Looking around the table, it was nice to see how the settlement's mage group had grown. Beyond myself and Artis, there were Bren, our local earth mage focused on construction; Devar, a concept mage focused on enchantments and self-maintaining equipment; and Bless, who had a strange class that focused on growing plants into tools or magical items. There was also our resident druid, who had made it clear that while he was happy to be friendly with us all, he considered himself a farmer who happened to have some magic. He didn't want any involvement not critically needed with mages rather than the producers, which was understandable.

Devar had joined us not long after we settled, but Bless had only come in the last week or so. She had upgraded to an uncommon class and needed somewhere new to develop her skills. Despite being easily twice the age of the other mages and having advanced her class all the way to level 100, Bless was incredibly shy and quiet at the best of times.

"So, we're going to make some fancy crap to scoop up the mage tower plans, right? I need somewhere that isn't a dirt house, even if it's well-built, and not all of us love cave life like you two," Devar said, very loudly, though it was hard to tell if that was a result of growing up with a blacksmith for a father and losing some hearing early or simply being brash.

"Absolutely. A proper mage tower could mark this place as a learning center for magic classes. Settlements that have facilities for mages to form a proper guild without any obligation to the guard or a local military group are rare enough that this could pay off. So long as we achieve it ourselves, we could be in charge of it as well, rather than the settlement. It's one less thing on Mircha's plate while giving us some extra freedoms to manage it as we want," as always, Bren had already been thinking his way through this.

"You clearly have a plan, so go ahead and share so we can pretend to debate it before we inevitably end up caving to your oh-so-brilliant mind, Bren," laughed Artis, starting to eat while gesturing for Bren to hurry up and share his thoughts.

"Okay, so I have a fair idea of how the cost for food should be, but that could vary, so we should be aiming to exceed it if anything. So, here are my thoughts on how we can approach this. First, Styx and Artis need to finish that bathhouse. It will not only count as a large bulk value, but the operational costs being covered by yourselves should be counting towards our totals as well. So if we can focus on things like that, it should help towards the later, harder-to-get rewards as well."

Watching to see our nods confirming we were on board with that, it was our main goal for development anyway. Bren continued, "It's likely they will have you drop off, or only be on call for certain jobs, with your hunting team for a bit, Styx, while we focus on these objectives. Otherwise, I think I should work with Devar to improve the traders' road. It isn't the most amazing road, but with my earth magic and some very mild self-repair enchantments, I reason we can make something worth at least a tier two reward by ourselves."

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Devar was eager to work on the project, as he was always happy to be busy. He pulled out his enchanting tome, which he carried with him in a messenger bag everywhere. While Devar looked through his tome and muttered about good choices, Bren turned to Bless and suggested that she craft some lighting for the settlement. Bren had an idea for growing lamps that used mana gems as the light source, but he didn't have Bless's capacity to sense mana. Bren asked Bless to work out which mana gems would have the longest longevity to reduce the burden of maintaining them. Bless nodded to continue with her role.

Bren looked over some notes on his page while eating, leaving the rest of the group to their thoughts. Then, Bren suggested that they make something flashy all together. He thought they might need to rope in Chris, but he believed Chris would be happy to make more resources for mages, as it meant more mana gems and magical materials for him to work with. Bren suggested they build a fountain near the center of town, in front of the tavern area.

Artis perked up and was the first to jump in. He explained that he had worked at a healing hall during his training that had someone with a similar mana type to his create a fountain. Artis suggested that he could create a similar function from mana gems, where the water was potable and contained a minor healing effect. The healing effect would be minor, but it would serve as a mental health factor, as people felt better having a small dose of healing each day in a controlled way.

Devar spoke up without even looking up from his book. He suggested that he could do some self-maintaining repairs for the road, which could scale based on ambient mana. He also suggested a self-cleaning aspect, along with repairing, as part of the maintenance enchants, which would work well for a fountain.

Styx thought about the ideas they had for the bathhouse and what might be useful for a fountain. Functionally, she didn't think she could add much, but she suggested incorporating some flames. She suggested using mana gems inside the fountain to make it glow with a light source or mounted points on the fountain.

Bless suggested adding some dewberries altered to limit where they grow, and adding a light source provided by Styx's method of lighting. Each season, people could snack on the dewberries with flavors depending on the season, but they required a certain level of constant warmth that Styx's lighting could provide year-round.

Bren suggested swinging by and bothering Mircha about the project, as they would need approval for some of it. Bren suggested that everyone start preparing as their other duties allow. He hoped the mages could be the first to get a tier four reward and show their worth is in more than just mending scratches and building houses. Bren left a half-eaten plate of food behind that Bless passed down to Ember, who had been rolling around between their feet.

Styx settled in to finish her food and keep an eye out for Chris. It looked like he must have been making something, as he often forgot the concept of lunch. They would need to swing by to chat with him about the bathhouse idea.