The room wasn’t big, maybe three square meters, with two worn out wooden beds on each side of the room and a few miscellaneous items put in arm’s reach.

“Where’s Aspen?” Regis asked as he couldn’t see the roguish fellow anywhere.

“He said that there were people willing to buy his excess loot, so he’s off to get some money.”

“It seems that those guards at the enchanter’s shop were right. Even here, money is king.”

“So,” the tall blacksmith sighed. “What exactly is our plan here?”

“We should obviously go and help take East Fork back!” Quentin spoke first as he stopped looking around.

“I’m not talking about that,” Amanda shook her head. “I’m talking about what comes after that. Are we just going to aimlessly head up the river, hoping to find another day’s worth of rations we can fight for? Is that what we are now; mercenaries scrounging for scraps?”

“No,” Valerie sat down on the edge of a bed. “I’m not going to roam around like a homeless vagrant. I’ve heard a lot of the other outlander guilds talk on the streets before. There’s more and more of us every day and they all want a piece of the pie. Hunor is just the starting ground. The real goal of everyone in Ecragurne is to survive while staking claim to a piece of the land for themselves. That nobleman isn’t any different and the ones still alive out there are no better either. Not even us outlanders are any different. I’ve heard them mention how they wanted to take a village or anything else over for themselves.”

“Everyone wants power,” Fabien agreed with his sister. “These idiots are recruiting like crazy and sooner or later they’ll make their move. Even if this continent is overtaken by monsters, we’re pretty much immortal here for the time being and everyone knows it. They’ll kill off the monsters first, so that they could get stronger before they would begin to fight each other. We won’t be able to go on for long without picking a side.”

“I’m picking my side,” Khan banged on his chest. “I’m not going to fight someone else’s fight just for a few scraps. I say we take over one of the cleared out villages and turn it into our own little kingdom.”

“A kingdom needs people and territories,” Osmond tapped the ground with his cane. “With only a little village, we’d be no better than those fools out there. For one thing, we’re under equipped. We’re also weak. That much has been proven during our last battle. How do plan on turning anything in this corpse filled and poisonous land into a decent enough home with just the few people that barely reached tier one? If you’ve even got that far yet.”

“Our first step is clear,” Regis spoke up for the first time in a while. “East Fork is different from Hunor. When we came here, this place was already secured. The barracks were filled with soldiers and the spell weavers’ guild already had people occupying it. East Fork is on the brink of collapse. There might be only a few of us, but there’s a good side to that as well. We can move faster than the large groups, targeting specific places that benefit us. They want us to help kill the undead? Fine; we’ll do just that. The only difference is that we’ll do so while taking whatever isn’t nailed down.”

“What?” Quentin turned towards the dark elf with a flabbergasted look on his face.

“I don’t know how much iron Hunor had before my arrival, but Amanda told me that it’s worth its weight in gold now and so far I’ve only seen the guards and a few mercenaries wield iron weapons.”

A sudden stillness took hold of the room as everyone looked at each other with a conflicted expression.

“Can you say the same for an undead occupied city like East Fork? Over here, we have to race against hundreds of people for anything useful. That won’t be the case there. I say we should do our best to prioritise getting new gear as soon as we arrive there. There’s no guarantee that the leader of East Fork will actually pay us for helping them, so we should take what’s owned, for services rendered.”

“He’s right,” Cruz nodded. “These bastards are surely planning the same and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d try to curry the head honcho’s favour in hopes of getting their own place out of it. The least we can do is get the best deal for our assistance. Once we’ve earned some respect and hopefully something better than these basic armours and weapons, we can go and look for our own piece of heaven. For now, we should just get ready for the journey.”

“Agreed.” Everyone said one after the other.

“Speaking of getting ready,” Regis cleared his throat. “I have a little something for everyone, but I need you to swear on your lives that you won’t tell about it to anyone!”

Everyone looked at the dark elf as he stood there with a stern expression. They knew that Regis wasn’t the type to ask such a thing without a good reason, so they all nodded. The young man pulled out several small stacks of toilet paper from his knapsack, handing them out to his comrades.

“I’ve neither the time nor the resources to make more than one stack for everyone, so I doubt that it’ll last long. I’ll try to make more once we’re settled over at East Fork and have some time.”

“Is that a...”

“Nobody say a word!” Valerie raised her voice as she pulled a dagger from her satchel and cut her finger.

She walked around the group, leaving drops of blood on the ground. Once she stopped, she began to mutter some obscure words and everyone saw the blood on the ground come to life. The drops moved towards each other to form a red circle as thin as a fishing line. It glowed with a crimson light and a shimmer ran through the air around them.

“I’ve created a barrier that seals all sounds and prevents scrying magic.

“Why do we need something like that?” Sophie asked while Quentin healed Valerie’s finger.

“We need it because that’s obviously toilet paper, which is…”

“Useful?”

“That’s one word for it,” Osmond stared at his stack of unbleached paper. “You’re telling me that you’ve made this?”

“I did. Think of it as a by-product of a successful experiment of my secondary profession,” He said with a proud smile as he pulled out the empty book from his knapsack to show it to the pale youth. “And here’s the main result.”

As soon as Fabien saw the leather covered book, he immediately cut his index finger, drawing a symbol on his palm.

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“I, Fabien Favreau, hereby swear on the blood that flows through my veins that I will not reveal anything that happened today, will happen, had been spoken and will be spoken about!” He made his oath and the bloody sigil glowed up for a moment before sinking into his skin.

“What the hell was that?” Khan stared at the infernal man with a slight disgust in his eyes.

“It’s a blood oath,” Valerie said as she followed her brother’s example. “The moment Regis revealed those paper stacks and that book was the moment he entrusted us with an important secret. It’s only natural that we’d answer in kind. This blood oath will prevent us from revealing anything that happened inside the barrier, no matter what manner of potion, spell or torture they’d use on us.”

“Is it really necessary to go to such lengths over a pack of TP and a stupid book?” The Mongolian youth shook his head in frustration.

Pretty much everyone else in the room stared at him as if they were looking at a complete idiot.

“Khan, do you have siblings?” Cruz face palmed herself. “I’m just asking in case we have to prevent your stupidity from spreading.”

“How many people have you seen carrying toilet paper around since you’ve arrived here?” Osmond tried to calm the situation.

“None.” The curt answer resounded in the room.

“And how many paper based books like these did you see?”

“I’ve only seen books in that Verner guy’s place, but I didn’t check them out up close.” Khan answered as he scratched his head.

“Those answers are about the same for everyone here. What do you think is needed to make this stuff?”

“Machines.” Khan said with a proud smirk as he remembered the television show he had seen once, explaining how paper was made.

“Or someone with access to transmutation alchemy.”

“Like in the manga?” The youth’s eyes widened as the thought of a metal armed blonde guy came to his mind.

“Transmutation alchemy is a rare craft,” Valerie said with a wishful expression. “Even rarer than infusion enchanting, especially so in this war-torn and corpse filled country where most of the skilled spell weavers are either dead or holed up in some faraway fortress. I had some time to talk with a few local neophytes about the state of arcane education, and the situation is dismal.”

Valerie couldn’t help shaking her head with a dejected sigh, proving that her hopes of gaining immense arcane knowledge and power early on got shattered far too fast.

“Something like transmutation is pretty much a stuff of tales with barely anyone capable of it. There were rumours about wizards owning one or two transmutation circles out of the seven, but they were just that; rumours. I don’t know how Regis came about it, or how many of the formations he has, but that doesn’t really matter. Having the ability to use even one would make him a valuable asset for anyone of considerable power. After hearing that, what do you think the people outside would do to him if they’d found out about this stack of TP or that stupid book, as you’ve called it?”

“Well…”

“They would hunt down Regis, either to torture him for the formation diagrams or to capture him and force him to slave away for them. Either way, he’s done for if this gets out. Imagine someone capable of splitting raw ore out of the mined out rocks it was in, refining it into metal bars in a fraction of time it would take for other craftsmen, without using charcoal or other resources. Imagine shitty quality raw materials being refined into higher grade ones in minutes. That’s something everyone with a territory and power yearns for.” Osmond answered instead of the surprised youth.

“Shit.” Khan cursed as he finally understood why the spell weavers of the group went so far with their cloak and dagger actions.

“So what now?” Sophie asked as she noticed pretty much everyone cutting their fingers to draw the symbol on their palm the same way Fabien drew before.

A few moments later when they were done with the oath and the tension went down a little, Valerie sighed as she plopped down on the edge of the bed.

“Now we’ll definitely have to get the hell out of here tomorrow morning. We can’t stick around here with a golden goose in our midst. By the way; what’s your luck score? You’ve been getting far too much good stuff lately for your own good.” She chuckled as she looked at Regis.

“It’s twelve, if I remember correctly.” Regis answered with a deadpan face.

“Twelve,” Fabien looked at him with a baffled expression. “How the fuck did you get it beyond ten? Val and I have daemon blood in us and even we’re only at ten. Do you have celestial ancestry or something?”

“Beats me,” The dark elf shrugged. “I remember starting out at nine,, but then shit happened.”

“Returning to the more important matters; Regis having some skill in transmutation alchemy does change things a bit,” Osmond nodded. “But not by much. I admit that our friend here did increase his net value by quite a bit, but it doesn’t really matter, if we can’t get out of this shithole. I say we go to East Fork and sweep the place for what it’s worth like we’ve talked about it before. After that; if the seven’s willing, I suggest we go with the plan that’s been circling around the other outlanders.”

“You mean the capturing villages stuff?” Letty looked at her friend with a newfound caution. “Wouldn’t that make us the same kind of evil as that Verner is? I don’t want to hurt people, unless if it’s a battle or something.”

“If what Galen and Salvador told me is true, then the whole continent is screwed,” Regis spoke up after contemplating things for a short while. “They came from the neighbouring kingdom using a boat along the shore. Galen mentioned that their kingdom got hit even harder by demons and undead.”

“Demons?” Quentin perked up at the mention of the creatures.

“So, nowhere is safe then.” Fabien drew the obvious conclusion.

“Nope. This is both bad, and good for us. Did anyone of you have seen a map of the kingdoms yet?”

“No.” The uniform answer resounded.

“Me neither,” Regis sighed. “Maps seem to be rare, so only important people would have detailed ones. I doubt we’d be able to get our hands on one here.”

“We could get one at East Fork,” Cruz said as she fiddled with her new wooden staff. “If most of the city is under undead and whatnot siege, I’m sure there will be one or two along our way. Or we’ll just ask the right people to show it to us as part of our compensation.”

“Yes,” Osmond nodded. “Knowing our surroundings is necessary before we make a decision. It would be pointless to try and muscle our way into a place guarded by trigger happy guards and desperate nobles.”

“An overrun and ownerless town would be a different thing though,” Khan finally caught up with the flow of thoughts that formed their plan. “So, we’ll gear up and gather as much Amaranth and supplies as possible before picking our choice of land for the taking.”

“And then it will be a race against time and the other people,” Quentin groaned as he sat down beside Valerie. “I don’t want to belittle us, but I’m pretty sure that everyone else outside is having this exact talk right now, with a similar outcome.”

“Not everyone,” Amanda shook her head. “But the smarter and more ambitious ones are definitely on the same track of thought as we are. The real question is; who’s going to get on those boats.”

“She’s right,” Regis looked at his companions. “Whoever gets to leave Hunor first will have a serious head start compared to the rest, so everyone will try their best to get their own people on board.”

“Eight boats with fifteen people max. Fourteen if we count the boatman,” Sophie did the math. “That’s a hundred and twelve people in total. That’s a small number.”

“It’s even smaller with two guard troops coming along.” Letty reminded her about the guards mentioned by the lord’s messenger.

“It will be a tight squeeze,” Cruz patted her sister’s head. “Just the mercenaries inside Hunor outnumber the available space at least three to one, not to mention the desperate refugees and us.”

“We’ll have to cash in our favours then,” Regis turned around to face the door. “I’ll go and find Grego. The good captain owes us a fair bit for helping his people. His word should carry some weight for the right ears.”

“But that might not be enough,” Quentin sighed and stood up. “I’ll ask father Steon for his recommendation. I’m sure he’ll agree with me that sending skilled people and a representative of Saintess Elora would do good for the cause. If he can send word for that prick of a Verner, that might help get our name on that list.”

“Right. I’ll also talk to Salvador. I’m pretty sure he’ll want me on that boat.” Regis claimed as he touched his chest where the portal amulet was hidden behind his armour.

“Then I hereby state that this meeting is adjourned. Everyone’s dismissed!” Khan joked as he hammered with his fist on the bedframe, earning a creaking sound.

“Don’t break my bed you moron!” Amanda scoffed as she shooed out the group from her room.

“We’ll meet at the river docks in the morning. Get your stuff ready by then.” Regis threw the words back to the scattering group before heading towards the barracks.