After a long and awkward silence where Amanda stared daggers at everyone, the dark elf decided to move their conversation forward.

“I already made enough so that everyone without an actual shield could get one. I’ll upgrade Osmond’s later, since I gave it back to him earlier and it kind of slipped out of my mind to get it again. He also told me that it would be useless to you Letty, since it would eat away too much of your arcana.”

“It’s alright,” the wood elf shook her head. “My current shield is good enough for the time being.”

“Well that was quick.” Quentin finally spoke up after staying silent for far too long.

“Figuring out how to make it work took most of the time. The rest was pretty much just copy pasting the original. It still takes time of course, but not as much as it did when I began practising infusion enchanting.”

“Probably due to you having higher attributes and skill level than back then.” Letty expressed her opinion.

“I’m just glad we have someone actually capable of proper enchanting,” Fabien admitted. “Alchemic enchanting is fine and all, but it’s merely an imitation of the real deal. Even the books back home made it clear that fighting with a weapon that had alchemic runes was a gamble, since you never knew when any of them would chip and become useless.”

“If it’s so unreliable,” Mary looked at the infernal young man. “Then why did the guards spoke so highly about it? They were practically singing praises about the thing.”

“They like it because it’s relatively cheap.” Osmond stated.

“Not to mention that it is easier to find an alchemist willing to dabble in enchanting than it is to find a proper infusion enchanter with enough free time to even consider accepting your request.” Valerie joined in to the explanation.

“As much as I enjoy your underhanded praises,” Regis sighed. “This is still pretty much the end of the road for me as an enchanter for the foreseeable future.”

“What?” Letty’s head snapped toward the young dark elf after hearing his words. “Why? I thought you loved tinkering with enchantments.”

“I do, but after becoming a novice, my levelling speed decreased dramatically. Not to mention that it’s highly unlikely that I will get access to adept ranked runes for a long time. Stuff like that isn’t something they would just show to anyone.”

“Even if that’s true,” Quentin patted the spell weaver on the shoulder. “You’ve already done plenty enough. We already have top notch equipment compared to the other outlanders out there. For now we should focus on helping the rest of the team tier up and then we’ll settle down as planned.”

“And while we’re dishing out underhanded compliments,” Osmond raised his voice a bit to gain the attention of his companions. “I have something for you.”

He fished out a rolled up leather parchment from his satchel, handing it over to the dark elf.

“It’s a… is this a deed?” The spell waver asked surprised.

“It is,” Osmond confirmed. “It’s the official deed of that scribes’ shop we went to check out earlier. I found it in a hidden compartment in the original owner’s room.”

“But why are you giving it to me?”

“Well,” the shadow touched spell caster scratched the back of his head as he tried to find the right words. “Think of it as partial payment for all the work you put sofar and will put into my and the girls’ equipment. I mean, we both know how much all those enchantments really cost and besides; you’re the only one of us who’s able to actually make use of the thing. Just think of it as the first step in Regis’ Magic Emporium.”

“He’s right about it,” Cruz nodded. “Once things settle down, you could hire someone as a shopkeeper and they would sell all the magic gizmos and trinkets you make in your spare time. Enchanting and scroll making is surely going to become a booming business once the people don’t have to fight each other over scraps of food.”

“You definitely deserve it mate.” Quentin added as he raised his cup towards the dark elf.

“Agreed.” Everyone nodded as they all raised their cups.

The festive mood held on throughout the rest of the dinner, both the old scholar and the outlanders only leaving empty cups and plates behind.

“This was good,” Cruz patted her bulging stomach. “I hope we won’t have to wait weeks before the next proper dinner.”

“So what’s the plan for tonight?” Valerie asked as she looked at her companions.

“I’ll finish off the remaining potion ingredients,” Letty stated as she stood up from her seat. “By the way; I managed to make some alchemic ink for you Regis.”

“Thanks,” the dark elf nodded slightly. “I’ll try to craft a few scrolls later. For now, I want to head over to the library. There are a couple of books I should read before leaving.”

“I picked out a few tomes I believe you would find useful,” elder Derris stated. “If law and order is indeed returning to the kingdom as Edmund claims, then you will need to know your way around in such matters.”

“Thank you sir. I trust your judgement on the matter.”

With that, the group split up, the pair of cooks staying behind the clean up the mess they made while the rest left to do their own thing. Regis headed upstairs, followed by Amanda, Cruz and Sophie. He stopped by at the enchanters’ room to get a sizeable sheet of leather before rejoining his companions in the library.

“What’s that for?” Cruz asked as soon as she noticed the leather sheet.”

“There’s something I must do,” the young spell weaver noted. “I hope elder Derris won’t get mad when he finds out about it.”

With that, he took off the old map from the wall, laying it out on the table beside the empty sheet of leather. In a minute or so, Regis copied over the entire map onto the sheet using the ‘scribe’s quill’ spell, but he willed it to be slightly different. Near two dozen crossed out settlement names were missing from the new map, including Thorn Vale. ‘I know this is valuable and all elder Derris, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.’ He though as he hung the new map in place of the old one before using a temporary transmutation circle to turn the old map into a clear sheet of leather.

Once the deed was done, he found the books prepared by the old scholar neatly stacked on the table where the dark elf sat before. He took a quick look at the first page of each book so that he could determine their contents. Many of them where about the customs and laws of the kingdom, along with some general knowledge regarding the different regions and their most common resources. There were also couple of miscellaneous magic related books, making it a decent collection overall, but he still picked up a couple of extra spell tomes so that he could expand his collection of verbal spells.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Even if he himself was not going to use them, his endless tome would still hold onto the knowledge until he had a place to store it later on. Regis sat down and began to read one book after the other, his gaze sifting through the lines of texts faster than he used to before, but still being able to see and understand it as a whole. Roughly two hours later as he was finishing the last tome, glowing words flared up in front of his eyes.

{You have read and studied several tomes regarding the customs, laws and lore of the Kingdom of Ecragurne. Your understanding of their laws and traditions has increased.}

{Your lore skill reached level 30.}

{Your Erudition got permanently increased by 1.}

‘I guess knowledge really is power.’ He mused as he watched the message of the Heart fade. He closed the book and stood up, stretching his body that let out a couple of slight pops and cracks as he realised that he was completely alone in the library. After a few more minutes spent putting back all of the books on the different shelves they were marked to belong to, he headed over to the modified map at the other end of the library. His right index finger followed along the path from the empty spot where Thorn Vale was supposed to be, all the way down to East Fork.

Regis looked at the different settlements, finding the few along the path that could have been visited by the army on there way to the town. ‘Rust-well Keep.’ He read the name of a settlement at the crossroads of the two paths silently before leaving towards the alchemy room. It was devoid of any movement or sound as Letty most likely already went to sleep. The familiar wooden box he brought from the scribes’ supply shop was placed on the middle of the second alchemy table.

He walked over and pulled out a vial from it, he could see a slightly glowing and sparkling liquid in it. ‘Thanks Letty.’ The dark elf thought as he brought the box of alchemic ink into the enchanters’ room where the pile of empty parchments were waiting for him. He fished out one of the inkwells and bronze tipped quills from the near dozen they brought over, filling the inkwell with the all purpose alchemic ink first. After sitting down beside the table, Regis pulled a couple of parchment closer to him, picking up the first unlucky test subject.

He dipped the tip of the quill into the ink and we can to draw up the runic circle meant to hold the spell he would cast on the scroll. In less than three minutes, a fully flashed out diagram looked back at him from the parchment, only the last step remaining. The dark elf raised his hand above the diagram and cast charlatan’s wisdom on it. The runic symbols of the scroll lit up one by one before their lights flowed towards the empty middle section of the circle. The vague drawing of a magnifying glass appeared on the empty area, glowing brighter than the rest of the runes.

The spell weaver rolled up the scroll and pricked his finger with a nearby knife, letting a drop of his blood fall on the part where the parchment’s edge was. Instead of seeping into the scroll, the blood took on a circular form that hardened into a wax like seal that locked the parchment in its rolled up form. When the seals’ light died down, Regis cast charlatan’s wisdom on it, a content sigh escaping his lips as you read the description.

{Scroll of lesser charlatan’s wisdom}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Spell Scroll}

{When used, it can reveal the nature of any item up to ordinary quality and common rarity.}

‘Not bad for my first try.’ He admitted before creating several more scrolls, casting different beginner spells. Two of the scrolls were made up entirely of runes, the middle area where the spell would had to be sealed sporting a string of runes that formed the ‘runic scorching touch’ spell.

{You have successfully created five spell scrolls.}

{You have unlocked the ‘Scroll Scribe’ skill-line.}

‘I guess having the feat only granted me the knowledge on how to make spell scrolls, but I’ll have to practice it like any other proper craft.’ The dark elf thought as he read the notification with a serious expression. Magic scrolls were useful to have around and they could also become a decent source of income if he found a way to procure the necessary ink and parchment. For now he decided to spend another hour at most with some scribing practice. When the planned time was up, he headed back to the alchemy room and packed up a couple items he saw Letty use during her potion crafting session and brought them back to the enchanter’s room.

He then began to craft a copy of the arcane Bunsen burner both rooms had, along with a small wooden chest that had a prepared place for each and every tool. The dark elf even made the box have the alchemy on its top, along with a pair of leather belts that would seal it tight. ‘One travelling alchemy kit ready. On to the scribe’s kit.’ Thinking that, Regis repeated the process of the chest making, only his box could be split open like as if it had a set of drawers.

Its top part could be opened up and fixed into position to provide a stable drawing surface. Its top drawers held quills and stacks of parchment while the bottom one was filled with alchemic ink vials. ‘Done. I should really get some sleep now.’ He muses as he left the room and walked over to the bathroom to wash off the sweat of the day before returning to Qadir’s bedroom, pulling off his clothes before falling onto the bed and then asleep. Morning came all too fast for the dark elf’s liking, a gentle knock on the door waking him up so he could face the new day.

‘I’m awake.” He said loudly as the knocking didn't let up.

“Then get your ass in gear,” Cruz spoke from the other side of the door. “That army mage is already at our doorstep.”

“So early,” Regis muttered still half asleep has he got out of the bed, dragging on his clothes and armour on along with his knapsack and satchel. “Do they really want to get rid of us so much?”

“I think it’s more like the army having a thing for punctuality.”

“Any breakfast?” He asked as he opened the door, the crystal of his staff glowing up with a faint rhythm that matched his mood.

“Mary woke up quite early and cooked up something, but we’ll have to eat while on the move.”

“So much about having some peace,” Osmond’s voice could be heard from the other end of the hallway. “Morning!”

“Good morning Os.” Cruz returned the greeting as the three of them had a downstairs. Once on the ground floor, they found the rest of the warband already prepared and waiting.

“Looks like we really are leaving without breakfast.” The pale youth noted as Valerie shoved a piece of cheese and cooked ham into his hand.

“Sir Clive arrived early, since he will need to spend some time with meditation to regain his arcana after teleporting us to our destination.” She explained.

“And speaking about destinations,” the army’s spell caster cleared his throat. “Have you decided on where would you like to go? If you have an actual settlement in plan, then I’ll be able to tell whether I am capable of taking you there or not.”

“Rust-well Keep would be the best for us, if possible.” Regis answered, earning a raised eyebrow from his companions for a moment before everyone turned towards the army mage.