"Haaah… never did I think that he would give you a Crested Dagger…" Henry sighed in his chair as he supported his head with his left hand.
"Is it really that bad?" I asked, sitting before him. Blanche and Lena were in a library, studying magic and I planned to join them soon enough.
"Well, he's not a bad person, so you don't need to worry much about what he will do, but you should be careful around other nobles."
"Is there some kind of factional dispute?"
"Yes, in a sense. Since there are no wars between members of the Southern Alliance allowed, sometimes nobles call for civil war on each other to appease their pride. In my eyes it's a barbaric practice, but what can we do? Currently, there are several factions, with the Royal faction being the strongest, numbering around seventy percent of the kingdom. The Western Faction consists of nobles ruling over part of a desert bordering the Xesnuaji Republic, who wish to expand their influence deeper into the desert and conquer the local tribes. This faction isn't really numerous in nobles, but they possess many gold mines and have a lot of people with high leveled skills, due to monsters living in the area. Opposing them is the South-east faction, which makes their money from trade, and they even do business with tribes outside the kingdom's borders. This faction is really peace-loving, so they always advocate for peaceful negotiations."
"I see, so the king can use this dagger to say 'He's under my faction, so hands off' right?"
"Just as you said. Though there are also factions within factions, however, you don't need to worry about them for now. Were the queen to give birth to another prince or princess, there might be a slight succession dispute, but knowing my brother, he might do it like we did," Henry smiled a little wickedly, "Ahem. Anyway, you shouldn't worry about it any time soon. You might get the Crested Dagger, but you have no grand accomplishment to your name, so you can breathe easy for now. And even if you did, we will help you out however we will be able to."
"Okay, thank you," I nodded to him and went to meet with the girls and after lunch we went touring the city.
"I must say, this place always lives up so much during the Summer Festival."
"That is true," Hazel nodded next to Lena, fixing his glasses.
"This is my first festival, so I can't really compare, will there be any festivals in Aula city?"
"Yes. After the fishing season is one big festival and then there is the Founding Festival celebrated for the entire first week of spring," Hazel told me as he picked up some skewers from a stall for himself and Lena.
"Brother, are you sure you don't need to watch over the prince today?" Lena asked coldly, as the skewer used spices she didn't like and saw it as a stab from her brother, who coincidentally, didn't realize that.
"I do not. Today he is staying with his mother the Queen. She is holding a tea party for all the queens and their children. Since the prince is an only child, he has to attend," Hazel quickly switched the skewers as he realized his error after one bite.
"And he won't run off? That happened once already," Lena blushed a little.
"Please, this time, there is the First Royal knight order keeping everything in check, so there should be no problems."
Watching the two from the side-lines, I check on my shopping list to hide my stupid grinning face. Today, my main objective was to get sugar producing plants, as my only other option was honey from the Devil bees.
"Arito, Arito!"
"That's my name. What's up?"
"Look at this! Isn't it nice?" Blanche showed me an ear clip at one stall. It had a simple and cute design with a wave pattern.
"Hmm… it really looks nice… is it enchanted? I can feel a slight magical response from it," I asked the shopkeeper, a Dragonewt man, in charge of the stall.
"You have a good eye, sir. All items you see before you were found in a Dimension Rift filled with Fey-type monsters."
"I see, that is certainly a rarity, but if true, your prices are rather low."
I mean, one of the Fey items in the auction goes for ten thousand Alba as just an opening bid.
"That is true, it stands to question the legitimacy of your words and your wares," Hazel came over to us with a cold stare.
"I–I'm not lying sir," the Dragonewt smiled uncertainly.
"Then it won't be a problem if I use my Appraisal, correct?" Hazel's eyes sparkled with evil intent, while I used Appraisal in secret anyway.
"I see, they are covered in Pixie Dust, so something about them being Fey-type items is true, but I doubt they are from Dimensional Rift as you say."
"Truly? That would explain the low price. The Dimension Rift items can go easily for ten times this price, however if it's junk covered in Pixie Dust, then these goods are totally overpriced. How about we talk with the overseers?" Hazel rained down on the man as if he was nothing more than a pest in a flower bed.
Leaving the rest to Hazel, I took Blanche to another stall with even cuter accessories and picked up a different kind of ear clip that would suit her better. In exchange, she picked me a similar looking ear clip, which she happily put on me. I might not be one to enjoy fashion too much, but I'm not putting this thing off!
***
Two days later, we were sitting in a carriage, riding to the auction hall with Lena and her father. I already told them and Kalvig, which monsters and items I'm going to try to get, so we would not bet over each other. Speaking of Kalvig, he said that he will come later with the gifts from the other ministers. When I heard what the gifts were gonna be like, I gave him one of my magic bags to make him less conspicuous. But really? Special fishing equipment? Wyvern Eggs? What's with these people? I'm already getting an absurd amount of money from them, they don't need to brown nose me even more!
Anyway, the money from the Ellee sales will be deposited in the Central Bank here in the Capital and I am the only one who can access the account with my card. Thinking of it now, I should deposit some money in my MonsterWork company account as a precaution. Don't want to run out of funds for employees and store upkeep. Though, I'm still not sure how much income I will have from the shop…
"So, you decided to submit two Magic bags, I heard," Henry asked me with a serious look on his face.
"Indeed. But, they are the smallest variety. I didn't add any powdered Magic stones, so their capacity is limited to about ten times the size of the bags and you can only store items that would normally fit inside the regular bag. I honestly can't see them being used any other way than a purse."
"Even that is something incredible, you know? Plus the Magic Bag you've lent to my father-in-law could easily ruin the economy."
"Really?"
"Indeed. Most magic bags are a third, if not just a quarter of Item Box spell."
"That's the first time I hear about that. Urgh… good thing I haven't auctioned one of my personal bags…"
"Your… personal bags?"
"I was worried about my capacity to store everything I needed in the forest, so I used all the Magic stone powder I had to create ten magic bags that could store about as much as my Dimension home…"
"Those are… national level… haaaaah… why am I not surprised…" Lena supported her head with her palm as she sighed.
"Your capacity? Whatever could you store in there?"
"Mostly things I liked. Ores, stones, wood, seeds, fur, bones, meat, bandit loot, reports on all my experiments, and other such things."
"Ores? Like those from the forest's underground?"
"Yes, but I also went to the southern mountain range, so I have some low grade magic crystals of Ice, Wind and Water elements. I have one magic bag filled with ice too… My Blizzard wolf likes those as a snack, you see," I smiled at remembering my small guy demanding ice and then chomping on it happily.
"I see. You really like your wolves, don't you?" Lena smiled at me, still supporting her head with her hand.
"Well, they say that dog is the man's best friend, after all."
"But they are wolves."
"Same thing," I shrugged back at the teasing Lena.
Henry smiled softly looking at the two of us and flipped through the catalog for this day. "I must say, I never saw so many monsters being auctioned outside of the Draggera empire. Though not all of them come from there. Aclelania had a Goblin dungeon open up about three months ago so they offer quite a wide variety of them. They probably plan to see which is the most profitable and sell those at their own auctions claiming that 'these or the other' were the most sought after at Sumer auction so you need them too… honestly, those idiots… What do you say, Arito? Will you go for some of those goblins?"
"Hmm… maybe I will, but I will definitely go after the Celestial Orb and Fallen Succubus as my main objective. The remaining interesting monsters come after that."
"What's your budget?"
"One million for the monsters and three millions for the other items."
"That's… quite a lot."
"It's not even all from my share for the Skull bear materials, though…"
"Your share?" Lena raised her eyebrow.
"Arito splits our rewards equally, but is really stingy with his share usually."
"Said the one who went to the sales pitch with royals without batting an eye."
"I thought it would make you happy."
"It did make me happy, elated, even."
"Fufu, so no harm done?"
"None at all. It was just a little surprising seeing you like that."
"AA—HEM!!!" Lena interrupted my and Blanche's little back and forward, which made us pout at her in unison.
"I thought Father and Mother are the only ones openly flirting like this, but you are really pulling your weight here."
""You jealous?"" Our perfect sync froze Lena over and Henry chuckled lightly.
Not long after ending our talk we made it to the auction hall which also served as a theater. It was a giant white building made of marble with a golden dome above it. Were the Castle and Cathedral not even more magnificent, this place would definitely be the pride of the city. We got out at the main entrance and walked the red carpet to the building and got to appreciate the highly decorated walls of the noble entrance.
We entered and got up to the second floor and here we separated from Henry and went to meet up with the prince and the princess. Their room was guarded by a set of knights, who were wearing magic armor and weapons, all of which were made from magical metals. Guess the nobles don't like monster weaponry. Not even Henry's guards were using any.
"Ah! Sir Arito, welcome!" princess Mushrooza smiled happily as she saw us, speaking out of turn.
"Welcome, Sir Arito, Lena and Blanche too," Prince Andy nodded to us.
"We are grateful for this chance you've so graciously given," we bowed politely and I noticed two officers in the back.
"Oh, those are officers our Fathers send with us, to keep an eye on us," princess Mushrooza smiled.
"Mot—I mean Her Majesty the Queen— will join us later, as well," Andy said with a solemn expression.
HOLD IT!!! Why are you raising stakes like this?! I'm barely able to hold noble conversations with kids like you, how do you figure I can make it with an adult?! Meeting the king was exhausting as is!
My secret pleas were not heard out sadly, and I could only pray that I could be forgiven for some missteps when I eventually make them. Meanwhile, the stage where the auction items would be displayed and auctioned was filled with acrobats and their show. Most of them were feline beastfolks that came from the Xesnuaji Republic, who used their nimbleness to make different poses mid-air, putting on a great show.
"This brings back memories to the Black Rabbit brigade…"
"Right? Definitely not my proudest memory…" I smiled wryly at Blanche who was making the same grimace as I did. We were using binoculars to look at the show and I was a little surprised by the high quality of glass used for them. For the most part, the glass was cut into small round discs and bonded together with soft metal, but here in the capital I even got to see sheet glass. Would Sand slime evolve into Glass slime if I let him eat some? Or would I need something else? Well, with the Silica I could technically make glass, but it would be pretty bad quality, I'm sure…
"So this is where you all were hiding," a soft voice came from behind us.
"Mother!" Prince Andy sprung up to welcome the woman in doors accompanied by a mage girl. The queen was a human, but given the shape of her nose and ears, she might've had elvish ancestry, a fact boosted by the tips of her hairs being light blue unlike the rest, which was black. The light blue looked just like that of Sea elves' hairs.
"Welcome, Your Majesty," Mushrooza bowed politely, while me and Blanche took a knee, waiting for our turn to introduce ourselves.
"Auntie!" Lena smiled and walked up to the queen with a happy smile.
"Oh, hello there Lena. Is your magic coming along?"
"Uh-huh! I already am an F rank adventurer with special permission for higher ranked jobs!"
"Oh wow! Isn't it like two weeks since you registered? You grow so fast," the queen smiled proudly.
"It's thanks to my amazing teammates! This is Arito and the girl is Blanche, they are both super strong!"
"Oh, so this is the Skull Bear slayer I heard about. Please raise your heads, while this may be a public place, no one can listen in on our conversations so speak freely too."
"We are deeply grateful for your generosity," we spoke in a calm, even tone, even though we were mostly faking it.
"So you are the ones who gave my son that figurine, right?" the queen asked me with an interested look.
"It was me, though I had help from Lena, who chose the base it stands on."
"Does that mean you made it?" the queen's eyes sparkled.
"Y-yes, that was me. I mostly used magic, though."
"Impossible," one of the mages in the back scoffled.
"There definitely are instances of great earth attribute magicians making sculptures, though," the queen refuted.
"With all due respect Your Majesty, all of them were well accomplished magicians with years of training and experience, NOT children."
"If you don't trust me, I can make one right now. I have a block of stone in my Item box, so if Her Majesty allows taking it out, I will show you."
"Please do so," the queen gave her OK right away, so I opened the Item Box, took out one block of stone and had it inspected by the magician. Once that was done, I used Break rock, Clay and Sand polish to make a statue. For my inspiration, I used prince Andy who was sitting in his chair, supporting his head with a fist.
"Eh?"
"Absurd…"
The two mages looked at the statue from every possible angle, before looking at me and the rude one falling to the ground prostrating herself.
"I'm so sorry for doubting you!!!"
"It's fine. I get that a lot…"
"What a marvelous doll of my little boy. Mr. Arito, are you perhaps a sculptor?"
"No, I am an adventurer and a tamer. I used earth magic a lot in the past, because it was great for setting up traps, bases and hunting grounds in general. I usually spent my winters perfecting my speed and precision, so I eventually ended up here."
"I see! I shall strive to improve myself!!!" the rude mage girl looked up with sparkling eyes.
"Anyway, may I buy the doll of your hands?" The queen's eyes were gleaming like diamonds when she looked at the doll I made.
"Oh, please take it without a charge. I made it just to prove my abilities to Miss Mage here, so I had no intention of keeping it from the start."
"Thank you, you are really sweet," the queen was looking at the doll reverently so we left her in her little world and just as we were about to sit down again, a lady from the auction house came in and gave us a magic tool that looked like a sword handle with crossguard.
"When you press the button on the sticks, your number will be displayed at the auctioneer's pult and you will be called out. As you can see, you can use the wheel at the bottom to decide how much you want to bet above the last bet. The number will be displayed at the top," the lady explained to us kids. Coincidentally, Blanche was the only one who was not betting today, so the sword handles went to me, Lena, Andy and Mushrooza. One stick was also left near the queen, so she would probably bet on something too.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first day of Southern Aliance's Summer auction. Today, we have some amazing items, so let us start with our living items that came from Aclelania Kingdom! First monsters on our agenda is a pack of ten Redcap Goblins. Starting bit is 500 Alba. Please place your bets."
500 Alba. The exact amount of money you need for staying in a cheap inn for six days with breakfast and dinner…
The Redcap goblins went to an adventurer in the lowest floor for 550 Alba. There were some more goblin varieties until the goblins I was looking for came up. The Brass Goblins. As their name suggests, their body looks like it's made of brass. They were a little more muscular than regular goblins, but that was about it. What interested me the most was the baby, one of the female goblins was wearing on her chest. If my hunch was correct, then that child could grow up into a Goblin lord or one of the higher ranked species. I took my sword handle and set up the bid and waited.
"Now we have a pack of Brass goblins! Don't let the looks fool you, there might be newborn goblins in this pack, but goblins grow at exponential speed! Plus thanks to them being small now, will make them more obedient later! The starting bid is 550 Alba!"
600 Alba…
650 Alba…
700 Alba…
Now!!!
"Se— One thousand Alba from number 2846! Does anyone offer more?! First time! Second time! Third time and sold to number 2846!!!" the auctioneer called out and I smiled happily. I made my first purchase at the auction.
"Another pack of Brass Goblins for number 2846 for 850 Alba!!!"
"Pack of Blue Goblins to number 2846 for 1100 Alba!!!"
I ended up buying two more packs of goblin variety for a total of 2 950 Alba. Next came various monsters from all over the alliance, but none of them struck me as interesting.
"Light Runeraptor goes to number 2845 for 322 thousand Alba!"
"Yessssss!!!!" Lena yelled out happily after winning her bid on a raptor-like monster with white feather covered body. This was one of the beasts of burden, typically used by nobles in time of war. From what I heard later, they were usually bought out by the army officers who wished to move up in rank. Given the angry cries from down below, that must've been the case even now.
"Congrats, Lena," Andy led the obligatory congratulations and we added our congratulations too.
"Thanks everyone, but this next one will be big."
"Next one is the Celestial Orb, right?"
"Yes. The church's priests and bishops will definitely go after it. Plus the first bid is really high for a monster of this strength too."
The starting bid is five thousand, I better double it from the get go.
I set my sword hilt to display the appropriate numbers and waited for the start of the auction. The tension in the air could be cut like strings.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we arrived at the last monster of the day. Our monster is —as you certainly know— a Celestial Oooooooooooooooooooooooooorrb!!" The auctioneer tried to hype out the audience, but failed miserably as the people were already waiting for their chance to bet. I used the binoculars to look around and noticed several priests preparing their sticks for betting too. One more fancily dressed bishop might've looked worrying, though.
"Let's start the auction with five— huh?! W-we have our first bet! Number 2846 doubles the opening bet to ten thousand Alba!!!"
Eleven thousand Alba…
Fifteen thousand Alba…
Twenty thousand Alba…
"Fourty thousand Alba from number 2846! Does anyone wish to bet more?! First time! Second time!"
"Eighty thousand Alba from number 1537!!!" The bishop raised the price with a smirk, however…
"One hundred and twenty thousand Alba from number 2846!! Does anyone wish to bet more?! First time! Second time! Third time and sold to Number 2846 for 120 000 Alba!!!"
"Yes," I smiled happily. It was a little higher than I expected, but still within my budget. It shouldn't even be a quarter from the Skull Bear rewards. Now, I can experiment with an angelic-type monster. I can always get a decent number of demons thanks to Yue's Demon summoning, but given she has to bleed every time she summons one, I didn't let her do it since the one single experiment. Also, her summoning works as opening a dimensional rift between this plane and Demon plane. It means that even after she ends her summoning, the demons she summons will stay here in this plane, unlike with regular summoning magic.
"I will go pay for my monsters and pick them up, if you excuse me," I bowed politely and stood up.
"I will go with you!" Blanche stood up with me.
"Yeah, it would be better if I picked up my Runeraptor too. Can I store him in your Dimension home for now, Arito?"
"Of course," I nodded and the three of us went to the exchange center.
Once we went there, we presented our sword-like sticks and put them in a prepared hole. This magic device read our number and what items we won. Lena went first as she had only one monster and I went after her. Her taming turned out successful and the runeraptor looked really happy to be tamed by her, too. Next was my taming, and when I finished taming the goblins, the clerks were surprised I still had energy for taming even the Celestial orb, which turned out to consume more magical power than with usual taming.
"Oh, so you are the one to defeat me in our betting, Lady Lena," a bishop showed up and mistook me for Lena, around whom the Celestial orb was floating at the time.
"Ah, bishop Sleeza, long time no see," Lena returned the man a greeting, keeping him under false impression.
The man was older, plump and a little bald, yet radiated friendly aura. Yeah, that's fake. He's hiding his anger because Lena is a high noble. He could hide his animosity better.
"Given you won the bet, would you mind helping me a little? You can keep the contract, but I'm afraid that our church is in dire needs of a new angel, so could I ask you to come to us before the next blue moon?"
Hm? Are Celestial orbs releasing some kind of important stuff during the blue moon like the slimes?
"Arito…" Blanche tugged my arm and I nodded back. I better call him back…
The orb left Lena's side and came to me.
"Huh?"
"I'm sorry bishop Sleeza, but you are mistaken. The one who won the bet is my dear friend Arito over there, not me," Lena gave the bishop a warm smile before looking at me.
"Huh?"
"Hello bishop Sleeza, I am the new owner of this Celestial Orb. My name is Arito Aruze."
The bishop looked me up and down, looked dismissively at Blanche and spoke in an even tone. "I see, Mr. Arito, would you be willing to part with the monster?"
"Of course not, Mr. Bishop, I just paid for it. There are other angelic monsters for sale this time around, you can try your luck with them."
I started walking away, but the bishop moved faster than his figure would suggest to block my path. I grabbed Blanche's hand and used magic. "
I teleported to the end of the hallway and walked to our room.
"Such rudeness will not be forgiven! Now come with me, peasant!" the bishop stormed into the room and froze instantly. That was because he saw the queen and the prince with the princess sitting there. Lena walked past him and sat with us and coincidentally, even next to the Queen.
"Bishop Sleeza, what is this about?"
"Y-Your Majesty… erm…"
"Bishop tried to coerce Arito into giving him the Celestial Orb," Lena spilled the beans as she ordered some tea from the maid by the doors.
"Oh, is that so? Lord Arito, would you not be willing to part with the monster even for compensation?"
"I cannot. I do not own any angel-type monsters, so I need some to form my theory. Plus it is important to have someone else who can use healing magic in battle. Were something to happen to me, I doubt anyone could protect the rest of my party," I politely bowed to the queen, even though I knew that Lena could use Healing magic just fine.
"That is understandable. As an adventurer, you need someone or something to keep you healed. Please understand that, bishop Sleeza," the queen said with a chiding tone.
"…I understand, Your Majesty," the bishop bowed and left the room without saying a word to the rest of us, yet I noticed him biting his lip in anger.
"The bishop's rudeness should be punished. I better talk with Ingrid later," the queen smiled and took a sip of her tea.
"Sir Arito, it was all monsters for today, is there something that interests you apart from those in today's auction?"
"It doesn't lure me as much as the other things that I'm here for, but I guess, the Drake blood vials could be interesting if they kept their magic. Maybe some new transmutation equipment would be good too."
Among the items for sale here, was a giant Alchemy tablet that could exchange the alchemy circles with a lever, or a special wand that would not corrode, no matter what it was dipped in.
"You do alchemy too?" the queen looked taken aback a little.
"Yes, though nothing that much complicated. I can make some basic antidotes, but they expire quickly, so I'm just a trainee."
I guess my problem lies in keeping magic in the solution. I need to learn more techniques and get better at controlling my magic power too.
The rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully and I haven't bought much of anything except for the Alchemy tablet and the Crimson Wand. As it turned out, the blood was completely out of mana so it was worth next to nothing. I ended up buying it for the opening price of 100 Alba. If not anything else, the Blood Slimes will have something new to drink again.
One rare thing was a box apparently belonging to the Sage, but as it was purely a non-magical item, no one —except for me— was interested and I bought it for 200 Alba. Since the Sage is my father in this world, it makes some sense, I guess.
We said our goodbyes and I headed to the exchange counter for money from my first Magic Bag to be sold here. The bag today had about half of the storage space as the other one, but either way, I got almost ten million from selling it.
***
That evening I went to my Dimension home to get to know my goblins. When I entered, they prostrated themselves on the ground as if expecting me already. The Kobold in charge here took a knee and welcomed me.
"Welcome boss! I disciplined these guys who didn't want to walk the line!"
"Oh? What happened Kai?"
"They tried to eat from your garden and got beaten by me and mister Kuro!" I looked at the wolf lying in the back with his pack, yawning with content.
"Do you understand your place now?"
"Yes!!!" The goblins replied instantly.
"Good. You will be helping the kobolds on the farm. As a reward for your work, I will feed you and give you a safe place to live. BUT! If you step out of line I will deal with you appropriately, is that understood?!"
"Yes boss!"
"I will leave their education to you, Kai."
"Yes boss!" he barked out, showing his sharp pearly whites.
With that, I left to feed the slimes, wolves and the rest of my monsters and afterwards went out to my room to study the Celestial Orb.
Celestial Orb
Weakest type of all angelic monsters. It can adapt to its surroundings better than other angel-type monsters, making it the base for all non-humanoid-angel-type monsters. This monster is always floating and emits weak light. About ten centimeters in diameter. Float 10, Light Magic 5, Healing Magic 5, Light Magic Resistance 8, Divine Light 1
"Hmm… so it likes to drink water. Preferential elements are Light and Healing… hmm…"
As a test, I released some magical power filled with Light elements and the Orb absorbed it right away.
"Does it mean it feeds on magic power?" Blanche asked me, a Light slime on her head.
"It looks that way. I wonder if he will split like slimes do when I feed him enough."
"It might be similar to Healing and Light Slimes. Oh, did any new elemental slimes popped up?"
"Sadly, none. I tried to use lightning energy on some of the coastal slimes, but there was no reaction. I managed to tame a lot of Water slimes though."
"How many do we have now?"
"28 Water slimes in total."
"Ruuuuuuuuuuuu!!!"
The Chilltail dragon landed on my head and pleasant coolness spread around me.
"Hey there you little troublemaker, were you eating ice from the food storage again?"
"Ru-Ruuuuuu!"
"Heheh, at least he's honest," Blanche laughed softly and shortly headed to bed. I continued feeding the Orb magic power for a little more and went to sleep as well.
The next day there wasn't anything interesting in the auction, so I decided to skip it and go collect some Lightning squids washed ashore. I even collected some water, so the lively ones were kept alive for a little longer. Of course, I had to use the Filter Sponges to keep the water circulating.
Some of the slimes went and started drinking the salt water from one of the prepared jugs, so I made one large tub for them to drink from and used the jugs for Lightning squids. The only part that produced electricity was the tentacles, so I cut them off and started preparing the rest of the body. I removed the innards and fed them to the Grime slimes. Interestingly enough, some of them picked up the Paralysis resistance skill because of this.
I also had the Sand slimes sift through another beach, but this time I only ordered them to collect shells and man-made items, leaving the wooden scraps lying. In the end, they brought out a few living shell dwellers, which was a little surprising at the time, but nothing we could not deal with. Cooking the Lightning squids was a great idea, because they turned out to be really delicious. Their taste was similar to squid I ate back on Earth once, so the taste was slightly nostalgic.
"Fuuuu~ That was delicious…"
"Yeah, I really enjoyed it too. Maybe we could make some other food too?"
"Hmm… I will try to ask the chefs, they were glad for the weakling's meat, so they might tell us," Blanche cleaned her teeth with a toothpick.
Later that day I started looking through the Monstersmithing encyclopedia. For the most part it talked about various ways of crafting, but I got to learn a very important part. I could use alchemy to change shapes of bones and fangs to better suit my creation. The easiest to work with were apparently weapons made from bugs and the types of monsters that had a hard exoskeleton. The problem was that the way to repair them was practically unknown. Some beastfolk tribes past the southern mountains knew, but kept it secret from outsiders.
My mind instantly went to one of the monsters we caught today. It was called Herder Crab and while it was similar to Earth's hermit crab, this one was about the size of a dog. Herder Crabs were also herding snails and when the time came, they used shells of the snails for their own home. I tied the crab's pincers before dumping him to the Dimension home. Now, I had him taken out, because I found a recipe for a weapon made from its tail fins and antenna.
Now, for the crafting, I need to properly circulate magic power through the crab's body parts, like if it was a part of my own body. The natural recovery of flesh of these monsters should keep it together and once the magic power hardens, it will be usable.
I prepared before me all the parts I would need to make a solid image of the final weapon. For the blade, I had the longest tailfin. For crossguard the bigger halves of the main pincers. For the handle one of the legs and lastly the antenna for the handguard. I started circularing my magical powers and started assembling the sword.
This turned out to be quite tiring… I better start growing ingredients for magic recovery potions too. I will need those if I want to make better weapons in the future.
Herding Sword
Sword made entirely from Herding Crab materials. Once its internal magic hardens, it will be comparable to a fifth class magic weapon. Thanks to the base materials, the sword can easily bend the magical energy of the water element.
"Fifth class, huh?"
"That's a feat in its own right. Most first weapons made by novices are seventh class or below, you know?"
"Isn't sixth class and below considered paper class, though?"
The lowest weapon and armor class is the 8th class that is only good for G rank, maybe F rank monsters, but anything above that will shatter the weapon in a few hits. The best commonly available weapons are First class, but even that isn't the highest class weapon. Above First class is Knight Class, Noble Class, Royal Class, Legend Class, Mythological class and lastly Divine Class as the highest possible weapon. Though this weapon class could be only given to humans by the Gods (Administrators) of this world.
The reason why the Yellow spear bandit was as fearsome as he was, was because his spear was of the Noble class, so even First class weapons and armor didn't stand a chance against it.
Funnily enough, my bow made with pulleys was ranked by Henry's Knight commander as a semi-Knight class. What boggled her the most were the materials I used for making it. I used only the most basic materials that could be found anywhere around the Kassana forest, so it should be third class at best. Seems the technology pushed it past the limit. I honestly wonder how far I could push it with better materials.
"Well, I still have a long way to go. Maybe I should work on my basic smithing skill?"
"Our Magic item specialist said that he had to do something similar in the past, if I remember it correctly," Lena tried to recall the memory of meeting the person in question.
It's gonna be a long way before I manage to make something better than this, but it's not like I have to rush it or anything.
***
The next day was the third day of the auction and the last day I would be present. We planned to return to Aula on the fourth day of the auction.
The monsters on sale today were literally the cream of the top. Not a single one hand opening bids under ten thousand Alba and there were some that even started at hundred thousands.
"They are really getting into it, aren't they?"
"It is the third day, after all," Henry answered to Lena who was sitting next to him.
Today, me and Blanche were accompanying the Nomille family instead of prince Andy and princess Mushrooza. No need to say that the mood was a thousand times more relaxed then it was previously.
"All those monsters… I guess the Draggera people try to lure in profitable businesses by showing off monsters with high selling body parts."
"Indeed, but the most serious betting will start once the Rift weapons go for sale."
"Rift weapons?"
"That's a term used for weapons found in Dimensional rifts and Dungeons. It's said that the lowest weapon class is third, while the highest is the Noble class."
"On rare occasions Royal and Legend classes appear too," Hazel added.
"I see—"
"Look a pixie!" Blanche pointed at the stage, where a tiny metallic box with a humanoid figure inside was brought on stage. It had the shape of a petite human woman with black hair and black droopy eyes. She was hugging her knees to her chest and was dressed in black overall with a gray skirt over it. She also had two pairs of dragonfly-like wings that looked more geometrical then like those of actual dragonflies.
"This seems to be a Shade Pixie. According to the papers released with it, this pixie was in a chamber before the dungeon boss' room so it's pretty difficult to handle… The opening bid is only six thousand," Hazel looked dismissively.
"How much would you be willing to pay brother?"
"Well, I guess around sixty to ninety thousand should be okay," Hazel pushed up his glasses as he slightly frowned his brows.
"I see, thank you," I bowed lightly and prepared my betting stick.
"The next item on our today's auction is a Shade Pixie from the now destroyed Glimmerstone Dungeon. Opening bid is six thousand Alba. Betting is now open."
…
…
"Anyone who wishes to bet for five and half thousand?" The auctioneer was met with surprisingly low interest, a complete opposite to the previous monsters.
"What about five thousand?" The auctioneer lowered the price even more, so I reluctantly placed the bet.
"Five thousand! We have five thousand! Does anyone wish to bet more? First time! Second time! Third time and sold to number 2846 for five thousand!!!"
"Ladies and gentlemen, our final monster is from the Red Dimension rift called Fallen Succubus!" Another auctioneer came with a cage behind his back, replacing the current auctioneer. Inside was a voluptuous woman with golden ringlets and two black horns, her eyes were blue with black cross in them. She had a single pair of white feathered wings and one tiny pair of black bat-like wings.
"Fifty thousand!" one quite portly man shouted as he placed his bet and started a frenzied betting.
Sixty thousand…
One hundred thousand…
One hundred fifty thousand…
Two hundred thousand…
"Won't you place your bet, Arito?" Lena asked me.
"Not now."
Five hundred thousand…
Seven hundred thousand…
Seven hundred fifty thousand…
Seven hundred sixty thousand…
"Seven hundred seventy thousand for the first time! Second time! Thi—"
"Eight hundred thousand!!!" I shouted and raised the bet.
"What?!" The portly man got confused and a little enraged, but as it looked, he couldn't get any higher bids.
"First time! Second time! Third time and sold to number 2846!!!"
"Nice! I'm going to pick those two right away."
"I will wait here," Blanche smiled and looked over at the screaming people with a smile.
I ran to the exchange place and formed the contracts with both new monsters.
"Okay you two, I have goblins in there, so if they try to do something to you, feel free to fight back without killing them."
"Understood…" the fallen succubus smiled and licked her lips, while the pixie sat on my shoulder.
"You won't go in?"
"This is… better…" the pixie shook her head as she said so through the telepathic link.
We returned to the room and sat back in my seat. I took some cookies and offered them to the pixie, for whom it was a little too big.
"What did I miss?"
"The Rift Weapons started its auction. Look, another sword. A Flame Lily rapier."
The sword in question had a red blade with a flower motif handguard. According to the documents, it could create flames and slightly recover stamina.
It looks just like Magic sword from games… and this is a Noble class weapon, eh? It's nice to look at, sure, but I'm not sure it would be that good. Yeah, I'm gonna make my own weapons, it's not like I'm gonna get entangled with these weapons anyway.
The sword ended up bought by the portly man I stole the succubus from. Some other swords came after that, but none were as interesting as the first one. In the end, I didn't buy any other interesting items, and ended up going home with the group.
The next morning, we got ready for the journey and had to say our goodbyes. As for the prince, princess and the queen, we send them letters through Henry. I asked him to bring me the money gained from selling the second magic bag, as it would be sold on the last day of the Auction.
"Send my regards to Laina for me, please," Henry asked Lena and gave her a letter with what happened here.
"And this is from me, make sure she receives it," Hazel said while pushing up his glasses.
"Of course, Father, brother."
Glister couple was already seated, so we climbed on Berga as well and flew to the skies. The wind playfully danced in our hairs as we passed the rivers and forests returning to Aula.
"So what's next?"
"Opening the shop of course! We need to be set up before Mushrooza sends someone for that Deodorant!" I laughed happily, ignoring the confused couple behind us.
Let's open the store, make a killing and a proper Safety net!
A smile crept onto my face and I felt the wind cooling my teeth.
"Suddenly, I'm really hyped up!"
"Yeah! Me too!" Blanche, sitting before me, smiled as well, resting her back on my chest.