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Chapter 184
Of course, it wasn’t like we hadn’t done anything the last few days since I started making the fairy spring. I sent Lydia and Miki out to prepare supplies. We ordered clothing, armors, and provisions to last us for a month-long trip. Once I reached the Capital City, returning to and from it would become a cinch. I had more than enough money to handle anything we needed. In fact, the only problem was that I was carrying it all on me. What can I say, I was raised under the idea that carrying more than twenty bucks in your pocket was dangerous.
Well, I had a decent storage ring, so putting more money into it seemed to be just par for the course. I sat Miki down and started going over the alchemy potions. I was almost as good of a reader as she was when she started, and she herself had improved leagues over the last month and a half. The pair of us worked together to create potions.
Only some of the potions were important, but I found that most ingredients were worth less that potions, so I figured making a lot of potions would mean we could sell them all once we reached the Capital. That meant more room for other goods. I didn’t plan to just buy a few things in the Capital. The Mayor, who now just called himself my advisor, gave a list of resources that it’d be nice if we ordered in bulk. Things needed to build and expand. This included people. There were many guilds we could establish a relationship with and get them to send out people to live in our city. We were lacking in specialized craftsmen, soldiers, and other such things.
Well, all of that was secondary. I had a dozen reasons for wanting to be in the capital city. I needed to get in the paperwork to request Chalm be part of Aberis and myself as its lord. I wanted to speak to the Slaver Union and see about removing these slavery tattoos despite this curse. I was curious about looking at other slaves too. Our team was magic heavy, and I needed an adequate defender to tank for us. Of course, I didn’t want to bring any more slaves if they couldn’t find a way to detach them from me.
On that note, the Capital City had a tamed dungeon within its walls. Supposedly, it had over 200 floors, and the lower levels were even tough for the strongest knights in the land. Unfortunately, it was controlled by the palace and only knights were allowed to use it for training. There was also supposedly a network of different stable dungeons all throughout Aberis, each with different traits and more importantly, different resources. A stable dungeon was one that didn’t pose a threat to those nearby. It usually was guarded and allowed dungeon divers in for a small fee. Dungeon divers would try to accumulate as many resources as they could and then return with hopefully a profit.
These kinds of dungeons had already been mapped out, or atleast the top floors were mapped out. Anyone of them would be an invaluable resource to me. I could finally start leveling regularly and make it into a habit. As someone who could transport around, I could decide on what resources I wanted and then target specific dungeons to acquire them. With that, I could accumulate wealth and power with ease. I was very excited about such a prospect.
However, the most amazing thing in the Capital were Blue Mages. Blue Mages had the power to manipulate space. In other words, they had my dungeon point spell Portal or something like it. For a fee, they could teleport you all over the nation. If I had them send me to a distant city, then I could Portal home myself. Like that, I could finally start building a highway of travel over all of Aberis. Perhaps, I could do some mercantile transportation to earn even more money.
Well, that was just some of the stuff I wanted to get done in the Capital.
Chapter 185
Miki had the ability to create potions, and it wasn’t lost on me that Celeste had the Enchant ability. At level 2, it was pretty much useless for all but the most basic enchantments. However, I really wanted to level this ability with her. From what I understood, to enchant an item, one had to have both the Enchantment class and the spell they wanted to enchant the item with. For most people, that meant you needed two spell castors minimum working together. It was no wonder that enchanted items weren’t very common.
However, if I could get her Enchantment up, it’d mesh really well with the Haste spell. If I hasted all of the clothing, rings, and necklaces, our party would move so fast that no one would hit us. I’d also be interested in trying various other spells. Another thing the Capital had was a full library where I could obtain a lot of this information. It’d be nice if I didn’t have to go into all of it flying blind.
Therefore, getting in a dungeon on some safe levels and cranking up everyone’s level was definitely high on my list. Fortunately, many non-fighting jobs had multiple ways to level. Alchemist was one such job. The fact of both of us making potions, in conjunction with our own experience boosts, caused our levels to start creeping up. By the time we were done making as many potions as I dared to make, my level had reached 5. As for Miki, she reached 12.
The Alchemist skills were mixing, purification, and concentration. None of this had any relevance to combat or anything of the like. Rather, these were all functions in the alchemy process, and the more of these you had, the more different recipes you were able to make. At level 2, there were only about 3 potions total that I could make without borrowing Miki’s help. Now there were close to twenty.
A few more days passed and we had acquired our repaired armor, sewn clothing, and requested supplies. I had a ring with nearly 1300 gold in it, not to mention a king’s ransom in potions and the like. Each girl had her own pack. If I could afford it, I’d eventually like to give each girl a storage ring. That sounded a bit over the top, but I definitely wanted to spoil the girls at least that much.
What was the point of having all this money if I couldn’t spend it a bit lavishly? I mean, I had numerous sources of earning money now, so there is nothing really holding me back. Well, there was one thing. As much as the seamstress was an interesting person and did well, the seamstresses in the capital were supposedly many times better. I’d like to get these girls the best of the best when I could afford it.
I got a map to the Capital and frowned as I tried to plot our direction. Compared to my mapping skill, this was many times worse. It looked like my dungeon point skill had caused me to grow a bit spoiled. Celeste bid her mother goodbye. Even though she was a lone fairy, Astria was thriving in her little grove. The rest of us also gave our goodbyes. We were going to head there on foot. I wasn’t a person who knew anything about horses and I didn’t want to get involved with them. Plus, if we brought a carriage, that would imply we had stuff, and that would attract bandits. I had been in this world for a little over 2 months now, and I was finally setting out to see it for the first time. Along-side three beautiful women, it didn’t seem like such a bad journey after all.
Chapter 186
We kept to the road, and the first day of travel went very smoothly. When it got dark, we got the tents out and slept. Well, I had tents, but all of the girls somehow ended up in my tent. Celeste had to shrink down to her fairy size just to fit all of us. We’d need to get a bigger tent in the future if this was how the girls wanted to travel. Well, that, or maybe we could find some kind of tent with special magic on it. It’d be cool to sleep in something that was bigger on the inside.
The next day, it was around lunchtime and I was just thinking that I was getting kind of hungry when we noticed a cart on the side of the road. They were pulled over and it looked like they had a broken wheel. We stopped a distance away from them. Celeste flew up high to get an overhead view, and I used a telescope that I had gotten for the journey.
“The Guild Master said that any broken-down carts on the side of the road may be a trap set by bandits.”
I didn’t know why an established country like Aberis had bandits. It seemed like the first thing a country would do is monitor their roads and ensure things like bandits didn’t happen. I decided it was like finding a turkey leg in armor and decided to just accept it. In this case, we had discussed many possible things with the Guild Master, and one such warning was to remain vigilant.
Although Lydia was my official scout, I didn’t feel her job nor her experience was high enough yet that I was willing to risk her against bandits. Celeste, on the other hand, was small and could fly outside the range of arrows, so there was very little risk for her in this situation. She came back a few minutes later.
“Master, I see no bandits around the area. The cart contains just an old man and what appears to be his daughter. They appear to be transporting food.”
“Ah, then I suppose we might as well greet them and see if we can help.”
I also didn’t see anything suspicious in my telescope. This should be safe. We approached the two stranded people.
“Hello!” The old man waved, smiling, “Traveler, good day!”
“Good day!” I responded back. “Um… you need any help?”
“Ah… that… it appears like our wheel is busted.” The man sighed.
“We’ve been out here for hours!” The girl said, worriedly.
She was a pretty girl with blond hair and blue eyes. She had a hat on her head and wore a typical farmer’s garb, or at least what I would think was a farmer’s garb.
The old man nodded. “I worry if we’re stuck out here for the night. Bandits or wolves. However, this food is my livelihood, and if I abandon it, we’ll definitely starve.”
Unfortunately, no one in my party was able to fix things. I had no woodworkers or carpenters. So, I wouldn’t… wait… there was that! The White Mage ability Light Repair! Perhaps… perhaps it’d be enough!
“I may be able to help. First, let’s get your cart back on the road.”
“Just you and me, boy?”
“Ah… the girls can help too.”
“Oh? They’re slaves?”
“More like family.” I smiled.
The three girls blushed, but they were more than happy to help as we pulled the cart out of the mud and got it back on the street. I could see the damaged wheel now. When it fell into the mud, the frame seemed to have cracked. The farmer’s daughter moved up close to me.
“Thank you so much for helping us.” She smiled.
My girls were giving slightly irate looks, please don’t stand so close! At least, that was what I wanted to say, but I was just too polite.
“I’ll have this working soon, maybe…” I laughed, holding my hand over the wheel.
She looked at it and gasped. “Wow… is that a storage ring? I-I’m sorry for addressing you so, my lord!”
She started to try to bow, so I stopped her. “Ah… actually, I’m just a dungeon diver. Nothing so grand as a lord.”
I was getting more looks from my girls now that I was touching the farmer girl. I certainly didn’t want to reveal I was a lord or anything.
“Anyway, I’m not sure if this will work, so we’ll try.” I decided to just move things along. “Light Repair!”
Magic came out from my fingertips, and the girl looked on wide-eyed and clapped excitedly. It took casting the spell ten times, but the wheel looked like it could handle the rest of the journey.
“I’m glad to see there are still good people in this world.” The farmer said, thanking us profusely. “Here, please, have some of our food as compensation. That spell of yours likely saved me half a gold coin in repairs.”
I waved off their compliments, said my farewells and the four of us continued our journey to the capital. However, what I didn’t see was after the cart traveled about a mile in the opposite direction away from us, a dozen thieves suddenly burst out around it, pulling out their knives and spreading around the old man and the woman.
The woman smirked. “Three slaves and a storage ring. Boys, we’ve got ourselves a rich target this evening. Send Balrack in. He can enjoy the slaves however he sees fit, but remember, leave no survivors.”