Chapter 140 - 140

The mayor and other councilors are taking their duties seriously. They've all gathered outside the Guild house Cain is staying in a half hour after sunrise. Vala lets them all in to get comfortable while Cain gets ready and Nemu makes breakfast for everyone, with the help of Su.

Not only is the Forest Dragon a foodie, she's also a competent cook. They manage a huge platter of eggs, bacon and pancakes with what is in the house, and Cain starts thinking about getting staff here too. Since they've got a Guild House or five in the city, linking this one with the others and getting someone to look after it should really be done. 

He filled everyone in on what happened here before bed last night, since they saw the notifications about the Guild going to war, and and can see the score. It definitely wasn't what they thought was going to happen when his team went to investigate. 

Sylvia and Luke are headed back this morning, to meet up with a section of the army that is near the border. Misaki has decided to stay, citing the entertainment value of traveling with this group. Cain suspects there's more to the reason, but she's a good mage, so he won't complain. She's currently upstairs with Kone, picking out a decorating theme for the house, which currently looks a bit like a frat party happened in someone's rich parents house. A mix of gaudy and expensive, and very messy, even with their minimal efforts to tidy the place up. 

Cain intends to fix that though. There were Succubus with dusters and bunny girl costumes recorded as lesser Golems, so he calls them as everyone gets ready to eat, then triples them with Lesser Demon Army and orders them to clean the house. The council looks a bit scandalized, until they realize the demons are actually going to clean. 

"Sorry about that, we'll be settled in soon, but AllNatty was a slob, so the whole place needs a deep clean." Cain explains. 

"No worries, it's just a bit of learning curve to get used to how you do things. Demons are usually seen as a threat, not domestic staff or advisors. I could get used to the outfits though." Bill, the butcher turned city Councilor jokes. 

"I think your wife might have a thing or two to say about you hiring them." The mayor laughs. 

The morning meeting lasts about an hour before everyone breaks to go to their day jobs. They intend to meet again in the evening with anything that comes up, so Cain sends Nemu and Su shopping for groceries to make something fresh for dinner. 

Cain drags Kone away from the decorating plans for a few minutes to explain the [Appointed Companion] and how it'll give her a power boost. A very large one at that. The extra combat power is great news for her. 

One thing they forgot to account for was that all his abilities that apply to summons are applicable to the Appointed Companion. 

[Error: Transfers cannot be cloned] 

The notification makes them both chuckle, but when Kone calls on her Turtles to help remove broken furniture and trash there's sixteen of them instead of eight and they look extra mean. Summon Cloning and Glory of the Mark must both apply to class skill summons by the Appointed Companion. 

"I don't think you're intended to have that many dungeon bosses in one spot. There's got to be a law against that, I'm certain of it." Misaki declares when she sees what they're up to. 

"It gets far worse." Comes a voice from the kitchen and Su pops her head around the corner, then another Su does the same from the other side of the room. 

"Sorry Su, we kind of forgot it would clone you too. But on the bright side, it's temporary, we don't have to keep it active all the time if you don't want." Kone apologizes.

The two walk towards each other and Meld into one being. "Problem solved, the Merger skill gets rid of the know it all copy in my kitchen."

Out of kindness, Cain declines to mention that the know it all she absorbed has exactly her personality. It seems Su takes her cooking very seriously if she can't even get along with herself in the kitchen. 

Cain is about to start on more experiments involving Merger when there is a rapid knock at the door. Cain almost ignores it until he remembers that there's nobody else to answer it here. He's definitely spoiled himself in this life. Or maybe it's an improvement? In his past life he just assumed they were salesmen or debt collectors, so he never answered the door. He also wouldn't order delivery, being constantly short on money. In the end, he just instinctively avoided people at the door. 

When he opens the door Cain is greeted with a large variety of tradesmen carrying tools and building materials. 

"Let me guess, Misaki contacted you?" He asks with a smile.

"That she did. She came by every one of our shops with renovation requests. I can see that the house needs it, the previous owner wasn't well known for his sense of style. Frankly, you did well just getting it clean." The contractor closest to the door answers, holding rolls of paper in his hands. 

"Come on in then. It looks life she hired half the city on our behalf." Cain says, looking at Kone who no doubt authorized all this. The Druid turned Beast Lord just shrugs as if to say it's better this way. 

The genius of the plan is evident within minutes. There's one craftsman per room. They've got the designs that the ladies drew, and they're just shuffling between rooms as they finish. Being all level 100 or slightly higher, they've got almost everything in their inventory, and abilities that let them do their work in minutes instead of days. It's incredible, everything is finished before the city council shows up for the evening meeting. 

Cain has no idea what most of the house now looks like, other than the front sitting room where they held the last meeting and the kitchen. The mismatched furniture was changed out in the sitting room, but the kitchen was deemed acceptable as it was. He will have to tour the place later and see how it all turned out. 

The evening meeting is mostly focused on the town's inventory of goods. The Guild kept them strictly rationed so transfers couldn't get too powerful, so everyone is short on both equipment and money. There is only one dungeon in town, the Demon Dungeon, that they can do as a regular dungeon or a raid. Groups have been forming all day to go into the raid, but most of the healers fled before they could be granted clemency, and healers were in short supply to begin with. 

Cain and Kone agree to lead groups in twice the next day, each staying a few hours or finishing the raid, depending what sort of raid instance they get. The council assumed most of the hoarded gear was lost with the Guild Banks, but the leaders had a surprising amount of loot on them, and Cain got all the money. After a few days of raid instance to help the locals he plans to donate some of his windfall to the city, he just needs to do it carefully, because Laura is very protective of the Guild's loot. 

The issues of the city seem to be mostly minor so far, but that could be due to the shock keeping people at home and making them reluctant to complain. 

Council agrees to meet after work tomorrow, giving them a full day to gather citizens input, and Cain posts a notice in the Guild House gates, that they will be carrying two groups through the Demon Raid tomorrow, so they'll need 22 per group, leaving spaces for him, Kone and Misaki. 

With a few days under his experience buff, she should also reach level 100, most likely giving her the options of Fire Mage or the more Generic Archmage. She's fire specialized, but hasn't gotten any A or S ranked skill books, so the chances of accessing a hidden advanced class are low. 

There are some good ones in the loot he got though, so Cain starts sorting through them to find something the mage might want. 

"Is there anything in particular you're after? A fast build, area damage, Single Target Burns?" Cain asks, having sorted through the Mage compatible skill books. He will have to transfer them to the Guild Bank later, there's a [Crushing Roots] Nature type Mage spell that Mythryll would like. 

"How about area damage. I've always kind of wanted a sea of fire and burning rain." She suggests. Cain decides the girl is a natural born pyromaniac. 

There's not much in that category, but there is a Rank A [Lake of Fire] spell that's much like the toxic puddles his Sorceror summons use, and a Rank A [Firestorm] spell that's like an advanced Fire type Blizzard. It lasts a full 30 seconds, which is impressive. 

Between the two, Misaki should be able to create a small version of her desired dystopian hellscape. If she becomes a Pyromancer like the one Cain saw earlier today doing wrought iron work, she will likely get bigger better versions. 

"Both for me? You have no idea how much that means." She stammers with happy tears in her eyes. 

"Stick with us and you'll get a lot of good stuff. As you can see, we're both displaying Iron Man Titles, which come with a nice little drop quality increase.." Kone smiles, adding herself to the hug, which makes Misaki laugh until she needs Cain to hold her upright.