After Thomas, Snowlily, and Lexi had left the breakfast table, Selena finished her meal at her own pace before heading back up to her room for a little privacy. She retrieved her Communication Stone and spoke plainly, "Report."

A woman's voice came from the stone in reply, "We've arrived at the city and secured living arrangements as requested Princess."

Once Selena had the name of their inn and some rudimentary directions to it, she left her own inn to find her guards. They weren't located too far away and it took very little time to spot the inn as the guards were standing in front of it awaiting the arrival of their princess. Selena smiled as she spotted the two women. Her unit of guards was rather unique. There was one requirement that had to be met before they could be considered for joining. All of them had to be beautiful. This rule wasn't entirely about being vain. It's a pretty well-known fact that the majority of armies and fighters across the world were men. They took pride in being male and derided and underestimated women at every turn. The more beautiful the woman the more she was underestimated.

The two guards looked nothing alike and seemed to physically embody their roles. The first guard, Minerva, stood at just under two meters tall in her casual shoes. Her limbs were slightly thicker and showed her well-toned muscles. Her brown hair was trimmed to her chin keeping it from being overly long and making it easy to wear a helmet. Shapely eyebrows hung above bright green eyes and a small delicate nose. High cheekbones and naturally reddish lips completed the look of a high-class woman. Even the simple white linen shirt and tan pants didn't detract from her looks. The only thing that appeared somewhat odd were the items hanging on her back, a massive black tower shield and the handle of a one-handed sword. The straps of the two items crossed between her breasts and made them appear somewhat larger than they were. Her looks drew the occasional look from men, and a few women, as they walked by on the street.

The woman standing next to her was just as beautiful. She stood a bit shorter, closer to 170 or so centimeters. She was dressed in a similar outfit but that was where the similarities ended. The second woman, Aria, had bright red hair, dark green eyes, and freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks. She looked like someone's adorable little sister with a constant cheeky smile on her pink lips. Hanging from the belt around her waist, she carried a shortsword on her left hip and a long-bladed dagger on her right.

When the two women saw Selena, Aria began to wave enthusiastically and bounce up and down in excitement while Minerva remained stoic. Players who spotted them had a pretty good grasp of their roles based on their looks alone. Minerva was clearly some kind of tank class. The massive tower shield on her back had to weigh hundreds of pounds but she carried it like it weighed nothing. Aria looked more like a quick and nimble melee class or perhaps even a rogue or thief type.

Selena knew these two and they make an excellent team. All of her guards were trained to fight well alone or in groups of up to two hundred with efficiency. They all lived and trained together making them like a large family. She chose these two for very specific reasons. Minerva was a knight focused on defense and protecting her companions. Her Endurance was King class making her tough and durable while her Power and Agility were equal giving her the strength to wear heavy armor and wield her tower shield like it was a toy. Her Agility gave her the speed necessary to move around the battlefield to block incoming attacks. Even with her loud mouth and barbaric insults she couldn't maintain total control over their enemies and force them to focus on only her. As for her Magic attribute, it was only high enough to let her use some simple lifestyle magic such as lighting a campfire.

Aria, on the other hand, had King class Agility along with high Power and Magic. Her Endurance was just high enough to make sure that anything she couldn't completely dodge wouldn't outright kill her. She specialized in speedy melee attacks while imbuing her weapons with elemental attributes. She also had an array of scouting skills so she could act as a forward scout to protect her teammates from ambushes. Together with Selena, they made a good three-man cell capable of handling most situations.

Selena gave both women a soft smile as she approached close to them. She turned to look at the in they had chosen. It was on the main street so it wasn't a run-down cheap ass place and Selena was grateful for that. Her guards tended to choose the cheapest places they could find so they didn't cost the royal family a lot of money. They clearly chose this inn so they could be close enough to the princess to come to her aid if anything happened. As she got close the two women gave her a subtle salute. If they did the full proper salute it could potentially attract attention they didn't want. Once they finished, Selena smiled and gestured to the inn, "Take me to your room."

The two guards nodded and it wasn't long before all three of them were inside of a room with two beds. Once the door was locked Selena waved her hand causing the walls to shimmer for a moment as she cut off any sound from leaking out. The two guards turned serious as they looked at their princess. Selena just smiled and waved her hand in a calming manner, "Keep it casual. I need the two of you to not raise any suspicion about your connection to me. If we scare Thomas off it will be a terrible blow to the kingdom."

Aria frowned a bit, "Is he really all that special? I saw him leaving your inn earlier and he didn't seem all that impressive. He wasn't even dressed like a warrior."

Selena chuckled, "Yes, he really doesn't look like one but don't let that fool you. He may not be all that powerful himself but there are things you don't know about him. Those things make him far more valuable than any single warrior, even an Emperor class warrior isn't worth nearly as much as he is."

Both Aria and Minerva's eyes widened at Selena's words. To be more valuable than an Emperor class, that was valuable indeed. Selena's next words shocked them even more, "On top of that, money would likely mean nothing to him. With his abilities, he could easily be the richest in the world..." She paused for a moment before she continued in a more serious tone, "Or he could cause global war with a toss of his hands."

Both guards were gobsmacked. Selena never lied about the important things so they knew that what she said was her honest opinion of the man. Selena didn't believe she was exaggerating at all. Just the fact that he could make a rare item with his bare hands in a few minutes was already unheard of and world-changing. Add in the other things he could do and she might even be underestimating just what he could do to the world. If he wanted to destroy a country all he would need to do was offer a handful of those pure mana crystals of his to the other nations on the continent and they would happily destroy his enemies for him. He wouldn't even have to put in much effort. Anyone stupid enough to turn him into an enemy would soon find themselves running for their lives.

Seeing the seriousness of their princess, the two women swallowed any other words they might have to say about the man. They'd met other immortals, even fought and killed a few during their journey with Selena but none of them had presented that big of a threat in their minds. Minerva, as the calmer and more stoic of the two, glanced at the excitable Aria before turning back to the princess, "So what is the plan?"

Selena got down to business, "It's the same as I said over the Communication Stone. Stay close, observe, but stay out of sight. After what happened recently I'm fairly certain that Thomas is suspicious of me and I can't afford to piss him off or upset him. When we leave and make our way to Kafla, I'll try to convince him to take a caravan if he doesn't want to take one already. You two will join the same caravan and look for a chance to introduce yourselves. Just remember that you do not know or serve me when you do."

Aria interjected, "Wouldn't that risk pissing him off when he finds out later?"

Selena didn't mind the interruption. Instead, she nodded in agreement and let out a sigh, "That's true. I'm in a precarious position. If I introduce you now it could scare him off and turn him against Reykhoten. If I don't tell him and you all become friends, maybe he'll be more forgiving. I just don't know what the proper path is at the moment. He knows I have a tracker on him and he can't remove it. If I was him I would already be pissed off by that and looking for a way to not only get rid of it but to get rid of me as well."

All three women fell silent as they tried to think about what they should do. Finally, the spunky Aria spoke up, "I say you just tell him the truth. I don't think it's that weird for royalty to be walking around with a few guards to protect them ya'know? I mean, he's gunna find out one way or another, eventually, right? I bet it would be better if he heard it from you as soon as possible. It would also make it a lot easier for the two of us to actually guard ya ya'know?"

Selena and Minerva looked at Aria for a bit before Selena smiled brightly, "You're right Aria. I know he comes from another world but I'm sure in that world there are important figures with guards. I'm sure he'll understand it if I put it that way."

Aria beamed with pride while Minerva looked devastated. Aria would rub this in Minerva's face every chance she got for a while, she was not looking forward to that at all. The women continued to talk for a while as Selena planned how to introduce them to Thomas. She would need to be diplomatic about it and hope he didn't hate her for keeping yet another secret from him. She had so many of those and she couldn't risk having him know all of them unless he was bound to Reykhoten for good.

Once she finished speaking with her guards, Selena left their inn and returned to her own. It was still a few hours until dinner and she didn't have much to do. She just spent the time slowly reading through a thick tome with a black cover.

Back to the morning...

Thomas and Snowlily walked through the streets on their way to the Adventurer's Guild building. Since he had prepaid for the room he didn't need to do anything and just made his way back to it. Once inside with the door locked, he quickly swapped out the damaged tongs with the pair he purchased. Once that was done he started to pull out the materials he planned to work with today. He was determined to make a full set of mana conductive tools so that he would waste less mana when hammering embryos into the metals he would be working with.

Ancient Lead, Purified Mithril, and pieces from the World Tree log were all set out. These were the only materials he would need to make all of his tools. Three impossibly rare and valuable materials being used to make simple tools. He was certain that other blacksmiths would murder him in his sleep if they knew. Just that thought made him actually smile a bit. With everything set out, he turned his attention to the smallest piece of Ancient Lead in his possession.

For the first hammer, he skipped a step that he liked to do with all of his materials, purification on the Ancient Lead. He was actually worried about purifying it having negative effects on the metal. After all, purifying it removed everything and left the material in its purest state. For the Ancient Lead to be manipulated it needed the alchemical bath and some residue of that bath remained in the metal until it was heated again. Purifying it seemed to very likely remove that and harden the Ancient Lead making it harder, if not impossible, to work with.

He decided to experiment with the smallest piece he had available. If it worked he could purify and shape the other pieces, if it didn't they would have to remain impure. Not that their impurity really mattered honestly. The lead didn't need to really be pure since it was only being used as additional weight and not for any of its other properties. He picked up the small piece and quickly used his Transmutation to purify the lead. Thin streams of black smoke trickled out of it as the lead turned even darker and seemed to become more crystalline in appearance.

Once it was finished he didn't bother checking the details just yet. Instead, he placed it on the anvil and retrieved his newest hammer. The purified mithril of the hammer glittered brightly as he swung it through the air and slammed it into the lead on the anvil. A crisp metallic ring echoed through the room while the impact sent a vibration through his arm. He lifted the hammer and checked the lead, only to find it hadn't changed in the slightest. He let out a sigh and stored the hammer away inside of his inventory once more.

He picked up the ingot and channeled his Transmutation once again to reshape the metal with his Innate Ability. For the first time ever, a metal refused to do as he commanded. His mana seemed to simply roll around the lead before dissipating into the air. He frowned and stopped his efforts to change its shape. Neither the hammer nor his magic could change the shape of the lead. His eyes flashed blue as he examined the lead. Slowly his eyes widened as he read the information displayed. Finally, two words slipped out of his mouth, "Oh fuck!"