More scouts showed up not long after, and the first group explained what was going on, then sent them over to collect the paperwork from Priya to let their village leaders know what the Den was short on for workers.
"You know, we should hold a mingler here. Since the Den is safe, and we all know how to get here, it's the perfect place for it." One of the scouts suggested.
"Like a social event for singles?" Priya asked, just to be sure.
"Exactly. Lots of our youngsters are still looking for good partners, and you've got a really nice courtyard and some empty cabins in the trees I'm sure they wouldn't mind renting for a few days if you want to hold a festival." The scout agreed.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"We would need some time to make sure that nobody gets missed just because they didn't get the notice in time, but I think that it's a great idea. We can hold the job fair at the same time, so bring along everyone who is looking for work as well, and we can make it into a festival." Wolfe suggested.
"We should make up new sheets, with the official invitation, so that nobody thinks that their scouts are playing a prank on them. That would totally ruin the vibe of the party. If we're inviting everyone to the event, it should be everyone.
Sure, it's for the singles, but they can't all just come here alone. So they will need escorts, and then there are the job seekers, who will have to pack up if they're going to stay here." Priya reminded him.
"Good point. We will take care of the worker arrangements in advance, and they can start work after the festival so that everyone who wants to attend can come here in one big group."
Priya smiled at the scouts. "Bring back that news today, and then we will have the details of the party for whoever comes with the messages either tomorrow or the day after."
Once the messages were passed, Wolfe examined the staff that he had enchanted. It was very good, but it still wasn't quite right. If the array was working properly, it should knock a grown person across the village and not just obliterate small rocks. But Wolfe had noticed the resistance as the spells broke, even though they were just basic defensive wards.
He sat down in the grass and began to adjust the shape of the runes on the staff, making improvements to the spell to account for the irregular shape of the weapon and then locking them in when he felt like they should be working better than before.
He gave the staff a swing and felt the power as the spell activated. That was better, but it still wasn't right. The spell really had been made to put on a sword, though, so he went to collect one from Priya's bag and start over with the correct weapon for the spell.
"Giving up on the staff already?" She asked when he started in on the second weapon.
"I think that if I get the spell on the blade perfect, then it should be easier to understand where I'm going wrong with the oddly shaped one on the staff. The irregular bumps of a large branch are throwing the spell off. It works, and it's powerful, but that's not enough for me to say that I've mastered the spell." Wolfe explained.
So, she watched as Wolfe slowly formed another Array to embed onto the blade, then started over and tried again a dozen times before making it final.
The sense of power radiating off the blade was enough to catch the attention of the witches all the way up in the spire, and it wasn't even charged for use yet. This version definitely worked, and it had the added benefit of teaching Wolfe something essential about magical items and their properties.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmIf you made them powerful enough, there was no hiding them. They could not be stealthy even when deactivated, as they held a power so intense that the Witches could feel it from hundreds of metres away.
No wonder the Magi couldn't hide any of their good stuff from destruction. It was literally a homing beacon, leading the witches to its destruction during the war. The best they could hope for was burying it in a mountain or something and hoping for the best.
"Are you going to just keep that thing active all the time?" Someone called down from the spire as Wolfe admired his handiwork.
"It's not even active yet. Here, let me put some mana in it." He called back.
When mana reached the inscription, the whole blade glowed with blue light, and the air began to crackle around the blade. A flick of his wrist caused a low rumble of thunder, and the air crackled with electricity.
"I don't think that a regular steel blade was intended to contain this spell. It's doing the job, but I get the feeling that it will not be as durable as expected if it hits something that can stand up to its attack." Wolfe mused while more witches poured out of the buildings to see what was going on.
"Alright, we get the point. You can deactivate it now. The electricity is giving me a headache." Priya laughed while maintaining a safe distance from the blade in case it let off a lightning bolt on its own.
Some of the lingering sense of potential faded when Wolfe pulled the mana from the blade after the first activation, but it was still giving off quite the sense of danger. That was enough to make the Witches uneasy, so Wolfe considered removing the inscription from the blade and starting over at a Rank One level of enhancement.
It wouldn't be too hard to do, and it should make the weapon usable and not uncomfortably dangerous to be around for everyone else.
So, he scrubbed the spell from the blade, much to everyone's relief, and began over again, but this time, with a focus on keeping the power level of his Array to that of a First Rank Magi. It would barely be a tenth of what the last one was capable of, but it should be more than enough for regular use, and now he knew how to make a truly powerful weapon should he have to face a more formidable sort of enemy.