“How are we going to break the news to the people?” Tristan spoke for the first time since the meeting began. “They will soon figure out that something is wrong, but if we are not careful about this, it will cause panic.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised about that,” Amanda sighed. “They barely survived one catastrophe and now we’re about to face another. Even if we can fortify the mountain pass, we would be essentially trapped if the other places connected to the gateway get captured or destroyed.”

“We’ll also have to prepare for the possible wave of refugees, should Lady Zola fail to keep her territory.” The steward reminded the group.

“Tristan,” the dark elf turned to his steward. “Talk to Nina about the situation and make her do an inventory check on our supplies. Use whatever coin we have left to buy any essentials we would need in case of a siege. Also, send word around Thornvale that we’re going to have an emergency gathering at the town hall tomorrow at noon.”

“Understood.”

“Amanda.”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to need at least thirty to forty bronze ingots as soon as you can make them.”

“Bronze? What for?” She asked back surprised by him asking for the low-value metal instead of iron or even steel.

“I have an idea, but we need more bronze and dragon powder. Mary.”

“Yes?” The young woman looked at him while replying with a shaky voice.

“Could you use your sculpting and earth magic to create two large knight statues by the end of the day?”

“Knight statues?”

“Yes, around five to six meters in height. Detailed with a thick shield and a mace or a hammer?”

“I... I should be able to do it.”

“Good,” he nodded. “Osmond, gather the soul-cores and bring them over, will you?”

“You’re planning to create war golems, aren’t you?”

“We need all the help we can get so it’s as good a time as any to try and craft a pair of them.”

“We should get those two hundred exploding arrows packed up and bring them over to Zola.” Cruz remarked.

“Will you stay there to enchant the gates as well?” Letty asked worried.

“It’s better to do it now while we still have some time left. Quentin, I’ll leave talking to Grego up to you. You’re the one with experience in riot control and defensive strategies. Try to figure out what else we could do to bolster our defences and combat capabilities.”

“I’ll head there immediately,” the paladin noted as he stood up. “Don’t take too long at Mistfield.”

“Alright, the meeting is over.”

Saying that, the rest of the group stood up from their seats as well and everyone left the manor to do their part.

“Euric,” the loremaster called his butler over to himself. “Tell Dana that I won’t be able to have dinner with you and that we’re going to have an emergency meeting tomorrow at noon at the town hall.”

“Understood, milord.” The man noted with a solemn tone as he noticed his lord’s serious expression.

Regis headed over to his workshop where he opened a separate small room that served as his storage area. He opened one of the long crates and began to count out two hundred arrows that had a bulky bronze tip with a red crystal in the middle. Once all of the arrows were accounted for he wrapped every arrowhead in a separate piece of wet cloth before packing them into a sack. He then opened up two other smaller boxes and began to pick large pieces of yellowish-brown coloured elemental stones from them, putting them away into his satchel. Regis left his manor while lugging along the sack of special arrows and headed over to Landwaker Square. Using the gateway he returned to Mistfield where he made his way to the Vidal manor.

“We did not expect you to return so soon.” Galen admitted as the spellcaster met the dark elf outside the manor.

“Get someone to store these arrows in buckets filled with water and make sure they don’t hit the tip to anything too strongly by accident.”

“I guess we would not want that to happen, right?”

“Not unless you want to level the building.”

“I see,” the man nodded with a mixture of apprehension and appreciation. “I’ll make sure it gets safely stored.”

“Good. I’ll head over to the main gate of the town.”

The gates question were nearly eight meters tall and about twenty centimetres thick iron-reinforced hardwood that required a lot of work. First, he had to repair them using magic, then he had to reinforce the stonework around it along with the hinges before finally reinforcing the gates themselves. By the time he finished the gate of the inner wall, Galen and Magda showed up to see him as well.

“I wish I could wholeheartedly admire your work,” the woman sighed. “But it is not the time for that.”

“How’s Zola holding up?” The loremaster asked as he looked at the now ‘well-made’ grade arcane reinforcement.

“About as good as you would expect in a situation like this. She is trying to stay strong, but she is still a young lass with barely any true experience.”

“That’s why you two are here for. “

“I appreciate your confidence in us,” Galen hummed. “But I am afraid that she will need a lot more than just the two of us. Hopefully, those arrows you brought will help us even the odds.”

“How dangerous are they, Regis?” The woman asked with a serious expression.

“Let’s just say that if an ordinary gambeson-wearing soldier gets shot in the chest, it would easily blast their upper body apart.”

“What about a steel plate-wearing warrior or a shield?”

“If it’s not enchanted, then it could still blast a bucket-sized hole in them. But if you want my suggestion, then aim for the head. Not even an enchanted helmet could stop that thing.”

“How in the Seven did you manage to create such a monstrosity?”

“By accident?” The loremaster asked back with a failing poker face.

“By accident?” Magda repeated his words with a flabbergasted expression.

“I was trying to figure out how to create an enchanted burning arrow, but the enchantment became a bit unstable and the end result is, well... a bit volatile.”

“How many of these... volatile arrows did you bring?”

“Two hundred. I wish I could give you more, but it’s not that easy to make them and I have to think about Thorn Vale’s defences as well.”

“We understand,” Galen nodded. “Hopefully we won’t have to use even a single one of them, but they could prove to be a strong deterrent in case the worst happens.”

“Just aim at the leaders,” Regis noted. “Losing the head of the army should deal a great blow to their morale.”

“I’ll keep that advice in mind.” The spellcaster chuckled as they began to walk toward the gateway.

“Are you already leaving?” He heard Zola’s voice, finding the young noblewoman standing there with her steward.

“I brought over what I could and I reinforced the gates. If you want me to enchant some weapons and armour for you as well, just tell your men to bring them over.”

“Sir Desimir,” Zola turned toward the veteran soldier. “Please gather the swords and shields of the soldiers. Even if we can only get a few simple enchantments on them, that would help us greatly.”

Less than 10 minutes later over a hundred swords and shields got neatly piled up on the arcane gateway with Regis barely having any space to step on.

“You certainly don’t do things half-heartedly,” the dark elf sighed as he looked at the pile of weapons. “I doubt that I will be having any sleep today.”

“I am sorry to make you do all this,” Zola apologised. “But I promise that we will pay you back for your aid.”

“Let’s hope you won’t have to,” Regis chuckled as he activated his talisman and the runes of the gateway began to light up. “My prices are quite steep.”

He returned to Thornfell in a flash of bright light, catching the eyes of the nearby patrolling guards.

“Tell the others to bring these shields and swords over to the town hall!” The loremaster said and the guards hurriedly left after nodding in acknowledgement.

He let out a sigh as he grabbed a bundle of swords and began to walk toward the town hall which he was about to turn into a temporary workshop. Using his key, Regis opened the door and switched on the arcane lights before creating an elemental charging array on one of the tables of the large backroom. He then began to create thumb-sized quartz crystals which he turned into elemental stones.

By the time the guards brought over the weapons and shields from the gateway, he was halfway done with the elemental stones. Regis then spent to following three hours enchanting the items with a simple armour value increasing, durability, and edge runes. The sun was already gone from the sky by the time he finished, making him realise that the place was eerily quiet. It was somewhat surprising that no one came to look for him while he was working, but he also understood the reason behind that.

Everyone had their roles to play, and their tasks to do in order to ensure Thorn Vales's safety. With this part of his work done, he bundled up the enchanted equipment before locking the doors of the town hall and heading home. It was clear that the people of Thornfell knew something was amiss. The streets were empty and he couldn’t hear or see any activity anywhere around.

‘Everyone must be nervous.’ He thought while walking. The manor fared no better, silence permeating the main hall. Urged on by his grumbling stomach, the loremaster headed over to the kitchen where he took out some leftover cooked meat from the runic fridge which he proceeded to turn into a steak burger. After the quick meal and a shower, Regis collapsed on his bed, not waking until the accursed rooster began to caw.

Several incomprehensible curses later he got out of his bed and after getting dressed, he went downstairs to continue his work. A half cubic metre sized wooden crate waited for him in front of his workshop. He brought it inside and opened it, finding nearly a hundred chestnut-sized glowing stones in it. The stones were roughly ball-shaped, a teal-coloured fog filled with motes of light swirling inside them. As he cast charlatan’s wisdom on one of the orbs, a familiar description appeared above it.

{Lesser Soul-core}

{Item rarity: uncommon}

{Item quality: cracked}

‘Three into a larger one and five into a higher grade,’ he mused. ‘This is going to take a while.’ And it did. First, he fused several trio of ‘lesser’ soul-cores into ‘minor’ ones before fusing those into ‘ordinary’ and then ‘larger’ soul-cores. Knowing that he couldn’t safely further increase their size, he began to fuse them together in groups of five until he was left with two ‘clear’ grade soul-cores that were larger than a grapefruit. Charlatan’s wisdom revealed the cores’ true power, making him smile.

{Larger Soul-core}

{Item rarity: rare}

{Item quality: clear}

‘This should be enough to power those war golems.’ He remarked with a proud smirk before stashing the cores into his satchel. His next order of business was to use a piece of the bronze Amanda left him along with some dragon powder. He created a disk-shaped object that was fifteen centimetres in diameter and two centimetres thick with a hollowed-out inside.

Regis filled it with dragon powder and pea-sized iron ball bearings. ‘Honestly, this should be considered a freaking war crime.’ The loremaster thought to himself as he began to infuse it with a recently cooked-up runic diagram that would allow him to remotely activate a fire rune that was on the inner side of the bronze disk. He then proceeded to link it to a bronze wand he made. Barely three more such creations later the dark elf heard a knock on the door.

“Milord,” Dana the maid called out to him. “Sir Quentin is here to speak with you.”

“Please let him in.” Regis sighed as he packed away the arcane explosives.

“You look like shit.” Were the first words that left Quentin’s mouth upon entering the workshop.

“And a good morning to you as well,” the loremaster flipped the bird toward the paladin. “How’s the situation outside?”

“About as bad as you’d expect. Sending out word for an emergency meeting made the people start speculating and worrying.”

“Not without a good reason.” The loremaster noted as his friend sat down.

“True. Grego and the others also came up with a few ideas regarding the possible attack on Thorn Vale.”

“Anything good?”

“Ballistas.”

“Ballistas?” Regis asked back surprised.

“Yeah. I would have honestly been happier with canons, but I understand that our dragon powder stores are too little for stuff like that.”

“So you came up with the idea of putting ballistas on the wall?”

“Not just any kind of ballistas, but ones made and enchanted by you. You could use your transmutation alchemy to make them and then add... whatever it is they need to be even deadlier.”

“I thought the gang voted not to use my transmutation alchemy for such purposes. I also remember you firmly being against such weapons as well.”

“I was against using stuff like that for conquest, this is home defence.”

“And I imagine you lot are also expecting me to create a few oversized exploding arrows for them as well?”

“That would be for the best, but I understand that it might cause more trouble than its worth. If worst comes to pass and we have to use such methods, any survivor that escaped could bring down half the kingdom on us, saying that we are too much of a threat.”

“So, how many of these enchanted ballistas did Grego imagine on top of the mountain pass barbicans?”

“Three should be enough,” the paladin stated. “Any more and we won’t have enough soldiers to men them.”

“That should be manageable if we have the materials ready.”