“I’m glad to see you’re finally taking a break,” Valerie noted after shushing her brother silent. “We were starting to get worried that you will pull another all-nighter doing your little enchanting project.”

“It’s not out of the question yet,” Regis admitted as he looked towards the marble gazebo frame. “I only managed to create the ‘trash’ ranked runic circle yet. There’s still a lot to do if I want to upgrade it into an ‘ordinary’ gateway.”

“You’re already progressing much faster than what we previously estimated,” Quentin patted the dark elf on the back. “How far can we go with the current gateway?”

“The ‘trash’ ranked runic diagram will allow us to connect and travel to other previously visited gateways in a five hundred kilometre distance.”

“So we’re barely in range to travel to Escroft?” Sophie asked as she too looked at the runic circle that glowed with a soft grey colour.

“We could,” the spell weaver shook his head. “But we’re way out of range to go back to East Fork or Hunor.”

“In other words,” Osmond deduced. “You'll have to upgrade it before we could leave this place.”

“If the enchanters’ tome was right, then an ‘ordinary’ gateway should let us travel five thousand kilometres.”

“That should be enough to go straight back to East Fork, right?” Cruz tried to figure out their travelling choices.

“It should be well within our range,” Osmond nodded as he did his mental math after thinking back to the map on the library’s wall. “We could easily go back for our stuff as well as additional supplies.”

“We can talk about this later,” Quentin let out a small sigh. “On our part; we managed to fully cleanse the village square and the surrounding buildings along with the path we took here from the gate. I’d say that we’re done with one-fourth the place.”

“That’s pretty good,” Regis praised the group. “If we can keep this up, the whole area should get cleared out in two days. After that, we can finally concentrate on whipping this place into shape.”

“And the surrounding lands as well,” Letty reminded them. “I watched the effect us cleansing the village had on the plants on the ground. The small dried-up grass patches between the cobblestones got a lot livelier since the morning. I think that once the corruption is gone, I could turn the land fertile again with a druidic ritual I read back in East Fork. That is if I can get a few nature elemental stones.”

“We can arrange that,” the dark elf agreed. “Just remind me later to make you some.”

“Okay.” Letty beamed with happiness as the rest of the warband took their time to eat their meagre lunch.

“I guess it’s time for us to head back to work.” Osmond spoke up after finishing his rations.

“By the way,” the dark elf spoke up way. “Did you guys find anything of use or any information on the previous settlers?”

“Not much,” Quentin admitted as he cast his gaze downward. “It seems to be a well built, but relatively small and ordinary village. As for the people that lived here; we only found ash so far.”

“We’ll keep an eye out and tell you about our findings in the evening,” Amanda promised as she helped up Sophie from where she was sitting. “You just keep tinkering with the gateway until we return, okay?”

“Sure,” Regis agreed. “Just try to be careful. We don’t know what else might be lurking around here.”

“Says the guy who’s going to stay alone while the rest of us are sticking together.” The tomboyish wood elf retorted.

“You’re more than welcome to watch my back as I work.”

“And get bored to death?” Cruz shook her head. “I’d rather take my chances with those shades.”

“Alright,” Osmond patted the woman’s shoulder. “Let’s get going before you say something that will cost us our future equipment.”

“Have fun you lot.” The spell weaver said his temporary goodbyes as he too headed back to continue his work.

The following hours melted together as he switched between creating arcanite stones, meditating and redrawing the runic circle of the gateway. By the time the frame and half of the runes turned milk-white in colour, the sun was already disappearing behind the mountains. A gentle voice interrupted the weary dark elf’s meditation, snapping him back to reality.

“It’s getting late,” Letty said as she crouched down beside the spell weaver. “You should stop for today and come back inside the smithy. It will be dark soon and we don’t know if those horrid shades will still appear.”

“I guess you’re right,” Regis sighed as he stood up, looking at the half-grey half-white runic circle on the marble floor. “I’ll have to finish the rest of it tomorrow.”

The two of them headed back to the smithy where the rest of the warband already made themselves at home. The main floor of the workshop had been cleaned of dust and all of the furniture and walls seemed brand new, the obvious proof of the ‘lesser mending’ spell being used to fix up the place.

“You look like shit,” Cruz noted as she looked at the dark elf. “You should have taken more time to rest while working.”

“Did you even stop after we met at noon?” Sophie asked as she looked at the weary look on his face.

“I meditated a lot if that counts.” Regis claimed as he plopped down on one of the crates that cluttered the small room.

“Doing that once or twice is fine,” Valerie shook her head. “But it can wear you down if you do it a lot.” “Come on, dinner is almost ready.”

The left side door behind the small counter led to a back room that was a small dining room opened together with a kitchen where Fabien and Mary were already busy preparing their meal. A set of stairs headed upstairs to a place Regis was yet to explore.

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“That’s where our bedroom is going to be,” Sophie stated as she followed his gaze. “It’s nothing special, but it’s spacious enough for the two of us. The main floor will be turned into our workspace. Amanda wants to wall up that furnace and open it up on this side so that she could work beneath an actual roof.”

“Can you blame me?” the tall blacksmith grumbled. “What kind of idiot would build the furnace on the outside of the smithy and leave most of their tools inside?

“It’s not like you have a lot of those, to begin with.” Osmond rolled his eyes as he sat down on an old crate in the lack of chairs.

“We could just add another room to the building,” Regis offered. “There is enough space beside the smithy for me to raise a few walls with spaces for windows to build an 'L' shaped extra room of sorts around the furnace. That way you would have more space to work with.”

“That would be perfect,” Sophie agreed with a wide smile. “She would have her own corner and I could turn the room where the smithing tools were kept into my leather working workshop.”

“Well,” Amanda scratched her head as she looked towards the already cluttered main floor. “We could do with a bit more space, but nothing too big. I only need enough space to hold the anvil, the grinder and a couple of shelves with the quenching trough.”

“Are you sure?” Cruz looked at the tall woman with obvious doubt. “That doesn’t sound like a lot of space.”

“That’s because I don’t need a lot of space,” Amanda argued. “Normally, a proper furnace, the bellows to make it work and the coal sacks would take up a lot of space, but if Regis can reinforce and turn the one outside into one of those magic furnaces, then that would make it more compact. Other than that, most of my tools would be kept on wall-mounted shelves and the stuff I get to make would be stored elsewhere.”

“You girls sure don’t waste any time,” Valerie butted into the argument. “I’m glad to see you already have your plans for the place, but let’s concentrate on clearing out the village first.”

“And getting that gateway up and working while we’re at it.” Fabien added from the kitchen.

“Alright everyone,” Mary said with a smile as she grabbed the pot from the fireplace. “Dinner is ready.”

“Finally,” Cruz switched the subject of her attention surprisingly fast. “I’m starving.”

Everyone took a seat wherever they could find a place for themselves, waiting their turn to receive their bowl of meat stew.

“Where did you get the meat from?” Regis couldn’t stop himself from asking.

“Believe it or not, Sophie managed to shoot a pair of rabbits just after we reached the village entrance.” Amanda explained with obvious pride.

“It was quite surprising,” the sun elf admitted. “We thought that no animals lived around here, but Letty said that she could feel life starting to return to the valley as soon as the corrupted Landwaker got fully destroyed.”

“It’s not like there wasn’t any, to begin with,” the nature mage protested. “It’s just that the corruption made them wary of this area. Now that its source is gone, they must have sensed it and become a bit more daring.”

“All the more reason to cleanse the whole place and get the gates and wall fixed up,” Quentin added. “We don’t need bears and wolves walking on our streets.”

“I should be able to finish the gateway before tomorrow noon,” the dark elf claimed. “Once I’m done with that I’ll walk along the wall to see where it needs to be fixed while you cleanse in the rest of the village.”

“Alright,” Fabien sighed between two spoonfuls. “Less planning and more eating or it will get cold before you know it.”

“It’s surprisingly quiet,” Letty said as she looked towards the closed windowsills. “The sun is already down, but there aren’t any shades at our doorstep.”

“Not yet anyway,” Osmond noted as he turned toward the spell weaver. “Since the central area had been cleansed, the ones that would reappear here are likely gone. This doesn’t mean that the rest of the shades from the village are gone as well. You should put up those barriers for tonight just in case.”

“Sure thing,” Regis agreed as he finished his dinner. “Thanks for the meal.”

He left the rest of the group and headed over to the door, creating the same light element infused barrier used the previous night. The dark elf formed a barrier on each windowsill before he cast it on the walls and the fireplace's chimney.

“All done,” he told to his companions before returning to his bedroll. “I’ll be heading off to sleep. Goodnight everyone.”

“Night.” The others said as one while they watched the weary dark elf shamble off to sleep.

That night, no one had to stand guard and when morning came, the barriers looked untouched. Mary reheated last night’s leftovers for breakfast which the outlanders ate in surprising silence. As they geared up and left the smithy, the morning breeze brought fresh and clean air into the village, making them less strained as they breathed in.

“I must admit,” Osmond broke the silence. “With that heavy ominous feeling gone, this place isn’t bad at all.”

“Imagine how nice it will be once the place gets fixed up and people start to live here.” Cruz noted.

“Just another goal to work toward.” Quentin sighed as the group split, the dark elf heading toward the marble gazebo frame where his half-upgraded gateway was.

He folded the bottom part of his cloak beneath himself as a pillow of sorts as he sat down, ready to continue his work. The cycle of arcanite creation, meditation and infusion enchanting began anew, hours slipping by as the gateway’s runes turned white one by one. It was finally finished just an hour shy of noon, the stiff-legged and hungry dark elf standing up to get a better look at the result of his hard work. ‘Looks pretty good for my first-ever gateway.’ He thought to himself as he turned his attention to the marble frame of the gazebo itself. ‘Maybe I should add a barrier to it later.’ Regis hummed as he turned around and left toward the smithy. Some food and water later the young spell weaver decided to spend some time creating nature elemental crystals and some arcanite for the planned barriers while waiting for his companions to return. Two dozen or so stones later the sound of footsteps and chatter caught his ears, the rest of the warband showing up a few moments later.

“I see you finally managed to get the gateway up to speed,” Osmond was the first one to speak up. “What are those arcanite and elemental stones for?”

“I promised Letty I’d make a couple of them for her druidic land fertilizer ritual. I’m also planning to create a barrier around the gateway for added security.”

“Oh,” the wood elf hummed as she looked at the small pile. ‘That’s a lot more than I hoped to get.”

“You can use the excess to supercharge the ground beneath our Landwaker or something.”

“I can do that,” she nodded happily. “But first we have to cleanse the rest of the village.”

“We should be done with that before sundown.” Quentin stated, earning an agreeing nod from the rest of his companions.

“Well,” the dark elf sighed. “The gateway is now at ‘ordinary’ rank, so we should be able to travel without a problem. I’ll head out to check up on the walls.”

“I already did that,” Osmond admitted. “It’s in a fairly decent shape, not to mention that I discovered something interesting about it.”

“What did you find out?” The paladin turned towards the pale youth with an inquisitive look as the others began to eat their dried ration-based lunch.