Chapter 167 - 166 The Costly Wolf
Laying down Roxene who had fallen fast asleep, down onto his bed, Marcus then pulled out the unfinished arrows he had been working on, to kill time while he waited for Roxene to wake back up.
There were still a number of things he wanted to ask her, and he did not know what kind of trouble she might get into should she be left to her own devices.
After finishing up the set of arrows he had been commissioned to make, Marcus saw that Roxene was still asleep, so he pulled out a few trinkets and began putting simple enchantments on them.
Another ten hours went by as Marcus found things to keep busy with when Roxene finally awakened.
Seeing the little pup twitch a bit and let out a big yawn Marcus moved over towards her and asked the question that had been burning in the back of his mind.
"So Roxene, I have to ask, why were you sent to this world?"
Marcus had been wanting to know this since he had learned about Roxene and her parents\' connection to the being that ran this world and was hoping to get some answers.
Sleepily looking up at Marcus, Roxene let out one last big yawn before telepathically saying, \'The reason is quite simple, to keep me safe.\'
Roxene then began scratching her ear with her back paw and Marcus could not help but feel dissatisfied with the answer he had received.
\'Okay I get that you are here for protection, but why did you need to be sent here for safekeeping, as far as I know your parents must be powerful right, could they not protect you?\'
Roxene hearing Marcus\' question as he tried to dig deeper, suddenly had a sad look on her face as she remembered something.
\'Yes, my parents are strong just like Au- I mean the administrator, but they also have enemies that would stop at nothing to get the upper hand on them. Thus, I was sent here to grow stronger before returning to the higher realms. I am sure you understand that I have things I cannot say to you since the administrator forbid it and even what I have just told you is pushing the bounds.\'
Nodding his head in understand, Marcus had already figured he was not going to be able to squeeze all of the secrets of this world out of his new companion, but he did at least learn one thing, there were worlds above the one he was currently in.
\'How strong will I need to get to advance to this so-called upper realm I wonder. It must be possible since Roxene talks about returning after getting stronger, but I wonder when. I have at this point confirmed that at least level seventy is possible, but I feel like it probably goes higher.\'
\'Okay then can you tell me how you got into that egg; from the way you have told it sounds like you were already born before coming here.\'
Nodding her head Roxene said, \'Yes I was already born before coming here, the egg was just receptacle to transfer me here.\'
\'Okay so the egg was just a means to bring her here, though I wonder why magic beast come out of eggs, is it just a preference of the administrator or is there something else to it.\'
However, while Marcus was deep in thought about the purposes of the world he had been brought to, he was quickly interrupted by Roxene who said, \'I am hungry again.\'
Sighing Marcus told Roxene that it was the middle of the night and that everyone else would have gone to bed other than the maid who was watching the gate.
Alas, Roxene would not take no for an answer and kept bombarding Marcus to give her more food.
Eventually, Marcus relented to the little glutton\'s demands, and the two of them headed downstairs where Marcus pulled out all of the remaining lamb he had left in the magical fridge.
After cooking it up Marcus watched as Roxene devoured all of the lamb in only a few minutes and when she was finished began licking her lips with a satisfied expression on her face.
\'I think I am going to need to buy a bigger fridge and start making more items to sell. At this rate she is going to eat me out of house and home.\'
Marcus thinking about the increase in his future expenditures now that he had to care for Roxene, began walking towards his workshop while Roxene followed behind him.
Entering into his workshop, Marcus first went over to his furnace and lit it up before heading to a large storage room and took out a massive amount of bronze.
With over a two hundred pounds worth of bronze ingots now stored in his item box Marcus got to work mass producing weapons and armor.
Hours went by as Marcus forged fourteen longswords, twenty spears, eleven maces, thirteen war hammers, seven breast plates, and three sets of full plate armor.
\'There that should do, now I just need to purchase some more magic cores and I can add some basic enchantments to each of them before selling them for a good chunk of coin to people who are in the mid-teens to low twenties level wise.\'
With his work done Marcus looked around for Roxene and found that she had left his workshop at some point.
\'Crap where did she get to, hopefully she has not gotten into any trouble.\'
Running out of his personal forge, Marcus with a bit of relief found Roxene but also an exhausted and terrified Blitz that had been force into playing with Roxene. And by playing Marcus meant running for his life as Roxene tried to catch him.
"Roxene what the hell are you doing I told you not to try and eat Blitz."
Roxene hearing Marcus stopped chasing Blitz and turned towards him and said, \'I know, I was just working on my movements. I have been stuck in that egg for quiet some time and wanted to get some exercise while practicing my hunting, I was not actually going to eat him. Well, maybe just a nibble.\'
Hearing this and seeing the absolute terror on Blitz\'s face, Marcus could not help but admonish himself for not looking after the mischievous little wolf.
Walking over to Blitz, Marcus began comforting the poor horrified bolt stag that appeared to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
\'Huh I am going to need to keep a better track of her or Blitz is going to have heart attack from all of this stress.\'
Looking at the innocent looking wolf, Marcus went and told her that he had some errands to attend to and needed her to get back within the system\'s companion storage.
Begrudgingly Roxene eventually did what Marcus asked after he promised to procure her some high-quality meat.
With Roxene now safely tucked away in his companion storage, Marcus continued to calm Blitz down until he was in shape to be ridden.
Marcus then began heading down the city streets heading to a shop where he could procure some magic cores to restock the supply he had expended during Roxene\'s hatching.
Coming up to a shop he often used to procure rare supplies for forging, Marcus went in and bough a number of magic cores expending the majority of the money he had on him.
\'Ugh I had not budgeted for the loss of thousands of gold worth of magic cores, and now I am getting low on funds. Not to mention I went all out on Clarisa\'s weapons spending way more than I was paid. I guess it will just be tight until the new set of items I have made sell.\'
Lamenting his plummeting funds, Marcus was trying his best to lay out a comprehensive plan to bring his coffers back up while heading home.
Arriving back at his estate Marcus immediately went back to his forge, where he began the painstaking process of applying simple enchantments to the armor and weapons he had just made, without the help of celestial platinum.
\'Whew, that was tough it has been a while since I have not used celestial platinum, but I cannot being myself to use it on bronze. Though It really did not mater since I only ruined a few of the items while enchanting and making their quality any better would make them too expensive the target demographic. Now I just need to throw these in the shop at the Blazegram Forge and wait for my cut.\'
Luckily as Thabon\'s personal apprentice Marcus had a pretty high status and good reputation so he figured he would not have to wait too long for the bulk of items he had just made to sell.
Of course, each item was much cheaper than anything he could have made out of mithril, but they were still enchanted items and would fetch a good price.
Heading to the Blazegram Forge when Marcus entered, he was greeted by a number of the regular workers and appetencies who all were quite friendly towards him.
Walking into the back Marcus entered Thabon\'s private room where he was hard at work hammering away at an adamantine shield that made Marcus slightly jealous.
"Just wait a moment Irene I will be finished with the next part in just a minute."
Without even looking Thabon addressed Marcus who had already taken a seat knowing to wait for his master to reach a stopping point.
After around six minutes Thabon finally put the hammer down and turned towards Marcus with a big smile on his face.
"So, what did you need, want to ask me about metal combinations, did you get some good monster materials you wanted to know how best to use, or maybe you came up with a new formation and wanted to test it out with me."
However, Marcus just shook his head as he took out the two swords that he had made for Clarisa which were currently by far his best work.