Chapter 99: Housing

“So they guess?” Ilea asked. Claire seemed actually annoyed, a very rare occurrence Ilea had found. “Alright, let’s say they don’t and it makes sense but can a mission’s classification change?”

“It can but you’ll have to bring proof and argue for the change. Not something that is easy to justify. And it’s going to be tough arguing for a level three on a level one mission.” Claire’s explanation just seemed like an excuse for the rating system to Ilea. Considering the members would likely get paid accordingly, it made sense.

“Then there better be a bloody shredder in there.” Ilea said and smiled, getting a chuckle from Eve.

“Let’s focus on the mission and if we can join after we will. Otherwise we’ll be able to learn a lot from the fights either way.” Kyrian finally interjected, his voice of reason acting like a relieving potion for Claire’s mind, if one went by her facial expression.

“Sounds good, I do of course like the idea of killing a shredder.” Trian said, getting a smile from Ilea alone.

“Alright, let’s get back to work. You can finish discussing that later, children.” Liam said but to his annoyance didn’t get much of a reaction from anybody, not even the noble. Ilea saw with her sphere that Trian’s eye twitched a little though which made her happy. Annoying the hypocritical man with a fist of gold up his ass and an arrogance to rival an emperor gave her a fuzzy feeling deep down in her heart. Of course it wasn’t her that caused it this time but his annoyance was there.

The shredder has up to 738 blades of bone growing out of its flexible body. It’s most common approach is the surrounding of a foe followed by furious movement. The resulting damage is likely one of the reasons for its name. The….

“We should take the day off before the first mission.” it was Claire who suggested the day off, at least from everything except the classes. “I need time to prepare runes and provisions anyway.” Ilea was keeping back a smile, thinking of her necklace that simplified preparations a thousandfold. She couldn’t imagine waiting at a gate for check in anymore after having used the magical device for the past months.

Food wasn’t an issue, clothing wasn’t an issue. Not even getting on the clothes was any effort anymore. She still sometimes practiced getting on and off her armor just in case she’d lose the item at some point or if it was stolen. It seemed like a rather slim possibility but nonetheless something to be prepared for. ‘For all the training and preparing we did in the past months we still know jack shit about what’s in that mine we’ll clear out tomorrow…’ she thought.

“I agree, I’ll have some preparations to do as well.” Kyrian agreed with their unofficial team leader. Even Trian agreed as he had to prepare quite a bit considering he’d be gone from the city for a week or longer. Ilea felt the day off to be unnecessary. She had food and a bunch of stuff in her necklace, no further preparation would be needed. It really was easier as soon as one had a certain level and resistances to boast. She contemplated on how to spend the day without filling it with training. ‘Maybe I’ll finally show him?’ she thought and smiled at the idea.

“We’ll meet tomorrow at dawn then. North gate of Ravenhall, alright? Don’t forget to visit the enchanter for your armor changes.” Claire informed them and got some confirming gestures in response. They quickly split up to do their own preparations for the mission, Ilea finishing up the only thing left to do in Viscera.

Her wings vanished, leaving some floating ash behind which Ilea floated quickly towards the cliff behind her with Ash manipulation. It would soon join the ocean in it’s vastness. The cliff side had changed drastically in the past three months, the two workers outdoing their promises. Of course Ilea had likely overpaid them but she really wanted a satisfying product.

Many sessions of discussing the drafts for the house had been held in the first two weeks after she had hired the Lars and Alina, the architects and builders from Morhill. Ilea gave the two some modern ideas from earth regarding architecture and certainly challenged them in more than one way. The two took the suggestions and added their own experience and expertise, creating the building before her.

First they had laid the foundations, many storage and training rooms going deep into the mountains side had been created at first, outlined with high quality steel inscribed with defensive runes, both for illusionary attacks, physical ones and even some elemental. It would defend the structure against low leveled magical attacks but mostly against rust, the salt and moisture from the ocean and generally nature’s workings.

The whole frame of the structure was made of the expensive steel Ilea had purchased and brought to the site by both carrying and with her storage device if the singular pieces were small enough. The now a little daring looking structure, overhanging the cliff side by several meters was rooted deeply into the mountain and wouldn’t budge, even against heavy winds. The ocean itself was too far below for any water to actually reach the house.

The actual walls and roof of the structure were wooden. A dark brown and heavy wood that gave the structure both weight and character against the stony and dark mountainside. Two lines of wood followed along the steel skeleton both inside and outside, at least with the part of the house visible from outside. The bigger part with nearly three thirds of the room was build deep into the stone below and was only clad with wood on the inside.

To fill out the space between the metal and wood above or stone below, the two architects mixed something they called Breathing Earth, a mud like substance to hold the structure together while providing protection against the cold winds outside. Of course the warmth would be kept inside rather well too.

The exposed part of the house had a lot of big windows, many of them made from the blue glass Ilea had admired in Viscera’s library. “Are you ready for a house tour?” she said, having summoned Aki who she purposefully kept inside her necklace whenever she met with the architects or came to check on the progress.

“And here I thought you had an interesting secret. A bloody house?” Aki asked “How did you pay for this even...and why is it out here?” Ilea was a little annoyed at the negativity, maybe a second opinion would help balance it out.

Five minutes later and a lot of struggling and healing later, Ilea stood in front of the house with Aki sheathed in his usual place on her leather armor and a leash that was more rope in her right hand, ending around a defeated looking Swordmouth Tiger’s neck. Ilea summoned a piece of meat and threw it in front of the creature which happily ate the gift.

“See, she likes it.” Aki didn’t comment on it anymore.

‘And now we’ll do the bloody tour.’ Ilea thought. She could’ve brought her team but didn’t quite feel comfortable enough for them to find this creation. It wasn’t exactly hidden away but it would need a lot of dumb luck to stumble upon it by accident. The dark wood didn’t stand out too much against the cliff side and some light illusion runes were carved into the outer layer so one’s eye wouldn’t be drawn on it too much.

Additionally this was hers. Ilea’s private house and she already used it occasionally to get some alone time to relax or read on the few occasions where she had an hour or two to spend between trainings.

The outside of the house looked modern, at least what Ilea considered to be modern. There were a lot of angles, not even the side walls going up completely straight. It looked a little like the top side of a small zeppelin or space ship with large windows and dark wood. Something that looked quite alien in this medieval like world Ilea had found herself in nearly a year ago. ‘It certainly feels longer than that...’ she thought as she led the now more agreeing tiger towards the entrance.

There was a patio facing the mountain side with a wooden swing bench attached to the roof covering it. The door itself was an artwork in itself and actually one of the more expensive parts of the house. Days of work even for an experienced wood mage. Ilea turned the old school key in the lock and opened the door, leading the animal and Aki inside.

A big open room with no carpets, clad in wood opened up before them. Magical lights came to life and lit the place in a warm and cozy light. The big windows opened up the room and counteracted the heavy wood, letting in more light from outside. There were chairs and a big table, a leather sofa and the leather chair she had gotten in Salia. Spaced out to create both a lounging area and a space to eat with others. Something that had only happened with Lars and Alina so far.

No unnecessary clutter could be found in the room, a space to breathe and take in the raw nature outside the house while protected by warmth and shelter.

“It’s nice. I like the simplicity but it feels a little cold.” Aki commented, a sentiment Ilea certainly shared. She liked it about this room though. It captured the feeling she had when she stood alone on the cliff side, overlooking the ocean. There was a terrace as well, only separated by a sliding window one could open. The terrace hung several meters over the cliff side and gave Ilea similar feeling to flying when she stood out there, bracing against the strong ocean winds.

She led her two visitors towards a discrete looking wooden stairway separated with another wooden wall. It led upstairs and to Ilea’s new favorite place to be. In the middle of the room was her drake feather bed and on both walls were lined shelfs filled with books. Above her bed hung a massive five to three meter painting of a winged drake like creature. To her it was obviously a dragon but the artist had vehemently told her not to call it that. On the far wall from the stairs between the bookshelf and her bed was a wooden cabinet with different drawers and open spaces with inscribed runes. Some of them held beverages kept cold or food kept fresh. Most of them were actually filled with food she had gotten from Keyla who had worked nearly exclusively for Ilea in the past months. Even she couldn’t eat as much as the excellent cook provided.

The open floor was covered in comfortable fur from creatures Ilea had never seen before. Considering most people died from monster attacks she didn’t feel bad about keeping pelts there. A sentiment not quite translatable from the human dominated earth to the monster dominated Elos. At least not yet, perhaps an industrialization was on the way even here in this magical world.

Ilea’s favorite feature of the room was the roof, completely made from glass and big enough to give her the feeling she was outside. With no light pollution the stars would shine into the room with their full brilliance. The glass was a specialty from a mage in Ravenhall and had runes inscribed that could darken the glass considerably upon activation, making the room dark against both the sun and stars.

The novel Ilea had started reading two weeks ago was still lying in the messy bed, in addition of several pillows and blankets covering the massive mattress. It was her little haven and she would hunt down anything that would disturb it. Considering the placement in the house it was strategically the least defended place but Ilea didn’t mind. It could be rebuilt should anything happen, except for the books but she made it a goal to only store volumes in the shelfs that held little value or quality. The good ones were far below in one of the storage rooms and her personal library.

She had actually looked for a book lover in Ravenhall and luckily found a group of somewhat noble people willing to sort through her collection from Salia for a reasonable pay. Ilea simply didn’t have the time to do so herself. She had shown all the books to Aki beforehand to make sure nothing was stolen and sold it to the dagger as a categorization effort. A little bit of threatening had gotten her back the books that were removed from her collection and she even saved on some of the pay with their disregard of the contract.

Apparently there were some rather rare and priced books in her collection and she would continue to add to it. The library was the most protected room inside her house after all. Also the biggest but most of the shelves were still empty, her collection from Salia only able to fill a tenth of the big space in addition to her room.

She slowly breathed out and found herself relaxing at just the view of the place. Somewhere she could likely stay forever if it weren’t for that itch she had. The itch to explore and fight, something she didn’t remember having on earth. Perhaps the explorers discovering the Americas had a similar feeling like she did regarding Elos. Instead of gold and natives she would find magic, ruins and artifacts.

Gold was certainly nice as well and really gave her the opportunity to build this house in the first place. It cost her a little over a hundred gold in total for all the wood work, enchantments, labor, art and furniture filling it out. Keyla’s food had come up to nearly forty gold in the past three months and Ilea had informed the cook to stop for now. There were around four storage rooms full with her food and with the convenience of magic it would still be good to eat in a hundred years to come. Should nobody disturb it of course.

Turning around, Ilea led the tiger downstairs again and into the open space. It had tried to get to some of the food in the cabinets but a strong hand on its leash dissuaded it promptly.

“I must say it seems very cozy. Not sure how much my sentiment is influenced by your continued influx of mana.” Aki commented as they went for the stairway leading down into the floor below. Like above it was open and just as big as the ground level. Compared the room holding her bed was much smaller.

There was a kitchen and dozens of crates and cupboards on the floor, lit by a much colder light than above. A big workspace was separated from the kitchen itself and provided ample space to prepare meals, something Ilea hadn’t gotten around to doing yet. A further stairway led downwards and into a vertically higher room than any of the others beforehand.

On the walls were stands and racks holding weapons Ilea still held from the Taleen dungeon. Enough to supply a village with gear but mostly a waste to keep inside of her necklace. She did keep a couple weapons but most of it had been placed here. Ilea even purchased a couple sets of armor to not have the stands completely empty.

There were no further stairways and the rest of the house only held storage rooms for food and possibly rarer gear and of course the library at the lowest part. A place Ilea considered her own, just as much as the room above the ground floor. She would’ve shown it to Aki but the presence of a certain cat complicated the blinking maneuver a little. Two floors of storage rooms were below and another three, opened in the middle were the library.

Ten times around four meters, thirty two meters of which went into the mountain side and deep underground. Something she assumed much harder to accomplish without the help of earth magic, Lars’ expertise.

“There’s still plenty of space to fill.” Ilea felt the same way and heard a little bit of anxiety in Aki’s voice, an unprecedented occurrence.

“What is it?” she asked and unsheathed the dagger, making the tiger next to her a little jupmy.

“Will you leave me here?” the weapon asked Ilea, making her understand the reason for Aki’s anxiety.

“Of course not.” she simply stated and sheathed the dagger again, walking back upstairs and out of the house again. The leash was removed from the patient tiger and more meat was dropped in front of the creature. It quickly ran off with its food towards the waiting kittens that had grown up considerably in the past three months. Ilea had wondered how the animal got food but the question was resolved one day when she was reading in her bed, hearing the cat move outside. The monster simply ran up the steep mountain side, bursts of magic left behind it climbed the rocky wall only to vanish at the very top a couple minutes later. Ilea had watched in wonder but quickly continued to read, thinking of the absurdity of climbing cats and winged humans.