Equipment Printing School Mage

"I'm sorry." The old dwarf smiled maliciously. "You asked me to buy this ink. Don't you remember?"

"How could I have known you'd ordered something of the highest standard?!"

"I don't care about that. Cash on delivery, that's what we agreed on. 200 gold coins, thank you for your generosity."

"Where do I have so much money now?"

"Well, there is a way." The old dwarf coughed lightly. "For example, Mr. Mage, our Friendly Arm is badly damaged and in urgent need of repair. And it's still a day's journey from Friendly Arm to Sharptooth Forest."

If the journey takes more than a day, the consumed magic power will be replenished in time and will not affect the adventure in the forest.

In fact, Emiya has now recovered some of her strength.

"...Oh, so this is what we've been going through so much trouble for." Emilia frowned, "That's not to say..."

"Wait a moment, Emiya, let me handle this." At this moment, the paladin stood up. "After all, you are still tied up when talking to your former boss."

*******************************

"Aren't you asking for too much?!"

Just like that, the tranquility of Friendly Arms was broken by the roar of the dwarf boss.

The old dwarf was furious and slammed the table with a roar: "Even rescue money shouldn't be calculated like this! Why don't you just go and rob it!

As he spoke, he turned his head to the side and said, "Emiya?! Why don't you say something?"

"Ahem..."

At this time, Emiya was already sitting aside, holding her spellbook, and said seriously, "One of you is my former boss, and the other is my current teammate. I'm afraid I have to avoid suspicion."

The old dwarf's eyes widened suddenly: "How dare you say that!"

Yes. The original harmonious atmosphere is gone.

Even a strong friendship will become extremely fragile in the face of certain things.

The atmosphere was tense now, with the Harper and the Paladin clashing over something that shouldn't have been that important.

"I want to correct you. What I'm asking you to pay is not the rescue fee, but the spellcasting service."

Mars had already put on his helmet again, shielding his face and expression with steel. "Last night, Emiya cast a three-ring lightning bolt, a three-ring fireball, a three-ring hypnotic pattern, a three-ring unique defensive spell, and two four-ring divine powers for the Arm of Friendship. The lower-ring ones can be ignored."

"A total of four third-level spells, and two fourth-level spells. And Emya is a fourth-level wizard. So a third-level spell costs 270 gold coins, and a fourth-level spell costs 360 gold coins. That's a total of 1800 gold coins. This is the market price on the Sword Coast!"

"Thank you so much!" the old dwarf roared. "This is the first time I've heard of someone paying for a favor by casting spells!"

"Because this kind of support can't be obtained with money! Alliance, clan, relatives... Which one do you qualify as?" Mars then raised his voice a little higher. "You want a normal compensation settlement. Okay, then let me ask a question first."

Then, the paladin turned around and asked Emilia, "Emilia, what is your position and income at the Arm of Friendship?"

Emiya pulled her head out of the book and answered without hesitation, "My official position is a senior handyman who provides food and lodging, and I get three gold coins a day."

"During these seven days, I did accounting, front desk, appraisal, repair, and kitchen work."

"Of course, the salary hasn't been paid yet."

Even Elminster, who was smoking and watching the show in the corner, couldn't help but cough when these words came out. "Miscellaneous... miscellaneous chores?! Even in Myth Drannor back then, a true fourth-ringed mage wouldn't be asked to do miscellaneous chores! Mirror Shadow, even if I searched all of Harper, I'm afraid I wouldn't find an inn as luxurious as yours!"

"Cough cough cough..."

In an instant, he became the target of public criticism, and Niggins Jingying's face showed a hint of embarrassment. "This... is completely unexpected! After all, Emiya is only staying with me temporarily, and I can't give him a formal job. This will interrupt our work rhythm..."

His voice gradually became quieter, and finally turned into a plea for mercy: "Alright, alright, stop looking at me like that! 1800 gold coins, not a single copper coin less, I'll give you that bottle of Golden Dragon Ink at a discount! But..."

"How could I possibly have that much money right now?" Niggins Mirrorshadow's voice rose again. "As you can see, the Friendly Arm's treasures are still buried in the rubble of the armory. You can't possibly be carrying a bunch of ornaments and eternal torches on your backs. And what about a thousand gold coins worth of supplies? That would probably be enough to crush you."

The old dwarf smiled sincerely and said, "If you leave in a hurry, you may not get the money."

"...That's not necessary." The paladin lowered his head slightly. "In fact, you can also use items as collateral."

"Items, ha, what valuable things can our Friendly Arm have? Just use them as collateral..." Niggins Mirror Shadow stopped talking and suddenly covered his mouth.

At these words, the wizard closed his spellbook, and the paladin pulled up his helm.

The two men stood up at the same time and said in unison: "—It's a deal!"

"No, absolutely not! Why don't you two just go and rob it!" the dwarf screamed. "Do you know how priceless that dimensional cave is? Not to mention the contents inside! Don't even think about taking it for 18000 gold coins!"

Emiya shook her head. "Well, first of all, the 1800 gold coins are just for the spellcasting service. We haven't received any payment for the rescue itself. Besides, there is a very special group of captives who are currently lying in the arms of friendship."

The mage coughed lightly. "The shapeshifters and shadow druids of the Gods and Gods... We were short on time, so we only briefly interrogated the shapeshifter leader, and the shadow druid's condition has only stabilized."

"If they were in the hands of an organization with more sufficient resources, a wider range of information sources, and higher goals, they would surely be able to play a greater role."

Emiya's voice paused.

"...For example, in the eyes of the Harper, a shapeshifter who is willing to turn over a new leaf would be a very attractive subordinate, right?"

The old dwarf's facial muscles twitched, and he forced a look of dissatisfaction. "Are you serious? How are those lazy guys supposed to be harpists?"

"Don't use such rhetoric that can only deceive laymen." Emiya leaned forward slightly. "Those shapeshifters can't be called kind, but they're not evil either. There should be plenty of such gray-skinned people among the Harpers' allies."

"How much should we get in return for the information and the prisoners?"

Niggins Mirrorshadow didn't answer immediately, his eyes drifting towards Elminster.

Of course, although Niggins Mirror Shadow is a harpist, he is just a node in this huge intelligence network.

Of course, he himself had no use for these nearly thirty shapeshifters.

However, in this secret room, there happens to be a high-level harpist who has the final say.

"what."

Hearing Emiya's words, the old wizard slowly blew out a smoke ring. "A team of paladins and mages is incredibly rare in itself. And such a team, with such a style of operation, I'm afraid no one would believe it if I told them to others."

The old wizard poked his hat with his pipe and said, "I have no right to control the property of other harpers. However, I do have a collection of my own that I can use as a token of my gratitude to you."

He stretched out his right hand and muttered a few words softly. Then, a round piece of silk appeared in his hand. "Mr. Jingying's dimensional hole is an heirloom. You should leave it to him. I have a spare dimensional hole here. It should be enough for the harpist's reward."

There are so many treasures and other items in Mirror Shadow's dimensional cave that Niggins Mirror Shadow is naturally unwilling to really hand over his ancestral dimensional cave to them. This result is within the acceptable range.

Emiya handed the dimensional hole on her waist to her former boss.

After the dimensional cave was returned to its original owner, Niggins Mirror Shadow immediately couldn't wait to dive into his own dimensional cave.

It seemed that his greed for money was not entirely a disguise to the Harper. At least his joy and uncontrollable laughter when he saw that the storage in the dimensional cave was intact did not seem to be fake.

Emilia looked at her boss's back and ruthlessly reminded him, "The Dimension Cave is the reward given by Lord Elminster. You haven't paid him the 1600 gold coins yet."

The old dwarf's strange laughter stopped abruptly.

Then, a book was thrown out of the dimensional hole and landed in front of Emiya, and the old dwarf's indignant voice followed. "Take it. It's the spell experience of my ancestor, Bantli Mirror Shadow. It should also contain adventure journals. We dwarves are famous for our research on illusions throughout the continent. I will also give you some basic equipment and supplies for your journey free of charge, and then we will be even."

"Experience? That's not enough."

"Then take this!" The last thing he threw out was a brooch-sized green harp. "This, the lower rank of the Harpist's Brooch, signifies that you are a trustworthy ally. Is this all right?"

"A spell book is impossible! Do you know how expensive a spell book is? Don't even think about it!"

"...Oh." Emilia recalled the spell book that covered the sky and the sun in her bag, and shut her mouth obediently.

Before he left the Mage Tower, his teacher, as if he didn't want to see him again in this life, stuffed a lot of advanced spell books into his hands - he hadn't even finished copying all of those spell books.

A spellbook containing general spells was truly meaningless to him. ...And, judging by the paladin's reaction, the spells his teacher had taught him might have contained quite a few secret techniques that weren't widely circulated.

But there's no need to say this out loud.

The old dwarf poked his head out angrily: "—I can give you the supplies for free, but a lot of them are buried under the ruins of the weapons depot. If you want them, you'll have to dig them up yourself!"

In other words, repairing the arsenal is inevitable.

Emiya and the paladin exchanged a glance, shrugged, stood up, and said goodbye to Elminster: "Sage, please allow us two to leave for now."

At this moment, the old wizard looked at the long sword at Emilia's waist, suddenly raised his head, and asked casually, "Emilia, what weapon do you usually use?"

"Hmm?" Emilia then replied, "My teacher taught me a little swordsmanship, and I learned some archery before I became a mage. So I mainly use longsword and longbow."

The paladin beside him almost laughed out loud when he heard this: "Are you from Evermeet Island? Do you want to stretch your ears?"

Emiya naturally knew what he was laughing at: the bow and sword were standard equipment for the high elves. Their long lifespans allowed them to indulge in luxuries that were unimaginable to shorter-lived beings.

"But unfortunately, my teacher doesn't have pointy ears either. This is just a pure coincidence."

"It's not an elf..." The three of them left the secret room, and Elminster smoked his pipe, his face looming in the smoke: "Haha... That's really a coincidence."

Shadow of the Forest

In ancient mystery novels, there are the so-called Ten Commandments. The core of their content is that a mystery story should not be mixed with supernatural elements that go beyond the reader's common sense.

However, in Faerun, magic is so ubiquitous that even acquiring information is impossible using Earthling methods.

Therefore, being alive is often not that important...

In fact, dead people are more useful than living people.

Lady Mirror Shadow is the only priest of the Friendly Arm. These divine spellcasters possess many divine spells related to death - for example, making the dead speak.

To the east of the main castle is the church of the dwarf god, Garl Glittergold. During last night's battle, the church was incredibly lucky to have avoided all the fighting and suffered no losses.

However, there was still some water in the church.

Mars pushed open the church door effortlessly and commented with lingering satisfaction, "This door is a little too light."

"Because I'm usually the one who opens the door!" Madam Mirror Shadow glanced at the paladin's bulging armor and said unhappily, "Why would I want to make this happen for myself?"

The church usually opened in the early morning and closed late at night. However, being invaded by foreign enemies was obviously not an ordinary situation, so they did not arrive at the church until noon.

This wasn't Emilia's first time here. He sniffed the damp air in the church and asked, "It rained heavily yesterday, and yet the body isn't decaying?"

"Tsk, while you were enjoying yourself, I worked hard to move the deceased's body to the church and embalm it. It'll be fine."

Madam Mirror Shadow spoke with a hint of melancholy on her face. "Even when facing the corpses of the enemy, we must maintain a minimum of respect... This is something I learned when I was studying in the church."

The newly formed team followed the pastor to the church's morgue. The door opened, and the bitter smell of burning mixed with earth immediately greeted them.

The pastor sighed repeatedly, "These two men were severely burned and fell headfirst into the mud. One's head was smashed, so he probably can't ask questions anymore. The other was luckier; at least his body is intact."

Speak with the Dead, a third-level spell, temporarily awakens the remaining vitality in a corpse. As long as the corpse still has a mouth, it can answer several questions from the caster.

"Well, before we begin, I need to confirm something." Madam Mirror Shadow crossed her arms. "Did this druid know who killed him before he died?"

At the same time, because the soul is not resurrected, the intelligence of the corpse is severely reduced. As long as the questioner is not the murderer - even if it is not in appearance - they will answer truthfully.

Emiya recalled and confirmed: "Those druids probably haven't seen my face."

The paladin shrugged. "Although I was standing far away, the druid should have seen me. I stayed outside the door."

"Then I'll go out too," Mrs. Mirror Shadow said sullenly. "Although I've presided over many funerals over the years, I still don't like death."

The dwarf lady reached out her hand and whispered in dwarven to the druid's corpse on the bed, "Wake up! Even though your soul has already gone to the realm of Kelemvor (Faerun's current god of death), your body cannot go to the kingdom of God."

"Your knowledge still remains within you, so obey my command, wake up, and tell me all you know."

The magic net vibrated slightly, and surging magic power flowed in the spacious room.

"Click."

The dead man's completely burnt face trembled slightly, and the charred skin peeled off from his face with a rustling sound - it would be more accurate to say that his face had a crack rather than an opening of his mouth.

The dead druid's eyelids shook in vain, and the sound it made was hoarse and indistinct.

"What—do—you—want—to—ask?"

Mrs. Mirror Shadow gestured to Emilia and left the room.

"boom!"

As the door closed, Emiya sighed silently.

He also didn't like corpses, or death—or even seeing people get hurt.

But this is fate...When you want to stop or even go back, the world will push you forward.

Emilia shook her head and forced herself to look at the horrific face of the deceased.

Speak with the Dead: This spell allows five questions to be asked, and the deceased will answer the questioner to the best of their ability. Once these five questions are completed, the corpse will no longer be able to respond to the Speak with the Dead spell.

Five questions, and only five questions.

The following information is hidden in Shadow Druid.

Information about the Shadow Druid itself—this is what Emya needs to know.

The project they were involved in, the relationship they had with the Gods and the Non-Gods—it was something the Harpers desperately needed.