Arthur slowly poured the ink into each of the inscriptions until they were filled. When that was done he began to paint the ink onto the actual rat flesh golem. It took him a few minutes to double check and be certain he made no mistakes. When he was certain that was the case he carefully returned the unfinished flesh golem to the center circle.

‘Now for the hardest part, casting the enchantments on the actual thing.’ Arthur slowly began to chant the spell and watched as the inscriptions on the earth slab as well as the ink on the flesh golem slowly began to glow, and more so than the last time. Not by much, only about five or ten percent more, but enough to be noticeable.

In what felt like forever Arthur slowly completed the process and had himself a second rat flesh golem finished right before him. Arthur quickly picked up the mana stone and channeled some of its energy inside of the rat golem to activate it. Slowly like waking from a prolonged sleep the small flesh golem began moving. It started with the twitching of a few fingers but soon moved onto standing up on its own two legs in an upright position where it stayed.

‘Well that is definitely an improvement. The last one didn’t even have the capability to stand on two legs. I just hope its mental capabilities are better than the last one.’ Arthur thought as he picked up and inspected the flesh golem. Everything on the outside looked quite similar to the previous one, that likely meant that the changes were most regarding the enchantments.

So like with the previous golem Arthur had it perform a few tests to grasp its mental and physical capabilities. He started with asking it to bring him a bottle, he showed the golem an empty bottle and said bottle before placing it on the other end of the table. “Bring me the bottle.” It took a few attempts like with the previous one, but it understood what Arthur was asking it to do and brought him the bottle.

Next was placing two different objects on opposite ends and asking it to bring one. He had the flesh golem stand in the middle and placed a bottle and a piece of wood on opposite ends. “Bring me the bottle.” The golem walked over and picked up the bottle before it brought it back to Arthur.

‘So far so good. It is far smarter than the last one for certain. I'm betting that this is mostly due to the enchantments, I must have screwed them up last time.’

Next Arthur had the flesh golem stay at one end of the table and placed the piece of wood in the middle and placed the bottle at the opposite end. “Bring me the bottle.” The flesh golem followed and walked past the piece of wood and brought Arthur the bottle.

From his observations Arthur concluded that the new flesh golem was far more intelligent than the previous and could possibly assist with more complex tasks in the future given the progress. But now it was time for a physical test.

Arthur placed the same book he had the previous golem try and lift before. He first introduced the book by saying, “This is a book.” Arthur placed the book on the center of the table and said, “Pick up the book.” The golem followed and picked up the book with both its hands, it specifically grabbed the spine on the book and held it while the other end was resting on the table.

“Now lift it above your head.” The flesh golem did its best to obey the command but struggled to do so. It only managed to get it about halfway up where it managed to keep it until Arthur told it to stop. Part of the reason for that was its physical body structure, the arms weren't quite long enough to perform the task but it was helpful to see what it would do. But it did appear to have the physical strength to perform the task, all that Arthur needed to do was give it longer arms next time.

Next Arthur had the golem lift an assortment of progressively heavier objects to see exactly who strong it was, given its size it wasn’t anything impressive but it gave Arthur some valuable data for next time. Overall the second golem was an improvement in nearly every aspect from physical to mental capabilities, this one would be far more helpful and could even be assigned actual tasks such as collecting a certain ingredient from across the room. But more testing was required, because Arthur wanted to see if its memory was also improved compared to the previous one.

But with a proper golem working Arthur wanted to spend some of his time learning some actual tier two spells. While he did know of a few that sounded useful he unfortunately did not give much of a look upon learning that they were tier two since he did not know how to cast them at the time. But now with some practice he could cast the specific spells and quickly put everything regarding the flesh golem away in his dimensional bag where it would remain hidden.

**********

Within the apprentice section of the library roughly half of the books were about tier two spells as that was one of the major privileges that the guild offers to those who join. So far Arthur had been left out due to his lack of knowledge of casting them, but now that was no longer the case. The first spells he wanted to get his hands on were offensive and defensive spells for combat applications as he had used a lot of those types of tier one spells.

The first book he opened was titled “The Grimoire of Lucius Gallio” and it contained a large assortment of tier two spells that Arthur was more than happy to try out. It contained an assortment of evocation spells that ranged from direct damage to defense and even restrainment spells.

Now a few of these spells and the restrainment ones in particular would require a second person to try them out, but Arthur was certain that he could convince Calavia to help him out in that regard, he would even offer to make dinner again for the two of them if he needed to.

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The second book he picked out was titled “The Spellbound Encyclopedia Volume 2”. This one contained a few offensive and defensive spells but had a much larger focus on utility and everyday spells that would find a lot more use to most mages than most combat ones. Arthur found all sorts of spells that caught his eye, one would create a ladder stairway thing in steep elevations made from earth, another created a ball of fire that could be controlled at will with a bit of mana and would generate light. He even found the levitate spell in there, although that one constantly drained mana as it was in use rather than just consume a specified amount all at once like most.

All in all Arthur’s search was quite successful and he was quite excited to begin practising all these wonderful spells he now had available to him. He was so excited that for a moment he forgot he needed to check the books out with Mrs. Florens at the front desk of the library.

*********

“How has the swamp weed been growing so far Kelile? I hope it is going better than our attempts to establish a working relationship with that alchemist went.” Pius Valgus asked Kelile as he looked at Eveline.

“I already told you all my people specialize in stealing things, not negotiations with questionable people like that alchemist! He was more than willing to kill my people right then and there and we are very lucky that we had the time and opportunity to procure that explosive device and plant it!” Eveline stood up as she shouted at Pius, the anger on her face visible to everyone at the table.

“Relax everyone, it doesn’t really matter what happened to the alchemist right now as there are others we can make contact with that will be far more willing to work with us for a small cut of the profits. We will likely even have a few working under us by the time we reach full scale production.” Kelile raised his hand to calm the two. Since his plan to start growing and selling the new strain of swamp weed was his idea and he was the only one investing into it at the moment all the profit from it belonged to his gang, and he used that money to buy some newer clothing and equipment for himself and his subordinates. Along with this money came a feeling of confidence that made him feel powerful compared to the others at the table that lost so much.

“And what about the swamp weed? Is it growing fast enough for us to process and sell in a reasonable manner? Because so far we have been sustaining ourselves off of protection money.” Pius turned to face Kelile as he was quite interested in the swamp weed, but he was skeptical about the new strain Kelile spoke of and would rather he test the waters first.

“The growth of the swamp weed has been both steady and on schedule, the first few crops are being grown in a few old buildings that we have taken over that no one has paid any attention to since the purge. I have a few of my men watching the sites and tending to them. The first batch that I showed a sample to you all last time we were all here has been sold and distributed very well and has been quite profitable for myself.” In a display of his wealth Kelile presented a thin stone rod that was about ten inches long, the more informed members of the Black Eye gang knew what he was showing.

“You bought a talisman!?” Pius looked at Kelile with pure shock. Since the purge and loss of a majority of everyone's assets the possibility of owning anything remotely magical appeared as a distant memory for the time being. “Who in their right mind would sell you a talisman!?”

“It's quite simple actually, I bought it from the mages guild.” The other members at the table looked at Kelile in bewilderment at that statement, but he continued. “You see, unlike all of you I am not a well known gang leader, hence the guild had no reason to bar me from entry or call the city guard to arrest me. The worst I am known for is simply taking protection money, and the few people I have done that with are far too scared to try and report me to the law. As such I was able to easily walk right in and buy a talisman for myself.”

The envy was as clear as day on everyone's face as they too wished they had both the money and resources to acquire anything even remotely magical, they didn’t even have their communication orbs with them as they too were lost during the purge.

“Anyways we should move onto more important things, like the process of collecting protection money. How is that going Pius?” Kelile smiled and turned to look at Pius, which prompted everyone else at the table to do the same.

‘What in Zar'Nakth happened to Kelile? It's like everyone is now suddenly under his control ever since he found himself a bit of money with a single shipment of swamp weed. Even the way he is speaking has changed, is this even Kelile or has someone replaced him?’ Pius gave a small cough to clear his throat before he began speaking. “So far we have had few problems in collecting the protection money from several of the poor and secluded areas of the southern district and we have begun our expansion into the eastern district. The only obstacle we have faced is a single alchemist that lives in one of the more secluded areas in the southern district. We suspect that he has killed two of our collection groups so far and we have no way of knowing how he did it.”

“If he is a part of the mages guild then they should have a file on him and his capabilities.” Eveline said as she sipped on some tea she had in a small pot.

“We did check, both before and after both of our attempts. At best he should be capable of tier two spells, while impressive it is not enough to easily take out a eight person group of well armed and trained people like we did the second time.” Pius continued his explanation.

“And you think he is hiding his true capabilities from the guild and by extension from us.” Eveline said as she finished gulping down her tea.

“We have considered that, but we have also considered the possibility that the mages guild itself is lying about its members in the official files that our contacts have access to. The only other possibility that we have come up with is that this Mage Arthur is a once in a thousand year prodigy that has created spells within tier two that have the offensive capabilities of a tier three spell.” The members at the table gasped and many shook their heads at that statement, so Pius quickly spoke up again to clarify. “These are just possibilities of course, we don’t actually know how he did it. But my point remains the same, until we have further data on who he is and what he can do we should steer clear of him and avoid antagonizing him. The fact that he chose to either destroy to hide the bodies of those that we sent after him instead of contacting the city guard is evidence enough that he does not care about killing.”

The meeting continued on for another half hour with the heavy feeling of who this alchemist might be hanging over their heads like an executioner's axe. When the meeting finally ended everyone rushed out of the room and returned to their own base of operations as if someone was on their heels chasing after them.