CH.224 Let’s get our armor

CH.224 Let’s get our armor

“Good morning, Lua.”

“Good morning.”

As usual, I jumped into the factory in the morning. And I met Lua there. But today, something was a bit different. Someone else was present, who usually wasn’t when Lua was here.

“... so, I guess you can be here at the same time as Lua, right Mia?” I asked the lady who looked like a fusion made of multiple vampire monsters.

“Yes. It is possible now that I was upgraded from basic to standard.” Mia confirmed.

“I can also see things better.” Lua added. “Thought not a lot. The change was bigger when your skill leveled up.”

“Well, it is still nice that both of you can now be here at the same time.” I told them. Honestly, I felt a bit bad for Mia. She was basically just a processor for Lua whenever she came to the factory. ... I guess I could say the same about Laura. We really don’t deserve our system supports.

“Yes. I suppose it has its uses.” Mia agreed.

“... so you did it?” I confirmed with Laura.

“Yes. An insulated space where time moves at the regular speed. Where the space is just like anywhere else, outside the factory. And most importantly, items from your storage can be taken out and operated with. After Fantasia leveled up to level 3, it turned out quite a bit easier than we expected.” Laura told me. “We put the forge there and Kotetsu has already gotten to work. However, there are a few things of note. One, because the space follows the rules of the outside world, that includes summoning times. So the monsters can only be there for two hours at a time. And they will still experience regular cooldowns, so you won’t be able to summon them during that time either.”

“Well, of course, right?”

“Yes. Also, Tahlia, Fantasia or I cannot enter that space, as we cannot get summoned like that. I doubt even you can enter it. All we can do is have the monsters summoned there.”

“Can’t Cosmo Queen teleport me there?”

“That might be possible, but we will have to try that.” Laura answered.

“Yeah. Let’s. But it’s not like I really have to enter that space and I really don’t want to be stuck there.” I told her. “So, anything we need for there?”

“Materials. We have the silver we found while mining, and we can also smelt gold and silver coins for those materials. But we don’t have any iron, unless we make it with the dungeon, and that will consume all of your generation points quickly.” Laura said. “Steel, iron, copper, bronze. Possibly other metals, if they are available. Steel and iron are the most important for now, so Kotetsu and the vampires can convert it into blood iron and vampiric steel. I believe it was your plan to have Rhianna’s armor turned from bronze to either blood iron or vampiric steel.”

“Yeah. Sure was. What about the iron weapons Paulina got from the dungeon? I do have them in the storage.”

“How long do you think they will last? Not for long. We just need more. And as money is the less limited resource for us, I’d prefer if you bought some outside.” Laura said.

“Yeah. I’ll do that. I’ll just ask where I can buy steel and iron at wholesale prices. Pick up a few hundred kilos of steel and iron, if I can. How badly do we actually need stuff like bronze and copper, actually?” I confirmed.

“It is necessary.” Laura answered. “While not for the blades, the guards, grips and pommels of swords are often made from copper or bronze. Or other similar materials. Honestly, some high quality wood wouldn’t be bad to have either. We do have the trees from the forest, but they are on the softer side, and might not work for things like sword handles.”

“Well, more to add to the shopping list.” I said, before turning to Lua. “Do you want to come shop with me? Or should I go shopping first and pick you up after?”

“... let’s shop together, if that is fine.” Lua said.

“Yeah. That’s fine. I’ll have to drop by one store with Ria first, then drop her off back at the manor, and then I’ll come pick you up. Also, I know where we can pick up the metals we need. Well, I guess I need it in this case. But you can ask for anything you want. I’ll pay.”

“... then maybe some new clothes? I want something ... a bit less colorful.” Lua requested.

“Sure. We can do that.” I agreed. “Even though I like what you have now.”

After breakfast, I left the manor with Ria. We had a meeting at an armor store. After that, I would drop her off at the manor, so she could do stuff with the maids or something. And I had to do that, because of where I was planning on heading with Lua.

I can’t officially bring Ria into another town, because she isn’t deemed stable yet. Her temporary papers are only for Sawyer city. And Yuva was the best place to pick up metal, as it is a mining town. So I was going to go shopping with her, then we would go our separate ways. She’d go back to the manor, and I would be heading over to pick up Lua.

... don’t say it. I know what you want to say. ‘But that will break the rules, just like taking her to Yuva, won’t it? She isn’t allowed to walk on her own, or be separated from you.’

Yeah. I know. And I don’t care, as I have the knight commander's permission to do so.

... technically I don’t, but I’ve done it before and he hasn't said anything, so it's fine.

“... I see. But what is supersonic?”

“It means flying faster than the speed of sound. If you do that, it normally causes a sonic boom. But Gradius has ways of mitigating the sonic booms, whereas Big Core doesn’t.”

“... I’m not sure if I got it, but alright.”

“I’ll show you later. It is easier to show you an example than trying to really explain it.” I said. “And we’ll have to go to the town of Yuva for some of the stuff I need, so I wanted the faster ship.”

“Oh, okay. Then let’s go say ‘see you later’ so we can leave.” Lua said.

“Please take care of our Lua.” Rosemary said, as we were saying bye.

“Of course. I promise.”

“Take care.”

“Come visit us again.” The others added.

“Yes. We will.” Lua promised everyone.

We got into Gradius, and I took us up to the sky.

“Wow... I had no idea it could be that fast...” Lua muttered as we landed a little over a kilometer away from the walls surrounding Yuva. I didn’t know this town, so I’m not going to fly straight in or something like that.

“Yeah. Amazing, isn’t it?” Gradius might not be the strongest in combat, but it is nearly unrivaled in mobility.

“Yes. Usually it would take two days on a carriage to reach this town from Sawyer city, but we got here in minutes.”

“Have you visited before?” I asked.

“Yes. A few times. We would come here as adventurer escorts when metal was picked up.”

“I see. Well, let’s head in and see if we can find our stuff.” I said, as I took Lua’s hand and began to walk towards the town.

“... yes.” Lua said, and came after me, tightening her grip on my hand a bit.

For the rest of the way, we talked about Lua’s unique skill. Mainly what was different with it now that it was level 2. It came with a few perks. One, she could now put only parts of her princess dresses away, like her weapon or mantle. She did tell me about that part earlier, as she could do it in the factory even before the skill was level 2, but now she can do it outside as well. She could also mix and match her outfits now. So she could wear her black dress and take the crimson mantle out with it if she wanted to. Her Dhampir Order and Thrall Creation are also now more powerful, so that is a nice addition.

The one new part was Blood Familiar. It allowed her to use only blood, either her own or any other blood, to create a bat shaped familiar. She could communicate with the bats, but she couldn’t do something like vision sharing. At least not yet. Oh, and the communication is short ranged only. No system support voice messaging for that. But she could still make a few bats, have them scout an area and return to her to report their findings.

Sadly, the bats wouldn’t last for that long, and would break apart quickly. Well, depending on the blood used. Something like goblin blood bat would last only for little over 10 minutes, whereas the blood from a D-rank monster would let it stay for about 45 minutes. But that was all Lua knew for now, as she didn’t have time to experiment with the skill that much.

“Did you walk all the way here?” The gate guard asked us as we were getting in. I hadn’t brought out the medal I got from the Earl or anything, we were just getting in as a pair of adventurers.

“Yes.” I simply answered. I had actually come up with a lie about being on some carriage which would have kept going south, but Lua shot it down, saying that for a carriage to not stop here would be more strange than adventurers just walking.

“Alright. Well, welcome to Yuva. Do you need directions to anywhere?” He asked. I have to say, these gate guards are always extremely polite. At least in my experience.

“Yes. We are looking for the metal wholesale store owned by the Hill family. Could you tell us where it is?” I asked.

“Eh. Sir, that store only sells to nobles and high ranking merchants. Are you sure that is where you are going?” He asked, probably looking at us as if we were two morons who were trying to get to a store we had no business getting into.

“Yes. That is where we are going.” I said. “I do have a letter of introduction from Earl Sawyer and I also have this, so I think it will be fine.” As I said that, I revealed my Founder’s terminal that was usually hidden by my sleeve. Of course revealing it from under my new armored jacket was a bit different, but thanks to the slit added to the left sleeve, it could be done.

“I... I apologize, Sir. Of course. It is...” The guard quickly told us which way to head, and let us through.

Come on, I’m not a noble yet. You don’t need to get that scared. And even if I was, I wouldn’t try to get you in trouble. You gave us first class service. Well, at least good quality service. What would I complain about?

With my hand in Lua’s, we walked into the town.