“I guess we’ll have to stay here and guard the wall.” Grego said as soon as the dark elf came out of the tunnel.

“We need to have at least two or three people on watch, but the rest of the group can return to the village. I’ll use the gateway to bring back some supplies and other things.”

“If nothing else,” one of the guards spoke up. “A chair or two and a torch would be nice to have.”

“Don’t worry,” Regis reassured them. “We’ll spruce up this place as soon as possible. We have a carpenter now, so a bunk bed, a couple of chairs and a table shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll even throw in a small arcane stove for you guys to warm up the place and to let you cook if needed.”

“Thank you, milord.” Several guards said in unison as the group’s expression turned somewhat excited.

“Who’s going to stay tonight?” Quentin asked the important question.

“Brinn, Erin and Harold will stay behind tonight,” Grego stated in a commanding tone. “We’ll write up a proper guard roster tomorrow.”

“We should get going then.” Regis nodded as he headed back inside the outpost in the mountainside.

The runes of the gateway came to life under his will as his amulet synced up with them, making the group disappear in a flash of light.

“I hope we’ll only have to travel like this if it’s an emergency.” The guard captain remarked with his fellows heavily nodding along.

“We’re planning on acquiring a couple of horses as well.” Quentin reassured the guards while walking towards the inn. “We’ll also have to build a proper barrack for our soldiers.”

“You mean his lordship’s soldiers,” A teasing voice remarked as Valerie appeared at the entrance of the inn. “How are things out there?”

“No sign of other intruders, but we’ll have to have constant guards.”

“Did anything happen while we were away?” Regis asked with a slight unease in his voice.

“Nothing serious. We showed the new arrivals around and almost everyone found themselves a place.”

“Almost?”

“Well,” the infernal woman rolled her eyes somewhat annoyed. “Your new merchant representative and steward were quite adamant about getting accommodations befitting their position. I get that they’re not mere workers, but even we’re living in an inn right now, so what did they expect? That Tristan guy kept asking me which one will be the town hall or your manor. I had to repeatedly explain to him that there’s no such thing built yet.”

“Sorry about that,” the spell weaver sighed. “I guess it will take some time for everyone to get accustomed to things around here. Anyone else I need to look out for?”

“The mason found a temporary place, but he said that he’d need a larger one that could also function as his workshop.”

“That I can understand,” Quentin nodded approvingly. “Lars isn’t just a mason, but also a budding architect from what I understand. He was quite excited when I told him that you can conjure stone and marble to work with and even shape them to some extent.”

“Let’s just hope he won’t take it too far with his excitement. We need to concentrate on building the basics and not grand cathedrals. Anyway, I promised I’d bring back a few chairs and a table to the guards that stayed behind. Could you put together some food supplies for them?”

“Sure, I’ll ask Mary to pack them something.” Valerie said as she headed to the back of the inn.

Regis headed up to his room to collect one of his remaining fire elemental crystals and a couple of smaller hollow arcana stones. By the time he got back down, Quentin brought one of the smaller tables of the inn and two chairs over to the gateway.

“Here’s the food you asked for, as well as a pair of torches and a few smaller candles,” Valerie handed over a small woven basket that had a pair of torches on top of it. “We should put that merchant of yours to work as soon as possible, cause we’re getting pretty low on light sources.”

“We’re running low on a lot of things,” Quentin remarked. “Including funds.”

“Not for long if everything goes well.” The dark elf said as he took the basket and stepped over to the gateway.

He sat down on one of the chairs to meditate for a few short minutes before he stood back up and activated the teleport. As the flash of light receded, he found himself inside the small hidden room. After shambling out of it through the tunnel, the dark elf found the three guards walking up and down on the barbican of the wall.

“How’s it going fellas?” He asked, making them snap towards him in surprise.

“Milord,” one of them spoke up with a slight stutter. “Please don’t sneak up on us like that!”

“Sorry about that. Anyway, I brought back the chairs and the supplies. Come and help with those, will you?”

Two of the guards followed him back into the gateway room, picking up the chairs and the table which they placed down near the window hole of the next room. Regis turned a small part and floor of the nearby room into condensed earth before summoning more earth and shifting it into a stove-like structure, hardening it back into stone. He then spent a good hour enchanting it, fusing the elemental and hollow arcana stones into the stove while creating the arcane heating enchantment. The result was a ‘trash’ ranked arcane stove that could fill the room with warmth or heat a pot placed on top of it if needed.

“Do either of you have any magic?” The spell weaver asked, earning a nod from all three.

“All of us are shardwakers milord,” Brinn answered. “Although we’re not mages, all of us have at least enough spirit to gather arcana.”

“Good,” he nodded. “Let me show you how this thing works.”

In the following few minutes, Regis explained them how to fill the hollow arcana stones with energy and how to activate the stove if needed. Once he was done, he sat down to meditate for a bit before using the gateway to return to the village. The sun was already low on the horizon as he stepped out of the portal, finding most of his companions sitting around the Landwaker tree with some of the villagers loitering about.

“Look who’s back,” Amanda spoke up first as the dark elf walked closer. “How’s it looking at the wall?”

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“It looks peaceful for now, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

“Come on,” Fabien waved him closer before patting the ground beside himself. “Have a seat. It’s time to relax a bit.”

“Sure,” The spell weaver nodded, slumping down beside the others. “I see your roof frame is finished.”

“It is,” Sophie said with a happy smile. “We just need the roof tiles so that it could be covered.”

“I’ll conjure a few blocks for you later. How’s everything else?”

“The people have settled in and the farms are up and running.” Quentin stated.

“You’ll still have to deal with Lars and decide on the location of several buildings, as well as conjure the necessary foundation and materials so that the construction could begin.” A formal toned voice joined into the conversation as Tristan stepped forward from the scattered groups of villagers.

“Looks like you’ve already begun working.” Regis noted with a quiet sigh as his steward walked up to the group.

“It is my duty as your right-hand man to ‘do the paperwork’ as your infernal companion put it.”

“What are the most pressing issues?” The dark elf asked, already fearing the landslide of work that was about to hit him.

“Miss Nina went around and made a list of the necessary supplies she wants to procure with your permission. It is quite a long list if I may say and one that will dig deep into the village’s funds, especially the large amount of different light sources. Those became short in supply pretty much everywhere nowadays. Other than that, your new mason needs a workshop and the guards need a barrack with a training area. Jody the carpenter also noted her hopes of either getting a new house with a workshop or an extension to her current one in the same fashion you added a workspace to your friends’ home.”

“Anything else?”

“Miss Irene was asking about the time she and her daughter would relocate to the shop in the town of East Fork. There were inquiries regarding different furniture and miscellaneous items which your carpenter and Miss Amanda can handle. Miss Sophie also added her request for an alchemy workshop and Miss Nina petitioned for a proper general store which she could use as the base for her activities. Priestess Lithia added her inquiry regarding a chapel as well. The last two matters I must mention regarded your manor and the name of the village which is frequently asked by the people.”

“You know,” Regis sighed as he leaned his back to the slowly growing Landwaker tree. “Hearing the organised version of all the stuff that needs attention, it’s still a lot. Please tell Lars and Grego to meet with me tomorrow at sunrise. Also, tell Nina to prepare herself for an outing in East Fork along with Irene and her daughter. As for the name of the village; it’s Thornfell.”

As Regis said those words, the Landwaker behind him shivered slightly, its leaves glowing up with a myriad of colours that filled the village square. The mighty yet warm energy that pulsed out from it made everyone feel as if they were basking in the early summer sun.

“Thornfell,” Osmond hummed. “It has a nice ring to it.”

“Took you long enough to come up with something decent,” Cruz remarked as she stood up to stretch her limbs. “We should get some dinner then turn in for the night.”

“Agreed.” Most of the group joined her near immediately.

“Amanda,” the dark elf called out to the half-giant woman. “Do you have a few bronze ingots to spare?”

“I… sure. How much do you need?”

“Two or three should be fine for now,” Regis said as a new idea began to form in his mind. “I just need it for an experiment. If it works though, I might need a few more later on. I’ll conjure up those roof tiles for you while you get me the ingots.”

“Alright.” The blacksmith agreed as they walked over to the smithy.

Regis crouched down beside the workshop’s wall, turning the cobblestone pavement back into condensed earth before he summoned three cubes of condensed earth which he then reshaped with his ‘terraform’ spell into neatly stacked roof tiles, only to harden them into stone.

“That was fast,” Amanda remarked as she returned from inside the building. “Here’s the bronze you asked for.”

“Thanks.”

“No,” she shook her head as she looked at him, the roof tiles and her home. “Thank you, for everything!”

“Sure. By the way; could you and Sophie come over to the inn, I brought back something good for the team.”

“We’ll be there in a few minutes.” The blacksmith nodded.

The spell weaver just nodded after hearing her words and returned to the inn. Dinner went by fast with the two women arriving by the end. The others were quite curious at the strange behaviour of the spell waver until he brought down the bottle of wine he got from Qadir’s private stash.

“You managed to snatch something fancy for us?” Valerie asked excited as she looked at the bottle.

“More than you know,” Regis remarked as he opened the bottle, pouring some for everyone. “To Thornfell and a bright future!”

“To Thornfell and a bright future!” The others repeated as they knocked their cups together, drowning their content in one go.

A sudden chill ran along the dark elf’s spine as he felt liquid ice flowing through his veins. The sensation wasn’t painful like it was with the ‘dragon blood’ wine, but more subtle and refreshing. Golden words flickered to life in his vision, making Regis crack a smile as he read them.

{You have consumed a ‘Silver Moon Wine’ elixir and were granted three boons.}

{Your Physique attribute has been permanently increased by two.}

{You have gained the ‘Serene Mind’ trait.}

{You have reinforced your ‘Lesser Health Regeneration’ feat.}

“Silver Moon Wine,” Fabien spoke up first. “You found another elixir wine?”

“And a nice one at that,” his sister sighed contently. “I’ve been yearning to get the ‘serene mind’ trait for ages, but the requirements were just too hard.”

“I think I lucked out,” Sophie chirped with an excited smile as she raised her left hand towards a nearby water jug. “I gained an ability.”

“You got what?” Everyone turned towards the sun elf with a flabbergasted expressions.

Under their watchful gaze, a fist-sized glob of water floated out of the jug, pulsing with a bluish glow. The water churned and twisted into a tiny doll-like shape that flared up with a bright light, making them cover their eyes. When it subsided, a palm-sized blue-winged fairy was left in its place, buzzing about in the air.

“I got the ‘Summon water fairy companion’ ability.” Sophie explained as she held out her opened palm for the small fairy to land on.

“Oh damn!” Cruz blurted out as everyone watched the sun elf rub the head of the tiny creature.

“I didn’t know that elixirs could grant abilities.” Fabien remarked as he looked at the bottle that still had a cup or two’s worth left in it.

“Don’t get too greedy,” Valerie sighed. “Anyway; now that the show is over, we should turn in for the night.”

“You do that,” the dark elf stood up, putting the cork back into the wine bottle. “I still have to craft a couple of spell scrolls and try out that new experiment I’ve been thinking about.”

“Another all-nighter?” Letty asked worried. “You should get more rest. You’ve been working quite hard lately.”

“I won’t overdo it,” He reassured the wood elf before grabbing the bronze ingots Amanda brought over and headed toward the stairs. “Good night everyone!”

“Night!” He could hear them say in unison while leaving.