As Regis reached out to touch the leftmost crystal, a set of glowing words flared into life in front of him.

{Runic limb inscriptions}

{A runic spellblade’s limbs are like living spell scrolls. Infuse them with arcane inscriptions that can grant one of the following: deftness, elemental affinity or elemental resistance, haste or might. Each limb can only be inscribed with a single amplifier that can be erased and changed outside of battles. Activating any given inscription costs a varied amount of arcana based on the strength of the inscription.}

{Cost: 2000 Amaranth}

{Do you wish to gain this feat?}

‘Interesting.’ He hummed to himself as he touched the middle crystal.

{Runic equilibrium}

{The body of a runic spellblade serves as the vessel of many inscriptions. Learn the art of keeping the equilibrium between your body, mind and spirit. This feat will grant you the ability to activate more than one inscription at the same time. Doing so, however, puts a greater strain on one’s body}

{Cost: 2000 Amaranth}

{Do you wish to gain this feat?}

‘Okay, so I can get a multi-boost, but it will wear me out faster. Good to know.’ He sighed as he touched the rightmost crystal. The words that appeared were quite similar to the leftmost one’s.

{Runic torso inscriptions}

{A runic spellblade’s torso is like a living spell scroll. Infuse it with arcane inscriptions that can grant one of the following: elemental affinity, arcana regeneration, defence, health regeneration, physical resistance or stamina regeneration. Both the front and the back of the torso can only be inscribed with a single amplifier on the top and the lower section that can be erased and changed outside of battles. Activating any given inscription costs a varied amount of arcana based on the strength of the inscription.}

{Cost: 2000 Amaranth}

{Do you wish to gain this feat?}

‘We’ll shit. I can turn myself into a rune-scribbled yakuza now.’ He chuckled as he read the description, but he soon began to frown as he looked at the steep prices. With two thousand Amaranth for each feat, he could only afford one. While runic equilibrium sounded important, he had to cross it out since he would have to learn the basic inscriptions first. The list of amplifiers he could get for his torso also sounded good, but for the moment, getting the attribute boosts offered by the ‘limb’ inscriptions won.

He reached out to touch the leftmost crystal once again, accepting the prompt regarding the trade. Regis felt his Amaranth being syphoned away before a plethora of information got cramped into his mind. ‘Fuck.’ He growled as the nerve-wracking headache came and passed. When it was over, he had the basic inscription method firmly memorised. The different amplifiers were like runic spells, each well-defined and useful in its own right.

They all required him to use alchemic ink to draw up the inscription on his skin and then channel arcana into it to lead and settle the inscription to its proper place. He would then need to activate it by powering it up with his arcana. It was both complex and fascinating, but another thought also wormed its way into his head. ‘I should be able to turn these into spell scrolls as well.’ Regis deduced as he returned to his soul tome to see the changes that occurred.

{Name: Regis Thorne}

{Title: Novice loremaster}

{Race: Dark elf/Sun elf/ Human}

{Age: 19}

{Amaranth: 5690}

{Caste: landed lesser noble}

{Path}

Novice Loremaster

Novice Runic Spellblade

{Craft}

Novice enchanter

Novice alchemist

{Attributes}

•Allure: 16

•Deftness: 21

•Erudition: 23

•Faith: 8

•Luck: 12

•Might: 22

•Mind: 28

•Physique: 26

•Spirit: 28

•Willpower: 29

Health/Arcana/Stamina

{74/74}{142/142}{69/69}

{Status effects}

Health regeneration 0,5/1 min

‘It looks like, besides the obvious attribute and stat increases, my health regeneration also went up by 0,1 during the process.’ He hummed, theorising that it was either a boon he received for the class tier up or maybe for going above twenty-five with his physique attribute. Either way, he had what he came for so he sat down to meditate, leaving his soul space.

As he opened his weary eyes, he found himself back in the tiny room. Not wasting any time, he opened his scribe’s kit to take out his inkwell and quill. Regis tipped the quill into the alchemic ink and began t draw line after line on his left thigh. A good ten minutes later he finished the ‘trash’ grade ‘haste’ inscription which could increase his movement speed by a flat 10%. He then inscribed a ‘deftness’ amplifier on his right leg.

It was strange that an inscription on one limb could affect his entire body, but he was beyond the point where he would begin questioning it. His second inscription could temporarily increase his deftness attribute by two, a slight yet significant boost to his flexibility and hand-eye coordination. His left and right hands received an ‘elemental affinity’ and ‘might’ inscription respectively.

When he was finally done ‘tattooing’ himself, Regis let out a long yawn and packed away his inkwell and quill. ‘Time to hit the sack.’ He thought as he sprawled out on his bed, his lead-heavy eyelids closing faster than ever. A loud knock on the door woke up the tired dark elf sometime later, his deep groan resounding in the room.

“I’m awake.” He said, slowly getting out of his bed.

After getting dressed, Regis headed over to the door, finding Quentin waiting for him on the other side.

“Bad dreams?” The paladin asked, earning a head shake.

“Crappy bed.” The short answer came as the two headed downstairs.

“We should deal with those corpses before the villagers wake up,” Quentin noted as they got down, the rest of the group already waiting for them. “Did you come up with anything to say to the people?”

“I’m going to tell them the truth.” The spell weaver answered honestly.

“The truth?”

“Yep. I’m going to tell them that we have a thorn in our side that needs to be removed.”

“And I guess diplomacy is out of the question?” Quentin sighed already knowing the answer.

“Diplomacy stopped being an option when the dickweed decided to keep on sending people to kill us.” They heard Cruz’s scoff, the others nodding along as a heavy atmosphere filled the main room downstairs.

“It looks like we agree. How did you sleep, Zola?” The spell weaver asked the young woman.

“I... a lot better than I had in a long while,” She admitted as she looked up from where she was sitting. “Are you really going to kill Lord Vidal?”

“I truly hope it won’t come to that, but he doesn’t seem to be willing to give us much of a choice. I know it sounds weird, but what do you think about becoming the next ruler of the Vidal territory?”

“I… what?” Zola muttered surprised as the group left the inn.

“If your father forces our hands, then it stands to reason that we can’t let any idiotic descendant take his place or they might run to ask for help from other nobles.”

“So you want to make her the next ruler?” Valerie asked as she eyed up the young woman. “That could work. Does the man have any sons?”

“He had two sons, but Leonard died in the war and Arlo is... he’s a wastrel.”

“It feels weird to be allowed to shit-talk about them, right?” Cruz chuckled as she watched Zola trying to find the right words.

“Back home I would have been punished for saying something like this out loud.”

“You can say whatever you want,” Osmond shrugged. “Especially since you’re likely the next in line for the Vidal territory.”

“But I’m a bastard child,” Zola protested. “The other noble houses won’t stand for it. Or, will they?”

“As long as you carry the Vidal bloodline in you and there are ‘no’ other heirs left alive, they shouldn’t able to say anything,” Quentin remarked. “Father Steon told me once that similar situations have happened a few times in the past. Although they might try some underhanded methods if they think that house Vidal is too weak to hold on to its territories.”

While they were talking about the possibility of Zola becoming the next heir, Regis used his terraform spell to make the ground spit out the corpses of yesterday’s fight. They unceremoniously stripped their quarry of their equipment in a few minutes.

“Zola,” he turned toward the young woman. “You mentioned last night that you know how to remove the Shardwaker’s mark from a corpse.”

“I do,” she nodded as she walked closer. “It’s a small ritual, but it’s easy to learn.”

In the following minutes, she explained the arcane words that had to be chanted and how they had to circle their index finger around the mark of the corpse while channelling arcana into it. As Regis tried the small ritual, the tattoo of his former enemy began to release a thick black smoke that soon coalesced into a black crystal plate with the familiar rhomboid symbol carved into it. As he cast charlatan’s wisdom, it showed no description at all.

“This is weird,” he remarked while staring at the crystal plate. “It doesn’t have a description.”

“Yes,” Zola nodded. “These crystals are the only ones I have ever seen to lack a true definition. They still work fine though. Someone just has to smear a few drops of their blood on one to initiate the mark transfer.”

“That’s good to know.” Regis nodded before the rest of the sigils got collected and the team initiated the all-too-familiar corpse sacrificial ritual.

The dark elf gained a minor orb of deftness, shoring up his attribute to twenty-two. When they were done, he used terraform again, but this time he made the condensed soil crush the dried-out and brittle corpses into dust before making the remains sink deep into the ground again.

“That’s one way to get rid of the bodies.” Fabien noted as a visible chill ran along his spine.

“So what now?” Letty asked as she looked at the others. “Will you head out immediately?”

“No,” Regis shook his head. “I promised to tell the people what’s going on. We’ll head out after that.”

“At least we have time to fix up these.” Amanda noted as she dragged the pile of arms and armour inside her workshop.

“Are we going to use the gateway to head over to Escroft or…”

“We used horses to get there,” Zola said. “Egil said that we should also ride back home from there because he can’t be bothered coming back for us.”

“Can’t be bothered,” Cruz mumbled. “What kind of lazy bastard is that guy? Isn’t it in his best interest that you’d succeed?”

“If it were,” Valerie patted the wood elf on the shoulder. “Don’t you think he would have come with them as well?”

“He could not,” Zola shook his head. “He is the only spellcaster Lord Vidal has, so he has to stay home all the time in case he is needed.”

“I heard Quentin say that he told Grego to bring the horses back to the village. If we’re going to use the gateway to go to Escroft then how do we go on from there?” Amanda asked with her eyebrows raised.

“Lord Vidal has a stable in Escroft,” the young woman stated. “That’s where we got the horses from and there should be more there.”

“Won’t they be curious where you left the previous horses?” Letty questioned as the group noticed several villagers show up on the streets opening into the Landwaker Square.

“Would an ordinary peasant ask a high-ranked solder something just like that?” Fabien retorted, earning a slight head shake from the young woman.

“Morning, milord.” Durnan greeted the dark elf before giving a nod to the others.

“Morning, Durnan. Grego.” Regis responded, half turning to the guard captain.

“The tunnel is secured and there were no signs of further enemies.”

“Good. How hidden was the tunnel?”

“Very,” the soldier answered. “If we weren’t told about what to look for, we would have never thought that the small outcrop had a secret path. What will we do about it?”

“I’ll fill it up and turn it into granite once we’re back from our ‘visit’ to Lord Vidal.”

“I see. And the people? What will you say to them?”

“You’ll find out in a minute.” The spell weaver sighed as he watched the square getting filled by his people.

When everyone was present, Regis cleared his throat while stepping forward so that he could be seen and heard by the villagers.

“I’m sure you’ve already heard about it one way or another, but let me confirm it as well. Last night we were ambushed. We all thought that Thornfell was a safe place to live. I still do, but nothing is perfect in this world and Lord Vidal’s assassins proved that. They used a secret tunnel we had no knowledge about to sneak in, after which they forced Zola here to use a ritual which put everyone to sleep.”

“Except you.” Quentin remarked.

“Except me. Once the fight broke out, the ritual got disrupted and my friends joined the fray. Together we managed to defeat the enemy, but the problem still remains. Lord Vidal has it out for us and he won’t stop until we make him stop.”

“But why?” Esther asked from the crowd. “Why does he want to kill us? Have you stolen this land from him, milord?”

“No,” Regis shook his head. “Thorn Vale was abandoned and ownerless as far as we and Vidal know. Our enmity stems from a different matter. When we were travelling towards here we came across a small fishing outpost which belonged to Vidal. Apparently, Vidal found an ancient pillar made from pure arcanite at that place.”

Those words earned a hushed gasp from the villagers as they all began to whisper amongst each other.

“I don’t have to explain to you just how valuable something like that could be. The man tried to keep it a secret. He tried to get it broken down so that he could sell it for a fortune behind the royals’ backs. However, my Shardwaker class resonated with the pillar and as such, it bestowed me with ancient knowledge. After that, it crumbled to dust and disappeared.”

Another set of hushed gasps followed the statement.

“Now Vidal believes that I have robbed him of a fortune which was rightfully his while at the same time threatening his rule.”

“If the information about the pillar reaches the royals, he’s as good as dead,” Quentin spoke up with a dire tone. “So he wants to silence us.”

“We hoped that he would give up after the previous failed attempts, but last night they came dangerously close to killing us in our sleep. That was the last drop in the bucket. Today we are going to pay a ‘friendly’ visit to Lord Vidal and ‘implore’ him to stop with his attacks.”

“But milord, if you...” Nina tried to speak up, but Regis raised his hand to wave everyone to silence.

“I know what you’re thinking. Just a few of us against a lord and his army could go terribly wrong, but we have ways to escape if things go bad. Valerie will stay here and if something were to happen to me, she will make sure you get to leave here safely. That is all for now, so wish us luck.”

The small crowd of villagers wanted to try and protest, try to stop their newfound lord who gave them a new home, but it was obvious they couldn’t.

“To be honest,” Cruz shrugged. “You suck at motivational speeches.”

“It wasn’t meant to be motivational,” Regis stated. “Just honest.”