The night went pretty quickly and I managed to make an enchanted book for everything that I was shown, and I could already see the progress:
_______________________________________________
SKILLS
_Crafting lvl 4
28.530/100.000
_Enchanting lvl 1
50/100
_Brewing lvl 2
110/1.000
_Trading lvl 4
9.500/100.000
_______________________________________________
I was halfway to the next level since I've done another protection book besides the first one. The only one that I managed to memorized how to write it.
It wasn't too hard to memorize them if you tried. The hard part was writing everything like a printer, the exact same way as the original one.
Alexander, the name of the noble father, showed me what happened when I gave an imperfect page to the enchanting table.
It was anti-dramatic, to say the least, the enchanting table didn't make the book float like the others, it just let it fall down like a normal item, I don't know how it knew that it was wrong but it didn't give me an enchanted book.
"I think that's enough enchanting for today, at this speed you'll be able to get to your goal in about a week. You should go and meet with your worried friend since he kept asking about you ever since he woke up."
"I completely forgot about Froggy! Thank you again for your teachings Lord Alexander, I'll meet my friend as quickly as possible."
He just smiled at me and waved me goodbye as I was leaving the room.
As I was walking along the long hallways, I realized two things.
This place was huge with lots of rooms and hallways, and I also realized that I was lost.
"Is this place a maze? Maybe I can ask a servant to guide me."
But there was nobody around me. I walked more and saw a doorway that led outside to a beautiful garden.
"Maybe I'll find someone outside working in the garden."
I walked on the gravel path towards the fountain that was in the middle of the garden, there I finally found a person.
She was wearing a white robe while looking lost at the sky.
"Sorry to bother you miss, but could you point me the way towards the guest's rooms?"
The women seemed startled by my sudden presence and looked in panic at me. She then started to study me more carefully, especially around my nose area.
"Yes, I think I can help you with that. I'll do something better, I'll lead you there."
And before I could respond she was already on the move toward the building. I didn't want to get lost again so I quickly followed her.
We didn't have to walk for too long before we started to see more people working around the palace, but they all seemed to look differently at us. Or more precisely at the lady that guided me.
Then the servant that called me the other day to meet the lord came to us.
"I'm glad to see you doing well miss. May I ask you what brought you outside of your recovery room?"
"Hello there Jeremiah, I left that room since I felt cramped, I'm perfectly healthy now I don't need to stay looked up in a room, actually I feel better than ever. Now, if you'll excuse me I have to guide our hero to the guest's room."
Jeremiah tried to talk back but didn't manage since the lady started to walk away clearly not interested to continue the conversation.
I followed along, but this time more cautiously.
"I'm sorry that I didn't recognize you miss. I may be disrespectful with my sudden request."
"Don't be sorry, when you first saw me I looked completely different, I'm embarrassed to be seen at such an ugly state. But I wanted to thank you two for saving my life. I don't know what my husband would've done with me if I stayed a zombie for too long. We don't look too kindly on people that keep monsters alive intentionally."
For the rest of the trip, we walked in silence until we arrived at a door that I recognized.
I gently knocked and a voice responded from the other side.
"Who is it?"
"It's me, can I come in?"
I heard footsteps running towards the door and then it was opened.
"Thank the System that you're ok, where have you been the whole night? I checked your room but it was long empty, and when I asked the servants they told me you were summoned to the household office. Why did it last so many hours?."
Only after he finished his rantings did Froggy see that I was not alone.
"I see you two get along quite well. I came here to thank you from my heart for saving me. I don't know how to even repay you two back."
"There's no need to thank us. We were glad that we could help, and our rewords are currently being paid, so you don't need to worry, you can focus on recovering so everyone in this estate would feel more at ease."
Froggy responded awkwardly.
"If you say so, I'll do as you suggested. Thank you again for saving my life."
She then bowed deeply to us before leaving.
"It feels good to save a life, and it feels good to hear a gratitude interested of an insult."
Froggy said absent-mindedly, which made me realize that he's been suffering ever since he became a witch.
Even if he chose to isolate himself, the parting curses and hate didn't leave him in his isolation.
"Yes, maybe if you keep doing this you'll change your reputation to something better."
I tried to be helpful, and that made Froggy think about something, which I guess it was better then getting depressed.
"I was with sir Alexander, the head of this household to learn enchanting. I managed to enchant five books."
I said that as I showed him a book that I made.
"Protection 1, that's a pretty good start you only need some armor to put it on and then it's perfect. How long do you think it would take for you to get to level 3?"
"From what I've been told around a week. Which I guess it's good since I have to get back to my friend as quickly as possible."
"A week? That means that they heavily invested into you."
This made me a little confused. I mean enchanting is not easy as in the game but I don't think it's too hard either, once you get the hang of the writing rules you can just copy the enchantment that you want and then level up pretty fast.
"Of course, from what I can understand it would take around a month to get the first two levels on the enchanting skill, we can't raise cows easily in the desert so the only leather we have it's from horses, camels, and bunnies. The first two are too good for transportation to be raised for lather and the bunny can only give you a fraction of one leather piece. And the fact that Sir Alexander teaches you directly shows his dedication to this since he has to take time from his busy schedule to make time for you."
Once I heard all of that I realized how much they invested in me. I was too used to the game mindset where everything is easy to get, where you could afford to throw items out.
But not in this world, it's not as easy here, but it's still possible.
"I didn't think about that. Did you get your ingredients?"
I tried to shamelessly change the topic.
"Yes I did, I got a lot of nether warts which are the base for most potions."
He responded happily. Which made me remember something.
"Oh yeah. I guess I could give you those since I can't use them anyway."
I said that while I handed him some of the brewing materials that I looted from the nether fortress.
"Wh-whats all of this? How did you get them, are you royalty by any chance?"
I could see panic starting to gather in his eyes which was not something I expected. I had to come up with an excuse quickly.
"No I'm not, don't worry. I have a special job called Trader that allows me to access rare trades that you wouldn't normally find. And those are some of them. Maybe you can make me some potions if you feel like you have to pay me back."
He was still shocked by the new wealth but nodded his head. And after some hesitation, he took out something that I did not expect to see from him.
An enchanted diamond sword.
"I'm sorry that I kept it from you, but this sword was with the monster besides you. You can have it."
He then handed it to me.
Once I read the enchantments I was shocked, to say the least, it had sharpness 3 unbreaking 2 and even mending to repair itself.
"This-this Is an amazing sword! Are you sure you want to give it to me?"
"It was from the monster that you defeat it, so I just returned what was originally yours. I just feel bad now since I wanted to keep it for myself. Don't worry I'll still make you potion as well."
He said awkwardly, which I didn't know how to react to. I don't think I defeated the monster fairly, I didn't stand a chance when I fought him, I took a big gamble with the portal move. If I was killed before I could close the portal I would've brought a catastrophe to this world that I think it was not ready to deal with. But the sword was too good to just refuse it.
"Thank you."
We then went to our separate rooms where I proceed to take a nap to recuperate some of the lost energy.
______
The next few days were spent trying to memorize the four enchantments and leveling up my Enchanting skill, everything was smooth sailing I managed to memorize two of them and I made fewer mistakes with my measurements. I even managed to level up my skill halfway in the second level.
But everything good must come to an end. On the fourth day, an envoy full of guards heavily armored with enchanted iron came to this palace.
It was an envoy from the royal family, the sultans daughter.
"I greet the Alexander ruler of this house."
"I greet the daughter of the ruler of this nation, Cleopatra. What brings you to my humble home?"
The two nobles greeted each other respectfully.
Froggy and I were listening from the corner trying not to gather their attentions.
"I heard a miracle has happened here, and I wanted to see if it was true."
Alexander didn't look too happy to hear that.
"Indeed it's true, tragedy has struck my house where my wife was infected. But once all hope was lost a miracle happened that brought her back to the living."
"This is a fascinating story indeed, where are the heroes that helped to bring such a miracle?"
I don't think Alexander mentioned us anywhere, so how did she know about us?
"They're not available right now I'm afraid."
"Not even to meet the princess of this kingdom? I'm sure they'll make some time to meet with me. From what I know they haven't left yet."
The air started to get tense around the room, everyone looked uncomfortable with the execution of the two nobles.
"Jeremiah, call our guests here if they can."
The servant made a small bow before coming to fetch us and brought us where we last wanted to be, the center of attention.
The princess was tall wearing some red enchanted leather armor, that was matching with her long red hair.
"Oh, how lucky of us! They could meet us after all. I'm glad to see you two heroes helping my kingdom. As a reward, I'll invite you two to the royal Palace!"
Everyone was in shock, while Froggy and I did not feel too comfortable with the sudden invitation.
"Thank you for your generosity, your majesty. But I'm afraid we have to refuse the invitation, I have to get back to my people to say that I'm safe."
I tried to reject the invitation as politely as possible.
"I'm sorry to hear that, but I didn't ask you. I ordered you."
Once she said that her smile dropped and the guards behind her took out their swords pointing them at us.
"What's the meaning of this? You dare raise your swords in my house? Do you want to start a war!"
Alexander yelled with an angry voice. His guards also started to take out their swords.
"Calm down sir Alexander, I promise their absolute safety. It's just that my father wanted to meet them in person. The sooner the better, so you better not stand in my way in case you want to cause trouble for your city."
The princess told him with a threatening voice.
The noble after a few intense moments of internal conflict, decided to order his men to put their swords down.
"I'm sorry heroes, but I have to priorities my house first."
This left a bad taste in my mouth.