Daz, as per usual, moved Mr Barrier from his face then stretched lightly before he offered a prayer to Pala.

  While very similar to the buff, Pala's Thankful Champion, Pala's Appreciative Champion only increased Daz's ability to handle shovels by 10% instead of 15%.

  Daz couldn't really help that. He was quite appreciative of Pala, but thankful? Pala had to earn Daz's thanks if he wanted to get them repeatedly.

  Leaning over and softly kissing Madison's forehead, Daz whispered, "I'll be in the throne room for a while, so if you wake up early, you can find me there, 'kay?"

  "Mmm," came the girl's mumbled response before she reached around Daz and stole his pillow to have it act as her new hugging partner.

  Smiling warmly, Daz got dressed and then left the room. Before long, he was sat on his throne while Crosius toiled away at his desk next to him.

  "What to get..." Daz muttered as he played with the SSS-ranked Item Token that he'd been rewarded with for becoming second on the merit ranking list.

  Daz was torn between two options. He'd spent a little over an hour following the system's recommendations as well as browsing the system's item shop on his own with his instincts, but even then, he couldn't choose between the final pair of contending items.

  One was a brand new outfit. Altros' Travelling Gear had been useful, but far too often had it not saved him from a life-threatening situation. Its feature that allowed it to repair itself was fantastic and somewhat rare, but with almost every stat boost it gave as well as its seemingly more useful skills all sealed, and considering that no one under Daz's rule specialised in enchanting, unlocking the outfit's full potential seemed like a far-off goal.

  As for the second item Daz was considering getting, it was actually a mode of transportation. To be more specific, it was a sci-fi car that had been imbued with dozens of magical effects allowing it to move in water, in space, through the air, heck, practically anywhere. It had a safe top speed of Mach-4, but it could be pushed to Mach-10 at the risk of exploding. Every Mach above four would increase the chance of a critical failure by 10%.

  Why did Daz want this and why were his instincts guiding him to purchase it? Well, while he could move quickly with Hamson, and while the option to fly with Fort Sky was certainly there, neither were very practical.

  As for Hamson, he wasn't the most comfortable shovel to ride on, that was sure. He was fast and nimble, but the wind-pressure would cause mild discomfort for Daz if he rode the shovel too quickly and for too long.

  As for Fort Sky, well, while the flying island could easily move at a speed of 1-mile-per-second, Daz had learned that it was only possible for GriD CrosS to do that for, at most, 3-minutes a day.

  It would seem that the dishonest gem had tried its best to impress its master when it had travelled 20-miles in 20-seconds upon their first meeting.

  "Hmm..." Daz stroked his jawline thoughtfully. "Master Identification," he said as he thought of his currently equipped armour.

  "How much would it cost me to repair all of the enchantments, system?" Daz asked.

  "Yeah, not gonna happen. I need my points to upgrade Fort Skip, Fort Sky, and Waterford. Not to mention how many points I'm bound to need in order to unify four states in only 6-months," Daz replied.

  He sighed softly and simply thought for a short while.

  Eventually, he decided that it'd be best to look at the two SSS-ranked items once more before making a final decision. "Show me Archreaper Foldestudes' Platemail now, and show me what all of its skills do, please, system."

  While this armour was obviously incredible, it also held many drawbacks. The obvious one would be that Daz had no magical energy source.

  Death Energy fed off of souls, and thus, did not qualify. Daz could purchase a new energy source, yes, but doing so would cost him a vast fortune as he would have to alter his race to be able to contain both Death Energy and the new power source.

  Not only would this be costly, but it also held the potential to affect his future evolution options, which was very risky.

  The other notable flaw was that the armour could not repair itself like Altros' Travelling Gear could. It held a very high level of durability still, yes, and no doubt, it would be a challenge to reduce it much considering the materials it was made out of, but there was something very appealing about having self-repairing weapons and armour.

  Regardless, Daz moved on and looked over the alien car's information. "System, show me the details of the Ridomochi Final Model again, please. Same as before, show me all of its skills like with the armour."

  In Daz's opinion, this item had far more tolerable downsides, but it was slightly less useful on the grand scale of things than the armour was.

  As far as its drawbacks went, Daz was convinced that he could persuade the owner to sell him one of the models. As for its Hyperclocking ability, he cared very little for it. Mach-4 was already incredibly fast, so he saw no reason to travel any faster than the speed of sound multiplied by four in the foreseeable future.

  In regards to the fact that it forced a skill onto the driver, well, Daz had plenty of skill slots open currently, so that wasn't a concern for now and it also helped that it was a temporary skill like the translation one from the auction was meant to be.

  "Hmm... The platemail'll definitely be more useful right now, but the car has more versatility and I can see Rose loving it since she cares so much about tech... Well, my instincts are neutral, and the platemail isn't optimised for me since I'm not a mana user right now, so I guess my choice is already made," Daz said out loud. "System, I want to use my token on the Ridomochi Final Model, please."

  "Yes, I allow it," Daz replied.

  'Hachoo!' Immediately, Daz's mind was filled with the sound a cute sneeze. 'So, another one wants my car, huh? Well, you've got 30-seconds to tell me why! I'm in the middle of work righ- hachoo! right now, so be quick or get lost!'

  'What a high-pitched voice... She almost sounds... like a small animal?' Daz thought before he cleared his mind and offered his reason for wanting to buy this alien's incredible vehicle.

  My Discord

  [30 chapters] ahead as a patron!

  Give my other novels a read if you have the time, please.

  Main Stories

  [1 weekly chapter (every saturday)]

  [1 weekly chapter (every sunday)]