Our first night at the guild was quiet. Nobody, that I could detect at least, poked at the webs and wards that protected the warehouse that served as our new home. In the morning, Vel went to the guild hall to check out what missions were available. We didn't plan on taking one right away but it would give us an idea of what was available. In the meantime, I spent some time putting more permanent defenses in place.
The book I had found in the enchanter's workshop in Nis contained schematics for the village barrier. I wouldn't be enchanting anything that powerful or complicated but my level in Runic Magic was good enough to understand the basics. I also used some knowledge from my other life to design the system.
From everything I had seen, conventional ward design relied on a pyramid-like structure with strong but simple spells at the bottom and more complex and specialized functions built on top of each other. It worked well, very much so since some of them had lasted thousands of years, and forced an attacker to work through each layer one at a time. The major flaw was that if an attacker managed to sneak through and destroyed the lower layers, the whole structure above them would crumble.
Since I wasn't powerful enough to build one single strong foundational ward, I chose to cheat. It was very thematic that, as a giant spider, my ward design looked like a web. Weaker wards, when interconnected together, could form one that was more resilient due to the redundancy. The efficiency per unit of mana and the added complexity of coordinating the different spells were the main drawbacks.
When Vel came back from her excursion, I was done with the initial design and had already built most of the base catalysts I would need. Since we were in a city, there wasn't a need for the ward to defend against monster attacks, only thieves and scrying. The latter I could base on my own anti-scrying spells. For the former, I layered several spells to protect against direct entry, through the door or windows, and indirect, like Katherine's shadow teleportation. I couldn't block it directly but anyone who appeared inside the building would have a nasty surprise.
"Hard at work," she said and climbed into the web to snuggle next to me. "You figured it out?"
"It's not a masterwork but I think it will work as a deterrent." I ran one of my hands through her hair and scratched her behind the ear. She shivered in response.
"Not like we intend to store anything valuable here," she said.
"I'd like to be safe during my molt," I reminded her. "And for some other activities too," I whispered into her ear.
"Continue on then," she purred. "Want to know what I found on my end?"
"Go ahead," I kissed the top of her head. My mental constructs could cast the spells needed to build the catalysts by themselves, leaving my primary mind free to be with her.
"Extermination requests, like the one we helped the wanderers with, look pretty rare. I didn't see a single one on the board. Most were to hunt specific kinds of monsters or find rare plants to harvest alchemy ingredients. Several jobs to escort a trade caravan to a series of villages or guild outposts in other caves in this layer. A few for expeditions to explore a ruin or cave."
"I've had my fill of those," I chuckled.
"Me too," she smiled. "Some small jobs to do in town like requests for healing, guard duty, cleaning a Taratect infestation."
"A lot of options then …" I mused. "Hunts or harvests are probably the easiest for us."
"There was also a notice that the next caravan bound for the seventh layer will arrive at the end of the month and leave two weeks after," Vel added. "They are already recruiting for escorts. Rank six minimum but they recommend level two hundred at least."
"How long does that leave us?" We were both familiar with the human calendar, used by the guild, but I had no idea what date it was.
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"I asked a receptionist, it's in twenty-six days until it shows up. We missed the previous one by a few days. She also said there is one every three months."
I was fairly close to rank six and Vel was too. The last five levels would be harder to get than the previous ones since most of the monsters in the jungle were weaker than that. The group penalty would be lower with just Vel and I which was one advantage.
Name
Liscura Van-Niu
Ancestry
Dark Elf, Arachne
Status
Level 175 (Rank 5) | 826 Essence
If I wanted to fit the two remaining molts in that time … It took about three days to get back on my feet. If I round it up to a week of eight days to be generous then we had a month until the caravan left. It hinged on how much experience we could gather during the missions and how far we would need to travel. It felt possible.
"Want to try and aim for this one or take it slow and wait?" I asked.
"I think …" Vel stared ahead. She said nothing for a few seconds and instead took my hand in hers. "We need to push forward. Maybe once we aren't so close to home it won't …"
"Be as painful?" I finished.
"Yes and no," she looked at the ground. "It's hard to express."
It was. I pulled her closer into my lap and brought my fuzzy pedipalps around her waist. She absentmindedly ran her hands against them. I had a feeling that if we stayed here too long we would start to become … complacent. It wasn't exactly the right word but it was the closest I could think of.
"I understand," I said.
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With the outline of a plan in place, I finished setting up the wards and we left the warehouse. We had everything we needed to cook ourselves some lunch but I wanted to explore the area and food was a good pretext. We turned a few heads when we approached the square in front of the guild. Surprisingly, most didn't give us more than a passing glance or at least they tried to. The news had likely spread through the town fairly quickly since yesterday.
Space wasn't a problem. The center of the square was dominated by a fountain with stone tables and benches arrayed around. The food stands were in a large circle around the perimeter where they left ample space to access the shops behind them while also leaving most of the center free.
Vel walked beside me as we browsed the various food stands. The variety on offer was staggering. I had only experienced Elven and Goblin in this world cooking so far. There was an Orc preparing something that looked like a kebab from the spinning stack of meat. A fellow Dark Elf and his Wood Elf wife offered more traditional food bowls both vegetarian and meat-based. I spotted a short woman, likely a Dwarf, preparing mixed skewers on rice bowls with a thick dark sauce. A wolfkin and foxkin pair had what looked like pasta with a mix of sauces.
There were too many to list.
"So many …" Vel whispered.
"What do you feel like?" I asked. "Some of these look like food from … before."
She frowned for an instant before the realization dawned on her.
"Any recommendations?" She smiled.
"This one," I pointed at the Orc.
The Orcish Kebab was well worth its price. I had no doubt the recipe had been adapted with local ingredients in mind as I recognized several of the vegetables and mushrooms used. The meat was Jagras today, it varied depending on the day according to the cook, but the thin stripes gave it a new texture.
"That's very good," Vel said between mouthfuls.
"It is," I concurred. I had bought two due to my, apparently, bottomless spider stomach.
Over the next few hours, we explored the rest of the town's first level. We kept to the areas with shops or artisans and took notes about the prices. The money we had received from the guild and the Wanderers would be enough for a while and doing only a few missions per week would be enough to sustain us more or less indefinitely. Still, I was a financially responsible elf.
Another reason was to estimate how much the supplies we had stored in our necklaces were worth. The crates full of supplies we had gathered in Nis could give us a bit more of a cushion in our finances if sold properly. At the moment, the plan was to sell them once we reached the next layer. The guild on this level already traded with the villages so whatever we had would be more common here and the prices therefore lower. From my rough estimates, we had around a dozen gold in supplies.