“Anyway, I heard you're taking my sister out on a date.”
I shift slightly, preparing to flee if I need to. Daniel does the same, and I notice that Merrick notices too. “Uhh, she asked me out. It's like a business deal more than anything.”
Merrick's grin instantly comes back as he starts laughing. “I’m just fucking with you, Ray. Morah's a grown-ass woman. She can make her own decisions.”
I let out a breath I didn't even realize I was holding in. “Are you going to the ball?”
“Yeah. I think most of the initiates in the city will be there, so it should be fun. I still need to find a date for it though.” Merrick says as the waiter brings out our food, and he orders as well.
“You could ask Stella or Corvax.” Daniel adds between bites of his meal. “Depending on how you swing.”
Merrick nods his head a few times while looking deep in thought. “That’s not a bad idea. I'll ask her later today.”
After we all eat and pay, Merrick splits up from us to go ask Stella to the ball, while Daniel and I head back to the Baradia compound for our original purpose, visiting the kid. I'm also hoping to be able to convince him to show me where he's been living, as I want to make sure he's not just living on the street. I tell this to Daniel as we head back.
“We should also look for a building to buy or rent. Something where we can work on our projects safely and privately. I don't want to stay at the inn forever.” Daniel brings up.
“I've been thinking about that too. It would be nice to have a secure base to have. We can grab Corvax and check out a few places.”
We make it back to the Baradia compound easily enough. I think the people of Barad are finally starting to get used to having a guy open portals in the middle of the street. I'm not getting as many surprised looks as I used to. I even notice a few of the more curious people will attempt to talk over and speak to me, but I'm always gone before they can try, mostly because I'm constantly busy and not because I don't want to talk to strangers.
Before we enter the house, we walk back around to the small sandpit that was our arena just an hour or so ago. My prosthetic hand is in the middle of the pit, buried to the wrist with the hand posed to give a middle finger. I dig it up and examine it with my mana. Finding no damage, I put it back on and open and close the fist a few times, finding it working perfectly.
We walk back into the mansion using the back door and walk into the kitchen, where Elsine, Morah, Halon, and Silth are sitting at a round table and eating breakfast. It looks like they're eating some kind of pancake-like bread with honey slathered over it.
“Ooh, breakfast!” Daniel says as he sits down next to Halon and starts eating his third breakfast of the day in about as many hours.
I sit down as well, next to Silth, finding that I can also still eat. It feels like recently our stomachs have been a bit of an endless well with how much we've been able to stuff down. I wonder if it's because of all the training recently. Does using mana consume calories? I also wonder if increasing body stats also increases the need for nutrition. More questions to add to the pile.
“Welcome back.” Morah says as we sit down at the table. “Did your training go as you hoped it would?”
“Your brother is a monster.” Daniel says. “He didn't even use any mana or skills, just the power of his body, and we still lost two versus one.”
“Don't feel too bad about it. He's probably the strongest local on this island. The fact that you guys got away at all is impressive. The barrier around that arena is pretty tough, and Merrick can move very fast if he wants to.”
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“Why is he so strong despite being a few years younger than all of you?” I ask.
“That's for Merrick to tell you, if he wants you to know. Just know that he is among the strongest of our generation.” Morah responds. “Being initiates, you will probably catch up to him at some point, as long as you don't slack off during your time here.”
Elsine and Halon get up after they finish their plates and say their goodbyes to us before they go about their duties for the day. Elsine's eyes look from me to Silth, her expression unreadable before she turns around and follows her husband out of the mansion.
“You know this city pretty well, Morah, don’t you?” I ask.
“I built this city, Ray. I know it better than anyone else.”
“Do you know any good properties available for rent or purchase? Something with a few bedrooms and a workshop of some kind. And it's got to be big enough for Corvax to live in.”
“House Baradia owns a few properties in the city that you might like. I'll give you the addresses, and you can check them out yourself. Just don't break anything.” She grabs a piece of paper from nearby and writes a few things down before sliding it over to me.
The paper has five locations written down with simple directions as well. She also included the amount of rent for each property, anywhere from about one hundred and fifty gold per month to about seven hundred. I move the paper to my storage core and thank Morah as she gets up to presumably run the city or whatever a city lord does.
I give Daniel the directions for the first place we're going to check out and send him off to fetch Corvax and meet me there in an hour. In the meantime, I plan to spend some more time with this kid, building up trust between us.
After Daniel leaves, I turn to Silth, who has been keeping quiet while sneakily taking glances at me. He seems a little shy, but with all that he's been through in the last few days, it's hard to tell.
“Do you want to go shopping with me? Get out of the house for a little bit?”
He nods his head after a few seconds of thinking, and we both get up. I gather up all the dishes on the table and put them in the sink in the kitchen. I haven't seen any servants or anything here, so I'm assuming that there aren't any. The mess from whoever made breakfast is still here as well.
Silth and I walk past the two guards at the gate, and I stop him before we get too far away. He looks confused for a second, then excitement quickly fills his eyes.
“Are we going to fly!” He asks while looking up at me.
“Better.” I say as a portal pops open behind me, and I see his eyes somehow get even wider.
“You can do portals! I've never been in one before! How far does it go?”
A genuine smile forms on my lips as I hear the anticipation and excitement in his voice. Who doesn’t love showing off for easily impressed children?
“This one's about a thousand feet or so from here. We'll have to go through probably five or six to get where we need to go, so after you.” I gesture for him to walk through the portal.
He walks up to the portal and hesitantly pokes a finger through, pulling it back after just a moment. Once he is certain that it didn't hurt him, he takes a deep breath and walks forward, through the portal and into the alley on the other side.
Once through, he turns around with a huge smile on his face after checking out his new surroundings. “I did it! I went through a portal!”
I walk through the next and close it behind me, and another opening appears just a moment later. His excitement never stops, even as we step through the final portal and into the shopping district.
We walk around together for a little bit, with me buying some dried travel food, a new sleeping bag and bedroll, a small tent, and a bunch of candy and desserts for Silth. The whole shopping trip costs me less than two gold, and everything fits nicely in my storage core, but I need to empty it soon. All the lizard corpses inside are taking up quite a bit of space.
Eventually the time to meet up with Daniel and Corvax arrives, and just a few portals later, I find my two companions standing outside a building at the edge of the housing district. Silth hides behind me a little bit when he sees Corvax, who just gives him a friendly smile while introducing himself. If anyone can win the trust of this kid, it's that big softie.
The building we're looking at is two stories tall and constructed mostly out of stone bricks and wood. It definitely looks like a medieval dwelling as opposed to some of the more modern-looking buildings around it. It has a small wall around the yard, but it's clearly meant for separation and not protection.
The four of us tour the property, finding it completely unfurnished except for the magical appliances in the kitchen. There is a stove, oven, sink, and even a machine for washing clothes, all powered through mana. There is a central node that you can feed mana into that powers all of the appliances as well as the lights.
It has five bedrooms in total, three bathrooms, a dining room, a sitting room, and a few other empty rooms. Almost every room has a window, and there is even a cellar for storage.
The workshop is in a shed behind the main building and is already set up with a few workbenches and chairs. It has some basic protections built in, a field similar to my [Mana Stabilization Field], and a semi-strong barrier that can be powered on at will. It runs on its own power system separate from the house.
The rent for this place is three hundred and twenty-five gold a month. All of us like the place, but we decide to check out the rest of the list before making a decision.
We spend the next four hours looking at the other houses before deciding on the first one. The rest were good, but they all had one major problem or another. And I like the idea of the workshop being separate from the house, especially for some of the more dangerous items we have spoken about crafting.
After deciding on our future residence, Daniel and Corvax leave to go finalize the process with Morah and pay for three months' rent. This wipes out most of the gold coins we have, but we still have a ton of stuff to sell, mostly the corpses from the obelisk defense dungeon we ran.
Once the other two leave, Silth turns to me and asks. “So you're going to live here?” He seems nervous asking me this, looking everywhere but at me.
“Yes, my teammates and I need a home base while we're here.” I pause for a few moments, watching Silth shift like he wants to ask something but is too scared. “I'd appreciate it if you lived here too. It would make it much easier for me when I have to do my gravity training. I wouldn't have to come find you.”
He stutters for a second. “You mean when I was flying?” His face looks contemplative for a moment before he answers. “I guess I could stay if it helps you.”
“It would help me out a lot.”