Chapter 443 : Big Spender

After a very eventful day, we turned in for the evening, with Vee crafting a human-sized hammock for herself to sleep in. She asked that we buy her a real bed and turned down my offer to make her one out of slime, still drawing the line there. I must have been more tired than I realized, as I had no issue falling into slumber in my bedtub, practically dozing off the second I reverted to a gelatinous mass.

Waking up, I felt particularly refreshed and revitalized, and found Vee in similarly high spirits. It seemed the long evolution had taken a lot out of her, not to mention the emotional highs and lows about her size and age.

We were planning to go to Keld, but before that I wanted to show Vee what I'd been working on. We started at the first room I had constructed, showing off my current advances in recreating spatial compression. I had found the task more enthralling than I initially realized, and even though it was vastly different subjects, it reminded me of when I was first trying to compress my slime back in the forest.

"Well damn, how long until you can make your own snow globe?" Vee asked, looking curiously around and no doubt scrutinizing it with [Spatial Sense].

"I think I'm pretty far off from that… I've got a partially working quadruple space, but it's still a work in progress."

I showed Vee the upgraded room, and maybe because I was fully refreshed or had a sudden flash of inspiration, I suddenly saw the flaws in my design. While Vee was gawking at the complexity, I silently began fixing the mistakes in the enchantment and stabilizing the compression.

I wasn't sure how long had passed, but when I came out of my trance, the work was complete, and I saw Vee playfully jumping through the doorway to experience the compression effect.

"Looks like you upgraded it?" Vee asked.

"No… I just completed it. Before it wasn't getting the full effect, so it was hovering somewhere between double and quadruple."

"I see… Interestingly enough, it seems my new body is quite resistant to this; if I want, I can ignore it entirely."

To demonstrate, Vee jumped out of the room again before jumping in again, except this time she was abruptly coming up against the ceiling. From my own perspective, I watched as the enchantments failed to take hold of her body, and then she shrank to the appropriate size using her own ability.

"When we get back, I think you've given me a great idea on how to progress on making it an affliction…"

"Wait, you want to make a shrinking spell? Does that even count as [Dimension Magic]?"

"The easiest way to explain it would be to say it's an offshoot. Like how [Death Magic] includes both necromancy and, well, death. Actually… I guess 'negative life' or 'draining' would be a better way to describe it? Regardless, the main category of [Dimension Magic] is definitely teleporting, rifts, and so forth."

"Like how [Corrosion Magic] is poison, acid, and weakness?" Vee asked.

"Exactly! Intermediate magic already has several offshoots, so I can only imagine that advanced magics have several more."

I also showed off my latest enchanting, revealing the food storage bag, which Vee took with delight. Storage was probably another offshoot, and I wondered if the advancement of bags was a demonstration of its own path.

It has to be… How else could the food preservation enchantment work? [Pocket Space] definitely can't do that.

But I had to set my theories aside, as we had a relatively big day ahead of us. Vee was extremely excited about her first real trip to a city and about being able to walk its streets as a person, not a pet.

Vee was now wearing her size-appropriate dress, and Yuzz had given her a few other clothes to complete a full set of apparel: shoes, socks, underwear, and even an optional hat if she wanted. She'd also shared the [Equipment Swap] skill so that switching between human and Arachne didn't destroy any clothes, as resizing enchantments could only go so far. Vee was also wearing the rings I had previously given her, and also an enchanted necklace from one of our dungeon spoils.

"I bet with all this enchanted gear I look like the nepo baby of a noble, or maybe a famous adventurer," Vee giggled.

"Well, I am only one labyrinth away from being a diamond-rank adventurer, so definitely the latter."

"But you're also a princess, and halfway to becoming a queen!"

"Ugh… Don't remind me. I'm still not sure if that's really what I want to pick. I'm still rooting for Time Slime."

As we were about to leave, Vee abruptly ran up to me while in her human form and suddenly gave me a hug. "Thanks, Syl. I owe you a lot."

I had to crouch down to hug her back, since I was currently in my adventurer disguise and elves were stupidly tall. "Hey, don't mention it. I'm just glad I have someone else in this crazy world to talk to and in pretty much the same situation."

After letting that moment linger on for a bit, we eventually departed to Keld, but not before making a few detours along the way to hide our spatial disturbances. Before we entered the city itself, I made sure that Vee's identity was properly applied from my end.

The biggest flaw on our end was her [Bonded Companion] Emblem, which was why I needed to hide it, as a human would never be able to receive that. Honestly, I was actually a little surprised that she still had it, as from what I knew you couldn't use it on monstrous humanoids like goblins, orcs, or mermen, and an Arachne definitely fell under that category.

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Either Mother had pulled some strings for Vee to keep it, or maybe it simply didn't apply retroactively. Or maybe, because Vee wanted to keep it, she could, and she could reject it at any point in the future.

Truthfully, the only downside from her perspective was the inability to equip another Emblem. Still, she had said she didn't have any she'd actually want active, and the benefits of being a [Bonded Companion] certainly outweighed the negatives. I'd sworn an oath never to use [Order]; she received bonus experience and proficiency from me, and we could sense each other's locations if we were ever separated. It was a win-win situation all around.

"Ready for your first city?" I asked.

"Yeah… Weirdly, I'm a bit nervous about it finally happening," Vee answered back, before holding my hand.

I squeezed her hand back, and we walked up to the entrance, where the golem guards instantly recognized me and let me in with zero fuss.

"Wow, you really weren't kidding about the entire city being run by golems," Vee said, already marveling at the initial sights.

"There's plenty of dwarves and even a few humans, but yeah, pretty much all the physical or boring jobs are done by golems."

Vee was getting a very different first experience than me, as Keldenar had clearly propagated the [Roleplay] skill to almost all the golems now. Gone were the weirdly mechanical voice and stiff [Acting]; instead, they were far more human.

As we wandered the streets, Vee's head was swiveling at all the sights and sounds, her earlier tension disappearing and replaced by awe and wonder. To my relief, nobody had burst out into a panic at there being a tier six monster roaming the streets, and some even commented on how cute she looked.

Naturally, the first place Vee wanted to visit was the food stalls, and she soon began snacking on everything she laid eyes on. Considering I was buying everything she asked for and her current appearance, it really was giving the impression she was some spoiled rotten rich kid.

After food came clothes and accessories, with Vee finding delight in all the variety on display. The way Keld worked was that generic mass-produced items were made by the golems, with specialty goods made by the human or dwarven artisans who lived here. The mass-produced goods were considerably cheaper yet surprisingly of good quality and made from good materials, as Keldenar himself apparently refused shoddy workmanship.

Vee bought several pieces of clothing with interesting designs, apparently because she wanted Yuzz to reverse-engineer them. She also fully admitted to wanting to get more into weaving or tailoring herself, now that she had highly dexterous hands. I wanted to point out that with [Thread Mastery] she didn't need hands, but held my tongue, not wanting to ruin her joy.

The last thing on our shopping trip was her bed, but when she saw all the furniture on display, she ended up going a bit wild with the purchases. The merchant must have caught a whiff that we were big spenders and soon unveiled enough furniture to outfit an entire bedroom and dining room, and Vee wanted the whole lot.

"I need to get myself a magic credit card," Vee whispered as I paid for the items with my guild tag.

"It's not free money; I had Keldenar deposit most of my dungeon spoils into my account. There were way too many useless pieces of gear that I'd never use, so it was better to sell them."

"I know it's not free money, but I still want one. Surely he can pull some strings to link me to your account, or give me one of my own?"

"Well, I guess we can ask him when we go to visit after this stop."

Vee nodded excitedly. I really didn't mind, as money had no value to me considering I could generate it pretty much at whim with Mana and healing potions. If I ever fully revealed my regeneration elixirs, I'd probably break the economy.

When Vee's shopping spree finally came to an end, all that was left was to visit the castle. When we approached one of the more elite golems, it told me that Keldenar was available to see me, and so we entered.

"This castle is a golem…" Vee whispered as she nudged me.

"Apparently it's to stop any assassins."

"Well, that's one way to go about it… I suppose not everyone can sleep in a slime fortress or a dimensional rift."

"Or a secret web trap."

"Point made."

Vee was understandably tense as we walked through the golem castle, but soon her caution faded as she was amazed by the high-class golems that roamed the hallway. There were plenty of fancy guards, but Vee was drawn to the almost lifelike maids and butlers that were keeping things neat and tidy.

"Imagine having those running my farm."

"You can ask Sylvester. Actually, there's a farm outside the city walls run by golems I can show you too."

"Yes, please!"

I chuckled at her enthusiasm as we eventually reached the throne room with Keldenar in his usual spot. I had thought he was waiting for me, but he appeared to be in the process of sending out various orders to golems that were then relayed across to the rest of his creations.

"Ah, Syl, good to see you again. I can't believe you've already beaten your third labyrinth; that's way too quick even for you," Keldenar said as he finished his task. His gaze then drifted to Vee, and he looked very confused, and maybe a bit concerned. "Um… I hate to ask this, but you didn't kidnap that child, did you?"

"You're the second person to ask me that… No, I didn't."

"And I'm not a child," Vee added with a pout.

"You're… Not?" Keldenar asked, blinking a few times as if trying to focus.

"Okay… You've done something weird to your profile, but I can't exactly explain what. I hope you aren't some fey creature; do I need to bring out the Lead Silver?"

"What the heck would that do?" Vee asked.

"It traps pixies," I answered.

"Remind me to get some before you go looking for Trixie, or she finds us."

Keldenar coughed awkwardly. "Umm… Sorry, can I get an answer? I really don't like fey."

"No, she's not a fey. This is my best friend and companion, Vee."

"Nice to meet you. Your city is pretty cool," Vee chimed in.

Keldenar scratched his head curiously. "Didn't you say your friend Vee was a monster like you? Are all you smart monsters natural shapeshifters?"

"Pff… As if anyone could be like this crazy slime. I can't do even half the things she can. I had to go through hell to finally get a human form."

"Hell? You spent most of it eating," I pointed out. "Heck, the elves basically pampered you like you were some kind of sacred beast."

"A minor moment of good luck after many arduous encounters…" Vee mumbled.

"Wait. Pause," Keldenar said, suddenly having a very excited look on his face. "Is this your reincarnator friend? Is she from E4r7h?"

Vee turned to me. "You told him that?"

"I said your situations sounded similar."

"So you are!" Keldenar excitedly exclaimed. "Ha! Finally someone else, I knew I wasn't crazy, especially with the random inventions and innovations that clearly came from home."

"Yeah, the elf progenitor was probably also from E4r7h," Vee replied.

"Oh wow. I did not know that. I mean, I had suspicions on why there were so many stereotypes from home, but wow, that really explains it."

"I don't think you were supposed to mention that," I warned Vee.

"Oops," she replied, cheekily sticking out her tongue.

"Oops…" I sighed.

I knew giving her a mouth was a bad idea… She's a genuine blabbermouth!