The young dark elf was deep in thoughts for a minute or two, not noticing that his friends were all buzzing about with a few even talking to him, but to no avail. His silence and distant expression got disturbed when a gentle hand shook him.

“Are you alright?” Valerie asked, making Regis realize that he was pretty much surrounded at that point.

“Yeah, I was just… I was thinking. I’m trying to gather some of my thoughts.”

“Got any world shaking revelations?” Khan joked as he slumped down on the log as well.

“Just the one,” the dark elf sighed once more, his morose attitude starting to rub off on the others. “We suck, big time.”

“Whoa there,” the Mongolian fighter hissed. “Talk about yourself. I’m awesome.”

“Khan,” his friend sat beside him with a chiding tone. “Let him talk.”

“Look at those guards,” Regis pointed at the 4th and 7th guard squads. “Most of them aren’t even shardwakers, and yet they’re better than us. If you look at the mercenaries, you can say the same thing.”

“Regis,” the infernal woman sat beside him with a worried face. “What’s wrong? What’s really the matter?”

“I had some time to think about what happened to us in Hunor while we were rowing towards here. We’re not soldiers. We’re unorganized and we lack proper training. Sure, some of us might have some previous experience with weapons or fighting, but that’s because of hobbies and sports. The past days proved that it’s not enough. Being a shardwaker can only help us so far if we won’t take things seriously and we won’t be able to resurrect infinitely.”

“So what do you suggest?” Cruz slammed her staff on the ground “Should we just hide behind some crumbling city wall, hoping that the others will keep the horrors at bay?”

“No,” the dark elf looked the woman in the eyes. “It’s time we get serious. If we take Khan’s delusion of this being a LITRPG or a game as a foundation, then we’re all just basic bitch under skilled starting characters. We have low ranked gear and shitty, low ranked skills.”

“That much we already knew genius,” Khan scoffed. “And it’s not a delusion. Asshole.”

“Moving on,” Fabien shushed Khan aside as he looked at the mercenaries scattered around the clearing before turning back to the others. “We can all agree on what you’ve said before, but there’s not much we can do about the matter for now.”

“Fabien’s right,” Amanda nodded. “Our current gear is the best we could scrounge together. As for the skills; those skill stones are rare and people won’t just throw them at us like it’s nothing.”

“True,” the young spell weaver agreed as he looked at the mismatched equipment most of the ragtag group wore. “This leaves me with another idea I’ve had, but first I must ask a slightly personal question from everyone. What’s your spirit attribute count right now?”

“That’s not a slightly personal, but a very personal question.” Osmond said as he looked at the dark elf with an indignant expression.

“Then let me rephrase it. I know that some of us have a spirit attribute beyond eleven, but what about the rest of you? Does everyone present have at least that much?”

Everyone looked at one another, all of them silent for a moment before Khan couldn’t bare the accusing stares any longer.

“I have twelve, okay? Stop staring at me like that!”

“Thirteen.” Cruz spoke up a moment later.

“I have thirteen as well. Why?” Sophie joined into the conversation, revealing her number.

“Because the other way I thought up to increase our strength revolves around magic.”

“Nope,” Khan stood up from the log. “I’ll leave the sparkly stuff to you guys. I’m all in for the path of the sword.”

“That’s all fine and dandy,” Regis looked at the firmly uninterested youth. “But tell me; do you think that ghoul could have killed you as easily as it did, if you’ve had a protective spell like I did back at the last battle? It might not have stopped the attack completely, but it would have dulled it enough to stop it from being lethal.”

“Well, I mean…” Khan mumbled as he processed the thought.

“I’m not saying that everyone has to become a top notch spell weaver or anything like that, but most of the more useful skills require arcana. That means you’ll have to increase your arcana reserves later on either way. You can do that by either meditating a lot, or by mastering spells, so why not learn a few must have ones that would help you stay alive a bit longer?”

“He’s right about that one,” Quentin patted his friend on the shoulder. “My blessings and chants need arcana as well, but I run out of the stuff way too fast. Oh, and I have a spirit of fourteen by the way.” The wannabe paladin flexed shamelessly with a smirk in front his friend.

“If you’ve been brainstorming about this for a while, then I presume that you already have some idea about what you want for us to learn.” Cruz fidgeted about as she looked at the dark elf.

“I’ve only come up with a starting quartet so far, but everyone’s free to share ideas and spells. On my part, I believe that arcana shield, lesser healing, lesser mending and windblast would be crucial to learn.”

Silence took hold of the group after hearing the short list of spells. Everyone seemed to be deep in thought for a good minute before Osmond broke the heavy stillness.

“I can understand learning the first three, but windblast seems useless. I mean; I can get behind the idea of a spell to protect ourselves, one to heal injuries and another to keep our equipment in working condition, but why windblast?”

“It might be weak when it comes to dealing direct damage,” Regis admitted. “But it’s a cone trajectory spell with a knockback effect. It could be used to push smaller enemies back to gain some breathing room and from what I know, it can evolve.”

“I’ve read that completely mastering an elemental spell grants you its related affinity if you don’t have it already.” Fabien noted while he pulled out his waterskin from his bag.

“Exactly,” the dark elf nodded. “Air affinity is a common requirement for many movement and fast attack skills. At least it was among the fancier skill gems I’ve seen back in Hunor. That plus one to arcana regeneration granted by the affinity is also an added bonus.”

“I think that light wisp spell we taught you earlier is also useful to learn,” Valerie spoke up. “You never know when you need a light source around.”

“Arcana bolt is a simple mid ranged spell, but it can come in handy in a pinch.” Letty suggested, earning a firm nod from all the spell weavers of the group.

“Any other suggestions? Alright. Let’s use this short rest to get you familiar with the spells. After that, we can practice at the resting points up the river.” Regis stated as he waved the group closer.

In the following quarter of an hour, he explained each of the spells on his end, teaching them the proper way of wording the obscure sounding incantations. The mercenary groups and the two guard squads only saw the outlander warband becoming quiet and focused for a while before the group’s members began to summon small floating shields one by one. This sight made everyone else wary, but after seeing that the outlanders only summoned and dismissed their spells before repeating the act made them somewhat calm down. When it came to the practice of lesser mending, everyone had their own gear to repair, but a slight problem occurred when lesser healing came up.

“We need someone who’s injured if we want to practice healing magic.” Regis said with a sombre tone as he looked at the others.

“No offence,” Amanda shook her head. “But I doubt that anyone here is a sucker for pain.”

“True, but it doesn’t have to be one of us.” The dark elf stated, earning a frown from the rest of them.

“Regis; we’re not going to go around, hurting others just so we could fix them up!” Quentin protested.

“We don’t have to,” Valerie cut into the argument before it could even start. “You once mentioned that you’ve lost your fingers and had to regrow them, right?”

“Yeah, but that still won’t help us, since none of us wants to chop people’s fingers off.”

“Then we’ll just ask someone who’s already missing some part of them.” Valerie said with a slight chuckle that broke the tension in an instant.

The infernal woman headed towards the resting crowd of mercenaries with leisurely steps, raising her voice when she was just a couple steps away.

“Excuse me everyone, but I have an important question. Are there any maimed people present?”

“What did you just ask, wench?” Several battle-scarred mercenaries jumped up, their hands already on their weapons to answer the insulting question.

“Whoa, easy there folks,” Regis spoke up as he stood in front of Valerie. “My companion might have worded it in an awkward way, but she meant no offence. Here’s the thing. My warband consists of outlanders and I’m sure you’ve seen our group practicing magic just now. After some talk, we’ve agreed to share and learn some basic spells amongst ourselves to increase our chances of survival, but we’ve come to a little problem.”

“What my dark elf companion wants to say is that we need to practice healing magic, but we’d need someone injured for that,” Quentin joined in, his firm and friendly tone easing the severe tension that still lingered around. “Either that, or someone who has lost a limb. I understand that Valerie’s question was an unpleasant one, but she only asked, so that we could practice said healing magic.”

“Of course, I’m sure you all understand the benefit of this as well,” Regis grasped their attention once more. “I myself have also lost a pair of fingers, but as you can see, a large enough amount of healing magic can regrow even missing body parts. If anyone amongst you is missing a finger, or an eye or some such, then I hope you’ll at least think about speaking up.”

“I apologise if my previous way of speaking felt like an insult,” Valerie added as she gave a slight bow to the group. “But this would be a trade most beneficial for both parties as our group would get to master the spell of lesser healing and you would regain what was lost. We won’t mention this again, if it displeases you people, but please, just think it over while resting. The offer stands throughout our journey to East Fork. Once there, everyone will be too busy fighting for their life deal with such matters.”

With that, the trio turned around and walked back to the fallen tree where the rest of the group was waiting. Khan couldn’t help but give out a low whistle as the trio sat down.

“That almost turned into a blood bath, but you gave a good sales pitch Val.”

“Yes,” Cruz chuckled. “I especially liked the low key strong-arming at the end as you mentioned that they would be too busy fighting once we got to East Fork. It should have reminded them that they’ll need to be in the best shape possible for the fight.”

“That was the point,” the infernal woman nodded before using her brother’s lap as a pillow. “Though I’m not quite sure how effective it actually was. These people seem quite unfriendly and untrusting towards outlanders.”

“That might be the case,” Fabien agreed as he stroked her hair. “But it looks like practicality won over prejudice quite fast.”

He nodded towards the camp and as the rest of their group looked over, they could see a gruff looking iron clad mercenary trudge towards them with a deadpan face.

“I’m not a man of fancy words, so I’ll be brief,” the one eyed man spoke up as he stopped in front of them, staring Regis in the eyes. “My warband has little to pay with, since we’ve spent most of what we had on our kit and supplies, but I have a few lads and lasses that could really use your healing magic. I hope that we can come to an arrangement.”

“Money was never a question,” the dark elf said as he looked at his group. “My people need practice and yours need heeling. That’s a trade on its own, but if you feel that payment must be brought up, I have an idea on how you can pay for our healing skills.”

“Name it.” The mercenary leader nodded with a blank face that gave no quarter for haggling.

“My friends and I are not soldiers,” the spell weaver stated as he stood back up. “We might have some experience in fighting, but we weren’t properly trained in combat like most of you mercenaries have been. I’m sure that your lot could give us some pointers on how to fight better.”

“You want us to train you while on the journey?” The man asked as a crack appeared on his emotionless face before he gave out a quiet but hearty laugh. “That we could do, lad. Fine; my people will spend some time at the evening rests to train yours, in exchange for you doing your magic. It’ll be up to you lot how much you learn during this short trip.”

“I think we have a deal, then.” Regis reached out with his hand, the mercenary taking it for a shake.

“That we have. The name’s Marcus by the way.”

“Regis.” He introduced himself as the mercenary looked at the rest of his group.

“So, how’s this going to work out between you and us?”

“That depends on how big of an injury we’re talking about. If the wound was fresh, it would go fast, but with days or years old injuries it will take three times the effort. You’ll decide who’s going first and we’ll do our best to fix them up as fast as we can.”

“If we’re to do this, then I might as well go first,” Marcus said with a not at all shameless expression as he pointed at his missing eye. “It’s best for my band to see that this actually works. You know; just to give them courage.”

“Sure, courage.” Cruz rolled both of her eyes while Regis pointed at the log for the mercenary to sit down.

“Remember what I’ve told you earlier,” the young dark elf spoke to his companions as he stepped beside the mercenary. “You have to focus your spell on the injury, otherwise it will spread throughout the body, lowering the effect. You should close your other eye. The light can be quite irritating.”

With his reminder out of the way, the spell weaver raised his hand and covered the mercenary’s empty eye socket with his palm before whispering the obscure incantation. The familiar healing light appeared, focused on the singular point where the eye was missing.