The Flying Emporium

The ship approached at a breathtaking speed. Maybe ten minutes after it had first been spotted, it was already just a few hundred meters or so away from the floating mountain.

Severin couldn’t help but be amazed.

At this point, the artifact began to slow down noticeably as it began something resembling a landing approach, though even from a distance it seemed to Severin that its speed was still way too fast. Just as he had finished that thought, the thing came to a halt in an instant. It didn’t exhibit any of the sluggishness Severin would’ve expected of any vehicle this size.

At this point, it was still a few tens of meters away from the mountaintop. The next moment Samuel or whoever else was operating the ship seemed to have made up their mind and changed the original direction of approach.

Maybe it was because now that Severin had purchased the entirety of the mountaintop, the area was completely staked-off. Instead of landing on the large area of empty ground, the ship was navigated to the mountain’s edge instead, where it nimbly turned on the spot until its port side faced Severin’s store; Not unlike how the Adventurer’s Society’s ship had landed.

And just like with Krey’s emerald-green transport, which in comparison almost seemed like a toy, some sort of gangway bridged the gap between ship and mountain.

Plans for a dedicated docking bay made it onto Severin’s backlog of much-needed future upgrades and additions.

It was no wonder that in the recent past, Samuel only chose this artifact for transportation when he wanted to indulge his mentees, Miriam and Timothy. Just thinking about its fuel costs, if that was even a thing, made Severin lightheaded. Besides, it was simply too impractical for just three people, even if it wasn’t a real ship that required a whole crew of people to be operated. So it came as no surprise to anyone that Samuel didn’t return on his own.

In the past, the arrival of new people would set Andreas and his group of adventurers on edge. By now, however, even though they were Severin’s only real customers, with Edward and Ingar guaranteed to spread all related information to their respective organizations, their secret was pretty much already exposed, anyway. At least with Samuel, who was Severin’s first customer and on good terms with everyone, there would be no trouble.

Of course, that didn’t mean they weren’t curious about the other party’s identity.

That was especially true for Krey. Even of the top guilds which were represented in the Golden Mountains, the ones who possessed such a flying artifact could easily be counted on one’s hands. But the two youths had just made it sound like this specific exemplar belonged to a single adventurer called Samuel. So it was only natural for him to be intrigued. He waited with bated breath for someone to emerge from the now docked ship.

When the next moment he saw a giant of a man whose upper body was only draped in the pelt of what must’ve once been a terrifying, guild-destroying savage beast, Krey knew that he had still underestimated the other party.

His instincts began to scream. [Berserker]. A high-leveled one. A really high-leveled one. Even with the Society’s backing, he knew he could never afford to get on this person’s bad side. At the same time, he made up his mind to, on occasion, check the Society’s records; There was no way such a person would be someone unknown.

Not one of the surrounding people knew how Krey felt at this moment. Everyone else seemed to either not really care about this person’s arrival or was pleased instead. Or ecstatic rather, as Miriam and Timothy both took the [Berserker’s] appearance as the go-ahead to suddenly start rushing towards him. This display of familiarity very much calmed Krey’s nerves.

This quickly changed again when two more people, side by side, emerged from the ship’s deck and made their way onto the mountaintop.

Maybe it was the level difference between Krey and everyone else, but it seemed that only he realized another monster had just appeared. His heart constricted once again.

Of these two people, he completely ignored the young man walking on the right and who seemed only barely older than Miriam. Instead, it was the harmless-looking hunchbacked old lady who demanded all his attention. He couldn’t tell which of the two was more terrifying. Then again, for better or for worse, evaluating the strength and level of others wasn’t one of his class’s strong suits to begin with.

A few meters away from him, Emily and Severin were the total opposite. While they wondered why Samuel would bring such a frail person with him, the moment the two people set foot onto the ground and started to curiously look around, the [Shopkeeper] and his [Employee] were taken by surprise. All their attention was immediately focused on the confident but approachable looking young-man.

‘That’s a class?’

“[Pri…”

Slap

Severin’s eyes widened just as much as Emily’s, but where he was able to keep his mouth shut and his astonishment to himself, the girl wasn’t. She immediately earned herself a quick but harmless slap to the back of her head in an attempt to silence her. It would’ve been a different matter if they had been among themselves, but right now they were surrounded by a bunch of adventurers. Being careless like this could easily reveal information she had sworn to keep secret.

And apparently, the System agreed with his assessment.

[Warning! Minor offense detected. As a consequence, for the duration of one month, [Employee] Emily will not receive any salary. Any subsequent offenses will result in increasingly harsher penalties. Additionally, if deemed necessary, the host may choose up to three further punishments listed in volumes I to IV of the catalog of penalties. Please take care.]

Before Emily was able to process what she had just done and why she was being punished, and before Severin had the time to ask himself whether or not her penalty would’ve been more severe if he hadn’t interrupted her in time, both of them felt an inexplicable, sudden cold shiver run down their spines; But preoccupied, they didn’t notice the short glance Samuel and the old woman who was supporting herself with a cane, shot in their direction. Just for a moment. The next, it seemed as if nothing had happened and Samuel went to embrace and introduce his two mentees. In the meantime, a whole bunch of other people also emerged from inside the docked artifact and made their way onto Severin’s floating island.