"We should see what we can do about our castle."

"You want us to go there?" he asked her as they gathered their belongings, leaving the class.

"Not directly, we should go shopping for the castle. You said you had made a lot of money, how much do you think you could invest to improve the place?" she asked him. John checked his inventory, 171,060.25$ that was more money than he had imagined he would ever get before having a job and years of savings. On a hunch he also checked his vault quest; it would track all of his assets, gems, gold, jewelry and show him his net worth.

Quest: Royal treasury
Accumulate one million dollars in gems, precious metals and currency. (it will remain after completion.)
Progress: 642 799,25$/1M$
Rewards:
Kingdom element: Treasure Vault.
2% interest rate on money left untouched for at least a month.
Kingdom element: Sign of Wealth.
5000xp

"Six hundred grand!" he exclaimed.

"That much? That's insane, are you a billionaire now?" she replied jokingly.

"No! That's not possible; it says that is what I have in assets: six hundred and forty thousand dollars... How the hell? Wait details... OK... Money, the three gems, oh that ruby was worth 50 grand! Oh!" he stopped in his tracks.

"What is it?"

"When I did that thing yesterday I took something, you know, making it look like a robbery... There was jewelry worth 200 grand in the box," he explained to her.

"I guess it pays to be a gold digger. That's incredible! And it's only been a week, you barely started farming for resources, or selling the things that you produce. So, how much do you want to invest in the castle? I wouldn't want it to slow you in getting this quest completed."

"It's well over half completed, but if I manage to end it soon, one day or two won't make a big difference. I really want to make it look like a real castle too. I just lacked time to look into it thus far. I think I can set 40 grand apart as a castle improvement fund," he decided. Anna kissed him in a way that made a few students blush, the fact that they blocked the way while doing so was not helping the embarrassment of the people behind them.

"You know how to make a girl happy! I know the perfect place!" she said, dragging him away towards the front door of the Academy. John was still a bit anxious about having her skip classes, even if she assumed responsibility for it.

A quick trip to the kingdom let them change out of their uniforms and put some civilian clothes on. It would be less suspicious than wearing school uniforms during school hours in a retail store.

John really needed a car, but he hadn't figured out how to explain having the money to buy it to his mom.

Counting the classes, breaks and lunch time, they had three and half hours before needing to be at the Academy for PE. John decided to sacrifice his way point home by having Cali make a new one in a discreet spot of the Academy. Being in the kingdom would stretch time, but it meant nothing if they had to get back there.

After a short walk a few tram stations later, they arrived at a place that was one of Anna's favorites. Everything and the kitchen sink was a big warehouse full of appliances of all sorts and assorted items. Where John had sometimes bought a few things for his gaming pc here, Anna was a lot more interested in a whole other section of the store. Taking a good third of the place, the kitchen section was where she loved to go and look at the high quality appliances that she would want in her dream kitchen one day. And this day seemed to be today. Anna had borrowed the Veil Charm from John for the occasion, all of the sellers from this section knew her and her mother, her buying thousands of dollars of products at a time she should be at school would raise questions she wasn't willing to answer. Because of this John entered the story with a tall black girl wearing baggy clothes.

Hearing Anna talk to him about the different models of each of the things they needed made John realize how passionate she was about the subject. She was pretty knowledgeable about the subject and the prospect of being able to pick things without having to worry about money was a dream come true.

The big microwave, multi function blender and multiple tray deep fryer were pretty inexpensive, with the new set of induction capable pans and pots, it barely added to two grand (with a shopping cart full of apparently indispensable kitchen utensils, of which John knew nothing about). Anna was telling him of a few ideas she had for recipes, and John was feeling his stomach gargle just hearing about them.

The big stove with four induction plates and an electric convection oven was a bit more pricey at five grand, but John was assured that it was a very good model, used by professionals. Some of the low tech kitchen features would stay, but a lot of high tech appliances would be welcome. It reminded John that he would have to do something about water, not having tap water in the castle would very soon be a hindrance.

The biggest surprise for John was the fridge.

"Have you seen how much it costs?"

"We need one!"

"But it is worth more than everything else we chose so far!"

"Listen, it is the Rolls-Royce of fridges, it has a double compressor, it separates the air flow depending on the humidity requirements of the different compartments, you can adjust temperature of the different areas and it even makes ice. This is the best quality, with a professional look, it has a crazy amount of storage space in it. You want this fridge!" she seemed pretty adamant about it, it was probably one of these things she thought she would never get and dreamed of. It was listed at 16000$, but on sale at 25% off.

"Alright, I'm sure it will soon be full of delicious food stuff, so it's a good trade-off. Anything else you see that we might need?"

"Hmm, you know... There are always a few things that could come in handy..." she said; John was sure that the real Anna was blushing under her disguise. He would have liked to kiss her, but he was careful about the possibility of someone he knew seeing him kiss a girl that wasn't his girlfriend.

A waffle maker and a crêpe maker ended in the shopping cart along with a few other gadgets. Buying all of this was not simple; John preferred to buy it in multiple parts, he bought the contents of the cart alone while Anna bought the stove, and he went back inside wearing the Veil Charm to buy the fridge.

The final bill was nearly 20000$, with the few things John added to the list. He had picked two smartphones for Cali and Vesta; he didn't need a phone plan, connecting them to the kingdom network would suffice.

The fridge and the stove were too big or heavy to be put in his inventory, so he had to ask for help from everyone to get them down to the kitchen. John was happy to see that Cali had harvested some stone and wood since he left her the ring. Soon he had put in place the appliances in the kitchen and modified the furniture, adding a nice stone counter top and wooden cupboards.

"At least the kitchen looks the part now!" said Anna as she was ordering her knives and utensils around.

"I'll see if I can find a way to improve the rest of the place. Our trip to the junkyard after school should give us a lot of metal, plastic and rubber, but we're short on fabric. Maybe we should try to get some sheep..." he explained.

"That sounds like a good idea. By the way, you told me that these rings would improve when we did things around the kingdom, can we take a look at the list? Maybe it will be wiser to focus on things that would give us some boosts," she told him.

"I love when you say smart things like that," he told her, hugging her from behind. "The Altar is in the throne room, let's get a look at it."