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The brothers and sisters were completely unaware of the little worries in Grysenna’s heart.
After lunch, Amos departed with Aresia.
Although the children were home for the break for less than a day, leaving so soon was difficult for Grysenna. However, she respects the rules of the Legion and the Academy, she could only have the servants prepare a lot of things for the siblings to take back.
Aaron, the steward who’s so busy finally showed up, he brought a package for Aresia.
“Miss, this is from the guild,” he said.
Anes the arachnes beast companion of Aaron squatted on his shoulder. It observed Aresia with curious eyes. During this time, its size had doubled, now perched on Aaron’s shoulder, its spider legs tucked in, forming a compact shape. The baby fat on its humanoid face had increased due to being well-fed and cared for.
Aresia learned from Luna that Anes was very popular in the Duke’s household. The Duchess adored it, and Mrs. Megan pampered it as her own grandchild. They not only provided the spider with food and clothes it liked but also customized a whole set of living items, all proportionately designed to fit its size. Due to Anes’s changing size, these items were regularly replaced. Its high demands made these items sell well. Both the Duchess and Mrs. Megan were enthusiastic about it, even commissioning items for it.
In their affection for the spider, even Aaron, its actual owner, was deeply impressed.
Despite the general human impression of spiders being associated with cruelty and deception, Anes, representing this species, gained an unexpected amount of affection. It was exceedingly friendly and endearing.
Anes was highly intelligent. Despite only half a month’s time, it had already understood the feelings of the people around it and responded to those who showed friendly signals. Due to its species’ skill in luring humans into traps, it was especially good at evoking affectionate responses during interactions.
Now, it was showing an endearing smile towards Aresia. Although she knew this species’ young were adept at feigning innocence, she resisted succumbing to its charm.
She lightly touched the claws of Araneid’s spider body, the usual greeting method of the spider family, before inspecting the items Aaron brought.
It was a mission item obtained from the Adventurers’ Guild, a magical material not easily found in the market.
This item might not necessarily be an expensive high-tier material but was scarce in circulation in the market.
In Aresia’s high-magic world, the understanding of magical resources had reached an incomprehensible level. Although many things contained magical properties, the understanding of these items was incomplete. For instance, Devil’s Rest tree branches, used in brewing soul elixirs, were a known ingredient in the high-magic world. However, their uses here were yet to be fully discovered.
In this world, unless the true usage of an item had been determined or a specific process was known, the true value of magical materials was often unrecognized. Hence, it was challenging to track these items in the market. Aresia had requested Aaron to ask familiar auction houses to assist in finding these items after posting the task at the Adventurers’ Guild, asking adventurers for help.
What Aaron brought was a part of the items sent by the adventurers—a quality Spatial Stone.
Its original name was not this; it was named by the people as Krosmanal’s Spatial Stone. Due to its lengthy name, it was often abbreviated to Spatial Stone.
This stone appeared gray with fine pores, resembling stones formed from volcanic magma cooling, known as floating stones. However, the Spatial Stone was extremely hard to break, and its quantity was rare. It was a high-level magical material that required specific conditions to form.
The Spatial Stone served as the main material for creating storage artifacts.
Aresia inspected the stone, nestled in its box, while Aaron added, “This was brought by the auction house. They seem to have a few more available for sale and asked if you needed more.”
A significant portion of auction items were consigned by clients, who paid a fee. Although this fee wasn’t low, the auction house helped in marketing, often fetching higher prices for the consigned items. Many adventurers enjoyed sending the items they acquired during their ventures to the auctions.
In this world, due to incomplete understanding of spatial magic, only spatial mages could craft storage devices. However, such mages were rare, and even fewer were alchemists. Asking them to craft storage spaces required substantial financial resources and connections. Despite the rarity and value of the Spatial Stone, there were few buyers. The stones circulating in the market were often just displays of wealth, left idle in collections.
Aresia wasn’t a spatial mage but had a definite need for the Spatial Stone.
“Ask them if they have a few more Spatial Stones available at a reasonable price,” she requested.
For her, the stone was intended to upgrade the capacity of a space tools.
Space tools were precious. Despite the Duke’s household having vast resources, Aresia only had three jewelry pieces with storage capabilities. These spaces were not sufficient, leaving her quite dissatisfied.
She had considered upgrading the storage space earlier but faced limitations in terms of conditions and acquiring materials. So far, this plan had been postponed.
However, delaying it any further was becoming less appropriate.
It was already July, and by the month’s end, the academic term would conclude. The break starts from first day of August to last day of September. During these two months, Aresia intended to go the Legion Territory.
She had been craving a visit to the Duke’s mage tower for far too long.
The Gryphon Legion situated was far from the city of Holy Lotean. Given the distance, Aresia doubted she would return immediately. Moreover, leaving her experimental equipment at the academy was inconvenient, but taking it along wasn’t feasible.
With the remaining days, Aresia felt it necessary to expedite her spatial upgrades.
It had been nearly three months since her last journey. Her soul had recuperated considerably, and her strength was nearly restored. Physically, she no longer looked as pale and had regained some strength.
Considering her current state, she aimed to create a storage space, directly binding it to her soul this time to avoid losing everything in case of another journey.
It wasn’t an unwarranted concern. Another journey, especially for a research-oriented mage like her, would be quite a setback.
As for the Spatial Stone, the more she could acquire, the better. There was always a need for additional space.
Aaron agreed and mentioned that he would arrange a visit to the auction house later to discuss this matter.
A pile of materials was loaded onto the carriage; Amos departed earlier, bidding farewell to Aresia’s mother. She was then escorted back to the school by Aaron.
Carrying the magical materials, instead of heading to her dorm, she went directly to the laboratory.
In the laboratory, the eight-armed mechanical arm diligently completed tasks arranged according to the layout, while at the control console, more arms were being crafted.
It was a demonstration for the Duke, the production line for magic hoverboards required these mechanical arms, and nearly half had been fabricated. The remaining parts were yet to be started, not due to difficulty but because Aresia’s lab lacked the necessary space.
This urgent need to relocate was the primary reason. It couldn’t be postponed much longer, the lab itself had become unsustainable.
After checking the progress of the eight-armed mechanical arm, Aresia, having changed clothes, moved towards another alchemy workstation to process the magical materials she had brought.
After accumulating materials for some time, the ingredients for crafting storage space were almost complete. She lacked only a few high-quality Spatial Stones, the specifics of which were being arranged by Aaron.
Spatial Stones were delicate in the refining process. They had already begun the manufacturing process of spatial carriers.
A storage artifact, typically something suitable for close carrying, was often seen in the form of rings. Aresia wore two on her fingers, with the remaining ones being bracelets and necklaces.