Meanwhile on the top floor of the mage tower. Inside a spacious and majestic office.

„Mr A, are you sure that the intel is correct?“ asks a kind-looking old man. He is frowning over a piece of paper.

„Yes, Mage Renald. It is confirmed. We won’t be able to avoid a war. The intelligence department calculated that in three to five years a war between us and the league of shadow will break out,“ the black-robed Mr. A answered. He sighs, it isn’t like this is the first war. It happens nearly every one or two century.

„We managed to find some spies, they tried to infiltrate your tower. We also had some minor skirmishes with the enemy force. The Order sent out three newly promoted mages to hold the fort,“ Mr.A continues.

„Are you sure that three new mages are enough? “ Asks Renald with scepticism. It isn’t his first rodeo, sending out three beginners is asking for death. It is hard enough for them to break through to an official mage level.

„Mage Arnold is supervising them from the shadow. The order hopes that the new mages can get some experience in a relatively safe environment,“ says Mr. A.

„Alright, I am going to ramp up the magic scroll production, anything else?“ asked Renald while frowning. At least they won’t die too fast.

Contemplating a bit the robed man says: „No, but strengthening the apprentices is necessary. The Order is already preparing some mission sites. It should be done in two or three months. “

„Alright, thank you Mr. A,“ says Renald bevor continuing with his magic experiments and other not that important stuff.

++++++++++++++++

In the following month, I was busy with scribing magic scrolls and learning Gorlen. I broke through the late phase of the second stage on the soul. And I am also on the brink of breaking through to intermediate first stage on my mage path.

The time I spent inscribing scrolls hadn’t been wasted. While only thee scrolls were expected per day, I always manage to inscribe four scrolls and lately I often make all five correctly. Towards the end of the month, I buy three extra scrolls from the same shop I went last time and inscribe them too. Because of this, I am able to sell three extra scrolls per day. One of them goes for nine copper apiece.

My savings doubled; this helped my shrinking coffer. I also have successfully translated the first of the parchments. It has been a long and annoying journey. This language is one of the most complicated things I have ever seen. And that says a lot about this language. Without the increased capacity as a mage, I believe that very few people would ever master it. Maybe it was never meant to be mastered at my rank?

++++++++++++++++

Today is the day before I will get a new spell to copy from Ildrick. My quota is finished for the day already. Now I have time to inspect the translated scroll.

The first line: ‚Spell of enslavement‘, wow that escalated quickly. So, let’s see.

The spell is a lot more complicated than the fireball spell from before, but still manageable.

What is special about this spell is, that it is not purely a spell alone. It has three functions.

First it rips a hole into the soul of the target. Then with a second formula, it implants part of my soul or a subsidiary ingredient and then ingrates it into the soul. This version is only able to enslave ordinary mortal people and defenceless apprentices of the first two stages. But that’s good enough.

Then the materials. It talks about a golden apple, it is a rare fruit from a rare tree. Rare at least for apprentices. An apprentice level ingredient with the soul attribute, the book also mentions some similar ones, but this is the only one I can get my hand on with my amount of points.

So the preparation of the material is: make a juice out of the golden apple, add some black pepper, salt and your own blood. Then I need to soak a piece of a soul. Human soul works the best. and using the method to put an imprint inside the seed. Then the seed is completed.

I saw that the golden apple is exchangeable for four points. As for the soul, I have my buddy subject#001 with me. That’s good and most importantly, free. I slowly feel how it is to live without enough resources. Hopefully my next plans would take care of that.

Next, I need a target. Someone from the tower is not an option. Surely someone would notice the tempering. Hmm, I want to make an underground force. Enslaving the owner of a small restaurant and digging out a small lab should work well enough, at least for making some less than ideal experiments. Not really the humans ones. The tower doesn’t care about that, no I speak about experiments pertaining to the soul. I could earn a little money from the restaurant as well. But most importantly, I can teach the guy some recipes and eat some decent meals. The food in the cafeteria is not bad, but a bit bland. They don’t seem to use spices a whole lot.

My work as a scribe secured me some additional wisdom points and a bit less contribution points. Not a lot, but the work was easy.

After putting on a robe, I go to retrieve the apple from the arcane hall. While waiting in line some people point at me and murmur.

„Isn’t that the guy, who offended Sir Isaac? I heard that he wanted to punish him, but he never leaves the tower.“

„He sure feels guilty, if he hides behind his robe.“ The speaker, of course, knows that this is bullshit, but for his career, he has no problem with it.

Similar whispers can be heard all around me. Like, don’t they have something better to do?

After getting the apple, I grab two wooden bowl from the dining hall and go back into my room for the seed. I have a nice idea for the bowls.

Sitting in front of me is a bowl of apple juice. It has a golden colour and smells nice. Then I cut off a piece of soul from my buddy and throw it into the bowl. When the juice begins to reduce, I add some of my blood, which gets absorbed too. Right before all of the liquid is gone, I hastily make a soul imprint into the seed.

The seed is blood red and a bit ethereal. It has a physical component to it, you can touch it sure, but it is mostly ethereal. This is how I imagine grabbing through a ghost?. It has to be planted into a soul after all.

The next thing I do is to prepare more fireball scrolls for the trip, in case someone attacks me. I make with great difficulty a scroll of imprisonment, before taking good care to hide it inside my robes. Getting caught with a scroll-like this would raise some questions I would not like to answer.

+++++++++++++

In the western corner of the city lays a restaurant called „Luke’s Eatery“. The restaurant is managed by a single person. He is owner and chef at the same time. What he doesn’t know now is, that his position as a lone businessman makes him the prime target for Osric.