inside the smithy but this ain’t too bad. Youngsters deserve time to enjoy themselves, even if they are a bunch of spoiled akong aristocrats,” Grimnir said while holding onto plates upon plates of food he bought from the stalls, eating everything with gusto and a lack of shame.
“If you weren’t stuffing your cheeks full with food, I would believe you, Master Dwarf. Hiehiehie, I pray to Goddess Zephira to allow us to make some good memories today.” Tasianna clutched her hands together and closed her eyes in a prayer after teasing Grimnir.
“Oh, how I missed visiting festivals. Once we visit the opera and coliseum tomorrow, let us stroll around the middle district a bit. I bet the festive air will be even better there,” Saori exclaimed with a wide smile before pointing at one of the magic game stalls and pushing us to play with her.
It was a ball-throwing game where you had to accurately throw small balls into specific holes in a random order according to a lighting machine. The difficulty in this game was due to the distance to the targets, making it hard as you had to control your throws well. Still, with our skills and stats, we easily trivialized the challenge and won with everybody participating.
It was so easy it shouldn’t have been fun but we still laughed merrily as we celebrated everybody’s success. The prizes weren’t bad either, since all of this was catered towards nobles. With four complete wins, we earned ourselves four small mana batteries, perfect for our new base.
After we spent even more time in the fair’s ground, somebody suddenly came running to us. It was Josine.
Completely out of breath, she forced herself to speak, “Lady Hestia, please, you must come quickly! M-my lady was forced into accepting a magic duel by the Chezaic House’s twin daughters!”
Can’t we just take a break from conflicts? It’s a festival!
AbyssRaven Yikes, its revenge, huh?
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“By Crustacia’s twintails, making these runes was a real chore. I don’t know if it’s ‘cause of the fact this is a space-time spell or ‘cause [Room] is just hard to turn into a magic rune, but this was a real bladdarg job, ha! Still, it’s nothing a true runesmith can’t do. Here.” Showing me one of his proudest smiles, Grimnir tossed a rock at me. Inspecting it, I noticed an alloy sheet wrapped around it like a cocoon, probably to protect the rocks.
After walking out of the RV again, Grimnir turned around and once again opened the door to reveal his smithy; the wooden room from before was gone. He then picked up two more of those rocks from the bottom of the walls.
These had cylinder-like tops with a hexagon bottom, perfectly fitting into the slots Grimnir took them out from. A grey rune was on the top of it, shining small letters. When I asked Grimnir, he explained those were dwarven words. As runes took inspiration from magic circles, they also copied the practice of inscribing the chant onto the runes.
“I made them extra durable. Best ingots I could find from our stockpile and I fused them with your shed carapace, lass. Unlike runic tattoos, a scratch or crack won’t destroy the rune, but if a piece were to break apart, it’s gone.” Grimnir then took the objects back and showed me the three rocks and how they shared the same runes. “Similar to the runes on Ellaine’s whipsword, these are connected with each other. You need two to create the subspace, as that was the only way I found that could stabilize the portal and maintain it for an extended period.”
“So that really is Lady Hestia’s [Room]. Amazing,” Tasianna expressed her admiration. “[Room] should work differently from [Storage Magic], correct? Time won’t stop if we enter it?”
I nodded to her question. “[Room], just like [Storage Magic], creates a subspace where items and people can go inside. Time moves normally there, it’s just that we can’t perceive it well since sunlight can’t enter it. From testing it myself, [Room] apparently creates a breathable and liveable space, so it’s perfect if we need emergency lodgings … or an isolated space to fight.”
“We and others also require your permission to enter it, right?” Saori presumed, to which I nodded. “Grimnir, does the rune version work the same way?”
“Aye. Runes are created by imprinting a magic circle during the inscribing phase, where I draw the rune with the liquid iron. This action makes sure the spells will activate once you pour your mana into them.” Grimnir then placed two of the alloy-covered rocks back into their slots. “Well, all three of them were made with the lass’s help, so she would know best. You remember what I told you?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, remembering my discussion with Grimnir after he showed us how runecrafting worked. After I suggested the idea of turning the inside of our RV into a [Room] to add some space, he decided it would be better if we turned the spell into a rune for better safekeeping and to move our “mobile base” around.
I turned around to face Saori, Tasianna, and Ellaine. All three were still in their ball dresses but they had the look of curious adventurers. “We made three runes, each made using my blood as we had no idea how mana intensive [Room] would be. As Grimnir said, to access the [Room], two of the three runes must be active for the subspace to form and you will need my permission to enter. Obviously, you guys, Grimnir, and the garms have full access even if I’m not around.”
“Wroof!” A bark suddenly came from Saori’s shadow. Considering how the garms got used to staying outside and Saori had been keeping them inside her shadow for the entire evening, she reluctantly gave them the okay to come out.
“You four are unbelievable,” Saori said with a smile, caressing her garms as if they were actual pets.
As if she didn’t want to be left out, Klea’Hatma spoke up, too, [“And, what about meee?”]
I sighed deeply. “Yeeeees, of course, you have permission too, but only if Ellaine or anybody else from Aurora is carrying you in. Otherwise, no.”
Klea’Hatma gave a sour “boooooo” to my answer, but I wouldn’t give somebody I didn’t trust access to our safe space. I still was aware of who she actually was.
Ignoring her pouting, I stuffed the rune into my storage before continuing the explanation, “Each rune holds the ‘save data’ of our [Room]. Even if two of the three were to be destroyed, the [Room] will stay intact in the last one and we can always forge more runes to make more ‘safe files’ and access the subspace. Until we make a fourth, the third is unnecessary so I’ll safeguard it.”
Ellaine then raised her hand. “Why did you not make more? If Saori can keep another one, wouldn’t it be even safer? Also, would it be possible to open multiple access points with additional runes? For example, if we had four runes, couldn’t you open one here and Saori another one from the gates? Would we all enter the same space?”
I shrugged. “Grimnir and I thought of that possibility but we kept it at three for this initial testing. Grimnir’s time is precious since he is also responsible for your sword’s runes, his armor, and also the weapons he was planning for Saori and me. Considering he took two weeks for these three runes …”
Grimnir grumbled, scratching his stubbly chin in annoyance. “It’s hard work, that’s for sure. I can make them faster now that I have the experience, but I would rather spend time on other projects that can increase our overall strength instead of focusing on just this one thing. Without a proper armor set, I am only useful to our party as a craftsman. For now, let’s furnish the subspace—our home.”
Everybody agreed. We could test Ellaine’s idea out another day, but for now, we had to get things sorted.
“One more thing, if all runes were to be destroyed, our items won’t be lost or something. The [Room] will simply disappear and all items we had inside it will just pop back into this reality. Imagine it like a bomb, just with a bunch of furniture.” I then activated the runes Grimnir had placed in the RV, opening the portal. The view of that empty wooden space from before returned, including the minor changes I had made.
I continued before we entered the [Room]. “You can get into the subspace through the two doors leading into Grimnir’s former smithy. Without permission, you would phase through the portal. Grimnir aligned the portal in such a way that nobody will notice the outline of it, but they can still see into the subspace. To make sure people aren’t aware of this trick, we have to leave the wooden room inside the subspace similar to the one inside our RV. Don’t worry, inside my subspace, I’m like a dungeon master. I can just make more rooms.”
“What if somebody were to take those runes? Would that not be a problem?” Saori worriedly questioned me, making everybody imagine that disaster scenario.
“[Room], whether in spell or rune form, is something only I can control, ” I reiterated. “Strangers can steal the runes but they are practically useless to them. Even then, the only issue of somebody stealing them would be that our ‘mobile base’ would become exposed. In fact, if somebody were to steal them, I could just manually open them and retrieve them myself. As I said, I am the master over the subspace and all these [Room] runes.”
Tasianna clapped her hands in understanding. “I see, so what you are suggesting, my lady, is that we have to personally safeguard this rune pair. Whoever is the last to leave the RV must take them with them. No matter if somebody is inside the subspace or not.”
Grimnir and I nodded. There was no practical way until Grimnir could make a pair for every member. Once he did, we didn’t need to leave the portal open inside the RV and could just open the subspace wherever we wanted. This would be the ultimate form of our “mobile base.”
I continued, “Oh, and don’t worry. Grimnir and I already tested it. If Saori or I have the runes inside our [Storage Magic], and somebody were to exit the subspace, you would simply fall out of the storage as well. It can only store inanimate or the dead, after all.”
I then pointed everybody’s attention to the door we used to enter this [Room], highlighting it before pointing at the wall directly opposite of it. There, a door magically formed with the same appearance as the former. Finally, I then created two windows next to each door. With that, I began explaining how the entry and exit system of this subspace worked.
In essence, regardless of which door you left the subspace with, you would always return to the original rune pair you entered the subspace with, which reminded everybody of my initial [Room] testing and the fact I invented fast travel with it. It got more complicated if the original rune pair were to be destroyed, as your exit location would switch to the closest pair and you had to pay mana to leave the subspace.
“Take care of the damn pair once you have it, essentially. Understood?” Grimnir growled, forcing everybody to agree.
Now, to the windows; as mentioned before, nobody could enter my subspace unless I permitted it. Unfortunately, that didn’t include non-living objects, so spells, sunlight, or even a flood could forcibly enter my subspace, warning everybody to be careful if we got attacked. Sound was also included, so yippie me.
“Oh, my garden!” Tasianna clapped again, having figured the meaning behind my last explanation. “So, if we wanted to, we could relocate our garden inside the subspace and expand the area. Our garden wouldn’t be restricted to size then!”
“I love this idea,” Saori snapped her fingers, eyes glowing from smelling the potential money making. “Although, that does mean we have to leave the portal open for the sunlight to enter. That does make it riskier, as people may see it. It might be better to leave the garden inside the RV for now until we need the extra space.”
I nodded. “In addition, as the subspaces are created through the Divine System, you are still connected to it even within it. So, any skills, spells, or whatever is perfectly fine to be used inside.”
“You did mention an isolated fighting zone, no? We can turn some of the space into a training field for us to fight, which includes your dragon and Saori’s fenrir forms,” Ellaine surmised. “If skills work, Master Grimnir’s workshop could also stay inside! We can even expand it once we need more tools or forges!”
“Our workshop, lass,” Grimnir corrected her. “You think I’d leave my apprentice outside? Once you’re properly trained, I’d need a clerk for my shop and an artificer for my mechanical weapons. This will be our project, ha! Imagine yourself selling some of our wares to nobles, hahaha!”
Ellaine’s face started to glow, turning meek at the thought of his words. “N-nobles? I could sell … Goddess.”
Hearing my friends get all excited over their future projects made me feel fulfilled. It was the correct decision to upgrade our living quarters into a more ambitious area. [Room] would, without a doubt, become one of our most important possessions.
System voice, change the name to ‘Aurora’s Mobile Base.’
Only Aurora? Ahh, so even if I wanted to grant her permission, I wouldn’t be able to.
Saori’s garms were connected to her as she registered them to her tamer license through a Divine System Crystal, but Klea’Hatma wasn’t acknowledged by the Divine System. As I gave her this news, she sighed so deeply it began to sound slutty, but quickly recovered. While she was stuck with Ellaine, the demoness could still come in as a “possession,” so it didn’t matter to her.
With the explanation done, it was finally time to expand this whole place. Leaving our main entrance as it was, I created a new room next to it. This would be our living room.
Taking out some dragorade, I touched the wall and imagined the room becoming larger. The more I changed it, the more mana left my body, forcing me to sip the dragorade. I then erected some walls to create five more rooms, one for each member of Aurora. After adding some windows and doors, I then created a communal room from which we could enter our rooms.
“Privacy, nice,” Saori nodded. Even if the rooms were small now, we could adjust them to each person’s preference. “Hestia, could you make the door to my room larger? The garms have to accompany my shadow to enter the subspace in the first place, but I would prefer if they do not have to once inside.”
You better go on many walks with them, Saori. No dog poop inside our base! Hmm, speaking about poop …
I then turned to Ellaine, wanting to ask her about a previously discussed topic. “Ellaine, would you be able to help us acquire some of those toilet slimes? We need a better method to get rid of the waste. We can probably install a water system to give everybody a warm shower and bath—oh, wait, wouldn’t a hot spring be possible? Anyway, getting rid of our bathroom business could become pretty nasty, so let’s make it easier on ourselves.”
She nodded, showing some curiosity when I mentioned the hot spring, but kept it restrained. “I can, of course, which reminds me of something. Saori, would it be all right for you to turn a slime into one of your shadow beasts? The slime we buy from the shop is small and cannot multiply, but I heard slimes of a higher rank can multiply into smaller bits, which would help us save money.”
Oh, that is true. Saori being a tamer could help the slime level up and evolve … but then it will turn into an eldritch monster. Urgh, just gotta deal with it, Hestia …
After Saori agreed to do so, against the objections of the garms who were less thrilled to share their Alpha with a slime, Tasianna came forward with a question. “Lady Hestia, how many windows would be needed to let enough sunlight in for the plants?”
Oh, that is a problem.
While it was relatively easy to allow light inside for plants to use for photosynthesis, we had to adjust the outside as well. This meant we had to add more windows onto the RV to let more light in. It wasn’t a problem when we had our garden on the second floor of the RV, but it would prove to be a problem now since Grimnir’s smithy was pretty small. There were only so many windows we could add onto it until it became more or less a safety hazard.
“That’s fine, then I’ll keep the garden up on the second floor as Miss Saori suggested. With everybody moving into the [Room] to sleep, I could expand our garden into our former sleeping area. I’ll make sure to grow the produce we require the most, like fulinoe leaves and Belzac herbs.”
I gave her a thumbs up. Considering we already renovated Grimnir's wagon, it would have been a shame to leave the upper floor empty.
I then turned to Grimnir. “Do you know how to make glass? If we can make some sturdy glass like, uh, bulletproof glass, we can turn the upper floor into a greenhouse.”
“What's ‘bulletproof glass’ or a ‘greenhouse?’ Lass, could you not use your world’s language without explaining what it is?” he grumbled, forcing me to apologize and explain it to him. “Ahhh, I see. Well, to be honest, glassmaking is something the elves specialize in. Well, it’s still a craft involving fire so we tazongs ain’t lacking in ability, but I only know the basics of how to perform glassblowing. I never did it myself, so I can’t even start on something Peolynca hasn’t even invented yet like this bulletproof glass.”
Yet, Grimnir’s expression didn’t match his words and tone. His eyes sparkled at the idea of inventing something Peolyncians haven’t yet. He was a true craftsman. This would solve our window problem for now.
After Ellaine left us to go to bed, as the academy fair was tomorrow, the rest of us began unloading our stuff from the RV to put them inside our subspace. Since this would be our actual living space, we made sure to add everything you would want in a normal house first, like toilets, a kitchen that doubled as a bakery, and a library for magical experimentations.
Since the subspace’s doors worked similarly to portals to move around the subspace, we figured we could go wild with the possibilities. A hot spring made using manatech to create water and then to heat it up, a fancy restaurant to serve nobles or rich merchants, and a whole adventurer shop with a forging area for Grimnir. Of course, we didn’t have all the furniture and equipment just yet, but we could work on it over time.
The training area Ellaine mentioned was probably the easiest room to make, since I could just leave it as it was. I just had to make it large enough for my dragon form to fit it. It turned into a humongous cavern, probably perfect for me to roost inside, if I wanted.
“Is this your armor, Grimnir?” I asked him as our party was packing his entire smithy into the subspace. Since his old set was destroyed, he had to make an entire new one using my scales.
“Aye, it is. It still needs runes to fully function, but it’s a good piece of craftsmanship if I say so myself. Should allow me to tank more, ahahaha!” I took Grimnir’s boisterous laugh at face value and didn’t appraise it. However, that was when something came to mind.
Isn’t he a bit small?
I told him how I was a bit concerned his tanking abilities wouldn’t work too well when I’m in my dragon form. Sure, while Saori and I were in our humanoid forms, Grimnir would be able to properly act as the frontline, but I questioned how he would do this if we were to fight against giant monsters or transform into giant monsters ourselves. Which brought me to my idea.
“Have you ever thought of making a suit of armor that makes you even larger and taller than you currently are? Like a robotic suit or maybe a gundam, oh shit, or a power armor would be a better description.” I then mimicked the pose of somebody holding a minigun and began shooting with it. “A paladin of steel or a chainsaw sword-wielding marine. Earth had a ton of weapons involving long-range firepower and explosions! If you could have a mana-based power armor, you could strut around being an absolute boss on the battlefield. Aaaand …”—I smirked—“From your look, you have no idea what it is. Don’t you want to make Bleidla furious with envy, Grimnir?”
“Hmm, from the sound of it, it sounds like Earthshaker armor. Our dwarven knights, you could say. Their armor is so bulky and heavy, their every step causes the group to shake.” Yet, Grimnir began stroking his chin. He then huffed fire from the edge of his mouth, looking inspired as never before! “… Once Ellaine is back, you will tell me everything, lass. If it’s mechanical, I’ll need Ellaine’s help with the mana wiring.”
Did I say too much?
Regardless, we continued decorating our subspace into the night. None of us wanted to go to sleep. Sleep truly was for the weak.
Still, while enthusiasm was nice, we still needed to buy or make new furniture. We could probably do so tomorrow with the festival going on, but what we also needed was more manpower.
With some creativity and resourcefulness, we could handle maintaining our subspace and the different projects inside, but not forever. We could assign Tasianna to handle our house chores, but that would only go against proper work ethics if we had her handle everything.
All of us had to contribute, but I already felt a bit unmotivated cleaning everything. Saori would also need helpers for her restaurant, and maybe Grimnir wouldn’t be able to handle all the forging. Then again, who would want to join us in the near future, right? No normal person would want to constantly risk their lives with our terrible luck.
Once morning came, Ellaine had to forcefully drag us all out as we had agreed to come with her to the royal academy. While Saori, Tasianna, Grimnir, and I didn’t need to sleep for different reasons, we did feel like vampires when the morning sun blared at us. Yes, even I flinched back. The sunfang dragon flinched back from the sun like a basement-dwelling gamer.
The royal academy fair was decent. After what I did at the ball, people naturally noticed me and wanted to converse, but with Tasianna blocking their path with her icy attitude, they simply kept themselves at a distance. I also met the three professors I kidnapped during my mage guild entrance exam.
Experienced mages themselves, we made small talk about magical theory, but aside from the practical stuff I learned from Master Kush, I couldn’t really keep up with their theoretical knowledge. Like, how mana formed in Peolynca or how empty vessel magic was invented. It made me aware of how lacking my formal magical education was compared to a normal mage.
Moving along, we separated from Ellaine and Josine, who had come with her mistress, after we reached the area where the magic-focused students were to perform. Ellaine, having become one of the more capable mages after traveling with us, was to perform some of her magic with the others as her duty as a student. As such, the rest of us roamed around to check out the other venues. Strangely enough, if you took away the student uniforms from the boys and girls, this whole place felt pretty similar to a Japanese cultural festival, or “bunkasai.” Then again, I had some school festivals in the US which resembled this, as well.
For example, students from the Greenveil and Equevanna duchies were competing amongst each other on how much their faction could earn in total, manning stands to sell food and promote small magic games.
Lecartiglio and Groushia students were holding knightley competitions like jousting, sword fights, and sport events with their magical version of rugby or american football.
Those from the Morgiana and Myrrdin duchies were responsible for the magical events, one of which Ellaine would perform in. From this, I understood the overall factions were hosting these events, but students from any duchy were allowed to participate in them.
The two “factions” who didn’t hold any of their own events were those from the Olivus duchy and those from a commoner background. The Olivus duchy didn’t really have a rival to compete against, and since commoners required a sponsor to join the royal academy, most of them would support their sponsor’s or friend’s side in this whole event. It did make it questionable if the commoners should be considered a faction in the first place.
“Well, I would rather spend my time inside the smithy but this ain’t too bad. Youngsters deserve time to enjoy themselves, even if they are a bunch of spoiled akong aristocrats,” Grimnir said while holding onto plates upon plates of food he bought from the stalls, eating everything with gusto and a lack of shame.
“If you weren’t stuffing your cheeks full with food, I would believe you, Master Dwarf. Hiehiehie, I pray to Goddess Zephira to allow us to make some good memories today.” Tasianna clutched her hands together and closed her eyes in a prayer after teasing Grimnir.
“Oh, how I missed visiting festivals. Once we visit the opera and coliseum tomorrow, let us stroll around the middle district a bit. I bet the festive air will be even better there,” Saori exclaimed with a wide smile before pointing at one of the magic game stalls and pushing us to play with her.
It was a ball-throwing game where you had to accurately throw small balls into specific holes in a random order according to a lighting machine. The difficulty in this game was due to the distance to the targets, making it hard as you had to control your throws well. Still, with our skills and stats, we easily trivialized the challenge and won with everybody participating.
It was so easy it shouldn’t have been fun but we still laughed merrily as we celebrated everybody’s success. The prizes weren’t bad either, since all of this was catered towards nobles. With four complete wins, we earned ourselves four small mana batteries, perfect for our new base.
After we spent even more time in the fair’s ground, somebody suddenly came running to us. It was Josine.
Completely out of breath, she forced herself to speak, “Lady Hestia, please, you must come quickly! M-my lady was forced into accepting a magic duel by the Chezaic House’s twin daughters!”
Can’t we just take a break from conflicts? It’s a festival!
AbyssRaven Yikes, its revenge, huh?
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