After finishing her inspection of the turquoise gem she took a closer look at the orange one, fueling my anticipation even further.

“Haven’t seen these in a while,” She commented softly. “And there’s a good reason for that. I’m going to assume these are from the new dungeon that was discovered?”

She got us there.

Velariah nodded.

“We had the honor of being the first group to explore it together with my father and some of the soldiers.” She then went on to smirk slyly. “Sometimes this whole noble birth isn’t so bad.”

Kantasia chuckled.

“Well, it’s safe to say that the presence of these is sure to attract people to explore it, but unfortunately for us, the average level of adventurer around isn’t adequate enough to delve into dungeons that supply these. But, we’ll see a big change in that soon.”

“With how busy my dad is, definitely. The village is almost empty, and I feel I know where they are.”

“Oh for sure,” The clerk continued. “I hope you don’t need any carpenters anytime soon. They’ve all gone off to the forest… and they took a bunch of adventurers with them. Quests are actually starting to pile up with nobody to take them. Most of them have no urgency but I’m not looking forward to the angry faces I’ll undoubtedly get from quests being delayed.”

“That bad, eh?” Velariah asked hypothetically. “Any good ones we could take?”

“I’ll be honest, if you’re looking for quick cash, I would suggest you go to the forest as well.”

“Not right now. We’re just looking for some adventure, travel if nothing else.”

“Travel?” Kantasia asked as she put the gem down and started inspecting the chunks of ore. “Any preference for direction? There are several supply run quests open.”

“We were thinking of seeing Ember at the Searing Peak. If you have anything that needs to be taken in that direction, that would be perfect.”

“In that case, you’re in luck. A shipment intended for the Village-beyond-the-mountains has just arrived from Duskleaf, and it is delayed by a couple of days already.”

“That’s just what we’re looking for,” Velariah said excitedly. “And we’ll make up at least some of that lost time with our speed.”

“Well, if you’re taking it, it saves me the trouble of having to write it out. By the way, the guild is currently not interested in more stingers so you can save yourselves the trouble of trying to collect those. If you could get your hands on some dragon-blessed iron though…”

“Is that a request?” Velariah asked with a smirk.

“It’s not being actively requisitioned at the moment, and as such, I am unfortunately unable to give you money to get it. You’d have to use your own money to acquire it, and as much of it as you can and I’ll make sure you’ll be paid handsomely as soon as the requests for it come in. It doesn’t take a genius to know it’s going to be in high demand soon enough.”

“Looking ahead,” I said with a nod. “I like it. We’ll make sure you get plenty, then.”

“That would be lovely. Allow me to provide you with the largest cart we have in at the moment, free of charge, of course.”

“I’m surprised you still have a cart left with all this transport going on,” The white-haired knight commented.

“It’s because one of this size is unwieldy in the forest. I do have to ask you to be careful with it as it’s not our own property.”

Her words made me feel slightly uneasy. If the vehicle was cumbersome in the forest, just how bad would it be in the mountains? Though, to be fair, most of the terrain was fairly flat, albeit bumpy. The path down to Ember’s lair should be more than wide enough as well.

It was interesting to know how much more confident I was about things this time around.

“To answer your questions regarding these items,” Kantasia started her conclusion as she placed the gems and ore back in the bag we delivered them in. “The large red gem is an advanced version of the fire damage gems that you’re already using. Generally, the bigger and more faceted the gem is, the better the effects. As for the light blue ones, they are empty shells, fit to hold enchantments of your own choosing if you are able to find those who can imbue them with magic. The orange one is the most valuable of the bunch as it adds a rare fire enchantment to a weapon in particular. For each creature that bears mana and is killed in its vicinity, the effect grows stronger, but it wanes over time.”

“So it’s for killing things in quick succession?” Velariah asked.

“That’s exactly what it’s used for. It’s a rare and very valuable gem for specific dungeons that have patterns of swarm monsters, as we call them.”

“And the ore?” The white-haired elf continued, just as curious as me.

“A higher tier metal with lightning properties when awoken. If you want it forged, you need to contract a smith with proper knowledge about elemental steel. Otherwise, it can lose its latent energies in the smelting process. Coldanus is one such smith.”

Of course, it had to be him.

I heaved a mental sigh but somehow managed to keep it hidden from the others.

“Thank you very much,” Velariah said gratefully. “That was… enlightening.”

“You did not,” Seralyn commented dryly.

“I most definitely did, and if everything’s sorted, let’s get some supplies and we can head out,” Velariah concluded with a smirk aimed at our archer.

“I can arrange that,” Kantasia replied. “We got everything at hand here, so might as well.”

“That’d be even better.”

“Allow us like half an hour to get things in order then.”

“Sure,” Velariah said before turning to the rest of us. “I suppose now would be a good time to visit Dworag, wouldn’t it?”

“It’s a bit early, but I suppose it’s better than not visiting him at all,” I replied. “Let’s hope he is out and about.”

With a nod, she led the way outside into the near-empty village. It was as the Lore Keeper had said, everyone was looking to make some quick cash. Most of the people still around were soldiers just keeping the peace.

In the meantime, I was left thinking about the objects we’d found, but didn’t give it too much time as there would be plenty of thinking to be done on the road ahead of us. For now, I had to keep my wits about me to make sure our new project wouldn’t be ruined.

There was no sound coming from Dworag’s workshop, not from behind. Yet, we found him hard at work.

He had the triple barrel part already finished, yet there was a large gap near the back where the rotating cylinder with cartridges would be located. Funnily enough, and unbeknownst to him that it was likely unnecessary, he had still left tiny holes with the pans near the end of each tube.

Oh well, I suppose it reduces the risk of explosions.

“Ah, Elania. Good to see you,” He said in a more serious tone than I was used to. I could see why it was the case. He was too focused on his work to even think about flirting. “How does this look? Is this about what you imagined?”

“Looking good so far. There is one thing that I suppose would be important to incorporate.”

“And that is?”

“When the holes in the rotating disc line up with the tubes, it would be useful for the whole to be soft-locked if you know what I mean. Just so that it cannot accidentally revolve further unless a certain amount of force is applied.”

“I think I can get that done. The price will be a tad higher than I expected, though.”

“That’s fine. Don’t worry about the price.”

“And I think I figured out what the purpose of this is. It’s so you can put coffee inside the tubes right? Some kind of contraption like those ‘tea bags’ that are going around nowadays.”

“Well, damn,” Velariah let out with a grin in a surprisingly convincing fashion. Truly, one would have no problem believing that this was exactly what our secret was. “You found us out. Please, it a secret, though. My father’s gonna kill me if we ruin his coffee business.”

“Are ye kidding me? I wouldn’t want to upset your father, miss. There’ll be hell to pay if I do.”

“Thanks, Dworag. Is there anything else we can do to help?”

The dwarf scratched his head while looking at his handiwork. After a few seconds of that, he ran his hand through his beard.

“I don’t think so. You’ve already answered the one question I had. I think I can finish from here.”

“That’s nice because we may be away for a few days,” Velariah explained. “Got something to deliver beyond the mountains. Say, are you interested in Dragon-blessed iron?”

“Ah,” The dwarf let out. “Now you’ve piqued my curiosity.”

“How much do you want?” The elf asked matter-of-factly.

“Can you do… two crates? I’ll make sure to pay handsomely for it.”

“I’ll do you thirty percent off of the guild price if we can get this little project done for free.”

Oh, she was in the mood now. She was all fired up about this negotiation thing.

“That’s a pretty damn sweet deal if you ask me,” Dworag replied. “I’m compelled to take it”

“Perfect.”

Velariah shook the smith’s hand, sealing the talks before walking away towards the exit of the workplace.

“We’ll see you soon enough. Thanks for your help and take care,” She said, giving one last wave.

I turned around to follow her, but not before I caught a quick wink from Dworag. He had still found the one small opportunity where Velariah wasn’t looking.

Persistent, isn’t he?

“Now, there’s one last thing we need to take care of,” The elf in question said after we entered the streets again. “And I fear you kind of got the short end of the stick here, El.”

“Huh?”

“We need warm clothes. I know the others have them, but you’re not so lucky.”

I was left confused but finally made the connections in my mind. It must have appeared in my eyes as she was left giggling at the sight.

“Yep. There’s nothing but snow and ice on the other side of the ridge. I’ll have to have a look upstairs. We should have a bunch of furs still laying around. We might have to get the dust out of them though.”

“Sounds fine to me. I assume you want to get all of that fixed now, yes?”

She nodded and hastily led the way back home where she immediately darted upstairs with the others in tow.

Seeing as I couldn’t join them there, I made my way to our room where I equipped my bags and deposited the cloth-wrapped weapon in them. I then used the time I had to create a few more cartridges of ammo.

I managed to make four more, two with larger caliber bullets, and two shotgun casings made with whatever was left, before running out of steel balls. For a moment, I considered giving them some kind of marking so I would know what end would go in the barrel first, but it was more than obvious from touch alone. I preloaded one into the rifle in case we needed it before spending the last few minutes watching Minia who was still working on her home.

“It’s looking very nice,” I commented before reaching for the jar of insects. Apparently, Elly had gotten several large crickets that I imagined would be a great meal for our pet spider. I presented it to her with the tweezers and she eagerly pounced on the victim. “And I’d love to see your progress, but we’ll be away for a bit, a few days at most.”

She was sad about that.

“I’m sorry. We’ll be back as soon as possible.”

At least she understood. I petted her gently just as I heard footsteps coming down the stairs in the other room.

“Are you ready, El?” Velariah’s voice came as she opened the door.

I deposited the bag of remaining gunpowder in my saddlebags as well and nodded.

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

I waved goodbye to Minia, and at the exact time we entered the other room, Elly returned from a walk with Gray.

Perfect timing.

The pup immediately jumped to me and I eagerly petted it.

“We’ll be heading out for maybe a few days,” Velariah told the maid. “Got a trip to make beyond the mountains. We’ll be back soon.”

“No problem. Good luck out there.”

“Take care,” I said to the small wolf.

Unlike Minia, he, unfortunately, couldn’t understand the meaning of my words, but he’d at least noticed something in the tone of my voice as he cocked his head and looked at me with confusion. I stopped and petted him one last time before heading out.

Draco, Velariah, and Seralyn each carried a wooden crate, and the lizardman had the gun added to his bags as it managed to conceal the entire thing.

Back at the guild, Kantasia acknowledges us with a nod before we even entered the building and made her way through the backdoor, to the storehouse.

“Everything’s already prepared,” She said while opening the large doors. “There’s plenty of food and water, and the cargo for the village has been labeled. I’ve left out the reins as I believe you had a custom solution for that.”

“Thank you,” Velariah said. “That makes things a bit easier.”

“And here’s the contract,” The Lore Keeper continued as she handed the white-haired elf a small, ribboned scroll. “Feel free to read things over as it states the amount of money you should receive from the village.”

“Will do.”

We were then led to a giant cart left in the middle of the building. It wasn’t much wider than the one we’d previously used, although another foot was nothing to scoff at. However, the length had increased considerably, and it had four wheels as opposed to two to support it.

Inside the cart were a bunch of crates, I counted twelve in total of which nine had their lids painted red. Those had to be the labels that Kantasia mentioned.

“I’ll leave the door open, just close it on your way out, please. I’ll lock it later.”

Velariah nodded to the closing words of the Lore Keeper who left the rest to us.

Draco loaded the crates we’d brought with us, and Seralyn jumped onto the vehicle to get a sneak peek of what was inside the preloaded cargo.

Typical.

At the same time, Velariah and I fastened the cart to my abdomen.

“Well, we won’t be short on food any time soon,” The archer commented. “And it seems they gave us the good stuff too. Neat.” She dug a bit further and apparently found something that had caught her interest. “Holy crap, they even gave us a bottle of booze.”

“Better not touch that until we’re on the way back,” The knight said sternly.

“Yes, moooom.”

I couldn’t help but grin at the sight, but I knew deep down that Seralyn was smart enough not to get drunk anywhere on the journey. If anything, I felt like the alcohol was either intended for cleaning wounds, or as a gift, but in the latter case, it was strange to give it from the start.

I simply shrugged it off and finished the last bits of prep by pulling the cart a few inches forward to see if everything held. I noticed that the drag weight was significantly higher, likely due to all the cargo and quite possibly because of the tougher wood used in the cart’s construction.

And that was without anyone seated inside.

Okay, it was still easy to pull for someone with my strength, but I reckoned we wouldn’t be able to cross as much terrain as before. It was still early, though, so I was convinced we’d still make it to the foot of the mountains before nightfall.

“All ready,” I said, notifying the others. “Ready when you are.”

In reaction to my words, the others climbed inside and made themselves comfortable by using the pelts from one of the crates we’d brought to sit on. Only Velariah remained on her feet as I moved the cart outside, just to close the door before finally hopping on.

When we passed in front of the guild hall, the knight gave a wave to the Lore Keeper who took it as a sign to lock the door to the storehouse from the inside.

Then, we were on our way.

I could tell that the cobblestone roads in the village weren’t the most comfortable to travel, but once we were outside in the grasslands, the bumpiness subsided. I was happy to see that we didn’t run into the issue of the wheels sinking in the first, but then again, it was only the cart itself that was wider.

“Have you ever thought about making some kind of road towards the mountains?” I asked.

“We have,” Velariah replied. “But the funds just weren’t there. It has always gone to more pressing matters and this has remained behind for the longest time. I do think it’s going to happen soon enough from the look of things. In fact, after they are done setting up a base in the forest, I reckon they’ll start working on it, and maybe that canal too. Maybe they’ll even set up some kind of camp near Arch.”

“Why hasn’t that been done already? Too few adventurers who visit him?”

“In part, yes, but the guild also doesn’t have that much personnel. Again, things are going to change drastically around here, which will result in more employees.”

“And more farmland,” I added. “Pylanor is going to kill me if he finds out I was responsible for him being overworked just to grow coffee.”

“He definitely wouldn’t,” She said before pausing for a moment. “Speaking about coffee, it looks like the harvest is coming along nicely.”

I didn’t even need to turn my head to see the fields in which the bright red berries grew. There were more than a few people harvesting them and filling woven baskets with what I knew to be dark brown gold.

Well, the fruits had to go through a not-all-too-complicated process first, but still.

“I’m happy things are going so well and that the drink was so well-received almost immediately. It’s not uncommon for people to just not like it.”

“Eh, I don’t know. Maybe people were just eager to try something new and allowed it more leeway because of that.”

“Who knows? Sounds more than likely to me.”

Silence fell over our party and at some point, Nira decided to spread her wings. I hadn’t seen her fly in a while and I could only imagine how cooped up she felt at this point.

Would she suffer from not doing that once in a while? I mean, physically. Would she lose strength in her wings?

Either way, she looked happy when doing this, which was all that mattered.

Things proceeded smoothly as the grassland passed us by. Miles flew by and soon, the mountain ridge came into view on the horizon. It was at that point we decided to take our first break and allow me to stretch a bit.

We came very far in only a few hours, and at this rate, we’d reach the ridge long before sundown.

“Hey Vel, how difficult is it to cross the mountains completely? Think we can do it before nightfall?”

“I think we can. The question is if we want to.”

“That doesn’t sound good,”

“It’s not too bad, but it’s safer on this side, and we don’t know if traversing them will be an issue at any point. In an ideal scenario, we don’t spend the night in the mountains.

“Fair enough.”