“So… where are we going to stay?” Lua asked. “Do we just… go to HomeBase every day?”
“Basically yes.” I answered. “Well, officially we will be staying in the Sawyer manor located in the city, but in actuality, I will park HomeBase above the city so that we can beam ourselves there and back. Well, we can also stay in the Sawyer manor, if you prefer that, but I can’t just ignore HomeBase for too long, so I will probably spend at least every other night there.”
“I think I’ll be staying at both.” Alice said. “I want to sleep in my own bed, but I also want to spend time with Mariina and Cressida.”
“... Lady Cressida… she was the civil official sister, if I remember correctly.” Ria muttered.
“Yes. And she is the one in charge of keeping the capital house in good condition when Grandfather isn’t here.” Alice said. “So when I told Grandfather that we would be going to the capital, he quickly said that we should stay in this house, as it is usually quite vacant.”
“And what about Violet or Paulina coming here? Weren’t they supposed to help me meet with the King, or has that plan been altered?” I asked about something Christina said a long time ago. Like before I ever left Alewatch long ago.
“If we need them, we can go pick one of them up.” Alice said. “But Big Sis Cressida should be able to help us, as long as she isn’t too busy.”
“We also shouldn’t pull Paulina away from the mana flowers. They are still experimental and need to be looked after.” I added. “So if we need one of them, it will have to be Violet.”
“Actually she already taught the gardeners to do that, so we could take her as well.” Alice corrected. “You would know if you read the report she sent.”
“... I skimmed over it. As long as everything is fine, I don’t need to interfere.” I defended myself. “Besides, I’ve been waiting for her to be ready to report on the staff, so I’ve kind of been putting off a meeting with her.”
“What staff? Did you give her one?”
“Yeah. An experimental one. It is kind of out there, so it needs to be tested.”
“I could have tested it.”
“I don’t want you breaking it.” Well, that wasn’t the real reason, but let’s go with that.
“I’ve only broken one staff in my life.”
“And that is one more than most have.”
“Actually it isn’t that uncommon.” Lua cut in. “Some magicians end up breaking their first staves as they grow more powerful.”
“... well, I stand corrected then.” I admitted. “But still. I wanted someone other than you to test it out.” I told Alice. “So that is why I enlisted your aunt’s help.”
“I’ll forgive you. … as long as you make that mana staff that can pull mana from HomeBase.” Alice said.
“... I kind of already did, but it has a massive material problem.” I told her. “I have to use stuff like void uranium and orichalcum to make it or the staff will break, so the cost to make one is sky high. I need ways to get the materials cheaper before I make one. And there aren’t exactly books available on how to obtain legendary metals.”
“Can’t you ask Laura?”
“Do you think I didn’t? Limited to Perfect level System Support.”
“Maybe we could do something based on the names?” Alice suggested. “Like star titanium is some mix of titanium and star material?”
“And how would we obtain star material? Stars are kind of warm.”
“Can’t one of your monsters survive it?”
“I don’t have Star Eater yet. Well, I might have something, but I’d have to check. And even then, I don’t really want to mess with the sun, so I’d have to go to another solar system. And even with Gradius or Victory Viper, going to another solar system might take too long.”
“Then maybe… maybe analyze your monsters’ weapons? Does that help?” Alice asked.
“Already done. I do get access to the metals and their blueprints, but not things like metal composition, so I can’t make that metal without the True core. Which is, as I already said, expensive.”
“And none of your monsters know how to make it?”
“At least not any I have at this moment. The Creator and Exxod both know a bit about some metals, mainly how to artificially make mithril and hihi'irokane, but even they are unaware of ways to make the highest ranked metals.”
Spoiler“... and you can’t use your cards to cheat some out?” Alice asked.
“I have asked Laura to run some Poly experiments, fusing together metals. But thus far, it has not made any good results.”
“... maybe we should ask a legendary smith?”
“And where would we find one? And even if we did, do you think he would give us the time of day?” I asked.
“You could bribe him with your cards.” Alice suggested.
“Still doesn’t solve where we could find one.”
“Wilma might know of some.” Lua said.
“Still doesn’t solve how we could even meet one.”
I know I was kind of the pessimist in this conversation, but if I let Alice and Lua fly free, they’ll expect me to pull the moon out of the sky for them. And while I somewhat easily go to the moon and take a piece of it home, I’d rather not have to do that.
… actually, maybe I should. Perhaps the moon isn’t just stone. I could potentially even fly out to some asteroids or something, take a few of them into my Storage, then refine whatever metals that are inside of them into something usable.
… but I would need a way to scan the asteroids. I wonder if Tahlia could do that after I take them into Storage. Just give me a basic composition. She can break down monsters into usable materials, so maybe. I’ll need to check that out with the rocks I have in Storage.
“I must head to the local Tower office to report that I am in the city.” Mariina said, as soon as we were at Sawyer's capital manor, so she quickly left with her assistant and the two guards. She also requested that we make sure that their stuff is taken from the two other golem carriages to inside the manor.
Compared to the one in their territory, this manor was a bit smaller. Not a lot, but enough that I could notice it. It was still a large house, but not huge by any means.
As we arrived, a group of maids and the head butler of the house had come to welcome us. I’m not 100% sure that they had a warning of us arriving, as Alice was supposed to take care of that part, but it does seem that they are ready to accept us either way. By the way, Miss Cressida wasn’t here at the moment, as she was still at work.
“Lord Wood, you don’t seem to have a lot of luggage. Is it in a magic chest, or something?” The butler asked me, after he checked the inside of my carriage.
He was already quite surprised when he saw that the inside of the carriage was larger than the outside, but now he seemed almost troubled by not finding our luggage.
“Oh, that. I have all of it in my Storage. … well, other than the stuff in Ria’s magic backpack, but she can carry that.”
Technically Ria also had her magic fanny pack under her travel outfit, but we don’t have to talk about that. Even Alice and Lua sometimes had their magic fanny packs on, so they could hold stuff there. For them, it was just a bit more inconvenient to get stuff out of Storage, as Storage is my skill, with them just having access to it. At least that is what they said, but if I am to be honest, I feel like they use the magic fanny packs to hide what they don’t want me to easily see. Yes I can see what is inside a magic bag that I store in Storage, but I have to open up one more sub-menu to see that. So maybe the girls are counting on Tahlia catching me in time or something, if I wanted to look at what they hide inside their magic fanny packs.
“I understand. Then, … how many rooms would you like?” He asked in a quieter voice, while looking towards the girls.
“... Ria needs a room of her own, but I’ll be in the same as Lua and Alice.” I answered quietly.
“As you wish. I shall arrange it as such.”
Soon enough, we were shown to a large guest room. It seemed to be one of the best in the manor, as the room itself was quite sizable, it had an attached bathroom with a tub that could fit multiple people, and the bed was large. Not huge like the bed I made for myself at HomeBase, but still big enough that even on earth it would have to be a custom order.
We spent a bit of time setting stuff from Storage into the closets in the room, but most of our stuff was still going to be in Storage. Just because we really don’t have a reason to put any of it out, except for appearances.
Eventually, both Mariina and Cressida returned so we could have dinner together, while we could also speak of the future.
“Yes. I can arrange it. It will actually be quite simple now.” Cressida replied, when I asked her about meeting the King.
“... now? Has something changed?”
“Do you really need to ask? Want me to get the list?”
“... yes?”
“Taking down two SS-rank monsters, defending a city from dragons, taming a dragon, holding the System Support, revealing an illegal slave trade, curing dhampirs of their blood curse. Oh, and let’s not forget founding a dungeon. And I feel like I didn’t mention at least something.”
“I didn’t know you had been informed of all of those already. I assumed at least some of that info would be … secretive.”
“Blame yourself. After we returned from Father’s birthday party, His Highness Prince Elias hired me as his personal adviser. I have access to some … classified information because of that.”
“And here you are sharing it. Maybe I should report that to the Prince.” I joked.
“As if you didn’t know of it already, as you are the one it is about.”
“... true. But still not a good look. … but I guess I’m thankful that I have easy access to the Royal family, so thank you.”
“... now I don’t know how to feel about this.” Cressida said. “I was going to complain that it is your fault that I have a ton of work nowadays, but if you are going to be like that, then it would be awkward.”
“I can make you coffee or energy drinks, if that would help.” I told her.
I had actually already located coffee, both beans and the ground stuff, in the Chaos God Dungeon catalog, but I don’t really need it, so I never made any. Then I decided to quickly check for energy drinks, but those didn’t seem to exist. At least caffeine based energy drinks. Revitalizing potions were a thing, but those are more like stamina potions. But using the CGD item developer, I quickly isolated the caffeine compound from coffee, so I was now able to make artificial caffeine. Then just mix that into a drink and you have yourself an energy drink.
“... you have coffee? Where did you get some?” Mariina asked. “It isn’t exported from the Crystal Empire.”
“You know, when you know people you might get access to some stuff.” I avoided the question. But if anyone asks, I’ll tell it was Lady Janina, as she does trade with people from the Crystal Empire.
“Also what is an energy drink? I’ve heard that coffee has an energizing effect, but I don’t know of these energy drinks.”
“They are drinks made by extracting caffeine from the coffee. That caffeine is then mixed into other drinks to make it something easier to drink.” I explained.
“... why did you never tell us about it?” Alice asked.
“Because at our level, as long as we sleep at night, it isn’t really a problem.” I told her.
Honestly speaking, I could probably stay up for three days no problem, if I wanted to. But I just never have seen a need for it.
We kept on chatting about this and that, and I almost offered Cressida some level ups as an apology for her getting a more demanding job because of me, but I got the feeling that she was actually glad to have her current job as the Prince’s assistant. Not that I think leveling her up would be a bad thing, but if I did it for her, then I’d have to level up Mariina as well. And that would mean way too many questions, so let’s just not.
“So… where are we going to stay?” Lua asked. “Do we just… go to HomeBase every day?”
“Basically yes.” I answered. “Well, officially we will be staying in the Sawyer manor located in the city, but in actuality, I will park HomeBase above the city so that we can beam ourselves there and back. Well, we can also stay in the Sawyer manor, if you prefer that, but I can’t just ignore HomeBase for too long, so I will probably spend at least every other night there.”
“I think I’ll be staying at both.” Alice said. “I want to sleep in my own bed, but I also want to spend time with Mariina and Cressida.”
“... Lady Cressida… she was the civil official sister, if I remember correctly.” Ria muttered.
“Yes. And she is the one in charge of keeping the capital house in good condition when Grandfather isn’t here.” Alice said. “So when I told Grandfather that we would be going to the capital, he quickly said that we should stay in this house, as it is usually quite vacant.”
“And what about Violet or Paulina coming here? Weren’t they supposed to help me meet with the King, or has that plan been altered?” I asked about something Christina said a long time ago. Like before I ever left Alewatch long ago.
“If we need them, we can go pick one of them up.” Alice said. “But Big Sis Cressida should be able to help us, as long as she isn’t too busy.”
“We also shouldn’t pull Paulina away from the mana flowers. They are still experimental and need to be looked after.” I added. “So if we need one of them, it will have to be Violet.”
“Actually she already taught the gardeners to do that, so we could take her as well.” Alice corrected. “You would know if you read the report she sent.”
“... I skimmed over it. As long as everything is fine, I don’t need to interfere.” I defended myself. “Besides, I’ve been waiting for her to be ready to report on the staff, so I’ve kind of been putting off a meeting with her.”
“What staff? Did you give her one?”
“Yeah. An experimental one. It is kind of out there, so it needs to be tested.”
“I could have tested it.”
“I don’t want you breaking it.” Well, that wasn’t the real reason, but let’s go with that.
“I’ve only broken one staff in my life.”
“And that is one more than most have.”
“Actually it isn’t that uncommon.” Lua cut in. “Some magicians end up breaking their first staves as they grow more powerful.”
“... well, I stand corrected then.” I admitted. “But still. I wanted someone other than you to test it out.” I told Alice. “So that is why I enlisted your aunt’s help.”
“I’ll forgive you. … as long as you make that mana staff that can pull mana from HomeBase.” Alice said.
“... I kind of already did, but it has a massive material problem.” I told her. “I have to use stuff like void uranium and orichalcum to make it or the staff will break, so the cost to make one is sky high. I need ways to get the materials cheaper before I make one. And there aren’t exactly books available on how to obtain legendary metals.”
“Can’t you ask Laura?”
“Do you think I didn’t? Limited to Perfect level System Support.”
“Maybe we could do something based on the names?” Alice suggested. “Like star titanium is some mix of titanium and star material?”
“And how would we obtain star material? Stars are kind of warm.”
“Can’t one of your monsters survive it?”
“I don’t have Star Eater yet. Well, I might have something, but I’d have to check. And even then, I don’t really want to mess with the sun, so I’d have to go to another solar system. And even with Gradius or Victory Viper, going to another solar system might take too long.”
“Then maybe… maybe analyze your monsters’ weapons? Does that help?” Alice asked.
“Already done. I do get access to the metals and their blueprints, but not things like metal composition, so I can’t make that metal without the True core. Which is, as I already said, expensive.”
“And none of your monsters know how to make it?”
“At least not any I have at this moment. The Creator and Exxod both know a bit about some metals, mainly how to artificially make mithril and hihi'irokane, but even they are unaware of ways to make the highest ranked metals.”
Spoiler“... and you can’t use your cards to cheat some out?” Alice asked.
“I have asked Laura to run some Poly experiments, fusing together metals. But thus far, it has not made any good results.”
“... maybe we should ask a legendary smith?”
“And where would we find one? And even if we did, do you think he would give us the time of day?” I asked.
“You could bribe him with your cards.” Alice suggested.
“Still doesn’t solve where we could find one.”
“Wilma might know of some.” Lua said.
“Still doesn’t solve how we could even meet one.”
I know I was kind of the pessimist in this conversation, but if I let Alice and Lua fly free, they’ll expect me to pull the moon out of the sky for them. And while I somewhat easily go to the moon and take a piece of it home, I’d rather not have to do that.
… actually, maybe I should. Perhaps the moon isn’t just stone. I could potentially even fly out to some asteroids or something, take a few of them into my Storage, then refine whatever metals that are inside of them into something usable.
… but I would need a way to scan the asteroids. I wonder if Tahlia could do that after I take them into Storage. Just give me a basic composition. She can break down monsters into usable materials, so maybe. I’ll need to check that out with the rocks I have in Storage.
“I must head to the local Tower office to report that I am in the city.” Mariina said, as soon as we were at Sawyer's capital manor, so she quickly left with her assistant and the two guards. She also requested that we make sure that their stuff is taken from the two other golem carriages to inside the manor.
Compared to the one in their territory, this manor was a bit smaller. Not a lot, but enough that I could notice it. It was still a large house, but not huge by any means.
As we arrived, a group of maids and the head butler of the house had come to welcome us. I’m not 100% sure that they had a warning of us arriving, as Alice was supposed to take care of that part, but it does seem that they are ready to accept us either way. By the way, Miss Cressida wasn’t here at the moment, as she was still at work.
“Lord Wood, you don’t seem to have a lot of luggage. Is it in a magic chest, or something?” The butler asked me, after he checked the inside of my carriage.
He was already quite surprised when he saw that the inside of the carriage was larger than the outside, but now he seemed almost troubled by not finding our luggage.
“Oh, that. I have all of it in my Storage. … well, other than the stuff in Ria’s magic backpack, but she can carry that.”
Technically Ria also had her magic fanny pack under her travel outfit, but we don’t have to talk about that. Even Alice and Lua sometimes had their magic fanny packs on, so they could hold stuff there. For them, it was just a bit more inconvenient to get stuff out of Storage, as Storage is my skill, with them just having access to it. At least that is what they said, but if I am to be honest, I feel like they use the magic fanny packs to hide what they don’t want me to easily see. Yes I can see what is inside a magic bag that I store in Storage, but I have to open up one more sub-menu to see that. So maybe the girls are counting on Tahlia catching me in time or something, if I wanted to look at what they hide inside their magic fanny packs.
“I understand. Then, … how many rooms would you like?” He asked in a quieter voice, while looking towards the girls.
“... Ria needs a room of her own, but I’ll be in the same as Lua and Alice.” I answered quietly.
“As you wish. I shall arrange it as such.”
Soon enough, we were shown to a large guest room. It seemed to be one of the best in the manor, as the room itself was quite sizable, it had an attached bathroom with a tub that could fit multiple people, and the bed was large. Not huge like the bed I made for myself at HomeBase, but still big enough that even on earth it would have to be a custom order.
We spent a bit of time setting stuff from Storage into the closets in the room, but most of our stuff was still going to be in Storage. Just because we really don’t have a reason to put any of it out, except for appearances.
Eventually, both Mariina and Cressida returned so we could have dinner together, while we could also speak of the future.
“Yes. I can arrange it. It will actually be quite simple now.” Cressida replied, when I asked her about meeting the King.
“... now? Has something changed?”
“Do you really need to ask? Want me to get the list?”
“... yes?”
“Taking down two SS-rank monsters, defending a city from dragons, taming a dragon, holding the System Support, revealing an illegal slave trade, curing dhampirs of their blood curse. Oh, and let’s not forget founding a dungeon. And I feel like I didn’t mention at least something.”
“I didn’t know you had been informed of all of those already. I assumed at least some of that info would be … secretive.”
“Blame yourself. After we returned from Father’s birthday party, His Highness Prince Elias hired me as his personal adviser. I have access to some … classified information because of that.”
“And here you are sharing it. Maybe I should report that to the Prince.” I joked.
“As if you didn’t know of it already, as you are the one it is about.”
“... true. But still not a good look. … but I guess I’m thankful that I have easy access to the Royal family, so thank you.”
“... now I don’t know how to feel about this.” Cressida said. “I was going to complain that it is your fault that I have a ton of work nowadays, but if you are going to be like that, then it would be awkward.”
“I can make you coffee or energy drinks, if that would help.” I told her.
I had actually already located coffee, both beans and the ground stuff, in the Chaos God Dungeon catalog, but I don’t really need it, so I never made any. Then I decided to quickly check for energy drinks, but those didn’t seem to exist. At least caffeine based energy drinks. Revitalizing potions were a thing, but those are more like stamina potions. But using the CGD item developer, I quickly isolated the caffeine compound from coffee, so I was now able to make artificial caffeine. Then just mix that into a drink and you have yourself an energy drink.
“... you have coffee? Where did you get some?” Mariina asked. “It isn’t exported from the Crystal Empire.”
“You know, when you know people you might get access to some stuff.” I avoided the question. But if anyone asks, I’ll tell it was Lady Janina, as she does trade with people from the Crystal Empire.
“Also what is an energy drink? I’ve heard that coffee has an energizing effect, but I don’t know of these energy drinks.”
“They are drinks made by extracting caffeine from the coffee. That caffeine is then mixed into other drinks to make it something easier to drink.” I explained.
“... why did you never tell us about it?” Alice asked.
“Because at our level, as long as we sleep at night, it isn’t really a problem.” I told her.
Honestly speaking, I could probably stay up for three days no problem, if I wanted to. But I just never have seen a need for it.
We kept on chatting about this and that, and I almost offered Cressida some level ups as an apology for her getting a more demanding job because of me, but I got the feeling that she was actually glad to have her current job as the Prince’s assistant. Not that I think leveling her up would be a bad thing, but if I did it for her, then I’d have to level up Mariina as well. And that would mean way too many questions, so let’s just not.
