Once everyone had gathered inside of the previously selected inn, Thomas decided it was time to let them in on some of his plans. He looked between the two women as he spoke, "Do whatever you would like tomorrow. I'll be finding some supplies and then seeing if I can rent a private blacksmithing room to make some stuff. Once I finish making the weapons and armor I want, we'll head into the dungeon together. I plan to raid the dungeon as deep as I can and gain experience until I meet my goal. I don't know how long that will take so those are my plans for now."

Lexiana looked dispirited as she asked, "How long do you plan to lock up for?"

Thomas shrugged his shoulders, "As long as it takes to make all of my gear. Hopefully not more than a few days. I'll be taking some shortcuts to speed things up a bit."

Lexiana sighed and looked lost like she had nothing to do on her own. Selena seemed more open to it like she had things she could do. Thomas didn't know what, but it didn't matter to him anyway. He needed the upgrades and planned to make the most of his time near an active Mithril mine. With regular Mithril and his elemental Mithril, he should be able to make a full set of weapons, armor, and items from the metal. It was going to be epic!

Once everyone finished their dinner, they split up to go their separate rooms. For the next few days, they were all on their own. Lexiana closed the door behind her and let out a long sigh. She felt like crap. She walked over to her bed and fell down on it face-first. Things were not going well for her. Ever since she first saw Snowlily she felt like she had become someone else. A creepy obsessive stalker someone else. She didn't like how she had been acting and tried her best to rationalize it. Snowlily was the only known living Garou, a god to her people. She had a natural instinct to try and bring Snowlily to the safest place she knew and protect her.

That was honestly all she wanted to do and now she realized that her desire to do so was alienating her from Snowlily. The Garou was already bound to a human and there was nothing she could do about it. Snowlily was safe, she needed to remember that constantly and fight her instincts. She could tell that Thomas was a decent man. He didn't look at her like most men did. She wasn't conceited but she knew she was an attractive woman. Too many men had tried to make her theirs for her to not know how appealing she was.

Lexiana knew she'd fucked up with the two of them and decided she needed to do her best to fight her instinct to hide Snowlily from the world and protect her. She needed to go back to how she used to be. Snowlily would be safe with Thomas. She'd never seen someone like him before. The things he could do, the things he could make, she'd never seen things like them before. His strength would continue to grow and she couldn't fall behind if she wanted to stay close to Snowlily.

With a final sigh, Lexiana got ready for bed and went to sleep. Tomorrow she would be back to her usual self, before she met the legendary Garou.

After everyone split up to go to their rooms, Selena went to her own room and retrieved a Communication Stone from her inventory. As long as it was in there no one, not even herself, could hear any messages coming from it. She held it tightly and spoke with a firm, commanding tone, "Report."

A few moments later a woman's voice came from the stone in Selena's hand, "Reporting to you Princess. We've done as commanded and followed you from behind. We will arrive at Breidset before tomorrow afternoon. No incidents or casualties to report. We're both in good health."

Selena smiled as she heard the report. Her father had asked her to bring two guards. Selena was glad for the company, but after meeting Lexiana and Snowlily, she decided to have the guards shadow them instead of joining them. She didn't want to overwhelm or frighten Thomas. Circumstances weren't perfect and her plan of a 'coincidental' meeting was completely shattered when he was captured. Their recuse had made him too suspicious and exposed the tracking spell on the ring she gave him.

The guards had been with her on the ship but she had avoided introducing them to Lexiana. Back then Lexiana was a stranger and having some hidden cards is always a wise move. They'd been separated for a while due to the sailing required to find Thomas but her guards were once again close. She would leave the guards hidden until they were absolutely necessary.

"I'm glad to hear that. Once the two of you arrive in the city, seek accommodations and let me know where you are when I contact you again. I will give you the funds needed to stay in the city for some time. Thomas seems to have a plan to grow stronger but no definitive timeline on when we will leave. However, our final destination will be Kafla so be prepared to travel at a moment's notice. Once he decides to leave I want you two to join any caravan that we might be guarding. If we do join a caravan it will provide an opportunity for you to introduce yourselves. I want you to pretend to not know any of us though. It would be best if he didn't know you were my guards. He's too suspicious of me at the moment. If we do not join a caravan then simply continue to follow us from behind as you have been.", Selena explained the current situation and planned for the future.

"We understand Princess. We will contact you tomorrow after we arrive."

With the conversation done, Selena stored the Communication Stone back inside of her inventory. She was aware that her plan could backfire and lead Thomas to completely distrust her. She just couldn't risk scaring him off. He may have said he forgave her but she was still worried about him trying to leave her behind. He was such a powerful potential ally that she couldn't risk anyone else getting their hands on him. It wasn't even purely about his impossible race anymore either. Seeing him craft a rare item with his bare hands and some materials was yet something else that should have been impossible. It only increased his value to an even higher extreme.

She let out a deep sigh and got ready for bed. Tomorrow she would get her guards settled and then find something to do to pass the time while Thomas was busy doing his stuff.

After everyone enjoyed breakfast together, they split up to do their own thing. Thomas took Snowlily with him and went to do some shopping. The materials available in this city made his eyes shine. Mithril was easily and readily available. The only issue he had was that a single ingot of the metal cost just over two-hundred gold. It was significantly more expensive than iron. Then again, he was a millionaire so he spent around fifty-thousand gold to buy two hundred and fifty Mithril ingots. That would be enough to last him for a good long time. Maybe.

With a supply of Mithril sitting inside of his nicely expanding Inventory, Thomas started to purchase supplementary materials. Things like some excellent leather, thick and durable cloth, he even found a material that was a lot like rubber called Grorg Fat. Going by the name he assumed it came from a creature called a Grorg. Whatever the hell that was. He also visited an alchemy shop and bought all the materials he would need to process the Ancient Lead he had. It was described as being good for a core inside of a weapon and he planned to use it that way. By the time he bought everything that caught his attention, he was left with slightly less than twenty-five thousand gold out of his original one hundred thousand.

With his shopping complete, he made his way towards the best place he knew of to gather information, The Adventurer's Guild! Once he arrived he only had to wait a short amount of time before he arrived in front of one of the receptionists. She was a nice-looking woman with a warm smile, "How can I help you today?"

Thomas smiled back as he spoke, "I was hoping to get some information on the dungeon as well as asking if there was a place where I could rent a place where I can do some blacksmithing in privacy."

The receptionist looked down and started digging around beneath the counter that acted as her desk. A short time later she popped back up and set a book down on the counter. Thomas smiled when he saw the title 'Breidset Dungeon Compendium v452'. The receptionist smiled at him, "This is the four hundred and fifty-second version of the dungeon compendium written about two weeks ago. It covers as much information as we could gather down to the twenty-fifth floor. You can purchase this copy for twenty-five gold. As for a room to work in, the guild offers many private rooms for registered adventurers to rent including blacksmithing. The rental fee for the room is one hundred gold per hour plus any basic items you wish to buy from us. Items such as coal, quenching oil, or even iron. As long as it's a plentifully available material we either have it in stock or will go fetch it for you for a small fee."

Thomas was thrilled at what she said. A hundred gold was nothing to him. He could also hire minions to go fetch the basic stuff he would need without needing to stop in his work. That was just perfect for him! He quickly retrieved six hundred and twenty-five gold from his inventory and set it on the counter before snatching up the guidebook on the dungeon, "I'd like to rent a blacksmithing room and start with six hours. If you tell me the price to have it fully stocked with coal and quenching oil I can pay for that now as well."

The receptionist pulled out a box and scooped all of the coins on her counter into it. Several seconds after the last coin fell into the box the number '625' appeared on the front of it. Thomas was impressed, why hadn't he thought of an enchantment that could count money automatically? Seeing the number on the box, the receptionist smiled at him and pulled out a key with a small plaque attached, "Just let the receptionist in the workshop area know of your needs and he will take care of it."

She held to key out to Thomas she continued her explanation while pointing toward a door at the back of the guild with her other hand, "Go through that door then take the third door on the left. That's the blacksmithing area. You've been assigned to room five."

Thomas accepted the key and saw the number five on the plaque attached to it. He gave the receptionist a nod to say thanks and made his way to the door. Following her instructions he found a young man sitting behind a simple podium in a hallway with five doors on each side. How big was this place? Thomas hadn't paid any attention to it when he was outside. Thomas walked over to the new receptionist and smiled, "I'll be using room five. I could use a full supply of coal for the forge and quenching oil."

The young man nodded and pulled out a box identical to the one the first receptionist had, "The total for that would be one hundred and thirty gold."

The price was a bit more than Thomas would have expected but having a surcharge for the service seemed reasonable to him so he paid the fee without complaint. That amount was pocket change to him anyway. Once the gold was received the young man went off to do his work while Thomas made his way to room five. The key unlocked the door and let him get his first look at the space he would be working inside of. It was surprisingly spacious. Not massive by any means but it looked to be a solid hundred or so square meters. He would prefer a bigger workshop but this would do for what he had in mind.

The forge was located directly in front of him and against the back wall. It was centered between two windows that could be opened to allow heat to escape the enclosed room. There were anvils of various sizes located in front of the forge. Thomas walked over to the anvils and checked their height. They were a bit low for his preferences but that was always a risk when renting a room instead of using one designed specifically for personal use. He could deal with it though. He moved around examining the room with a smile. It contained the majority of what he would need such as a standard array of tools, workbench, grinding wheel, and so on. He looked everything over and was really happy since they actually seemed to be of higher quality than what the pirates had him use.

After he finished looking around he spent his time waiting for the coal and quenching oil by going through the dungeon guide. He wanted to build weapons to specifically counter as many of the monsters as possible. Similar to his use of fire weapons against the Trolls to kill them quickly and efficiently. The weapons would have been great against the wood-based enemies on the fourth floor of that dungeon as well, he just never went that deep.

Flipping through the guide was interesting. The monsters were diverse but the overall theme seemed to be 'humanoid'. One floor had Skeletons, the next had Lizardman, then the next had Golems. It was a mishmash of monsters with the only theme being two arms and two legs. That would make it harder for him to create a single weapon to take on multiple floors. Or... He smiled as he had a thought. It was beyond time for him to make something to replace the Peace Maker. Something bigger and more powerful. The one thing all humanoid creatures had in common as a weakness? Their head. Remove that and the majority of them would die.

The receptionist returned to load Thomas's room with coal and quenching oil. He felt a shiver run down his spine seeing the creepy smile on Thomas's otherwise attractive face. What the hell was that man thinking about while reading the dungeon guide?