(14) The Glorious Ichor Selenkyr

"This is the warehouse?" Owen tilted his head up to look at the large warehouse made of steel and stone.

Right in front of the doors were two statues of chimeras with the snake tail hissing fiercely and the lion head glaring forward with a stoic expression.

It was definitely because of the town being scaled up that buildings like these weren't something that Owen and other players of GOTG would be able to see by exploring.

The warehouse also has a unique architecture that makes it different from the other houses and similar large structures surrounding it.

With its design being wide in terms of surface area and short when it comes to its height, the space inside the warehouse can fit a lot of construction materials.

The warehouse is designed to look imposing and charismatic. Even though it was just a warehouse, it still had a lot of personality.

This method of horizontal based storage saves a lot of effort when it comes to lifting heavy materials up and down. Although the warehouse has a second level, it is mainly used to store lighter materials.

Even from outside, Owen can see many people deliver huge blocks of stone to the warehouse. The stones inside a large iron wagon were being drawn by a beast with long front legs and large muscular hind legs. It has the body shape of a horse but it has a beak and dark scales all over.

It's a weird horse-reptile hybrid looking beast. People called it an 'Eletal.'

A middle aged man with a gray beard was sitting on the eletal's saddle. He held a silver palm sized token depicting a man wearing a dragon's skull and a long robe with unknown intricate patterns.

It is also known as the Ichor Token. Named after the enigmatic figure, Ichor Selenkyr.

The middle aged man is the leader of the delivery caravan.

When he presented the token, a tall bearded man clad in armor made of a chalk-like white metal called Ocilism with light blue and bright purple metals bordering the armor that are given the names, Lithroius and Fectera. These metals are purely decorative and make the armor look mightier with the draconic features that it was inspired by.

Ocilism is lacking when it comes to reflectiveness which causes it to be often regarded as a weak looking metal due to its extremely malleable nature.

Now, why would Ichor Selenkyr used this as an armor choice?

Because he knows how to strengthen it and make full use of a 'useless' metal by making a special alloy.

Obviously, someone who singlehandedly created the Selenkyr Union, a large entity who has the best weaponry and technological innovation, soul energy utilization for military and commercial purposes, the highest agricultural power and production capacity of high quality goods like meat, fruits, fish, fabric, wood and many more, he isn't just a smart somebody.

And although the Union is already powerful, that wasn't all that it had to offer. It was only a matter of time until the Union became even more powerful if it weren't for the lack of manpower it was currently facing.

This puts the Selenkyr Union in a weird spot. It has the ability to contend with kingdoms despite only being composed of guilds.

The kingdoms aren't hostile towards them though. The Selenkyr Union has provided all of those who are willing to cooperate with a lot of benefits that they cannot refuse. If they do refuse, they will be surpassed by those who are willing to cooperate with Ichor Selenkyr in terms of development.

The terrifying technological advancement that the Union can give is too precious for kingdoms to stand by and let their competitors surpass them. No one would be stupid enough to wait and see their enemies grow stronger.

Ichor currently occupies a humongous area of land where he built the home base of the Selenkyr Union. A gigantic castle that he called 'Earthly Paradise' that is filled with convenience and comfort that no other kingdom in the continent of Adhaesit, the human continent, can give.

Each year, thousands of people migrate to Earthly Paradise to live and work for Ichor because of how his inventions and resources can make a person's life more comfortable. They are willing to work for him because at the end of the day, he is a businessman who doesn't reject capable workers.

Now folks, these are just the tip of the iceberg. It is a well known fact that despite the human lifespan in GOTG being 90-100 years, Ichor Selenkyr has lived for 10,000 years through life extending methods.

A truly unfathomable figure. Very few can mess with him. And if someone was too much of an idiot to threaten him, their fate would either be death or something else entirely.

Back to the warehouse…

Armed guards opened the huge doors for the caravan and let them in. Once they got inside, they began unloading the stones in the warehouse.

"Whoever thought of how this place should be built clearly knows his stuff." Owen didn't stop himself from praising the warehouse.

"That's just how Ichor Selenkyr is… We've been surprised again and again by his inventions that we would've never thought of at all." Cirnt spoke of him with a light tone.

Udher added, "King of innovation. That's what people here call him."

As they talked about how the warehouse was made, a guard extended his arm with his palm facing them.

Without words, Cirnt took the token from his pocket and showed it to the guard.

With a simple glance, the guard nodded and gestured to the other guards to open the doors.

When the warehouse fully opened, Owen was greeted by a…

Relatively normal sight.

It's a warehouse for construction materials. Come on folks, except for the strange beasts carrying the wagons taller than humans, it was normal.

Cirnt's sight trailed towards a certain corner and looked at the two.

"That's the pile of materials that we have to push back to the site. Make sure not to damage anything or else we're not getting any money." Cirnt pointed to a neatly stacked pile of stone bricks, wooden beams, planks and wood shingles for the roof and barrels full of plaster.

Udehr and Cirnt brought their wagons over and began loading them with the materials.

Udehr grabbed stone bricks and placed them on his wagon. But as he was doing this, Udehr also placed a layer of cloth between them.

Leaning over, Owen asked about it.

"Why are you putting cloth between them? Does this serve a purpose or anything?" Owen watched his work closely.

Udehr didn't turn to look at him. "This- …" He lifted up another stone brick and exhaled a small amount of air. "Hehh- … Is so that the bricks don't break each other when we transport them. They tend to grind each other to dust whenever there's some shaking that's going on."

"Ahhhh, that makes sense.. What about the barrels? What's in them?" Owen pointed what's remaining of his left arm towards the wooden barrels.

"Plaster." Cirnt pushed his wagon over to them. It was already full with stone bricks and wood. They were also masterfully tied to prevent them from falling over.

Cirnt then began to help Udehr with his wagon.

"Gahh- …" Cirnt brought over two wooden beams over his shoulders to the wagon. "Think of plaster as some kind of mud that sticks things together. I feel like you've been a child once, so I'm sure you're familiar with mud that can stick small pebbles together." Cirnt moved his hand to the left as he spoke.

Udehr began tying down his wagon. "Newbie, start loading your own wagon. And make sure to tie it down as well."

Cirnt slapped the back of Udehr's head. "Stop being an a**. Can't you see he's missing a hand?"

"Oh." Realizing his mistake, Udehr leapt down his wagon and waved his hand over, gesturing for Owen to follow him.

"Know what? I'll help you with the heavy ones. Just leave them to me.." Udehr picked up a stone brick only to see Owen attempting to lift a barrel of plaster.

He watched him try, but he did feel a bit worried and bothered at Owen's attempts. It was like watching your unskilled younger brother learn to play your favorite game. It wasn't something that feels right in some way.

"Just do it man.." Cirnt turned his eyes quickly from Udehr to Owen.

Udehr sighed and placed the stone brick back down, "Stop, I'll come over to help."

Just as Udehr was about to assist Owen, he fixed his posture a bit and successfully lifted the barrel by himself.

"Phew… that was harder than I thought." Owen's right arm wrapped around the barrel tightly while his left arm aided him with balance and to secure it from falling.

Vhoom..

[Weighed Down]

Vhoom..

[Discomfort-2]

"I got debuffs?" Owen looked at the panels that appeared next to him. Somehow, his body felt like it was given a 5 hour full body massage session mixed with the feeling of getting a full 8 hours of sleep.

If you've experienced both, you know what I'm talking about.

And because he was affected by the debuff [Weighed Down], Owen felt the effects of the buff [Light Bodied] instead.

"..."

Although the barrel wasn't something that was too heavy for Udher and Cirnt, they were working in these conditions for a long time. It was only reasonable that they were strong enough to deal with heavy work.

Owen on the other hand, doesn't really get to do that kind of heavy lifting. It was apparent just by looking at the three of them because of how obvious that Owen was inexperienced.

So Owen being able to carry the barrel over his shoulder was something the two of them weren't expecting.

"Hey, are you alright? Can you hold it?" Cirnt walked over to support Owen just in case the barrel fell over.

They'll get into even greater trouble if Owen breaks a barrel after all.

"Yep, don't mind me." Owen walked to the only empty wagon.

His steps were steady and somehow very balanced. He was like an ant carrying a large piece of a biscuit.

*Bam.*

Owen placed the barrel into the wagon without much trouble.

"Help me tie them up. I can't do so due to certain issues." Owen didn't even bother to hide the meaning.

Being a person with common sense, Udher began to secure it on the wagon.

Although at first, the two were doubtful if Owen could truly keep up with their work, they were proven wrong.

Because he was missing a hand, Owen had to use his remaining one to be the one that mainly carries everything while the other one was there to support it.

With the debuffs he currently has, his work became even easier. All he did was load the wagon and Udehr would tie them up.

Eventually, Owen filled the wagon.

"If I just used my inventory to store these and just run back and forth, this job would've been done by now." Owen discarded this thought by telling himself, "However, that will undoubtedly make me a living target. Instead of thinking, hey cool! There's someone who can use spatial magic here! They will instead be curious who I am, and will lead for many people who I don't even know existed to investigate me."

"And since there's those secretive idiots looking for Riang, it's not really wise to reveal our location. After all, someone from Silmoun with spatial magic? They would definitely think that it's someone powerful. Then they'll realize, our target is also from Silmoun! There's no way they're going to miss out on details like that and assume the different possibilities of why I'm here."

Owen didn't like it that even though he was aware of an enemy, he didn't know what or where they were.

Right now, all he was doing was to gain enough strength to defend himself so that he could begin to wander the world by himself.

He couldn't do that at the moment, so he needed someone to help him for now.

As Owen mentally set his priorities for the future, he helped out Cirnt and Udehr to bring back the materials to the construction site.

"Alright newbie, this might be hard for you. We use these wooden handles to push the wagon forward and it requires a strong grip. Since you can't really do that effectively, here's a solution." Udehr walked up to Owen's wagon and created a small loop on the handlebar using cloth.

"Now, try to place your hand inside the loop." Udehr took one step back to admire his work.

Owen put his stump into the loop and placed his right hand on the handlebar before grasping it firmly.

"Hmm…" Owen tried to push the wagon forward and although it provided some help, it didn't do much because of the impaired points of contact with the handlebar.

He had to extend his left arm more than his right arm just to get some sort of pushing motion.

As he was feeling around for a good way to use the loop without the awkward positioning of his arms, Owen began to feel the familiar 'wrongness' to what he was doing.

"Wrong?" Owen tried looking carefully at the handlebar.

An idea struck him when he saw the loop.

"Ah!" Owen turned to look at Udehr.

Udehr knitted his eyebrows together with a curl of his lips. It was a blend of confusion and amusement. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Can you wrap another loop around this part to fit my entire arm through?" Owen used his fingers to try and provide enough visualization for his idea.

"Why? What's going through your head? Hit me up with what you came up with." Udehr crossed his arms.

"I'm thinking about making it like a backpack. It would go around this area on my arms." Owen drew an invisible trail around the shoulder area.

"I understand what you're going for." Udehr nodded. "Cirnt, we have hemp rope, right?"

Cirnt searched his wagon and even peeked his head inside. Eventually, he pulled out a long piece of rope for them to use. "Here, catch."

Cirnt tossed it over to Udehr.

"Thanks." Udehr caught the rope and removed the cloth around the handlebar and began to tie 'backpack straps' around it using the rope.

He clearly knew what he was doing because of how unmoving the rope from the handlebar was because of the knot he used. After that, Udehr worked on the second one and he was done.

"Now, try to pull the wagon using this." Udehr presented it to Owen. "It should be able to handle the way to the site because of the even cobblestone road."

Owen walked in front of the wagon and put his arms around each loop to see if they could hold the wagon's weight while he pulled on it.

*Clack*

The wheel of the wagon rolled.

Because of this, the wagon was slowly getting pulled by Owen. Although the rope dug against his body, Owen didn't feel it that much under all his armor.

"It worked." Owen nodded.

The smile on Udehr's face grew wider. "Glad I could help. Now to the real challenge, bringing these back to the unfinished house. Sometimes, I really hate wagon duty." He heaved a sigh and began pushing his wagon.

Cirnt didn't delay and pushed his wagon as well.

Owen was in the lead, giving the two behind him the opportunity to talk to each other.

"Hey, how long do you think it will take until the newbie can't handle it anymore? I'd say around three wagons." Udehr looked at the steady pace that Owen was going. He then reaffirmed himself that his estimation might not be too far.

Cirnt's eyes looked forward again and said, "Four is a safer bet. I think that he has more drive than what you see. Although, mere willpower doesn't solve the body's limitations. He'll probably be sweating heavily by the end of this."

"Heh, let's see." Udehr still felt that his answer was closer.

Of course, they started to talk about something random as they pushed their wagon.

The three of them finally arrived at the site after some time.

Fritsen saw them arrive, so began speaking loudly at them, "Pile them right there! Keep them coming so that we can finish this house and go home quicker!"

"And you three! Help the kid unload his wagon. We cannot afford to delay time!" Fritsen pointed to three different men which promptly moved under his instruction.

Udehr and Cirnt were used to his way of communication and wasn't bothered by it at this point. Without any delay, they began to pile up the materials neatly because of how frequently they have done this.

Owen took his arms off the wagon and because he was actually looking forward to upgrading his [Fatigue], he also helped out by unloading the materials from his wagon.

Although the reason for this action was solely for himself, Fritsen acknowledged his willingness to help despite it not being genuine at all.

Sadly, he didn't know that.

The others also appreciated Owen helping them as well. Their combined effort made the job quicker compared to just one person doing it.

When the wagon was unloaded, Owen was greeted by a panel.

[+ 1 EXP]

"Seriously? I get experience from that?" Owen has never done trivial NPC jobs in the game, so he has no idea this was a feature.

Regardless, he didn't mind it. Better given little than nothing.

After the wagons were emptied, the three of them returned to the warehouse to start all over.

Along the way, Cirnt couldn't help but take notice of Owen and decide to talk to him.

"Hey newbie, what's your name?" Cirnt asked as he was pushing his wagon.

"Owen… You two must be Cirnt and Udehr." Said Owen while discreetly looking at their names above their head.

"Yep my name's Cirnt. It was given to me by my old man." He scratched his eyebrow before continuing to ask, "I was wondering, why did you work here out of all places? I mean, it's not really the best place to work around here."

"Whatever job you can take to survive, you just have to take it. What else am I supposed to do but sit and wait to starve?" Owen's tone was blunt.

Cirnt chuckled. "Yeah, I get that way of thinking. That's real life."

Udehr heard their conversation which led to him asking about Owen as well. "You're not an official employee under Fritsen. Because of that, your pay isn't going to be high enough if you keep working here. It's like the same situation as that red haired girl. I forgot what her name is though."

"If you want to survive, get multiple jobs and continue living frugally like her." He added.

Cirnt shook his head. "She's not using all she could do. If that girl were to go somewhere else from here and find a better job. With her physique, she can do a lot of higher paying jobs but no, she seems to be adamant to stay in a small area."

'There's a reason for that though….' Owen thought to himself.

He also noticed that Cirnt is the type of person who has a wider perspective. He looks at things more realistically and if they were practical.

Udehr on the other hand, was more of a guy who entertains the possible ideas and what he could do with his current situation. Although those aren't necessarily bad, he wasn't like Cirnt who actively looks for solutions.

Owen was also thinking about how he could use Oslan. He wasn't sure what his role in the story was going to be.

"Eh, better not worry about that now…" Owen shelved the thought to the back of his head.