At the side of the tavern, Lucius and Kiana exited out of the hidden hatch in the stables.

"Will it be fine leaving them here?" Kiana questioned.

"We'll just post some guards here the entire day with some excuse. Hm… get some random criminal get caught nearby, which should give us enough excuse to post guards here to keep watch.

That way they won't leave and make contact with others." Lucius answered.

"Alright," Kiana said before gesturing to the carriage driver who was looking at them from the distance.

~clack~clakc~clakc~ 

The carriage came to a stop near them, and the two of them boarded it. Kiana first talked to the driver and gave him some instructions before they left the area. They came to a stop near one of the patrol points, where the carriage halted for a minute.

The driver spoke with one of the guards, who nodded his head and spoke, "it shall be done. My lord." 

With that done, Lucius and Kiana swiftly returned to the reeducation center. Changing back to normal clothes, Lucius entered his lab and took out a sheet of paper, and started writing a letter.

~thud~

Five minutes later, he was done and then stamped the letter with his seal.

"Send this to the Artificers guild. Hopefully, we get the needed rune crystal by tomorrow." Lucius stated.

"Alright." Kiana replied.

Since the artificers worked nearly all day round, the artificers' guild was one of the few places in the city that were open 24 hours a day. It was not uncommon for them to receive requests from their artificer in the middle of the night because they got some epiphany about a theory or had a breakthrough about something.

While there were also some artificers that just stayed there the entire day and worked all night. Lucius was sure that they wouldn't mind a request, which just made them more money.

Though for outsiders the supplies from the artificers guild cost more than what it would cost a member artificer. The extra cost was usually adjusted and varied depending on the item that was requested.

Right now, Lucius could bear these costs since he wasn't really buying much from them. But he was sure that when he started buying things in bulk from them, the extra costs would start to pile up.

This just gave Lucius an extra reason to become an Artificer and get their membership. With that in his hand, it would become far more economical for him to buy supplies for them. While he did have Gellor and his team, they were more suited for obtaining specific resources that were either too expensive to buy directly or were simply not available.

Right now Gellor and his team were out hunting the Stampeding bulls and would return soon according to the plan that Lucius had made. 

"So many things to do, so little time…" Lucius muttered to himself, wishing that he could split himself into multiple clones that could do more work.

There were actually spells in his past world and individual abilities as well that could do this, but Lucius couldn't actually use them here. The problem being that those spells were of a very high level and Lucius never actually got to take a proper look at them.

He didn't know their spell matrices, nor did he know the more detailed requirements for them.

~Sigh~

"I should sleep now… waking me up in the morning if the supplies come early." Lucius said to Kiana before going to the bedroom.

"Alright. Have a good sleep." Kiana said before taking her leave as well.

Lucius sat on the bed and closed his eyes for a minute, before appearing in his soul space. There his soul floated peacefully while the hell imprint and nexus stayed inactive.

"Hmm… the damage to the spell matrices has reduced by a bit more." Lucius said as he observed the spell matrices in his mind as well.

Currently, he had three of them in his mind space: The mark of obedience, basic fireball and Enrage. While he would prefer to have a lot more of them, Lucius knew that the offensive spells weren't really going to come in handy for him as of now, since he was not going into any open conflicts.

Rather than spells, Lucius wanted to use artifacts to replace its need. Since the spells had a limit to the number of uses, Lucius reckoned artifacts would be a bit more effective. He had not gotten to making them yet either.

Lucius meditated and practiced increasing his hell energy for about an hour before finally falling asleep.

***

In the morning, Lucius woke up just in time before Kiana came to report.

"The rune crystals you asked for are here!" Kiana informed.

Lucius, who had just woken up a few minutes ago, nodded his head.

"Good, just in time. Though how much did it cost us?" Lucius questioned.

Kiana then passed him a document, which Lucius unfolded and read.

"Hmm… twenty eight Aether crystals… I guess the cost is bearable for now… actually, it might be less than the old market price." Lucius muttered.

"Indeed, we got it at a lower price than normal. A new stock of these rune crystals came just a week ago and thus the artificers guild has a surplus." Kiana stated.

"That works in our favor. Why don't you send another inquiry to the guild and ask them what other rune beast crystals, they have in surplus. We might buy some while they are a low cost." Lucius replied.

"I'll do it right away." Kiana said with a nod.

"I'll get ready till then," Lucius replied.

Kiana turned around and was about to leave when she suddenly stopped in the doorway.

"Do you want me to bring food when coming back? Or will we be heading directly to the tavern?" Kiana questioned.

"We'll head direct- ~rumble~" before Lucius could complete his sentence, he felt his stomach rumble.

"Looks like you'll be having breakfast first~" Kiana chuckled before going away, having gotten an honest answer from Lucius's body.