After staying up so late the night before, I slept in. While I had a sleep resistance skill, I still felt better after getting a good night’s rest. It had been worth it, since the party lasted all night.
Too bad that was the last night of the festival.
Or maybe that’s a good thing, since not much had really gotten done in the past week. The city had been packed with people, but while I’m sure plenty of merchants had made some tremendous sales, the crowds had made it difficult for carts to get to their goal.
Anyways, since the festival was over, the place would be clearing out. Which now that I think of it might be problematic for something that had failed to cross my mind this past week… During this time, there’d have been tons of rich folks in the city. And I was carrying a lot of stuff that might have gotten a better price at an auction with all these big fish here.
Well, too late to do anything about that now. Plus, it’s not like I knew any auction houses in the city. Sure I could have found some, but they’d have tried to take advantage of me, and while I could avoid that, I just didn’t want to have to deal with them. The others who should be here in the next few days can deal with the auction house.
I made some breakfast, or brunch, as the time is around ten or eleven. I wasn’t paying attention to the bells, and I didn’t have a clock out to keep the time. It wasn’t really important to me.
Hunger sated, not that I was all that hungry, since I’d kind of gorged myself on goodies last night, I headed upstairs. Today was the day my site manager would be leaving, so I needed to see him off.
When I reached the backyard, it was nearly empty. Only a couple of groups were left, not including the one that was packed, but had been waiting on me before departing.
“Sorry I kept you waiting. Late night.”
“Oh, we know. Especially when you came back drunk off your ass. Here’s last night’s fees, not that there was much, since only a few people are left.”
He held out a bag that made only sparse jangling with the little coin there was in it. I waved him off.
“Go ahead and keep it. And thanks for taking care of everything here.”
“Yeah, your lazy ass wouldn’t have been able to take care of it yourself.”
“I could have… I just probably wouldn’t have.”
“See? Lazy. If you’re ever in our home town, stop on by and visit the store.”
“Will do. Have a safe trip.”
After pocketing the pouch, the man joined his family on their wagon and headed off, never to be seen again…
OK, I might see them again, but their home was a bit out of the way, so it was highly unlikely.
The rest of my guests would be staying one more night and leaving in the morning. They were staying since their carriages didn’t leave till then. No more would be accepted in, since I didn’t want to deal with the hassle.
Since it would be another two days or so until Karl’s party arrived with the merchant they were escorting, I had a couple days to do some stuff. Maybe more, depending on how the roads had been or if they stopped for the festival in one of the towns or cities between here and the port. So, since I had some time, I was going to collect some resources to finish fixing this place up. Or building it. Same difference.
I got armored up, with different gear than usual, including a helm that masked my face so I was less likely to be disturbed, then visited the guild. I might not really need to rank up any more, but I may as well do so, so I was going to grab a few quests for the region I was headed to.
No one batted an eye at my appearance, and I was able to snag two quests in the mountains I was headed for. Collecting some rare herbs was the hardest of them, while the other was a simple hunting quest, one outside the standard monsters. They weren’t among the permanent requests since while the beasts were dangerous, they usually stayed in their own territory, unless provoked, but the materials could be used to make useful gear.
Accepting the quest at the counter, I was relieved that there didn’t seem to be a notice to send me upstairs to the GM’s office, and my name wasn’t well enough known to draw much attention, so I was in and out in a few minutes. I’d come late, so missed the morning rush, thank the gods.
Once outside the city, which took a bit since it was still busy with people leaving, I headed away from the road and lifted off invisibly. The mountains weren’t too far away, maybe two days on foot, so it only took a few minutes flying to reach them.
I decided to take care of the quests first, then deal with my own reasons for visiting the location.
The beasts weren’t too hard to find. With all the spells at my disposal, I’d located them and took them out with no trouble or damage to their bodies. Suffocating them was rather easy, and didn’t let them make any loud noises to alert their kin, so it was how I chose to deal with them. Unlike drowning them by holding water balls over their heads, there was less of an issue with no extra fluids left in the corpse.
Unlike the hunting quest, the herb gathering one was a pain. I’d expected it to take me an hour, two at most to find them, but by the time the sun was setting I’d only gathered three of the five I needed. I could have headed back to the city, since this one didn’t lock the gates at night, but decided it wasn’t worth it.
Only problem was my hut was still in the basement, so I had to locate a clearing large enough to let me pull out the house. Or make one.
I chose to do the later and make a spot.
While I was in the mountains, the place was covered in forests, but there were still rocky areas that provided the location I needed. The rocks were what I was here for, since I was almost out of materials in my inventory, so I found a good spot and started collecting, leaving a good sized clearing. It wasn’t done and ready for the house just like that, since the rocks had portions underground, so once I got the rocks out of the dirt, I flattened the place. Only then was I ready to place my house.
Starting some stew reheating on the stove, I went back outside and collected more stone while I waited.
Usually the food would have been warm, but this pot was one I’d had out and shared with people, so it had decreased in temperature before I’d gotten it stored away. I could have gone with something that didn’t require heating back up, but I had plenty of time.
Many tons of rock were collected before I headed back to enjoy my dinner. It was enough for a large mansion, but only if it was built using it at normal density. After I compress it it’d be much smaller, and would allow me to add two, maybe three, floors to the building. I’d pick up a lot more tomorrow. While most of it would reside in my inventory until I found a need to use it, at least I’d have it ready. However, getting the stuff was only the first step. Once I got home, I’d still have to do the compression.
Still, I’d finish off the quest first. Worst case scenario, and I couldn’t find the stupid herbs, I’d stick around another night or two. At least I only needed two more of the things.
Checking the food, I found it had reached a good temperature, so I served myself and put the rest away. Now that it was reheated, there was no reason to let it get cold. It’d take mere moments to snag another serving if I wanted more.
After enjoying some reading time as I ate, and pulling out some sweets for dessert, I considered what I wanted to do next. The sun had set, and it was pretty dark outside, being close to a new moon, but I had skills and spells that made the darkness irrelevant. However, did I really care enough to head out at night?
No.
I cleaned up my dishes, a breeze when one is a mage and can use Lifestyle Magic… or Holy Magic’s Purification, and moved to the couch. While I’d furnished my house with high quality furniture, a nice plush couch is by far better for getting comfortable on than a kitchen chair. And that’s where I stayed until it was time to go to bed.
---
The next morning I woke up with the sun.
I had failed to shut the curtains after opening the window to let in the cool night breeze, and had the bad luck to have my bedroom’s window on the East side of the house, so as soon as the sun was high enough, my eyes were stabbed by it’s burning light.
While I’d have liked to keep sleeping a bit longer, I had things to do.
Cleaning up myself and the bed with some cleaning spells, I got dressed and headed downstairs to have breakfast. Food was not allowed on the second floor, even if cleaning up any messes was easy. Nothing but water was allowed up there.
Breakfast was a simple meal of oatmeal with fruit and honey added in, accompanied by a drink similar to orange juice. It wasn’t quite the same taste, being a bit sweeter, as well as being green instead of orange, but was still quite tasty.
I was just finishing up when I heard some voices outside, people shouting about hurrying up and begging someone not to die. Sighing, I left the food on the table and headed out the door, which I’d left open for the cool morning breeze to ventilate the place, and finding a trio of bloodied people rushing towards my house. Looking around, I looked for whatever had attacked them, but finding nothing, I extended my magical senses, and still nothing.
The people spotted me and called out, begging for me to help their wounded companion. I allowed them inside, instructing them to lay the person, a woman, they’d been carrying on the floor, but kept my guard up. Which was the right move, since as soon as my back was turned, one of them tried to bash me unconscious with his weapon.
Being my validly paranoid self, this attack did nothing to me, instead it bounced off and rebounded into the face of the one who initiated it. While he wasn’t knocked unconscious, he was thoroughly disoriented and lost a few of what remained of his teeth.
Seeing his friend’s attack fail, the second man drew his sword and pointed it at me.
“Surrender or I’ll have to make this really unpleasant for you.”
His lecherous grin told me all I needed to know about the men. While I didn’t know about the woman, who I’d verified was actually unconscious and not just faking, these two men were definitely criminals, and not very smart ones at that. I mean, who watches an attack bounce off a powerful shield that was erected with no apparent spellcasting, nearly incapacitating your companion, and thinks they’ve got the upper hand?
Rolling my eyes, I waved my hand and the pair of men were wrapped up in stone bindings and stuck to the wall. Just in case, the woman was also bound, a bit more gently, but just as firmly, to the ground.
Just in case the woman was as much as a victim as the men had tried to make me, I started healing her while complaining at the men. Not that they could reply, as they had gags make of stone blocking their mouths. Oh, they could breath just fine, considering the gags had holes, but they also prevented them from talking, keeping their head and jaw completely still, even preventing the tongue from moving very much. At most they could make little grunts.
“I just wanted to come out here, do my quests, pick up some materials, and go home, but noooo, I just had to run into a people who had to ruin my day right from the very beginning. Do you know how annoyed I am right now? Enough that depending on what she says when she wakes up, I may just decide it’s not worth hauling you back to the city to be sold as slaves. Which is probably what you’d have tried to do to me if I hadn’t turned the tables on you. Well too bad for you I’m an adventurer, one who’s been through enough not to easily fall for tricks like you tried to pull.”
I continued harping on the annoyances while I worked on the woman, finding rope burns on her wrists and ankles, as well as discovering she’d been poisoned, and not by any actual monsters. Searching the men, I found a vial with the same poison on the one who’d felt confident in pointing his sword my way.
Unfortunately I didn’t find an antidote, but it was only a paralytic poison, one that also knocked the affected unconscious and would wear off in a few hours, so I didn’t need to worry about it. If she’d been in danger, like if they’d given her too much and it started affecting her heart or lungs, I’d have broken out the light magic to heal her, but I didn’t want to show that if I didn’t have to. If I decided to leave these criminals alive, they wouldn’t be able to reveal anything too significant… except for the house. Though I guess I could knock them out before storing the thing. Probably be better that way anyway. Though I’d also used earth magic to restrain them, something the ‘Space Destroyer’ hadn’t shown aptitude at before.
Dammit. This was almost certain to create problems if I left them alive, but I didn’t like killing people in cold blood. I’d do it it I had to, but would rather not.
Applying a bit of the poison to the men, who were unable to resist due to their bonds, I waited for them to lose consciousness, then took all three outside. Storing my house, I opened a portal to just outside the capital, and brought them through. I wasn’t going to drag them along behind me for the two day walk it’d take otherwise, and I’d rather get this shit done sooner rather than later.
Checking the surroundings, I exited my transit bunker followed by the trio and dumped them in a handcart from my storage.
I was about to head off, but then remembered something I’d been overlooking and changed their restraints from stone to ropes. I left the gags off, since I shouldn’t need to worry about them waking up soon. Or so I thought…
