Regis got up and cleaned his armour before putting it on, a sparse breakfast waiting for him and the rest of the group.

“We’ll have to visit one of the settlements soon to get more provisions.” Fabien stated as he looked at their leftover food supplies.

“How much do we have left?” Quentin asked from him as he finished his share of the breakfast.

“About two days’ worth if we ration it.”

“We can’t work on an empty stomach,” Amanda grumbled. “How about we use that fancy new gateway of ours and visit East Fork or Hunor? They should be willing to trade for some food.”

“If nothing else, we could get some fresh or smoked fish.” The infernal young man noted.

“If we can get some vegetable seeds,” Letty spoke up. “Then we should be able to set up a small farmland to supply us. It shouldn’t take more than three or four days to grow a patch of root vegetables if someone helps me with the ‘growth boosting’ spell.”

“We should first mark out where the new wall will be so that we’d know where to build the farms and all that stuff.” Amanda noted.

“If I limit the area of terraforming and ground hardening,” Regis thought aloud. “Then I should be able to draw a hard line on the ground to mark the boundary of the settlement in a few hours.”

“First thing’s first,” Quentin raised his voice somewhat. “We should plant the Landwaker seed. Once that’s done, Letty could stay with it to help it grow while we cleanse the rest of the area.”

“Agreed.” The rest of the group replied.

With the day’s tasks decided, the outlanders left the smithy and walked over to the circular area where the previous Landwaker tree was. Letty pulled off a pouch from her belt and poured its content on the soil. It was a handful of ground nature elemental crystals, the green powder seeping into the ground as she chanted the magic words of the druidic ritual. Once it was over, she turned toward the dark elf.

“It’s your turn now.” She said as she handed a cup of water to Regis as he walked beside her while pulling out the glowing crystal-like seed from one of his pouches.

The spell weaver crouched down and dug a small hole into the middle area, pouring half a cup of water into it which had some nature crystal powder mixed into it. He then placed the seed into the hole before covering it with some soil and pouring the rest of the water on it. The dark elf raised both of his hands above the small mound and began to chant the ‘growth boosting’ spell, twin-casting it on the Landwaker seed. After his third round of casting the spell, the ground cracked and a thin plant stalk broke through it, growing out for roughly one centimetre.

“It worked!” Letty practically beamed with a sunny smile as she too crouched down beside the dark elf, to cast the ‘growth boosting’ spell on the small plant stalk.

One by one each of the outlanders took their turn to cast the spell until they used up their arcana reserves. A few minutes later a near ten centimetre tall sapling stared back at the group, its three tiny leaves shining under the morning sun’s light as if they were tiny gemstones.

“I guess that leaves only one thing for us to do,” Quentin sighed. “Or rather, one thing for you to do, Regis.”

“Are all of you really okay with this?” He asked from his companions, earning a firm nod from everyone.

The dark elf made up his mind on the matter and raised his hand above the small Landwaker sapling. He pricked his finger and let a couple of drops of his blood fall onto the soil beside the tree.

“By the right bestowed upon me as a noble, I hereby claim this valley as my territory. Is there anyone among you who questions my claim?”

“No.” The others answered one by one.

A slight tremor could be felt beneath their feet before a wave of invisible energy pulsed through the air with Regis at the centre. Golden words flickered into life in front of the spell weaver’s eyes, the Heart informing him of the important change that occurred.

{You have claimed the territory of Thorn Vale and thus your caste was changed from ‘landless’ lesser noble to ‘true’ lesser noble.}

{Renown necessary towards caste elevation: 5328}

{As the lord of Thorn Vale you now have the right to bestow vassalage onto those that are of a lower cast compared to you.}

{As the lord of Thorn Vale you now have access to the ‘Lord’ constellation.}

“Is that it,” Cruz mumbled. “Did it work?”

“It did,” Regis nodded. “The Heart just informed me that I have officially become the lord of Thorn Vale.”

“That’s one issue out of the way,” Osmond shrugged as he turned toward the small street that lead to the village gate. “Now we just have to fix this place up as we planned.”

“I’ll stay here to keep nurturing the sapling,” Letty stated. “It will take a lot more work if we want to make it grow up fast.”

“I should get started on marking the line where the new village wall will be.” Regis noted as he began to walk towards the gate with Fabien following behind him.

As they reached the outer perimeter where the new village gate and the wall were planned, the dark elf began to cast his ‘terraforming’ spell in a lengthened line that was about twenty centimetres wide. He cast the spell over and over again, leaving a grassless line of hardened earth to mark the location of the future wall. It took him several hours to draw up the line completely, his companions doing their share of work in the meantime. Lunchtime brought along a decent enough meal given circumstances, although Regis found the lack of salt disturbing.

“How’s it going with the whole line drawing thing?” Valerie asked from the spell weaver, earning a nod and some ineligible mumbling as he kept on eating.

“He managed to finish it just before we headed back,” Osmond explained. “Regis told me that he’ll continue reshaping the riverbed after lunch.”

“Shouldn’t he start with the wall first?” Letty asked as she looked out through the window at the knee-high Landwaker sapling.

“The current wall should be fine for a while,” Amanda noted. “At least until we have more people than houses. And besides; building that wall is going to take a lot of time even with all of us pitching in.”

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“Not that I want to switch the subject, but shouldn’t we do something about our lodgings before bringing random people over?” Cruz brought it up after washing down her food with a few cups of water.

“We really should talk about it,” the tall blacksmith agreed. “As fun as it is to watch you guys camp out on our floor, I think it’s about time you found your own place.”

“The houses around the market square are larger than the ones behind them,” Osmond noted. “Even if we leave out the bakery and the general store, there’s still plenty to pick from.”

“One of the buildings seems to be an inn of sorts,” Quentin spoke up. “I think we should leave it in peace for now and renovate it later on.”

“An inn would surely come in handy later on.”

“As nice as that sounds,” Valerie shook her head. “It would be pointless if there are no travellers to visit the place and we don’t want random people here, remember?”

“The locals would need a place to drink and relax at the end of the day,” Regis noted. “Having a place that could serve food and some good drink would go a long way.”

“That’s all good and well, but we're talking about our homes, not the ones meant for the workers.”

“I’ll build my own place once the wall around the village is finished,” The dark elf stated as he finished his lunch. “I can just sleep in one of the houses until then, or in our future inn.”

“Looks like lord Regis has already decided on building his manor.” Amanda said with a formal tone, earning a slight chuckle from Sophie.

“Anyway,” the dark elf grumbled. “We’re burning daylight here so let’s get going.”

He stood up and left the door of the village gate making his way over to the riverside where he stopped his work the previous evening. The boring task of reshaping the riverbed on that side made the time pass by at a slow yet steady pace and before he knew it, the spell weaver reached the village just as the sun was about to go down behind the mountains. Regis and his current guard returned to the village square, finding the rest of the group in front of their future inn’s door.

“Are we sleeping here tonight?” He asked, earning a nod from Quentin.

“We decided to give Amanda and Sophie their space and cleared out this place. It does have plenty of rooms. Come on; dinner should be ready soon.”

The dark elf took a look at the Landwaker that only seemed to be a few centimetres taller than it was at noon, except that it was now as thick as two of his finger put together. Inside the building, he was greeted by a large open area that had been cleared out, leaving a long table and a couple of chairs in the middle of the spacious room with a few smaller square tables here and there. Fabien and Mary were coming and going through a door at the other side of the room, bringing out dinnerware and their freshly cooked meal.

“Here it is,” Mary said as she placed a large plate on the table. “We have roasted rabbit and wild chicken, roasted vegetables and mushroom sauce.”

“We also found a few bottles of wine that proved to be quite nice after being cleansed.” Fabien added as he placed two roughly crafted bottles on the table along with several cups.

“So, are we going to town tomorrow?” Valerie asked excitedly as she poured some wine for herself and the others.

“That was the plan,” Regis nodded as he looked at the red liquid in his cup. “Which town should we visit though?”

“If we plan on getting crop seeds,” Letty spoke up. “Then it’s best to visit Escroft. They seemed to be less troubled by the whole undead situation, so they should have some surplus to trade.”

“Someone will have to stay here,” Osmond stated with a serious tone. “We might have fixed up that large gate and wall back at the mountain pass area, but no one is guarding it. It wouldn’t take that much effort to climb over it if someone would want to come here.”

“Are you worried about that nobleman who owned the fishing outpost?” Quentin asked as he looked at the concerned spell caster.

“I’m pretty sure he already realised that his men are dead. Sooner or later he will send more after us, not to mention that we might still have dark elves on our tail.”

“And I take it you want to volunteer as house guard for now?” Fabien chuckled as he swirled the wine in his cup.

“You’re only going on a supply run, not to save the Shardlands. I can just sit down beside the Landwaker and spam the ‘growth boosting’ spell on it while you’re away.”

“I’ll stay behind with him,” Cruz noted as she finished her dinner. “There’s no point in all of us going in the first place.”

“Anyone else?” Regis asked and Mary raised her hand slowly.

“I want to properly clean out the inn.”

“Okay,” the dark elf nodded. “We should get our bags and our coin pouches ready then. Supplies likely won’t be cheap with the way things are.”

With the travel plan finalised Fabien showed the rest of the group their rooms for the night. It seemed that the building was intended to be a community shelter of sorts, that is if there was such a thing in this world. The room Regis would sleep in was small, reminiscent of the tiny dorm room he had to live in while in high school. It had just enough space for a bed, a night table and a chest in front of the bed. A closed window took up some space on the left side of the room's wall.

“Cosy.” He said as he put his non-essential belongings into the recently cleaned wooden chest.

After saying goodnight to the others, he took off his armour and clothes before he cast the cleansing spell on himself. He put on some spare clothes and got into his not-so-comfortable bed, falling asleep in a few minutes. The night rushed by silently and the spell weaver was woken up by a knock on the door.

“Wake up Regis,” he heard Quentin’s voice from the other side of the door. “Breakfast is ready.”

The dark elf grumbled some silenced profanities as he got out of bed, pulling on his armour and taking his now relatively empty knapsack and coin pouch downstairs with him.

“Morning.” He said between yawns as he sat down beside the table, receiving a few similar greetings before he began to eat his lacklustre breakfast.

“You look terrible,” Valerie said with a worried tone as she looked at the dark elf. “Did you even get any sleep?”

“I did,” Regis sighed between two mouthfuls. “But that bed is worse than sleeping on the floor. I think I’ll just stick to my bedroll until I get my own place.”

“Same here,” Cruz grumbled. We’ll have to find a proper carpenter if we want any decent furniture around here.”

“Let’s focus on the necessities first,” Quentin reminded them. “We need to set up that farm plot, maybe even a greenhouse or something.”

“And where do you plan to get the glass for that?” Osmond looked at the paladin with an almost accusing expression. “Most bottles I’ve seen so far were made out of clay, or they were coloured glass. Getting enough clear glass to build a greenhouse would be a serious undertaking.”

“Not necessarily,” the young spell weaver stated. “I could grow larger quartz crystals and then transmute them into sheets. They should work pretty much the same as glass panels. I can even make coloured ones if I infuse them with an element that I have an affinity for.”

“You got to be shitting me,” Cruz cursed after hearing his proposal. “Do you have any idea how valuable those kinds of crystals would be? You might as well be building the frame of the greenhouse out of marble while at it and turn it into a friggin church for Mother Nature.”

“Or he could sell those crystals and buy the clear glass.” Sophie tried to calm down the quickly rising emotions of the group.