Book 3: Chapter 8: Mason & Sons and Wilbur's Gifts

Book 3: Chapter 8: Mason & Sons and Wilbur's Gifts

While they left the palace as a group of four Lone looked to Yulia and asked, "Which is closer; Mason and Sons, or the strongest branch of The Adventurer's Guild?"

Yulia furrowed her brow. "I do not know. My familiarity with this city is limited despite me having called it home for six centuries now. I know the ins and outs of the magical district, the location of a few auction halls, and every branch of the C.A.A. Anything else and you would be better served asking a guardsman."

"I guess that makes sense. What's the C.A.A. by the way?" Lone asked as he looked around for a knight or guard of some sort to ask for directions. 'On another note, dwarves rank up super slowly, huh? I'd say it's humans that rank up quickly but I don't have a big enough sample size. Gilbert isn't even 400 yet but he's an SS-ranked beastkin.'

"You are unaware? Your summoning must have been recent. It stands for the Continental Alchemical Association. It's the best place to get healing services if you're not a fan of religions like the Church of the Primals," Yulia explained.

"Ah, I don't really use potions and I heal extremely fast on my own. It's why my adventurer nickname is Immortus the Immortal. I'm sure I'll get involved with them sooner or later if they're continental though," Lone responded. "I wouldn't say no to some alchemy-based skills."

"You need only ask and I would happily give you a letter of recommendation," Yulia offered.

'Ah, membership is a bit stricter than The Adventurer's Guild? Shame. It's downright criminal to limit who can learn things, especially skills,' Lone thought as he approached a guard.

The man was dressed in full plate and had a very serious look on his face as he ensured no one who did not have permission entered the palace gates.

"Excuse me, would you mind giving me some directions?" Lone asked.

The man didn't turn to face Lone but his eyes did wander. They widened when they saw Yulia. Thankfully, she had changed out of her damaged dress before they had left the palace so the guard had no excuse to stare at her stomach.

"Of course. You are Princeling Andrew's guests, Lone Immortus and company, yes?" the guard answered. "And it is my greatest honour to greet esteemed Lady Yulia."

The prince's seventh daughter snorted. "How dare you care me 'lady' but not him 'lord'. I will forgive your ignorance since as an S-ranker, you would only see him as nothing more than a C-ranker, but know that he defeated me in an exchange that lasted all of two seconds."

That got the guard sputtering. "I-I apologise! I d-did not know. L-Lord Immortus, where exactly d-do you need directions to?"

Lone smiled wryly. This level of unnatural respect was nothing but uncomfortable to him. Still, if it resulted in him getting the information he wanted, well, then he couldn't rightly complain, could he?

"Ehhh... So you only ever leave the palace when you get invited to balls you can't afford to refuse or when something comes up that might help your research? That's some dedication," Lone commented as the four of them rounded a corner.

Lone was holding Soph's hand while Breena followed alongside her. Meanwhile, Yulia was on Lone's righthand side. At this point, they'd been chatting for 20 minutes and were only a couple of streets away from their first destination.

"I consider myself quite lucky," Yulia admitted. "Many of my siblings have failed to develop a passion as I have. So a good number of them just wish to please or surpass my illustrious father."

"I can kind of relate to them," Lone said. "My real dad was a piece of shit who ended up hanging himself. I've found during my self-reflective meditation that I latch onto potential father figures. I'm not sure yet if that's healthy to me or hurtful considering one such figure was nearly killed protecting me and was then teleported over an ocean, while the other I murdered with my own hands this morning at his request so he wouldn't die in his sleep or at the hands of the disease that was eating away at him. Is Prince Keining a good dad? I can't imagine it's easy with so many kids."

Yulia flinched, clearly not expecting such heavy information to be dumped upon her so casually. "I'm sorry for your loss and internal struggles. Lord Keining as a father though... He's fine, I suppose? Our mothers raised us more than he did and does but Lord Keining still makes an effort to be in each of our lives, doubly so if we prove ourselves worthy."

"Lone," Soph called. "We're here."

"Ah." He looked up and saw that the placard above the entrance to the building on their right read 'Mason & Sons: Outfitter and Examiner Extraordinaires'. "We can continue talking about your dad once we're done here, I suppose."

A group of five well-dressed and well-armed adventurers exited the store and their leader raised a surprised eyebrow upon seeing Yulia. "Lady Yulia, a pleasure."

Item 3. Steamforged Carriages. Carriages 1, 2, and 4, were manufactured by the popular steamforging company Baltod's Brass Bits & Bobs. Carriage 1 has a broken engine, a bent chassis, 16 missing screws and 8 missing cogs of varying importance. Carriage 2 is missing its entire top half (my professional opinion is that this cannot be repaired due to the damages being far too extensive). Carriage 4 is missing its front left wheel and two of its essential cogs have missing teeth, making the entire device inoperable until repaired.

Carriages 3, 5, and 6, were manufactured by a steamforging workshop owned and operated by the Greater Council itself. They are enchanted to prevent tampering, so even trying to repair them will result in the carriages crumbling to dust while a magical signal will be sent to the enchanter with some basic information about the tamper's identity. As details of the damages were requested despite the dangers, I will now list them. Carriage 3 seems to only be missing its gyro calibrator, which while not an easy thing to replace, it is easy enough to work around when operating the device. Carriage 5's entire horse-holding mechanism is damaged beyond repair and the seats and engine have been melted, enchantments and all. Carriage 6's only fault is that the mechanism to begin the device isn't working but everything else seems to be in perfect condition.

Estimated value: 10 gold for the lot. The specialisation needed to repair these and remove or work past the enchantments of carriages 3, 5, and 6, would cost more than the value the carriages would provide. They are collector's items and nothing more in their current state.

Item 4. Wilbur Steamson's Steamforged Horses. These devices are the product of the future epitome Wilbur Steamson and are truly marvellous. They are identical in that they can be charged with either sunlight or MP, both uncommon forms of energy for steamforged devices given the dwarves' aversion to the surface and lack of mages. They also possess a self-repairing function but it does require metals of any type to be fed into them. They can gallop at full speed for 15 days nonstop before needing to be recharged. When all 6 are used together, they activate a formation that conserves energy and allows them to move 1.2x faster.

Estimated value: 5 white-gold coins per horse, 1 ruby gold coin as a set.

Item 5. Steamforged Weapons. A dual-ended spear with sword-width blades, a pair of shortswords, and a set of 21 needles.

The 'swordspear', as the client called it, is rather peculiar. Its length can be increased and decreased by the push of a button near the upper hand grip while a button near the lower hand grip can siphon the user's MP or aura to add a mystical steam edge to either or both of the blade's ends.

The shortswords have no special functions but they are incredibly light despite the machinery in them. So despite being very sharp, durable, and easy to maintain, they are also incredibly easy to wield.

The needles are the least special of the bunch but I have never seen a set of steamforged needles before. They can be propelled forward via a mind link, again, requiring MP to be injected into them to activate like with the swordspear.

Estimated value: 1 white-gold coin for the swordspear. It is simply too novel and specific of a weapon for it to have any value outside of being a steamforged item created by the future epitome Wilbur Steamson. 20 white-gold coins for each individual short sword, 50 as a pair. 50 gold for the needles. I have never heard of a powerful person wielding needles as a weapon so they are a set of steamforged curios at best.

Item 6. Wilbur Steamson's Steamforged Mini Forge. A mechanical wonder crafted by the future epitome Wilbur Steamson. It would not surprise me at all if this was the work that cemented his ascension into becoming an epitome. It functions just like a top-of-the-line master forger's workshop but is condensed and portable. It contains all of the needed facilities to steamforge as well as forge normally.

Estimated value: Incalculable. Only an auction (likely one hosted by Lord Deposit) could ever come close to seeing this item selling at or near its true value.

Item 7: Steamforging tools. A large assortment of various steamforged tools designed to make steamforging and regular forging as easy as possible. What is odd is that these tools have been crafted with a taller species than the dwarves in mind. The client tells me they were made especially for him by the future epitome Wilbur Steamson.

Estimated value: Considering they are not tailored for dwarves which is typical of such tools, and considering their maker, this set could sell for upwards of 5 ruby gold coins to the right buyer, more if sold in conjunction with the steamforged mini forge.

Item 8: Wilbur Steamson's Steamforged Dwarven Puzzle Box. This little device is incredibly intricate and is designed to change its puzzle once completed. A curious thing, to be sure.

Estimated value: 10 white-gold coins if sold to a collector or someone in desperate need of certain skills.

Item 9: Steam-wheeler. This is no different from ordinary steam-wheelers except it seems far more durable.

Estimated value: 10 gold coins, a white gold coin if the client is able to prove future epitome Wilbur Steamson forged it to the buyer.

Item 10: A sword made of bone. I will not ask how the client forged a sword out of their own arm bones, nor will I ask why they are black, blue, and purple. The sword is perfectly balanced even if a bit heavy and the hardness of the blade makes it strong enough to endure considerable damage. There is also a strange attraction the sword has to the client as if it wishes to return to his body. How peculiar.

Estimated value: Do not sell this, please. Many a mage could take advantage of the connection the sword has to the client but if you must, I expect it could go for anywhere between 50 silver and 50 white-gold coins. I have never sold such an item before so I cannot give a perfectly accurate estimation.'

Lone had included that last item just to test Mason's ability. He fully intended to merge the sword he'd made out of his arm bones back into his body. He had no intentions of letting some rogue necromancer or bone mage of anything else of the sort get their hands on the weapon.

It was worthless to him anyway, he just wanted to know if the new skill he had just earned was capable of examining organic material and it seemed it could, indeed, at least to some degree. Speaking of his new skill, Lone idly conversed with Yulia as he checked his notification log.