Lucius was pleased with the events today. While he ended up spending quite a bit on getting the Emberian herb for Finch's treatment, he now had a way to get a lot more Rune crystals.

Usually, he would need to commission mercenaries every time he wanted them and would then needed to negotiate the terms. But now, he could just ask them to do whatever jobs he wanted to without needing to pay them the proportionate amount.

There were many things that Lucius needed the Rune crystals for, and the very first thing was to upgrade the gifts of others. But he knew doing so would take much more time, as he would also need to gather different materials.

Another thing that he needed to take care of would be to only upgrade the gifts of those that were loyal to him and would be useful to him for a long period of time. In addition to that, he needed them to make sure that his ability to upgrade gifts was not revealed to the public.

If that happened, while he was sure that he will be able to suppress it somehow, it will still become a painful chore for him and the others that will get involved in it. Rather than that, he may as well take precautions and make it so that a situation like that never arose.

'I'll need to do something for loyalty too… no matter how much they are dedicated to me, there should be gifts that can charm the mind and control them. I'll need to get working on that part too…' Lucius thought to himself as he rode on the horse.

Soon he reached the mansion and got down from the horse, passing it to the servants to take it to the stables. At the corner, he also saw the guard who he had given a task before. The man was standing there with a large cage in his hand and had a beast inside it.

"Ah, I almost forgot it in this hassle." Lucius said as he approached the guards.

"As you commanded, Young Lord Asher." The guard said while lowering his head.

"Good job," Lucius perfunctorily said while looking at the Bore Shrew in the cage with interest.

Not paying attention to anyone else, he walked into the mansion and headed straight to the lab. He took a look at the clock nearby and saw that it was nearly time for John to come for his swordsmanship lessons.

"About fifteen minutes left… I guess I'll set this beast in a proper condition first." Lucius muttered to himself as he pushed out a large wooden crate from the side.

There was a lot of equipment and items that Lucius had ordered but had never gotten around to using them. Since they were a hassle to take out, he had let them stay in the original packaging.

This was of course, only until he actually had a use for them and now was the time. 

~Creak~

Lucius jammed a crowbar into the lid of the Crate and pried it open. 

~thud~

The nails popped up and the lid was finally opened. Inside the wooden crate, one could see several metal fixtures such as rods, grills, plates, and many more. These were the parts Lucius had gotten the blacksmith to make for him.

Since they were rather simple parts, they were easy to make and didn't take that time. They could even be mass produced. The only difference was that they were quite versatile and could be arranged into various equipment such as shelves, tables, stools, or even cages.

It was similar to a toy that existed in a world that Lucius had seen. It was similar to his own world, but it did not have any magic and their technological progress was a few centuries behind as well.

He had seen several children playing with toys like these, which involved assembling different smaller parts that were modular and making bigger things such as vehicles, buildings, and much more. He had been inspired by it and thought, why not replicate it on a bigger scale.

And that's how the things Lucius had gotten made came to be. 

~SKREEE~

The Bore Shrew was getting impatient and was starting to bite the frames of the cage that the guard had put it in. Lucius already knew that this cage was going to be a temporary solution, as the Bore Shrews were well known for their teeth and ability to dig.

They could bite through stone, so iron would only slow them down slightly. But eventually, they will get through it and break free. Seeing this, Lucius quickly assembled the metal parts and soon made a bigger cage.

This cage was much stronger than the one guard had put the bore shrew in. This one was made out of alloyed steel and would be tough for the bore shrew to chew through. It was perhaps even stronger than the steel used for armors.

But of course, all this did not exactly come cheap. While it was easy to forge and mold, the cost of materials themselves was twice as high as normal steel. Still, Lucius thought it was worth it and would help prevent any unexpected accidents in the lab.

The one thing Lucius knew he was going to do at the very start was experiment on the gifts. And he could not really test on humans now, could he?… at least not at this point. Thus, the closest option was Rune beasts that had gifts too.

But of course, they were also a bit hard to get, and thus this Bore Shrew was going to serve as the perfect test subject for him. It was similar to how mice and rats were used for animal testing on many other worlds that Lucius had seen and even in how own world.

~Shing~

Once Lucius was done sliding in the base of the cage, it was finally completed and he placed the bore shrew into it. 

~phew~

"Finally done…"