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 fot to do it while in the factory, but could you ask Iron Bcksmith Kotetsu to work with the Vampire monsters so that he learns how te 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 avaible 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 practig 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 Iory is level 3, it hold up to 80 uems. And at least 600 of that uem, sidering the money in there. But back to iory, 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 calcuted it and when the iory hits level 10, it will have 10 240 slots. At least I won’t have any ste problems.

  As Ria returned, I saw a maid in the corridor with her, giving Ria instrus. The maid theo the neighb 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 instrus 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 goo get Alice was leading us. During breakfast, Ria stood o the wall behind me quietly. Perhaps that art of the instrus the maids gave her. I don’t want to force maid training on her, but if there is a ce to get it for free, it would help. I think Kit Dragonmaid might be able to teach her as well, but that Dragonmaid might be too specialized in kit stuff to know all of the general stuff. I he House Dragonmaid feneral knowledge, probably.

  After breakfast, Alid I headed outside while Ria went to my room to pick up my rge magic bag. Paulina wasn’t with us today, as she had her own busio take care of, outside of babysitting Alice. Even though she said she wao e. 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 take us to the dungeon quickly?”

  “It should be able. Uhere 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 uand 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 do until I test it out.”

  “Oh? I see. But I have been practig. 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 Magi’s Power to level 4.”

  SpoilerI’ll drop Alice’s status here as we did talk about it. No, Brian did not see it at this time.

  Name: Alice WatRace: HumanLevel: 18HP: 310Mana: 106th: 145Defense: 185Magic: 925 Skills: Card Summoner LV.1 (extra)Magi’s Power LV.4 (extra) Dark Magic LV.5Mana trol LV.5Magic Boost LV.3Quick Cast LV.2Fast Mana Recovery LV.3[colpse]“... 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 ohing in a banced way, instead of fog them on only a few skills. I think your skills like Mana trol might not keep up otherwise. But I might be wrong.”

  “I… I’ll level up everything iure.” Alice replied, as if I just threateo take the card away from her.

  “I won’t take the cards back even if you don’t. I just wao warn you that you might want to keep things more banced.”

  Not that I have any right to speak. My skills aren’t ba all. And no, I don’t mean it in a way that they are OP. I mean my skill levels aren’t banced. I just focused on mana trol at first and now I'm finally bringing the others up as well.

  “I’m sorry it took so long.” Ria ologizing 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 ent 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 stroone. “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.” Alistantly answered.

  “... I … yes.” Ria answered after a bit.

  “Then I’ll summon our ride.” I said as I got the card out of my colle. (Laura, it will be camoufge by default right? And it will get summoned in the air, right?) I had to firm this. With he 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

  [colpse]“B.E.S. Big Core.” I said after I pced the card onto the singur card slot that was on my terminal eve wasn’t in active bat 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 o be.” I answered. (Laura, we o beam to get into the ship.)

  “But I ’t see it.” Alice said.

  “I ’t either.” Ria added. She was looking around with a soft green glow in her eyes. I o 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 simir, 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 e 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 o 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 and.

  The world around us turemporarily to light as the teleportation happened.

  “And here we are.” I said as our visiourned.

  It’s not like the teleportation is blinding. More like it just takes away your ability to see for a sed. Probably as a safety measure.

  The two girls opeheir 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 venience or in case of emergencies, but there was one oher fnk 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 ve, 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 expin 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. e 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 trol panels everywhere. I sat down on the captain’s seat, and got the two girls to sit down owo seats o it. One was meant for the lead navigation officer and the other for the lead ons officer.

  “Make sure you don’t touything.” 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 Mae-type mohat a person could enter, like Overdrive, Gradius and now Big Core. If you press the trol buttons of the mae, the mae has no choice but to do as ordered, even if it was under different orders from Laura or I. So if Alice would actally press the wrong button, all of the ons of this ship would fire and … well, you 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 cause a lot less damage there. If she actally 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 Cetting 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 uand 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 rge, we should have been able to see it.” Ria asked.

  “It has a camoufge feature. It is nearly invisible from the ground, except for a soft glow from the maior. And it is super difficult to see on a sunny day like this.” I answered. “Anyway, let’s head towards the dungeon. I’ll aher 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 eveime, but I realized that there is a big weakness in Big Core pared to Gradius. No, not the ters, 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 expin.

  Both Gradius and Big Core have iial 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 sonis 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 just bst 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 nding.” I said in an announcer voibsp;

  “Brian?”

  “Just having fun. Don’t worry about it.” I said as I got up from my seat. “e o’s go.”

  We went back to the room eared 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 rger than a normal squirrel, I took us down.

  After eared on the ground, I unsummoned Big Core aered the dungeon.

  nro_8