There were mostly the same artisans as in Niu, tailor, blacksmith, leatherworker, and a communal kitchen. The healer building was a lot smaller and less organized, not every village had a Breknir and his legendary skills. With the place mostly intact, I managed to find several jars of preserved ingredients and enough equipment to make a portable alchemy laboratory. I stored everything into a few boxes and vanished them inside my necklace.
Attached to the healer building was a small workshop. The roof had partially fallen to block one of the entrances and a pile of debris has blocked the other making the room completely inaccessible. I had no trouble seeing inside with my sphere and found out that it was the rune master's workshop. Probably Breknir's friend he mentioned in his letter.
I managed to squeeze through one of the windows after I dropped my backpack bow harness.
The rune workshop was clean and well organized. The work table had an array of writing and engraving tools. A half-finished dagger lying on the bench, the runes on the handle partially engraved.
One bookshelf had several books on runes and enchanting, design documents for the barrier anchors of the village, schematics for various enchanted objects. The master was likely responsible for the barrier over both this village and Niu. I piled the books on the bench and found a case for the tools.
I hoped the master would be fine with me studying his craft.
What I found next was stunning. Inside a small box on a shelf, there were several objects that shone to my magic perception like tiny little stars.
I picked up one. An amulet made out of dark reflective metal with a silver design. It had a braided cord made out of dark silk with small knots woven in at regular intervals. I could feel the dense enchantments on it as I ran my fingers on the intricate pattern.
Identify
[Amulet of Inazesa (Storage, Stasis, Durability, Bound; 0/250)]
My heart stopped for a few moments.
How the hell did I keep finding all of those powerful items? I quickly glanced at the sky as if I'd be able to spot Gaia snickering at my confusion.
I looked sideways at the other items in the box.
Identify
[Root of Yggdrasill (Magic Focus, Durability, Bound; Nature)]
[Gift of Gaia (Magic Enhancement, Durability, Bound; Nature)]
Both were bracelets made of wood. The first was made out of a rich dark brown wood with lighter veins. The entire outer surface was engraved with motifs of branches and leaves. A small green gem was set within a knot in the wood. The second was a lighter wood that made me thing of willow. The engraved design was more varied and depicted several animals. A similar green gem was set in the same way.
"Vel will love those two I think," I smiled as I carefully moved them to a pouch.
I put the storage amulet around my neck and the system chimed up.
System Action
Bind Item [Amulet of Inazesa]
Cost: 500 MP
Confirm [Y/N]
I felt a big chunk of mana disappear and I brought up my status screen.
Status
Health
2'250/2'250
+70%/h + 5/s
+326/m
Stamina
2'690/2'690
+80%/h
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+35/s
Mana
3'495/3'995
+125%/h + 5/s
+383/m
Focus
82/152
Bound Items
[Ravri Ritual Bracer]
0/9 spells, 0/1000 MP
[Ravri Ritual Bracelet]
-
[Amulet of Inazesa]
0/250
Equipped Items
[Lesser Amulet of Storage]
38/50
[Lesser Bracelet of Strength]
+5 STR
[Lesser Ring of Mana]
+5 MP/s
[Lesser Ring of Health]
+5 HP/s
----------------------------------------
On the way to find Vel, I figured out how to transfer items between two storage enchantments. Each operation cost a small amount of mana but with my increased regeneration, it was only a drop in the bucket.
I shuffled everything to my bound storage amulet.
Vel waved at me as I approached.
"Found something interesting?"
"I did," I said with a grin, "there were preserved ingredients and enough tools to build us a small alchemy setup."
"Good," she nodded, "at least we won't run out of potions."
"I also found the rune master's workshop. I picked up all the books and the plans for the village barriers, wouldn't want anyone getting their hands on that, and tools as well."
"You want to learn enchanting?"
"It seems to be pretty useful," I remarked.
Vel rolled her eyes.
"I also found something else," I discreetly pulled the small bracelets from my belt and presented them to her with a flourish.
"What are those …" her eyes widened, "I can't even identify them!"
"The dark one is a nature magic focus and the light one enhances it."
"I … why? You're the druid, you should have them!"
She pushed them back towards me,
"I can't hoard all the good items," I said, "I found a big storage amulet for myself. I also have those to figure out." I waved my hand with the ritual bracer. "You'll benefit the most from them. And you'll get the druid class soon anyway."
Vel hesitated for a while before taking the offered bracelets. She reverently slipped them on and I knew the moment the system prompted her.
"One thousand mana," she winced, "thank Gaia Breknir commissioned those items."
----------------------------------------
We stayed together for the rest of our tour of the village.
Vel had made a beeline for the kitchens and we finished raiding them. With a rune master on site, the kitchens of Nis had a walk-in freezer. We spent some time in the cold stacking frozen meats and vegetables into crates and I placed them in my necklace. The additional stasis enchantment meant that objects didn't suffer the passage of time, unlike with our regular amulets.
Once the kitchens were raided. I suggested to find things that we could sell. As much as it pained me to do so, if we wanted to track down the attackers we would invariably need to deal with people from outside the villages. Having materials to trade for money or barter with would be extremely useful.
I went around the workshops and gathered raw materials like metal bars of woven cloth as well as some finished products like clothes.
Night started to fall as I was finishing. Vel came to find me and brought me to one of the houses. She had found somewhere to spend the night. From the outside, the building was in good shape. A part of the roof was caved in and some of the window shutters were broken. The biggest damage was inside. The stairs leading to the upper floor had been destroyed.
Vel grew a temporary ladder for us to climb and pulled it behind us. The lack of stairs would prevent most monsters from climbing up. Vel also grew a net of thorny branches over the opening to block any spiders from coming in.
The second floor had several bedrooms. All of the futons were disturbed in one way or another, the inhabitants had been abruptly woken up in the middle of the night.
Standard procedure in case of an attack was to have the adults participate in the defense of the village while the apprentices led the children to the group shelter and protected them. In Niu, it had been under the school building.
This house had likely hosted multiple families related to each other. There were six adult futons in three rooms and two shared rooms for around eight kids.
Vel picked the master bedroom and pulled out a clean set of futons for us.
I started to disrobe when I had an idea. I focused on my clothes and willed them to disappear inside my amulet. An instant later, I was standing around in my underwear.
"Neat," I said, "now I have to figure it out in reverse."
"What did you …" Vel trailed off as she looked at me. "That was fast."
"Storage item," I grinned.
"You … oh!" she exclaimed as her clothes disappeared as well.
I slid into the futon and Vel snuggled besides me.
"Where do we go now?" She asked.
"We can follow the trade paths and try to find another village. Or we can try to reach the central pillar and deal with the adventurers."
"We should get stronger too," Vel said.
"Agreed. I don't think we're ready to face them yet."
Vel rolled on top of me and planted a passionate kiss on my lips.
The house was secured, the night was young.
Whatever happened, we were in it together.
----------------------------------------
I woke up with Vel sleeping on my chest. Her silver hair was cascading down the side of my arms. With a smile, I gently caressed it.
A quick look through the window showed that it was still early in the morning. And there, at this moment, I could almost pretend nothing had happened. That it had all been a dream.
Unfortunately, it hadn't. I wasn't in my room but in a stranger's house. I wasn't in my home village but in a ghost town.
Velatha stirred and hugged me closer. I could see the anguish on her face. I pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. She relaxed at my touch and I continued to slowly run my hand through her hair.
In a few hours, we would be back on the road, to who knows where in search of our people. But at this moment, it was just us. Her and me. Together.
After a few minutes, she woke up.
"Good morning love," I whispered to her.
"Good morning Lis," she mumbled back.