They welcomed Roxana into a waiting room on the second floor. She spent her time viewing the rugs in the room and the artwork. Lord Rizengord held one of the largest historical collections of the Empire and was famous for commissioning various works based on it.

The centerpiece rug in the room showed the slaying of the Burning Wolf who once held the space Hijol now fills. A massive wolf battles the Centurions while their troops clash against the rest of the pack.

“Lady Horstin, Marque Rizengord is ready to see you.” The clear, low tone of the servant put her at ease by a small amount. She nodded and had him lead the way.

After knocking, the servant led her into the main office. A large desk stood prominently in the middle, with couches and small tables for a more casual seating area, a full table to eat or work at, with walls lined with shelves full of books, papers, and dozens of cores. The back wall featured a large map of Hijol and the surrounding dungeon.

Roxana’s eyes fixed on the cores and her senses reached out to them as if that alone could let her sink into them. Her mouth pressed into a thin line, but the edge of a smile.

With the introduction and politeness out of the way, they announced Roxana to Marque Vurt. In his 40s, he had spent his adult life here in Hijol. Starting out under his father in the long process of forging a colony from the dungeon, he had risen to take over from his father, who retired the decade before.

“Lady Horstin, I welcome you to Hijol and hope that you will serve faithfully as ordered.” His eyes pierced through her and searched her for any sign of non-verbal communication.

“Yes Lord Rizengord, I am a faithful servant of the Emperor.” She burned inside at the reprimand, but being above her, there was little to do but accept.

“Glad to hear it, leave us.” The servant who led her here and another appearing from out of sight behind the door left.

“Unpleasantness aside, I need your services, Lady Horstin. We can fabricate most of the shielding from mana, but don’t have anyone high enough to enchant the mana barriers.” As he spoke, he closed the journal he was writing in. He gestured towards a seat across from him for her, which she promptly sat upon.

“Pay the manner of my service no heed, Lord Rizengord. It would honor me to get to work on those immediately. I will need at least special cores if you want them able to operate in the shadow mana, but I can make do with normal cores for the first strata.” Vurt nodded his understanding.

“That is no problem. The Centurions here have a unit of cavalry here to help with scouting.” The cavalry are soldiers with pet monsters for scouting and population control. While they ride some of the larger pets, typically they operate more than a pet & handler. “They have been encountering many shadow monsters, so special cores will not be a problem.”

Roxana guessed there was a lot he was leaving out. Hijol ended up being relatively close to at least one Sophos village and had several bloody conflicts with them over territory disputes. The Sophos favored shadow monsters and an increase in their numbers implied recent conflict.

“Conflict with the Sophos again?” The Marque eyes showed only a hint of surprise. She couldn’t help but admire his control.

“Ah, yes. I see you have done your research. In that case, as Norris informed you, the new expanse we found is the problem. The Sophos apparently use this expanse occasionally for training their pets. We want to take and hold this expanse, but we need equipment to allow fortifications to be built.” The Marque pushed his chair back and stood up.

The Empire functioned under the idea that all soldiers belonged to the Emperor and only loans to the nobles charged with them. However, beyond their basic gear for the soldiers, further gear must come from the nobles. Wasted lives had steep financial burdens.

“This area above the shadow jungle is Labrinth Falls, but it remains mostly unmapped. I do not believe their village is here, but I would like to secure that area. It is rich in cores despite being in the first strata.”

Cores! She was all in favor of this plan.

“What makes this area so rich in cores?” Hearing her question, he grew excited.

“The area is filled with mana rich waters flowing from the ocean down into the lower stratas across hundreds of square kilometers.” She slid forward in her seat as her mind planned her question.

“Lord Rizengord, may I join a delve into this area?” He turned to face her, waiting before answering. He sat again and folded his hands in front of himself.

“On face, I want to say no, as I need your skills as an enchanter more than I need another bow on the combat force. However, leveling your skills further might be worth the risk. You are nearly ready for a class upgrade?”

“Yes, your Lordship.” He slid another journal toward himself and opened up. Reading through it for a moment for some information.

“I have a recon expedition going there in a month to survey the monsters in the area. Having your skilled enchanting on hand to better shield camp will mean you can stay out there longer.” He wrote a note on a small sheet of paper and stuck it into the page, then left it on the opposite corner of his desk.

“That being resolved. I will let you retire to your new home and get settled in. It is not luxurious, but it has an attached workshop that will have the cores you need. A servant will stop by every few days to supply more and pick up any completed work.” The Marque reached for another journal from the pile and pulled a sheet sticking out from it.

“This is your initial work order. Once it is nearly complete, I will have the next order list dropped off. We only have one month and I need at least three filled before we can go.” She took the offered sheet and read it over.

It was a set of accessories for 20 soldiers, which would take nearly two weeks to enchant if she pushed herself hard. A month for three would not leave her in good condition.

“You said you just need me to enchant the barrier portions. Does this mean I only need to do the chest plate and finish each set?”

“Yes, you’ll find the first set waiting for you. I will have each order dropped off when they are complete, but it should take 3 weeks for the last to be done.”

“Cutting it rather close. Just make sure they make them as uniformly as possible. This is much easier if I don’t have to tune every set.” She folded the order sheet and placed it into a pouch on her dress.

“I am stretched thin with equipment. Give me three sets and I will spare the men to take you along.” They held eyes before Roxana looked away. There was a limit to how long she could eye down a Marque.

“It will be done, my Lord.” She bowed her head forward in acknowledgement. They spent the next hour discussing further details and what was available in Hijol. Eventually, she said her goodbyes and had them take her to her new home.

After moving in her things and getting some dinner, she let the two personal servants she brought with her finish settling the place to their mistress’s tastes. Opening the door to her workshop, she entered and flipped a latch on the wall. A small surge of mana and cores illuminated the space.

While the entire building was smaller than her mansion, the workshop was actually bigger than her personal one at home. Her family’s workshop was much larger to handle the large canal boats. This one, however, was one around armor, weapons, and equipment.

Opening the inner secured room with the key they provided her, she stared longingly at the wall of cores. Each cupboard neatly marked with potential and compatibility with different mana types. A smile broke out on her face and a giggle erupted.

Like a child lost in the sweet shop, she sampled each core with enchanting skills and verified their sorting. She hummed a tune as pulled out the cores she needed to turn the parts of the armor into a full mana barrier.

The Empire did not have the skill, materials, nor wealth to match the Legion in their ability to delve deep and for as long as they could survive in combat, unafraid of mana sickness. However, the modular armor sets the Empire employed allowed them far greater flexibility in the upper two stratas.

Constantly storing, using, and managing ambient mana, the gauntlets, boots, belt, lower chest plate, and helmet formed the full mana sickness protection set. Normally, only the boots, belt, and helm were to protect them in the first strata, but an extended trip or higher mana levels needed the full set.

She pulled one of the 20 lower chest pieces and set it on her workbench. Then she gathered the belt and gauntlet for the set as well. Drawing a deep breath, she set to work. Aligning the chest plate core array was the hardest part, so at least she could grind some skill levels from this before her class upgrade.

Still, the mana barrier was not actually a shield that protected the wearer from attacks, but it could slightly reduce the power of spells used against them. It channeled the mana away from the wearer or into specific channels for use.

The helmet’s main two enchants are mind mana guards and physical damage protection enchants. The red fur plume of the fox monsters makes excellent mana dispersers. It naturally insulates from mana, but with a modification, it pulls mana from the helm.

Pushing and pulling the mana of the core to shape it was a long and exhausting process. Together, the additional cores would work to protect them. The mana barrier needed activating or reaching a certain local mana level to function. It burned a lot of mana creating a low mana area around the wearer, so it was best in the second strata.

She worked long into the night, and the next several days were a blur.

“My Lady, perhaps you should take a break.” Startled, she snapped from her daydream to recognize her head maid.

“Oh Gloria, thank you. I think you have a good idea.” Setting aside her 9th set of armor, she got up and went back into the house. Gloria signaled her junior maid to come tidy the workshop while following Roxana to her room.

She removed her outer dress to relax and enjoy a break. Gloria had her favorite raspberry biscuits and tea ready. She asked Gloria about the town and if anything of interest was here yet.

The most notable locations Gloria thought she would like are the Hunter’s Guild, Tobold’s Timbers, and Allcan Miner’s Guild. If there was anything that made Roxana feel like a young girl again besides cores, it was mana infused materials. Anything enchantable was on the browse to buy list.

By the time they finished discussing shops, Gloria finished powering the protective enchants in the room. Gloria gave her a hand signal showing all was secure.

“Any word from His Excellency?”

“Yes, My Lady. He finds the incident uproariously funny and commends you on standing up for yourself. That said, it displeased him that you actually hit him in the face. Your exile will stand for now. So long as you uphold the family oath and Hijol’s situation stabilizes, you may return.” Roxana drooped in her chair.

“Drat. Things really must be serious here. What is so serious that needs us here?” She covered her face with both hands and rubbed her face. Gloria tried to look stern while not cracking a smile at lazy posture.

“His Excellency always has his guarded reasons. I suspect he is hoping you will find more than he is looking for this time.” Roxana sat straight up and stared into Gloria’s eyes.

“More than he is looking for? That is not pleasant to hear Gloria.” Roxana pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to shove aside all the distracting thoughts.

“Yes, the primary aim is still to install the monitoring arrays. However, we are to stay as the Sentinels on duty. We may exercise all emergency powers should you find justifiable evidence for cause.”

“What have I gotten into this time? Gloria, I need a walk.”

Roxana went to see those shops after all and readied to go along with Gloria. They informed the junior maid and set off for the town.