Selina spent the next morning settling into her new room. She put the clothes in the wardrobe, set up her computer, and some other miscellaneous things.

Mater climbed to the rooftop of the building and waited for Crow to come back.

A shadow bird flew from afar and landed on the rooftop. It turned back to Crow's humanoid form in a kneeling position.

"Well?" The black cat meowed.

"Lucy Carpenter is spying on Miss Isles, Master." Crow said.

"Typical." The black cat rolled his eyes.

"Should we get rid of her, Master?"

"Not right now. They don't know that we know yet. We can exploit that. There is also something weird about the situation." The black cat stroked its whiskers gently.

The virus in Selina's profile. It was activated and transferred to a physical copy. But Mater didn't feel its presence on Lucy.

"We should have more answers soon. Once the copied profile is viewed by someone. For now, lay low."

"Yes, Master."

"Stay on the sky, Crow. Keep your eyes sharp."

Crow turned back into a bird then became invisible. He returned to the sky and provided continuous surveillance to the campus.

The black went back to Selina's room. She was just finishing setting up her computer.

"Hey my little prince." Selina picked up Mater from the window and brought him in.

The black cat jumped out of her hands and went to the computer. He turned on the page of the AF Forges.

"What is this?" Selina took the mouse and looked at the website. "Is this some kind of forge for rent?"

The black cat nodded. He flicked his finger and summoned Aurora out of the book.

Speaking in human tongue cost Chaos. Mater could replenish his Chaos automatically but he didn't want to use it that wastefully so he let Aurora continue to translate.

"Need a hot place to make an Infernal Shrine for Bash." Mater meowed.

"Oh? I see. Well. We should be going then."

"Girl. Someone tried to kill you last night. Don't you have any worries?"

"I have you on my side, Mr. Mater. What is there to worry about?" Selina smiled.

"You're not wrong. We need to drop Aurora off as well."

With spared Chaos Spheres, Mater could replenish Aurora and Crow by himself. But the Shrines were still better as they didn't require any additional Chaos.

The Chaos Spheres were also useful in another aspect, now that Mater didn't need them to level up anymore.

They left the dormitories and got on the motorcycle.

First, they went to the AE Forges at the outskirts of Aeliz City.

The AE Forges was a collection of buildings. Each building had many separated areas acting as individual forging studios.

When they arrived, the place was rather crowded. People in iron armor with shields and swords walking around in broad daylight. It made Mater feel like he just returned to his original world.

"Woah. What even is this place?"

Selina kicked out the kickstand and leaned the motorcycle over. Aurora was behind her.

Mater meowed softly.

"Master said it is just some kind of enactment. They call it LARP or something like that."

"Oh!"

Selina and Aurora immediately drew the attention of the overcrowded men population there. They were just too unique to not notice. One was as black as the night. While the other was as white as snow.

They secretly gazed after the two gorgeous females as they walked into the main building of the AE Forges.

The main building was a rather ordinary blacksmith workshop.

"Hello there. How can I help you?"

The clerk was a bulky man with a big belly and an even bigger beard.

"Hi. I came here to rent a forge." Selina said.

"Oh?" The clerk's eyes lit up but they quickly died down when he saw the tiny sticks that were Selina's and Aurora's arms.

Blacksmiths shouldn't have stick arms. They should be big and muscular.

"May I ask for what reason you would like to rent a forge?"

"It is confidential."

The clerk chuckled. He had seen quite a lot of these nerds in his life. Most of them were just too into their characters and blurred the lines between realities. The clerk thought they were similar.

But then Selina took out her Ankh Badge. "Selina Isles. I am a private investigator working with the ACPD. You can connect with them to verify my identity if you need."

"Holy shit! You're a Psychic?"

The clerk blurted out. He quickly covered his mouth and looked around. Luckily no one was there to hear him.

Selina raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"Don't look at me like that. I know the procedure."

The clerk took out his phone and showed Selina his digital identification. He had already signed the SCOA.

The name of the clerk was Rowan Huberman.

"Well. If you are in our world, then you must know why I'm here already." Selina said.

"Is there an NCE in our facilities?"

"Quite the opposite, Mister Huberman. There aren't. I just need the forge to assist with my investigation. This is for a long term leash."

"How long are we talking?"

Selina placed her hand on her chin in deep thoughts.

"A year. It's an ongoing investigation." Selina said.

"It's a difficult case, huh? Well, I'm not the owner of AE Forges. I only help Daniel manage this place. But don't worry, I will take care of the paperwork for you.

We can have a one year contract. Fees are paid monthly. You have to give a month's deposit in advance. Oh, and you have to pay for utilities as well.

Heating those electrical forge isn't cheap."

Rowan went into the backroom and got through some stuff before returning with a contract.

"The rent is 3,000 credits a month. Utility and maintenance fees are not included."

"What exactly is the maintenance fee?"

"Well. Those heaters can be broken. If that happens, we can come in and fix it for you. If it's only replacing materials, it'd take around a few hundred creds. If it's a big maintenance, it might cost another 1,000 credits.

But don't worry, these heaters are top of the lines in the industry. If you use them well, you'll have a maximum of one to two maintenance a year max."

"What about the utility fee? How much do I need to pay if I turn the heat on 24/7?"

"24/7?" Rowan widened his eyes and estimated carefully. Not a lot of blacksmiths would do that. But she's a PI so he thought she might have a good reason. "Around another 2,000 perhaps?"

"That's around 5,000 credits a month without maintenance…" Selina mumbled. Rowan saw her looking up at the ceiling and considering the offer.

He shrugged slightly thinking he might have scared Selina off. After all, 5,000 credits wasn't cheap. Most of their studios were rented to a group of blacksmiths at once so they split the fees between them.

"It's pretty cheap." Selina said. She had 50,000+ credits in her bank account. She had absolutely nothing to worry about.

Rowan blinked his eyes repeatedly when he heard 'cheap'. His salary wasn't even 5,000 credits a month.

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