The mage and Stephan had a contest of staring; who would blink first?
In the end, it was the mage who gave up and gave him a notebook where to write the recipe. He executed quickly and then handed it to the mage who studied it intently.
"She told us that the recipe had eyes of raven and the juice of Litiria were part of it, who thought it didn't need much and I got the eye of raven wrong? To think the eye of the raven is a plant. The whole recipe is plant-based. Most mages do not think of that."
The mage moved to his alchemist table and start the steps but Stephan grabbed his shoulder and tightened the grip around it while glaring at him with a wide smile. "What do you think you are doing? I am kinda in a hurry here and I wasted enough time with you. So tell me where the damn thing is or I would burn that paper," he snatched it from the mage's hands and twisted it with his fingers, ready to cut it into two.
"No, don't do that. I will get to work now," the mage hurried to a table where a giant orb was there. He channelled his mana into it and then it glowed showing the two weapons. The hammer was shown in different places as well as the bow and they weren't together.
"It seems the orb wouldn't tell us much about the sacred weapons of the dwarves and the elves. On the other hand, I will give you artifacts and weapons. Seeing you without a sceptre makes me angry so I will give you my old one. No need to thank me."
"It's simply because you were incapable of finding the two weapons," Stephan snapped.
The old man looked vexed from what the apprentice said but he was right. The weapons had enchantments that made them hard to trace. It was done to make it impossible for the two countries to eye them and send mages to get them. The mage moved to a basket that had several items and he pulled a compass that didn't point north.
"This will help you in your journey. This is a compass that points to what you want so you just have to think about it hard and it will point you the way. Don't think of many things at the same time, it will show you a different direction and will hinder your progress."
He went to his weapon rack and pulled a sceptre made from magical old oak tree. Then he went to the armour side and pulled a black cape and several other artifacts that added stats to his initial one.
Stephan stared at his new stats, dumbfounded. The new boots increased his speed and his cape hood caused his defence to increase as well. The weapon made his strength stats increase with the help of the artifacts that were hung around the orb; a flower and a feather.
"I think this is good for the payment now give me that recipe. The paper is in danger in your hands."
Right when Stephan gave the paper back to the mage. Gillibrian and Agandaur finally opened the door. They were trying to shard to open it but the thing was unbreakable. They fell on their faces but jumped on their feet quickly. The elf had his fists ready alongside Gillibrian since they didn't have weapons.
Stephan smiled at the intruders. "Since you got what you want, disappear from my sight," the mage pushed them all outside the tower using his magic. In a moment, they were in front of the tower without even bothering to come out the stairs.
"What did you do human mage? Don't tell me you sold your years to him."
Stephan smiled enigmatically. The two didn't understand what the price was but they weren't satisfied because their debt wasn't paid. "It seems your debts aren't paid yet," he said. "I will leave it to something important, both of you. Since I need you to do something important in the future, I will not speak of the debt now and don't think about it as well."
Once outside, the travelling party noticed the quietness that settled around the tower. It seemed that the master mage of these areas shut himself in to try the recipe. However, Stephan didn't write the dosage of each and the mage didn't notice it. Now, he had to experiment for days maybe months to reach the result.
"I think we should get out of here faster," Stephan glanced back at the end of the tower and hastened his pace; he had to get out of there before the mage noticed the absence of the amount of each plant used in the potion.
"Why? Don't tell me you cheated the man," Gillibrian said.
"I don' think he did that, stinking dwarf. You know the lad saved our lives so we should have some fate in him," Agandaur looked at Stephan with a genuine smile. "do you mean we should get to the quest quickly? I believe we need to do so."
Stephan wanted to nod to Agandaur strange faith in him but the voice of the mage already echoed in the tower reaching their ears.
"You stinking brat, how dare you to give me a lacking recipe?"
"Okay, now we should move fast," Stephan grinned enjoying the event. Still, he didn't know the sceptre was also not genuine. It had just a few uses before breaking completely. Therefore, the mage and Stephan were square.
They ran following a narrow path northwards until they were surrounded again by the tall grass and the dense undergrowth of the Darkwood forest.
The mage on the other hand grinned. "I didn't expect that I would be conned as well. That brat is good."