– Day 4 –
The morning sun filters through the thin curtains of our room, casting a warm glow on the wooden floor. I stretch lazily, the events of the previous night playing in my mind as I remind myself that I actually can’t wait to get my hands on Ian’s neck.
I turn to see Ayame already awake, sitting by the window. Her sword rests on her shoulder, cradled gently against her body as she leans against the windowsill. The morning light illuminates her figure, casting a serene glow around her as she watches the rising sun with tranquil eyes. It’s a sight so beautiful and peaceful, reminiscent of a scene from a painting.
I wish I had a camera to capture this perfect moment. Sadly my phone battery died a long time ago.
She reminds me of Guts from a certain manga series when he was sitting in the windowsill under the starry night sky, though thankfully Ayame is not in such a bad physical shape, and it’s not night time currently, but the serene atmosphere is quite similar nonetheless. Both of them have been through some serious shit.
I stare at her, utterly mesmerized, for a few seconds before I snap back to reality.
“Good morning.” I say and I get out of the bed. She doesn’t reply, just slowly turns her head towards me and gives me a faint, light smile. It appears that she is a bit emotional right now, which I’ve already guessed just by looking at her.
She seems ready to move out, unlike me, so I don’t bother her and instead begin getting ready for the day. After washing and dressing myself we walk out of the inn.
“Ayame.”
“Hmm?”
“I really, really want a storage ring. Please tell me you have that kind of magic artifact on this continent!”
“Yeah, we do. In fact, I used to have one myself.”
Ohh! Spatial storage is a staple for fantasy stories. We have 94 silver and 452 bronze coins to our names. I think it’s time to finally invest in one!
“A spatial ring with respectable storage space, which I consider to be at least as big as a large crate, cost as much as a baron title with a small patch of land included. My old ring could store our inn room’s worth of space in it, my beloved father bought it for my 16th birthday for 900 gold coins at an auction in the royal capital.”
…
900 gold?! That’s 90.000 silver or 9.000.000 bronze coins!
I stop in my tracks and gawk at her like she’d gone crazy. There’s simply no way that’s right, right?!
The young elf sex slave healer-archer-herbalist girl was worth only 65 gold coins! And she was by far the most expensive slave I’ve seen thus far. You’re telling me that a storage ring with relatively big space is worth more than 10 of those kinds exotic, long-lived, rare classed types of slaves? There’s simply no way that’s real.
Ayame sees that I’ve completely frozen in place while looking absolutely incredulous, so she begins explaining how things work in this world, “to create a spatial ring one needs to first reach level 50 of the Artificer class, spend skill points to unlock the Epic Class; Dimensional Artificer, and then further spend skill points to unlock the [Magic Item Imbuing] spell, though he or she can unlock that one while being a simple Artificer.
Artificer itself is a Rare Class, to unlock that class one needs to accomplish an impressive engineering feat, such as building a complex device or structure that earns the system’s recognition of you as a talented crafter. And all of these are just prerequisites to earn the right to even begin the process of creating a storage ring, the actual work needs to be done as well.”
Oh… “That does indeed explain a few things…” I sigh dejectedly.
“That’s not all. Dwarves are the best Artificers on the continent by far, with the magical artifact market being basically monopolized by them. The issue is that they live in the nation called Alliance of Elvardia, which is a union formed between the Elven and Dwarven races, and just like the Beastman Confederation, they are at war with us.
So the only way for us in the Vraven Kingdom to get dwarven crafts is to either take it from them by force or enslave skilled dwarves and have them craft the items for us. Therefore, with that 900 gold my father not only paid for the crafter’s skills and time and the item’s base cost, but also the warlord’s efforts to take the item from Elvardia through bloodshed.”
“I see… So you are telling me to get a cute dwarf slave wife, right?”
Ayame snorts and shakes her head. “I don’t know how you came to that conclusion, but I must ruin the party before it even starts, I’m afraid. Dwarf women are about a head shorter than me while weighing three times as much, and their beards and body hair would put the masculinity of the most manly human to shame.”
She then grins and snickers at me, “oh wait, I forgot about your unique tastes. Strong, ambitious women, beast-kin women, what about hairy, bulky women? They are certainly very exotic, that I can personally guarantee you.”
I chuckle in response. It’s nice to see that we can joke around with each other this well. “I retract the cute and wife part, though after listening to you I have an inkling that an Artificer dwarf slave would be slightly out of my budget, so let’s focus on getting some amazing gear for now, shall we?”
“I concur wholeheartedly.” She answers.
“So I imagine you would prefer those curved eastern blades, right? What about armor?”
“Yeah, using straight swords is not optimal for me because a lot of my spells are less effective with them, or are straight up unusable. I used to carry three blades on me, an odachi for big monsters, a katana for humanoids, and a wakizashi for combat in tight spaces. As for defenses, I prefer light armor that lets me move around to utilize my flexibility.”
Yeah, her acrobatic genius is indisputable after what she displayed yesterday. “And what would you recommend for me?”
She thinks inwardly for a few seconds before replying: