My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1740-1742

Chapter 1740

“I want to go shopping!” Miki declared.

“Mm! I saw something on the way here that resembled your world’s malls.” Carmine agreed.

After we finished eating, there wasn’t much of a break before the girls selected the next location. It was only the afternoon and we still had a few hours before the welcoming ceremony, so we had time to kill. Since it was their first time in a new country and we were supposed to be tourists, I saw no reason we couldn’t go out. Anything they were selling in their markets wouldn’t be national secrets, but they might be things we didn’t see as often in our world.

When I tried to leave payment for the meal, the waitress looked confused when she saw the coins. Marina stepped forward, pushing my money back to me.

“I’m sorry, but your coin is no good here.” Marina declared.

“Huh?” This was the first time I had experienced this issue.

“Jespain has our currency. We don’t accept the Imperial standard.”

That had never happened to me before. I hadn’t even known the gold, silver, and copper that I used to pay for everything had been called the imperial standard. I guessed that it came from the Imperial Cloud Meadow.

I had never paid that much attention to the coins, but they had clouds on them and the image of someone who was a human that wasn’t recognizably from the Aberis family. Seeing as both the Ost Republic and Aberis are brand new countries that had only existed for a few decades, it made sense that they depended on the currency of their northern neighbors. These coins had also been accepted in Esmore and Dioshin, so the only one of the five countries that had decided to have their currency was Jespain. No wonder it was so difficult to trade for their stuff.

“I see…” I responded as I pocketed my money. “Had I known, I would have had some coin from your country made up, I mean… uh… I would have used a money changer. Are there any around?”

Marina frowned. “It is against Jespain law to change our out money. Jespain money stays in Jespain. You will find no money changers. You can only afford things in Jespain by earning money in Jespain”

I frowned slightly. “I guess I could sell some things to make money…”

“That won’t be necessary. Since you are guests of Jespain, I have been permitted to pay for any items you wish to acquire. These costs will naturally be factored into our trade agreement.”

“I see…” My voice was flat that time.

I supposed I could understand a little bit about why they went to such an extent to protect their interests but wasn’t this all a bit extreme. How could we even form a trade agreement without a change in tender? I wasn’t exactly a knowledgeable economist, but even I could see the issues with this. Wouldn’t we just be pumping wealth into Jespain? Furthermore, they would buy us things while holding us responsible for it and not letting us spend our own money?

If I could get my hands on a few coins, I could portal back to my dungeon, and then make as many coins as I wanted. Marina seemed to read my thoughts.

“You will not be able to replicate our currency. It is made specially.” She spoke tightly.

That sounded a bit like a challenge…

Chapter 1741

Now that I was in Jespain, I could go or leave at will. It wasn’t like it was too far a distance for my portals to reach. I could travel anywhere I had already been, and now that I had been in Jespain, the only way they could block me was to change the environment’s mana signature to the point where my magic could no longer recognize it as the same place. That wasn’t hard to do, but who thought to take those extreme precautions?

The demon lord was the only one I had met who was that paranoid. Then again, I had considered expanding our dungeon through the mansion and the palace exactly to keep such incursions from happening. There had even been a discussion about having Eliza claim the entire city so that we could monitor it at all times.

As for making their coin, all I had to do was absorb one of the coins and then my dungeon would have that lore. Then, I could make as many coins as I wanted. It didn’t truly matter what method they used to make them, since it was all lore. Unless the coins were some kind of powerful magical artifact or made of an extremely rare metal like malacrum, there should be nothing my girl couldn’t replicate. That said, I didn’t want to flood their market or crash their economy.

I understood such an act was technically counterfeiting and was even reprehensible in my world. I would probably dissolve our coins of equal value to keep things even and balanced. At least that was enough to ease my conscious.  The only issue was that I had from carrying out I planned that I didn’t have any of the coins to replicate.

Marina exchanged the coins directly with the waitress and even seemed a bit guarded when I tried to get a look at them. They were a bit thinner and more elegant than imperial coins, but such a thing didn’t impress me. I wasn’t able to get any more of an impression of them though. Thankfully, we were going out shopping, and knowing my girls, there would be many more chances to use them. It did make me worry about them using our expenses in our trade agreement, but as long as we spent within reason, I wouldn’t let them bully us. Besides, the Esmere and the church girls were coming along too, and I was betting they’d spend some money as well.

We took the carriage on a much shorter journey, and when we got back out, we were at a new location that did look a bit like a mall from my world, if that mall had been mixed with a bazaar. It was rather busy, and the wears weren’t confined to the shop, but the shop opened out with goods lining the hallways, giving the entire location a festive feel to it.

“Master! Look at these dresses!” Lydia pointed excitedly.

“Master, I want to look at the artifacts.” Terra declared.

“Oo, look, food.” Celeste declared.

“You just ate!” Shao chastised her.

“Do they sell guns here?” Bernice asked.

“I’d hope not,” Carmine responded. “But maybe they have armor?”

Suffice it to say, this was going to be a long day.

Chapter 1742

“So, um… I heard that you guys sold a certain item.” I whispered quietly, leaning forward. “Something involving dresses?”

“Speak clearer!” The only crone yelled out.

I jumped, looking around to make sure that none of my girls were around to hear. We had been at the mall for over an hour, and it had taken a bit of work to manage to find a moment to myself. I was dragged from store to store, with every girl wanting something or another. Oddly enough, this included both Anne and Mary. They should have had their own money, yet they specifically came to me when they wanted something.

It wasn’t even like I was paying for it. Every purchase ended up going through Marina. She didn’t make a single comment as she seemed to pull a coin from a never-ending purse, even while the spending was going a bit overboard and making me sweat. She didn’t even bargain. My merchant skills were completely useless since I wasn’t involved in the actual trade of money. I wondered if Mary and Anne’s goods were ending up on my ledger or the church.

Either way, I did want to come to Jespain for a few reasons, and one such reason was to look at their advanced artifacts. I was in a magical jewelry store, and it put the one I had once visited my first time in Chalm to shame. All kinds of rings, necklaces, and bracelets had an assortment of enchantments on them. Some could make you move faster, while others could increase strength or lighten burdens. The spells were at a much higher caliber too.

Of course, there were tons of storage rings. I was a little shocked at how many they had. I had single-handedly decimated the local supply of storage rings in Aberis, but this single store had more than three times that amount. They weren’t all created equal. Most of them were just small locker-sized rings, but they included a time-stop ring and even one that allowed living organisms to live in it. It was a shame that I didn’t need such items anymore. My soul world had made all of this redundant.

That said, I was still tempted to buy them all for my girls and perhaps to infuse them back into Aberis, b but the one setback I found about this store was that the cost was obscene. Chalm may have finally reached a point of being net positive on income, but that didn’t mean I was made of money. Even one of these rings was a major financial decision.

That’s why I was focused instead on the task I had originally come for. I had rumors since I had come to this world about the so-called dress ring. This ring only could store sets of clothing, but it allowed you to swap them at will. It was a way to instantly armor up in a crisis, although it could probably be used for swimsuits and other purposes as well. For my girls who fought and protected me, such a ring seemed like a necessity.

“Ahem… do you have any dress rings?” I asked in a loud voice the woman could hear. “A ring that lets you switch outfits?”

“Dress Shift Rings are restricted items. They can only be purchased with permission from the house of the lords.”

I had been afraid of that.