First, a shoutout to AnarchyDev for your brilliant suggestion. the map came out good did't it. im quite satisfied. Thank you.

As Kiefer approached the city gates, he saw a familiar sight, this time accompanied by a group of 4 knights on horses. Though it was still far and the light was dim, with his enhanced eyesight, he could see the stingy dwarf on the carriage leaving the gates.

“Hey old man. Leaving already so soon?”(Kiefer)

“Ho I’m not so old yet boy! I’m only 470 years old! I see you’ve worked up quite a sweat. Be sure to try the bath house next to the inn, I’ve already told them not to charge you for using it. How’s Marley’s family treating you?”(Buffon)

“Thanks for the service and advice again OLD MAN. Marley’s alright, but her dad seems really intimidating.” (Kiefer)

“That’s good. To think that ‘bear’ used to be at counter service. Anyway, enough chatting, I’ve got a shipment to deliver! See ya boy, and don’t try anything funny inside the city alright. They’ve seen you with me and I don’t want any bad rep on my sheet.” (Buffon)

Suddenly leaning in to whisper to Kiefer, Buffon muttered in a low voice,” I hear they are taking applications for a new batch of mage students at the academy in 10 days, so maybe you can mix in with their lot? The library in the academy is much better equipped to answer your questions boy, especially about magic.” Having said that, Buffon winked at him, waved and left with his entourage.

Surprised, Kiefer smiled wryly as he thought to himself, “So he knew all along...” slightly embarrassed that his attempt to pull the wool over the dwarf had failed. Kiefer gave Shearwood a light pat, and headed towards to bathhouse after returning his re-entry pass, confident that Shearwood would enjoy a warm bath.

After the bath, Kiefer hurried back to his room without even stopping to greet Marley. He pulled out his book and started scribbling some strange letters and symbols. These symbols were the runic marks he had seen carved on the bottom of the marble bath tub.

When he enquired about it, the owner of the bath house merely said that it was a runic language passed down from the high elves. That specific set of runes was used to enchant the bath tub to heat the water by drawing mana from the surroundings. Only those who attended the Royal academy under the magus department would be taught how to read and invoke runes.

Kiefer was excited. There was something he did not know and he knew how to find someone to teach him. Reminiscing the joy of studying and learning (yea right.. never happened to me before), Kiefer finally had a solid goal in mind. Attend the academy at all cost, learn more about magic and mana, and possibly fuse it with what he had developed.

For now, he had to visit the blacksmith and gather whatever information he could from public libraries, at least until the academy application date. With that set, Kiefer skipped back down the inn in a jolly mood, handed Marley an extra platinum coin and informed her that he would be extending his stay. Kiefer then proceeded to enjoy a delightful hot beef stew with baked potatoes for dinner, ending his activities for the day.

Kiefer opened his eyes in the darkness. It had been 8 hours since he slept, but with little to no concept of time, he could only look at the moons for an estimate. “About 6 more hours before sunrise huh?” Kiefer muttered to himself. He lazily got out of bed dressed lightly and left the inn silently, leaving a soft bundle coo-ing under his blanket on his bed.

As the chill air hit his skin, Kiefer decided, for better or for worse, to go for a run to warm his body up. He hadn’t eaten yet so he made sure not to over exert himself. With his legs, lungs, heart and eyes enhanced, as well as mana armour deployed, he started running along the road that ran aside the inner side of the city walls.

Every now and then, he would see guards either patrolling or standing watch at the gates, and Kiefer would smile and nod at them, before continuing with his run. He decided that this should be part of his daily routine if he is to improve his physical fitness. Within the 6 hours before sunrise, he circumvented the Alluviate city walls twice, covering a total distance of 140km. He was sufficiently sweating by the time he returned to the inn.

Deciding to wash up again, he waited outside the bath house for the owner to open the doors. Within 15 minutes of sunrise, the bathhouse doors slowly creaked open and Kiefer made his way inside to shower. He returned to his room after breakfast to find the lazy snake still sleeping away in the same position he had left her.

Within a few hours, Kiefer was back in the middle of the city, within the commercial district. He was slowly perusing through a tailor’s, trying to make up his mind. This was visibly annoying the owner as Kiefer had spent a good amount of his time without buying anything, and from the way he was dress, the tailor assumed Kiefer wouldn’t be able to afford anything anyway.

Finally making up his mind, Kiefer chose a soft cream colored cotton fabric for his top and a brown tanned leather for his pants. He proceeded to pick one of the thick luxurious grey furs hanging on the rack for a hooded mantle.

Looking at his selection, the tailor looked him in the eyes and crudely sneered, “Ahm, sorry sir, but I do recommend this cheaper woolen cloak. That fur is made from the hide of a Seraplor, a high ranking magical beast. I doubt you will be able to afford it.”

Looking at the tailor with disdain, Kiefer was disgusted by such prejudice based on his looks. Deciding that that was just the nature of businessmen, he quickly cast his rising anger aside, smiled and proceeded with his order.

“Regardless, these are what I’ve chosen. I’ll need 5 sets of top and pants from these materials, and also 2 well-made hooded mantles from the Seraplor hide. How much would the total come up to? And how fast can you get them ready?” (Kiefer)

“Umm.. its 20 silver per set of clothes, and 5 gold each for the mantle. That comes to a total of 12 gold sir. I’m afraid you will have to at least half up front for me to accept a custom job such as this.” (Tailor)

Pulling out his drawstring pouch, Kiefer counted 7 gold coins and made sure to pull out a platinum coin as well just for show. He then passed the 7 coins to the tailor and laughed to himself internally,” Well it seems he still didn’t trust me. The look on his face when he saw the platinum coin was priceless. Well worth the attitude I had to put up with.”

“Thank you very much kind sir!” The tailor immediately replied, with a 180 degrees turn in his attitude. “I can get your apparels ready within 5 days. Would you like your mantle to be designed with a drawstring, or a metal clip to attach both sides?”

Kiefer ended choosing a metal clip design that looked like 2 warped spear heads connected on ends. He then made his way to the nearest blacksmith, carrying the 4 mithril ingots in his sack.

Kiefer approached the blacksmith and was immediately overcome with the stench of burning oil and smoke. The heat was unbearable and the whole place was messy, with tools lying all over the place with no discernible order. He could hear loud banging of hammers on metal and the grunting of several men hard at work. Others were even yelling within the blacksmith’s workshop.

As soon as he stepped into the workshop, he was greeted by a young lady not much older than him. She had a face full of soot, messy short brown hair and freckles that could be seen on places not covered by soot. Seeing Kiefer, she smiled, turned her head towards the workshop, and yelled in a volume Kiefer would have assumed not possible for a lady.

“DAAAAADD!! THERE’S A CUSTOMER!! CAN YOU HANDLE THE FURNACE FOR ME!?!!” She yelled, and then turned back to Kiefer and politely asked in a voice that would put singers to shame. “Hi, sorry bout’ that, I’m Celena. What can we do for you?”

Just as Kiefer was about to open his mouth to speak, he heard a jumble incomprehensible yell from within the workshop, and once again saw her turn her head towards the workshop.

“KAAAYYYY THANKS DAADD!!” turning back to Kiefer, She continued, “Sorry again. So yes! What did you need?”

“I need someone to help me process and smith an armour out of these Mithril silver ingots.” Kiefer replied, while placing the sack on the nearby workbench.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, but we can only process normal armour here. If we worked on your mithril, it will only turn out as hard as iron, but without any magic properties. See, none of my brothers or my father can use magic. You’re best heading over to Rashael. There’s a much better chance you’ll find a magic blacksmith there who can work with mithril.” (Celena)

“Oh, ok that’s fine. Im still new to this so do you mind explaining what I will need to craft my armour?” (Kiefer)

“Magic armour is more complicated than normal armour. Because mithril can conduct mana, many mages choose to infuse mana of the element they have an affinity for. This way, the armour acts as a medium between the mage’s own mana, and natural mana around the mage, improving the rate at which the mage recovers his mana.” (Celena)

“I see, so it’s like a catalyst to improve mana conversion rate.” Kiefer murmured to himself, but the girl caught what he was saying.

“Kata-list? What is that?” (Celena)

“Oh it’s not important. Anyway, you were saying? How do you infuse the mana into the mithril?” (Kiefer)

“Oh, that’s where you need to find a mage. There’s a special hammer, hang on a moment –“ the girl cut off and ran into the workshop, and came running back carrying a large hammer in her hands moments later. “This hammer was left to us as a relic from long ago, it is used to craft magic armour and weapons. The mage keeps the hammer with him for about a day to let the hammer absorb the mage’s mana, and then returns the hammer to us so we can use it to mold the ingot. We don’t even need to heat the ingot to mold it. As long as there is mana, mithril become soft and malleable once, and then it stays in the new form forever.” (Celena)

“If you have the hammer here, why can’t you craft the armour for me?” (Kiefer)

“Like I said, this hammer has been in my family a long time and my father does not want to hand it out to mages for a whole day. Even if the mage stayed in our workshop, it will only be a hindrance to work and my father hates it. So we have no way of crafting magic armour here.” Celena apologized while bowing deeply.

“So as long as I can feed mana into the ingot, I can shape it any way I want?” Kiefer asked, looking for confirmation.

“Yes, but again, you will need the hammer to shape the ingot. The hammer releases a little bit of mana with each impact and it causes the ingot to change shape where the mana is in contact. If you could find a way to fuse the entire ingot with mana at once, you will be able to mold anything out of it without being restrained to what the hammer can shape.” (Celena)

“Interesting. Thank you very much, you have been very helpful! And im sorry I took you away from your work. Have a good day!” Kiefer bowed, and turned around to leave.

Now that he knew how crafting magic armaments worked, Kiefer was confident in making his own. He just needed to decide on what he should, and could craft from 4 mithril ingots. Pondering, Kiefer changed directions and headed for the library at the end of the street.

Entering the small 2-storey building, Kiefer was met with a sight he had not expected. There were barely any books on the shelves, at least not enough to be called a library. He was worried if it would be helpful at all.

Browsing through both levels, Kiefer picked up a few books. An encyclopedia on wild plants, fruits and poisonous vegetation compiled by what he is assuming to be a famous traveler, a picture book on animals of this continent, a history book on the races of sentient beings that walked this planet, a beginner’s guide to basic magic and finally, a children’s storybook that caught his eye. Holding all 5 books under his arm, Kiefer made his way to the counter when he was stopped by the elderly gentleman standing behind it.

“Sorry son, where do you think you are going with those? You’re not trying to steal them are you.. Or are you?” the old man repeated his question.

“No sir, I was just going to borrow them for a little. How long can I hold onto these books for?” (Kiefer)

“Sorry sonny, but there’s no borrowing here. This ain’t the academy’s library where 1 or 2 missing books ain’t a big deal. You read’em here, or leave’em here.” (old man)

Kiefer spent the rest of the day running his fingers through the pages, picking up any useful information. The good thing about not being able to borrow books is that he was not restricted to how many books he could go through, and so he swept through almost a quarter of the small library by sun set.

Finally realizing he was getting hungry, Kiefer sprinted back home in enhanced mode. He was eager to try out his hand at molding the mithril ingots and he had a very interesting idea, especially since the idea came from the children’s storybook.

Finishing a quick dinner, Kiefer returned to his room and laid the ingots on the desk in a neat row. Shearwood was floating above the table, interested in what her master was about to do. “If my hypothesis is correct, and I pray to god it is, I should finally have some form of magic defense.” Kiefer explained to Shearwood.

With a clear image of a right handed gauntlet with moving finger joints as well as pointed finger tips, Keifer extended a mana rope to pick one ingot up.