“This is Alfred’s place?” Adrin asked as they arrived at a lone hut in the second layer of the town. Most of the second layer was still not developed other than farms or orchards. It was not much different from being outside of the wall, well, if he ignored the huge wall itself.

“Yes, Lana thinks you might like the place,” the girl said as she unlocked the door and pushed it open. “I’ve kept it clean, well, once in a while.”

“Let me guess, Lana wants to sell this patch of land one day?”

The girl chuckled, “yeah, that’s the idea, well, if anyone wants it.”

Alfred had bought a rather large piece of land far enough from the main road to not be noticed in a glance. There were a few trees providing shade to the hut, and there were quite some bushes filling the rest of the land.

“Alfred is a stone shaper,” Adrin concluded while touching the solid stone wall. “He is pretty good at it too.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well, it is still standing after how many years?”

“Ten years give or take since the news of his death,” Aela said. “Maybe longer as who knows when the old hedge mage has built this hut.”

“That’s a long time ago and the stone he packed together didn’t even show any crack or breakage after that long without any maintenance.”

Aela eyed him suspiciously, “you sure know a lot.”

Adrin cleared his throat, “well, my awakened spirit is knowledgeable.”

The girl scoffed as if he was lying but didn’t say anything further.

He entered the hut after Aela. Inside was as simple as he had expected. A raised stone bed with the commonplace cotton-filled mattress and two pillows on it. It was a little dusty but would be comfortable to relax on.

A rather large fireplace built into the walls and a metal plate on top for water heating or cooking. There was a stone table by the door paired with a stone stool. A quick [Mana Sense] told him the walls were properly insulated with the gap between the walls.

Comfy tiny home for a hedge mage in training.

“I see that you like it,” the girl dusted off the bed before she took a seat.

Adrin placed the chest under the stone table before taking out a book, Alfred’s journal, and placed it on the table. If he had similar behavior as Alfred, this book could be one thing that separated them. He hated writing down his thoughts.

Aela seemed to be comfortable relaxing in the stone hut. Yes, she cleaned it from time to time but that didn’t explain why she was lounging on the bed like she owned the place. Adrin started reading the journal before he realized why she was as comfortable.

“Do you use this place to make out or something?” He threw the question to the humming girl.

Aela let out a gasp and it was enough for him. Adrin didn’t need to turn around and look at her to tell that she was fidgeting to answer his question.

“It’s fine, it is not my business to ask,” Adrin added while turning his focus on an interesting topic in the journal. ‘Animate object spell?’ he mused and continued reading.

The real hedge mage was planning to tweak or change the glyph to mimic a spell he had heard thrown around in rumors. The rumor Alfred had been following from town to town. The spell was used to throw an inanimate object at the enemy before it acted as if it was alive.

It was a relatively weak spell compared to [Bolt] for example, but useful to distract lesser-minded monsters like goblins. According to the hedge-mage, the spell would only dispel when the mana ran out completely and it didn’t need much in the first place. The man wanted to use this spell to make a prosthetic arm for his friend, Blake, mostly out of guilt.

The hedge mage didn’t specifically write down what had happened, but he faced the same problem Adrin had faced before. The lack of knowledge in the glyph.

The hedge mage had roamed from place to place and delved into many dungeons in search of knowledge that could help in his goal. Alfred also wrote about how the [Cantrip] can easily fail if the target object had more than one part. Another problem the man was working on as a fake arm would be close to useless without joints and fingers to grasp.

The spell [Animate Object] didn’t need the [Enchanting] skill to make it permanent as this simple spell, a cantrip, as Alfred called it, can be carved into the object easily enough. All it needed was a little bit of quicksilver.

At least, it was what the hedge mage thought, but the reality wasn’t so kind. The old hedge mage was being hopeful as Adrin couldn’t see how the spell would work without [Enchanting], the art of weaving the spell glyph into physical objects. Alfred must have had a really hard time getting hold of the skill and tried to find a way around it.

Unlike normal spell glyph, [Enchanting] mana source and spell effect were set up differently. The magic item user didn’t need [Mana Meld] to use it. The item itself needed to be ‘prepared’ before it could receive any spell glyph and some spells like [Storage] needed special requirements.

The steel ring on his finger, for example, was laced with some kind of materials that he had no idea what. Maybe it was quicksilver, the substance that Alfred had mentioned.

“Wow, you are really into this, huh?” said Aela.

Adrin almost jumped because of her sudden appearance. The girl was so close until his elbow had nudged her modest chest.

“Don’t do that please,” Adrin said, “and sorry to nudge you.”

Aela chuckled, “never mind, it is my fault, but you seem to be used to a girl’s body. Your face will be a lot redder if you don’t.”

Adrin could feel his ears warming up, “yeah, you can say that.”

“I see, you aren’t gay after all,” the girl quipped.

“Not even close,” he smiled. “I just don’t want to get distracted.”

“A man with a mission, how interesting, can I know what?”

“For now?” Adrin closed the journal and faced the girl. “A fake hand for Blake.”

Aela’s face changed from surprised to bewildered. He didn’t know why but she took a step back after he gave her his full attention. Maybe this was the first time she met someone who was different from other young men. She was alone in a room with a young man she had an interest in after all.

“I- I see, then I’ll leave you to it,” the girl said before she took a step towards the door. “Would you like me to bring you dinner? Lana had offered to cook for you,” Aela said by the door.

“Sure, and thanks.”

“It’s nothing, I want to see him with both arms too,” Aela explained. “See you tonight?”

“See you later, Aela,” replied Adrin before turning back towards the journal.

He continued to read through hundreds upon hundreds of notes in the journal while taking notes himself. Most of them were baseless conjectures of baseless belief without any scientific or at least proven facts. Needless to say, he had to filter through a lot of things.

But from what was written, Adrin could tell that Alfred had a very curious mind and the hedge man always questioned everything. The hedge mage was a smart man, a strategist.

There were also episodes of interaction with the opposite gender, some in the form of paid hookups while others were more casual. The journal also revealed to him the open secrets that everyone knew but would be frowned upon if they ever talked about.

This open secret was probably why he rarely saw mixed-gender delver’s parties walking around in town. There was very little doubt about it as Alfred had no reason to lie in his own journal.

Adrin had only been here for less than two days, but he had never seen mixed teams, except maybe only one time. All others he could see were girls only or men only teams walking around.

There were a few entries when Alfred joined a mixed team, and a female team member sought comfort in the hedge mage’s arms. It usually happened when the team had a rough time. He read one of them in a whisper.

--- Late Autumn - Bordertown Girindar - We lost someone today. Kilmar is his name and he is Keala’s long-time partner. The female cat-kin told him that they had been together for almost forever until the boss monster got him today.

It is a great loss as Kilmar is a great man for a beast-kin. The girl got drunk and she had chosen me to ease her pain until she got over it. I have no say in this as in tradition but I’m glad. It is almost winter and being hugged by a warm fluffy girl is the best.

I used to think girls were a huge waste of time and a distraction, but not anymore. It is only a distraction if I allow it to be. I can’t blame others for my own mistakes and waking up in bed with a good woman always refreshes my mind. It enables me to look at the problem from a fresh perspective while enjoying life while it lasts.

Like Hilda had said, “life as a delver is short, and love is a luxury to those who can afford it.”

I almost envied Blake, he is crippled, but at least, he is able to have kids of his own.

How are you doing, my good friend? ---

Adrin closed the journal. The journey of Alfred the hedge mage was a harsh one.

Death was mentioned almost every week before the hedge mage moved on to chase another clue or rumor. The cycle then repeats. Adrin realized how lucky others like him were to be brought to the academy at such an early period of their life.

Alfred had held on to the dream of ‘fixing’ his friend Blake because the man was the only childhood friend he had left. Six of them had set out to chase their dreams and only two were left after a few years.

Now there was only one left, and that man’s life was saved only because he had lost an arm.

Nothing in the old world could be compared or prepared him for this. Nothing in this world had taught him about this cruel reality.

Adrin couldn’t fathom losing Emi, let alone six other of his proverbial best friends. He couldn’t put himself in Alfred’s shoes or those good men and women the hedge mage called friends.

Had he not been rational himself?

A deep sigh escaped his mouth. Adrin continued reading.

Aela came to visit with dinner in her hands later that night, and despite his reluctance, the girl had stayed for the night. To his relief, the girl had only wanted a shoulder to cry on.