Five days went by in a flash. During this time, Nero did some outings in town, to purchase supplies and tools. Most notable purchases among many items were saws and axes for the villagers and assorted painting canvas for Nero. He spent most of the time painting. Once people found out Nero's budding talent, a flood of requests for portraits came from the villagers. He was forced to indulge.

News of the massacre at Hom spread through word-of-mouth, quelling the dissent with those that chose to stay. Even some people that were lamenting they didn't have time to bring their livestock with them - a few horses and cows did enter the shelter, Nero learned later.

But he couldn't go on a shopping spree for everything they needed. It would be too conspicuous.

On the fifth day, the whole town was decorated with streamers, and the people were less busy than before. Nero approached a person to ask.

"Hi, I've just arrived, what is going on?"

"Didn't you hear? We won the war against Coriander! Our knights sent the enemy running back but our beloved prince Tyre and his captain gave their life to defeat the enemy. There are a parade and wake in his honor! The courtyard of the palace is open to commoners!"

"That's great, but..."

"Sorry, I got to go. Otherwise I won't get a good spot!"

Nero sighed. Propaganda. They won. Good to know that massacre can be considered a victory. Nero walked around for a while but he was going against the stream of people going to the capital for the event. Children were smiling, bards were singing praise to prince Tyre, telling the tale of how he defeated the enemy general. Nero felt sick so he found a good back alley to put a portal and returned home.

He could hear the sound of trees falling in the distance. Turned out people wanted the lumberjack tools because apple wood was considered very good for furniture and tools. They were a bit dismayed when Nero said the products couldn't be taken out of the shelter but they still decided to work on it. Juron the village lumberjack and carpenter said it was good training for the kids. Applewood, he said, needed to be properly varnished and treated because it was a quirky wood to work with. It had a higher reaction to moisture than other woods.

It only showed Nero how all fields had their own depth. Even something people dismissed as basic and easy to grasp as carpentry could become complex and exquisite. His respect for Juron rose when he helped Mrs. Agatha Simmons, but now it soared. And it seems the widow might be starting her own business of handling exquisite timber dowels soon. Not for sale.

There was nothing he could do with the kingdom having a holiday. Nero spent another week reading his books, making white-grade Essence powered lanterns, stoves, cooling, and heating plates for the villagers. And painting. He painted the Dungeon scenes he witnessed, the monsters, and some of the villagers on request.

He was on the lawn in front of the house-tree painting when his parents approached.

"Nero, we want to go to the city. We will check with some contacts," Rhynne said. "And try to find the other minnid settlements. If things are as bad as we suspect, we are going to leave Bast entirely.

It wasn't the best solution as the prejudice in Bast was less than in other places. Nero looked up. Maybe that's what Crystal meant when she said about forging a nation. A place for their people.

"Are you sure?" Nero asked.

Byron slapped his back. Nero staggered. "A hundred-twenty-five," He hummed. "Kid, we are veterans. And it is not us they are looking for. We are going to visit the guild, do some shopping, see some people. And if they do come for us, well, I have a surprise for them."

The goddamned people-slaying ax, Nero remarked with a nod. With a sigh, he opened a portal to the south town and they crossed through. He went back to painting, and that was how Crystal found him.

"Brother, can we talk for a while? In private?"

She looked pained. Nero reached and held her hand. "Of course, sister. Anytime. Should we go somewhere else?" He opened a portal to Rodther's shelter.

They crossed through, and Crystal summoned an ornate padded bench. After he was done taking what he could from the knights' dimensional pouches, he asked Crystal to take everything else. Her pouch was a purple-grade measured in feet, not inches like his.

"What is troubling you?" He asked as he sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

Crystal leaned her head on his shoulder. "The knights from Coriander. Princess Serena's knights. I have to talk to them. We need a big mirror for that."

There was a pain in her voice. "What is wrong with them?"

She looked up, meeting his eyes. "They killed the villagers. That's unforgivable. A knight shouldn't act like that, Nero!"

"What do you want to do about that?" He asked, a bit wary of the answer.

"They forsook their honor. They have to pay for what they've done. Here is what we'll do."

She explained her plan to Nero. He felt how heavy was her burden. And how unwilling she was to ask him to do what he would need to do to defeat the knights. But after Nero heard her request, he just kissed her forehead and hugged her.

"I'll do that. I need to contact Amaryllis and procure the mirror. Only she can find where they are."

Nero went back home with his sister and went to the workshop to find Altia. She was using the herbs he put in the forest to make potions. He knocked softly on the door, unwilling to startle or disturb her work. Once she called, he entered.

"Nero? What's wrong?" She asked.

He explained Crystal's plan. It was risky but for her sanity's sake, he would make it happen. In the end, he looked at the boxes of potions.

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"How's work going?"

"Bad," She shook her head. "The potions are too weak. Weaker than the ones made with wild-growing plants. There's not enough energy on the plants to transmute into the potion. Here, a mana potion. Try it for yourself."

With all the portal-hopping and the shelter's upkeep, Nero was always running on a half-full mana pool. He drank the potion, noticing the bland watery taste and saw his mana tick up by a whooping...

"Three points."

"That's after my Class and Skill bonuses," She pointed out. "There are whole batches that become nothing better than foul-tasting dirty water."

"Is the problem the Essence level of the environment?"

"Yes. We would need to grow them inside a Dungeon. Or somewhere with a really high Essence concentration. If people could reliably farm medicinal herbs, potions would be cheap."

"I'll look into it. I have a glimpse of a solution, but I need to visit the Lyceum, and..."

"With the kingdom after you, it won't happen so soon."

"And we need a ton of things to help the villagers settle. I need to ask Amaryllis how does she stores buildings whole in her dimensional pouch, and if it can be done by others."

"Your parents were there when she stole the castle. Why don't you ask them?" Altia suggested.

Nero looked down and laughed. "Maybe I should, right?"

"You go and get'em!" She smiled, gave him a thumbs-up, and returned to tend her concoctions.

Nero counted the bundles of herbs she had and accepted he might not be able to take her out of her lab. He sighed.

Altia spoke without facing him. "I sighed just like that when I tried to get you away from those spiky wheels of yours."

He chuckled and hugged her. "I'll get you stronger herbs, I promise."

"I love you too. Now, go. Take a box of mana potions with you, on the house." Nero was almost out of the lab when she shouted "And I'll need more vials!"

Nero moved the box to his pouch. "Are they vanishing if I leave the shelter?"

Altia didn't answer but raised a hand signaling for him to wait. She switched some reagents and refilled the filters, then turned around to answer.

"No. I infused my own Essence and mana on the potions, they're good if not good," She joked. "Same thing as with Rafflesia's herbs. Remember, more vials."

"Yes, I'll have to go on another shopping trip. I am afraid people will suspect me if I start buying too many things."

"The capital?" She suggested.

"Too risky."

"Go to the other cities then. You can reach most of them within a day of running."

An idea flared in Nero's mind. "And I only need to do the trip once. I know what I need to do. Thanks, love."

Nero kissed Altia and left the laboratory. He went around, compiling a shopping list for everyone in his house. Soap, towels, other sundries. Nero created a pitch-black transition box with a gray overcast sky that gives almost no visibility and moved all the portals there. Better an oval opening leading to darkness than the light shining through. As he created new portals in place of the others, disconnecting the ones pointing to Rodther's shelter, he thought how he would retrieve the treasure the dwarf hid in the nereids' shelter. He still had the time and wouldn't do it but he had a couple ideas.

He went into a transition box and applied perfume on him and his clothes. It was a hint from Rodther. Since Nero had no scent in his stealth build, he needed to disguise that with a musky perfume. It was still a smell he didn't care about. It would only last for an hour or two as his clothes automatic cleaning would get rid of it. Through a portal he went to the south satellite town. It must have a name but Nero never bothered to learn. This was going to change. He walked around in stealth until he was satisfied it was safe. Nero removed his cloak, donned a normal wool cloak, and walked out from an alley into the traffic. His goal was a very respectable shop.

A gnome standing by a podium greeted him. "Welcome to the cartographer's guild. How may I help you? I'm Balti."

"Good day to you, Balti," Nero replied, refusing to offer his own name as it would be polite to do. He was the customer anyway. "I'm interested in some maps for my house. Can I browse your collection?"

"Of course, good sir. Which maps would you be interested in?"

Nero jiggled a bag of crystals and grinned. "All of them. We can start with a pretty one of this continent, for my war room." He overdid it.

The gnome had a polite smile. "Ah, is the young master the scion of some noble house?"

"Adventurer. I'm buying a big mansion in the mountains," He lied.

If the gnome noticed his deception, he didn't show. He led Nero to a locked room where a tapestry of the continent was hanging from a wall. It was four yards tall by six wide.

"What do you think of this?"

Nero smiled. "It is perfect. What's the price?"

They haggled. Nero put his foot down and brought the price down from three hundred thousand to two hundred and five thousand. He also bought maps for all the surrounding countries and other detailed maps of the twelve major fiefdoms that composed Bast. He didn't spare his Essence and bought the best maps they had. In the end, his purchase cost Nero three hundred and fifty thousand Essence and made the day of the gnome salesman.

Maps were considered a strategic asset, but with farseeing magic and flying people, you couldn't really keep your enemy from knowing the lay of your land. And while they were useful for your enemy only during wartime, they were useful to the inhabitants of the land all the time. It was no surprise when the gnome asked for his identification, Nero put another handful of crystals on the table.

"I'm Johannes, the half-elf," Nero lied and pushed the crystals toward the gnome.

"Yes, yes. Mr. Johanes. I surely received your identification," The gnome touched the crystals and made them vanish into his own dimensional pouch. "Can I help you with anything else?"

Nero's improved Perception increased the maximum size of his pouch to nine feet and two inches. The tapestry map had to be folded in half and then made into a very loose roll to fit, eating up a lot of space.

From the cartographer he went to the guild outpost, to meet his parents and leave a message to Amaryllis. He needed to talk to the pixie about his plan to retrieve the dwarf's stash, Crystal's request - he was still uncomfortable with that, ask for a rank-IV Dungeon nearby that isn't managed by the kingdom's tax collectors, and catch up on the news. Going off into another dimension had its perks, but the isolation was suffocating.

He also needed to contact the Lyceum. In the next week Glom would go to their village cluster to activate a new batch of Adventurers' Arbitrii. He needed to report on his homework and assignments. Also ask why the Skill slot add-on wasn't listed in the books. It was so useful! Last, he wanted to ask for help making modifications to his two new gadgets, the hat-goggles, and his timepiece.

He reached the guild outpost and heard the blurb of a heated discussion. He tried to move through the crowd of Adventurers and when he failed, unwilling to use force, he caught up with the conversation. Apparently some Adventurers had been arrested at the capital headquarters, and they were trying to decide if they should flee or put up a resistance.

He found the buxom cat-kin receptionist. "Hey, Vanil!" He shouted over the crowd.

"Make way, you rascals!" Vanil cried over the voices. To Nero's surprise, they did make way for him. "Over here!"

She led him through the staff-only door. "What is going on? Is there something wrong?" Nero asked.

"Yes, things are bad. Yesterday, a squad of knights arrested some staff at the guild headquarters. People are talking and things aren't good."

His mind raced to the polite and helpful kitsune. "Is miss Alma alright?" Vail's frown all the answer he needed. "The Guildmaster?"

"She went to the castle, screaming bloody vengeance," She said. Nero dreaded to ask about his parents. Instead, he thanked Vanil and turned around. She held his arm, pulling him too close to something soft, but not on purpose. Nero endured. "If you are going, it is faster through the window. You have a good stealth Skill, don't you? I can't pick your scent over your fading perfume."

Nero frowned. His clothes cleaned himself, and it included removing the perfume. "Thanks, Vanil."

"Some of the people they arrested are my friends. You're the guildmaster godson and I know you are going to do something, by the look in your face. I'll do my best to help."

Nero nodded. "Alma is my friend too. The guild is part of my extended family. Thanks."

Vanil pulled him and kissed his cheek. "For luck, pretty boy. Now go."

He went out through the window and crossed the back alley as he activated [Skulls & Bones] to hide. Nero dashed along the road leading to the capital.