Chapter 18
----------------------------------------
The elves kept their promise. We were brought to a plot of empty land together with Mattheus and his company. It was just half a day's walk from the frontier village. The village was closer to the border of humans, which made Mattheus happy.
"So, this place is for you, Tailfolk of Eastern Village. Lily, "Lhorne said while smiling. "There is nothing here, so you may rest at the refugee village. However, I need to tell you that you may not bring your slaves there. If they went there without your permission or roamed freely, we are obliged to capture or kill them. And if these humans were to commit crimes, you may be judged with the same crime by association. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir. We will not go to elves city without Nora or Lily!" Mattheus said while giving a knight salute which earned him weird looks from the forest elves.
"Very well, please come to the village center later to do your job. We would prefer to do this in Regoia, but you don't have the required ethics or clothes for that. It would take about two or three months before we could formalize these." Lhorne said as he smiled. Three months for clothes? These elves sure are pretty laid back.
"Guys! This spot is ours!! those dickhead nobles back at home didn't give us a piece of their lands even after what we gave them, but these elves gave us for free!" Mattheus screamed as soon as Lhorne was gone. The villagers were in a bad mood earlier and jumped for joy at Mattheus's words.
"Mattheus, are you sure you can say that?" Nora said.
"Well, technically, this spot is Lily's. I heard him all right. He said Lily has complete control over what's going on here. So she is our lord of this land. As long as we don't leave this area without her, we are fine, right? That's what most villagers do anyway. If they leave their village, they might get eaten by monsters." Mattheus said.
Apparently, they got something even better than what they initially hoped. Land to found a village, a kind lord that would not do enormous taxation, and Jobs such as farmers or woodcutters so their families could eat. As their de facto lord, Lily could promise them just that, so Mattheus cheered with all his might.
"But Boss, there is nothing here. How can we build a village without tools such as a saw or axes?"
"Em… Lily was given a job by the elves. She should get some money out of that. We can buy the required tools after." Mattheus replied. However, this time he didn't sound so sure.
"Erm… Lily. Could you ask Lhorne again to guide us out of the forest so we could pick our comrades? We left most of our camping tools there too…."
"Okay," Lily said as she turned toward the frontier.
"Wait. The sun has already set. We should go there tomorrow." I advised. We then sleep with the men in some makeshift tents. Since we are in the middle of the jungle, I spend the night staying watch. My body was swaying as Lily slept soundly lit by moonlight.
"LILY!!!" Lhorne jumped at us first thing in the morning. He was so panicked that his beautiful face was contorted like a beast. His outrage came out of nowhere that we wondered what went wrong.
"Why aren't you at the inn? I tried to pick you up, but the innkeeper said you never arrived!!" He shouted. "Don't tell me you sleep with these monkeys? It's dangerous!! What if you got assassinated!"
"Sorry." Lily nodded her head in a submissive position.
"Nevermind. I am glad you are fine… whew, that took years out of my life. I don't know what to say to Miss Edelweiss if you were gone…" he said, visibly relieved. He took a seat immediately after confirming that we were fine while exhaling his ragged breath. He must have run to this place after learning that Lily never went to the inn he recommended.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
"Um… Lord Lhorne? May I ask you a question?" Mattheus raised his hands.
"Don't use lord. Lhorne is fine. You may only use lord when you are with High Elves. No, never mind. They would not speak to humans. You will be cut down the moment you try to engage them. If you meet one, do nothing but bow down. You must go to Lily or Nora if you want to speak with them." Lhorne said as he gulped some water from his canteen.
"Lhorne, we are very grateful about this place. But we required permission to leave this place to gather our tools to make a village." Nora said.
"Hmm… Humans may not leave this place alone. They may leave only when you accompany them, Nora. As for money… I could lend you some. Lily will have to pay it back later, though." Lhorne made the decision final. We really scared the shit outta him that he refused to let Lily out of his sight again.
"Okay, Lily, will you come with me? I shall guide you to the chief's house."
"Okay."
"So, here is your job. Sarge, I will leave things to you. Don't worry. She had blessings. She should be able to learn things quite quickly. maybe a week or two?" Lhorne knelt as he arrived. We arrived pretty late in the afternoon and received no single complaint. Edelweiss was just there sitting while sipping tea with Sarge. If it was back at my company, being late by more than five minutes would earn me hefty penalties.
"Greetings, I am Sarge, the fire mage. However, I do not have Tale of Fire, so my skill is still modest. Let me teach you how ordinary mages do magic."
We then went to the courtyard, and he pulled out a fist-sized feystone. Then mana radiated from the feystone, and the mana formed into a fireball on his other hand. Then it shot into an empty plot of land. It was unremarkable, to say the least.
"Now, this is how mages without blessings usually cast magic. They drew mana from the stone, then formed them into a spell." He said. To be honest, he could be better at explaining things. Lily only looked at him, puzzled. I would not understand what he is saying either if I didn't have mana perception.
"To refill the mana stone, mages need to meditate in mana-rich places. This would be your job since it should be easier for a mage with blessings to refill these feystones." He then sat down, and mana was slowly gathering at the stone. But it was filled at such a slow rate that it would need at least two hours just to replace that fireball's mana cost.
"I don't understand…."
"Say you understand, Lily. It's fine. I understand what he wants us to do."
"I see. Sorry. I don't know how to explain it well, it took me over ten years to reach this stage, and people call me a genius. I don't understand why Madam Edelweiss asked me to teach you this in a week." He laughed.
"No. I think I understand." Lily corrected herself.
"Really? I have an empty feystone. Can you try to fill it?" he then gave me a dimmed-out mana stone. Elves called them feystones, humans called them mana stones, while dwarves called them gemstones of power. But they are all the same thing. It was something that monsters dropped.
Lily grabbed the stone and tried to give it to me. I asked her to hold it instead, and as I caressed the feystone with my tail, I gathered mana and forced it into the stone. The stone started to glow dimly lit, and as I spent twenty percent of my mana, the stone glowed like his other stones.
My mana was abysmally low. I barely had enough to fill five stones at this rate. I wonder how to increase it? Is it by putting bonus points on WIS? We need to earn our lunch. I need to protect this good Boss in good company. We are technically at war, and the elves didn't exactly come out on top.
Let's check my status.
STR: increase strength and HP
DEX: increase speed and dexterity
INT: increase magic power
WIS: increase mana
A blue box appeared just now. Since my appraisal is now level 6. It gave me more explanation. I should put all of my bonus points into WIS now. I wonder how I should put bonus points for Lily. I should put it all into dexterity and some into strength. She seemed to be a speed type instead of a solid and robust type. Or should I do the exact opposite? She did use a buckler. She might become a tanker. No, that's not gonna happen. Lily has a petite body. She would look uncute with massive armor. Okay, mage assassin is our build, then!
"Impossible. To fill it in just under ten minutes! So this is blessings…." Sarge knelt in despair as he looked into the stone. His face looked like mine when my younger coworker surpassed me in ranks despite only working for several months.
"Oh my, I just finished my tea and was about to go home. But from the look of it, you already finished your task?" Edelweiss came at the perfect timing. "So, how many stones will you fill each week? Ten? Twenty? The current rate is twenty gold for each stone."
I was bewildered at the lucrative job laid before my eye.