As Regis walked over to the entrance of the spellcasters’ guild, he heard a surprised sigh.

“A barrier right at the entrance and every window,” Chera looked at the shimmering wall of energy. “It seems that East Fork’s guild is indeed of a higher quality than what Hunor had.”

“It sure took me a while to break through it,” the dark elf admitted as he pulled the leather cord beneath the small bell that was fastened to the wall beside the door. “Hopefully we won’t have to do it again this time.”

“You managed to break through a ‘well-made’ quality barrier?” She asked with her eyebrows raised, but there was no time for an answer as the door opened with a ten or so years old boy appearing on the other side of it.

“Can I help you?” He asked shyly, earning a slight smile from Chera while Regis tried his best not to scare the boy.

“Hello there lad,” he said with a calm tone. “Sorry to bother you, but could you tell Elder Derris that Regis came by and that he brought a visitor as well?”

“Um, okay.” The young boy nodded before quickly closing the door again.

“That went well,” the spellcaster said as he looked at the dark elf. “He did seem to be a bit timid though.”

“You think? I was half expecting him to scream ‘a dark elf is here’ before running away.”

“You’re not that scary and he had a barrier to protect him.”

“True.”

“How long do you…” Before she could finish the question, the door opened up again with a slight creaking noise.

“Regis,” an aged voice called out as Derris appeared in the doorway, deactivating the barrier using the runic key the dark elf made him. “I’m glad you managed to find the time to visit us. Come on in! And you as well miss…”

“Chera,” she introduced herself with a slight nod. “It’s nice to meet you Elder Derris. Regis and his friends told me a lot about you.”

“Oh,” the elderly scholar hummed, surprised by the polite way the well-dressed spellcaster spoke to him. “Forgive me then, but it seems that you are at an advantage compared to me.”

“Lady Chera is a highly respected spellcaster I met during my stay in Hunor. The local lord became far too obnoxious for his own good, so she decided to leave. Quentin explained to her that the guild in East Fork is lacking a leader so she decided to visit and hopefully settle down.”

“Is that so?” Derris turned to look at Chera, his aged eyes inquisitive as always.

“I was told that the previous guild leader was quite an arrogant and self-centred fellow who left to chase glory in the war, leaving more than a dozen children behind. I hope that both you and the new mayoress would allow me to settle down and tutor the little ones.”

“I’m sure that mayoress Tine will be more than willing to hear you out,” the old scholar sighed. “As for me, I have no say in the matter.”

“Nonsense,” Chera said with surprising firmness. “You have lived here and taken care of the guild for years, sir. You have as much a say in this matter as the mayoress if not more.”

“That is kind of you to say,” Derris responded with a newfound appreciation towards Chera. “Anyway, do come in. It would be rude of me to not welcome you as guests of the guild.”

“I’d love to stay and chat,” Regis sighed as they walked inside. “But I only dropped by to bring Chera over and to get the stuff I left in Qadir’s room. “After that, I must return to the village to help the newcomers settle in.”

“A lord’s duty.” Chera remarked with a chuckle. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

“Don’t mention it. Elder Derris, it was good to see you and I promise to drop by for a proper visit in the coming days once things settle down.”

“Don’t worry lad,” the old scholar waved at him dismissively. “Just do what you ought to. I’ll show Miss Chera around so that she could meet with the children and get a better understanding of the place.”

“Take care then.” The dark elf nodded as he hurriedly turned toward the stairs.

On his way to Qadir’s room, Regis noticed several young apprentices, most of them shying away with a few looking at him with unbridled curiosity. As he reached the former guild master’s room, he undid the barrier and entered immediately. His first stop was right beside the bed where a carved wooden chest took up some space. Inside, a hefty leather pouch held most of the bronze and silver coins he gathered from his fallen opponents. It was followed by the ornate golden cups and a couple of knick-knacks he found while searching the room for valuables during his previous stay in East Fork.

‘Qadir sure did get his hands on a lot of valuable things.’ The young spell weaver thought to himself as he packed away the small baubles so that he could sell them later for some decent coin. All in the name of getting some starting funds for his settlement of course. He then stepped beside the bookshelf that held the former guild master’s prized collection of rare books. ‘Where was… oh, there you are.’ Regis hummed as he grabbed a book that had the word ‘Golemancy’ on its first page, which was then followed by a few other rare pieces.

It only took him about five minutes to get everything he needed, his eyes turning toward the wine rack where dozens of bottles lay still. ‘I feel like some damn thief for taking all these things, but hopefully, nobody will kill me for taking that bottle of wine as well.’ His hand moved down toward the third row of the rack from which he pulled a dark green bottle that had a deep grey wax seal on it with a crescent moon symbol. Charlatan’s wisdom revealed a description he had seen before, reassuring him that he picked the right bottle.

{Silver Moon Wine}

{Item rarity: rare}

{Item quality: excellent}

{Elixir type: Wine}

{Boon granted: 3}

{Use per person: 1}

“There you are beautiful.” Regis said with a smile as he looked at the only other elixir wine Qadir had besides the ‘dragon blood’ wine.

After carefully putting it away into his satchel, the dark elf left the room and headed back to the entrance of the guild.

“Did you find everything you needed?” Chera’s voice stopped him at the base of the stairs, the spellcaster and the old scholar showing up from a side room.

“I did,” Regis turned back for a moment. “I also borrowed a book about golemancy. I’ll bring it back in a few days.”

“Golemancy? That’s a rare branch of enchanting. Are you sure you’re up for it?”

“I’m only taking it with me to read it for now. We’ll see if it’s worth the effort or not. Anyway, I should get going. I hope that you’ll have a successful chat with Mayoress Tine. Goodbye, Elder Derris.”

“Take care, lad.” The old scholar nodded as the dark elf left the guild building.

“I hope everything’s fine back home.” He remarked as he stepped on the gateway circle, the light of the awakened runes swallowing him in a split second.

“Took you long enough,” A familiar voice greeted him as soon as he arrived. “I was getting worried.”

“Is something wrong?” Regis asked as he looked at Valerie, the infernal woman’s visible nervousness all but answering his question as the two began to walk.

“We had intruders while you were away.”

“What?”

“Hosea noticed them while they were planting crops. Five people, two archers and three fighters.”

“Who were they?”

“Lord Vidal’s lapdogs,” Quentin answered as he appeared from one of the buildings. “We tried to capture them for information, but they fought to the death.”

“Then how do you know they were his men?”

“Quentin used his domain on the last guy before he died. The idiot refused to be healed and bled out pretty fast.”

“He probably thought that we’d keep him as a prisoner or worse.” The dark elf deduced after hearing about the situation.

“Grego immediately headed out with a few of his men toward the mountain pass to check out the gates.”

“That’s a long trip,” Regis remarked. “Should we go after them?”

“We should,” the paladin nodded. “If nothing else, we should get a working gateway near the wall. That would cut down the time it takes to get there if trouble comes knocking on our door.”

“But if we build a portal just behind the gate, then if someone gets through, they could sync with it and bring others in.” Valerie argued.

“I’ll build it in a secret passage or something,” the spell weaver noted. “That way only we’d know about it. Later on, we’ll get some mounts for the guards.”

“That could work, but we should get going.”

“Just give me a minute to drop the stuff I brought back from East Fork.” Regis said as he hurried over to the inn.

“Hey...” Mary tried to greet him, but she stopped when she noticed his worried expression.

A turn of his key opened the door and the dark elf immediately began to empty his satchel before spinning around to lock the door once again as he left. Quentin still stood at the entrance of the inn, but he couldn’t see any sign of Valerie.

“She left to inform the people of your return,” the paladin spoke up as his friend neared. “Let’s hurry up. Should we…”

“We should.” The short answer resounded before they broke out into a jog.

Regis had to admit that he was somewhat jealous of Quentin’s stamina, the paladin kept a decent tempo for a quarter of an hour even with his plate armour on. As they slowed down to a hurried walking speed, the man couldn’t hold back any longer.

“It looks like that Vidal guy doesn’t want to give up. What should we do about him?”

“I don’t know,” the spell weaver shook his head. “I’d love to say that we should just make a visit to him and blast the idiot in the face with a fire lance, but then you would begin to bring up some diplomatic arguments against it.”

“I would,” the confirmation followed. “We can’t kill nobles just because they’re annoying.”

“Annoying? The fucker sent killers after us. Twice.” Regis argued.

“The first group was more of a scout team. It was the second team that was sent to straight up kill us.”

“Did the dying guy tell you that?”

“Yeah,” the paladin sighed. “He said that since their fellows didn’t return, Vidal went with plan B instead.”

“I’m pretty sure it was still plan ‘A’ since the guy from the previous team said that they were also given a ‘dead or alive’ type of order.”

“So what now? Diplomatic visit?”

“And what exactly should we tell him? Sorry for pulverising the Arcanite obelisk you were trying to break apart and sell off behind the royals’ back?”

“I mean… yeah, that wouldn’t work. So what’s plan B?” The paladin agreed awkwardly.

“Show of force.” Regis stated, his eyes glowing as he pointed his left hand towards a nearby rock.

Tiny glowing runes appeared in front of his palm as the arcana threads he released weaved themselves into a pattern. A moment later a four feet long lance made from pale yellow flames appeared and burst forward, hitting the rock. The lance burst apart, leaving a deep crack in the stone that was singed black with the edge of the cracks glowing red.

“Diplomacy was never an option.” Quentin sighed deeply as he looked at the result of his friend’s runic spell.

“We should hurry up.” The dark elf remarked and the two began to jog again.

After an hour or so of forced marching, running and bickering about the pros and cons of ghosting the douchebag of a nobleman, they reached the fortified wall of the mountain pass, finding Grego and his soldiers patrolling it.

“I see they’ve told you the news,” the former guard captain said as the outlanders got closer. “We didn’t find anyone at the gates, only the rope they used to climb the wall.”

“The wall might be high, but it’s nothing special,” another guardsman sighed. “There’s not even a tower or a small barrack. How in the seven did they guard this place?”

“Those problems can be solved,” Regis stated as he looked at the mountain walls on both sides. “The more important matter is to secure the wall and to establish a proper fast-travel method.”

Saying that the spell weaver walked over to the rugged cliff on the left side and placed his hand on it. Using his ‘earth to stone’ spell’s reversed capability, Regis first turned the hard stone into condensed earth and he then turned it into sand which flowed out and down on the wall.

“What are you doing?” Quentin asked as he saw the nearly two meter high and one meter wide hole appear on the cliff side.

“I’m creating a small tunnel. This will be the entrance into a carved-out room for the guards. We could put a gateway a bit further in, hidden behind a shelf or something.”

“A hidden gateway for fast travel? That would make things easier,” the paladin admitted. “We’ll have to get a couple of horses as well for the others.”

“I’ll let Nina sort that out. For now, just keep a look out for me will you? Or you can help me shovel the sand out.”

“I’ll leave you to your work.” Quentin dodged the offer immediately as he turned around to walk away.

“Figures.” The dark elf shrugged as he stepped into the slight indent he created, turning the next part of mountain stone into condensed earth.

Hoping that he could spare himself from having to actually shovel sand with his bladestaff, Regis tried to use his terraform spell to shift the condensed earth out of the way. When the earth receded into the stone walls as if it never existed, he couldn’t stop from raising his eyebrows. ‘Did it just disappear or did it fuse into the mountain? Magic is as weird as it is awesome.’ He thought to himself as he carved out a four by four metre sized room for the guards, even creating a small space for a window.

Once he was done with that, he began to carve further into the mountain, creating a good five or so meter-long tunnel before he would terraform another room into existence. This room was only three cubic metres in size, but that was more than enough to house the gateway he was about to create. Several hours went by between creating the runic circle and meditating, but he managed to finish the ‘trash’ ranked gateway by the time the sun began to set.