From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 441 The Light of the End
“You know far more than I imagined, young man.” Jahira looked at the man before her, whose face displayed both the vitality of youth and the patience and wisdom of an elder, along with an air of certainty and, most importantly, an exotic air.

“I thought I was old enough to remain calm in the face of all people and things,” Jahira sighed. “This place is full of good men and women fighting for justice, and they are all trapped by the Supreme God, practically half-buried.”

“If we want to survive, we have no choice but to trust you. Your offer is very tempting—to wage war against the Supreme God, instead of sitting here in this inn waiting to die…” Jahira’s gaze swept over the adventurers behind Ivy once more, lingering particularly on Minsara’s heavy armor and Shadowheart’s shield. “Even after a hundred years, I can’t forget the standard adamantite armor of the Night Judges of Shar… What you said is true; you did indeed reach the adamantite forge. Even a hundred years ago, there weren’t many similar suits of armor in Katheric’s army of Night Judges. How did you manage to gather enough adamantite?”

“Many discerning eyes,” Ivy replied.

“Alright, we have no other choice. Let’s unite and crush the Supreme God.” Jahira then sighed again. “Come in, friends. With so many new friends joining us, we’ve had to redistribute our beds… I should be able to get some of the warriors to make room for us… And supplies, apart from manpower, you seem to have nothing. I really don’t know how you managed to venture so far into the Cursed Lands of Shadows…”

“We carry our supplies with us.” Ivy waved her hand. Standing behind the adventurers and Tifflin warriors were two Ironhanded Dwarves who hadn’t entered the inn.

"Finally an agreement? Very good!" It was Bedron and Bacchus.

They carried the mediocre treasure chest steadily into the square in front of the inn and placed it on the long-dried-up fountain.

The clattering of cutlery coming from the box puzzled Jashira: "Who would bring a box of cutlery while fleeing? We're not here for a picnic."

"Please assign beds to my people, High-Rank Harpist." Ivy smiled slightly. "Our preparations are far more thorough than you imagine."

"Come one by one to collect your personal supplies, according to the order we set yesterday!" Bedron shouted from the collapsed corner of the platform by the fountain to the Tifferin refugees and Ironhanded dwarves who had entered the inn grounds ahead of time. "Where's your list, Bacchus? Show it to me now!"

“Don’t order me around! You conspicuous bag!” Bacchus pulled a journal from his pocket, flipped to the folded page, and began reading in order, “First, the non-combatant… initial D—Demo! Come collect your bedding… oh, and the bellows and anvil. You’re a blacksmith? Why isn’t there a hammer here?”

“Because the blacksmith tools in the Green Woods are all made of wood…” Demo emerged from the crowd, raising his hand, “but I think I should be able to find a suitable blacksmith's hammer here. Hey! Handle with care!”

Bedelong, sticking his head into the mediocre treasure chest, quickly found the line corresponding to "D" by following the letters engraved on the inner wall of the chest. He reached inside and pulled out three spoons, ready to throw them out.

This action terrified Bucks and Demo.

It's important to know that items transformed by the magic of a mediocre treasure chest will immediately revert to their original form once they leave the chest's opening. The three wooden spoons may look light, but inside lies a large, solid iron object.

If it were to hit someone, that would be a real problem.

Fortunately, before Bedron's hand could leave the treasure chest, Bacchus grabbed his diary and smacked him hard.

"Didn't you hear me? There's an anvil in there!" Bacchus yelled angrily. "If you throw out the explosives too, you'll be hanging up and beaten to a pulp!"

Knowing he was in the wrong, Bedron didn't dare to talk back, but silently added another mark against Bacchus in his mind.

The harpists who witnessed this farce were very puzzled, but their puzzlement turned into shock and ecstasy the moment the three wooden spoons left the ordinary treasure chest.

Just as Bacchus read the list, the three wooden spoons were transformed in the blink of an eye into a bedding roll, a bellows, and an anvil.

"By Aeo!" Jashira stared at the non-combatants lined up in alphabetical order, muttering to herself, "This is simply the most practical magical artifact I've ever seen! Just how much can it hold?"

Ivy thought for a moment about the adamantite golem and the Dawn Cannon of Losanda that were all inside, then shrugged and replied, "The answer to that question depends on how many wooden spoons a standard wooden box can hold."

Normally, the ordinary treasure chest would randomly turn the contents into a piece of tableware—from plates to spoons—but in order to make the most of its space, Ivy modified the magic, making all the contents uniform and turning them into wooden spoons.

He originally intended to shape the target tableware into chopsticks, but the magic on the mediocre treasure chest had a rather rigid underlying logic. It seemed that it did not consider a single chopstick to be a suitable tableware, while a pair of chopsticks involved a high-level transformation spell that could transform an object into two other objects.

To avoid adding redundancy to the mediocre treasure chest magic, Ivy had to settle for a wooden spoon, which also didn't take up much space.

As more and more items were taken from the mediocre treasure chest, the harpists' expressions changed from shock to numbness.

The chest contained blocks of hay for cattle, bags of vegetables and fruits, barrels of drinking water and firewood, as well as various arrowheads and shafts for sealing the chest. The supplies in this mediocre treasure chest were enough to start a war.

When Jasila saw Bedron pull out a large bag of fresh bread from the unremarkable box, she couldn't hold back any longer: "Where did you get so much food? Those radishes and potatoes even have fresh dirt on them!"

“A little bit…” Ivy was about to answer when Halsin interrupted her.

“It’s an amazing combination of spells,” Halsin exclaimed. “Even though I did it myself, I have to be amazed by Ivy’s understanding of magic.”

"You know that we druids can quickly make seeds take root and sprout, right?" Halsin asked.

“This is very common; it’s one of the most basic druid spells.” Jahira still didn’t quite understand how it was done. “I often encourage the growth of a few flower seedlings in my Baldur’s Gate home, and then transplant them to the park once they’ve grown.”

“I used this method to get a lot of wheat to sprout and then sowed them in barren land where there was nothing.” Halsin began to recall what Ivy had instructed him to do privately after the route meeting.

"Then, I used plant growth magic to make them mature quickly, fill with grain, and droop with ears..." "I must say, the effect wasn't as good as I had imagined. The plants were too close together, which meant that none of the wheat stalks were quite full. Fortunately, there were also carrots and potatoes. The druids in the woodland and I cleared a large area of ​​wasteland and planted it all with these crops."

"And the next morning, Ivy used magic to harvest all the crops." Halsin's gaze was fixed, still recalling the scene.

"The wheat was hulled, ground, mixed with water, kneaded into dough, and finally baked into bread right in front of me." Halsin shook his head. "Ten minutes, he finished everything in just ten minutes..."

Ten minutes is the casting time for a fourth-circle spell, a time of extraordinary skill, but it's not Ivy's limit.

Originally, this spell could only be applied to industrial products, such as cotton cloth, linen cloth, and ironware manufacturing.

However, this spell is clearly related to the caster's perception.

Ivy knew perfectly well that there was an industry called food light industry.

“You are truly saviors sent from heaven.” Jahira instructed several harpist officers to maintain order and then directed the quartermaster to plan the refugees’ accommodations. Only then did she beckon Ivy inside. “You see the Moon Shield protecting this inn? It belongs to the divine power of Serene and was brought to us by a devout priest. Even in such a desperate moment, fate has revealed many different kinds of hope to us. How can I not be someone favored by fate?”

"The End of Light Inn is a three-story building. Besides the two floors easily visible above ground, there are also cellars and a dark harbor hidden beneath the rocks." As Jahira led the adventurers through the lobby, she deliberately stopped in front of a specimen of an upright giant bear. The bear was astonishingly large, its fur covered with scars from swords and knives, its head almost touching the ceiling, even larger than Halsin in his wilderness form. "The villain Dakomo, sung about by the bards of Sword Coast for a long time, whose territory stretched from the Razortooth Forest to the Cloak Forest, took almost half an army to drive away. Who would have thought that such a ferocious creature would become a specimen here?"

In the very center of the hotel was a bright fire pit, which also served as a barbecue grill. Several harpists were heating their food, and they immediately stood up and bowed when Jasila entered.

Jahira didn't say anything, just waved for them to relax, then walked around the fire pit to the front of the bar.

“Come on, we must share our intelligence so we can devise a foolproof plan.” Jahira gestured for Ivy to find a seat, then nimbly flipped over the counter and expertly retrieved a bottle of red wine from underneath. “Sit down and rest for a while, or you can wander around. I’ll go and invite some other influential people to discuss our strategy. High Duke Floric of Baldur’s Gate is here too; she told us that Duke Ravengard has been kidnapped by cultists and taken to the Tower of the Moon. We share a common goal, so Flamefist will also be an asset to us.”

Upon arriving in a new place, the most excited person is clearly the one with the wicked desire to search every nook and cranny for any remaining valuables. As soon as Jasira flipped over the counter again, she immediately crawled inside and began rummaging beneath it.

"This inn has a lot of good stuff!" the evil thought said excitedly. "We should search this place thoroughly and see how many gold coins we can find."

“We should indeed conduct a thorough search, but not for the gold,” Minsara added.

"It's not so much about knowing all the entrances and exits of this building, where it can be hidden, and its defensive vulnerabilities," Leezer, from the military society, added to Minsala's words. In some ways, the two shared a striking commonality: "If we're going to use this place as a camp, we have to understand every aspect of it, every nook and cranny!"

“I agree, but we should pay more attention to hidden doors and secret passages.” Minsara cast an admiring glance at Leezer. “This inn built on a deserted island is almost a natural fortress. I don’t believe that the designers didn’t leave any other way to the outside world when they built it.”

"Look what I found!" Xie Nian pulled a dusty little package from under the counter, and a delicate tower-shaped key spilled out, hitting the bar with a dull thud; it was clearly quite heavy. "Who wants to come with me to explore the secrets of the End Light!"

Intrigued by the matter, Leezer and Minsara set off together. For such warmongers, seizing the initiative on the battlefield was paramount. And the degree of understanding of the terrain was a significant factor in gaining the upper hand on the battlefield.

Yingxin appeared somewhat melancholy; as a follower of Shar, accepting Serene's protection clearly made her unhappy.

“I need to find a dark corner to atone to Lady Shar… I can’t believe what I’ve done to accept the protection of that old witch Selenne…” Shadowheart pulled a bottle of Neverwinter Sauternes from the counter.

Although Neverwinter is located in the northern part of the continent of Faerûn, its supernatural climate ensures a perpetually warm spring-like environment, which has led to the development of numerous wine estates. Like botrytized wines on Earth, Neverwinter utilizes fungi to increase the sugar content within the grapes.

"I can't believe it!" Karak plopped down next to Ivy, the smile on her face from seeing her idol still lingering. "That's Jashira! The legendary Jashira! I even personally handed over the harpist's ashes to her!"

"Didn't we already know that Jashira was in charge here back when we were at the Adamantite Forge?" Before transmigrating, Ivy couldn't quite understand this kind of idol worship.

“This is different. I didn’t expect to actually see her!” The flames on Karak’s body began to burn again. Even though Ivy had upgraded her heart with Hellfire, the flames would still rise on her body when she got emotional. “She has been protecting Baldur’s Gate as a hero for over a century! My mother told me this, and I’ve repeated it to myself countless times!”

"You were during the Hellfire?"

Karak nodded.

Ivy was starting to understand.

Although she was merely a protagonist in the story, the name Jashira was a pillar of strength for Karak, who fought demons in Hell. She repeatedly recalled the beauty of her mother and family, which allowed her to survive the bloody battles that threatened to consume everything.

This repetition reinforces Jasira's identity as a hero.

Little did he know that his actions were legendary, even in Jahira's own eyes.

What soldier from the prime material plane could survive for ten years in a bloody war between demons and monsters?
“We’ve been creating new legends along the way,” Ivy said, putting her hand on Karak’s shoulder. “Just imagine, when we win, the Harpist’s bard will put you and Jahira on the same level as the heroes who destroyed the Supreme God.”

(End of this chapter)