“Thank the seven I got back time,” she said as the spell weaver walked closer. “I was tending to the greenhouse when they told me that you’re going back to East Fork. Do you think Irene could take the surplus potions I’ve made along for sale?”

“I don’t see why not,” Regis nodded. “Potions tend to sell well from what Nina told me. At least the simple ones do. What did you bring?”

“Two dozen lesser healing potions and half a dozen minor ones along with a dozen lesser antidotes and arcana potions.”

“Sounds like you’ve been busy. Do you have any vials left?” He asked while the wood elf handed over a satchel filled with potions.

“About three or so dozen more. Why?”

“Just asking. I’ll craft a couple of quartz vials for you later when I have time.”

“Oh, thank you.” She smiled upon hearing his explanation as the two reached the gateway.

“How’s the greenhouse by the way?”

“It’s perfect,” Letty beamed with happiness. “It’s spacious enough and the grow boxes work perfectly. I should be able to harvest most of the yield tomorrow afternoon at the latest.”

“That’s one less thing to worry about,” the dark elf sighed as he joined the small group waiting for him. “Is everyone ready?”

“Yes.” They answered as one.

“See you later then.” He noted before activating the gateway.

The familiar flash of light consumed the group, spitting them out in East Fork.

“Mom,” he heard one of the children wince. “My stomach hurts.”

“Here,” the spell weaver cast lesser healing on the little girl to ease her nausea. “Teleportation magic has that effect on people but this should help.”

“Thank you, sir.” The girl said with a weary smile.

“Welcome back milord!” Someone called out to him, turning out to be the same soldier he met the other day.

“Greetings. I see you got posted here again.”

“Captain Hyord posted me to patrol around Scholars’ Square during the day, so you will always find me here unless something important comes up.”

“I see,” the dark elf nodded before turning toward Nina. “Will you come over to the shop with us, or will you head over to the mayoress right away?”

“It’s best if we get her approval as soon as possible.” She answered confidently.

“In that case,” Regis began to pull out a couple of scrolls along with the bronze wand and handed them over to his representative. “Here’s her gift and a few scrolls in case she wants to see what we’re selling.”

“Are you hoping for some quick funds?” Nina asked as she looked at the nearly dozen scrolls given to her.

“As I said before, we don’t have much in the way of coins right now.” The spell weaver sighed as he handed over the leather pouch with his single gold and all of his silver.

“I’ll do my best, milord.” The woman promised, heading toward the inner town’s gates, escorted by the friendly guard.

“We should get going as well. Osmond said that they’ve already cleaned up the place a bit and fixed the door, but there’s still a lot to do.”

The four of them walked over to the shop that once sold scribe supplies, finding a closed door. Before the dark elf could say anything, Irene pulled out a hefty bronze key and opened the lock of the door.

“Sir Osmond gave this to me yesterday, saying that it’s best if I have it since I’ll be the one to run the shop.

“A simple wooden door won’t be enough once word gets out that you’re selling enchanted items and magic scrolls. I’ll reinforce the building along with the door and the windows and put barriers on them,” he explained, heading toward the stairs leading to the cellar. “You take a look around topside. I’ll go down and begin preparations. Call me if there’s any trouble.”

“Yes, sir.” The woman nodded while her children tried their best to drag her away to explore.

Regis descended into the cellar that now lacked the grime left behind by the undead bear. He began to form one transmutation circle after the other and then spent the next hour crafting arcanite and elemental stones for the barriers, their key and the building’s reinforcement. By the time he got back upstairs, the main floor got aired out and Irene was in the middle of sweeping the floor.

“Is everything alright downstairs, milord?”

“Yes, but later on I’ll have to take a crate of parchments back with me. If possible you’ll have to find a new supplier.”

“I will try to ask around.”

“Good,” the spell weaver nodded. “I should get started as well.”

With that said, Regis went back to the entrance door where he began to infuse the door frame with the runic diagram of the same barrier that protected the local spell casters’ guild as well. Once he upgraded the runes to ‘ordinary’ rank, he continued with the windows before turning his attention to the building as a whole. Charlatan’s wisdom revealed a general description that only made him shrug.

{Scribe Supply Shop}

{Owner: Regis Thorne}

{Building rarity: common}

{Building quality: ordinary}

{Durability: 750/750}

‘Looks like we might have to switch the sign or something before it acknowledges it as an enchanted wares shop.’ He deduced while looking at the old shop sign hanging above the door. The dark elf walked back inside and brought out a chair so that he could reach up for the sign. He then brought it down into the cellar where he transmuted it to have the words ‘Thorne’s Arcanum’ written on it with bold letters, surrounded by the symbols of an enchanter’s sigil, a potion vial and a magic scroll.

Once the sign got replaced, he began to reinforce the building to increase its durability and defensive capabilities. More than an hour later every wall got strengthened with faint runes glowing on the inner walls. Charlatan’s wisdom proved that the dark elf’s hard work paid out.

{Thorne’s Arcanum}

{Owner: Regis Thorne}

{Building rarity: uncommon}

{Building quality: ordinary}

{Defence value: 25}

{Durability: 1000/1000}

“Not bad.” He admitted as he read the description.

Irene and her children were at the end of clearing out the shop when the spell weaver joined them, handing over a rune-covered key chain plaque he made using a few bronze coins.

“This is the key to the barriers protecting the shop. Just touch the barrier and order it to open or close,” he explained while taking out a large number of scrolls along with the potions Letty made. “These should be enough to start you out but try not to sell them at once. I don’t know when I’ll get to send more. Anyway, I should get going now. I promised Elder Derris that I’d visit him and bring back a book. Take care of yourselves.”

“Thank you milord and take care!” Irene responded with a slight bow which her children followed as well.

The sun was already nearing the top of the sky and dozens of people passed by on Scholars’ Square. Regis earned a few inquisitive glances as he walked over to the spellcasters’ guild with his staff making a faint tapping sound on the cobblestones. He pulled the small string of the bell at the door and it was soon opened by a young girl.

“Blue hair and purple eyes with a sunstone crystal on the staff,” the girl mumbled as she eyed him up. “You must be Sir Regis.”

“I am indeed,” he nodded in confirmation. “And who might you be?”

“I’m Faye,” the girl answered as she opened the barrier. “Elder Derris and Miss Chera told us that you would come by.”

“I guess they were expecting me,” he noted as he entered the guild. “Are they available, or are they in the middle of something important?”

“Miss Chera is in her office, busy with the paperwork and other stuff asked by the new mayoress. Elder Derris should be at the library with the younger ones. He’s teaching them basic reading and writing.”

“And what about you?” He asked the girl who couldn’t be older than twelve.

“Me? Well... we only have three other apprentices my age and we all know how to read and write. Lady Chera will teach us basic alchemy in the afternoon. Until then we were given some free time.”

“Lucky you,” Regis mumbled as he headed toward the stairs. “I’ll go and see if Elder Derris is willing to let those poor kids go for now.”

Reaching the library took little effort and once he quietly opened the door, the cheerful laughter of children greeted him along with a serene looking elder with a book in his hand. As the door opened wide enough to be noticeable, the old scholar looked at the dark elf, giving him a welcoming nod.

“Welcome back lad,” he said before turning toward the children. “Alright everyone, I want you to properly greet Sir Regis. He’s a second-tier spell weaver, so he is to be addressed as such.”

“What’s a spell weaver?” A little girl asked suddenly, sparking the interest of her fellow apprentices.

“Isn’t he a spellcaster like us?”

“A spell weaver is a mage that casts magic through runes instead of magic words,” the dark elf answered as blue threads of arcana formed in front of his open palm, fusing into a ball of light. “You could say that I’m a different kind of spellcaster.”

“Pretty!” Was the unified reaction of the children after seeing the glowing runes appear and turn into a ‘light wisp’ spell.

“Well,” old Derris cleared his throat. “Since we already finished today’s practice, you are free to return to your rooms.”

The moment the young apprentices heard those words, they stood up and grabbed their belongings before giving a slight bow to the old scholar.

“Goodbye, sir!” They said while leaving, Derris smiling with pride as he watched them go.

“They’re good kids.” The spell weaver remarked while walking closer, shaking the old man’s hand.

“They are, and young Chera is also helping to keep them that way.”

“I take it she took up permanent residence here after all.”

“Mayoress Tine was more than happy to have a third-tier spellcaster preside over the guild and the children seem to like her as well. As for me, I greatly enjoy our talks. It’s been a while since someone showed such interest in both the magical and the mundane.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Regis nodded while handing over the book about golemancy. “I also brought this back as promised.”

“And how was it? Did you find it useful?”

“More interesting than useful with my current skills. I’m still a bit far from reaching the journeyman rank.”

“I see. So, what brought you here this time?”

“Long story short, my representative went ahead to try and make some connections with the new mayoress while I fixed up that scribe supply shop so that it could work as my arcanum store.”

“It looks like we’re going to have a competitor right across the square,” a familiar feminine voice stopped the conversation as Chera entered the room. “I’m glad to see you managed to find the time to visit us.”

“Lady Chera.” Regis nodded in acknowledgement.

“Are you going to flood East Fork with enchanted wares?” The woman asked as she walked closer, sitting down on a nearby chair.

“It’s nothing big, but Letty is practising alchemy and I’m grinding my spell scroll scribe skill, so we’ll have some excess to sell off. I’m also planning to sell a small number of enchanted equipment and items too.”

“If you want to earn coin by selling your services as an enchanter,” the spellcaster said with a matter-of-fact tone. “Then the army would be your best bet.”

“I know. Nina already headed over to the mayoress to smooth things over and then she’ll try to get a few orders from the army if possible.”

“It sounds like you’re in quite the hurry to earn money.” The perceptive old scholar noted.

“Starting up a settlement isn’t cheap.”

“Neither it is to run a spellcasters’ guild,” Chera added. “Part of the agreement I made with Tine was that we’d craft and sell potions to the town hall.”

“And yet you don’t sound too thrilled about it.”

“How could I be,” the woman rolled her eyes. “Tine isn’t a mage and she doesn’t know much about alchemy either. She believes we only need water and a few roadside weeds to brew elixirs. Saints know how someone like her got to be appointed as the new mayoress.”

“Don’t beat around the bush,” Regis sighed as he recognised the all too obvious theatrics. “You want something, don’t you?”

“Ingredients,” Chera answered. “The guild has no herb fields of its own and the previous family who sold herbs to Qadir is dead. We’re pretty much out of anything we could work with and the few merchants capable of getting us anything would only do so for a hefty price. As in actual gold coins.”

“So you want us to grow and sell you potion ingredients at a reduced price? I don’t see where that would help my people.”

“First of all, I didn’t ask for a reduced price,” the woman changed her tone to a more sombre one. “I only ask for a fair price. Derris showed me the records Qadir kept of the prices of every plant we would need. You can read it if you want and base your prices on that. Secondly, I believe that having access to our guild’s library would be more than enough to ‘help’ your people.”

“Including the second and third floor?”

“If you can get us the more ‘sought-after’ reagents, then yes.”

“Regarding the more common reagents, we have some Bloodroot and Burdock flowers along with Chamomile, Lavender and Man-root. I could also get you Flame-bell roots, Mejal flowers, Shadow-grass, Spring-root roots and Sunbloom flowers. Not in large amounts, obviously.” The dark elf recalled the name of the roots and seeds he upgraded for Letty.

“What about any Ice Lotus or Gold-bloom flowers?” The woman asked with a slight excitement after hearing the list of herbs she could get from Thornfell.

“Only if you can get us the seeds for them,” came the disheartening answer. “And you would have to discuss the prices with Nina after she got to read those records you mentioned.”

“Understandable. I’ll go and get the books. Qadir had records on plenty of different materials and even some of the older students’ enchanting prices. You might want to take a look at those as well.”

Saying that the spellcaster stood up and left with surprisingly energetic steps.