The several days were quite simir, starting off with a bit of practid then taking some time to try to help out around the city. Practice sessio much more smoothly now that they were fog more on safety than anything else, though it did mean they didn’t learn as quickly as they could have otherwise. Not being injured again was quite nice, however.

  The requests across the city were rather varied, so they didn’t bee to. One of the bcksmiths had wao have a new magical blower created so they could quit using manual effort there, and a sed one wanted help with upgrading their steam-hammer to be powered by magic as well. Both of these tasks required very simple enting, which was quite easy to do in a few moments, and paid well.

  One of the stores had wao set up air ditioning, which was an iing task. Niphru had to set up a way for air to be blown through an evaporation chamber before it passed through a series of pipes that led to vents to spread the cooler air through the building. An inn had a simir request, though it was much more eventful.

  Instead of being the only one w on it, it appeared that a water mage was also present, and they were skilled enough to see through his illusion. It was quite fortuhat they were curious about a fox wearing a harness and didn’t immediately cause a se. Ohey were left aloo work on the cooling system, however, the woman had immediately beguioning him.

  Amusingly, one of her questions had been if he even was a fox, or if he just looked like one. Apparently, she had also e from a vilge, and was told about how foxes always ended up as monsters if they survived for long. And clearly, a monster would not be wandering around in a city as a mage trying to help people.

  All in all, it was a much better iion than he had feared would occur wheing someone unaware of him without anyone else to support him. In the end, she had even decided to try to visit his spire and see if she could meet Dawn as well, being curious about the link he had mentioned having.

  That was about the extent of the excitement until Lisryn had met the group again one evening. Once everyone had gathered together, she began to describe what she had been busy with, “It turned out the king had something he wao speak with the Church of flict about. The lord of one of the towns is apparently refusing to do his duties and serve his people. He wouldn’t even allow reports of the problems his people were fag to be sent to the capital.”

  She shook her head before tinuing, “One of the children who helped maintain the messenger outpost was friends with another in a vilge, and the two of them seers to each other. Eventually, it became clear that nothing was going to be done, so they worked together to send a message against the lord’s will, leading to the kiually learning about the situation.”

  When asked what was going on to cause a problem, Lisryn replied, “It seems that along oretch of the wilds, a rge number of twisted beasts have begun appearing, almost half a dozen times the normal amount, and they are pushing out of the forest. Some quiunication revealed that two other lords are having issues with vilges they trol, but they had immediately acted to protect them, and were waiting to see if they needed help before sending any messages to the capital.”

  There was naturally a question of why the Church of flict would want to help sidering that this was quite a bit of flict that they would be stopping, but her response made quite a bit of sense. Lisryn expined, “If the vilges aually town fall to the beasts, that is quite a bit of flict, but then there is no more until the capital pushes back to try to recim the nd. If we keep the vilges safe, there is tinued flict, and it will likely lead to more people w against the wilds, leading to even more. This allows us to focus on the main source, while the king’s men remove the lord who is refusing to perform his duties.”

  Lisryn also offered to allow them to join in with one of the groups, and, after a little discussion, they all agreed. It turned out she had already informed the high mages, and several roups were going to join in as well. Unfortunately, retions were still strained, and each group would include at least one high mage to watch over those who chose to join.

  Three vilges at risk, with one group to guard and one group to hu six groups could join in, though only two had decided to go so far. While she wao leave immediately, when she heard that they would be getting rewards for their prior adveo the wilds, she agreed to wait a few more days. That said, she wasn’t willing to slow down the effort, and decred that the people from the church were already on their way before she had even headed to the spire to meet their group.

  Sihey were expeg to spend a siderable amount of time in the forest, there was a good amount of discussion as to what they should bring. This time, they wouldn’t be staying in a camp maintained by high mages, so they o be certain they brought everything they might need. That said, however, they would be w with a vilge this time, so they could rely on them for some things like food and basic tools.

  The several days saw many trips being made to the store at the base of the spire, as more and more things came to mind as time passed.

  Finally, the day came for them to receive their rewards, and everyone waited for Morris to join them. Before he could fet, Niphru mentiohat he needed a sigil to be able to reach the training rooms like the others could, leading to Morris spping his head in annoyance before removing his sigil and tossing it over.

  Ohat was taken care of, Morris began listing off the things they had aplished during their expedition, puttira emphasis on how Lisryn’s guards had saved multiple lives, and they were only present because their group had chosen to allow Lisryn to join them. In the end, it was decided that their group had been the only reason there hadn’t been at least a dozehs in the chaos when the camp was attacked. Due to this, each person in their group had been granted a personalized award.

  For Niphru, it was a harness made of leather from a twisted bear, with an ented symbol of the spires, clearly dispying that he was a member who was reized by them. It also possessed several mana stones with funs he couldn’t identify at a gnce held at the interses between different straps. Unlike his current ohis harness also had several anchor points that could be used to attach equipment without having to fit it into a bag. Additionally, it was able to hold more pouches with it than with the current one. O was handed over, he slipped from his old one and began transferring things across as Morris moved on.

  For Thomas, there was a scepter with multiple mana stones embedded within it, as well as a book. The book was a colle of notes by several generalist mages, while the scepter was desigo assist in the casting of all basic elemental spells, as well as serve as a rechargeable ste for mana.

  For Viera, there was a aff of gleaming white bone, along with two books written by masters of light magibsp; Amusingly—to Dawn and Niphru at least—one of them was written by Dawn’s mother.

  Richard got an unusual reward, a box full of bdes, each made of polished bone, with slots for tiny mana crystals on each.

  Meanwhile, Miana received a bulky bag that sloshed with water. Apparently, it tained multiple entments to deer from the air, as well as being incredibly durable, being desigo highly pressurize water before it was allowed to escape, if it wasn’t fully opened instead. Additionally, she got a tainer with built-in bellows, designed for spreading fmmable material into a fine spray.

  Dawn was given a book from a grand mage who specialized in fire, as well as another book about magic desigo i with Awakened, apparently co-written by a dozen mages, rather than just one or two.

  Lisryn, however, was the odd o, not receiving anything. This was expined immediately, before anyone could even begin to question it. It was determihat all they could give her could be matched by what she could demand from the Church of flibsp; The ohing they could do better, however, was work on her reputation.

  It appeared that the mages they had been together with had been tasked with spreading the story of what had happened, with the high mages ensuring it did not get twisted ielling. Thanks to this, many were ging their minds about the value of w with the Church of flict, as several had thought they would be turned on as soon as they showed weakness.

  Once everything had been given out and expined, Lisryn promptly began pushing for everyoo get ready to go, with Morris stating they could leave in the m, but that everyone needed rest first.