The Archmage Abel sat in his small room, lit by candles with the large book before him.

In his hand was a small porcelain cup from which the still-armoured man drank the gold-coloured tea.

The door behind him swung open again causing Abel to let out a slight sigh.

“You could try knocking…” he thought.

“Archmage, we have set up the mana-checking pylons around the settlement,” the man began.

Nonchalantly the Archmage took another sip of tea beckoning the speaker to continue.

“We detected sizable mana use inside the town, though we can’t confirm it’s not an animal…” the soldier clarified.

Abel placed his cup aside and stood up.

He fixed his scarf to properly cover his neck.

“A town like that stands no chance at taming a nightbeast, get me a full report on the readings…”

“Yes, sir!” the soldier saluted as he hurried down the highway of stairs into the main room where he would find the file-keeper.

Abel breathed a sigh as he walked over to a gold-feathered owl, its eyes a rich blue.

“Mydas, I have a task for you, my loyal companion…” Abel began.

“Fly to that village and see if something odd is happening there, I was hoping the men I sent would just go in and see what’s going on…” he sighed placing a hand on the bird’s head.

“They’re so… by-the-book…” he remarked with a smile.

The bird made its way to a small opening in the wall before flapping its wings and jumping off the colossal tower.

Abel saw the golden bird fly away into the distance he gave it an envious look.

Meanwhile, in the town of WorkInProgressTown, Otto stood dumbfounded in his doorway.

“Eh?”

Before him stood the town’s tailor, an older man in his sixties, he didn’t have a beard, but he made up for it with an ungodly long moustache.

“Here, a few villagers already asked me to get this done for you…” the tired-sounding tailor said holding out a long robe in front of Otto.

It was dark cyan in colour with light blue sleeves collar.

The robe hung down to his pockets although its back was considerably longer.

“Uhm, I don’t know what to say, thanks!” he replied putting the robe on as soon as he took it.

He tried it on, it was a bit too big.

“It’s a bit big, whatever, robes are supposed to be baggy, right?” he thought.

“It’s great!” Otto exclaimed pulling his hood on and off.

“Mm, good, you can stop wandering around town half-naked for a change…” the old man remarked.

“I mean, it’s not like I can just summon myself clothes… I don’t think I can anyway!” Otto shrugged.

“Well, whatever, as long as it fits…” the old man turned to leave.

“Hold on!” Otto called out.

The man turned to face Otto begrudgingly.

“Mm?”

“Here,” Otto was holding out a silver coin.

The old man looked at him holding out a coin for a second.

He shook his head.

“You should quit spending all your money paying for gifts and charity, it’s not like you make anything…” the old man said as he continued heading back to his home that served as a workshop.

As he closed his door he was met with a tap on the shoulder, he spun around.

“What do you want, me?” he asked expecting to see another imaginary him, instead he was met with a woman.

“Hmm?” he cocked her head uncertainly.

Upon realising he wasn’t talking to himself he felt a wave of embarrassment come over himself.

“Oh…”

“Hi…”

The woman didn’t seem phased by the man’s strange behaviour, furthermore, she didn’t seem phased by the fact she somehow snuck into his house.

“There you go…” she said coldly handing the man a still-bleeding rabbit.

He looked up to her and down to the rabbit.

“What are you, a stray cat?” he asked walking outside and placing the rabbit on the ground outside his house.

He seemed upset by the blood on his floor much to the woman’s confusion.

“Do you not know how to prepare a rabbit?” she asked.

“That’s not the problem! I mean it’s partially the problem, but I also don’t know why you’re in my house!” he exclaimed.

“Hm, hm, I see…” she nodded.

“My name is Abigale, I’m this town’s hunter,” she replied.

“I simply checked your house for any weapons since you’re a newcomer,”

“I brought you some rabbit as an apology,” she continued.

Otto looked at her blankly.

“Not only did this person bloody my floor, but she also looked through my stuff!?” Otto breathed a sigh.

“Perhaps you would prefer a boar…”

“Tiger meat is quite tough and tastes like urine, but if you really want tiger meat, I can arrange for that as well…” she explained.

Suddenly Otto made the terrifying realisation.

Slowly he looked up to the woman.

“Y-you didn’t read the book I left on my table, did you?” he asked.

She looked at him coldly.

“No…” she replied averting her gaze awkwardly.

“YOU SO DID!” the man thought.

The woman wore a white shirt under a leather vest and black trousers under a brown skirt.

She had long black hair that hung down loosely.

On her back was a bow as well as a quilt of arrows.

“A-alright, Ehh… I assume you didn’t find anything suspicious…” Otto remarked.

“Correct,” she nodded.

“I’ve searched everything in your house and confirmed no traces of any weapons aside from one spoon,”

Otto never thought a wooden spoon could be considered a weapon.

“Well, if that’s all…” Otto began.

Abigale nodded.

“Right.”

She walked up to the door and slipped outside quietly.

He looked down to his blood-stained floor.

He extended his hand towards the floor.

“WaterBolt!”

Abigale felt the mana being pulled in towards Otto on her back to her house, though chose not to bring the topic up again.

While it was still bright, Otto headed outside to the inn, for the first time since coming here he was planning to have a drink.

He stepped towards the inn; he waved a greeting to every person he came across.

When he stepped into the inn, he saw Gredrick as well as the old trader drinking and talking.

“Hey, guys,” Otto said heading over to the till.

Gredrick’s face lit up.

“Aha! Finally, I run into you at the inn!”

“That that I’m saying you’re avoiding me!”

“Yeah, guess we come here at different hours,” Otto laughed.

“Come, sit down with us, newcomer!” the old man Otto previously smuggled booze for said gesturing him over.

Otto walked over to the till where the red-haired woman also greeted him.

“Hello again,”

“Hi,” Otto began.

“Can I get a beer, for myself this time?” he continued.

The innkeeper smiled.

“You are never going to stop saying that, are you?” she asked.

“It was burned into my mind…” he replied thinking about how awkward that first interaction was.

Seconds later the innkeeper placed the pint on the till before Otto.

“Enjoy,”

“Thanks,” Otto thanked the innkeeper before heading back to the table with Gredrick and the old man.

“We’re playing war…” the old man explained gesturing to the cards laying between the two.

“War?” Otto questioned.

“Huh, that’s the one card game I can actually play,” he thought.

“Yeah, legends say the first kind of this empire invented this game,” the old man explained.

Gredrick smile.

“Dozens of people claimed to invent this game!”

A sudden boost of confidence came over Gredrick as his he pilled two aces in a row.

“You-!” the old man glanced down at his deck.

Otto peeked into it and saw that he had two aces, two kings and a queen.

“He’s bluffing…” Otto thought.

“You would so horribly rob an old man of a potential drink?” he taunted glancing down to the two copper coins lying between them.

Gredrick’s deck had a queen and only number cards aside from that.

As expected, the old man won as he swiped the money.

The old man grabbed the cards and shuffled them.

“Don’t take it personally…” the old man began.

“But I’m not playing cards against a magician…” he said looking over to Otto.

Both Gredrick and Otto laughed as the old man placed the freshly shuffled deck between them.

“Isn’t Gredrick a magician?” Otto asked.

“Yes, but he hasn’t ever won against me for as long as I know him,” the old man laughed.

“It’s not my fault! It’s a game of chance!” Gredrick exclaimed.

“Then shouldn’t you only lose half of the games played?” the old man asked.

“It just means I’m going to win every game from this point forward!” he exclaimed.

Otto raised an eyebrow as had a sip of his beer.

After Gredrick got his ass absolutely beaten in a game of cards Otto headed back to his house.

He walked inside feeling the slight effect of the three pints he drank in relatively rapid succession.

Otto went over to his now-dry bed and laid down in it.

He looked over to the book.

“Did she look at the pictures?” he asked seemingly drunk enough to handle the answer.

“N-no…” the book replied.

Otto breathed a sigh.

“So, she did look at the pictures after all…”

“Sorry, man, I warned you I couldn’t not show her the pictures…” the book replied.

“I know…” Otto said sounding conflicted.

“You’re a stubborn person, aren’t you?...” the book asked.

Otto raised his eyebrows.

“what do you mean?”

“You need to read this book, why give artefacts to the others?” it asked.

“I was just being nice…” Otto replied.

“How long until they ask you for a device to help them hunt or protect themselves? Fireballs? Lightning bolts?”

“Will you be able to refuse them?”

“…” Otto remained silent.

“Right now, the villagers are under-dogs, but what about when they can fire nuclear bombs from their fingertips?”

“Hey! Stop going to the extremes!” Otto exclaimed sitting up and seeing the book was once again silent.

Otto didn’t read any more of the book that night, he only went to sleep thinking about other inventions he could create.

“Maybe rocks that stay on fire forever?” he thought.

“Maybe if I keep set the upwards speed of something to exactly the speed at which it falls, I can make it fly!” Otto speculated out-loud as the coin from his pocket flew up, pulling him up by the pocket for a second before dropping him back onto the bed with a loud thud.

“Ah… forgot…”

And so with the ideas of various invention, Otto went to sleep.