Morning of the third day of transformation. Two and a half to go. Over my chest, Helen's left hand is entwined with Marcy's right. I try to sneak out but they pin me down.

"You are not going anywhere this morning. There is a water pitcher over there if you are thirsty, and fruit if you are hungry." Marcy threatens me.

"Good morning, my fiance! Good morning, my bride!" Helen greets us in an... unusual way?

"Bride?" I ask to clear my confusion.

"Of course. I am marrying Marcy too!"

"I don't mind if it is Marcy." I imitate Helen from yesterday.

"Meanie!"

My escape blocked, I spend the morning talking and bonding with my brides. They really like stories from Earth. I told them the tragic story of a knightly magic prince that had its kingdom attacked by demons, sought a cursed sword to avenge his people, got dominated by it, killed his own father, killed his best friend and became the king of the undead. He journeyed north and ended up frozen sitting on a throne of ice in the northern lands. It is a very popular tale back on Earth. I'm saving the second part where I and my 'net friends gave him some justice for later.

Someone knocks on the door and stirs the three of us from our reverie.

"Children, I need to get your laundry! Let me in!" Hilde's voice sounds from across the door.

It startles us as if we were doing something wrong. They finally let go of me and I reluctantly get out of bed. After fixing my clothes and before they can react I am out of the door with the laundry in my hands.

"Here it is, mother. Thank you for taking care of us." I give her a kiss on the cheek. She blushes and I am reminded again that in this world such displays of affection are not usual.

"Zarr is looking for you. He is pouting that you told him you were going to be busy all day, then you spend the whole morning busy with the girls. Not fair to the little tyke. Go on your way, I'll cover for you here." She traps the pouting teenagers with her own body blocking the door and sends me away.

I find Zahariel in the living room. He is sitting on the couch playing with one of Helen's rats. "About time you got out of that room!" He grumbles. There is a playful undertone in his voice I can't fail to notice.

"You are not upset, are you? In fact, you could do better if you wiped that mischievous grin out of your pie hole. What are you up to?" The mighty seraph looks like a kid that tied a soda can to the cat's tail.

"Nothing. It is just that some of my plans went exactly like I wanted, so I am very happy." I got a bad feeling. Angels are notorious airheads that don't apply human values to their actions and usually go on their own lofty horse with a grand goal. I'll squeeze the truth out of this pipsqueak later, but I got work to do.

"Fine, have it your way. You will tell me everything later, right? Come, lets' go to the workshop before the girls catch us." I get the little brat in my arms and dash out into the street.

I meet Bredda that is returning from a shopping trip. "Hey Beowulf, where are you going in such a hurry?"

"I got held up by the girls until now, and I have a ton of stuff to do. Tell them to meet me at the guild by the second afternoon bell, please?"

Timekeeping in town is made with the tower bells. There are four bells in the morning, three in the afternoon, and two in the night. They are at 0500, 0700, 0900, 1100, 1300, 1500, 1700, 1900, and 2100 hours, roughly.

I run to the merchant association with Zahariel whistling in my back. Why is this kid so happy? No time to worry about it. I doubt an angel would be up to no good. I have a ton of shopping to do before leaving and today is my last day in town.

First thing is to buy all bows and arrows I can put my hands on. I was able to negotiate a lot of 70 short bows, 30 composite bows, and 700 arrows for 4 gold coins and a voucher for ten bottles of dungeon golden treasure when it comes in stock at Azelinus' shop It is worth more or less one gold coin retail, but since it is an out of stock product, it can skyrocket in apparent value. I think I can fill a backyard swimming pool with honey, but nobody needs to know that. They gave me some worn out arrowhead molds as a freebie. Nice!

Next is wool. Raw wool. The price went up because it is winter, but I offered some raw amethyst chips and another 10 bottle voucher with 2 gold coins and secured around 400 lb of wool enough to do three 6' x 6' mattresses. This merchant asked when the honey will be available, I told him four days after the adventurer's guild lifts the travel ban to the dungeon. Sounds reasonable.

The third thing in queue, axes, and shovels. I'd like some lumberjack saws, but they haven't been invented yet. Come back in a couple millennia. I got 40 timber axes, and 100 shovels. 4 gold coins and another 10 bottle vouchers.

Fourth thing, fabric. I already have the tools to spin and weave in storage, but I want raw fabric for tailoring. Maybe do something nice for the girls to wear. It is not the best time to buy either, because winter sucks, but I got 2 rolls of dyed silk for 2 gold coins each, and 5 rolls of dyed linen cloth for 3 gold coins total. Each roll has about a hundred feet of cloth.

Fifth and last, copper ingots. What for? Magical circuits. There are metals with better conductivity, but copper is good enough and doesn't cost its weight in gold. Like gold. You can 'awaken' the copper if you smelt it using crushed pemadras mixed with limestone as smelting flux. I have hundreds of F-rank pemadras to use. And I have a battery of angelical magic to enhance the procedure. Zahariel is a level 40 magician after all.

I left a helper cast the ingots while I carved a magic circle on a wooden board. The pattern must be perfectly done, so it takes a lot of time. I finished before the last ingot was cast. I took over and poured the last and purer awakened copper into the magic circle mould slowly.

The ingots were cooling after being smelted but the second afternoon bell rang. Time to go to the guild. I'll store them hot and let them cool later. The magic circle had a bigger contact area and cooled faster. I just detached it from the mould carefully but the mould broke. I'll have to do another one later.

This magic circle made of copper can be enchanted later to be a permanent dimensional anchor. This way I'll have a way to return to Colchester anytime I want.

Once again I ran to the guild with Zahariel laughing and screaming on my back. I guess he misses having the wind on his wings.

I enter the guild through the front door and feel the difference in behavior from the peanut gallery. Where the former looks of scorn lived now there is awe and envy. Not a bad feeling, but one I can't really savor for long. I search for a free receptionist, there is that timid girl from before. Our eyes meet and she beckons me.

"Hero Beowulf, over here!" I hear her calling to me.

I approach her counter and answer, "Yes?"

"I would like to thank you for the dungeon treasure," she says in an almost whispered voice.

"You are most welcome. That was my thanks for your hard work." She smiles and blushes. I must remember to not be too courteous, damn. "Are any of my party members at the guild right now?"

"I think I saw miss Marcy at the warehouse talking to Soren. Have a nice day, Hero Beowulf." I nod, Zahariel peeks from behind me and smiles at her and we go to the warehouse through the backyard of the guild complex. There are some apprentice kids training with wooden swords and a scarred but muscular bearded instructor. He might be a dwarf or have dwarf heritage because he is too wide and short.

At the loading bay of the warehouse, I see a tired Soren sitting on the platform talking to Marcy who is standing on the ground. They have some bug monster parts in their hands and it seems they are arguing about something. I approach slowly, and Soren that is facing in our direction sees us first. She taps Marcy's shoulder and points at us.

"Hey, B! Took long enough, right?" Marcy greets me with her usual tone. "We are discussing the name of some of the new species, care to chip in your opinion?"

"Where is Helen?"

"She left to buy some sundries, will be back soon. Anyway, name the bugs!"

"The stretchy pill-bug should be named 'Bouncy Poly', These are the 'Scimitar Lacewings'. Anything else I can help you with?"

Soren leans on the counter, her squirrel ears twitching on the sides of the head and her tail swaying harmonically behind her. "Say, do you know why I have found troll meat in both the ice widow and the dragon cockroach's mouths?"

Marcy freezes on the spot. Zahariel lets a loud 'eep' escape. I do the usual. Lie. "Oh, we forgot to report because we had no proof of subjugation, but it seems that a pack of trolls tried to take shelter in the dungeon right before we entered it. We fought two of them, but they fell into a chasm before we could collect the subjugation proof. Anyway, what was the subjugation proof for a troll again, Marcy?"

"Haha. True, true." Marcy is shaking like bamboo on a windy afternoon. "It is the neck and the lower jaw, attached. There must be at least two vertebrae attached to the neck. It is truly a pain, we just burned the damn things and Beowulf pushed them down the chasm."

Soren laughs too and complements. "I really don't know why they stuck trolls on the B rank. Honestly, a troll is a lower A at least if somebody asked my opinion! How bad of a match it is if the magician is neutralized or is low on MP? They are too vicious and regenerate too fast! I hope I never have to meet a troll in my whole life." I was leaning on the counter, but when she said that my hand slipped and I fell down on my butt. It hurts, Soren. Hurts too deep. "Beowulf! Are you feeling fine?"

I pant a little to use as misdirection. "Haaa... I think the weariness from running all the way from the merchant association hit me just now."

Helen arrives with a duffel bag full of herbs. "What is happening here? What did Beowulf do now?"

"Nothing!" I say on my defense.

"Everyone is here! Finally! Shall we go see the guild master? I want my gold!" Marcy ushers us out of the storeroom. Soren waves dejectedly.

The four of us go to see Kareena, and soon we are once again in her meeting room. For the last time, I hope.

"Welcome, welcome. We have all your gold here. But before that, make yourselves comfortable!"

"Sure, we have all day, shoot." I am sure my sarcasm was wasted.

"Are you really leaving town?"

"Tomorrow morning, even if the gates are sealed by magic," I reply matter-of-factually. Helen laughs.

"We would like our gold now." Marcy sets us back on the path of business.

"Sure. There are eighty-one gold coins from the dungeon monsters, and fifty gold coins from the honey barrel requests. A total of one hundred thirty-one gold coins. Yvonne, if you may."

Bitc... Yvonne gets a big sack of coins and carefully puts it on the table. "If you want, you can count them." I am dismayed by the veiled animosity.

"Yeah, let me do it." I pick the bag, swing it over my shoulder to the back of the couch and away from their eyesight. From there I store the bag. King's item box is completely stealthy. There is not even a pop when the item goes in or out. In the storage manifest window floating in front of me, 131 gold coins are listed in the bag. I remove the bag from storage, shake it and pass the bag over the other shoulder to Marcy. "All good. The sound is that of 131 coins." That is about 3 pounds of gold. "And no counterfeit coins either! Only the best!"

Marcy is like a kid in Santa's factory. She looks at me and I smile back. I have to thank Soren later. She appraised our stuff higher than what Marcy did.

"It really pains me to see you leaving now that Cedric is no longer with us." You are better off without Cedric. May he rest in Mitten's belly.

"We will be back next Spring. Or summer. Or whenever. I wish the best with the dungeon's management. Working with you has really broadened our horizons. But it is late, and we don't want to be out after dark."

We hightail it out of the guild before they drag us into some shitty errand.

"Where to now?" Marcy jiggles the gold bag in the middle of the street. Her senses are completely dulled. Some elements are already eyeing us.

"Home. I want to gift the items we crafted to the family and get ready to depart tomorrow."