Author’s Corner: Sorry for the fairly bland summary from the last chapter, it just didn’t feel like it’d be good to write in two weeks of “I sat there and played with Tokemi while everyone else went off on adventure!”. Please forgive author-sama!

“Daddy, hurry up!” Tokemi called out as she tugged on my arm. It was time for the trip to the Qu’Lopti world, and of course the little loli was ‘helping’ me get to the bridge with a smile on her face. As for her calling me daddy… I blame you, Sharon. You got her started on calling you and Yin as mommy, and me as daddy! But it’s just so cute… I can’t be upset over it.

On the other hand… Yo has really started to mature. She doesn’t seem like the same young girl anymore, mentally, and instead has ‘grown up’ into a teenage mindset. Now, if she wasn’t such a battle junkie, that would be a good thing. Instead, she keeps trying to convince Kismet, Sharon, Yin, or even me to spar with her. Of course, we can’t do that now because we’re leaving the planet, and any of us fighting on a ship could cause a lot of damage.

Soon, the two of us arrived at the bridge, to be greeted by the knowing smiles of the crew members who saw Tokemi dragging me. The little girl could definitely be considered as being dependant on me right now, as I was the only one that could help with her time hiccups. By now, she almost refused to go anywhere without me. I really needed that backup item that would dispel her time hiccups automatically, and I had a plan for it… but there was a problem. Most materials weren’t capable of holding time-related enchantments, because time itself was too powerful.

So instead, I had to wait until I had almost ten grams of orichalcum. According to Celeste, this was the best material for enchantments involving time. At least, until the epic materials like godsteel, devilstone, or blood ore were available. Thankfully, with my grove absorbing both time mana and metal mana, I am slowly producing those rare materials.

“Ahem.” Celeste ‘cleared her throat’ from next to me to get my attention and snap me out of my thoughts. “Awaiting orders, captain.”

“Right… Has the navigational data been input?” I looked to Celeste, and she nodded her head. “Then…” I tapped the intercom button in my chair, while Tokemi climbed up onto my lap. “Hey, that tickles. Wait, this thing’s on. Everyone, ignore that, and prepare for FTL. This will be our longest journey yet, and I don’t know when we will return. At the very least, it will not be for a few years. While journeying, I suggest for people to do their ‘standby’ training, if your skillset possesses one. Otherwise… find a game or something fun to do.”

Tapping the button again, I turned off the intercom, and looked to the crew on the bridge. “Alright, take us out.” I still felt like I was forgetting something, though. Well, if it was anything important, Celeste would have reminded me.

After the ship went into subspace, we stayed sitting there for about five minutes before Tokemi began yawning in boredom, laying her head against my chest. Taking that as the universal indicator for nap time, I chuckled slightly, before getting up and moving to my room so that I could lay her in my bed.

With Tokemi taken care of, I got to work on my own projects. “Can I come in for a moment?” Or I could see what Celeste wants first.

Instead of letting her in, I stepped out of the room, so as not to disturb the sleeping fox girl. “What’s the matter?” I asked her curiously, but she shook her head.

“Nothing major. I just need to visit the Toy Chest for a little while, so that I can cultivate the Dural Affinity. It will make my factory run much more smoothly if I have it set on a dural foundation.” She explained with a smile, and I recalled her saying previously that dural was like a super mana-conductive dirt.

“Alright. Need any help clearing out monsters that might have spawned?” When I asked, she shook her head.

“No, I should be fine by myself even if another jack appeared. But leave the portal open so that I can come back when I’m ready.”

I thought about it, and decided to put the portal in my closet. If she was cultivating a new affinity, then she’d probably be in there for a few days. Can’t just leave a portal lying around in the middle of the hall.

Once Celeste was through the portal, and I popped a pill to ease the resulting headache, I then got started on my own projects. “Captain?” Or… I can see what Ackbar wants first…

“Yes…?”

“I have the final reports from the dungeon teams on Hydra ready to be reviewed.” He spoke up from the other side of the door.

“Upload them to the system and I’ll go over them later…” Seriously, we had over a year of travel coming up! I could put off reading reports for a couple hours.

“Very well, Captain.” I made sure that I could hear his feet walking away before I started once again to work on my projects…

...Anyone else? No…? Finally! Opening up the new guild interface, I looked for any explanations. However, the only button available was ‘Create Guild’... I didn’t want to press that yet in case it was automatic and permanent! Malthan, this is a prayer.

John, this is a window.

Okay, I deserved that. What are the requirements for making a guild?

Oh, is that all? Easy, just gather ten thousand gold coins, and one hundred people willing to join your new guild.

Ten thousand… well, we could afford that pretty easily. But, that raised up another question. What purpose does gold have in the system? It’s used for guilds and rebirth, but there has to be other things you can do with it, if you wanted to make it a galactic currency.

Huh? Oh, I guess most of you guys haven’t figured it out yet. Some people already started using the gold market to buy special gear, and hints at how to improve their skills.

The… gold market? The what? Where and how?

You forgot Who, When, and Why, but whatever. Just go to the temple in your ship with some gold, and pray for the market.

Thankfully, I had been made aware of the temple in the ship a while back, or that might have caused me to freak out even more. Instead, I cast a quick glance back at Tokemi and stepped out of the room. Tapping on my comm, I placed a quick call. “Sharon, I know this is going to be real hard for you, but could you come watch Tokemi for a bit? She’s napping right--”

I hadn’t even finished asking before Sharon suddenly appeared in front of me, panting for breath and changing from a rabbit girl into her normal appearance. “Now…”

“I’m here.” She grinned widely, before looking back into the room. Before I could explain anything else, she pushed me out and went to sit beside the bed. I probably don’t have anything to worry about here…

Anyways, I grabbed some of the gold coins that we looted before I left, and made my way to the temple. Once I got there, I was kind of surprised to find that the temple had a dedicated priest… though I didn’t know or ask who his patron was. The priest was a tall human male, dressed in a long white robe. When I got there, he looked at me curiously. “How may I help you, captain?”

Think, think… “Jeff, right?” He nodded his head, yay! Got it right. “Did you know about the gold market?”

“The what?” He asked, apparently not having any idea what I was talking about. Instead of explaining, I tossed one of the coins from my bag to him, and moved in front of the statues. Oh great gold market, appear before me now? I beseech you?

Welcome to the Galactic Market! As this is your first time as a customer, let me take this moment to explain! You may have heard about us from other successful business ventures, but we strive to provide you with a fast and reliable service! If you want it, we got it, as long as you can pay the price!

Disclaimer: Some prices may involve substantial payments such as quests, sacrificial offerings, or other binding agreements.

Well… That was… interesting. Next, a window appeared asking me what sort of object or service I was interested in looking for. To start with… let’s look for an elemental seed. After I entered that into the search field, a long list appeared with various elements and degrees of purity. Looking at this.. I was really surprised. A basic Seed of Water cost twenty silver, but a Seed of Time cost half a million gold… Too bad there was no option to sell items to the market, or I would have an unlimited supply of gold.

Out of curiosity, I looked up the Staff of the Minor World to see how much it would cost. Ten billion gold… Even a Legend ranked skill in NeoLife would only cost a million. Though, I could tell that prices were inflated on the market, because basic element seeds weren’t that expensive in NeoLife. So… I could completely mark off getting OP equipment from the market.

Next, I looked for skills. Malthan said that some people were already using the gold market for hints at skills, so I wanted to see what the price was. If I wanted to buy a complete skill of a certain level… the price seemed to be a hundred times more expensive than it was in NeoLife. That meant I could, at most, buy three Expert level skills. However, just getting hints was far cheaper.

When I put in ‘hints for understanding the structure of auras’, another shopping list appeared. This one had various different topics, such as the physical structure, texture, magic abilities, even different body types. In order to purchase the ‘full’ information packet, I would need five hundred thousand gold… However, if I got that, then I should be able to pull off any kind of shapeshifting I wanted.

I was suddenly tempted to turn around and go farm the greed floor of the demon dungeon a few times, until we had all the gold we could ever need. But then, another thought hit me. The greed demon boss gave gold coins, right? What else could do that?

As that thought occurred to me, the list changed again, this time offering just a single item. ‘Information on gold acquisition’ for fifty gold coins. Well… it seemed like a good deal, and I had plenty of gold to waste. Besides, I wanted to see what this would be like if I bought something.

When I hit ‘accept’ on the listing, I felt the bag I was carrying suddenly grow lighter, while a stream of light poured into my head. In my mind, I saw a businesswoman in a black suit smiling as she stood in front of a whiteboard. From appearances, she seemed to be human, with long dark hair and a curved figure.

“Thank you for your purchase.” She spoke, and I flinched, afraid that she might be more than a recording. “You have shown an interest in the method of obtaining more system approved currency. There are multiple ways to go about this, which will be covered in this presentation.”

“First, as you have personally witnessed, it is possible for certain enemies or items to produce currency, which may be obtained by either the owner of the item, or the person who defeats the entity in question. These items and enemies are rare, so it is not advised to use this method.” The woman shook her head as she talked, before pointing to the whiteboard. Suddenly, a drawing began to take shape, forming a golden coin much like the one that I had tossed the priest before.

“The second method, and most commonly available, is to produce the coins yourself through means of smelting and engraving. As long as the manufactured coin is at least 90% similar to the system designations, it will be registered as an official currency. Details of the various coins are presented with your purchase, and will be uploaded to your mind at the end of the demonstration.”

“Finally, it is possible to receive currency in exchange for divine favors. However, the amount of currency provided varies based on the level of favor and the god you are exchanging with. That is the end of this presentation, we hope you will continue shopping at our Galactic Market. Where anything is possible, at the right price.” And with that, she gave one last smile, before my awareness returned to the temple.

“Holy fucking…” I started to say after the ‘video’ ended, but quickly stopped because the list instantly changed. “No, I don’t want to see the gods’ sex tapes!” I couldn’t help but say that out loud. I mean really, they recorded themselves having sex, just so people could spend money at what can only be a universal gold sink.