Although the sight of the friendly chatter between the outlanders and the locals caught the dark elf and the blacksmith by surprise, they still managed to shake it off.

“Well,” Amanda spoke up. “This is a welcome change of scenery.”

“It’s definitely better than being chased around by pitchforks and torches.” The spell weaver agreed as they got near their companions.

“What did we miss?” He asked from Osmond.

“Not much, really. Quentin questioned the local guards and mercenaries, but no one else proved to be a demonic collaborator.”

“That’s good news,” the tall woman let out a relieved sigh. “Just one of those bastards was enough to cause serious damage.”

“On the bright side of things,” Cruz joined into the conversation. “As you can see, after the captain announced that all of the outer gates got closed, everyone became a lot more friendlier.”

“I can see that,” Regis nodded. “We should get going though. We don’t have much time left in East Fork, so we better use it wisely.”

“You mean we better use it to rummage through the spell casters’ guild’s library.” Osmond chuckled quietly as he understood the meaning behind his companion’s words.

“Alright everyone, its time to get back to the guild!” Amanda raised her voice to get the others’ attention.

“You heard them,” Khan looked down at the dozen or so children that surrounded him. “That’s all for today.”

The children tried to protest, but the matter was settled, so they could only give up and leave.

“These brats just don’t know when to stop.”

“Brats,” Quentin turned towards his friend with his eyebrows raised. “I thought you loved telling stories to the kids back home.”

“I did,” the bladedancer defended himself post-haste. “And I still do, but we have things to do, right?”

“You can tell them the rest of the story tomorrow morning before the gathering.” the paladin patted his friend’s shoulder. “It’s high time we returned sir Derris.”

“Dinner won’t cook itself you know?” Valerie reminded the young bladedancer while pointing back at her brother’s direction.

After a few parting words with the local guards and the ones from Hunor, the outlander warband headed out in the direction of the north-eastern gate. Their silent march only lasted for a little while after they left the inner town.

“So,” Amanda looked at the new addition of their group. “I hope this wont come out as rude, but who exactly are you?”

“Oh,” the young woman looked at her slightly flustered. “My name is Mary and as you already know, I was one of the unfortunate people to arrive to the Shardlands through East Fork.”

“That much I gathered, but I’m curious about the rest of the story and you. You you don’t look like a fighter at all.”

“Because she isn’t,” Fabien spoke up. “Mary here is an artist. A sculptor to be precise.”

“Remember those stone figurines be found in the shack?” Sophie joined into the conversation. “Those were Mary’s practise works from before they got caught.”

“Those were yours?” Regis asked as he calmly eyed up the woman.

Mary seemed to be in her early twenties and was of an average height. Her light brown eyes and hair framed the somewhat squarish face that had a certain charm to it. There was not a single piece of armour covering her linen clothes. Just an ordinary looking young woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Your friends told me that you came across those before. Those were my first attempts at using earth magic and my sculpting skills. They weren’t exactly stellar looking.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Fabien said with an empathetic tone. “I’ve seen far worse since I came here.”

“Like those atrocious weapons and armour Amanda and Sophie patched together from whatever they could loot back in Hunor.” Valerie sighed.

“Hey.” The giant of a blacksmith harrumphed.

“I was just joking the love,” the infernal woman raised her hands in defence. “Anyway. As you heard, she’s not only an artist, but she also has a talent for magic. Sadly, she didn’t possess any combat-related spells, so she wasn’t able to defend herself against the mob.”

“Well,” Regis nodded absent-mindedly. “If there’s one thing the guild isn’t lacking, it’s books related to spells. You can check out the initiate and novice ranked earth element spell tomes if you want to.”

“I,” the young woman hesitated for a moment. “I’m not really fond of violence.”

“Neither am I,” Sophie chirped. “But you got to have at least some means of defending yourself. It doesn’t even have to be combat magic. Regis has a spell that allows him to raise condensed earth walls and another one to turn them into stone. I’m sure you can find one to use for defence or something.”

“Magic is all fine and dandy,” Khan added. “But nothing beats a fast and sharp blade.”

“Except a sturdy shield and a fireball in the face.” Valerie retorted.

“Looks like we’re almost there.” Quentin pointed out as the group neared Scholar’s Square.

“Already,” Cruz mumbled to herself. “Time sure goes faster and you have fun instead of having to fight for your life.”

“Stop being so dramatic,” Osmond sighed. “Today was dicey, but we got through it with flying colours.”

“And hopefully Fabien will make a proper celebratory feast to commemorate that!” Amanda raised her voice slightly as she looked at the infernal young man with a meaningful gaze.

“Okay, the storm knight relented. “I’ll do my best, but I make no promises.”

“If it’s about cooking,” Mary spoke up. “I could help. I was doing a chef's training on the side while I was going to art school.”

“Nice,” Khan patted his stomach in advance. “Now we have two professionals on the case.”

As they reached Scholar’s Square, the warband looked around to see if there were any new enemies shambling about. With no undead in sight, they walked over to the entrance of the guild where Regis opened up the barrier for them to enter. Mary was visibly surprised by the piles of arms and armour left in the lobby of the guild.

“You returned faster than I imagined you would.” The familiar aged voice of Derris resounded in the room is the old scholar appeared at the top of the stairs.

“And it seems you managed bring your companion back, with an addition.” The elderly man said as he looked at Letty and Mary.”

“Hello Sir.” They both spoke at nearly the same time.”

“We had a little trouble but the local mercenaries,” Quentin said as he watched Regis seal the entrance once again. “Fortunately captain Hyord and elder Jonah managed to hold their ground long enough for us to intervene. Let me introduce Letty and Mary.

“Welcome dears,” Derris greeted the two as he walked down the stairs. “Welcome to the spell caster’s guild of East Fork, such as it is in the current times.”

“Thank you.” They smiled at the friendly old scholar.

“I guess,” Fabien cleared his throat. “I’ll be heading over to the kitchen then.”

“You do that,” Regis nodded as he turned toward the stairs. “I have an unfinished business with a certain enchanting related book in the library.”

“And he most likely won’t show his face again today until someone drags him down to eat.” Valerie sighed as she watched the dark elf hurriedly walk up the stairs.

Regis moved with a swift rhythm, not stopping until he was standing in front of the entrance of the library. As he opened the door, he found the book he left on the table still sitting there, as if waiting for him. Not wanting to waste a moment, the dark elf sat down and pulled the book in front of himself. However just as he was about to begin reading, a thought occurred to him.The death of Zareef got him some Amaranth and it was likely enough to unlock the ‘endless tome’ path.

Regis relaxed his body while closing his eyes as he slipped into his meditative state. After the moment of familiar sense of falling passed, he opened his eyes and found himself in his soul-space once again. Without missing a beat he headed over to the spell caster pathway, walking to the end of it where the two floating crystals awaited him. As he touched the right one, the description from before flared up in his vision with glowing words.

{Tome keeper}

{A loremaster is a living library, carrying the knowledge of the past and the discoveries of the present with himself at all times. This feat grants you the ability and knowledge to craft an ‘endless’ tome. The endless tome is linked directly to your soul and your Shardwaker's mark and carries the memory of every book, note and scribble you ever read or wrote. The endless tome is a lifelong companion that is both enchantable and capable of developing its own unique abilities depending on its bounded keeper’s capabilities.}

{Cost: 2000 Amaranth}

{Do you wish to gain this feat?}

‘Yes.’ He answered in his mind that he felt a small flow of Arcana leave his body to fill the crystal that turned deep blue before it lowered itself down to become the first stepping stone for this branch of the path. A torrent of information filled his mind as the ability and knowledge necessary for the creation of the ‘endless’ tome was granted to him.

He immediately returned to the centre of his soul space and he sat back down to meditate in order to leave it. When he next opened his eyes, he was sitting on the bench, the book of novice ranked enchantments still in front of him. The dark elf turned toward his knapsack, rummaging through it in order to find the letter bound book of his own making. Once he found it, Regis opened the book before he pricked his finger, drawing several runes on the back of the cover that turned into an intricate formation never seen before.

Channelling is entire arcana reservoir into the formation made it glow up with a blood red flame that seemed to have formed soul deep connection between the tome and the spell weaver. Golden words flared to life in front of his eyes for a few seconds to tell him the obvious.

{You have forged a soul-bond between yourself and your chosen endless tome. You have gained the ‘tome keeper’ title.}

‘Okay, let’s see what all the fuss is about.’ Regis thought to himself as he cast charlatan’s wisdom on the closed book.

{Endless tome}

{Item rarity: unique}

{Item quality: ordinary}

{Soul-bound to: Regis}

{Durability: 100/100}

‘So far it’s nothing out of the ordinary.’ The dark elf noted, but his opinion quickly changed as he opened the book. The once empty first page now held a very familiar sight.

{Name: Regis ???}

{Title: Novice loremaster}

{Race: Dark elf/Sun elf/ Human}

{Age: 19}

{Amaranth: 1910}

{Caste: commoner}

{Path}

Novice Loremaster

Trainee fighter

{Craft}

Novice enchanter

Novice alchemist

{Attributes}

•Allure: 15

•Deftness: 20

•Erudition: 21

•Faith: 8

•Luck: 12

•Might: 19

•Mind: 26

•Physique: 21

•Spirit: 27

•Willpower: 27

Health/Arcana/Stamina

{55/55}{107/107}{54/54}

{Status effects}

None

‘Well, damn. I wasn’t expecting this.’ Regis admitted as he turned the next couple pages, finding his feats, skills, spell all recorded in the tome with the ledger of his kills and bonuses along the way. The rest of the book however was empty. He returned to the last page where there was and tried to follow his bestowed memories regarding the endless tome.

After thinking of the beginner’s enchanter booklet, Regis turned the pages once again, now finding the same exact booklet’s contents written there. ‘So this is how it works.’ The dark elf smiled as his mind was put at ease. With the matter of the endless tome somewhat settled, he decided to return to the more important matters. He pulled the novice ranked enchanter’s book in front of himself and continued reading on from where he stopped. Although these were only runes meant for common enchantments, the young spell weaver still couldn’t tear his gaze away from the book.

One of the first enchantments he read about was one that would keep a clothing or armour dry. Since the spell of lesser mending had the added effect of cleaning an item, it would make for an excellent pair with this rune. ‘This would have come in handy on the way here. Valerie will definitely want all of her stuff enchanted with this.’ He hummed. The next one was familiar as it was already taught to him by a fellow enchanter back in Hunor. The enchantment of inner extension was meant to enlarge the inner space of containers. He just liked to refer to it as the ‘bag of holding’ rune. His third find although supposedly a common rune, still proved to be invaluable. It was the universal attack value increasing enchantment.

With this he could strengthen any weapon, further increasing his own and his companions’ combat capabilities. Next, he read about an enchantment that meant to create a sort of short-range communication tool. ‘guess it’s not surprising that they have magic walkie-talkies.’ Regis mused to himself as he studied the diagram of the enchantment. Although the range of the enchantment was quite limited according to the description, it was still supposed to be usable in fifty metre distance even at the lowest grade.

The dark elf already had an idea of creating an earpiece similar to Earth’s hearing aids for everyone which he would enchant with this communication rune. That way they could keep up with each other better even if they scatter around places such as a market. The last set of runes detailed by the book was only referred to as the spell storage enchantment. It would allow the creation of wands with a single specific spell engraved into them. It certainly did sound useful for many reasons.

Not having to say the arcane chant for a spell every time would have already made it worth the time and coin for anyone with some talent in magic to invest in one of these. If nothing else, Regis could turn this into a new source of income. Then again, he could have turned any of the enchantments he learnt into a stable livelihood once things settled down on the continent. ‘I guess that’s all of it.’ He sighed. ‘I should head upstairs and unlock the third floor of the library. The uncommon enchantments should be there.’ After making the decision, the young spell weaver closed the book before heading up the stairs toward the next floor of the library.