Once we were all back in the city, the Grand Master immediately excused himself and took the Blue Mage with him. She seemed to want to chat with us, but he was insistent that they leave. It was a shame, because I wanted to discuss some things with him as well. He was definitely up to something, and I was starting to think it had some connection to the bandits. However, I was being dragged in the other direction by the Mage and the two teens. The Mage was much more friendly now that he thought I might actually help them.

We ended up at a table in the inn and tavern. They didn’t have any alcohol, as their stocks were low. Fortunately, I had put some drinks away in my inventory, and brought them out. It was a low-level alcohol, closer to a sparkling grape juice. It was the closest thing I could find to the carbonated beverages I was used to back home.

As Miki poured everyone a drink, I brought out another parchment and paper, and began drawing. This image looked a lot better than the last one I had made. I was now a Cartographer level 5 and had unlocked Basic Drawing and a skill called Metrics. I also had a skill called Orientation which seemed to help me know when I was facing North, and a skill called Light Touch which allowed me to adjust the pen pressure to create darker and thinner lines a bit easier. I had left Cartographer equipped as we wiped out those 50-some bandits. Adding to that my experience bonuses, and anything level 1 would have shot up quite quickly.

“Ah! Incredible!” The boy cried out in awe.

Was it really that impressive to be able to draw maps? Well, I was just copying an already drawn map in my head. If I was doing it by memory, it would certainly be impressive. I quickly finished the drawing and then pointed at it.

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“Tell me where the villages are that are still left standing.” I declared.

The boy blinked and then blushed. “I’m sorry, I only know where three villages are, and I can only say two of them were still standing when we left.”

“Give it here, boy!” The Mage pulled the map to him. “I’ve been around the area a bit more than you.”

“He’s a traveling magician. He comes to villages and puts on shows.”

“An entertainer?” My eyes widened.

It wasn’t that the concept of an entertainer surprised me. Rather, it was that this guy had such a grating personality, but was apparently someone who brought joy to people in small villages.

“Hmph!” The man snorted. “I know a few tricks. I can captivate an audience, at least.”

Now that I thought about it, he did have a bit of a prima donna vibe to him. I wasn’t going to judge though.

After marking things for a few minutes, mumbling to himself, and then marking some more things, he was able to flesh out the map. A lot of these villages were outside of my sense life range. If they had not been, I probably would have assumed they were bandits. Well, some of them might be. There was no telling which ones housed bandits and which ones were being preserved.

With the Grand Master watching the city, I’d be safe going to these places. My plans hadn’t changed, but I was going to be able to do things a bit easier now.

“We’ll visit your village first.” I said.

“N-now?” The boy said in surprise.

“I’d prefer to move before they can react.” I explained. “Plus, there is a bit of daylight left.”

I was interested in creating one more defensible area. Regency was under siege and was far too difficult to move out from. Since it wasn’t a good place to launch my campaign, and seemed safe enough with the Grand Master protecting it, I was going to prepare my own base of operations.