Since Billy wasn't getting any results with his attempts to learn new passive skills. He decided to have a chance of pace and mess with some items. While he was crafting them, he tried to make things like one armor or shield that reflected damage, or even some boots that increased his speed tremendously. However, what he got was a shield that bounced arrows back to the enemy and some boots that were like rollerblades…
"It needs a lot of work," Billy said while showing a troubled smile.
If Billy wasn't making much progress in that area, at least he was making to the method of making pills. After doing some tests, he ended up making a machine that could take the powder of the fruits and press them into the right format. It was still a manual process, so Billy had to turn a heavy lever every time he produced a single weapon, but he still could make a lot more and faster than others. Thus, he was selling them like water in the desert.
In any case, when Billy returned home for lunch, he ended up finding an unexpected guest near the gate of his house. It was Icarus… Billy frowned when he saw him, but at least he was smart enough not to enter the house and introduce himself to Billy's wives, he wouldn't take that lightly.
"You showed up a lot sooner than expected," Billy said.
"My bad about that," Icarus said. "Still, I have to warn you that we might have forced the summoner to make a move."
"Did we?" Billy asked.
"As you know, that tournament is pretty famous and since your recent actions made the states have a better relationship with each other, rumors and stories travel a lot more than before," Icarus said. "As such, it seems that the summoner had heard about a powerful fighter that managed to defeat an insanely fast individual…"
"So, it seems that he thinks that I am the same as you since it is hard to imagine someone as fast as you being defeated by an ordinary person," Billy said.
"That is right, I checked his territory yesterday and it seems that he moved his troops to the southern and eastern side of his territory," Icarus nodded and said. "It seems that a fight with the people of that religion might break out at any moment, but he might end up targeting your allies as well."
Billy sighed, they probably had noticed that as well, Aura and Rosalie, so they will soon enough act to prevent problems. Still, considering Aura state policy and what happened to Toles state over the years, they might not be ready.
"I am going to check things in the south for a while, so I may not be able to inform you of any changes," Icarus said. "Stay on guard."
Before Billy could ask why he couldn't check it every day with his crazy speed, Icarus vanished. As expected, he had a limit on what he could do and it was based on his mana. Not to mention, Icarus had a bag with him and Billy could sense the smell of Edish fruits.
"I can't ever take a break, huh," Billy thought while he was heading home.
Billy didn't want to spend months away from home again, so was considering selling his special crossbows to Aura and Rosalie. In the hands of those that had been trained by his friends, they certainly could take down some monsters with ease. A summoner without an army of monsters at his disposal was essentially useless…
Without wasting time, Billy went to craft some crossbows and then he also wrote a letter to Aura and Rosalie telling why he was sending the weapons, they probably will get curious as to how he heard of that so soon, but he won't have to explain anything to them.
"Ah… Gathering Intel with that guy's speed would be so easy… It is a pity that I am not a maniac that will kill him just to get his powers," Billy said after a long sigh.
"... When did you become such a ninja to the point that you can sneak up behind me?" Billy asked while frowning.
"We didn't sneak, and what is a ninja?" Kate asked. "You were lost in thought while muttering to yourself."
"You have been doing that a lot lately, and saying weird words as well," Natalie added.
"No way, you just aren't knowledgeable enough like me," Billy said. "As expected of two muscle headed cuties."
"Are you calling us dumb?" Natalie asked.
"Dumb is a strong word and I also called you cuties…" Billy said. "Anyway, do you want something?"
"Don't change topics like that… We will talk about this other time…" Kate said. "Anyway, we are planning to make some of the recruits explore the dungeons as training… The new one."
Billy wasn't sure that they were ready for even the first level of that dungeon. Still, if his wives thought that it was time, Billy wasn't the best person to disagree with.
"Don't worry, we will stay with them and show them how it is done," Natalie said.
"Wow, so manly…" Billy said.
"First you call me dumb and now you call me manly?" Natalie asked.
"It is hard to praise you two…" Billy said and then sighed. "In any case, I will send the word. Still, I will have to pick you two every day, right?" I certainly won't bring the recruits every day, it would take too much time and fuel."
"I suppose… we were thinking that you might want to tag along and bring the kids, but I guess that won't do it," Kate said. "I will feel bad for the recruits, though."
"You shouldn't feel bad when they are being trained…" Billy said and then crossed his arms. "Anyway, I had forgotten that this would happen sooner or later."
It was unavoidable that parents had to work and the kids had to be looked after by someone close to them. Fortunately, Billy's schedule was quite flexible, but he had to find a way to deal with that.