As the dark elf studied the flintlock musket, he noticed the obvious similarity it had to Earth’s weapons. ‘These aren’t too bad as ranged weapons go,’ he admitted. ‘But it takes a lot more time to reload them compared to what it would take for a bow or a crossbow.’

“Do you think you could make more of these using your transmutation alchemy?” Amanda asked, surprising the spell weaver who was in his own world again.

“I thought you went back to the others.” He blurted out in surprise.

“Am I bothering you that much?” The blacksmith asked with a mock sadness.

“No. I was just surprised. As for the answer to your question; I don’t know. It seems to be simple enough in design, so I should be able to reshape our spare materials into weapons like these.”

“But it would be pointless, right?” She deduced after seeing his facial expression and hearing his tone.

“It would take a lot longer to reload this compared to a bow or a crossbow. I could however use this as a basis for a canon. I just have to upsize the design and add a proper framing.”

“Cannons,” Amanda muttered. “That kind of stuff would screw up the current power structure.”

“It was only an idea,” Regis shrugged. “I didn’t say I'm going to build it, but it would definitely make for a good defensive measure once we have something to protect. And besides; if they have muskets, then I’m pretty sure that the more developed regions must also have canons.”

“What about the powder?” the woman grabbed the horn and unplugged it to pour a bit into her palm. “I don’t think it’s the same gunpowder we had back on Earth.”

“Definitely not”, he shook his head after seeing the faint red tinge of the coarse powder. “I’m not using the right branch of alchemy to be able to analyse it, but I’m pretty sure it’s a different kind of powder. Judging by that red hue and the faint fire elemental energy, I’d say it’s based on alchemic fire crystals. We would need to ask Letty to take a better look at it first though.”

“We can do that later. For now, I’ll leave you to your tinkering.”

“Alright,” The dark elf nodded before he turned his attention towards the loot pile. “Could you ask Letty to come up here, please?”

“Sure.” The curt answer arrived before the tall woman vanished behind the door.

Although Regis could have used his endless tome to check his character sheet, it wouldn’t let him alter it, so as soon as the giant woman left the room, he unceremoniously plopped down on the floor and began to meditate. He willed himself to enter into his soul-space where he he quickly stepped beside his soul-tome. As it opened up to reveal the first page, there were some obvious changes.

{Name: Regis ???}

{Title: Novice loremaster}

{Race: Dark elf/Sun elf/ Human}

{Age: 19}

{Amaranth: 4910}

{Caste: commoner}

{Path}

Novice Loremaster

Trainee fighter

{Craft}

Novice enchanter

Novice alchemist

{Attributes}

•Allure: 15

•Deftness: 20

•Erudition: 22

•Faith: 8

•Luck: 12

•Might: 19

•Mind: 27

•Physique: 22

•Spirit: 27

•Willpower: 27

Health/Arcana/Stamina

{56/56}{109/109}{55/55}

{Status effects}

Health regeneration 0,2/ min

‘I guess it’s pretty much how it should be, although that’s a lot more Amaranth than I expected.’ He admitted to himself. It seemed that killing the Khan impostor and clearing out the undead around Scholar’s Square added three thousand Amaranth to his reserves. Regis let out a sigh as he turned the pages to check if he had any skills or spells that needed special attention. Not surprisingly, he did have one waiting for specialisation.

{Raise earth wall}{Specialization pending}

{Rank: initiate}

{Spell class: elemental}

{Spell type: innate}

{Spend 10 points of arcana to raise 1,5 metre long, 0,25 metre thick and 0,5 metre high wall made from condensed earth in 3 seconds. Each level of mastery increases the size of the summoned wall by 0,25m*0,25m*0,25m. Changing the size of the wall would also change the required casting time.}

{Arcana cost: 10}

{Cast time: 3 seconds}

{Area of effect: 2,75m*1,5m*1,75m }

{Range: 5m}

{Spell mastery: 5/5}

{Mastery progression: 50/50}

{Effortless wall}

{The soil of the land heeds your command, moving faster and more effortlessly. This specialization allows you to create ‘effortless’ walls that form one second faster than other earth walls would.}

{Hardened wall}

{The soil of the land heeds your command, further condensing under your will. This specialization allows you to create ‘hardened’ walls that have twice the durability of an ordinary condensed earth wall.}

{Terraforming}

{The soil of the land heeds your command, taking on the form you chose it to be with greater freedom. This specialization allows you to alter the terrain in both positive and negative proportions in accordance with your spell’s size parameters. The affected area can take on any form your will it to.}

Although all of the paths sounded good, it was still easy to make the decision as terraforming was by far the best choice. Having a capability of not only raising walls, but freely shaping them was too good to pass up. With the choice made, the ink shifted to take on the form of the new description.

{Terraforming}

{Rank: novice}

{Spell class: elemental}

{Spell type: innate}

{Spend 10 points of arcana to terraform the ground in a 2,75 metre long, 1,5 metre thick and 1,75 metre area in 3 seconds. You can alter the terrain in both positive and negative proportions in accordance with your spell’s size parameters. The affected area can take on any form your will it to. Each level of mastery increases the size of the controlled area by 0,25m*0,25m*0,25m. The base casting time changes depending on the complexity of the terraformed structure.}

{Arcana cost: 15}

{Cast time: 3 seconds}

{Area of effect: 2,75m*1,5m*1,75m }

{Range: 7,5m}

{Spell mastery: 0/5}

{Mastery progression: 0/60}

With that done, Regis turned towards the different pathways, trying to figure out what to spend his meagre Amaranth reserves on. On one side, he could try to gain the scribe side path of his loremaster pathway. On the other side, he could check out his crafting pathways for any useful upgrades. Although his crafting skills only went up by five despite all the enchanting and transmutation he had done in the past days, there might still be something there that could ease his work.

In the end, he headed out along his spell caster pathway, deciding on picking the scribe side path in hopes of gaining access to the creation technique of magic scrolls. When he reached the part of the path where it split into three, he looked at left side where the last floating crystal awaited him. After touching it, the familiar floating words appeared in his vision.

{Scribe}

{The art of written words is as vast as one allows it to be. This feat grants you the ability to hone your penmanship to its fullest, opening up the sub-path of the scribe. The path of the scribe grants access to alchemical ink recipes and unique scribe feats.}

{Cost: 2000 Amaranth}

{Do you wish to gain this feat?}

“Yes.” He said with a firm tone and the crystal began to change into a blue hue as it floated downwards to become a new stepping stone.

A rush of somewhat general knowledge filled his mind regarding the different subtle techniques that could help him better his penmanship along with two alchemic recipes regarding a general and a magic ink. Much to his surprise, several other stones appeared a bit further along the side path, allowing him to move forward four more steps before he came to a halt in font of three new floating stones. He touched them one by one, checking out their description in hopes of getting a better understanding.

{Law scribe}

{Those that know the law have clear conscience when enforcing it. Law scribes can create formal contracts, declarations and record territorial laws. The contracts must be clearly worded and both sides must sign it of their own volition. Declarations must be clearly worded and declared either by the scribe or an appointed law man. Territorial laws can only be made by the owner of said territory.}

{Cost: 2500 Amaranth}

{Do you wish to gain this feat?}

{Lore scribe}

{The art of written words is as vast as one allows it to be. Record the lore of the arcane, art, beasts, general law, history, minerals, plant life and religion with greater detail. Lore scribes can create ‘general lore’ tomes capable of imparting general knowledge on those that read them.}

{Cost: 2500 Amaranth}

{Do you wish to gain this feat?}

{Scroll scribe}

{The art of sealing magic spells into one time use scrolls. The sealable spell’s strength depends on the scribe’s skill level along with the quality of the ink and parchment used in the process.}

{Cost: 2500 Amaranth}

{Do you wish to gain this feat?}

‘Okay, that’s quite the variety.’ Regis mused after reading the short description of the three possible paths he could unlock. Still, time was of the essence and he only had enough for one. Knowing that two of the paths would only prove to be useful later on, he picked the ‘scroll scribe’ crystal. A rush of pain struck him as he felt his mind swell with the intricate runic patterns used in the creation of magic scrolls along with the elemental variations of the magic ink he recently learned from his scribe feat.

By the time the headache ceased, he was panting with a slight dizziness lingering. ‘That was enough migraine for a while.’ He thought to himself as he returned to the central platform of his soul-space before leaving it through the meditative way he entered. As he opened his eyes, he found Letty and Osmond waiting for him.

“Are you alright?” the young woman asked. “You looked like you were in pain.”

“I’m okay,” the dark elf stood back up slowly. “Knowledge transfer tends to be unpleasant.”

“New skill?” Osmond inquired as he looked around the room.

“I managed to unlock my ‘scribe’ side path along with the ‘scroll scribe’ skill.”

“Magic scrolls, huh? We could definitely use some of those.”

“Perhaps,” the spell weaver nodded. “But don’t get your hopes up. It’s a skill like any other, so I’ll have to level it up up if we want to have anything useful.”

“Why did you ask me to come up here?” Letty asked the important question as she walked a bit closer.

“Originally, I wanted to ask you if you could determine the ingredients of this powder, but now I have a couple of recipes for you to study as well.” Regis explain as he pointed at the powder container with his left hand while scribbling down some notes with his right.

“Is this gunpowder?” She poured a bit on her palm out of curiosity.

“It’s called flame powder here according to the description.” The pale youth answered as he cast charlatan’s wisdom on it.

“I believe I recognise two of the ingredients,” the wood elf claimed after licking her finger which was dipped into the powder. “It definitely has charcoal powder in it, along with dried and coarsely powdered mandrake root. I can’t recognise the third one though. It’s some kind of mineral of sorts.”

“Give me a minute,” the spell weaver said as he walked over to his knapsack and pulled out a thumb sized unstable elemental crystal which he then turned into dust using a nearby mortar. “Do you think it's this?”

Letty dipped the tip of her finger into the reddish orange crystal dust, touching it to the tip of her tongue. She quickly pulled her finger away as if she tasted the hottest spice ever.

“Yes,” she answered with a tear forming in her eyes. “This was definitely the third ingredient. It burns like acid. What is this?”

“Ground unstable fire elemental crystal. You should have read about it it before, right?”

“I did,” she admitted. “But I never seen it it in real life. I only know that it’s supposed to be rather expensive.”

“Only when you don’t have someone in your vicinity capable of creating more on demand.” Osmond chuckled as he took some of the powdered elemental crystal, sprinkling it into the magic Bunsen burner at the edge of one of the tables.

It flared up it is strong flame that disappeared just as quickly as it appeared.

“I guess it needs the added charcoal and mandrake to stabilise it. Still, this recipe is a lot different than Earth’s gunpowder.”

“I remember reading it somewhere in your family’s library that Earth’s gunpowder doesn’t work here for some reason.” Letty mused aloud.

“It doesn’t have to as long as they have their own version of it. Can you determine the ratio of the ingredients?”

“Most of it should be the fire crystal with charcoal being the second and the mandrake being the least used.”

“So it’s a three to two to one ratio.” Osmond deduced.

“More like a six to three to one or something similar.”

While the two of them began an in-depth conversation about alchemical reagents and ratios, the dark elf finished writing down the different ink recipes bestowed upon him by his ‘scribe’ and ‘scroll scribe’ feats. He handed over the parchment to the wood elf woman before turning his attention back to the loot pile presented in front of him.

“Are you going to recycle these as well?” Osmond asked as Letty left the room with the box of ink vials and the powdered fire crystal.

“Most of them are just the usual spare arms and armour. It’s pointless to keep them around, I feel like I’ve been forgetting something though. I just don’t know what.”

“Well,” the pale youth cleared his throat. “You did brag about being able to create arcana regeneration rings before, not to mention you wanted to study my new vambraces. Or at least that’s what you said yesterday.”

“Shit”, Regis cursed as he facepalmed himself. “I knew I forgot something.”

“Don’t worry about it”, Osmond pulled off his vambrace, placing it on the table. “No one really noticed, since you already handed out so much stuff to begin with. And besides; you kind of tend to get sidetracked easily. And on that note, I’ll leave you to your tinkering. I have a couple books in the library with my name on them.”

“Sure thing,” Regis nodded absent-mindedly to begin to work. “Have fun.”

With Osmond and Letty both leaving the room, the dark elf was left to his lonesome once again.