Cerys blinked at him, then realized that her mouth was hanging open. She turned away from him and looked at her friend.

“He has a very good point,” Himeko told her. “Humans have lived in the face if danger for eons.”

“Shall we move along, then?” Sir Carter suggested, trying not to show his impatience, although it did manage to shine through. “We have to get your gear ready as well, and these tunnels are very long.”

“Sure,” Cerys said. She caught a glimpse of her brother, who was scowling and whispering with Bayani.

Sir Carter and the others began to help the teenagers with their packs, sorting through their gear and assisting them in donning the right items. James checked Himeko’s axe, and Nashtra helped ensure that Bayani’s lute was well-tuned. He offered to check Peter’s bow, but he was not in the mood to cooperate with the preparations. Instead, they waited until Bayani was busy helping him change, and Lord Ridley tightened the bowstring instead.

Then the old mage Calavus brought Cerys a heavy velvet bag. “This should be enough spell components for someone of your ability,” he told her. He also handed her a book of roughly-bound paper. “It is not the parchment that I would have liked, but the natural fibers in this paper will serve you well. I contains all the spells that you should be prepared to use.”

Cerys stared down at the book in awe. As simple as it looked, she had a feeling that it had been made just for her, and she felt that it was quite a privilege for her to have something that no gamer had ever had before. There were replicas and facsimiles, yes, honest attempts to made a medieval notebook, but who else had truly been to a magical word and received a real spell book?

“Th- thank you,” she croaked out, kicking herself for the way the words caught in her throat.