“You look a bit bored,” said Nolan, who was busy ferrying a dozen even-sized mounds of gunpowder into the same amount of barrels. “You can go meet up with the others if you want. Now that my spiritual sense is this advanced, I can make over a hundred of these in just a couple of hours.”

Nyla shrugged off his question and happily mimicked his actions. “I don’t mind helping you out if it means that I get to choose where we go next.”

It had been about four hours since they had located the largest alchemy shop in town—the seventh that they had visited—and emptied it of all relevant supplies, before renting a large room within which to put said supplies to use. They had already created over a hundred barrels of poison gas bombs, and had just finished up with the fourth batch of black powder for a total of 120 of the original explosives.

“And where would you wanna go?” Nyla almost always offered to help him with whatever task he desired to do at any given time, and never complained. He wouldn’t mind playing along with whatever it was that she wanted to do, and would even meet such suggestions with enthusiasm.

She guided snapfire beans into the centres of the barrels that they had just filled and then sealed them shut, leaning on one as she turned to face him in full. “I’d like to get some food. Just me and you for once, without everyone else around.”

“Great idea. Anything else you’d wanna do?”

“Visit some shops, perhaps the auction?”

“Alright, we’ll go grab something to eat after we finish up here and then we can take a look around town. Buddy’s got money to spare these days, so don’t hold back.”

“There was also one more thing…” He recognized the specific type of barrier arrayment that she began to draw, one that prevented all forms of detection from the outside.

“The room’s already concealed by an arr—”

As she finished casting the arrayment, she slid the straps of her dress down her shoulders and let the thin garment drop to the ground with a brief, soft sound. Hopping on top of the nearest barrel, she stared at him with an inviting look. “Care to guess what the last thing is?”

He answered with a smile, walking over with expectant steps as he experienced a rush of all sorts of excitements and expectations.

***

Nolan walked out of the alchemy shop feeling completely refreshed. With his heightened stamina and rapid cell rejuvenation, sex was almost an entirely different experience than it had been back on Earth. He’d only had a couple of examples to compare it to, all with the only girl that he’d ever dated, but comparing these two would be like comparing the taste of dust to sugar. Walking down the well-paved road of grey cobblestones, he wore a wide smile as he reasoned that even though the dangers of this world were far more exaggerated than those on Earth, so too were its pleasures.

“This city is so orderly,” Nyla remarked, a pleasant smile on her face as she observed the many people that were making their way up and down the street. “I wonder if the cities on North Island are all the same.”

Every building had at least one banner of electric blue fabric, which bore the emblem of the Continental Merchant Association; a black treasure chest that was bordered with golden trim. Servants were constantly working to keep the streets and the buildings clean, with hundreds of wealthy individuals walking this way and that, often surrounded by a handful of bodyguards or, in many cases, a grand retinue of retainers and sellswords.

“I hope so.” Nolan had spent around 11,000 spirit stones on a literal mountain of supplies, since cave dust and sun powder—or saltpeter and sulphur, respectively—were considerably cheap in comparison to almost all other ingredients for common medicinal pellet recipes, and there had been an incredible amount of it for sale within the city. Not only that, but he had enough supplies within his spatial bag to make over ten thousand medicinal pellets of varying effect.

If only people knew that some of the ingredients they view as trash can actually make some incredible pellets.

“Oh, look there!” They were in the central area of the city, where all of the streets surrounded the massive central keep, and it was here that all of the most prominent and prestigious businesses thrived. “There are dozens of people eating in that place”—she pointed to a wide building with four floors, its walls almost entirely covered by giant banners that bore the CMA’s sigil—“even though it’s so big. It must be good, right?”

“And expensive,” he sighed, though he shot her a grin when she jokingly grumbled about him spending a fortune on different types of dust. “Let’s go take a look.”

Together they approached the building and walked up the wide flight of finely polished steps, which were more or less deserted save for a few servants in blue robes along with a pair of doormen in finely made clothing of the same shades.

“Will it just be the two of you today, Miss?” said the man on the left of the open double doors, displaying the open prejudice of addressing the more powerful patron that seemed prevalent in all businesses within this world.

“Just us, yes.”

“Then if you would please follow me.”

The man gave them both a polite bow and then led them inside of the establishment, which consisted of a grand dining hall with a large kitchen area in the back. The kitchen was separated only by a long island of cherry-coloured wood that stood at about waist-height, so that the diners could see who was preparing their meals if they desired to. Unlike the interiors of most of the buildings that they had visited, this business was lit solely by enchanted candles, the wax of which seemed incapable of melting. High chandeliers hung from the distant ceilings, which were far enough from the floors that Nolan could see that there was only a single level to this building despite the fact that outwardly it seemed to have a capacity for four floors.

“Are all the buildings in this town so extravagant?” Nyla commented, her dark eyes catching the golden light that reflected off of the gilded furniture. “Everything’s lined with gold.”

“Star gold,” said the host without turning his head. “It’s about 10,000 times more valuable than ordinary gold, because the supply is very limited.”

“Hmm,” said Nolan. “Did it get its name because it fell from the sky?”

The man affirmed his speculation, which awakened him to the possibility that many of the minerals on this planet might have been deposited by meteorites. As they were led across the room to one of the few tables still available, Nolan wondered if his black halmite had also come from outer space.

Once they were seated, he took a moment to look around the room. Although the dining hall was quite large, it only housed a total of thirty-five tables, all of which were sporadically spaced around the room with about ten metres between any two tables. It seemed that the hotel receptionist that had rented them their room hadn’t mislead them when he had described the current state of affairs within the city. Nolan had seen enough of this world to recognize someone of noble birth, which wasn’t exactly easy to miss when virtually everyone present was making use of nearly all of the utensils and cutlery at their tables with well-practiced manners. Brocade vests and finely trimmed tunics filled his sight, most of the modest-featured men accompanied by beautiful women and hardy-looking acquaintances.

Most of the guards in the room gave away their identities based on the way they were sitting, always upright and at the ready, as if any moment an unexpected assassin might appear in their midst to take the lives of their lieges.

“There are a lot of beautiful women here,” said Nyla, who had followed Nolan’s gaze around the room.

“Not any beautiful enough to make me wanna—not that I’d think about doing anything even if they were.” He snapped his fingers at a passing server. “Two pitchers of your strongest wine, please.”

The woman nodded and rushed off, past a group of musicians that were playing a mellow tune on violin-like instruments. Before she managed to disappear into the kitchen area, a second server girl appeared at their table and asked Nyla what they wanted to order. Sensing Nolan’s annoyance at having been overlooked for a second time, she kindly requested several of the things that the young woman had made mention of when asked of the menu’s contents and then nodded at the server, who promptly made her leave.