“Lyra will definitely want to see what Arthur here picked up.” Aelia said with a bit of smugness as she slapped Arthur on the shoulder.

‘I hope Lyra won't be too long, Aelia is being a bit too close and touchy for someone I just met so the sooner she finishes up the better for me.’

Arthur and Aelia each took a seat on a chair that was in the small buffer area. Arthur took a seat that was far away from any other chairs to give himself a bit of distance from Aelia. Thankfully Lyra had finished up quickly with whatever she was doing and Citro let in.

“Hello again Arthur.” Lyra smiled as she saw Arthur enter the room. “What brings you here today?”

“We found something I think both you and the kingdom will find great interest in.” Aelia gestured towards Arthur. “I am here to make sure you receive them.”

“Well what is it?”

Arthur handed the schematics of the siege weapons to Lyra. Lyra looked over the first one and muttered something about having something similar. When she reached the second one she went quiet, as she flipped through all the pages her face displayed more and more surprise on her face, with a small touch of fear.

‘Well aren't you a source of strange happenings Arthur. First you somehow get inside of an ancient dwarven fortress then you have great talent for magic and then you find a series of blueprints for lost siege weapons that could turn the tides of the next war with the Yolan empire.’

“These blueprints you have brought me are very valuable Arthur.” Lyra looked Arthur in the eyes as she spoke. “These may have a large impact on future conflicts and I will do my absolute best to ensure that you are adequately compensated for your discovery.”

Arthur was a bit surprised by Lyra’s statement. He knew the schematics were valuable and he hoped to receive something for finding them, but Lyra’s reaction he felt was a bit over the top.

“Uhhh, can I ask why you are so serious? I know these are valuable but you may be blowing this a bit out of proportion.”

“No Arthur, if anything I am not giving this the amount of seriousness it deserves. Do you know how powerful mages can be in battle?”

The abrupt question confused Arthur. “I have a general idea.”

“Well the most powerful mages can be a massive force on the battlefield, but there is one problem. They don’t always want to or may not be able to due to a variety of reasons, so we are often required to use large weapons to compensate for that. One thing that can make up for a lack of powerful mages when we need them is enchanting those weapons with things like exploding ammunition.”

“Wow, that does sound powerful.”

“It is, but it is limited by the power of the weapon. With weapons like these we could do so much more.”

“So what should I expect for this?” Arthur was happy that he could help with uncovering these schematics but he would also like to have something to show.

“Of course you will receive a proper reward for these. I will be certain that you are listed as the one who uncovered these and when we are able to build and test these you will receive a reward based on their usefulness.”

Lyra could see Arthur was a little disappointed by what she said.

“Oh you don’t need to worry, by the time we finish our expedition you will more than likely have received compensation for at least the first two devices.” Lyra calmed some of Arthurs worries.

“What should I be expecting as a reward?”

“Definitely money, if you were a powerful mage or craftsman you could also receive materials. Keep that in mind for when you help the kingdom in the future.” Lyra smiled, she could already feel herself getting closer to her promotion.

*********

In another part of the camp a human male entered a tent. The interior of the tent had no light sources so not even someone who knew the individual could guess who they were.

The unidentified human walked towards a small table in the center of the room and interacted with a magical device before he kneeled. The device projected a humanoid being that was most likely female, her entire body was obsidian black and several body parts not found on humans. She had a pair of wings sprouting from her back that resembled a ravens, short talon-like claws on each of her hands and toes. She sat on a throne chiseled from a beautiful black stone.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“What do you have to report?” The woman’s words were like honey to the human’s ears.

“The expedition has begun and the first floor has been fully explored.” The human’s eyes, the only part of him visible, showed his clear captivation for her.

“Then you remember what you need to do. When you find the demon on the lower levels, defeat him and bring him to our cause. Oh and don’t forget about those pills you were given, you may need them.” The woman smiled, she could see his eyes straying from her face but she didn’t mind. In fact she quite enjoyed it, she knew he was reliable and she loved when her subordinates found her irresistible. When she had them hooked she knew they would do anything for her.

“Of course my lady, anything for you lady Alkonost.” The human was infatuated with her.

‘If he continues to do well I think I may just need to invite him to a far more personal meeting. Just the two of us, all alone.”

**********

Arthur sat at a table next to both Hambel and Cassia as they ate their dinner. It was soup again that both Arthur and Theo had made starting about an hour beforehand. Everyone else was quite invested in telling their stories about what happened on the first proper day of the expedition, including the mages who were typically quiet most of the time. Arthur on the other hand was silently eating his soup while he thought about what Lyra said about the schematic he found.

‘Are enchanted siege weapons that dangerous? How many people will die because I have given those to Lyra?’

Arthur felt conflicted about his decision to share what he had found. If Lyra’s explanation of how powerful the weapons would be when they were enchanted then a lot of people could die. Cassia could see the worry in Arthur's eyes and decided to ask what was making him worry so much.

“Hey, are you ok Arthur. You look like you just attended a funeral.”

“I'm ok. I'm just a little worried about what might happen as a result of those schematics. Lyra gave me a brief explanation of the power of enchanted siege weapons and how the one I found could be even more dangerous.”

“Well enchanting isn’t my specialization but to enchant a normal siege weapon is very expensive given all the materials that are needed to make any worthwhile enchantments on something so large. Anything large would require at least one magic crystal to store the energy and would likely require more given the large size of the device and the payload.”

Arthur could see that Cassia did make some good points but he was still a little worried.

Cassia continued. “And even if they do make some they will probably end up as an emergency weapon that would only be used in an emergency. Most of the kingdom's enchanting resources go towards weapons for the military, it is far cheaper and overall more effective than building these dangerous weapons that could be used against us.”

“Well that was a very interesting lesson on how the kingdom uses its magical resources but perhaps we could focus on more pressing matters.” Hambel took a deep drink from his cup. “Like who got the most kills today!”

Several others around the table that almost entirely consisted of melee fighters cheered and began to brag and compare their kill counts for the day. The winner of this impromptu competition was a dwarf who wielded a large halberd and wore full chainmail with a proper metal helmet, both were made of silvery grey colour.

Cassia scoffed at the behavior of those at the table. “Ignore these idiots. The point I was trying to make before someone interrupted me-” Cassia looked directly at Hambel who pretended not to notice. “-was you are not responsible for any deaths that may or may not be caused by those siege weapons. It will be expensive to replace all the old ones and it would be better to simply hand out new enchanted weapons to the military.”

Arthur felt most of the worry that he had for his actions fade. It was still there but only ever so slightly as he now understood more about how enchanting worked.

“It could be far worse.” Cassia spoke again. “I can only imagine how the person who shared necromancy felt after he saw how people used it.”

‘Necromancy? Now that was something I hadn't heard of before, not even when I asked Lyra about magic. I wonder why she kept that out of the conversation.’

“Necromancy? What is that?”

“Oh, well necromancy is the manipulation of dead things. Typically reanimating corpses to serve the caster. You won't find anyone who teaches in the mages guild, if you are interested for whatever reason you will need to either find a book about it or find some outside of the guild to teach you.”

“Is necromancy banned in the mages guild?”

“It isn’t outright banned, but it is highly looked down upon by almost everyone. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to pursue that magic unless they had no choice.”

“Is there a reason for that?” Arthur asked. He was quite curious about necromancy and wanted to know why something that could in theory could be used as a substitute to a large amount of the manual labor that no one wanted to do.

“Most of it comes down to politics, religious beliefs, and outdated superstitions. Basically no one trusts one person with such unchecked power. There is also a large history of necromancers who used their power for evil.”

“But there must be many mages who use other types of magic for evil as well.”

“There are and have been but it isn’t quite so simple. Now Arthur, I want you to tell me what the difference is between killing someone by setting them on fire with a campfire or a fireplace or by using pyromancy. Not much of a difference there now is there, getting rid of pyromancy will not stop arson or fires from happening, people will just find other ways to do it. Necromancy on the other hand is not only quite revolting to watch but also stops a lot of people from hurting others in a similar way. Think about it, without access to necromancy they cannot raise any army of undead servants and cause trouble.”

“Well you certainly raise some very good points Cassia. If I have any other questions about magic I'll let you know.”

“Please do, It is refreshing talking about these things with someone who actually cares to listen.”