The next morning brought joy to the residents of the Den. The gardens had been completed overnight, and with a heavy dose of magic, they had grown the fledgling plants enough to harvest the first crops from the fields.
There wasn't ti to grow longer germination things like fruits and most vegetables. Even the root vegetables needed so more ti to grow before maturity, but a selection of herbs and so asparagus had been prepared to add variety and flavour to the morning al.
It was a change which everyone in the camp appreciated since they had been eating mostly prepackaged als or monster at with rice lately. Having an available stock of fresh vegetables would change their whole nu for the better, and with so many witches to help in the garden they would only need to wait a few days until they started getting a return on their investnt.
Wolfe didn't have any big plans for the day. He only wanted to work on his magic for a while and see if he could improve enough that it would make a real difference to the utility of his abilities. So, after breakfast, he returned to working on [Perservation] while the majority of the Den's witches spent so ti decorating their rooms and making the whole Den more comfortable.
The underground complex was slowly expanding into a proper village on multiple levels, using magic for temperature control and lighting. The first ring of guard posts was being improved that morning as well, giving them an extra layer of security. Whenever their scouts found a good spot to hide and watch the area, they spent so ti altering it with Earth Magic so that they could watch or hide in comfort.
One such trick that they learned was to cut the vent holes from the Den to the points where they wanted to create guard posts. It only had to be a small hole to push out air and keep the atmosphere in the Den fresh, but when it was an outflow vent, it also carried the warm air up with it from deep underground.
That made the scout positions not only able to easily communicate with the residents underground but also much more comfortable without spending mana to adjust the temperature of their Armour spells.
It also made the scout positions very popular with the locals, who liked to curl up and sleep on top of the vents.
The scouts realized the situation right away and adjusted the size of their positions to accommodate a second person so that they didn't have to chase the locals away or pick a new spot for day-long scouting assignnts.
It turned into a solid working relationship since both of them were assigned to scout the area, and if they passed notes, they could communicate, even if the local scout wasn't one of the rare, almost human, mutants who the witches had healed enough that they could sowhat speak in their presence.
Wolfe spent the whole day working on [Preservation], and he was ready to give it a test at dinner when he finally opened his eyes and realized that his companions had switched.
He had thought that it was Cassie and Stephanie in the room with him since he felt soone in his lap and fur on his arm, but it was actually the Fox Demon who had co to visit him but didn't want to interrupt his focus.
"Good afternoon. You could have called my na. I was just working on learning a new spell." Wolfe told her while petting her fluffy ears.
"That's why I didn't bother you. New spells are a good thing. I just wanted to thank you and your group for the help. There were no more army units trying to enter the Frozen Wastes today, though there are still quite a few fighting within Witch Territory, as far as we can tell.
But we all owe your witches for the healing. I've never seen everyone in such good health before. Between that and the upgraded weapons, we barely even have any injured left in the village.
There was a small attack this morning, but the rifles stopped it before they even breached the tunnels, and the butchers have cleaned and preserved them already." The fluffy Demon explained.
"That's actually what I was working on. The Inheritance Spell has a spellbook included in it, and I just had an opportunity that allowed to get it working properly. Now that it is, I've got a lot of spells available, and the next one on the essential utility spells list is [Preservation]." Wolfe explained.
"Oh, that is a good one. It keeps things from getting old and wasting away. If you cast it over a wide area like the Den, you should be able to keep all of your food fresh and stop any of your gear from rusting. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on people. If it did, that would be great, but you can only preserve nonliving things."
Being able to preserve living people would just be an unfair advantage. If the secret to eternal youth were such simple magic, then the world wouldn't have dared to get rid of the Magi in the first place.
"I keep trying to make this spell activate, but I'm doing sothing wrong. You have a lot of knowledge. Do you think you can help out?" Wolfe asked.
She looked over the spell for a second and shrugged. "It's an air spell that stops the atmosphere from interfering with objects. Sothing like the vacuum-packed food pouches, but without the pouch."
That was it. He had been trying to make it stop the items from changing, but he only had to prevent oxidation and create a thin magical barrier over them so that they would remain preserved. It wasn't perfect, so items would still decay even without exposure to the atmosphere, but it would keep most hard items stable indefinitely.
Once he realized that basic function, he realized that it could also be used to dry items, like freeze drying, but without a temperature change. That would give them jerky, dried fruits and other trail rations for travel and trade. It was exactly the sort of versatile magic that he needed, and it only used the manipulation of air to drive out moisture and prevent rapid decay.
"You're a real ti saver. I don't suppose that you know much more about the basic magics?" Wolfe asked.
"That depends. Did you know that most Arrays aren't intended to activate on their own but are supposed to be activated using a secondary layer of raw mana in the sa pattern but without the Elental runes? Once you master that, you can make almost any spell that you know well enough into an array." She explained.
Wolfe gave the Demon Fox a hug and stood up off the bed to get sothing to eat.
"Co join us for dinner. I owe you at least that much for saving the headache of learning the fundantals alone."
She laughed, but the twitch of her ears let Wolfe know that the prospect of dinner was enough to draw her in. The villages didn't have many fresh vegetables in the winter, only mushrooms and preserved foods, since they lacked the ability to easily grow food underground without natural light.
"You have a deal. Let's see what these witches ca up with on the first day."
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