Not (Just) A Mage Lord Isekai
Chapter 150 - Lame Plant Staff

After finishing the lame plant staff, Bevel decided she wanted to come along with me to deliver it to Vaserra. Or in her words. “It’ll be more fun than sitting around by myself.”

Which meant we were both riding shotgun with Calbern out past the bluff less than two days after I'd returned.

Tamrie's only request was that I not go riding on Frost Lily for some reason.

Considering how easy a request it was, I didn't have any problem granting it. Not like we were planning to spend days with the Frost Riven again.

In a stroke of luck, we encountered Vaserra just south of the nearest vale, not far from the bluff. After exchanging greetings, she said, "You've returned earlier than I expected. I was on my way with news. The scouts have returned."

"That was fast," I replied, looking south as if I'd see them on the horizon. Bevel popped up on her side, matching my search, her messy hair tossing in the wind.

"Many were on the hunt, searching to bring back meat for the vales. Now that starvation no longer has its fangs at our throats, I called on the pack to return," Vaserra explained, rubbing Frost Lily’s chin.

"Speaking of which, we've got a gift for you," I said, nodding to Bevel. “Or maybe it’d be better to call it an advance on future trade.”

My apprentice eagerly dug the staff out of where it'd been wedged in next to her in Fang's skull-cabin. With a mighty gust, she pulled it free while apparently deciding to accompany it. Landing beside us with it still wrapped in a sheet, Bevel started pulling at the covering.

Vaserra smiled at the display, inspecting the staff as Bevel unwrapped it, letting out a gasp once the fabric fell fully away.

It was, admittedly, a rather striking staff. Our experiments with the safe had an unexpected effect on the core piece of heartwood Bevel had used as a stick. Not wanting to waste such a large piece of valuable material, we'd taken the extra time to work the Worlds essence it’d somehow absorbed into the enchantment of the staff.

Which is why, instead of a single solid piece, when mana was channeled into it, the staff split apart into a dozen shards, all of which orbited each other. The really crazy part was that doing so had actually increased the efficiency of the staff when used on large areas by doubling its effective range for only a fraction of extra mana.

The implications of combining Worlds materials with others to get greater range was interesting, but it wasn't something that was going to be common anytime soon. After all, Worlds was a pretty scarce material type in our corner of Ro'an. At least for the moment.

Vaserra took the staff from Bevel, watching the enchanted shards of wood float around her hand. The actual enchantments were hidden away, though we'd taken the time to craft dummy runes along the outside. Something Xoth had informed me was pretty common in the Shaper's guild. Especially if you wanted to hide the actual function.

That… wasn't what Bevel and I had done. Not exactly.

Sure, the enchantment had been a serious pain to work out, and we’d hidden our work by using Bloom to fuse the pieces together, but we would’ve added the dummy runes anyway, cause without them, neither of us had been happy with the plain appearance of the staff.

One-hundred percent vanity, and neither of us had a problem with that.

Well, ninety percent vanity. We did need a way to channel the mana between each of the enchantments when the pieces orbited, but that part could've been invisible with less work than it took us to make the dummy runes.

After a few minutes of testing the feel of the staff, Vaserra managed to activate it, causing the ridge we were on to have a sudden spurt of life.

"Right, guess I should show you how to actually set it properly," I said, gesturing her closer. Then I showed her how to place samples of each crop she wanted to encourage into the orbiting pieces. She was being far too gentle, so I had to push her hand on the catch to get it to release properly, which drew a happy laugh out of her.

"A far sturdier tool than I expected for one that is so beautiful," Vaserra said, nodding her head approvingly. "Truly, I am sure this will become a treasured heirloom of my clan."

"Sweet," Bevel said, bumping my elbow as she whispered, "What's an heirloom?"

"It is a family treasure that has been passed down through several generations, lady Bevel," Calbern answered from where he was still seated on Fang, his gaze fixed on the horizon instead of our exchange.

Wasn't sure if I should tell Vaserra how little effort had gone into us making the staff. Either way, there was something else I did need to speak to her about. "Hope you don't mind putting that to use. With all the refugees we've got coming in, we're going to need more food than ever. Probably more than food, soon enough. And… as for payment… well, that’s not going to be the last tool making its way into your hands."

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"I know that feeling well enough," Vaserra said, her hair clacking as she shook her head. "With this, I'm certain providing for both our peoples shall come easily. Though I shall call upon your artifice for transport. If the numbers you spoke of were accurate… well, we are hunters and protectors, not food merchants."

"Yeah… that's fair," I said, looking between Frost Lily and Fang. One of them was much more suited to carrying cargo, and it wasn’t the giant frost wolf.

Vaserra insisted we stay for lunch, and as we ate, she shared copies of her scout's reports. They were mostly descriptions, as opposed to something I could put on a map, but they were informative enough.

There was definitely good land to the south that just needed a good clearing. If only I knew a hydra-souled mage who was up to the challenge.

When Vaserra asked why I was laughing to myself, I just waved her off and enjoyed the grilled fish.

…MLI…

After lunch with Vaserra, we were soon passing through the bluff gates again, and I found myself wondering if having all four gates closed at all times was really necessary.

Then again, it was much harder for those who didn't have Sculpt Stone to open or close them. A proper set of enchantments would probably be better than less doors. I noted it down in my journal for later, as a task for Bevel, both to design and to do the work. It was something I could easily redo even if she messed up and wouldn’t damage anything.

Even as I started asking her how she might solve the doors, a mighty roar shook the air, distinct in pitch from the crack of lightning.

"What was that?" I yelled at Calbern, who was glancing towards Mount Aeternia.

"I cannot be certain, master Percival, but I believe it is coming from Mistvale," he called back.

"We should check it out!" Bevel interjected before I could reply. "It's a new adventure!"

"Fair enough," I said, having already been of the mind to do exactly that. A second roar was enough to confirm my decision.

We ascended the valley from the west, Calbern having mapped out several routes in and out after months of touring the nearby hills. Routes that had me doubting the lack of enchantments holding Fang to the ground at times. The pure verticality of some of his approaches made me wonder if he’d somehow snuck a granitas engine into the frame. He denied any such device, yet Fang pulled us up with little issue, and we were soon granted a view of what lay within Mistvale.

Staring down at Mistvale from the west rise, it didn't take us long to find the disturbance. That the dinosaur we were now staring at had chosen to repeat its call yet again made it pretty darn easy.

It wasn't quite as tall as the mist-rex had been, but the three-horned beast that stood at the far end of the lake, roaring its head off, looked to have at least as much bulk. If that was all, I would've called it a day and gotten Calbern to take us around the lake, asking Nexxa to stop in when she had the chance.

Except it wasn't all.

"Am I going crazy?" I asked Calbern as I recast Eagle Eyes, just in case. Yet the second time I looked it over wasn't so different from the first. While it was in the rough shape of a triceratops, the horns, frill, tail and legs all seemed to be made of the same heartwood as we'd extracted from the super-trees. And binding all of that together, letting it move were green and blue strands of vegetation. As its head tilted back for yet another roar, I decided I should clarify, "Or is that dinosaur made out of wood and vines?"

"While your sanity shall ever be in question, in this instance, your eyes do not deceive you, master Percival," Calbern replied, his voice even. "Have you noticed its companions?"

"Companions?" I muttered in response, though the second Calbern mentioned them, they were obvious. Smaller dinos surrounded the forest-triceratops, all of them of similar construction. Most of them were some form of raptor, roughly as tall as Tanis.

Which was to say, large enough to take a serious chunk out of us if they decided to chomp down.

There was one creature who was different though. Almost lost amongst the foliage that served as decoration along its back was a being whose figure I recognized.

Instead of bone or steel, this 'brother' of Keeper's was wrought of wood and vines, much like what I was assuming were its servants.

"Guess the Final Rest's guardian got tired of resting," I said, pointing the being out.

"It would appear so, master Percival. Shall we introduce ourselves?" Calbern asked, his hand flexing along the handle.

"Yes!" Bevel cried, leaning forward out of Fang’s left eye socket. "I wanna see!"

"Well, that can be easily arranged," I said, feeling a little foolish for forgetting that she couldn't augment her vision on her own.

As Bevel adjusted to Eagle Eyes — then started gasping at everything other than the actual guardian and its servants — Calbern took us closer.

We were halfway to them when the triceratops quit roaring. Instead, it shifted towards us. The rest of the forest-dinos seemed to get excited, running around and bumping into each other and just…

Having fun?

This was roughly the same time Bevel noticed them. She let out a happy gasp, then started describing them in great detail, as though neither Calbern or I could see them ourselves.

Still, it made me smile.

When we were a few hundred feet away, the smaller forest-dinos settled down. Closer up, I realized that the same mist that hung over the rest of the valley also followed these forest-dinos around, though it hung lightly on them.

"Are you the Magus Protectus?" the being called as Calbern brought Fang to a stop, green flame burning within the hollow eyes of its wooden face. Its voice was unusually pleasant, though just as unnatural as Keeper's or Conflict's, a sort of rasping sound that reminded me of trees shifting in the forest.

"I am," I called out, hopping free of Fang while motioning for Calbern to keep Bevel back.

While this 'brother' seemed open to talking, I hadn't forgotten how Conflict had wanted to test us when we first met it.

"How refreshing," the being said, the forest-triceratops shifting to let it look down on me more easily. "It seems you have yet to even start to bud."

"I take it you've got trials or something of the sort?"

"Trials? I… suppose you could view my forests as such," the being replied, tilting its head to the side with a sound reminiscent of a tree creaking in the wind. "My purpose is to renew the rotten, remove the filth and care for the living. A Tender, of sorts. Or so they called me. Amongst many other things."

"Tender, huh?" I replied, my gaze flicking to the forest-dinos who were bumping into each other, craning their necks in our direction, but otherwise keeping their distance. "And how dangerous are your forests?"

"For a bud such as you, not dangerous at all," Tender replied, holding up its hand in the direction of the lake. A second later, water started shooting into the air as it was forcefully thrust aside by a downwards ramp rising out of the lake. A tunnel of wood and vines lay there, with thick translucent leaves growing between granting a green-tinted view outside of the underwater tunnel. "Would you like to walk the outer halls of the Final Rest, young Magus Protectus?"