“Yep,” the dark elf nodded. “It’s a bloodstone alright, although the lowest quality.”

“And we’re almost out of fish blood. There’s about one more stone’s worth of it left.”

“That’s still more than what I started with, so thanks!”

“You’re welcome.” The infernal woman smiled before they began to create the second bloodstone.

While they finished up, the rest of the group made their temporary camp a bit cosier while switching guards every so often.

“Hey Regis,” Amanda called out to the spell weaver while unpacking some of their luggage. “What’s with these boxes?”

The dark elf looked at the leather belt sealed wooden cases he made back in East Fork with a slight sense of pride.

“The one with the quill logo is my scribe gear while the one with the vial and flower is a traveling alchemist kit.” He explained, earning the attention of the group.

“Is this for me?” Letty muttered as the blacksmith passed over the sealed case so that she could open it. “Thank you! It has everything I’d need to make some potions if we use up our supplies.”

“That was the point,” Regis nodded. “Even if we get to settle down, it will take some time before we’ll have the facilities needed to keep us going. This way at least you’ll be able to tinker away.”

“You mean after she gets to set up a herbarium,” Osmond pointed out the important detail. “She’ll need ingredients too.”

“That won’t be too hard,” Letty said with a confident smile. “I gathered a lot of seeds and roots from the dried plants of the spell casters’ guild in East Fork. Once I plant those, my growth-boosting spell should be able to make them harvestable in a few days.”

“Mind if I take a look at those?” The dark elf inquired, earning a slight nod before Letty began to rummage through her knapsack, only to pull out several small pouches.

Regis took a piece from several of the pouches and cast charlatan’s wisdom on them.

{Lifeless Bloodroot Seed}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: waste}

{Seed}

{The dried out and dead seed of a Bloodroot flower. It can be planted, but it will likely never grow into anything when planted into the ground.}

{Lifeless Burdock Root}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: waste}

{Root}

{The dried out and dead root of a Burdock flower. It can be planted, but it will likely never grow into anything when planted into the ground.}

{Lifeless Chamomile Seed}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: waste}

{Seed}

{The dried out and dead seed of a Chamomile flower. It can be planted, but it will likely never grow into anything when planted into the ground.}

{Lifeless Lavender Seed}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: waste}

{Seed}

{The dried out and dead seed of a Lavender flower. It can be planted, but it will likely never grow into anything when planted into the ground.}

{Lifeless Man-root Root}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: waste}

{Root}

{The dried out and dead root of a Man-root plant. It can be planted, but it will likely never grow into anything when planted into the ground.}

“I hate to be a downer Letty,” Regis sighed after reading the description of the roots and seeds. “But these are all lifeless ‘waste’ quality stuff.”

“What does that mean?” She looked at him slightly confused.

“It means that they will likely never sprout, but even if they do, they would only grow to be the lowest quality plants.”

“Oh,” the wood elf lowered her gaze. “I see. In that case, I should spread them around here and try to collect fresh ones when I see them.”

“Or you can leave them with me and I’ll fix them up for you.”

“You can do that?” Valerie asked baffled by his words. “How?”

“The same way I turned that pouch’s worth of ‘lifeless’ Landwaker seeds into proper seedlings.”

“Transmutation alchemy.” Osmond deduced, earning a slight nod from the dark elf.

“It’s kind of like a match three or five type of game. I can fuse three lifeless seeds into one that can actually sprout and then fuse five of those into a higher quality one.”

“That thing is simply broken as fuck.” Cruz sighed as she listened to his simplified explanation of the rare alchemy branch skill.

“Wouldn’t that turn those full pouches into barely a couple of seeds?” Sophie looked at the leather bundles that were smaller than her fist.

“Having even a single higher quality root or seed is good enough,” Fabien noted. “Once the plants grow, she could just harvest their roots and seeds to get more.”

“And then repeat the cycle to get a bunch of high-quality plantable stuff.” Amanda finished their train of thought.

“I can do that,” Letty agreed as she entrusted her seed pouches to the dark elf. “I can help the rest of you practice the growth-boosting spell. I managed to collect some berries and flowers while foraging.”

“We can do that after dinner,” Quentin spoke up finally. “For now, you should just rest up a bit. It was quite a walk after all.”

“You do that,” the dark elf said as he walked over to his cleared and flattened work area. “I’ll start fusing the seeds to get a head start.”

“Workaholic.” Cruz shrugged as she lay down on her bedroll, along with some of the others.

Regis sat down and formed the ward of the familiar transmutation circle on the ground before grabbing one of the seed pouches. ‘It’s fusion time.’ He thought to himself with a chuckle as he began to fuse the trio of seeds to create plantable ones. After the contents of the first pouch shrunk to one-third of their original, he continued by fusing them together in batches of five to get higher quality seeds. By the time dinner was ready, he had only a couple of tiny roots and seeds from each of the pouches, but the descriptions revealed by the charlatan’s wisdom more than made up for their numbers and the effort he put into them.

{Bloodroot Seed}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: decent}

{Plantable Seed}

{The plantable seed of a Bloodroot flower. When planted into the ground, it will slowly grow into a ‘decent’ quality Bloodroot flower.}

{Burdock Root}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: decent}

{Plantable Root}

{The plantable root of a Burdock flower. When planted into the ground, it will slowly grow into a ‘decent’ quality Burdock flower.}

{Chamomile Seed}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: decent}

{Plantable Seed}

{The plantable seed of a Chamomile flower. When planted into the ground, it will slowly grow into a ‘decent’ quality Chamomile flower.}

{Lavender Seed}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: decent}

{Plantable Seed}

{The plantable seed of a Lavender flower. When planted into the ground, it will slowly grow into a ‘decent’ quality Lavender flower.}

{Man-root Root}

{Item rarity: common}

{Item quality: decent}

{Plantable Root}

{The plantable root of a Man-root plant. When planted into the ground, it will slowly grow into a ‘decent’ quality Man-root plant.}

“Damn I’m good.” Regis said with a proud smirk as he stashed the handful of roots and seeds into a single pouch, giving it back to Letty.

“You’re done already?” She asked surprised as she weighed the pouch in her hand.

“I am, although there’s only three or four left from each at best. They are all ‘decent’ quality though.”

“Thank you,” the wood elf nodded slightly as she put the pouch into her knapsack. “I’ll put these to good use once I’ll have the time and space to set up my herbarium.”

“Alright you two,” Valerie rolled her eyes. “Come and eat!”

The dark elf accepted the bowl of steaming fish soup, taking a whiff as his gaze turned distant.

“Is something wrong?” Mary asked as she watched his reaction. “Don’t you like it?”

“I do,” Regis nodded as he blew some air on the hot food. “It just reminded me of Bray. He also made fish soup for us back in Hunor.”

“Bray?”

“An old man he camped out with in the sewers.” Fabien explained briefly.

“I wonder how he’s doing now. I figured that after we settle down I’ll bring him over,” the young spell weaver mused. “He could tinker away at his potteries all day long without anyone bothering him.”

“That sounds nice,” Amanda agreed. “I’m sure he’d like that.”

“Yeah. Anyway; thanks for the food,” Regis said as he shoveled down the still hot food without even breaking a sweat or something. “I still have the Landwaker seeds to take care of before it gets too late, so I better get to it.”

“You really are a workaholic, you know?” Quentin sighed as he watched their companion head back to his corner of the camp.

The dark elf had to admit that he liked keeping himself busy, so he did just that. He fished out the pouch of prismatic seeds and began to fuse them in batches of five to push the quality of their future tree to the maximum. The resistance he felt from the seeds and the drain on his arcana increased with each round, the last one blasting him back with a force strong enough to make him fall onto his back.

“Regis!” The others practically yelled as they rushed over after seeing the events unfold, afraid that a failed attempt hurt him.

“I’m fine,” the young spell weaver sat up as he watched a small globe of light float above the fading transmutation circle as if draining its leftover energy. “I think I did it.”

He crawled closer and reached out toward the small light bubble that popped just as his hand got beneath it. A faintly glowing gemstone-like seed the size of a chestnut fell into his opened palm and he couldn’t stop himself from using charlatan’s wisdom on it. The bright green description made him smile from ear to ear.

{Prismatic Landwaker Seed}

{Seed rarity: rare}

{Seed quality: decent}

{Plantable Seed}

{The seed of a Prismatic Landwaker’s fruit. It can be chewed on as is to regain 35 points of arcana and health. Alchemists and brewers can also use these seeds in their craft. When planted into the ground, it will slowly grow into a ‘decent’ quality Prismatic Landwaker tree.}

“A decent quality seed,” Regis noted as he wiped the blood from beneath his nose. “I guess green is as far as I can go with mystical plants for the moment.”

“That’s still awesome,” Valerie helped her onto his feet. “It should help us get a head start and you said that it can be upgraded later on, right?”

“If I remember the notes of that book correctly,” Osmond hummed as he looked at the gemstone-like seed. “We would either have to offer it a bunch of arcanite stones or use a nurturing elixir.”

“And we have a certain dark elf that could make the first option possible.” Quentin reminded the group.

“Didn’t we also get that nurturing elixir’s formula from that monolith thing?” Mary asked after recalling it being mentioned earlier.

“We did,” Letty sighed. “But I’m nowhere near that level yet and it will take quite some time to get there.”

“It doesn’t really matter for now,” Fabien shook his head. “If I remember right, the Landwaker in Hunor was only said to be an ‘ordinary’ grade tree and it didn’t have any special effects.”

“The one in East Fork was the same.” Letty noted.

“And we’ll already start with a tree that’s one grade higher than theirs,” Osmond nodded approvingly as he looked at the seed. “And it’s a prismatic seed to boot.”

“Now that you mention it,” Quentin took a closer at their precious treasure. “What’s that all about?”

“Landwaker trees are separated into different categories,” the pale youth began to explain the subject. “Traitless ones only bear fruits that can satiate your hunger. They’re good for feeding the population if needed, but that and their magic Wi-Fi are their only use. Some Landwaker trees have special traits like ‘bountiful’ that make them grow a lot more fruits or ‘healing’ that gives a slight healing effect after eating their fruits.”

“Prismatic Landwaker trees have all the best traits,” Regis cut his companion’s long-winded explanation short. “They can help regenerate your arcana, health, and stamina as well.”

“So they’re the OP as fuck category of the Landwaker family.” Cruz concluded the speech.

“And that’s why no one can find out about this until we’re strong enough to protect the tree.” Valerie said as she reached out to close the dark elf’s fingers around the gemstone-like seed.

“She’s right,” the paladin agreed. “The people of these lands waged wars for the Landwakers before and they would gladly do so again if needed.”

“Just another reason for us to settle down in a place far from all the prying eyes.” Fabien sighed as he sat down.“So now that the fun part is over,” Amanda cleared her throat. “Who’s going first for guard duty?”

“I will.” Quentin offered immediately.

“I’ll go second,” Regis joined into the list. “I still need to make some TP, along with some other stuff, but after that, I can sit around to watch.”

“And maybe practice that growth boost spell while you’re at it,” Osmond reminded his friend. “You shouldn’t skip on that.

“Sure.” The spell weaver nodded as he grabbed some wood and the bowl of fish guts.

“I thought you were just joking when you said that he could make toilet paper.” He could hear Mary whisper to one of the girls while returning to his transmutation area.

The process of toilet paper making took up the better part of half an hour, but once he was done, he could put aside a large stack of soft paper to make space for his second project. Regis used the remainder of the fish glue he made from the guts and some more wood to create a stack of slightly coarse paper he then used along with a couple of bronze coins, linen, and leather to craft a simple leather-bound book. The book had bronze corner protectors, but no locks or clasps to keep it sealed. With the day’s transmutation and enchanting plans done, he walked over to his paroling companion and tapped him on the shoulder.

“I’ll take it over from here,” he said to the paladin. “Go and get some sleep.”

“Are you sure?” Quentin asked surprised. “It hasn’t even been two hours.”

“It’s fine. Go on.”

“Thanks.” The man nodded before heading over to his bedroll, falling asleep in barely a minute or two.