Chapter 9: Home (A twist at the end of the chapter)

Mila

Watching the puppets bow to Aalam was weird and Mila just kind of absorbed the experience as Aalam emptied the bags of holding and gave instructions to the puppet in front of them on how to handle their loot, adding most of it to an auction that would apparently be occurring on the 25th day of the trial, evenly splitting the profits between the two of them.

Would you like to change any of the default settings, Master? the puppet in front of them asked as all their artifacts faded out of existence and Aalam put the Thief's Knapsack back on.

"No. Keep all the settings. Just add all the profits to my account instead of the System's. Send me a notification, however, in the following cases: any Uncommon or Rare artifact requiring more than one Law Egg is put up for sale, any Epic artifact is put up for sale, or any Rare or higher crafting materials for any discipline is put up for sale.

"Finally, Trial Taker Li Mila here has, until I say otherwise, equal authority to me."

Very well, Sir. The puppet bowed again and then turned to Mila and bowed as well. We look forward to working with you, Madam.

Without another word Aalam turned to go and Mila, now unencumbered as well, quickly followed him. They walked across the central square to the amphitheater and then walked in, finding another puppet.

Aalam then turned to her. "You should take this building. Unlike me, you're aiming for a combat class so this building is where you would have been spending most of your money. From tournaments and performances, the profits should also be second only to the auction house."

Mila looked around the stone room and then back to Aalam. "This is a structure only our souls can visit, right? So, what are the benefits to buying."

"For one, due to the coupon you received, it's free." Aalam looked a tad annoyed, but he explained anyway. "You gain all the profits for the entire tutorial and the resulting Trial Points will help you buy a better body. If you ever become the lord of a settlement, you will also be able to buy the materials for a much better amphitheater.

"Before you ask, an amphitheater is like a stadium, able to host concerts and combat tournaments alike, but the most profitable part is the suite of training rooms, magical rooms that help train skills and energy control. One of these rooms is probably where you will spend most of your time if you're serious about getting stronger."

"Okay." Mila walked up to the puppet and asked to buy the place, getting a bow and a universal Welcome, Madam from every puppet in the building. Then she gave Aalam the same level of rights he'd given her in the auction hall and Aalam started to give orders.

"Keep all the normal settings, but for the first five days run promotion C37 to help the trial takers learn the amphitheater's importance. Also, send a notification to Mila if the building spots anyone with D rank potential or higher."

Yes, Sir. The puppet bowed to Aalam first and only then to her, causing Mila to feel a little miffed.

Aalam then turned to her, a relatively neutral look on his face, and asked something she really hadn't been expecting. "Would you consent to living together? There should be only one best dwelling and, from the information I have, the benefits of its various rooms should be usable by up to five people at once."

Mila felt her non-existent heart start to beat faster again, even though her brain knew Aalam was asking purely for the sake of optimization. "Sure."

They headed out of the amphitheater and into the central square again, where Mila could now see two groups of people, one of four and the other of five. Given the way they were geared, Mila was pretty sure they were both victorious groups from the Nightmare Royale's first round, but Aalam didn't seem to care, heading directly for the teleportation platform.

One of the groups seemed to either want to talk to them or accost them, while the other, a backpack on one of their members, headed directly for the auction house, but she and Aalam were away before the first group could reach them.

They appeared in another central square, but this one was in the high residential district. If the direction where the fake sun rising in whatever type of space they were in was to be taken as east, the three main roads leading away from the central square were traveling west, north west, and south west. To the north was a small park in front of a large lake while to the south was a small mountain with what looked like quite a few walking and running trails. Most of the houses in the district, all large mansions, were on the three roads, but the largest and most dominant residence was a huge palatial complex to the east.

It had both eastern and western influences, with stone, primarily white marble, as the main building material but every roof of the thirteen buildings was multi-tiered and tiled. It had its own private access to both the lake and the mountain, and was just plain ostentatious and huge.

Aalam, of course, walked up to it. Then, as soon as they reached the actual border of the property, only ten meters from the teleportation points, they were stopped by an invisible forcefield and a System message appeared in front of them.

The Dream Palace is a protected private residence.

You may not enter.

The Dream Palace is currently unoccupied.

Would you like to purchase for 20,732 Trial Points?

Yes/No

"We would like to split the purchase." Aalam spoke to the air and a new notification appeared in front of Mila's eyes.

Would you like to split the price of the Dream Palace with Aalam Alvaro?

The price for you would be 10,368 Trial Points.

Yes/No

Mila accepted and a new set of notifications appeared in front of them.

You have purchased the Dream Palace.

As a palatial structure, the Dream Palace has the energy to empower 8 points worth of powered rooms.

Please consult with your partner and choose which you wish to purchase.

Alchemy Lab (1)

Enchanting Lab (1)

Smithy (1)

Tailoring Room (1)

Combined Crafting Room (3)

Martial Training Room (1)

Magic Training Room (1)

Psychic Training Room (1)

Combined Training Room (2)

Personalized Teleportation Room (1)

Dao Finding Room (3)

Dao Finding Enhancement to Existing Room (4)

"Each of these room types can be found in other places in the city as well," Aalam turned to her to explain, "except for the combined crafting room, which I would like. The amphitheater has three Dao finding enhanced combined training rooms, on the other hand, which you can get to in just a couple seconds with a personalized teleportation room, as you own the amphitheater and can thus directly teleport to its lower levels."

Mila felt herself start to smile. "So, you want a Dao finding enhanced combined crafting room, worth seven points, for you and a personalized teleportation room, worth one point, for me." Aalam started to look a bit worried, but she quickly continued. "Alright."

Aalam had a tendency to underestimate his own value and his information had already saved her likely at least half a day's worth of exploring, so she didn't see an issue with him getting most of the benefits. He wanted to be a crafter and she was trying to go the route of being better able to use artifacts, so it wasn't like she was losing out.

They confirmed the choices and then they headed inside. Aalam ignored the bedrooms, kitchen, and dining room on the first few floors of the building and headed to the top floor, where there was a large circular room surrounded by windows looking out over the palace grounds.

On the north side of the room was the alchemy section, with one cabinet full of odd liquids and powders and another filled with beakers, pipettes, and the like. In front of the cabinets was a table with a controlled magical flame, but otherwise it reminded Mila of the chemistry section of Aalam's home lab back when they'd been alive.

On the room's west side was the enchanting lab, with a table covered in simple runes Mila could read with Omniglot Reader, mostly variants on the word 'infusion', and a bookcase filled with works such as 'How to enchant the skin of a toad and other interesting discussions.' To the east was the smithing section, with the requisite magical furnace, anvil, hammer, and tongs. And, on the south side, was the tailoring section, with a magical loom and sewing machine along with a cabinet full of various magical threads.

"If Tony Stark can make an arc reactor in a cave, I wonder what you could build in here?" Even as she was half way through, Mila knew the joke was a bad idea, but she wasn't expecting Aalam's reaction.

He hit her in the face, hard.