“Good morning,” Letty greeted the dark elf as she walked down the stairs with her sister and Osmond. “I hope you didn’t have to wait too long for me.”

“Not at all,” Regis shook his head slightly. “I just had some breakfast.”

“Are you two having a program or something?” Cruz asked as she looked at the spell weaver awkwardly.

“Regis promised to build the greenhouse for me today”, the wood elf explained. “Once it’s finished, I could plant the new herbs there.”

“I see,” her sister nodded. “It was about time you did something else besides building a great wall.”

“A proper greenhouse will help with our reagent supply demands,” Osmond noted. “But we still haven’t procured any glass for it.”

“I spent some time growing quartz last night,” Regis stated. “I plan to transmute it into sheets that can be used as a substitute. They should look like cheap and slightly hazy glass.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“You should get some breakfast. I’ll bring down the quartz.” He said before heading back to his room.

By the time he got back down with the sack of crystals, the trio was already eating their share of leftovers.

“I’m surprised that neither Fabien nor Mary is already up and about in the kitchen.” Letty remarked while eating.

“There’s nothing to be surprised about that,” Cruz noted. “By the way it sounded, I’m pretty sure they tired out each other last night.”

“Tired out... oh.” Letty put two and two together after hearing her sister’s words.

“Yep,” the tomboyish ascetic nodded. “I guess they’re official now.”

“Good for them,” Osmond sighed. “They have a lot in common and they’re a good fit.”

“Back to the more important matters,” Cruz sighed. “What should we do next? The new villagers are settling in, minus a few roofs. The greenhouse is about to be built and the new crops will soon be planted. What’s the next topic on our agenda?”

“We need to get guards to the valley entrance,” Regis noted. “As well as a way to communicate with them and travel back and forth fast.”

“Are you expecting trouble?” Osmond asked with his eyebrows raised.

“Always. I plan to reinforce the mountain pass gates and wall.”

“A bit of added security can’t hurt,” Cruz agreed. “But what then?”

“We should add more buildings to the village,” Letty said. “The more people we’ll bring here the more facilities we’ll need. A bakery, a general store...”

“And a chapel.” Osmond added.

“We could use a spellcasters’ guild of our own as well if we plan to raise mages.”

“A house of our own would be nice too,” Cruz sighed. “I like the inn, but I want a place of my own.”

“Likewise.” Osmond and Regis agreed with her sentiment.

“We won’t get anything done by sitting here,” the dark elf stood up from his seat. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yes.” Letty nodded as she finished her breakfast.

The two left the inn, heading towards the village gate from where they walked over to the farms. Passing by the two roofless buildings, Letty pointed at a small area between a couple of rocky outcrops beside the river.

“Do you think you can build it over there? I really like that place.”

“Sure,” Regis agreed as they kept on walking. “So, I figured I’d start with the basement level since you mentioned before that some of your plants like to grow in dark environments and caves. The ground level should have a meter-high wall and the rest above that would be covered in quartz sheets. How does that sound to you? “

“Could you add a few columns to the middle for the hanging pots?”

“Both the ground floor and the roof would need support anyway, so yeah.”

“Great.” She smiled as they reached the spot between the rocks.

The spell weaver began to cast his innate ‘terraform’ spell to lower the ground in segments, creating a long rectangular hole.

“How big do you want the greenhouse to be?”

“I haven’t thought about it,” the wood elf admitted. “With the extra space in the basement, I think it doesn’t need to be too big. “A five-meter wide and ten-meter long one should be more than enough.”

“So a five by ten with a height of three?”

“Perfect.”

With the basic idea settled, Regis continued with the ‘terraform’ spell to finalize the hole in the ground before turning it into stone. He shaped a set of stairs leading down, leaving several twenty-five by twenty-five centimetre beams of condensed earth in a line speck in the middle. As the beams got hardened to stone, he spent some time meditating to regain his spent arcana before continuing his work. A twenty-centimetres thick slab of condensed earth grew out of the ground horizontally, resting on the stone column before it too turned into stone.

“Amazing,” Letty blurted out as she watched the dark elf work. “It would have taken days to achieve all this with an ordinary construction work team.”

“Magic definitely has a lot of uses outside of combat.” Regis noted as he slowly covered the rest of the basement with the condensed earth slabs, hardening them into stone.

Once it was complete. he summoned a phantom wisp and walked down the stairs with the wood elf following him.

“It’s not the largest or the prettiest basement I’ve seen, but it’s not bad either. Later, I’ll add a few enchanted lights and separate growing areas along the wall if needed.”

“Do you think you can add a small hole for a pond at the corner?” Letty asked, earning a slight nod.

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The spell weaver turned the stone ground back to condensed earth and then shifted it down by a good half meter before solidifying it again.

“That’s about it. Let’s get back upstairs.”

“There you are,” they heard Quentin’s voice as the pair returned to the surface. “Osmond told me that you came out here to build a greenhouse but I couldn’t see you anywhere.”

“I just finished the basement,” Regis noted while pointing at the stairs that lead into the darkness. “Do you need something?”

“I just came here to tell you that Jody finished a couple of beams and we’re going to begin building the roof of Bertram’s house. Once that’s done, we’ll have to figure out somewhere to get roof tiles.”

“I think I can help with that.” The dark elf said as he looked to the side.

He focused on a patch of ground, raising a quarter of a meter rectangular block of condensed earth. Lines appeared on the block as if someone cut sheets out of it and then it hardened to stone under the effect of a second spell. Regis stepped beside it, picking up a finger-thick sheet that had a hook-like notch on one side.

“This might just do it,” the paladin remarked as he grabbed one too to examine it. “I’ll bring over a couple of these to let them examine it.”

“You know where to find me if you need more.”

“Yeah. See you later,” Quentin turned around and walked away. “Have fun with the greenhouse.”

“He was weird.” Letty noted as they watched the paladin leave.

“He’s just messing with us,” Regis cleared his throat as he understood the implications of his friend’s words. “Back to work?”

“Okay.” The wood elf nodded.

With the basement finished, the dark elf could now focus on the walls and pillars. He raised a meter-high and twenty-centimetres thick condensed earth wall along the edge of the basement which he separated evenly with ten by ten-centimetre columns. The walls and the columns had a straight groove in the middle where he planned to slot the quartz sheets. When he had the base walls and the frame up, Regis created a ward on the floor depicting the transmutation circle responsible for shaping things. He then poured out the sack of quartz crystals into the circle.

“Are you going to turn these into sheets?” Letty asked as she watched him work.

“That’s the plan, but these will only be enough for a few sheets. It will take a few hours before I could make enough to cover the entire greenhouse.”

“Oh,” she mumbled awkwardly. “Sorry for taking up so much of your time.”

“It’s okay,” he shook his head. “You need the greenhouse and we need your potions, so it’s a must either way. I’m just glad I’m not alone when building it. This stuff can get boring after a few hours. This is going to be a bit bright so you might want to cover your eyes.”

After warning the wood elf girl, Regis placed his hands on the edge of the transmutation circle and began to feed arcana into it. The familiar bright light appeared to swallow the pile of quartz crystals, leaving only a large glowing bubble once the process was over. As the spell weaver reached out to retrieve the results, he almost dropped the quartz sheets that appeared after the bubble popped.

“They look clear enough.” He remarked as he brought them over to the wall on his left.

Regis carefully put them beside the wall, taking one to slide it into place. It was a perfect fit which he easily secured by altering the column slightly to make it grip the sheet tightly. A vertical beam was then conjured to secure the top of the quartz sheet, leaving another groove on the top side for the next one. Once the second panel slid into place, he sealed it into place with another horizontal beam that connected the two columns right at the top.

“Now comes the hard part.” Regis noted as he focused his terraform magic on the dirt-covered tip of one of the columns.

He made it grow further up at a forty-five-degree angle before bending it once again to make it go further horizontally until it reached the pillar in the middle of the greenhouse. Large beads of sweat kept rolling down his forehead as he held together the condensed earth construction with his magic and his willpower until it could be turned into solid stone.

“Are you alright?” Letty asked with a worried tone.

“It’s not easy to defy gravity,” he let out a relieved sigh as the pressure in his mind dissipated. “Now I just have to craft enough panels to cover the entire place and then connect all of the columns to form the roof frame and cover those as well. So what do you think; does it look good?”

“Yes,” she nodded while looking around. “It’s perfect.”

“Good.” Regis said as he sat down to meditate.

Over the next few hours, he kept growing and reshaping quartz crystals to fill up the empty spaces between the stone columns, sealing all of the walls up to the point where the roof would have to be built.

“Hey there love birds,” Valerie’s voice stopped the dark elf from beginning his work on the stone roof frame. “I brought you lunch since neither of you deigned to come back to the village.”

“I kind of forgot about that.” Letty admitted as she accepted the woven basket filled with food.

Valerie looked around while letting out a slight whistle.

“Looks nice,” she stated. “I guess you do have an architect hidden somewhere inside. Is that a basement?”

“Yes,” the wood elf nodded. “It even has a spot for a small pond.”

“Nice.”

“Do you want to have a look around?” Letty offered, earning a slight nod.

“You two go ahead,” Regis said. “I’ll finish the roof frame.”

As the women left towards the basement, the dark elf turned his attention towards the still missing beams. He cast his spells and focused his will on their creation before raising a set of condensed earth stairs outside the greenhouse to be able to get up onto the roof. By the time he finished, his companions have returned as well.

“So far so good,” Valerie noted as they got back. “Letty also told me about the arcane grow boxes you’re planning to add. I’m sure they’re going to be useful in the long run. Anyway, I should head back. You two keep up the good work.”

“Okay.” Letty nodded as they watched the infernal woman walk away.

“And don’t forget to properly thank him later dear!” Valerie threw it over her shoulder from the distance.

“I... will.” The wood elf mumbled with a slight blush spreading over her cheeks.

“Are you hungry?” Regis asked as he sat down on the clean stone ground with his cloak folded under himself.

“Yes.” Letty answered surprisingly fast.

The woven basket revealed a couple of sandwiches along with a small bowl of red and blue berries, as well as something that looked like a bottle of wine and two cups.

“Damn,” Regis whistled. “Looks like they sent out the premium package.”

“Is that red wine?” She asked surprised.

“It sure looks like it. Do you want some?”

“I... yes.”

As the spell weaver removed the cork of from the bottle, a sweet scent struck his nose.

“I think it’s fresh berry juice,” he stated before taking a sip. “Yeah, berry juice.”

He poured out the deep purple liquid into the cups, handing one over to the young woman before knocking his own to it.

“Cheers.” The two said at the same time.

Lunch went by fast as the pair spent the time with small talk related to the greenhouse and Letty’s new apprentice which the dark elf found strange to be absent during the whole building process.

“I told her to stay home and practice for now. It’s not like she could help with anything here.”

“True. There’s not much to do here anyway. I just have to grow some more quartz and turn them into sheets for the roof. Once that’s done, I’ll build a few of those grow boxes. Do you want me to make some planting basins along the wall for you, or...”

“I’ll ask Jody to build me a few long benches and shelves for the planters and pots later. If you could make a high-density arcana, darkness, fire, light and nature elemental grow box, that would be more than enough for now.” Letty spoke her mind, earning a slight nod from the spell weaver.