“Ten more boars,” the steward marked it down in his notebook. “Looks like you too had an eventful hunt. Now, about the three matters I mentioned earlier.”

“Yes, let's take care of those as well.” Regis sighed as he looked back at the people chatting beside their trophies.

“Durnan, I’ll leave things here in your hands.”

“Understood, milord.” The dwarf nodded, turning his attention to where it was needed.

Regis and Tristan headed back to town, the steward humming with a surprisingly cheerful tone. After a minute or two, the dark elf couldn’t stop himself from asking.

“What got you into such a good mood?”

“Well,” Tristan hummed. “Nina got back from settling your enchanted items a good hour ago. They paid the agreed-upon price without any problems and she also brought back another piece of good news.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“She said that a travelling merchant group bought up almost all of the wares from Thorne’s Arcanum, even paying extra to get their hands on the new shipment she brought in. As you can imagine, she managed to broker quite a deal.”

“How much did we get?”

“The wares from the Arcanum were sold for twenty gold and thirteen silver while the goods she brought over today went for fourteen gold and five silver instead of the estimated ten gold and twenty-nine silver due to that travelling merchant wanting all of it despite some of them being quite ‘essential’ in East Fork.

“Not bad,” Regis nodded with a slight smirk. “Nina always knew how to work out the best deals. Still, that means Thorne’s Arcanum is sitting pretty much empty now. We’ll have to remedy that as soon as possible. By the way; did she manage to get me...”

“She said that Mayoress Tine managed to get the book you asked for. It was already delivered to the manor.”

“Good. Please remind me later to create another two hundred empty spell scrolls and ask Letty to brew a few more vials of arcane ink for me.”

“Of course. And here we are,” the steward looked at the inn which now served both as a temporary home for those settlers who were yet to get their homes built and as a restaurant. “Should we head in?”

“There’s no point in keeping Mary waiting. At least we could eat something for lunch while we’re here.”

“Hey there guys.” Fabien greeted them as soon as they set foot in the inn, earning a slight nod.

“How’s it going Fabien?”

“I can’t complain. Business is good and now that the economy is starting to stabilize, money actually started the flow in.”

“Nice. I guess the inn keeps you quite busy then.”

“It does,” the infernal sighed. “There’s always something to do. I’m lucky Mary keeps things together long enough for me to get my daily training done over at the barracks. Oh, and sorry about not joining the whole boar culling thing. We had our hands full these past few days.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll make sure you get some fresh and cured boar meat.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Is Mary in the back?”

“Yeah. Did you come over to fix her cooking tool issue?”

“Yep. Could you get something for me and Tristan to eat while I’m at it?”

“Sure thing. That’s the least I could do.”

Regis headed toward the door behind the counter, gently knocking on it before opening it. On the other side of the door, a surprisingly modern-looking kitchen could be seen, filled with magical appliances. Mary was in the middle of using an enchanted bronze meat grinder when she heard the knock on the door.

“Hey there, Regis.” She greeted him with a smile.

“Hi, Mary. I came to fix you your pans.”

“Thanks,” she said while wiping her forehead. “The steel bars are over there in the corner.”

The dark elf walked over to the left side of the kitchen where he found four bars of ‘ordinary’ quality steel. He placed his hand on the large table beside him, blue threads of arcana snaking across the table’s surface to form the familiar transmutation circle of item creation.

“So, what exactly would you like me to craft for you?” He asked from the young woman.

“A frying pan or two, a wok and a few baking trays along with a flat bottom pot.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” He promised while grabbing a piece of wood used for meat smoking.

He placed a bar of steel and a piece of wood inside the transmutation circle before activating it. A bright light consumed the materials under his will and a minute or so later a trio of glowing orbs were all that remained. He reached out for them one by one, popping the bubbles to retrieve three different-sized pans with wooden handles. He then repeated the process to create a steel wok and three baking trays before using the last piece of steel along with some wood to create a nice-looking flat bottom pot.

“What do you think? Will these do the job?” He asked as he dismissed the ward functioning as his transmutation circle.

“Yes,” Mary said excitedly as she picked them up to examine them one at a time. “You even made a pan with grill lines? Thank you so much!”

She gave the dark elf a gentle hug, only to slip back after hearing someone clearing their throat.

“Should I start to feel jealous?” Fabien asked jokingly as he walked closer.

“You tell me.” The spell weaver pointed toward the pans.

“Oh damn,” the infernal cussed. “They look pretty much factory-made.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Now, about that lunch.”

“Go and take a seat. I’ll bring it out in a minute.”

The dark elf did as his friend told and joined Tristan who was sitting at one of the corner tables. The inn was fairly busy with most of the tables being occupied by the locals that were either waiting for a cold ale or some food.

“Are you already done?” The young steward asked as Regis sat down.

“It wasn’t much work to begin with, but more importantly, Fabien is about to bring us our lunch.”

“Great. I was getting quite hungry.”

“Hope I didn’t keep you two waiting for too long,” Fabien said as he appeared with a wooden tray that had two plates on it. “Today’s lunch menu is roasted potatoes with grilled fish and some fresh vegetable salad.”

“Looks good.” Regis noted as he accepted the plate that had a nicely sized fish on it with some steak potatoes and what he believed to be a mix of cut bell pepper, cabbage, and tomatoes.

“Bon appetit. Just bring over the plates to the counter once done.”

“Sure.”

The duo began to eat the renewed vigour finishing it in minutes.

“That hit the spot,” The spell weaver said after a slight burp. “Are you done?”

“Yes.” Tristan nodded as his liege grabbed the plates to bring them over to the counter.

“Let’s go then. We still have two more tasks to attend.”

Leaving the inn, they didn’t have to go far, Amanda’s and Sophie’s shop being on the other side of Landwaker Square. As he knocked on the door, the half-giant’s familiar voice resounded from the other side.

“Come on in, it’s open!”

“Hey there, Amanda. I was told you needed help?”

“Yeah,” She nodded while waving him toward the door leading to her workshop. “I used those material conjuring spells you taught me and then made a shitload of bronze, but no matter what I do, I can’t seem to make them better than ‘ordinary’ quality.”

“And you want me to remedy that?” He asked as he looked at the knee-high one square meter sized pile of bronze ingots.

“I need ‘well-made’ quality bronze for a lot of my current projects, a third of which was ordered by you.”

“Okay-okay. I’ll see what I can do.” The dark elf sighed as he kneeled beside the pile.

He placed his palm on the flat ground, blue streaks of arcana snaking out from beneath his palm to form the much-used transmutation circle. Regis then piled twenty-five ingots inside the circle before activating it. A flash of light later he reached out to pop the floating bubbles, taking out five ingots which he put to the side. He repeated the process several times, dwindling the bronze pile into one-fifth of its original size.

“There you go,” he said half an hour later. “Hopefully these will last you for a while.”

“Thanks,” Amanda said with a wide smile as she examined the now ‘well-made’ quality ingots. “I promise to put these to good use and I’ll send over fifty ingots to your place as promised.”

“Alright. We'll be on our way if you don’t need anything else. We still have to take a look at the vertical farm.”

“Sure. Good luck with that and have a nice day. Oh, and thanks again!”

“See you later.”

“Miss Amanda.” Tristan nodded as the two left the smithy.

They walked toward the nearest town gate, a few people nodding toward them respectfully, but none daring to stop them. A few minutes later they reached the gate, revealing the sight of a green grassland with the nearby farms behind them. Some of the hunters were still busy dragging about the boars they caught, others tried their best to cultivate the next harvest while the sun was still high.

“It’s too bad that your magic can’t do anything about the bugs and weeds.” Tristan remarked as he watched the busy people.

“Increasing the fertility of the soil and the growth speed of the plants has its downsides as well,” Regis noted while walking. “Nothing is perfect. We could try to find some kind of pesticide or something, but I doubt Druig and Letty would be happy if we disturbed nature’s balance too much. We already have to compromise by creating an area to grow trees for our building material needs. Among other things.”

“True,” the steward agreed. “But I do not doubt that planting the orchard will also prove to be an excellent investment of time and resources. Miss Letty said that we can expect the first harvest roughly around the same time as the Landwaker will bear its first fruits.”

“I guess having that harvest festival will be well-earned then. Looks like Hosea is already waiting for us.”

“Good day to you, milord! Sir Tristan.” The farmer greeted them with a relieved smile.

“Hosea,” the spell weaver nodded. “I take it things are going well? “

“Yes, sir. Things are going as you expected them to, except for one small matter.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing serious, it’s just that your farming wall went dark yesterday evening,”

“It went dark,” Regis repeated the words, weighing their implication. “The amount of arcana held in the crystals should have lasted for an entire week, not four days.”

“I understand that, milord,” the man looked awkwardly at his liege. “But it still happened.”

“Did it happen to all of the walls or just one?”

“Just the leftmost one, sir.” “Curious. Let’s see what happened.”

Saying that, the dark elf walked over to a four meter tall greenhouse not far behind the barns. As they opened the quartz pane-covered door of the greenhouse, the scent of root vegetables and strawberry struck their noses. Regis looked at the three stone walls that stood at an equal space from each other and the quartz-covered walls of the greenhouse, noticing that the leftmost wall’s green-coloured lines were lifeless. ‘This is strange.’ He thought as he walked closer, using charlatan’s wisdom on the wall.

{Vertical farm}

{Building rarity: rare}

{Greater enchantment: 1(damaged)}

{Building quality: ordinary}

{Durability: 248/250}

“The enchantment is damaged?” Regis asked aloud, looking at the wall that was covered with clay pots filled with still-growing plants.“How is that possible?” Tristan asked as the spell weaver placed his hands on the faded runic array running between the spots where the planting pots were slotted in.

As he touched the array and sent out a weak pulse of arcana, he felt it suddenly fizzle out a few metres to the right. Following the trail, he soon found a spot between two pots where a chestnut-sized piece broke out of the wall, its jagged edge a clear evidence of something striking it.

“Hosea,” the spell weaver spoke as he knelt down to touch the broken wall part. Who was responsible for planting and watering on this side of the wall?

“It was one of the new lads, Ancel. Why?”

“Could you call him here for me?”

“Of course, milord.” The man nodded before leaving to find the farmhand.

“How bad is it?” Tristan asked worried, but the spell weaver just shook his head.

“It’s nothing I can’t fix in a few minutes, but I still want to know how it happened.”

“I see.” The steward nodded and the two kept waiting for a short while

When Hosea returned, he was followed by a sixteen or so looking light brown-haired youth.

“Milord.” The youth nodded nervously as he entered the greenhouse.

“You’re Ancel, right?”

“Yes... sir.” The youth stuttered. “I was told that you were the one entrusted with planting and watering this side of the vertical farm. Is that right?”

“Yes.”

“Could you tell me what happened to this part here?” He pointed at the broken piece.

“It... I...” the youth stuttered with large beads of sweat flowing down his forehead. “I’m sorry, milord. I picked up the ladder too fast and as I turned, it knocked into the wall and… and...”

At this point the young man was already kneeling on the ground, shaking like a leaf in the wind.

“And why didn’t you tell anyone?” “I... I was scared, sir. My family just settled down and I got a good job, but then this happened. Master Hosea told me that these farm walls were an important thing for his lordship and when I broke out a piece, I panicked. I was told that the wall had magic in it and I was afraid it would crumble or explode or something. When it didn’t, I chose to stay quiet, hoping that it wouldn’t be noticed. I’m so sorry, milord!”

“Ancel,” the spell weaver sighed as he looked at the terrified boy. “I’m not angry at you for damaging the wall. I’m angry at you for not telling it to anyone. These walls are not just for me, but for the entire town. They’re an experiment that could let us grow more food in a smaller space for less effort. Do you see these faded glowing lines? These are the heart and veins of the magic array that makes the plants grow fast. When you broke out that piece, you didn’t just damage the wall, but the magic as well.”