At the end of the practice session, a pair of bruised, tired and dirt covered outlanders panted and spat on the ground, staring daggers at the grinning mercenary woman in front of them.

“Oh don’t give me that look,” Dana turned slightly aside with a mock embarrassment. “I might think you’ve actually taken a liking to me.”

“Regis,” Cruz spoke up between two raspy breaths. “Do you have any non-lethal, but painful as fuck combat spells?”

“I have a few.”

“Now hold on,” the woman gawked at the two when the sun-stone at the tip of the dark elf’s weapon started to glow. “This was just some training for your own good. There’s no need to…” Before she could finish her excuses, a large hand tapped her on the back of her head with more force than necessary.

“I remember telling you not to mess around with the younglings,” Marcus said to the hissing Dana as she rubbed her aching head. “You were supposed to train them, not abuse them.”

“They know healing magic,” Dana defended herself. “A couple of bruises are nothing in exchange of getting better at fighting.”

“Come on Marcus,” the other mercenaries called out from a distance. “Food is ready.”

“Let’s go,” the man sighed as he turned around and began walking away. “You start guard duty after eating.”

“But,” the distressed red head hurried along. “What about having a drink at least?”

“And off they go,” Cruz harrumphed as she healed her bruised side that still hurt after getting smacked in the ribs by Dana. “We should go as well. It’s getting really dark and we don’t even have a fire going.”

“I can fix up a few dirt walls against the wind if needed, but we don’t have anything to use as a roof.” Regis said as he looked up at the cloudy night sky while the two of them approached their group that gathered at an empty spot of the clearing.

Khan and Quentin were on their way back from the forest’s edge with a stack of branches and twigs in their hands. The rest of their warband were tending to their own bruises while waiting for the wood for the fire. When Cruz neared her still panting sister, she gave her a gentle hug before brushing her hair out of her face.

“You look terrible, sis. Did that guy go so hard on you?”

“I’m fine,” Letty shook her head as she looked at the others. “It’s just that swinging a sceptre around like a mace is really tiresome and that stupid shield is too rough. It keeps hurting my arm.”

“Wouldn’t you be better off with a staff?” Regis asked as he looked at the simple hardwood sceptre that looked cheaply made and quite worn.

“I’ve tried using a staff before, but it just doesn’t feel right. Metal weapons are also out of the question, since they block my nature affinity magic.”

“The elaborate restrictions of druids,” Osmond chimed in as he plopped beside the wood elf women. “It took us quite the effort to get her even that simple sceptre, since most of them around here are made from bronze and they’re also quite valuable. As for having a magic staff; not all of us are so… traditional. Hopefully we’ll be able to get her a proper set of equipment in East Fork. Although getting well-crafted equipment in a war-torn continent seems to be nigh impossible unless we’re as lucky as a certain enchanter.”

“Why didn’t you ask Sophie to kit you out when you had the chance back at Hunor? She’s an armourer of sorts, right?”

“I’m a leather worker,” the sun elf spoke up as Valerie cast a simple fire spell beside her to light their campfire. “Although I do mostly work on armours and I did get the armourer constellation. As for your question; who do you think fixed up her current gear? It’s not my best work, but I did what I could, given the shortage of time and the lack of materials.”

“I know you’re good,” Regis sighed as he reached out to warm his fingers by the fire. “You did an excellent job with my old gear too. Still; we’re supposed to be up against creatures that are level six and higher. If we can’t get you all something decent…”

“Enough with your brooding,” Khan said as he slapped the dark elf in the back. “We have a decent enough gear for now and we even got ourselves coaches to train us. Everything’s going to be fine.”

“Khan is right,” Quentin agreed as he pulled out some rations from his knapsack. “Brooding over such things will only bring us down and besides; we just lost the edgelord of the group, so we’re not in a hurry to get a new one.”

“Fucking Aspen!” Cruz cursed as she stood back up, walking away with a strained expression.

“What the…”

“Give her some time,” Osmond sighed as he watched the wood elf walk away. “Aspen is their cousin and despite being the black sheep of the family, Alicia always tried to keep him out of trouble. His betrayal hit her hard.”

“He might have been charmed by Natalie the way she tried to enchant Regis.” Amanda tried to speak up for the rogue, but Letty just shook her head.

“Aspen was always a jerk,” she said with a surprisingly hateful tone. “I’ve tried to tell them that he was trouble, but no one listened to me. I’ve told them before that he got into a bad crowd, but they just shushed me away, saying that it was a phase or something and that he’ll smarten up later.”

“I must admit,” the pale young man sighed as he stared into the campfire. “Letty is right. Aspen was always troublesome, but we put with him because of Cruz. Now I understand how he could get away with so much of the shit he did back on Earth. The Argent family was nothing if not protective of their lackeys. They must have secretly bailed him out of the worst of it.”

“Why would they be so interested in having a troublemaker like that guy in their services? It makes no sense.”

“The Moreno family was an important confidant of my family,” Osmond answered while taking a bite from his own rations. “Alicia and Letty grew up being treated like my sisters, going to the same schools as I did. Although Aspen was from the side branch of their family, but he was still in a close enough relation to them, so that he would get to be in the right places in the right time.”

“Are you saying that he was a mole, planted by the Argent family to keep an ear and an eye out for information?” Fabien drew the obvious conclusion.

“Most likely.”

“Well,” Khan plopped down between Regis and Letty. “He’s out on the open now, so he won’t be able to spy on us for that crazy bitch any more.”

“Perhaps,” the dark elf’s eyebrows furrowed as his face slightly contorted. “But we have a more pressing issue at hand, Khan.”

“We do?” The youth asked back as he watched Regis try his hardest not to choke.

“You stink like hell.”

“What? Dude, I was training like a mad man, covered in armour. Of course I’d get sweaty. We all are.”

“Yeah, and that’s why we’re going to have an emergency spell practice session now. I got my hands on a cleaning spell before leaving Hunor and now’s the perfect time to put it to good use.”

“Oh come on,” the young warrior protested. “It’s not that bad.”

“Either you learn it or I’ll windblast you into the river myself.” Regis looked at the youth while reaching for his bladestaff.

“I could use that spell as well,” Valerie tried to stifle her laughter. “As awkward it is to admit; we could all use it. Go ahead with your lecture, professor.”

“Agreed.” Sophie nodded along with Quentin as they both sniffed their clothes with a skewed expression.

After a few minutes of explanation and practice, the band of outlanders left behind the dirt and smell of the day, eating some dinner before deciding the details of guard duty.

“I’ll start,” Regis said as he raised a few earth walls to create a simple shelter for his companions. “You should get some sleep. I’ll wake Quentin in about two hours and he’ll wake Khan in another two.”

“I will switch with Khan once he’s done and Osmond can follow after.” Fabien nodded as he slumped beside the thick and sturdy earth wall.

“What about us?” Amanda asked after hearing only the guys mentioned.

“You girls get some rest.”

“That’s not…”

“Amanda,” Valerie patted her on the back. “Let the guys play gentlemen for now. We might not get a chance for any proper sleep in the coming days, so try to make the most of it. Just think of this as a fun camping trip or something.”

“Fine.” The giant of a woman sighed as she kicked a canvas sack aside with a loud cluttering sound.

“The hell’s in that sack?” Khan asked as he had to jump aside to not get hit by the heavy looking mill sack.

“It’s just a few dozen bronze ingots.” Amanda shrugged as she rolled out her bedroll on the ground beside Sophie’s and lay down to stare at the night sky.

“You’ve been lugging around a friggin sack of bronze this whole time? Why?”

“I wasn’t just going to leave it in Hunor. Regis mentioned before that he needs stuff like that for his enchanting and I’ve figured he could work his magic while we’re travelling.”

“Oh, he could work his magic any time.” Valerie chuckled before getting elbowed in the side by her brother.

“Val, go to sleep. Now.” Fabien said with an almost authoritarian tone as half of the group chuckled and the other half sighed at her comment.

“I could enchant a few of your gears while on guard duty, but bronze can only be used for second rank durability enchantments and weapon-shift runes. Pretty much everything else requires elemental stones.”

“Oh,” Amanda stopped herself from heading over to retrieve her sack of bronze ingots. “Sorry, but I don’t have any of those.”

“Don’t worry,” Regis patted his own knapsack. “I got that part covered. For the record; I promised Cruz that I’ll upgrade her staff and Osmond gets his cane spruced up. Other than that; anyone else have any requests?”

“Can you do that fire enchantment thing to my hammer?” Amanda asked with an unexpected meekness in her voice.

“Weren’t you able to do fire based attacks yourself?” Fabien looked at the blacksmith with a puzzled expression.

“That’s a combat skill, but it eats through my arcana like crazy. If my hammer could deal fire damage on basic attacks, that would let me focus my reserves on the more important things.”

“In that case, I’ll add a fire rune to your hammer. Any armour enchantments?”

“I think you should focus on durability and protection runes for everyone’s chest piece for now,” Valerie spoke up while taking off her form fitted breastplate. “Anything else would be a waste of resources since we’ll likely get some new gear in a few days.”

“I have to agree with her,” Osmond nodded as he handed over the sleeveless robe he wore to cover a similarly sleeveless linen shirt. “We shouldn’t waste precious materials needlessly.”

The rest of the group handed over their weapons and armour to be enchanted, leaving the dark elf with a literal pile of work. Regis walked aside a bit, creating a U shaped dirt wall that was staring toward the forest.

He placed the items inside and spread his cloak over the wall, creating a roof to hide any light he would create during work. As he walked back to the campfire, he saw Quentin toss another piece of wood on the fire before turning in to sleep. Some of the wood looked peculiar, forcing him to cast Charlatan’s Wisdom on a piece to scratch the itching curiosity that was nagging him.

{Rosewood}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Crafting material}

‘Rosewood, here?’ The dark elf thought as he studied the pleasant looking texture of the piece of wood. He knew that rosewood was a highly valued crafting material back on Earth due to its high durability and unique looks. Finding it lying in a pile of firewood was just plain laughable. The spell weaver picked out any other rosewood branches he could find, thinking it to be a waste to just burn such a good crafting material away.

While he was bringing it over to his own spot, he noticed Cruz and Letty as the two were about to turn in for the night and an idea began to take form in his mind. He walked over and after clearing his throat loud enough to make his presence known, he crouched down to be on their level.

“Is something wrong, Regis?” Cruz asked with her eyebrows raised.

“No,” he shook his head slightly. “I just wanted to ask a favour from Letty. Well; two, actually.”

“Oh. What do you need?” The wood elf girl chirped as she looked at the spell weaver.

“Could you quickly teach me the simplest nature element spell you have? And also; could I borrow your sceptre for a little while? I’d like to study it to see how it’s different from my staff or Fabien’s sceptre.”

“A nature spell,” Letty hopped back on her feet with a renewed vigour. “Of course I can show you one. There’s this simple growth spell that can spur any plant into growing faster and healthier.”

Letty pulled out a small acorn from her satchel while wording out the spell for Regis. She planted the acorn into the ground beside their camp, pouring a bit of water on it before she whispered the few obscure words she explained moments before.

Her hand began to glow with a pale green light that showered on the ground where the acorn was planted. After a few seconds, the ground cracked as a single tiny stalk broke through it. Regis watched in daze as the tiny stalk grew towards the sky for another few seconds before the light faded away.

“It’s an initiate ranked spell, so the effects aren’t too drastic,” the girl said as she patted the ground around the pinky finger sized stalk to make it firm once again. “It seems to grow fast at first, but as it becomes larger, the power of the spell gets spread out all over the plant and the growth effect slows down. It’s still very useful for growing medicinal plants though.”

“Medicinal plants,” Regis mumbled while still staring at the newly grown acorn tree seedling. “Are you interested in alchemy or something?”

“I am,” Letty nodded as she lowered her gaze as if embarrassed about it. “But I only know a few very simple formulas and I don’t have any equipment for it, so it’s only textbook knowledge.”

“For now,” the dark elf said with some confidence in his tone. “I’m sure we’ll be able to find you an alchemist kit once we get to the spell weavers’ guild in East Fork. They should also have a book or at least some helpful notes around as well, so don’t worry. We’ll help you get started, if you want to try your hands in alchemy.”

“Thanks,” the young woman nodded before handing over the worn sceptre to him. “Here’s my sceptre, but please; try not to damage it! That’s the only one I’ve got.

“Don’t worry, and thank you!” Regis said as he turned around to walk towards his makeshift sentry post near the edge of the forest with his thoughts still racing.