With yesterday’s madness now behind us, it was time for the weapon auction. 

By the way, because of what happened yesterday, we ended up moving away from the inn we had been staying at and instead spent the night in Claus’ house. He was nice enough to offer us a place to stay, which had a bit more security.

The best part was that he let me trap this place as much as I wanted, so Trap Holes of different kinds were set up all across the yard. And with them only reacting to hostile presences, we don’t have to worry about them trapping anyone they aren’t supposed to trap. I’ll just remove them all before we leave and we will be golden.

The traps actually ended up being needed, because a small group did break, well tried to break, into the house, but they were left in the bottom of my Trap Holes, either stuck in Adhesion Trap Hole or with broken legs in the standard ones. No deaths, so I didn’t have to worry about resurrecting them. Not that I likely would have, even if someone did die.

I’m not resurrecting a thief. There is a line I draw somewhere. The group wasn’t forced to attack. They just thought they could steal some weapons from us.

Had it been a situation like with Rin where she was forced to act the way she did because of the slave mark, then yes I’d resurrect a thief, but someone who just wants to steal because of money, nope. That isn’t my problem to fix.

And no, they weren’t from the States. Based on what we got out of them after they were turned into slaves. They were just after some easy money, which didn’t end up being that easy.

 

Also, in case you were wondering, I didn’t use Bottomless or Acid Trap Holes because the chance of them killing someone was just a bit too high. And I also employed A-Team: Trap Disposal Unit when I removed the leftover traps.

 

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But yeah. Enough about how we spent the night, time for the weapon auctions.

Originally, we didn’t plan on selling Wilma’s shield, but Karl hadn’t decided on his sword yet, but after they got the number one and three spots, most begged for them to go on sale, so both of my smiths agreed to sell them.

For those wondering what happened with Hugo’s sword, which isn’t Hugo’s sword, it ended up getting sold in the auction as well, but the true maker of the blade was revealed to be Wilma. 

There was actually an interesting way we proved that. Wilma summoned Athena. Yes, we used a superior spirit as our proof, and it worked wonderfully. When someone that is basically a god, with a small g, says that someone made something, you tend to believe them.

And adding to that, I summoned Lachros the time spirit. She rolled back the time on the sword to the point where it was before Hugo’s involvement, so Wilma’s signature reappeared on it.

 

Because we proved the simplicity at which we could do that, a few other pieces ‘made’ by Hugo ended up getting brought to us, and between Athena and Lachros, we were able to show that out of the seven swords we got our hands on, only two were made by Hugo, while the others were stolen.

The revelation also got Karl exonerated from his fake crime of blade theft. Which honestly didn’t mean much other than he would once again be allowed to enter Smorog without me. I mean, he isn’t a slave anymore, so that punishment was already lifted, but yeah, the banishment was still in effect and the only reason Karl was even allowed in was because I said he is my slave. And banning me because I happen to have a slave that was banished wouldn’t exactly look good for the country.

 

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In the auction, Wilma’s shield and Karl’s sword ended up being the top sellers in terms of price, even beating out the fire sword, which I drove up in price because I wanted it. Like come on, it's a flaming sword. I need it for no other reason than I want it. It will also go great with Salamandra. And while I have made flaming swords with Salamandra, in the Factory, never outside, having a sword that can already light itself on fire might make it even better when combined with Salamandra.

The blood iron sword also sold for a good price, which was way higher than I assumed it would be. I think that might be because of the spirits. People think it is more valuable than it really is because Lachros rolled back the time on the sword.

But it isn’t my problem how people spend their money.

 

… also, because I know someone might ask, Wilma ended up buying nine weapons from the auction.

 

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Before our return home, I gave Claus a letter exchange box so that he could send letters to Wilma.

I also left one for Stina so she could get in contact when she was ready to move to HomeBase.

 

Once back on HomeBase, I recapped everyone on what happened. This was mainly necessary for Alice, as she still has her long term System mission of dealing with the old slave marks, which is getting us more and more tangled with the United States.

Of course introducing Rin and getting her settled in was also a thing, but luckily I have enough workers where that isn’t really a major problem. The only real problem we had was her being a bit scared of dhampirs, since we still had the learning group here.

Rin’s current position on HomeBase was assisting either Cailie on the CropFields or Wilma and Karl in the Workshop. Those were what Rin felt the most comfortable with. 

That is because of her past. She of course was forced to work as an assistant to Hugo, so she knew a bit about working in a smithy, while her farming experience comes from the time before she was forced into slavery. 

But she is also learning new things, so she may change positions at some point.

 

Other than Rin and her job, we also took stock of our status.

Starting with Alice.

Alice also got the Designing skill. Sure it is only level 1, but she got it. The more important part is the Advanced Mana Control. With all the bathing she has done in the mana spring, she has finally been able to advance her mana circuits to the point where she can get the skill.

… and as you may have guessed, the same happened to Lua.

Like Alice, Lua also got the LV.1 Designing skill. Really shows how effective having a 3D design table is. Other than that, her levels are largely focused on her racial skills and Winged Flight. She has been using them a lot teaching the dhampirs. 

Next up, Wilma.

Wilma originally got Designing as a LV.6 skill, but she quickly used one Level Up on it to get it to LV.7, and with that, she also got Mental Visual Designing.

Other than that, she has her reward for winning the competition, Knowledge of Legendary Metals. It gives her access to System information about the greatest metals and how you can make them, or where you can find them. It honestly is a huge reward, so we are living the dream with that.

 

Next, Karl.

Karl naturally also got Designing. At LV.4, which isn’t as high as what Wilma or I got, but it is still good.

Otherwise, his level ups to Crafting and Mana Control are there to hopefully help him with Metal Magic.

But there is one more person whose status had some interesting developments. … myself.

I managed to snag myself two new skills. Fast Mana Recovery is something I’ve been waiting on for a while, and now I finally got it. Sure it isn’t really necessary, but more skills means more stats and more stats means I’m more powerful.

The more interesting thing is Mana Vision. It is basically what I did when I saw Rin’s slave mark through her clothing, but the skill is way more impressive than just being able to see magic circles. With it, I can see through most things as long as I focus some mana into my eyes, and as long as whatever I’m looking at has mana. Sure for now I can just see random outlines, unless magic circles are involved, but that is already good. And with levels, I should be able to see just as well as I do with my regular eyes.