After I got out of the Different Dimension Factory, I checked if Ria had returned, but she hadn’t. I then just went through my normal daily routine and got ready for the day.
(Laura, I forgot to do it while in the factory, but could you ask Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu to work with the Vampire monsters so that he learns how to forge blood iron? I think it will be good for the future.)
(Sure. I’ll do that while you enjoy breakfast. I’ll be fast so I’ll be available when we ride B.E.S. Big Core.)
After I was ready, I sat down to wait until I would be called for breakfast. I also waited for Ria to return. I didn’t just idle for that time, but spent it practicing telekinesis. I haven’t leveled it up again, but I might do that today. Also, as Laura wasn’t here, I would have to do it solo, so it was a lot more difficult. I could do it, but it wasn’t that easy.
Speaking of levels, now that my Inventory is level 3, it can hold up to 80 unique items. And at least 600 of that unique item, considering the money in there. But back to inventory, it started out with 20 slots, then 40 and now 80, so it seems to be doubling every time. That means it will get huge quickly. I calculated it and when the inventory hits level 10, it will have 10 240 slots. At least I won’t have any storage problems.
As Ria returned, I saw a maid in the corridor with her, giving Ria instructions. The maid then went to the neighboring room that Alice used.
“Breakfast will be ready soon.” Ria told me.
“Sure. It took you a while. Did something happen?”
“No. I just got some instructions from the maids.” She answered.
I went to the dining room with Alice. Ria followed us a few steps behind, while the maid that had gone to get Alice was leading us. During breakfast, Ria stood next to the wall behind me quietly. Perhaps that was part of the instructions the maids gave her. I don’t want to force maid training on her, but if there is a chance to get it for free, it would help. I think Kitchen Dragonmaid might be able to teach her as well, but that Dragonmaid might be too specialized in kitchen stuff to know all of the general stuff. I need the House Dragonmaid for general knowledge, probably.
After breakfast, Alice and I headed outside while Ria went to my room to pick up my large magic bag. Paulina wasn’t with us today, as she had her own business to take care of, outside of babysitting Alice. Even though she said she wanted to come. I don’t think she likes what she actually has to do. But then again, who does?
“Brian, did you get that B.E.S. thing?”
“B.E.S. Big Core. Yeap. I got it. I’ll summon it when Ria gets here.”
“And it can take us to the dungeon quickly?”
“It should be able. Unless there is a problem of some kind. But there shouldn’t be.”
“Why do you say it like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you aren’t sure? Isn’t it your skill?”
“Alice, do you fully understand everything about all of your skills? Probably not. You might say that you do, but skills aren’t just ‘I use dark magic, because I have the Dark Magic skill.’ Dark Magic has tens, hundreds of spells. Do you know them all just because you have the skill? It is the same for me. I don’t know everything my skill can do until I test it out.”
“Oh? I see. But I have been practicing. I’ll learn more spells soon. And with the help of that Level Up card, I’ve gotten my dark magic up to level 5 and Magician’s Power to level 4.”
Spoiler
I’ll drop Alice’s status here as we did talk about it. No, Brian did not see it at this time.
| Name: Alice Watchman |
| Race: Human |
| Level: 18 |
| HP: 310 |
| Mana: 1060 |
| Strength: 145 |
| Defense: 185 |
| Magic: 925 |
| Skills: |
| Card Summoner LV.1 (extra) |
| Magician’s Power LV.4 (extra) |
| Dark Magic LV.5 |
| Mana Control LV.5 |
| Magic Boost LV.3 |
| Quick Cast LV.2 |
| Fast Mana Recovery LV.3 |
[collapse]
“... wait. Level 5 and 4? That means you have only used Level ups on those two skills?”
“Yes. Is that bad?”
“... I don’t know, actually. I feel like you should use them on everything in a balanced way, instead of focusing them on only a few skills. I think your skills like Mana Control might not keep up otherwise. But I might be wrong.”
“I… I’ll level up everything in the future.” Alice replied, as if I just threatened to take the card away from her.
“I won’t take the cards back even if you don’t. I just wanted to warn you that you might want to keep things more balanced.”
Not that I have any right to speak. My skills aren’t balanced at all. And no, I don’t mean it in a way that they are OP. I mean my skill levels aren’t balanced. I just focused on mana control at first and now I'm finally bringing the others up as well.
“I’m sorry it took so long.” Ria was apologizing after she finally got outside.
“Don’t worry. It’s fine.” I instantly said. It’s not like we waited that long and most of that time was spent speaking about our skills, so who cares?
“I just got lost and I’m not used to houses like this and then…” Ria went on, not even listening to what I said.
“Ria.” I said in a stronger tone. “I said it is fine. Calm down.”
She turned her head up to look at me. “A… are you sure?”
“I’m sure. It’s fine. Why did you panic like that?”
“... the … the maids said I have to apologize for taking so long when they showed me the way…” She said quietly.
“Ah. I see. Well, it is fine. But let’s get going now. You both have everything you need, right?” I asked.
“Yes.” Alice instantly answered.
“... I … yes.” Ria answered after a bit.
“Then I’ll summon our ride.” I said as I got the card out of my collection. (Laura, it will be camouflage by default right? And it will get summoned in the air, right?) I had to confirm this. With how large B.E.S. Big Core is, it would crush the entire manor if it appeared on the ground. Well, maybe a bit of the house would survive, but over half of it would be crushed.
(It will be fine.) Laura reassured me.
(I’ll have you pay for the damages if something happens then.)
(You know that my money is your money.)
(Yeah. I know. I was trying to make a joke.)
(No. You were trying to buy time because you are scared. Shut up and summon the spaceship.)
(Thanks. I knew you could make me feel better.)
Spoiler
[collapse]
“B.E.S. Big Core.” I said after I placed the card onto the singular card slot that was on my terminal even when it wasn’t in active combat mode.
The card that appeared, well, one didn’t appear. Instead, the soft blue glow of the main power source became visible in the sky, but just barely.
“Brian? Where is it?” Alice asked.
“Don’t worry about that part. It’s where it needs to be.” I answered. (Laura, we need to beam to get into the ship.)
“But I can’t see it.” Alice said.
“I can’t either.” Ria added. She was looking around with a soft green glow in her eyes. I need to ask her what that is. It’s probably some sort of blood magic spell dhampirs use on instinct when they go into a blood frenzy, as it looks similar, but I’ll ask to be sure.
As I was thinking that, the teleportation beam appeared before us. It was like a beam of light that came from the skies.
“Good. Now just step into the light.” I said to the two as I stepped in.
“... Brian? Where did that light come from?” Ria asked, looking up towards the ship.
“You’ll see. Just step in.”
Alice didn’t hesitate too much. She walked up to me and took my right hand.
“You don’t need to hold my hand.” I said.
“It’s scary so I will.” Alice said, not sounding scared at all.
“Hey! I want to hold his hand too.” Ria realized what Alice had done and rushed to take my left hand.
“Big Core, take us up please.” I said as a command.
The world around us turned temporarily to light as the teleportation happened.
“And here we are.” I said as our vision returned.
It’s not like the teleportation is blinding. More like it just takes away your ability to see for a second. Probably as a safety measure.
The two girls opened their eyes and looked around. We were in one of the two teleportation rooms of the ship. I don’t know why it had two of them, maybe convenience or in case of emergencies, but there was one on either flank of the ship.
There was a geometric design on the floor of the room. Someone might think it is a magic circle, so I found it convenient, but it was actually some sort of array for the teleportation device. I think if I let the avatar of Treasury study it, she could probably explain it. That’s just the feeling she gives me. Some quantum physics reasons for how this teleportation works.
“B… Brian? Where are we?” Alice asked.
“Inside B.E.S. Big Core. Come this way. I’ll show you.” I said, pulling the two girls by their arms. They held onto me, so it isn’t on me, but I will take advantage of this.
I took us all to the cockpit, well it was actually more of a bridge, of the spaceship. There were tons of monitors and control panels everywhere. I sat down on the captain’s seat, and got the two girls to sit down on the two seats next to it. One was meant for the lead navigation officer and the other for the lead weapons officer.
“Make sure you don’t touch anything.” I told the two of them. That was because of a small issue Laura had discovered, thanks to the avatar of the Factory. It applied to all Machine-type monsters that a person could enter, like Overdrive, Gradius and now Big Core. If you press the control buttons of the machine, the machine has no choice but to do as ordered, even if it was under different orders from Laura or I. So if Alice would accidentally press the wrong button, all of the weapons of this ship would fire and … well, you can imagine what might happen after that. That is also why Ria was sitting on the navigator seat. I don’t know how she will deal with all of this and she can cause a lot less damage there. If she accidentally sets our course to crash into the city, I might have enough time to correct it, before we crash.
After we were seated, I brought up multiple live feeds of the cameras all over Big Core, getting them onto the big monitors that all three of us could see easily. On one of the smaller ones, I brought up a picture of Big Core, so the two of them would hopefully understand where we were.
“So, this is where we are. We are inside B.E.S. Big Core, which is floating above Sawyer city.” I gave more info for the question Alice asked me earlier.
“Why couldn’t we see it? If this thing is this large, we should have been able to see it.” Ria asked.
“It has a camouflage feature. It is nearly invisible from the ground, except for a soft glow from the main reactor. And it is super difficult to see on a sunny day like this.” I answered. “Anyway, let’s head towards the dungeon. I’ll answer other questions on the way.”
The trip in total took only about 10 minutes. During that time, I answered some questions from the two girls.
I actually thought it would take even less time, but I realized that there is a big weakness in Big Core compared to Gradius. No, not the counters, I have had no problem with those yet. The problem is that B.E.S. Big Core doesn’t have atmospheric dampeners. I don’t know if that is the right word, so let me explain.
Both Gradius and Big Core have inertial dampeners. A device that lessens the effect of G-forces that you feel when accelerating and decelerating at a fast rate. This is what makes it possible for humans to survive the massive acceleration and deceleration of space travel.
But unlike Gradius, Big Core had no atmospheric dampeners, or a device that prevents the ship from causing sonic booms while traveling at speeds exceeding the speed of sound in an atmosphere. So when I accelerated the ship beyond the speed of sound, it caused some problems. Luckily, the sensors picked up on it and I slowed us down to about 800km/h. Still extremely fast for a world where a horse is the usual ‘fast’ transport method, but not quite Gradius speeds. With Gradius, I can just blast away with hyper sonic speeds with no care in the world. Well, I guess I have to worry about getting lost, but other than that.
“B.E.S. Big Core has reached the target area. Please move to teleportation room 1 for landing.” I said in an announcer voice.
“Brian?”
“Just having fun. Don’t worry about it.” I said as I got up from my seat. “Come on. Let’s go.”
We went back to the room we appeared in. Before taking us down, I double checked that there were no monsters in the area, but as the sensors didn’t pick up anything larger than a normal squirrel, I took us down.
After we appeared on the ground, I unsummoned Big Core and we entered the dungeon.
nro_8 So, because of balance reasons, yeah, ha ha, balance. In this series? There is no balance. But yeah, for balance reasons I changed the number of point certain skill gives, so Alice gained a bit more magic than she would have. I also went back and fixed all of her other statuses that were affected by the change. In short, Alice's magic stat is a bit higher than it was because of 'balance'.
After I got out of the Different Dimension Factory, I checked if Ria had returned, but she hadn’t. I then just went through my normal daily routine and got ready for the day.
(Laura, I forgot to do it while in the factory, but could you ask Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu to work with the Vampire monsters so that he learns how to forge blood iron? I think it will be good for the future.)
(Sure. I’ll do that while you enjoy breakfast. I’ll be fast so I’ll be available when we ride B.E.S. Big Core.)
After I was ready, I sat down to wait until I would be called for breakfast. I also waited for Ria to return. I didn’t just idle for that time, but spent it practicing telekinesis. I haven’t leveled it up again, but I might do that today. Also, as Laura wasn’t here, I would have to do it solo, so it was a lot more difficult. I could do it, but it wasn’t that easy.
Speaking of levels, now that my Inventory is level 3, it can hold up to 80 unique items. And at least 600 of that unique item, considering the money in there. But back to inventory, it started out with 20 slots, then 40 and now 80, so it seems to be doubling every time. That means it will get huge quickly. I calculated it and when the inventory hits level 10, it will have 10 240 slots. At least I won’t have any storage problems.
As Ria returned, I saw a maid in the corridor with her, giving Ria instructions. The maid then went to the neighboring room that Alice used.
“Breakfast will be ready soon.” Ria told me.
“Sure. It took you a while. Did something happen?”
“No. I just got some instructions from the maids.” She answered.
I went to the dining room with Alice. Ria followed us a few steps behind, while the maid that had gone to get Alice was leading us. During breakfast, Ria stood next to the wall behind me quietly. Perhaps that was part of the instructions the maids gave her. I don’t want to force maid training on her, but if there is a chance to get it for free, it would help. I think Kitchen Dragonmaid might be able to teach her as well, but that Dragonmaid might be too specialized in kitchen stuff to know all of the general stuff. I need the House Dragonmaid for general knowledge, probably.
After breakfast, Alice and I headed outside while Ria went to my room to pick up my large magic bag. Paulina wasn’t with us today, as she had her own business to take care of, outside of babysitting Alice. Even though she said she wanted to come. I don’t think she likes what she actually has to do. But then again, who does?
“Brian, did you get that B.E.S. thing?”
“B.E.S. Big Core. Yeap. I got it. I’ll summon it when Ria gets here.”
“And it can take us to the dungeon quickly?”
“It should be able. Unless there is a problem of some kind. But there shouldn’t be.”
“Why do you say it like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you aren’t sure? Isn’t it your skill?”
“Alice, do you fully understand everything about all of your skills? Probably not. You might say that you do, but skills aren’t just ‘I use dark magic, because I have the Dark Magic skill.’ Dark Magic has tens, hundreds of spells. Do you know them all just because you have the skill? It is the same for me. I don’t know everything my skill can do until I test it out.”
“Oh? I see. But I have been practicing. I’ll learn more spells soon. And with the help of that Level Up card, I’ve gotten my dark magic up to level 5 and Magician’s Power to level 4.”
Spoiler
I’ll drop Alice’s status here as we did talk about it. No, Brian did not see it at this time.
| Name: Alice Watchman |
| Race: Human |
| Level: 18 |
| HP: 310 |
| Mana: 1060 |
| Strength: 145 |
| Defense: 185 |
| Magic: 925 |
| Skills: |
| Card Summoner LV.1 (extra) |
| Magician’s Power LV.4 (extra) |
| Dark Magic LV.5 |
| Mana Control LV.5 |
| Magic Boost LV.3 |
| Quick Cast LV.2 |
| Fast Mana Recovery LV.3 |
[collapse]
“... wait. Level 5 and 4? That means you have only used Level ups on those two skills?”
“Yes. Is that bad?”
“... I don’t know, actually. I feel like you should use them on everything in a balanced way, instead of focusing them on only a few skills. I think your skills like Mana Control might not keep up otherwise. But I might be wrong.”
“I… I’ll level up everything in the future.” Alice replied, as if I just threatened to take the card away from her.
“I won’t take the cards back even if you don’t. I just wanted to warn you that you might want to keep things more balanced.”
Not that I have any right to speak. My skills aren’t balanced at all. And no, I don’t mean it in a way that they are OP. I mean my skill levels aren’t balanced. I just focused on mana control at first and now I'm finally bringing the others up as well.
“I’m sorry it took so long.” Ria was apologizing after she finally got outside.
“Don’t worry. It’s fine.” I instantly said. It’s not like we waited that long and most of that time was spent speaking about our skills, so who cares?
“I just got lost and I’m not used to houses like this and then…” Ria went on, not even listening to what I said.
“Ria.” I said in a stronger tone. “I said it is fine. Calm down.”
She turned her head up to look at me. “A… are you sure?”
“I’m sure. It’s fine. Why did you panic like that?”
“... the … the maids said I have to apologize for taking so long when they showed me the way…” She said quietly.
“Ah. I see. Well, it is fine. But let’s get going now. You both have everything you need, right?” I asked.
“Yes.” Alice instantly answered.
“... I … yes.” Ria answered after a bit.
“Then I’ll summon our ride.” I said as I got the card out of my collection. (Laura, it will be camouflage by default right? And it will get summoned in the air, right?) I had to confirm this. With how large B.E.S. Big Core is, it would crush the entire manor if it appeared on the ground. Well, maybe a bit of the house would survive, but over half of it would be crushed.
(It will be fine.) Laura reassured me.
(I’ll have you pay for the damages if something happens then.)
(You know that my money is your money.)
(Yeah. I know. I was trying to make a joke.)
(No. You were trying to buy time because you are scared. Shut up and summon the spaceship.)
(Thanks. I knew you could make me feel better.)
Spoiler
[collapse]
“B.E.S. Big Core.” I said after I placed the card onto the singular card slot that was on my terminal even when it wasn’t in active combat mode.
The card that appeared, well, one didn’t appear. Instead, the soft blue glow of the main power source became visible in the sky, but just barely.
“Brian? Where is it?” Alice asked.
“Don’t worry about that part. It’s where it needs to be.” I answered. (Laura, we need to beam to get into the ship.)
“But I can’t see it.” Alice said.
“I can’t either.” Ria added. She was looking around with a soft green glow in her eyes. I need to ask her what that is. It’s probably some sort of blood magic spell dhampirs use on instinct when they go into a blood frenzy, as it looks similar, but I’ll ask to be sure.
As I was thinking that, the teleportation beam appeared before us. It was like a beam of light that came from the skies.
“Good. Now just step into the light.” I said to the two as I stepped in.
“... Brian? Where did that light come from?” Ria asked, looking up towards the ship.
“You’ll see. Just step in.”
Alice didn’t hesitate too much. She walked up to me and took my right hand.
“You don’t need to hold my hand.” I said.
“It’s scary so I will.” Alice said, not sounding scared at all.
“Hey! I want to hold his hand too.” Ria realized what Alice had done and rushed to take my left hand.
“Big Core, take us up please.” I said as a command.
The world around us turned temporarily to light as the teleportation happened.
“And here we are.” I said as our vision returned.
It’s not like the teleportation is blinding. More like it just takes away your ability to see for a second. Probably as a safety measure.
The two girls opened their eyes and looked around. We were in one of the two teleportation rooms of the ship. I don’t know why it had two of them, maybe convenience or in case of emergencies, but there was one on either flank of the ship.
There was a geometric design on the floor of the room. Someone might think it is a magic circle, so I found it convenient, but it was actually some sort of array for the teleportation device. I think if I let the avatar of Treasury study it, she could probably explain it. That’s just the feeling she gives me. Some quantum physics reasons for how this teleportation works.
“B… Brian? Where are we?” Alice asked.
“Inside B.E.S. Big Core. Come this way. I’ll show you.” I said, pulling the two girls by their arms. They held onto me, so it isn’t on me, but I will take advantage of this.
I took us all to the cockpit, well it was actually more of a bridge, of the spaceship. There were tons of monitors and control panels everywhere. I sat down on the captain’s seat, and got the two girls to sit down on the two seats next to it. One was meant for the lead navigation officer and the other for the lead weapons officer.
“Make sure you don’t touch anything.” I told the two of them. That was because of a small issue Laura had discovered, thanks to the avatar of the Factory. It applied to all Machine-type monsters that a person could enter, like Overdrive, Gradius and now Big Core. If you press the control buttons of the machine, the machine has no choice but to do as ordered, even if it was under different orders from Laura or I. So if Alice would accidentally press the wrong button, all of the weapons of this ship would fire and … well, you can imagine what might happen after that. That is also why Ria was sitting on the navigator seat. I don’t know how she will deal with all of this and she can cause a lot less damage there. If she accidentally sets our course to crash into the city, I might have enough time to correct it, before we crash.
After we were seated, I brought up multiple live feeds of the cameras all over Big Core, getting them onto the big monitors that all three of us could see easily. On one of the smaller ones, I brought up a picture of Big Core, so the two of them would hopefully understand where we were.
“So, this is where we are. We are inside B.E.S. Big Core, which is floating above Sawyer city.” I gave more info for the question Alice asked me earlier.
“Why couldn’t we see it? If this thing is this large, we should have been able to see it.” Ria asked.
“It has a camouflage feature. It is nearly invisible from the ground, except for a soft glow from the main reactor. And it is super difficult to see on a sunny day like this.” I answered. “Anyway, let’s head towards the dungeon. I’ll answer other questions on the way.”
The trip in total took only about 10 minutes. During that time, I answered some questions from the two girls.
I actually thought it would take even less time, but I realized that there is a big weakness in Big Core compared to Gradius. No, not the counters, I have had no problem with those yet. The problem is that B.E.S. Big Core doesn’t have atmospheric dampeners. I don’t know if that is the right word, so let me explain.
Both Gradius and Big Core have inertial dampeners. A device that lessens the effect of G-forces that you feel when accelerating and decelerating at a fast rate. This is what makes it possible for humans to survive the massive acceleration and deceleration of space travel.
But unlike Gradius, Big Core had no atmospheric dampeners, or a device that prevents the ship from causing sonic booms while traveling at speeds exceeding the speed of sound in an atmosphere. So when I accelerated the ship beyond the speed of sound, it caused some problems. Luckily, the sensors picked up on it and I slowed us down to about 800km/h. Still extremely fast for a world where a horse is the usual ‘fast’ transport method, but not quite Gradius speeds. With Gradius, I can just blast away with hyper sonic speeds with no care in the world. Well, I guess I have to worry about getting lost, but other than that.
“B.E.S. Big Core has reached the target area. Please move to teleportation room 1 for landing.” I said in an announcer voice.
“Brian?”
“Just having fun. Don’t worry about it.” I said as I got up from my seat. “Come on. Let’s go.”
We went back to the room we appeared in. Before taking us down, I double checked that there were no monsters in the area, but as the sensors didn’t pick up anything larger than a normal squirrel, I took us down.
After we appeared on the ground, I unsummoned Big Core and we entered the dungeon.
nro_8 So, because of balance reasons, yeah, ha ha, balance. In this series? There is no balance. But yeah, for balance reasons I changed the number of point certain skill gives, so Alice gained a bit more magic than she would have. I also went back and fixed all of her other statuses that were affected by the change. In short, Alice's magic stat is a bit higher than it was because of 'balance'.
