For the next several days, I devoted myself to hunting Golden Slimes using Item-finding Rods and Attraction Slips. To put it modestly, the results were excellent; any other adventurer would probably get angry at me for understating it. That’s how much we gained.
First, there were the gold ingot drops. When I was the one delivering the final blow, they dropped nearly a hundred percent of the time. A single hunk of gold contained enough metal to mint several Large Gold Coins—it was worth an astronomical amount. With over ten in my possession, it was a staggering haul for just a few days’ work.
We also collected a decent number of magic stones, though most were just the standard variety. The only Golden Slime Magic Stone (Mutant) remained that first one Shiroru had found. Even with my absurdly high Luck stat, I couldn’t get another to drop. It must be incredibly rare. Honestly, it felt like I’d somehow lost to Shiroru. Grr...!
We found several other useful items, but the standout was the "Magic House." This thing was incredibly handy—it might even be a "cheat item" on the level of a Storage Ring. It looked like a miniature house with a gabled roof, but it expanded when infused with mana. Even at full size, it was only about as big as a one-person tent, so it didn't take up much space—but the inside was another story. It was actually a two-story residence with a kitchen, a toilet, and more private rooms than our party could ever use.
The Magic House couldn't be reverted to its miniature form if it contained living creatures above a certain size, but inanimate objects could stay inside during the transition. When redeployed, the interior was exactly as I’d left it. Essentially, it meant I could haul an entire mansion’s worth of belongings wherever I went. This was truly a blessing.
Since most adventurers live out of inns, they usually avoid accumulating too much luggage. Even with our Storage Rings, we didn't go as far as lugging furniture around. But now that I could keep things permanently set up inside the Magic House, I could finally afford to buy some proper furnishings.
A bed was at the top of my list. Inn beds are a gamble; depending on the place, they can be filthy or crawling with bedbugs. I could use Clean magic to tidy them up, but the psychological discomfort remained. If I was getting my own, I might as well go all out and commission a custom-made one. I'd be able to sleep comfortably anytime, anywhere!
I tracked down a furniture artisan in Aingurna and put in a rush order. With the gold ingots padding our wallet, I didn't care about the cost; I just told him to make the most comfortable beds possible. Usually, delivery would have been a headache, but the Storage Ring made transport easy.
Speaking of the rings, mine had finally hit its capacity limit. I’d been buying tables and chairs to furnish our new home, and eventually, the ring just couldn't take any more.
But it was okay!
Thankfully, I’d picked up a spare ring from a Golden Slime drop—and this one was Quality A. That was two full ranks above my previous Quality C ring. Apparently, the quality grade directly correlated to storage capacity. After moving everything over to the new ring, there was still a massive amount of space left.
I took the new ring for myself, and we designated the old one as shared party property. For the time being, I handed it over to Lowell, since he often worked solo while gathering intel.
The beds were still in progress, but since we had everything else, I dedicated today to decorating the Magic House. I had the house deployed inside our private room at the inn. It was a bizarre sight, but setting it up in the middle of the street would have drawn too much attention.
"Feel free to pick whichever room you want," I said. "Though they're all pretty much identical in size."
"I want to be next to Spira-chan!" Halfa chirped.
"Sounds good. Let's do that," Spira agreed.
I'm fine sharing a room with Tort! Shiroru chimed in via thought transmission.
"Well, it’s probably better if we’re all close together," I replied.
We had rooms to spare, but we ultimately decided to cluster in one section of the house. Lowell and I took adjacent rooms. Halfa was directly across the hall from me, while Spira was across from Lowell. We went around placing the newly purchased furniture in each room. For now, they all looked the same, but I expected their individual personalities to start showing through eventually.
Maintenance for so many rooms seemed daunting, but magic made it a non-issue. The Clean spell was a godsend; it made tidying up trivial. Halfa and Lowell had both learned it too. Since we had cash to burn, we’d bought a few Skill Scrolls from the Mage Guild to brute-force the learning process. It’s a utility spell, so there’s no downside to knowing it.
Spira, however, couldn't learn new magic via scrolls. As a spirit, she had absolute control over her innate Ice and Tree attributes, but she was apparently unable to use magic from any other school. It was a bit of a limitation.
I decided to declare the next few days "rest days" while we waited for the beds to be finished. It gave everyone time to decorate their personal spaces. Once we were settled, it would finally be time to descend to the lower floors. With the Magic House in our arsenal, camping out wouldn't be a chore anymore.