1000x Random Returns: Investing in My Crippled Demon Wives!

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Storage Ring Prices Are So Expensive I Thought I Was Supposed to Propose to a Monster!

The carriage rolled through streets that looked, disappointingly, almost entirely normal.

Lucien had braced himself for chaos, injured adventurers everywhere, maube panicked crowds, or even shops boarded shut.

Instead, guild emergency crews moved with practiced efficiency, mopping up the last details.

Adventurers strolled past carrying monster materials tucked into storage pouches and rings.

Shops had already reopened, magical street lamps flickering to life as dusk approached.

A pair of normal demons debated the dungeon break casually over their morning coffee like it was yesterday’s weather report.

Kids ran past on their way to school, entirely unbothered.

’Just yesterday this whole district was bracing for a break,’ Lucien thought, watching it all slide by.

’Guess this isn’t their first disaster, I guess magical demon society also means advanced disaster recovery, apparently.’

---

The guild hall buzzed busier than usual, but not chaotic, a controlled kind of energy rather than panic.

Lucien noticed the crowd more carefully this time. A D-Rank party arguing over loot splits near the boards.

Several C-Rank adventurers comparing wounds. A woman in enchanted armor, spear still faintly bloodstained from the previous night, chatting easily with a friend.

A human Beast Tamer with a small winged creature that looked like some kind of bird perched on his shoulder.

A heavily armored demon built like a walking fortress. A vampire mage in ornate robes, staff humming faintly with contained magic.

’The people I met on my first dungeon run were actually pretty strong considering their rank,’ Lucien realized, glancing around.

’I just had nothing to compare them to at the time.’

---

He joined the appraisal line, and when his turn came, a staff member he didn’t recognize took his storage pouch, sorting through the contents with practiced efficiency.

”Five C-Rank pelts,” she murmured, cataloguing. ”Fangs, claws, standard C Rank mana cores and some mutated wolf materials.” She glanced up.

”You harvested these yourself?”

”Mostly.”

”Mostly?”

”My wives helped me.”

She gave him a longer look after that, then returned to her calculations, tallying figures on a glowing ledger.

”With the emergency bonus,” she said finally, ”580 gold.”

’Seraphina’s estimate was almost exactly right,’ Lucien thought, accepting the payment.

’Impressively close, actually. Guess I know which wife to leave the house expenses to.’

---

He settled into a seat afterward and pulled out his phone, messaging Rika and the other who went with her for the emergency mission.

No response.

Five minutes passed. Then ten.

Okay, this is slightly concerning. Lets see of I can ask one of the counters for info on them.

He walked to the information counter instead, and found Luna behind it.

”Back again?” she said, smiling.

”Unfortunately.”

”Unfortunately?”

”I’m becoming a regular.”

She laughed and pulled up the guild records at his request. A moment passed while she scanned through them.

”They’re alive,” she said.

Lucien felt something in his chest unclench that he hadn’t fully realized was tense.

”Completed the emergency mission,” Luna continued. ”Minor injuries across the board. They’re finishing treatment and filing their report now.”

”Phew, that’s a relief thought something happened to them” Lucien said, exhaling.

Luna glanced at him, something faintly amused in her expression at how genuinely relieved he looked, but said nothing more about it.

---

He left the guild and headed down the commercial street stretching alongside it, an entire district built around adventurer needs, storefronts advertising weapons, armor, potions, monster materials, storage artifacts, and dungeon supplies in rapid succession.

’Prime real estate,’ Lucien thought. ’Makes sense to cluster it all near the guild with all the adventurers being here, this is literally a gold mine.’

He ducked into the first storage shop and immediately regretted it after seeing their options on spatial storage items with most of them being rings.

Bronze Storage Ring (Common)

Space: 5m × 5m

Price: 100 Gold Coins

’Already more than I expected for the cheapest option and what is this it has the same space as the pouch but is almost double the price.’

He checked the second ring a Silver one this time, this one looking more like a decorative ring than a storage ring.

Silver Storage Ring (Uncommon)

Space: 15m × 15m

Price: 500 Gold Coins

’Absolutely not, what’s is this price and that design, I’m not going to a dungeon to look good.’

Then he checked the next one, this one looking like a fashion statement with ots design.

Gold Storage Ring (Rare)

Space: 50m × 50m — Preservation effect

Price: 5,000 Gold Coins

Lucien stared at the price tag for a solid ten seconds his eyes bulging at the price and at how glamorous it looked.

’That’s more expensive than the entire estate renovation combined, possibly even twice over, let’s not even mention how it looks, what am I supposed tonpropse to a monster inside a dungeon with this or something?’

’Storage rings are luxury goods and accessories, apparently, I’m filing this under things nobles casually own that would bankrupt a normal person. Now I see why most adventurers stick with the pouches instead.’

He left that shop with his budget considerably more sobered than when he’d entered.

---

Toward the end of the street, tucked between two much larger storefronts, he found a modest shop with a hand-painted sign reading Pocket Dimension.

’Well that’s one way to choose a name.’

Inside, an elderly imp looked up from behind a cluttered counter, spectacles perched low on his nose.

”Budget?” the dwarf asked, cutting straight to business, much like Borin had.

Lucien told him.

The imp nodded, unbothered, and laid out three normal looking rings without any attempt to upsell them as luxury accessories.

Option 1: 15m × 15m — 150 gold

Option 2: 20m × 20m — 300 gold

Option 3: 30m × 30m — 750 gold

Lucien did the math against what remained in his pouch and settled on the middle option.

”This one,” he said.

The imp handed over a plain-looking silver ring, unremarkable except for a faint shimmer along its inner surface.

Lucien slid it onto his finger, and the moment it settled, his awareness brushed against something vast and empty inside it, twenty meters in every direction, all stuffed inside ethos small ring.

’Spatial magic sure is convenient, my life just got significantly easier.’

He transferred a few remaining items from his old pouch into the ring just to test it, watching them vanish into that internal space without effort.

’Worth every coin.’

---

Back at the estate, the afternoon unfolded quietly.

Evelisse finished her cultivation session, feeling the faint but satisfying tingle of a rank inching closer, and immediately abandoned discipline in favor of the couch.

”I’ve earned this,” she announced to no one, grabbing a bag of snacks and flipping the TV on.

Aurelia finished her own training shortly after, running through a final set of forms with noticeably smoother transitions than the week before.

She paused mid-motion, checking her internal mana flow, and felt the faint, steady warmth of the restorative elixir still working through her system.

’Slow,’ she thought. ’But steady, progress is progress only a weekend two left if I use the elixir everyday, maybe.’

Upstairs, Seraphina bent over a small cauldron one of the few things she owned, carefully measuring ingredients for a potion slightly more advanced than her last attempt.

When the mixture finally settled into a clean, stable blue, she allowed herself a small, satisfied smile.

’If I keep improving,’ she thought, capping the vial carefully, ’maybe I can find a way to help fix my own bloodline eventually. Not just rely on what Lucien finds.’

’I want to be part of my own recovery too.’

---

Lucien left Pocket Dimension with the new ring settled comfortably on his finger, already turning his thoughts toward the next stop.

’Borin did good work on the estate. Might as well check in, see if there’s anything else worth adding, and ask about expanding the master bedroom while I’m there.’

He headed off toward Blackstone Renovations, weaving through the busy street.

---

Back near the estate, deep among the trees, the same watcher from the morning remained perfectly still, spyglass trained not on anyone this time, but on the property itself.

Their gaze settled on the faint shimmer running along the estate’s perimeter, the defensive array, barely visible even to someone actively looking for it.

”So that’s how they survived,” the figure murmured, voice quiet as breath. ”Wonder where they got this from.”

They lingered a moment longer, drifting closer to the barrier’s edge without ever touching it, studying the formation lines with clear professional interest.

Then, as silently as they’d arrived, they melted back into the trees, leaving no trace behind, while noting everything they observed.

***************

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