He first began by infusing everything with a ‘trash’ grade durability rune, followed by the ‘armour’ one which ate through the earth elemental stones he prepared. Luckily for him, Ernest asked for the blades to be infused with a rune of ‘sharpness’ instead of a rune of ‘harm’ which made things easier.

He spent a quarter of an hour enchanting the swords with their second rune, using up the prepared air elemental crystals in the process. ‘Now for the last part.’ Regis thought as he grabbed the one sword that looked different from the rest. Charlatan’s wisdom revealed the weapon's stats, making the young man let out a low whistle.

{Officer’s Steel Short-sword}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: well-made}

{Greater enchantments: 1}

{Lesser enchantments: 1}

{Durability: 125/125}

{Damage: 40)}

“Not a bad blade. No wonder Ernest wanted to get a fire rune on it as well.”

“Is it that good?” Fabien inquired as he walked closer with a plate that held some scrambled eggs with scraps of fried meat.

“It has a damage value of forty after a sharpness rune, so yeah. Eggs?”

“Hosea managed to catch a couple of wild chickens that were strolling near the edge of the fields,” the infernal explained. “He even caught a rooster and he’s planning to get a coop built for them.”

“Our first proper livestock,” Regis hummed as he took a bite of the food. “Damn, this tastes good.”

“Of course it does,” Fabien straightened his back. “It was made by a professed chef after all.”

“A professed... you got a craft?”

“That’s right,” he beamed with a proud smile. “All that cooking for the group finally landed me a novice cook crafting skill-line and title.”

“Congratulations. What about Mary?”

“She’s getting there slowly, but since she’s also spending time sculpting, she lets me do most of the cooking.”

“I’m glad to hear you two have time for yourselves.” The dark elf sighed as he looked at the pile of enchanted equipment.

“No one said it’s going to be easy,” Fabien remarked. “Just as no one would say a word if you took a break.”

“True, but if I just sit around and do nothing, then nothing will get done. It’s best to just get things out of the way while there’s still time for them. Anyway, I should finish up this ‘fire’ rune first. Thanks for the food!”

“Sure thing. Just leave the plate on the counter once you finished.”

With that, the infernal youth left, leaving his companion to his work. Regis took a few more bites before grabbing the officer’s sword and the fire elemental stone he prepared. Infusing the rune took little effort at this point and the result was a sword with a red-hot edge. ‘Done and done.’ He hummed to himself after finishing off his plate’s contents, bringing it over to the counter.

Thinking about what he should do next, the spell weaver decided to head over to the barracks. Along the way he took a good look at the now somewhat livelier village, receiving a few nods from the people he saw. ‘I need to implement that running water and sewage system as soon as possible.’ Regis thought while walking towards the bridge.

One of the things that caught his eyes was the tall condensed earth wall in the distance where he previously drew the line along the dirt. ‘I guess I’ll have to work on that too, lest their effort would go to waste.’ As he crossed the bridge that now had wooden railings on its left side he had to admit that Jody was likely working overtime to craft all the things they needed. ‘She’s going to hand us a long-ass bill for sure.’

“Greetings sir!” One of the workers welcomed him as the dark elf reached the barracks that had most of its walls finished with a couple of large wooden beams waiting to be dragged up to where the roof was going to be.

“I see you’ve been busy,” he noted while heading inside the unfinished building. “I just dropped by to fuse the wall pieces and to conjure more building materials.”

“That’s good to hear, milord,” Lars said as he showed up from one of the rooms. “Jody had just finished carving the roof beams and the lads have already brought over some of them. If you could conjure some roof tiles along with ten more of those brick piles then we might be able to begin covering the roof before sundown.”

“Sounds good. What about the flooring for the second floor?”

“That will have to wait for a few days since Jody already has a lot of things to work on. Even with her daughter helping out as her apprentice, they can’t do miracles.”

“Tell them to take as much time as they need. We don’t want them to burn out or get injured.”

“Understood, sir.” The mason nodded as he watched the spell weaver head upstairs.

Regis walked along the thick wooden beams and atop the walls of the main floor, stopping from time to time to fuse the stone blocks wherever he found an inner scaffolding. Half an hour later all of the currently built walls were fused into one and he headed down with a relieved sigh.

“So ten more brick piles and around the same amount of roof tiles?”

“Yes.” Lars agreed and the spell weaver began to conjure the familiar condensed earth blocks before reshaping and hardening them.

Once he was done with the bricks and tiles, he began to follow along the line marked out by wooden stakes and twine to create a cobblestone road back to the bridge. ‘Let’s get a look at that wall.’ He hummed while walking over to the condensed earth wall his companions made. It was roughly the right size, maybe even a bit more than what he needed. Regis spent more than an hour reshaping a good portion of the wall, even creating an arch where he planned the new gate to be.

“Looks good,” a familiar voice snapped him out of his monotone work as Osmond walked up to him. “I heard about Khan.”

“Yeah, it was quite a surprise for us too.”

“I bet. Quentin said that he even managed to get a new band together. With a lovely dark elf girl to boot.”

“Celine,” the spell weaver remarked. “Her name is Celine and she seemed to be a nice enough girl. I just hope that she can keep that idiot out of trouble.”

“No chance.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Anyway, he also told me about your fight with a literal small army of bandits led by an outlander.”

“We tried to make him back off but things quickly deteriorated into a literal blood fest.”

“So I’ve been told. Did you really go full-on human flamethrower on them?”

“Greater runic ray of fire,” Regis recalled the spell’s name. “It was even more terrifying than I imagined it would be. It seemed to be just as strong if not stronger than the spell I’ve seen back in Hunor.”

“I’m glad that none of you got hurt too badly, but it’s still troublesome that we already have to fight with our own kind.”

“We both knew that it was inevitable at some point, especially after all the shit the Argent family did. They aren’t the only ones with a thirst for power and a lack of morals.”

“Can you say that we’re that different from them?” Osmond asked as the two headed back to the village.

“Although we’re not in the habit of making deals with demons, you’re right. We’re not above shedding blood either if necessary.”

“Or selling enchanted weapons to those able to pay for them.”

“You’re making it sound like we're some kind of arms dealers.”

“Among other things. Anyway, we should hurry up. Fabian told me when I handed out to get you that the meat stew would be ready soon.”

“Rabbit?”

“Wild boar.”

“Nice.” The dark elf hummed as the two finally reached the inn.

“Glad to see you made it in time.” Quentin noted as he and the others placed cutlery and plates on the central table of the inn.

“Hey there lad,” a familiar voice greeted him as Bray showed up from behind the paladin. “I see you’ve been busy lately.”

“Yeah,” Regis sighed. “Sorry for not visiting you these past few days.”

“Bah,” the old potter waved dismissively. “I know you’ve been hard at work with all that’s been happening around and besides, it’s not like I came to visit you either.”

“How’s the kiln working out for you?”

“It’s perfect,” the old man said while sitting down. “I must admit, it feels great to do what I love after such a long time. The new villagers are also nice and accommodating. They didn’t harass me with any demands for pots and jugs right away like most would do.”

“Do you get many requests?” Osmond joined in the conversation.

“Enough to keep me busy, but not an overwhelming amount. Today I made half a dozen bowls and two large jugs.”

“What are they paying with?” Cruz asked the important question. “I mean, we haven’t really created a proper trade channel yet.”

“It depends on the people. Young Jody crafted me a pair of new chairs and a small table in return for the bowls and jug I made for her while Esther brought me fresh vegetables and a couple of eggs.”

“I guess that’s not bad as bartering goes.” Quentin remarked as Fabien and Mary brought out that evening’s dinner. “Smells amazing.” Most of the group said as one, breathing in the smell of the fresh meat stew.

“How’s the barracks coming along?” Valerie asked, receiving her portion.

“The walls were almost finished when I came away and most of the roof beams were already delivered as well. I conjured a few piles of roof tiles for them before leaving, so I guess it should be finished tomorrow.

“That’s fast,” Fabien admitted. “Then again, I heard you pretty much conjured the main floor from the ground up.”

“I did,” Regis accepted the pun-sprinkled compliment. “But they’re still working fast.”

“Well, at least a fourth of them are Shardwakers, so they’re a lot more energetic than ordinary workers.” Cruz reminded them.

“True,” the spell weaver nodded. “What about the vineyard? Did you manage to find a good spot for it?”

“I did,” Valerie said with a beaming smile. “Although it’s a bit far from here, I found a somewhat rocky slope on the far left side of the valley just beneath the mountain wall.”

“That’s what, fifty kilometres from here?” Quentin tried to measure the distance in his head. “Somewhere around that,” the infernal woman agreed. “The place reminded me of the Douro Valley we visited in Portugal with my family a few years ago. Although it only has five layers of stone terraces with some dirt layer on them, but if you could help clear up and fill the place using your earth magic, then it would be perfect. Oh, and it even has a small creek running down from the mountain that ends up in a tiny lake near the bottom of the slopes.”

“That does sound like a nice place,” Regis admitted after hearing her description of the area. “We’ll make a trip there during one of these days so I could fix you up with some prime soil and a house.”

“That would be awesome. And... I know I’m already asking a lot, but could you fuse some of my grape seeds as you did with Letty’s herbs?”

“Sure. Did you manage to find anything suitable to work with?”

“Nina brought me some samples and I managed to whittle it down to four types. Two red and two white grape families. They taste really nice and from what I was told, they make for excellent vines. I’ll bring them over to you later.”

“Other than these, is there anything else I should know?”

“Lithia asked us when the chapel will be built,” Mary noted. “She said that a lot of villagers kept asking her about it and if she would hold any sermons.”

“I showed her where it will be built,” Quentin remarked. “But I couldn’t give her any concrete date.”

“I’m not sure either,” the dark elf admitted. “We have a lot of things to build and there’s only so much time in a day.”

“If Lars and his people can build up an entire barracks in two days then I’m sure they could finish it in one.” Letty shared her opinion.

“It’s not like we need to recreate the Basilica something,” Osmond agreed. “We just need a classic church building. You should be able to conjure the ground floor in an hour or two.”

“I had to design a chapel once as an assignment, so it shouldn’t be hard to create a simple one. I’ll do it tomorrow morning and tell Lars and his team to make it their priority after they finish the barracks.”

“We’ll also need a mill,” Cruz stated. “Bertram told me about the crops today. Both the rye and wheat fields are ready for harvesting. He estimates that we’ll get roughly one sack of both due to how bountiful and large the kernels are. We’ll be able to harvest the barley a day later if we can help ripen it with the ‘growth boost’ spell.”

“One sack from each doesn’t sound that much,” Quentin sighed. “We have a lot of people to feed now and we must also leave some to replant them.

“It is a heaven-defying amount if you think about the amount of grains we sowed and the small area used for the crops, but yeah. We’ll have to increase the available crop fields,” Osmond stated. “If we clear out all of the corrupted trees we'd have the space to grow enough for everyone.”

“You can’t just cut out the entire forest,” Letty protested. “That would cause more harm than good.”

“Letty,” the dark elf sighed. “Nobody says that we are going to deforest the valley, but we both know that those corrupted trees have to go. Even if we cleansed them of the lingering corruption, they are dead as a doornail. The best we can do is to make use of them by cleansing them and using them as building materials. Once the dead trees are removed we'll have another hundred metre or so wide area beside the current farm area for the crops. What should be enough, given how fast we can make them grow.”

“You promise?” She looked him in the eyes with a deadly serious expression.

“You have my word,” the spell weaver reassured her. “If necessary, we can grow our own trees for building supplies later on. After all, we're not planning to build a bloody city here.”