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CH.376 HomeBase Grand Reveal, part 2
CH.376 HomeBase Grand Reveal, part 2
Opening toast
Now that everyone was here, the reveal party was ready to begin. And because it is a party, the first thing to do is raise a toast. And for that, everyone needed some drinks, so I gave Sheou the signal to start distributing them. She did it alongside Lorpar who had returned from the kitchen, as well as Ernus.
I would include Nudy, but … she can be just a bit clumsy sometimes, so giving her drinks to carry isn’t the best idea.
The drink they were handing out was a non-alcoholic sparkling drink somewhat resembling sparkling wine. I just felt like it was appropriate, and it is non-alcoholic as we do have some children here. And I also have some plans for later that require people to not be drunk, so I’m not serving any alcohol until later.
After I made sure everyone had a drink on their hands, I climbed to a raised platform so that they could see me better and mentally prepared myself for a short speech.
I ringed the glass I was holding to get everyone’s attention, though admittedly I already had the attention of most of them after I walked into the room with His Majesty. But there were a few that had been paying attention to something else, so this got their eyes on me.
I took another breath in to calm myself, and then began to speak.
“Thank you all for coming. Those who came by ship, I hope it was a smooth ride.” As I said that, I made sure to look over everyone that was brought here by a B.E.S. ship. “And those that had to wait for us all to get here, I hope you found a way to entertain yourself.” And again, I looked over those that I picked up myself, especially Tera, Leahlina, William and Daniel, who still had a game that they were in the middle of.
“I know some of you know where we are, while others have only heard the name HomeBase. As the name might give it away, this is my home. Our Home.” I said as Alice and Lua got to my sides. I saw a somewhat jealous look from Cailie as they did, but she isn’t an official part of my … I really do have a harem, don’t I? She isn’t an official part yet, so she doesn’t get the honor yet. “And I also know that a lot of you don’t know where HomeBase is located. Some of you do, but not all, so I shall tell you.” As I said that, I used Dungeon Founder to modify one of the walls of the hall we were in, opening it completely and allowing us to access the outside yard and granting vision on the magic circles floating above the Magical Citadel.
“The lovely magic circles you can see outside are what make HomeBase possible. They not only keep this place nearly undetectable from the outside, but also allow for this massive chunk of earth to float in the air. That is where we are. On a floating island.” I told everyone. I then used a screen I made with Dungeon Founder to display some images that I had Laura transfer into the Citadel core. They showed some of the surveillance pictures I’d taken, as well as pictures from times I was looking at HomeBase from different flying monsters, really allowing people to see what HomeBase is.
As people took that in, I could see some questions forming on their minds. I think Paulina is legitimately about to explode with them, so I quickly continued before this turns from a speech to a Q&A session. “The lovely spells that keep us afloat and keep my home safe were supplied to me by my dear summoned monsters. They really are the experts in this. While the mana to power all of the spells were supplied by the flowers growing outside. I know some of you have seen the flowers before, and those who haven’t, I will come and plant a patch of them at your yards if you wish. The spells however I will not share, as making an island like float isn’t something that really should be done. I personally did it because I was asked to do so by our Great Goddess. Sadly, because of a promise to her, I cannot tell you why she wanted me to make a floating island.”
That last part really made some people question everything, especially the genderbent Hero’s party. I never did tell them that I’ve spoken with the Goddess herself.
“But enough about boring information. Those that want to know more about that may ask about it later. Today is a day of socializing and having fun. And for that, I’d like to raise a toast. A toast for HomeBase.” I said as I raised my glass. Alice and Lua followed my lead and so did everyone else.
With the starting speech done, thank god, I could finally breathe out the sigh I was holding. I know I should be better at talking to people, but I’m not. It just never really is easy, especially with all these high ranked people here. Most of them are definitely better at this than I am, so I didn’t want to look, or sound, like a fool.
As I joined the partygoers, I was assaulted with questions as the three sages and Paulina came at me. At least Mariina didn’t join them, so that was good. I wanted to answer them, but I had a few things I wanted to do first, so I just told them to hold the questions for later.
I went around greeting all of my guests that I didn’t personally pick up, and the ones I picked up as well, but those that I didn’t pick up were more important in my opinion.
First among those that I greeted was the first family I got acquainted with, the Watchmans.
“Hi. How was the flight?” I casually asked.
“Hello Brian. Thank you for inviting us.” Brandon answered.
“The flight was fine.” Christina said. “But really. No wonder you haven’t visited. You must have been so busy putting this place together.”
“Yes, I have.” I confirmed. “But now that I’m done in the capital, I think I’ll move HomeBase closer to Alewatch. I want to take some of my employees to TinaWood.”
“Aiming for the skill, are you?”
“Yes. … how many people have gotten it by now?”
“12, as of three days ago. And that is not the ones you know about.” Christina answered.
“... that isn’t all that many.”
“It isn’t a large dungeon, so the monsters in it run out quite quickly.” Christina said. “And because you need dungeon points to attempt the challenge rooms, there are limits on how many people can try and how many times. Some adventurers even bring monsters from outside into the dungeon to absorb them.”
“Those fools almost caused a food shortage by taking our boars there.” Brandon complained. “We had to quickly make a rule preventing that, or we would have had a food shortage.”
“Lucky for us, one of the adventurers that came into town was able to tell us of this technique to trick the dungeon into absorbing materials that don’t originate from monsters, so we could just use trash instead of full monster corpses.” Christina added.
“Really? Do share.” I asked.
“I guess even you don’t know everything, huh?” Brandon wondered.
“Can’t know everything. So, how do you do that?” I asked Christina.
“It is quite simple really. If you pack whatever trash you want around a monster core, you can have the dungeon absorb said trash as if it was a monster. There are some calculations involved based on the monster core’s size, but it is actually really helpful.” Christina said. “The F-rank cores from the boars are basically trash that we used to sell for next to nothing or use for magic practice, but now they are quite a bit more useful.”
“Yes. We don’t have to burn the town’s trash anymore and can put it to some good use, while still keeping the valuable meat and hides from the boars.” Brandon added.
“That’s really cool.” I admitted. “But I should be off now. I have a lot more guests to talk to. I’ll send you a letter about moving HomeBase towards Alewatch, so that you’ll know when I’m coming.”
“We’ll be waiting.” Christina said, before she seemed to realize something. “Just a second.” She said, as she opened her purse. I was a bit flabbergasted when I saw that she had a magic fanny pack inside of her purse, effectively turning her leather purse into a magic bag. She dug something out of it and handed it to me. “Here. A little housewarming present.”
“Thank you.” I took the gift. It was a medium sized cardboard box that held something inside of it, but I’ll open it later. At least I don’t have to wonder where they got the cardboard box from.
I took the box aside and placed it onto a table. I took a quick peek inside, just because I was curious, and I noticed some clothes inside. They were made of TinaWood fabrics, and looked a lot like the clothes I usually wear, so maybe they just brought me some day-to-day wear clothes. Honestly, I’ll gladly take them. I then went to greet the next family.
Next up, since I’m clearing going in order of meeting the invitees, is of course Christina’s father and the rest of her family, the Sawyers. They are also by far the most numerous family here, but what can you do? Thomas is a busy man with a bunch of kids.
“Hello Thomas, Ellanora. Thank you for coming.”
“Thank you for the invite, dear.” Ellanora answered. “And thank you for the ride. It was nice and quick.”
“Hopefully Alice was a good captain.” I joked, knowing well that Alice wouldn’t fool around when there are others in her ship. And even if there weren’t, she still doesn’t really fool around with the B.E.S. ships, only Gradius.
“She flew great. As her grandfather, I can be proud.” Thomas said. “... also, thank you for inviting William. I wasn’t sure if you would, so I’m glad to see him here.”
“Of course I did. While we might not have the same kind of relationship as I do with you, he is still someone important to you and he was an easy invite, so why wouldn’t I get him here. But it is a shame Violet couldn’t come. You didn’t leave her in charge or something, right?”
“I wouldn’t do that.” Thomas said.
“She doesn’t say it, but it is because she found someone she loves.” Ellanora said. “I just hope she will soon introduce us.”
“Oh? Well, I guess that is a reason to refuse. I do hope she found someone worthy of her.”
“I hope so as well.” Ellanora said.
“If he isn’t worthy, will you help us scare him away?” Thomas asked.
“I’ll lend you a dragon or two. Or maybe five. Ten should do.” I agreed. If your Grandpa in law needs something scary, you let him borrow it. “Just feed them before you return them.” I added as a joke, as my monsters don’t actually need to eat. They get all their energy back between summonings.
“... I think just one will be enough.” Thomas said. “And here. I brought you this.”
He handed me a thick book with a magic stone embedded into the cover. Based on the magic stones color, it must be an earth magic book.
“Thank you.”
An earth magic book, huh. I guess the family does have some history when it comes to earth magic, so I wonder if it was written by one of Thomas’ ancestors? Well either way, I’ll make sure to take good care of it. And when Alice learns to use earth magic, I’ll make sure she reads this. … I’ll have to give her her third attribute first. I’ll do it after this party.
Next up on the list were the three Viscounts. Garner, aka. Angelina’s husband. Hill, aka. the guy who rules The Hill town of Yuva and has that metal retail store. And of course my hippogriff taming friend, Kramer.
Angelina and Mateo were of course ecstatic that I invited their daughter, even though she wasn’t at Thomas’ BD party, but I straight up admitted that I didn’t actually invite her and she was brought along by Daniel and William. Angelina also gave me a small gemstone as a gift. It was cloudy and had all sorts of visible inclusions, so it likely wasn't worth much, but when Angelina told me that she made it herself, I gladly took it. Handmade, or magic made, stuff is the best.
With Yuva we talked a bit about everything I’d made with the metal I’ve purchased from him and that brought up the topic of my workshop, so I called Wilma and Karl over to introduce them. I also said that Wilma and Karl could take Yuva to see our workshop later. He also brought me some metal ingots, which I was happy to get.
With Kramer we talked about our hippogriffs. Mainly about how mine is a bit of a hassle to take care of with how much action he wants. Kramer didn’t have quite as bad a time with his, but even he agreed that hippogriffs are high maintenance. He also asked to see my stables, so I made sure Unika knew to show them to him later. And he brought me some books on horse feed, so that might be useful.
Next up was Duke Burch. He was the most surprised, I think. Not just about HomeBase, but about the fact that both His and Her Majesty, the two Princes and the Princess, as well as the Prime Minister all showed up for this. He was also very interested in the B.E.S. ships and was asking if he could acquire one. After I explained to him that they were technically summoned monsters and that he couldn’t have a B.E.S. card without Card Summoner, he seemed to start making plans about visiting TinaWood, so maybe meet again in Alewatch.
… okay, considering my luck, there is a 100% chance that we will.
He also gave me a bit of something. A few handwritten notes that were found at an abandoned warehouse that didn’t officially belong to the Blanken Company, but had clearly been used by them. They were about the ownership transfer of the illegal slave marks, and the Duke reassured me that only he had fully read them. And even though it was just the transfer method, I was still glad to know that we had secured this information.
After him was most of the capital crew. I didn’t take too much of the Prime Ministers or His Majesty’s time, as they were in a heated discussion about what could be done with HomeBase. I just reminded them that this is my home and if they want to use it, they’ll have to go through me.
Her Majesty on the other hand softly apologized for their actions and invited me to visit the Castle’s storehouse. And as an apology and a gift, she said I could take one item from there, which ended up causing another discussion between the King and the PM. I think it is mostly them realizing they didn’t actually bring any sort of housewarming gift. I think the two just aren’t used to bringing gifts, as showing themselves at parties like this is already considered a gift by most people.
Well, it might be, but not for me. I’ll gladly take what Her Majesty offered. Now let’s go say hi to the princes and the princess.
The three of them were quite interested in the game Tera, Leahlina, William and Daniel were playing and I think they are planning to play next. Nevelle also asked about my maids, as the last time she saw them, they were still in the … I think they were 1.3 Dragonmaid avatar dolls back then. Anyway, she was asking about the new model avatar dolls that allowed the Dragonmaids to have their wings and tails out. She also apologized for the maids for thinking that they are demons.
Sheou simply stated that she understood where Lady Nevelle was coming from, as her incomplete human form could easily be mistaken to be a demon.
As for some gifts, Nevelle brought me her own potion book. I somewhat knew she made potions, but I didn’t know she had written her own recipe book.
Elias gave me a scarlet dagger. It was actually made of hihi'irokane, a metal about on the same level as mithril. Except that hihi'irokane is a lot better at dealing with fire than mithril.
The first Prince for his part gave me a hidden dagger that would mount to the underside of your arm. It wasn’t like those Assassin's Creed daggers where they pop out because of a spring, but just a dagger that you could easily hide inside your sleeve and would be easy to pull out with your other hand. Though I do suppose that this confirms that the first Prince does like hidden weapons like this, so I do wonder how he will like the sword cane Wilma and I made for him.
Before I moved to the people from the Hero’s country, I spoke a bit with Oroco and Hunter. The two of them didn’t have much to say, but Marquess Oroco wanted to know when I would deliver the Ursa Major materials he wanted to purchase. I just promised I’d do it soon, or I could even have Lua hand them over when she returned them home. As long as they had the money ready.
For gifts, Marquess Oroco brought me some expensive wine, but I’m not really an expert on wine, so I wouldn’t really know about them. From Kiara, I got a feather pen. Apparently the feather was one of her own. I was a little hesitant to take it, as I half assumed that giving someone their feather is something akin to proposing, but Kiara said it is nothing of the kind, so I took it. And I do really like how it looks, so it would have been a shame to refuse.
Second last were the Hero’s countries people, Ula, Wendy, Sepher, Ian, Ted and Shisu. As well as one more person, an albino lizard-folk male. I actually recall meeting him last time I was at the Hero’s country. He is the one that came to get me before my meeting with Sepher. His name is Albus and he was apparently going to be the priest at the HomeBase church. He is a skilled priest who studied at the same time as Sepher, but because of his appearance, he never took off the same as Sepher, so he has just been an assistant priest working under Sepher. And now Albus is going from an assistant priest to head priest. And a head priest at a church built on the lands of a System Support Holder at that.
Wendy was somewhat surprised to hear that. The part about me wanting a church here, I mean. I simply told her that one person living here has a title that lets them learn Holy Magic, and I wanted them to learn that. And that while my monsters can do a ton, one thing they can’t do is Holy Magic. When asked why they can’t do that, I told them that my monsters serve their own gods, not the Goddess that we do. This led to a discussion about their gods, so I told them about the Divine-Beast monsters, the Creator God Holactie, the legends of the Numeron Dragon and the Numeron Code and so on.
And eventually I was asked how Exodia fits into this entire mythology of Gods, where I just explained that Exodia was a great sorcerer, so strong that his existence threatened the Gods themselves. Because of that, he was sealed into a suit of orichalcum armor, before split into five pieces. But when those five pieces came together, the god-like sorcerer could once again show his might.
The genderbent Hero’s party also brought me some nice stuff. The transcripts of the diaries of the original Hero’s party. They thought the diaries might help me with the ‘miasma blob’ problem, so they themselves manually scribed these copies. I’ll be sure to read them later.
The other two sages gave me something almost as interesting. It was the information on the magic circle that kept up the adventurer’s guild’s communication network. They said they were giving it to me so that I could make a network of my own, if I wanted to, and honestly, I might just do that. Maybe I can even make it more advanced and make a pseudo internet.
After them, there was just one more guest left.
“Lady Janina.” I called her, as I approached. Out of everyone present here today, she was the only one I greeted with an honorific.
“Hello Brian. It has been a while since we met like this.” She responded. As I said earlier, she had brought her real body here and was now in her humanoid form.
“True. Last time was when I visited so that you could follow my soul to the Factory.”
“Speaking of, did you finish the Factory access devices?” Lady Janina asked.
“... Kind of. They have some issues, but they should work.”
“Do tell. Maybe I can help.”
“They do work, but they have to be connected by a cable and I have to be in one of the devices. … and admittedly we haven’t tested them out yet.”
“Then perhaps we should do that while I’m really here. If anyone’s soul gets lost, I can pull it back.” Lady Janina said.
“Thank you. It would be a great help.” I agreed.
I hadn’t actually planned on showing the Factory today, but technically I am ready to show it. As long as this test is successful. I wonder how quickly I could make a race track in the Factory? Just a shame I haven’t gained enough Momentum to purchase myself a D-wheel. I do summon the two synchro monsters multiple times a day, just to grind Momentum, but with just two of them, and me not wanting to summon them too many times, I’m only getting between 22 and 55 Momentum a day.
“I also did bring a gift for you, but that will have to wait until a bit later. I hope you look forward to it.” Lady Janina said, sounding almost like she was teasing me.
“I most definitely am.” I confirmed. I mean, what could a divine dragon bring as a gift? Actually, what couldn’t she bring?