A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

When they entered the library, rather than start searching the various library shelves, Erik went to take a seat in one of the reading areas instead.

At the same time, Elora flew of his shoulder and started zooming past the many shelves while her omnisense swept over the various books she encountered. An excited, almost hungry grin hung on her lips.

For a little while, Erik simply watched Elora enjoy herself, until the fairy suddenly returned with five books floating beside her. She dumped the books on the small table next to Erik with a wide grin.

"Here, start with these! I'm going back in!" she said before quickly flying of again.

This was their division of labor. Elora was far quicker in identifying books that might be of interest to Erik, after all.

Erik chuckled and shook his head before taking the first book of the pile. It was a work detailing the steps required to readying an object for housing a spirit or sigil construct.

So he opened the book and started reading.

The next few hours were spend divided between reading, discussing, and absorbing information. Luckily, Erik's status as a second-rank Runebound allowed him to read and absorb information at a far quicker pace than regular humans.

Of course, even than his pace was nothing compared to his third-rank fairy companion. Elora was devouring multiple books at the same time, and at a far quicker pace. But that was only to be expected from a fairy.

At same point, a pouting Eira had rejoined them and started helping to identify important books.

Later, Emma woke up and was a little concerned when she couldn't find Erik anywhere, but her concerns were quickly laid to rest when she talked to him through their link.

When the others woke up, she explained to them what happened, and that Erik told them they should do as they wish. He suggested taking a rest day in the luxurious living spaces, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, Emily, Astrid, and Alice, all quickly decided to head for the training room with excited grins plastered on their faces.

Ever since they had seen that place, they wished for nothing but to go there and train.

Astrid was simply a fighting fanatic, who also wanted to gain the power to stomp Sigurd into the ground, so there was little surprise there.

Emily wanted power, partly for the sake of power, and partly to protect Emily with. Of course, there was also her desire to help Erik, but she would never admit that.

Finally, Alice was perhaps a little more enigmatic. Emma's concerned gaze followed the young girl as she left with Astrid and Emily. Alice had been very quiet since they left Frostvik, and she couldn't help but wonder what was going on in the young child's head.

"Master…" she signaled Erik through their bond. "Can you talk to Alice later? I think she could use it."

His response was immediate, "Yeah, I thought so too. Don't worry, I was planning on talking to everyone alone later, including Alice."

"Thank you!" she smiled brightly through their link, but her emotions quickly turned to something slightly more perverted. "Although I don't really think we need to talk, Master, s— so perhaps we can find something more fun to do?"

Despite becoming a little bolder later, she couldn't help but stammer and blush a little.

"Perhaps we can," Erik chuckled. "But for now, please see if you can find something to make tea in over there and bring me some."

"Yes, Master!" she eagerly responded as her desire to serve kicked in.

After finding a tea set and brining him some, however, she wanted to stay with Erik. She wanted to spend time with him and enjoyed the idea of serving him as a maid while he read.

Unfortunately, Erik reminded her that she needed to work on reaching second rank as quickly as possible, so she left for the training room with a slight pout on her face, despite her own desire to reach the next rank.

Erik watched the beautiful Emma in her barely decent maid outfit walk off with lust in his eyes, but quickly shook his head and refocused on the task ahead.

Before he could pick up the next book, however, Elora flew over to him with a ornate book floating next to her. "Before you go on, read this first!" she exclaimed excitedly. "I may be no good as a runesmith, but I believe this is not only a high quality technique, but also perfect for you!"

"Alright…" Erik mumbled curiously as he picked up the floating in the air. When he noticed the books title, he raised an eyebrow in surprise.

'Frostvolt Forging'
Read exclusive chapters at m_v-l'e|m,p y r

"This is…" he exclaimed in excitement as he stood up. "This is a runesmith technique!"

Crafting techniques were rare and the best ones were jealously guarded by their owners. Even the old man who taught Erik back on Söl took nearly the entire year Erik was there before sharing his rather basic lighting affinity smithing technique.

Better yet, this technique was based on the fused affinity of ice-lightning. Something that Erik was close to achieving, but hadn't quite reached yet.

He had already worked on combining them in the past month, but still needed to get his ice affinity to the same rank as his lightning before he could make serious strides in fusing them.

'I suppose I've barely had any time to train since coming to Earth,' Erik sighed inwardly. 'Even our travel from London to Finnmark wasn't exactly prime training opportunity due to the fragile nature of that ship.'

He looked at the book in his hand with a slight frown. If he wanted to use this technique in making the medium for Eira, he would have to wait until he reached second rank with his ice affinity and achieved at least some level of fusion between the ice and lightning affinities.

He sighed and mumble to himself, "Well, whatever. I wanted to spend at least eleven months training here anyway. Might as well do some of that first before creating the medium."

"Assuming Eira doesn't make a stink," he chuckled.

"But first," he continued while opening the book. "I should check if I even want this technique."