Raphiel entered the dungeon once more, but this time, he arrived in a modern city instead of a forest. Using a bit of mental energy to bend reality, he summoned a woman in white battle armor who approached him. She knelt and said, "It is an honor to serve you," to which Raphiel simply smiled and extended his hand toward her. The woman smiled back and took his hand.
The woman then disintegrated into atoms and transformed into a card in Raphiel's hand. He could sense her consciousness within the card, and when he tried to examine the spheres inside it, he was astonished. The spheres behaved strangely, as if defying the laws of quantum theory.
Raphiel smiled, placed the card in his inventory, and quickly exited the dungeon, returning to the void. He could feel a faint tremor from the card. He immediately summoned the mist orb and allowed the card to merge with it.
Raphiel upgraded the mist orb to VIP level and made it a Level 5 VIP. The only difference was that its black hole was now the size of a sphere. Raphiel could hear the voice of the female knight in his mind; he gave her a bit more VP and a copy of his skill cards.
From within the mist orb, a voice asked, "Master, could you restore me to my human form?" Raphiel nodded and replied, "It's possible, but to be fair, I'd like you to do it yourself. You now have full control over your current form, so over time, you can transform back into a human form."
The mist orb took on a humanoid smoky shape, bowed before Raphiel, and requested a name. Raphiel said, "I once met someone very similar to you." The mist orb asked, "Are you referring to the hero named Selena? If possible, I'd prefer not to bear the same name as someone who once threatened you."
"Then your name shall be Angela; you already resemble an angel."
The mist orb, now in humanoid form, looked very happy and shouted with joy, "Angela is honored to serve you, Master!" With that, Raphiel and Angela descended into the dungeon together, as he wanted her to gain some combat experience.
---
At an auction where everyone wore masks, the auctioneer introduced a slave: "This is a rare item captured recently, a mermaid, one of the last of her kind, and a pureblood at that." The mermaid, trembling with fear, floated within a glass water tank on the podium.
She had trusted a human, making her first and last mistake. As she cried, her tears were swept away by the water. Being a pureblood mermaid made her a noble among mermaids, yet in the eyes of these humans, she was merely a more valuable fish. She was a rare item any collector would covet.
The auctioneer announced, "The starting price is five large gold coins, with a minimum increment of one gold coin." The price quickly soared, and though the increase slowed, it continued to rise.
Initially, three people were interested in purchasing the mermaid; one quickly withdrew, leaving two. One was a wealthy merchant from the north, while the other was Alice's younger brother, who had brought along Alice's slave.
The merchant intended to buy the mermaid to resell her for a higher price, while Alice's brother thought she would look beautiful in the mansion's garden pool. Alice's brother won the auction, and stronger slaves were introduced shortly after.
The seller explained the details of each new slave listed on their status panels. A pureblood mermaid was considered a monster and therefore could not possess a system, whereas half-humans naturally had a system. However, half-humans only gained half the experience of other creatures and received only half the stat increase when leveling up, making them far less valuable than human slaves. Human trafficking, however, was strictly forbidden in this kingdom.
The reason behind this ban was a massive resistance movement; even the king dared not keep a human slave, as doing so would likely mean he wouldn't live to see the next day. Such situations had occurred countless times before.
The auction soon ended, and everyone left after paying for their purchases. The mermaid was left at the auction house temporarily due to the difficulty of transporting her to the barony.
---
At first, Angela consumed VP even in the void, causing a loss for Raphiel, but as she gradually gained combat experience, the loss decreased. Over time, Angela became self-sufficient and even began to earn some VP.
Raphiel made a few small changes to the status panel, renaming the [Pets] menu to [Servants] since Angela was not a pet. He also perfected the [Servants] menu.
He improved the [Inventory] menu as well, making it far better. Resources could now be gathered from dungeons and used to construct structures in the void, though these structures wouldn't appear magically—they would have to be built manually. The only magical option was to create a flat surface.
Typically, they could manipulate the void however they wanted by simply spending some VP, but Raphiel didn't want to make things that easy. Structures could be placed in the inventory, meaning they could eventually be traded with other users.
Raphiel left the void and returned to the real world. He grabbed his water bag and went to the market, filled it at the water well, then bought a loaf of bread from his usual baker. Without lingering, he returned to his hidden shelter.
He ate the bread, drank his water, and then studied language with Alice. This time, he didn't hide the fact that he understood her. Alice asked how he changed the color of his eyes, but Raphiel told her he couldn't explain it. Alice felt a bit disappointed but didn't press him, as everyone has secrets they cannot share. For example, Alice didn't tell him that the reason she was helping him was to repay a debt owed to someone else, nor did she ever mention what happened that night. The person who had saved Alice had sworn her to secrecy. Once, she almost accidentally mentioned it, only to feel death looming over her.
After Alice went to sleep again, Raphiel returned to the void. This time, he decided to perfect the remaining features. He completed the remaining functions overnight, with the easiest addition being the [Craft] feature—he simply had to place some restrictions on what he already possessed.
Time flowed like water, and evening arrived again. This evening was similar to the last, with the only difference being his improved communication. Alice asked him about his origins, but he evaded her questions.
That day, Raphiel pondered how he might transfer the system to others and worked on this concept. Strangely, it was much easier than he had anticipated, though he still needed to test it on someone else. He considered asking for Alice's help, but, fearing it would draw too much attention from her, he decided against it.
He would have to find someone else for this task.