But Ashton had to tell them, there was no way around it.
"I see. How long do you think you will stay this time?" Albert wondered, and Ashton shrugged.
"I've got a few things to sort through. I would like to wait out the start of the next quest as well."
"The next... I see. So it will happen soon?"
With a shrug, Ashton turned around, "It should within the next few hours. The last quest ended at 10 in the morning, so I would say by... 6 o'clock?"
He looked down at his watch. That was actually less than an hour. More time had passed than Ashton thought. But still, it was enough time to rest a little, help Poppy heal up fully, check out some rewards, and maybe even open one, or both, random boxes that he grabbed before leaving the school.
"Oh, and I met these guys yesterday, one of them was paralysed. I told them where they'd find this place. Did they...?" Ashton asked, and Albert widened his eyes in surprise.
"That was you? Yes! Yes, they arrived well. We managed to help them complete the quest in time as well." Albert was clearly taken aback to hear that Ashton was the 'mysterious stranger' that had told them about Market Street, but it also didn't seem like a real surprise.
Ashton smiled a bit, "Perfect."
He turned around and went on his way, heading over to the fountain. Though a large area here was covered in soil, there was a small path that did lead directly to the fountain. Ashton walked over there and sat down on it cross-legged.
The people trying to plant things here were a bit confused why someone just walked straight past them, but Ashton was so confident in his stride that they didn't know what to say, and just awkwardly continued on with their work. The first thing Ashton did was ask the Backpacker for a few items.
First, the Red Punch potion, one of the random boxes, an empty plastic bottle, and an item that Ashton hadn't forgotten about, but simply didn't have the opportunity to properly look through yet. It was the reward box that he got from killing the hobgoblin in this very spot.
People were already confused by the Backpacker, but Ashton just waved them away when they were staring too long. But what they saw next seemed even more startling to them.
"Poppy, you can come out if you want," Ashton said, and the small pixie stepped out of Ashton's vessel. She looked around, and quickly hid behind the random box when people started staring at her.
"Is that... a fairy? A real life fairy?" one of them asked, and Ashton nodded, not even looking over at them.
"Mhm, she is. But she's hurt right now, so if you don't mind, I'd like to concentrate on her, thanks."
From this point on, Ashton just ignored what anyone else was saying. He grabbed the potion can and cracked it open, pouring a little into the empty bottle's bottlecap to give to Poppy, "Here, have some. It tastes pretty good, like berries."
The pixie grabbed the bottlecap and started sipping the potion. She seemed to perk up almost immediately, though maybe that was just because the potion was pretty sweet.
Of course, Ashton had a healing potion he made himself as well, but covering a tiny fairy like Poppy in bandages to keep that potion on her skin and wings wasn't the best idea. But even so, he still did some first-aid, using some plasters to cover the rips on her wings and stop them from getting worse, while also guiding the healing along a bit. With some water, these were easy enough to remove later on.
"Are you doing alright?" Ashton asked, giving the fairy a one-over. She nodded her head, smiling happily.
"Alright. Keep drinking that, and tell me when you're done so I can refill it. It would be best if you drink two or three bottlecaps worth."
Poppy nodded happily, sitting down on the wide edge of the fountain together with Ashton.
Next, he grabbed some pieces of paper, starting to draw onto them with the Pen of Insight. It was a very similar to the pattern that he drew in the gymnasium to fill the first random box with magic, but this one was specifically made to draw mana from the air. Since Ashton was sitting literally in the middle of a mana well, this was the cheapest way to fill this thing up.
He just placed the box onto the paper, activated the magic circle, and then let that do the rest. It was fairly slow when automatized like this, but within an hour, it should fill right up.
And now, it was time to check out the other box. The 'Common Settlement Selection Box'. Last time, there were fairly 'medieval' things in there. Older things that seemed to exist in most worlds. 'Common' items were usually mundane, non-magical objects. Cooking setups with campfire, pot and all. Forges, woodworking stations, or tanning racks were there as well last time.
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And now that the system integrated with the world a little more, Ashton could see much, much more useful things.
The stations from before were also still there, just a bit upgraded and modern, with equipment that you could actually see today. There were also a few new things.
Like mechanics stations to work on cars, and even a desk with a desktop computer on it. Frankly, it seemed very possible that computers might have something special about them now as well. Maybe they could connect to the community as well, though Ashton did not have the means to just drop a computer somewhere.
The issue that Ashton had right now was that most of these weren't movable. Since he wasn't planning on staying too stationary for a while, it wasn't worth it to keep for himself. He might be able to redeem one of th em and take it apart for some useful materials, but that felt like a waste, too.
If Ashton found something good, he might just decide to donate whatever came out of it to either this place or Sam's camp. It probably wouldn't update any more after this, either. Well, maybe in the second phase, but that wasn't something Ashton wanted to wait for, exactly.
There had to be something useful for Ashton in here. And then, he saw it. Something that was just perfect for him.
+[Furnished Bell Tent]
Ashton didn't even hesitate and quickly unfolded the option. This was perfect. It wasn't furnished with much, just a small camping bed, a storage box, and a weak lamp. It was five metres across, and seemed to be made for people currently starting out their new settlement to live in while they got everything else going. But it was basically the perfect thing for a summon Ashton wanted to control long-term.
He did have a tent right now, but it was pretty small and not exactly the perfect fit for the construct that he was thinking of. This tent, however, was a perfect starting-size, it had actually solid, durable materials so the soul that would inhabit the construct should be pretty happy, and it frankly just looked a lot better than that dingy small single-person tent that he grabbed for himslef.
"But for this, I'm going to need a bit more... space. And better materials," Ashton whispered to himself. All the summons that he had right now were 'Lowest' grade. Of course, they could advance to higher grades, but the 'Living Abode' that he wanted to summon with the tent started out as 'Low' grade.
It might not sound like a huge difference, but it could be like... if a bicycle was 'lowest' grade, then a high-powered motor bike was 'low' grade. It was really a world of difference, and everything surrounding it showed that fact.
The materials needed, the mana that had to be supplied during the summoning, and the contract capacity that a low grade summon took up were at a much different grade.
If he summoned the Living Abode right now, it would take up all of Ashton's remaining capacity, if he even had enough left for it.
But... if Ashton reached level 10, that should give him the boost that he needed. Not just because of the class itself, but also the quests that he would be clearing in the process. If he raided the boss at the botanical gardens, he should be able to get a lot of the materials as well. Plus, there was another mana well there, so even if it took a while to gather all the mana, that should be a good place for him to do this at.
For now, Ashton put the box aside, and looked over at the window still floating next to him.
[You have completed the [Bonus Quest - Save Drakewood Primary School]! You have been awarded 2000 Coins! Choose your reward item]
"Let's see..." Ashton started looking through the list and, well, he wasn't really sure what else he was expecting.
They seemed useful, sure, and they wouldn't be just mundane items but also ones with special effects, but...
...
[Dreamdoll Dress Wardrobe]
[Recharging PEZ Dispenser]
[Automatic Tin Soldier]
...
They weren't exactly useful. Ashton let out a long sigh. He should have known that there wouldn't be anything super useful here. When a constellation offered you an item as a quest reward, it was usually geared toward their own domains. And since the Guardian of the Innocent was hyper-focused on the well-being of children, everything here was just toys or things that children might like.
[[Guardian of the Innocent] explains that they did not expect to give out a quest yet]
[[Guardian of the Innocent] points out that their Uncommon Items are simply like this]
[[Guardian of the Innocent] promises they gave you as much as they could]
"Calm down, man, it's all good," Ashton laughed a bit. It wasn't often that you could see a constellation get flustered. "I'm surprised you're even still sticking around me right now. Just head back to the school."
[[Guardian of the Innocent] advises you to look at the options closely]
Ashton raised a brow confused. It seemed like the Guardian stopped watching him for now. The rest of the constellations were still there though, just making random comments about what they were seeing around here.
It was a bit annoying, but Ashton had a pretty good idea why they were buzzing around so much.
But that was going to happen later. For now, Ashton just kept looking through the list. It felt like the Guardian had given him some kind of hint. Like maybe there was something hidden in that list that was more useful to Ashton than the rest.
He continued to look through the list. Seriously, this guy was supposed to be a 'guardian', why were there only useless toys in here?
"I guess all the good stuff comes starting at the rare tier," Ashton whispered. Uncommon items were usually things with weak magical effects. If stats were boosted, it was by one or two at best, and if there was a special effect, it was really just gimmicky and small. Like a toy starting to move or a few grams of sugar being replenished into a PEZ dispenser after an hour or so. He didn't know if that was how that one worked, but it seemed about right.
So, what was the most useful item here? And then, Ashton saw it.
...
[All-Natural Watercolour Set]
...
A smile appeared on Ashton's face as he tapped the system screen. Small wisps of magic flowed out from it and came together on his palm, turning into a wooden box.
Ashton folded it open. It was a massive kit of around 120 different colours. At first glance, these looked like a pretty mundane thing, which it usually probably would be, but since this is an 'uncommon' item, these paints had magic in them.
It was useless for most people, since it didn't have a gimmick on its own. Rather, it felt like it didn't even belong in here. But for Ashton, it was perfect. 'All-Natural' was a good hint that these were pigments taken from magic-infused plants or minerals, so they were great additional ingredients for ink-making if Ashton could figure out what each one was.
Luckily, he was here in Market Street and could get himself some more base ink to ask the Pen of Insight to write him a small list.
This already brought him a step closer to his next summon.
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