When I woke up, it was already 7 AM in the morning, and Takeshi and Laura barged inside the room and began jumping over my bed. They seemed excited about going to the dungeon with us so they wanted us to wake up as early as possible.
"Wakie, wakie, Bis sis!" Takeshi began jumping over my belly. His fluffy appearance melted my heart but he was exceeding himself now!
"Wake up! We want to go dungeon diving already!" Laura said, jumping in between Partner and Emeraldine.
"Mmggh…" Partner groaned like a skeleton waking up from her coffin.
"Uggh… Ahh… My head hurts a bit…" Emeraldine said.
"Okay you two, stop!" I roared, quickly grabbing them with my phantasmal arms and attacking them with my phantasmal fingers, giving them tickles all over their bellies.
"Take this! And this!"
As the two were attacked by the gigantic urge of giggling, everyone else ended waking up early as a result. Well, not like we didn't planned to wake up early anyways.
"What's all this commotion about?" Wondered Lucifer.
"Ugh, I crave blood…" Partner said. "Hmm… fresh elven blood…"
Partner slowly approached Emeraldine's neck, as Emeraldine flew away in an instant.
"Uwaaah! P-Partner don't scare me like that!" She said while looking at everyone. "Huh? What happened? Did I fall asleep from yesterday?"
As I finished tickling the twins, who looked completely defeated over the bed, I nodded.
"Precisely! You passed out." I said. "Anyways, the clay's ready. You managed to make four pieces.
"W-Wait, not only one?!" Emeraldine asked in shock. "T-This is amazing!" She happily said. "Can I see it? Can I?!" Emeraldine seemed to be growing more and more insane as she asked me to see her own creations.
At the end, we calmed down and then I placed the clay over the table.
"Wooow… And it just as smooth as I remember it." She said, touching the clay and molding it.
"So how do you use these to make accessories?" I wondered.
"They are a wonderful adherent to materials and can even replace some missing parts on broken ones." She said. "They're perfect for both creating and repairing magic items."
"Wait what?! Is Gumstone that convenient?" I wondered.
"It is! But only very strong alchemists with amazing quantities of Mana and a lot of talent can make them. I guess we have reached such a height!" She said.
"Ooohh… That's cool." I said with a nod.
[Alchemy Clay (B Grade)]
A special clay imbued with pure magic, usually made out of Fire and Earth Element Materials. It is capable of molding easily to the user's imagination through touch or by infusing magic into it. It is usually white-colored, but there are other colorful varieties imbued with stronger elements. Perfect for repairing broken magic items, armor, and even magic weapons, and can also be used as a potential pillar material for the crafting of an enormously wide variety of magic items and accessories. Alchemy Clay can only be made by Advanced Alchemists.
"Woah, it really looks like it's amazing." I said as I looked into the item's description.
"Right? So let's begin making some equipment with what you've gotten recently!" Said Emeraldine.
"E-Eh? So soon? I want to mine some more to decide…" I said.
"Ah… Right…" Emeraldine said. "I guess I am rushing this a bit too much, sorry."
"Eh, it's fine. For now let's eat and then move to the dungeon." I said. "I know you're excited about alchemy and I share the sentiment, but there are other priorities, but maybe we can try it out tonight."
"Alright!" Emeraldine was pumped up the moment I told her we could try making something tonight. It seems that making accessories and magic items through alchemy is something incredibly rare or something, so she might be excited about surpassing her own limits.
Though I really wouldn't want her to end up wasted again like last night…
After we had a breakfast, we moved to the school that Aquamarine recommended for the children. It was a large academy for children that trained them in mining, forging, crafting, and even magic and skill acquisition and usage, alongside fighting and leveling up.
Any children of any social class could enter as long as they passed the test, and there was no fee for the children's studies, as it was all paid by the government. I guess that's where a part of their taxes go, huh.
"Wow! It's so big!" Takeshi said, looking into the enormous building with bright eyes filled with expectation.
"It is, isn't it?" Laura said.
We saw several children of various shapes and sizes entering and walking out of the academy, sometimes with their parents and others just alone. The security of this city was sure good for kids to go around streets without many worries of getting assaulted or something.
As we entered we were led by Aquamarine into the director's office. A stout and muscular, gray-bearded dwarf man with an eyepatch on his left eye greeted us. He seemed to be inspecting my two kids a lot.
"You're halflings?" He wondered while wondering what they were.
"My kids are… well, they're halflings, yes." I sighed. "Majin and Beast-kin, I believe. I don't know the specified races."
"Hm, halflings got tons of potential, so sure. Let's move to the practical strength test right away. Old hag, you want them to just get the passes to go to the newly discovered dungeon, right?" the director wondered, his name was Rock.
"Yeah Rock, can you give me this favor?" She wondered. "They are just visiting this place for now so keeping them as permanent students wouldn't be good."
"Hm, I get it, I get it. But it won't be easy to get your passes, kids." Rock said. "Follow me…"
Rock quickly led us to a small arena-like building, mostly empty by this hour.
"The test is easy, both of you will have to kill a D+ Rank Monster by yourselves."
Can they handle this?