Robin stood up and took the Coinpurse of the Lazy Researcher off of his belt, relooping the belt immediately, his hands weaving through the familiar motions without looking. He moved to set the coinpurse on the ground, but paused halfway. He turned and opened the Satchel, then held the coinpurse over it, willing it to release its contents. The coins began pouring directly into the satchel, flowing from one extradimensional space into another.. Yes! No three thousand coin pick-up for this guy. Crap, no, wait. I need to empty this, too…

Robin stared disconsolately at the satchel.

At least I know I can do that, though. Dumping one from another was pretty easy. Too late now, though.

As the stream of coins had subsided, Robin sat back down in front of the satchel, placing the coinpurse on the ground. He reached into the satchel and began taking out the glassware he had previously stashed, piece by piece. It was incredibly monotonous, even for him, and Robin quickly regretted taking so many random tools in the first place.

When he had finally finished unloading the glassware, Robin began taking out his potions (of which he had acquired a fair amount) and placed them down carefully. He made a mental note to inventory them when he had finished crafting, but they wouldn’t be on the list of considerations for merging with other items, anyway, being temporary in nature. The chemicals from the lab followed soon after, and then all of the Crystal Eyes of the Mother of Broods that he had remaining.

He dumped out the remaining office supplies carefully onto the desk, along with the ceramic screws and plates he had taken from the water fountains. He took out the few remaining magical items and then willed the bag to completely empty itself. A few sets of bunsen burners came out, tangling with a few other objects Robin didn’t bother to separate from the tangle, and then the bag was finally empty.

“Okay, Opal. Here goes. This might mess up my Satchel, but… it might help a lot, too, and I think it is a pretty safe bet. The Akashic Adhesive says that the function of the new item will be related to the function of the old item, so… here we go!”

Robin carefully applied a small strip of glue onto the back of the satchel, and then applied a small strip to the side of the coinpurse. Laying the satchel carefully down on the front of the bag, Robin then pressed the two together firmly, holding them together as still as he could. After a moment, the two jerked together, squishing together like a mass of leather scraps that had decided to behave like silly putty. Even as Robin tried to subconsciously process the impossible manipulation of matter and space that had occurred in front of him, he noted that the bag in front of him was really, really nice… It almost reminded him of one of the offputting purses that supermodels wore during fashion week, something that had been very popular at his former school.

Before the internship, and the Ysari System.

Robin snapped back to focus. Magic transformations might not be great to look at directly. Maybe I could weaponize that somehow?

Well, if I had a skill or spell or something that let me transform things.

He realized he was stalling using Identify out of nervousness and glanced self-consciously up at Opal. She was dancing slowly, and seemed calm. She was staring right at him, of course. Just don’t let out the feeling of embarrassment and she won’t even…

Opal stretched her claws out, then placed one over her face, looking for all the world like a lady at a polite luncheon trying to discreetly cover a smile at a rude joke. Robin sighed dramatically.

Her new intelligence is… ugh. Is this what having a little sister is like? “Judge me not, Opal! It’s just that I might have changed the only item I had that let me carry objects into something that can only carry rabid spider-mantis hybrids that have increased aggro against anyone who has a name starting with the letter ‘R’, and I might have to leave all these items behind!”

Opal stopped grooming her claw and crouched, tensing lower, holding her claws outward and away from her just slightly.

Robin stared at her, slightly unnerved. Woah, was that when I mention hybrids?

“I’m sorry, Opal. Obviously such terrible things don’t exist. I shouldn’t have went there.” Robin focused on the idea of sincere remorse, and Opal relaxed just slightly, bring her arms out of her attack position. Robin relaxed a little as well, and checked on the mental bundle of emotional-radiating energy in his mind that linked him to his familiar.

It was radiating… smugness. Robin looked up at her in shock, watching her dance wildly her foreclaws flailing through the air. He shook his head and turned away, refusing to give her the satisfaction. The feeling of smugness grew stronger.

Robin ignored the antics of his extremely immature! orchid mantis familiar. He turned to the new bag and examined it. It looked like a leather backpack that someone might take hiking or camping, the type covered in permanently attached pouches and straps. The light gray leather was smooth, almost silken.

Aliquam Pack of the Blue Entomage Created underground in a time of desperate determination by the first Blue Entomage of Earth, the Aliquam Pack of the Blue Entomage was crafted to be the ultimate utility for the muti-disciplinary adventurer. Items placed within the Pack will not rot. The main compartment of the Antiquam Pack of the Blue Entomage contains fifteen cubic meters of extradimensional storage space (15m³). The Aliquam Pack of the Blue Entomage contains eight separate pouches that serve as individual storage spaces, each possessing one cubic meter of extradimensional space (1m³). System Coins earned by the wearer will be automatically placed into these pouches, provided there is space within. Other items may be stored within these spaces. The Aliquam Pack of the Blue Entomage is self-repairing and self-cleaning; while this applies to the inside of the Aliquam Pack, it will not clean or repair objects placed within the pack. Objects within the pack are not subject to momentum generator by the pack; they maintain a static presence unless acted upon by an occupant of the pack. The pack does not intake or release air unless opened. Once per day, the Aliquam Pack of the Blue Entomage can transform edible substances placed within it into a coarse meal.

Wow. Long description… probably a function of my higher INT score.

Unique Legendary! Good start, good start…

Robin started as he read the numbers. What!? Why did the storage space go down!? Wait, no… holy yoshi. Meters… wasn’t the bag originally in cubic feet? Yes, it was! It was twenty-five cubic feet, so that comes out to… seven or eight? No, point seven or eight. Robin paused, struggling to visualize the mental images. Conversion of factors was something that they had been required to memorize to even qualify for the internship, among other odd requirements, but visualization was a different matter entirely, and he was not an artist.

So… twenty-ish times bigger than before…? Plus eight individual spaces…

Even with his enhanced INT, Robin had trouble visualizing it directly. He was realizing, however slowly, that he had an entire house worth of storage space in his backpack. He glanced up at Opal, saw her staring at him, and decided instantly that he didn’t care. He jumped straight up, shouting as much as he dared (a stage-shout, at most), his fists held over his head.

“Yessss!”

Opal stared at him, unimpressed. He grinned up at her defiantly. “This was exactly the result I wanted, you big pink meanie!”

She continued staring, her mysteries her own.

Robin, still grinning, picked up the backpack and began the slow process of loading in the glassware, equipment, potions, and other objects he had unloaded from the Satchel. It was a little bit faster than unloading had been, both because he did not have to be as careful with his seized prizes and the opening of the Aliquam Pack was wider than the opening of the Satchel of the Generous Matron had been.

Using his new pack to automatically gather the coins was far more visually exciting than he expected it to be. They still vanished into wire-frame remnant images, but as they faded, Robin could see tiny motes of energy trailing to him, like individual pieces of glitter.

I wonder if those are visible to other people. Yeesh. I hope not, they’re basically tracers…

Robin only wanted to try combining two more objects. He stashed the Akashic Adhesive into the Pack and withdrew the Amalgamatape. He stood up and disrobed the Lab Coat of the Exiled Genius, folding it neatly. He sat back down, placing the lab coat on the floor.

Robin withdrew one of the Crystalline Eye of the Mother of Broods he had remaining, placing it carefully on the folded lab coat. He took his roll of duct tape and peeled off a corner, then set it back down, grabbing the lab coat and the crystal ball. He wrapped the lab coat around the crystal ball like he was preparing to put the ball to be put into a box and mailed with an old sweater as padding, then, holding it in place with one hand, grabbed the roll of Amalgamatape by the pinched off section with his other hand, letting the weight drag the tape down slightly. He carefully maneuvered it over the top of the bundle and pressed it down, wrapping the tape as tightly as he could. He did one complete loop of the bundle, and after ripping it with his teeth, rotated it sideways to form a cross pattern, again ripping it with his teeth.

Robin focused his MANA, trying to will it into the tape. It flowed easily enough, although after a moment there was a barrier. Robin felt he could get through it if he tried, and gave it an extra push with his MANA. The tape began to glow in front of him, emitting silver sparks. The bundle burst into a greyish white smoke, the still-visible silver sparkles slowly dying down.

Robin stared. This was much more dramatic than the Akashic Adhesive… and a lot slower. He checked the rarity of the Amalgamatape and found that it was (R) Rare, while he remembered from before the Akashic Adhesive was (L) Legendary. Okay, that explains the effects they give, or at least the difference.

No stalling this time. Why are you nervous about crafting?

Because you’re going to ruin your weapons and armor, turning what could have been a head-start into a pile of useless garbage.

When the smoke had fully cleared, a bundle of glittering, glass-like cloth remained. It almost looks like that silvery-rainbow glitter cloth that was really popular on girl’s clothes for a while, Robin thought to himself, using Identify before he could mentally stall again.

The Crystalline Lab Coat of the Exiled Genius The Crystalline Lab Coat of the Exiled Genius is a garment worn by a scientist of the highest degree, albeit one not accepted by the moral standards of his peers. After an Experiment, the Labcoat is now composed of crystalline spiderweb silk, with all inherent properties. While worn, the Lab Coat of the Prepared Scientist grants +3 PHYSDEF, as well as access to the Alchemy skill. The Lab Coat may self-repair and self-clean with the infusion of MANA from the wearer. The amount of MANA required scales with the damage or soiling received. The Labcoat provides ENERDEF (Fire) and (Light) +5 and +2 MENTDEF against hypnosis effects that involve light.