A/N
For personal reasons, I will not be posting new chapters for about a week or two. I just want you let you know so you know that I haven't just disappeared.
... Yet
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Lizzie Bareare hummed a catchy tune as she observed the potion she was manufacturing. She was currently in an excellent mood.
As Lizzie had completed making the potions that were requested of her today, she was allowed to use the facilities in Silver Castle to experiment with making new potions. While she hadn't had any success creating the legendary 'god's blood' potion, she was making progress in her research of other potions.
Suddenly, she heard the door open behind her.
"Granny, I'm back"
"Ah, welcome back, Nfirea, how did it go?"
"Excellent as usual, I found lots of rare herbs and a few new ones that look promising."
"That's good, put them into the storehouse for now, I'll check on them later."
As Nfirea left, Lizzie turned back to her experiment."
When she first arrived here, Lizzie was surprised to see all of the different types of tools in the laboratory. Thankfully, the resident apothecary, although he insisted he was called an alchemist, was able to explain how all of them worked and what they were for. The instruments were quite useful to Lizzie once she learned how to use them.
For some reason, the mistress of the castle refused to let Lizzie use the ingredients they supposedly had in storage, and instead told her to use the herbs that grew on the castle grounds. While there were a great variety of them, Lizzie was unfamiliar with most of them and she preferred to use wild herbs. Therefore, Lizzie requested that someone escort Nfirea to the Great Forest of Tob to gather ingredients. Serenity accepted this request and ordered Black Belt to do so. She lent him several golem warriors to assist him.
From what Lizzie heard, on their first expedition into the forest, they encountered the legendary Wise King of the Forest. Black Belt ended up fighting and defeating it, and the beast begged him to spare its life, offering its loyalty. Black Belt agreed to spare the beast if it helped Nfirea gather herbs, so the expedition was very successful. The beast offered to follow Black Belt wherever he went, but Black Belt told it to stay in the forest and guard its territory, He also ordered it to spare any humans that did not attack it. Ever since then, whenever Nfirea went to gather herbs from the forest, they were able to safely explore a large area and find many herbs. Lately, Serenity even agreed to loan them golems to help transport the herbs, allowing them to gather more each trip. She also arranged to have a storehouse built for them to store all of their materials.
For some time now, Lizzie had been experimenting with several new ingredients, both harvested by Nfirea and grown at the castle, to make new potions. She already had some success, such as an elixir that cured most poisons and a herb potion that worked much faster than the usual herb potion. However, she knew that there was still much more that she could discover.
Lizzie was truly glad she was able to stay at Silver Castle. Not only did she have access to much more materials and better equipment, but also the lodgings and food were excellent.
Lizzie looked at the thick, yellow potion that she had created. She would have to conduct an experiment with the test animals to see how it worked. Once that was finished, she planned to inspect the herbs Nfirea gathered.
XXX
Merlin and his group stayed in Arwintar for three more days before leaving for Silver Castle. During that time, they were left to their own devices as they explored the city. Before leaving, Merlin went to the north market to buy some items while Larry went to say goodbye to a new acquaintance. Once they were ready, Merlin transported them back to Silver Castle with Greater Teleportation.
Upon arriving, Merlin went to deliver his report to Serenity while the others relaxed. He reported that the scrying spells from Arwintar were likely cast by Fluder Paradyne or his students. Now that they had a treaty, they were likely to stop.
Serenity informed Merlin of the recent events at Silver Castle. He was particularly surprised to learn about the golems. After they finished exchanging information, Merlin went to his room to take a well-earned nap.
XXX
Curly walked through the newly paved streets of Silver Town. It had been three days since he returned from Arwintar. Beside him, he saw stone golems and dirt golems working together to build houses. The stone golems did the heavy lifting while the dirt golems handled precise tasks. The plan was to rent these houses out to visitors and convert the second floor of the shop into more store area. The wood used for the construction was harvested from the Great Forest of Tob and the stone taken from a nearby quarry. Serenity had obtained rights to gather these resources during a negotiation with officials from the Re-Estize Kingdom.
The town was developing quite quickly. In addition, they were expecting new residents. A message from E-Rantel, carried by a trader, was sent to Silver Castle. The former villagers from Carne Village had heard about the development of Silver Town and many wished to move here. They were having a hard time earning a living in E-Rantel and wished for a better life. Black Belt was sent to escort them back here. He had been assigned many golems for this mission. Serenity intended to have the villagers work as supervisors for the golems working in the field. If all went as predicted, they would arrive before nightfall and could start learning their jobs the next day.
While there was currently plenty of land to cultivate, as more golems were created, Royal Order would need more land for farming. Serenity planned to negotiate with nearby land holders to rent suitable land in exchange for a portion of the harvest.
As an unexpected bonus, the taming of the Wise King of the Forest meant Royal Order now effectively controlled its territory. No one from the Re-Estize Kingdom claimed ownership of the forest, so they would not contest Royal Order's claim. The forest was a treasure trove of herbs, plants, and other resources, but it seemed other creatures that lay claim their own section of the forest as well. For now, Royal Order only gathered resources from the Wise King's territory, which covered the southern quarter of the forest. At the moment, this was more than sufficient for their needs.
From what Curly had heard from Miranda, Royal Order had performed several experiments with golems while the five adventurers were away. Based on the results of these experiments, Serenity decided to focus on creating stone and wood golems. She would have preferred to create more iron golems, but there wasn't enough available iron to do so.
Curly eventually reached the edge of the construction zone. Unexpectedly, he suddenly felt like eating something. Although his ring he wore removed his need for food, he would sometimes feel the desire to eat. As he started to head back, he hoped that the restaurant in the store would be open today.
XXX
Serenity looked at the newly formed wood golems in front of her. She had exhausted almost all of her mana creating them all morning. She would need to recover before she could make more. With a simple command, the golems started marching toward their assigned field. Now, Serenity could focus on her next task. Right now, she had to make a decision.
Serenity intended to send emissaries to the other countries in this world. She had initially considered splitting Merlin's party in order to do so faster, but after some consideration decided to keep them together. At the moment, she was thinking of sending them to either the Slaine Theocracy, the Dwarven Kingdom in the Azellisa Mountain Range, a group of demihuman tribes in the north, or a group of Lizardmen Villages she had found in a nearby lake, north of the Great Forest of Tob. The Agrand Council Alliance, Roble Holy Kingdom, Dragonic Kingdom, and other areas were set at a lower priority as they were farther away. The question was which of these four places she should contact first. What benefits would each area likely have and what risks would likely be present?
Deep in thought, Serenity gazed at the golems working on the castle grounds. After a few minutes watching them, she made her decision.
XXX
Two days later, the five adventurers left Silver Castle to begin another journey.
XXX
Yes, ending there is evil. All I can say is:
BWAHAHAHAHA
Enjoy the wait