After teaching her his language, he grew more accustomed to the slightly reverent looks she kept giving him. During the process, he realized that Aifell had to be a genius. She picked up their language quickly and it had taken even less time for her to copy the mental magic. He wondered if all the people of this race were as capable as her.

“You learned that quickly. Is that something all of your people can do? Is that how you replicated my magic?”

The question was merely to satisfy his curiosity, but she gave him a weird look. It was obviously a question she didn’t want to answer. The look on her face said that she would give him a reply anyways, and he considered stopping her. His curiosity won out though, and he waited for the response.

“We have a talent in replicating magic. But yes, I am considered to be talented.”

She wasn’t offended, that much was obvious by her tone. Her voice sounded sadder, and the words felt forced out. Mash knew what that was like. It was something someone could only manage when talking about a past they didn’t want to remember. Instead, he just moved on to the real reason they had moved to her workshop.

“Are you going to make the items now? Could we watch?”

He was curious to see how the items would compare to the ones back home. Plus, he wanted to know if it was something he could learn. While he probably wouldn’t have the time to practice, he could possibly teach the skill to others. Maybe, even alter an existing item.

“Yeah, I would like to learn about your magic items too. We have a pretty big wedding coming up and want to find a good present.”

Jill spoke aloud, sounding relieved to be able to speak with someone. The others had been forced to take a back seat while Mash handled most of the conversation. Soon, they would be able to talk with others. However, when Jill brought up the wedding, that prompted Aifell to ask about it. It took a few minutes to explain what it was, and she said they had something similar, though they called it a “joining”. While she had learned the language quickly, much of it was due to her intuition. She had learned most of the language by understanding the intentions behind Mash’s words, and the item she made would do something similar.

After finishing her discussion with Jill, she started working on the item. He was surprised to grab a thick leaf. It was a little bigger than his arm. She grabbed a metal knife, though it was shaped oddly. It was like a pen, but the end was more curved and wider than the shaft. She used it to cut into the leaf and then filled it with what looked like liquid mana. He had tried manifesting raw mana like that but had been incapable of it. Only skills or affinities let him manifest his mana outside of his body, and never in its raw state.

Mash knew that she wasn’t talking about stealing it by eating someone, but the thought still passed through his mind. Priscilla knew that he wouldn’t eat people willingly, and she was only talking about learning it as he did with the golden body. However, his mind couldn’t help but think about the other method, but he pushed it away. That was something he was not willing to succumb to.

He watched carefully as she worked, using his domain to understand what she was doing with her mana. It reminded him of what he did back when he was a child, but it became a lot more complicated once it left. It almost felt like she was pressing her own mana together, pushing it until it naturally changed form. The amount of mana control to manage something like that was impressive, but he was more interested in what came after. She used it to fill in the cuts she made on the leaf, and the motion was incredibly fluid.

The writing was a flowing continuation of pictures, only a few of which he could recognize. He saw one that looked obviously like a flower, and another that resembled the tree from earlier. There were a few more that he knew. All of his friends were also watching the process, and he noticed Jill looking extremely carefully.

[Did you notice something wrong? Try responding in your mind.]

While he did somewhat trust that this woman wouldn’t harm them, he knew his intuition wasn’t always the best. Jill might’ve noticed something he hadn’t, and he sent her a message just in case. Shaking her head slightly, he was glad to realize that his magic was working as he intended.

[No, it is just impressive. I was wondering how my mother would compare.]

Mash had forgotten that Jill’s mother was able to magic items. He didn’t know who would be considered better, but it was really a competition. Still, he wondered how these items compared to the ones back home. The fact that Jill was comparing Aifell to her mother said a lot, especially considering how seriously her mother had been treated by the royal family. Aifell would probably be considered a genius.

After a short while, she finished four copies of the item. Each of them received one, and he felt a little bad for making her work for essentially nothing. Hopefully, he could convince the others to give them something. However, he wanted to see what items they already had before deciding what to give them. They had gotten a bunch of random items from the previous fight and one of them would hopefully be good enough.

He watched the others equip the item, another one of Aifell’s people getting called to test its capabilities. While the others could easily attune and unattuned to items, he was quite as blessed as they were. He needed to be careful about what items he attuned to, and he wasn’t sure if this would be worthwhile. There was no strict limit to the number of items someone could attune to, but a person shouldn’t place different attuned items right next to one another.

He already had an item around one wrist, his neck, and both ears. There were still plenty of locations to include items. Jill’s armor covered most of her body, although she was considering getting rid of it. She mostly relied on her skills to avoid attacks and didn’t need it anymore. However, she didn’t need to do that yet and only moved one of her anklets to stack atop the other. It was a bit weird to see two bracelets on one wrist and two anklets on an ankle, but it did open up some space for her to put the item around her free ankle.

Aifell had said that her people were known as Vians. Watching his friends speak with the Vian was enlightening. It sounded like they were somehow just talking while ignoring the concerns of language altogether. He turned to Aifell, who was recording some things while watching the interaction.

“Will this work with any languages or just the two?”

Mash saw her expression grow dimmer, and he realized that the question must have seemed like a criticism. He quickly corrected himself and explained his hesitation.

“What you did here is pretty amazing, and I’m not asking because I’m disappointed with the results or anything. I can only attune to so many items, and each one that I do becomes a permanent addition. So, I need to be more careful with it.”

He motioned to visible flower tattoo beneath his ears and arm. She looked at him seeming to understand. Frowning a little she replied.

“No, I think this only works with Enbic and Lingesh. I might be able to do something though…”

Enbic was the native language of her people and her mind seemed to be coming up with a solution even before he could say anything. He decided to be a little greedy and let her try and come up with a solution. Well, it wasn’t something he needed urgently since he could handle most conversations just by using his mental magic. He left the item she had just made, deciding that he would wait for something better. Seeing as it only took her an hour or two to make those five, he bet that she could probably manage something.

Since they had the items that they wanted, the next step was just to look around the city. Hopefully, they could find some interesting things. Before he left though, he thought about something else.

“Aifell, other adventures might visit this city and any others your people have. I recommend having more of these items ready. Plus, um put this up in front of the elevators. And, as much as I hate to admit it, my people are pretty dangerous and cruel, so be careful.”

As he offered his advice, he formed wooden signs that essentially described the Vians as allies. It told the adventurers not to attack them. It was all he could think of to try and dissuade them from attacking blindly. Honestly, Mash didn’t know who would win in a fight like that but didn’t want it to happen. However, he had recently been shown the greed of his people and felt like it wouldn’t do much to stop them once they saw the actual cities. Well, maybe the Vians could come up with a way to deal with them if it came to it. At least, they would have a little warning now.

They didn’t stay in Aifell's workshop the whole time. It took some prompting, but she decided to help them look around the city. There were a few things they were curious about, and the most relevant of which was to find a place to stay for the night. Aifell was tempted to keep working on the new item, and it was clearly something that she was excited to work on. However, she was more eager to make sure that he was introduced to the city properly. Even if she was willing to acquiesce to his request of not being called lord, it did not mean that she wouldn’t treat him like one.

He would need to get used to his draconic transformation causing strange reactions in people. It was a significant power, and the way it altered his race was equally important. Walking through the city showed him that much. Several people followed them from a respectful distance, and many others would bow respectfully as he passed. He found himself shivering whenever it happened. It got to the point where his friends joked about him being cold. Other than the people’s strange gazes, he was glad for the tour.

The city was enormous, and the buildings all doubled as stores, restaurants, and homes. Essentially every tower-like structure was like a small town. The first three floors consisted of workspaces and other commercial buildings, while the upper floors contained homes. Each of the rooms had exits to the outside directly as every person in the city could fly. He should’ve expected as much from their wing-like arms, but it had still surprised him. It didn’t take long for Aifell to lead them to a building with spare rooms. She obviously wanted to keep an eye on them and got them rooms near her own.

It was obvious that she was a leader of some kind, but he wondered what the exact nature of her position was. She was obviously a skilled crafter, but that wouldn’t be enough to become a leader. As he considered it, he realized that it might be enough. He was unconsciously pushing his own expectations onto the people he met, but their society could be established on entirely different fundamentals. Maybe crafting ability was the most important thing to these people. Considering all of the magic items he had seen; it was certainly a possibility.