After confirming that she would have to watch every single penny she spent in the future, Melina was no longer so resistant to moving into the Grand Suo Manor.
Or rather, she had already put down her luggage.
She was determined to move in here, thick-skinned and shameless.
Even when Senior Sonia hinted once again that she was a super Lv Tong, Melina didn't hesitate at all.
"I, Melina, only recognize money!"
She roared this in her heart, but when she went upstairs to check out the rooms, Melina still felt a flutter of anxiety, terrified of seeing a double bed.
"Ta-da-da-da~" Humming a little tune that sounded somewhat like "Red Sun", Sonia opened the door and walked in first.
Melina followed her inside, her luggage floating behind her.
When she got a clear look at the room's layout, she let out a long sigh of relief.
It was a room whose size brought to mind a conference room. Right in the center was a round table with three chairs. Behind the three chairs were three spaces separated by heavy curtains. Two of them were already drawn back, revealing private spaces about the size of single rooms, furnished with loft beds—upper double bunks with small personal chambers underneath. The left side featured luggage storage racks, while the right side had armaments and equipment storage racks. The floor was covered with a thick red carpet.
Beyond these three main partitions, there were five separate zones: an alchemy workshop, a forging furnace room, a hot spring bathing room, a restroom, and an indoor conservatory. It was as luxurious as luxury could get; wanting to stay in a hotel of this caliber outside would probably cost thirty Gold Lei a day.
Sonia had been secretly watching Melina's expression. Seeing her seductive junior constantly reveal a look of satisfaction, she happily put her hands on her hips and asked proudly in her clear voice:
"How is it? This is an expensive magic room, you know. Its actual core size is just that of a turtle-car carriage."
Looking a bit reserved, Melina leaned on her lace parasol and looked up at Sonia's face:
"It's so good I can't believe it's real."
"Hahaha." Sonia let out the tacky laugh of a nouveau riche, even suggesting, "Do you want to pinch your cheek to see if you're awake?"
Melina frowned.
Before Sonia could say anything else, she watched the other girl walk right up to her, stand on tiptoes, and pinch her cheek hard with both hands.
"Oom, I meant for you to pinch yourself!"
Soft fingers, an overwhelming and peerless aura viewed from above, and a silly grin she couldn't hold back after doing something mischievous. Faced with such a girl, Sonia could only chalk it up to bad luck, taking a few steps back while muttering under her breath, "Such a cheesy straight girl, truly a straight girl, I can't take this anymore, wah."
She clapped her hands:
"You can set up the remaining room however you like. I'll wait for you downstairs. Oh right, right—from now on, you can use the facilities downstairs however you want, but for the upstairs facilities, you'll need to check if our roommate is using them. First come, first served, oh."
"Roommate?" Only then did Melina notice the room she had overlooked.
Inside the other room, which didn't hang a sign reading [Sonia's Boudoir], one could see a well-arranged mineral specimen wall and display cabinets holding a large amount of various soils and rocks. In the personal chamber beneath the bed was a set of very new and expensive observation microscopes and a Magic Factor extractor. It had a very distinct personal style.
"She's also an otherworldly traveler."
"?" Melina began to wonder if otherworldly travelers were as common as dirt.
"She's also a Banshee."
"?" Melina couldn't hold it in. She glanced at Sonia and asked in a peculiar tone, "Is she also your junior? As it turns out, you have other juniors who are better at chatting and easier to handle than me?"
Sonia put her hands on her hips:
"Actually, she's our senior, proficient in all kinds of minerals and also a remarkably talented material processing master. In her past life, she was the one who clinched the victory of the [Melina Cup]..."
Sensing something amiss, Melina interrupted to emphasize:
"Let me say this again, I am not a Lv Tong."
Sonia obediently kept her mouth shut, her purple eyes sweeping over Melina with a mischievously wicked look. That gaze was enough to make one's hair stand on end! Just as she was about to push Melina's buttons to the limit, Sonia leisurely added:
"Not yet."
That sentence gave her the creeps.
Sonia didn't wait for her to chew on the remark.
"Alright, anyway, the upstairs facilities are first come, first served, and the downstairs ones are free for all. I'm heading down first. Once you've put your things away, remember to change into a suitable outfit for moving around before—hey! You look pretty good in that outfit anyway, just come down in something that suits you, we've got things to do shortly. Noon is just the right time!"
"What things?"
"Going mining. I know the place where the Taryi Crystal Mine is unearthed. Even though there might be a few dragons around that area, don't worry, I've hired a professional team."
"A professional team?" Melina found it hard not to picture that mesmerizing music and an Afrikan funeral procession swaying left and right.
Seeing her expression, Sonia's eyes darted around, revealing a cunning smile as she tapped her tablet with her left hand once more:
"Respect, I get what you mean! But it's not that kind of team. They're good homies, a relatively professional hunting crew, extremely Pro. Even if the two of us are total deadweights—oh, even if the two of us just slack off and don't fire a single shot, they can still bring us back in one piece... The Resurgence of Spiritual Aura hasn't happened yet, anyway. Anything else?"
"...No problem."
Having received her answer, Sonia walked briskly out of the room. The rustling sound of the metal pieces on her skirt armor shifted from heavy to light, like bushes brushing against bushes and leaves sticking to leaves—swishing and rustling. To most dragons with acute hearing out in the forest, it would sound like clever camouflage noise.
Explorers generally also wore meticulously crafted armor, which likewise required Magic Factors to activate and connect before it could be used. Unlike armaments, however, armor wouldn't be blown apart by Magic Factors. This armor acted as a Magic Factor expansion dock, allowing an Explorer to adapt to more Magic Factor accessories, such as enhanced jumping power or regenerative abilities... Naturally, the price for such high performance was that they weren't cheap. Fortunately, this wasn't something Melina needed to buy five sets of...
Melina first put her luggage into the storage locker, and after snapping her fingers, the suitcases flipped open one after another. Measuring the size of the personal workstation desk under the bed with her eyes, she formed a plan in her mind:
"Load Magic Blueprint [Worktable No. 4]."
Magic Factors swiftly selected items from the various suitcases and arranged them neatly on the desk.
By using Magic Factors to record the placement of items, storing this layout as a blueprint, and then releasing the magic when the items were stored inside the suitcases, one could quickly recreate their own blueprint. The room decor of many people capable of using magic ended up looking identical; this was the function of such magic.
A huge map sandbox, a large amount of magic clay, a brass steam engine storing Magic Factors, a display cabinet filled with clay clothing being air-dried via magic, and several classical cameras.
Making dolls—this could be considered Melina's hobby and profession. High-quality dolls were very popular in the Royal Capital.
Looking at her working tools, Melina cast a protection spell.
When the Magic Factors blanketed these items, Melina gripped her parasol and headed downstairs.
Downstairs, Sonia was in the alchemy workshop, tapping and hammering away at some apparatus.
Hearing Melina walk down, she turned back, her sweaty face wearing an exaggerated smile as she waved: "Yo, pretty fast."
Melina's attention, however, was entirely captured by a cross-bow exuding the metallic charm of brass placed on the counter by the other girl. It was nearly one meter thirty long, its central main body made of smooth dragonbone, and its cross-bow limbs equipped with a mechanism allowing them to be folded away. Once unfolded, the brass bow limbs were covered with feather-like scales made of brass, looking extremely ornate. The thickened triple-composite metal fiber bowstring was extremely sturdy, and the main body featured a large number of brass gears acting as a cocking windlass.
This was known within the Explorer industry as the "finest novice armament"—the Brass Series. It offered both cost-performance and quality... At the same time, as a novice weapon, it had already been fitted with three luxury [Shooting Accessories], which were enhancement accessories that could allow ordinary crossbow bolts to pierce dragon skin.
It was all money.
"Your armament actually choice is a crossbow?"
Judging by Senior Sonia's attire, Melina had expected things like a knight's sword and shield, a two-handed sword, or a knight's hammer and shield; she hadn't expected it to be a crossbow at all.
"No, it's a light bow!" Sonia put away what she had finished assembling, the sparkling light of the Magic Factors making Melina realize those were [Spell Crossbow Bolts].
Sonia tilted her head at her and smiled brightly, "Light as in effortless, bow as in crossbow, a light bow."
"By armament classification, it's a crossbow." Melina muttered involuntarily.
"Have you decided what weapon you're going to use?"
This question left Melina troubled instead.
She suffered from a subtle case of indecision—she couldn't choose just one out of three bowls of ramen, couldn't pick one out of three skins when playing a video game, and likewise couldn't single out the one she loved most among three lovers... That last part was a joke, but she was indeed plagued by this indecisiveness. Back before she knew she couldn't become an Explorer, she had indeed daydreamed about it.
Should she choose from the six basics? Sword, axe, hammer, spear, bow, greatsword.
Or from the three new-era weapons? Crossbow, musket, nunchaku.
Armaments came in all shapes and sizes, and these nine could only be considered common types; there were even weapons like cards, scepters, and mechanical dogs (magical puppets). Of course, Eastern-style weapons like katanas, kunai, and shuriken were also missing; this world seemed to have absorbed quite a bit of otherworldly traveler culture. Melina had initially decided on a greatsword, but that was based solely on the condition of "wielding it with both hands." If she had to factor in floating five of them simultaneously, a greatsword seemed a bit too slow.
Reading her expression, Sonia chuckled and said, "Then let's think about it on the way. Coincidentally, the hunting crew I found this time are all multi-armament Explorers; you can find some inspiration from their combat."
Explorers who prepared two armaments to switch flexibly during battle were called multi-armament Explorers.
Even for such multi-armament Explorers, their primary armament would still be of a higher tier than their secondary armament rather than practicing two armaments simultaneously, as the economic pressure was simply too great.