“Yeah.. And not just that, lord Desmond has joined lord Parcival in Dreaded lands and they have joined their forces of 600 and 1000 pathfinders all marching at the border to strengthen Lady Vidalia’s forces against Ashenvale dogs.” Said one soldier dressed in Eldian colors while eating lunch.
“The city knights are cut in half Vedar from the cooking shift said so, I did not expect for them to call upon knight guards..” Replied another soldier sitting among his friends.
“Why do you think they are responsible for the city’s security..? They are one of the best warriors of the kingdom, most of them are second rankers and some even high leveled ones too..” Added another Eldoris soldier.
Damian and Sam had been living with these Eldoris soldiers for a week now, and the information from all over the camp was discussed over the lunch and dinner table every day. Mostly news and rumors about which lord had contributed how many soldiers and pathfinders and who was going to ride to battle but once in a while some good tidbits were also heard.
Just like now, Damian knew about Lady Vidalia of house Eldian. The fierce knight commander of the Eldoris queen’s guard. She was the daughter of the previous queen of Eldoris. Rightfully the kingdom belonged to her if this was a hereditary succession rule.
But it wasn’t, the strongest ruled and the even younger granddaughter of the previous queen who didn’t even have a direct line to the main family had overshadowed both the previous queen and her supposed successor. However the Eldians were a close family and they rarely fought amongst themselves for power. Making them the ruling authority over Eldoris for past 300 consecutive years.
More than feared they were respected as the rightful rulers of these lands being the last elves in the world.
“It’s finally going to start tomorrow…” Said Sam enthusiastically which he showed by attacking on his food with his spoon.
“Can’t wait..” Damian said absent mindedly.
“You are doing that thing again..” said Sam annoyingly.
“What..?”
“That thing where you ignore me and act like I am a child or something…”
“You are a child..”
“We are the same age !!”
“I know more things so I am older…” Damian explained the simple logic.
“That’s not how it works !!”
“Doesn’t it..?”
Sam’s last two brain cells worked really hard in thinking a retort, his face looking like he was constipated. Now that was pure entertainment. Sam finally gave up thinking and started blabbering about this and that gossip about the camp and soldiers, Damian ignored him though and focused on his food. The army rations were not best cuisines out there but it was good enough.
Much better than many restaurants Damian had tasted food in. The army did not cut corners in using good ingredients. They rarely had meat though. As if suddenly the whole country had become vegetarian. But it was Eldoris army rule. Elves of old despised eating meat and the army followed in their footsteps respecting their heritage.
Saying that the past week was productive would only be half true. The constant coming and going of people made it impossible to focus on his research and runic drawings. Also Damian looked all around the camp and even followed some mage soldiers creepily for a while but there was no use of the famous wood style spells.
Damian had wasted many hours stalking random people and found nothing useful except his collection of warming spells which was growing larger and larger each day. These people have really researched in this field, finding unique spells to keep themselves warm in this cold environment.
To have a semblance of privacy Damian had occupied a top most floor of one of the abandoned wooden building which was at the very edge of the camp and was rarely visited by anyone. There wasn’t much need for a room though, Damian carried a table and chairs with him in his spatial tool with all his runic research materials so all he needed was a good cover and he was good.
This place though had served him well, it was peaceful and quite nice. The gaps were covered by his earth wall spells so it was pretty warm too. Sometimes Sam would follow him to it and annoy him for a while but soon get bore and would leave wandering amongst the many soldiers and their never ending work and training.
Damian had also tried finding a library in this city but unfortunately they did not have any. That was a real bummer. He didn’t even read half the worth of his money in Faerunian library. However Damian had enough mysteries to try and solve with his runic research and his Arcane Synthesis skill.
He still didn’t have access to much liquids or money to buy them but he made do with what he had found in nature and were cheap to buy.
He didn’t learn anything major but there was one thing he noticed, he had also thought about this when he made basic healing potions but now it was confirmed. The experiments he did, no matter even simplest mixture of two liquids, somehow his hands knew the most optimum technique to do it.
At first (he never admitted it to himself) he was pretty clumsy and his chemistry teachers at high school and even in college always told him to pay more attention while doing things and yet he would drop some things or spill something once in a while. But after he left the Goldilock estate it was like his brain just tapped into an inherit knowledge of all the proper lab techniques.
This kind of proficiency could only be possible with lots of experience under one’s belt.
His Arcane Synthesis not just helped imbued mana properties to the fuse substances and liquids but it also increased his lab knowledge. That was the only possible explanations. If this was true that would explain how some of the famous Runesmiths and Enchanters in history made legendary runic items without the proper equipment or knowledge to work such rare and exquisite materials.
And why they could never pass it down to others.
So once again after having lunch Damian walked back to this wooden abandoned building at the edge of the camp and Sam following his routine went to the bunkbed tent to take his afternoon nap. His assistant was just an assistant in name only. He didn’t do a single useful thing with Damian. Even on times when he came with him, He only made life more difficult for Damian.
Spending whole day finding ways to understand the runic formulas and characters Damian returned for the dinner in the evening. Sam found him and ran besides him seeing him walking from afar, they ate and walked around the camp for a while. After which both of them went to their beds.
It was more peaceful at night so Damian could just turn on the runic light tool that ran on mana stones which he had bought recently. They could afford it now that they had no worries of living and eating outside. Damian always wanted to get one, if not for it’s use the spell was useful enough.
He could actually use the spell with paper and ink but it won’t be durable enough, it would burn in minutes. Mana stones even the smallest ones had enough raw mana to power the small ball of light for at least a month.
The main thing here however was the iron disk in which the runes were etched by a Runesmith. Damian had a skill that could do it but he had to learn iron works for that. Just lines on iron wouldn’t work, he had to learn to insert his mana inside the metal veins to make mana pathways and mix it with the iron structure. Making the runic circle from within which on success showed on the surface.
That was a skill only a proper Runesmith could do and teach. Each Runesmiths had their own techniques and they rarely revealed it to outsiders unless they take someone as an apprentice.
Damian worked on his runic characters and modifying spells till midnight but did not continue any further as he usually did. Tomorrow was the day when they were summoned to the camp for the official starting of their training camp. So Damian with Sam’s lead fell asleep on his single bed. Sam was on the upper bed.
The fool had chosen that bed even though the whole room was empty besides the two of them, well it didn’t matter any longer. From tomorrow it won’t be empty anymore.
Next day after freshening up and eating breakfast Damian and Sam strolled to the main training area where they had given their second and third test and also where soldiers used to train in this past week plus other aspirants were tested and recruited throughout the week. Sam had joined the soldiers in training sometimes and was actually taught some things by the soldiers.
He was cheery and charismatic like that, more people here knew him than they knew Damian.
Guess the aloof persona from his previous life had followed him here too. It was not that he hated socializing but it just felt like a huge waste of time, he could do so many better things in that time. He was pretty good conversationalist when he needed something from someone though. Guess that was more of selfish quality than socializing one, Damian failed to see the difference though.