Regis found Quentin talking to some of the villagers while Amanda and Sophie were busy cleaning their home.

“Hey,” the tall blacksmith called out to him. “Do you have some free time to spare?”

“Sure,” the young spell weaver sighed as he walked over. “What do you need?”

“Now that the forge had been upgraded and the others brought back some materials, I wanted to start working. Could you fix up those walls you promised?”

“I’ll see what I can do.” He nodded as he began to conjure the condensed earth walls into place.

Amanda tried her best to point out where she wanted the walls to start and end, as well as the places she wanted some space left for the windows. In ten or so minutes the walls were in place and hardened to stone, only needing a roof over them.

“Thank you,” she said with a lively tone as she looked around in her half-finished workshop. “Now I just have to bring over my tools and the work can finally begin.”

“Do you have enough materials?”

“We do,” Sophie chirped with a sunny smile as she brought in a small wooden box filled with tools and components. “Valerie made sure that they’d bring back everything we left there. These should keep us going for a while, but we will have to find a stable material source sooner or later.”

“Hopefully we’ll be able to form a trade pact or something with the merchants’ guild once things settle down a bit. Anyway, I should get going.”

“Sure,” they nodded. “And thanks for the help.”

Regis left the smithy, making his way back to the inn where he found Fabien and Mary busy as always.

“Hey there,” Mary spoke up first. “Are you hungry?”

“A bit”, the dark elf admitted. “I just got back from my home-building tour.”

“Lunch is still a bit away, but Cruz brought back some baked goods from East Fork. You could have one if you’d like.

“Fresh baked goods,” the spell weaver mumbled as he walked over to the kitchen. “I won’t say no to that.”

“Here.” Fabien held out a small woven basket half filled with what seemed to be oven-baked buns.

“Thanks,” Regis grabbed one, only to find roughly cut apples inside it after taking a bite. “Oh damn, this is good.”

“I know, right? It tastes ridiculously good, even though it’s a simple recipe.”

“I can’t wait for us to have our own bakery with all the fluffy stuff they could bake.” Mary said with a wishful look in her eyes.

“We’ll have to find a place to build a new one since a certain fellow demolished the previous one.”

“It was pretty much just an oven in a shed,” Regis argued. “That doesn’t count as a bakery. And besides, it was in the way. Now the road is clear and wide enough for proper travel.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Anyway. Our wheat patch is still growing, but it should be ready for harvest in a day or so,” the infernal youth reminded her. “That is if someone has the time to spam ‘growth boost’ on it.”

“We would also need a mill to grind it to flour.”

“I could use my transmutation alchemy for that until we have a proper mill,” Regis offered. “I’m more worried about getting yeast and stuff like that.”

“We could make a sourdough starter.” Mary stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

“I’m not a baker, so I’ll leave the kitchen magic to you two. Thanks for the food by the way.” He said as he took a second bun, heading back out.

“Where are you going?”

“The outer wall still needs to be built.” The short answer came as he left towards the village gate.

Once he reached the unfinished wall out on the field, he began to cast his ‘terraform’ spell to raise the next section of the wall into place before hardening it into granite. Hours went by with the monotone cycle of conjuring, hardening and meditating, the sun rising high above him before he stopped due to a friendly voice.

“This thing looks impressive,” Valerie noted as she walked closer with what seemed to be a picnic basket. “I brought you something to eat since you didn’t come back for lunch.”

“Sorry about that,” the dark elf sighed as he looked at his work. “I kind of zoned out during work.”

“You tend to do that,” the infernal woman chuckled. “So, I talked with the new arrivals. They seem nice, or at least most of them do. That Harrow is a sexist asshole though.”

“Harrow?” The spell weaver asked, not having a single clue as to who that was.

“He’s supposed a tanner or butcher or something. I’m not quite sure why we need someone like him, when you can turn animal hides into leather with your transmutation alchemy in seconds.”

“Probably because I can’t always do that. It’s better to have proper alternatives.”

“He’s still an asshole though. The guy had the nerve to call me a horned wench and he even tried to...”

“He tried to do what?”

“Slap my ass,” Valerie mumbled with a barely audible voice as her already reddish face turned a shade redder. Can you believe he tried to hit on me so openly?”

“You can’t blame the man,” Regis chuckled. “After all, you are a pretty woman.”

“Thanks,” she smiled at the compliment while opening the basket. “Anyway, Fabien made you a couple of sandwiches and sent over some tea-like stuff as well, so eat up.”

“Are we well off enough now for sandwiches?” He asked before taking a bite of the first one he grabbed.

“East Fork got back onto its feet quite nicely since the last time we’ve been there. They even got the bakeries going, so we can hop on over to buy bread whenever we need. Of course, it's not cheap.”

“How much?”

“Five bronze,” Valerie sighed. “From what I’ve been told, it’s quite expensive compared to the original price before the war. Back then it only cost two bronze.”

“It’s not like we can’t afford it, although having our bakery would be better.”

“That’s what Mary said as well. I should get going though,” she sighed as she picked up the now-empty basket. “There’s plenty to do and you too have your work cut out for you. Just don’t forget to come home for dinner. We're having ratatouille tonight.”

“Sounds good.” Regis nodded as he stuffed down the last bites of his sandwich.

As the infernal woman left, the dark elf returned to his work, building a near hundred meters long wall section before the sun finally left the sky. ‘It looks like my skills are rising quite fast due to all this work.’ He thought as he looked at the lengthy section he managed to build. On the way back to the village, he noticed Letty walking towards him.

“Did you come to drag me back?” He asked with a smile, earning a nod from the wood elf.

“It was getting late and Val was afraid that you got too into work again to notice it.”

“I managed to stop in time,” Regis remarked. “I appreciate the effort though. And the company.”

His words earned him a slight blush from the girl as they headed towards the village.

“So, how was your day with Lunet?” The dark elf changed the subject adeptly.

“She’s just the sweetest thing,” Letty beamed with happiness. “She was shy at first, but she let up as soon as I made a small flower bloom in front of her. From then on, she pretty much stuck to me like glue, following me and learning whatever I told her about.”

“How good is she with magic?”

“She’s very talented,” the wood elf praised. “And she’s diligent and smart too. I only had to show her the ‘growth boost’ spell a couple of times before she managed to cast it on her own. I also taught her how to meditate as well. If she practices and studies properly, she could become an excellent spell caster in the future.”

“I see. And what about you? How’s your druid class coming along?”

“I’m almost there," she claimed. "My attributes are already at the required stage, I just need to get my spells and skills a bit higher. If I keep working with the crops and herbs then I should be able to tier up in three or four days.”

“That’s great,” Regis remarked with a smile. “Do you need anything special for the tier-up process? Any material component?”

“Actually,” Letty mumbled as she gazed down a bit. “I need your help to do it.”

“My help? I’m not a druid, so how...”

“It’s your transmutation alchemy,” she cut into his words with surprising boldness. “There are two paths a druid can take. The path of the forest would make me a druid who’s specializing in plant manipulation while the path of the beast would allow me to bind and control beasts as well as to shape-shift.”

“And I guess you want to specialize in plants.” He remarked.

“Yes,” Letty nodded. “There’s one important component in both paths’ start. I need a guardian companion. For a beast druid, it would mean that they’d have to form a pact with a strong animal to make them their companions.”

“And for a forest druid?”

“I would have to grow a plant of my own choice and turn it into a dryad of sorts.”

“You’re shitting me, right?”

“You can read the book back in East Fork if you don’t believe me.” Letty defended herself.

“I believe you, it just sounds weird. So what kind of plant do you want to grow?”

“I still haven’t decided yet, but I do have two candidates. A ruby-thorned rose tree would make for an excellent guardian which could tank a lot of physical damage for me and ensnare my enemies. The gold dew willow would be less effective at protecting me, but it’s supposed to have incredible healing and spell protection abilities.”

“Sounds like a tough choice. So where do I come in?”

“I found a pouch of seeds for each tree back at the spellcasters’ guild, but...”

“You want me to fuse them together into a higher-grade seed for you?” “Yes,” she nodded enthusiastically. “There are ways to strengthen my guardian later on, but the better the quality of the seed, the stronger it will be right from the start.”

“With my current capabilities, I’m only able to create a ‘decent’ quality seed for you.”

“That should be more than enough for now,” Letty claimed as they entered the village. “I also brought back a lot of other seeds with me from East Fork. Do you think you could fuse those as well?”

“Sure. How are the ones I transmuted before we got to Thorn Vale?”

“I didn’t have time to harvest them today, but I planned to show them to Lunet in the morning. I should be able to get the seeds and roots from those as well.”

“Tell you what,” the spell weaver hummed as they neared the inn. “How about you pick a place for your greenhouse tomorrow and I start working on that? You could plant your new batch of herbs there.”

“That would be great,” the wood elf chirped with a beaming smile. “Once I harvest the herbs tomorrow, I could finally begin making potions again. Elder Derris told me that East Fork is in dire need of simple healing potions and antidotes.”

“We could use the extra money and I’m sure that the army guys would be more than willing to buy any available surplus as well.”

“You two sure took your sweet time getting here.” Cruz remarked as they entered the inn.

“Letty told me about her first day with her little apprentice,” Regis said as the two made their way to the large dining table where he also found Bray sitting among the outlanders. “I’m glad to see you decided to join us too gramps.”

“While I enjoy cooking for myself, young Mary’s soup smelled far too good to say no.” The old potter noted while receiving a bowl of said soup.

“I take it our new villagers are settling in nicely?” The dark elf inquired.

“Mostly,” Quentin answered. “Jody almost immediately began to work on the wooden beams for the homes you built for the farmers, but they’ll have to live in one of the other houses until then.”

“Harrow and Durnan went out to see if they could find anything to hunt,” Amanda added. “They came back with a wild boar.”

“Durnan?”

“The dwarf arbelist.” Sophie explained.

“Did you check the boar for any corruption?”

“Yes,” the paladin nodded. “It was clean. Durnan said that the forest seems to be teeming with wildlife beyond the scarred trees.”

“Well, we do have a lot of meadow and forest ground surrounding us which should be able to provide some game to hunt.”

“The boar meat sure is welcome,” Fabien noted. “We could make a lot of food out of it.”

“And it will also bring some variety into our diet,” Mary added. “We can’t keep feeding vegetables to the people forever.”

“Hopefully, we’ll have the farm up and running soon enough and get some livestock from the other settlements.”

“Here’s to that.” Osmond said as he raised his mug into the air. The others followed his example, knocking the mugs filled with the tea-like brew together.

The rest of the dinner passed by in a good mood, small talk filling the air. When it was over, the young spell weaver headed over to the communal bathroom to wash down before returning to his room. Regis decided to spend some time preparing for the next day’s building project by growing clear quartz clusters.

This time, instead of forming thumb-sized pieces, he let his spell grow a single large stone that was a bit larger than an energy drink can. He spent about two hours with the monotone process of quartz growing and meditation, filling a small burlap sack with the stones before ending the day with some much-needed sleep. The morning after, Regis woke up early, dressing up and eating some leftovers for breakfast while waiting for the others.