The pathway outlined by the pillars of trees began to spread out towards the distance, surrounding what seemed like a massive woodland mansion and creating a sort of fence around it.

~Deer?~ Lucius wondered, as he noticed that many of the pillars closer to the mansion had very detailed depictions of deer-heads, with massive horns that created archways along the path.

~No… it’s probably the venari. Eikthyrnir’s den,~ he quickly realized. Though he hadn’t expected their den to look like this. Even if they were humanoids, it was uncanny just how humanlike the architecture was.

Apart from the multiple venari depictions, it was what you’d expect an earth millionaire’s forest home to look like.

It blended well with the surrounding areas, was a triple-storey architectural masterpiece, and was made from polished dark wood, a type of wood Lucius had yet to see around here.

~Did they copy this architecture from the owners of the forest?~ he hypothesized. After all, it wasn’t far-fetched that the humans in this world had similar infrastructure to the humans of his.

There were currently a few creatures working on the front of the building, they worked on the wood with practised and precise movements. Using a rhythm of taps, and knocks, to morph the wood they came into contact with. Almost like Elmando, though clearly a more powerful version, with the restriction of contact being added.

~Beavers?~ Lucius inferred, noticing the flattened tails that they were using to clap the wood.

~If we had a few of those, creating perimeter walls would be child’s play,~ he thought to himself, still following close behind the mole-humanoid he had been stalking.

The creature reached the main gate of the woodland mansion, where two venari guards were stationed. They were wearing green tunics, that looked to be made of vegetation at first, but clearly had a leather-like texture.

~Honour guards?~ Lucius inferred, looking at them from behind one of the tree pillars. The tunics they were wearing had interesting patterns engraved onto their fabrics, though they offered almost no protection. This was also true for the spears they were holding. They had beautiful crystals as a spearhead, though he doubted those would act well as weapons.

~Still, I’m not trying to start a skirmish here,~ he thought to himself, though that didn’t mean he was going to give up on trying to get in.

He had no doubt in his mind that there were materials of great value within the mansion. In fact, forget just trying to gain materials, he could probably find magically related objects as well.

His reasoning was that Eikthyrnir was someone of high importance within the council, so if anyone owned magical items, he would be among them.

~And who knows, maybe I can also rid myself of a yet-to-be enemy,~ he continued, as he snuck around the mansion walls, trying to see if there were any areas of weakness he could exploit.

Lucius had learned from his encounters with the necromancer, that it was better you get rid of a nuisance before they became one. And even though he wasn’t yet at war with the council, he knew that it was coming.

~And besides, I’ve been feeling awfully hungry lately,~ he thought to himself, noting that his earth sense could now pick up energy emissions coming from the guards. No doubt courtesy of his recent growth.

~Though I’d feel a little guilty for unnecessarily consuming their mana-cores. But if they become a threat, it’ll be beyond my control,~ he thought to himself sarcastically.

After sculking around the mansion a few times, he felt that he had a good enough outline of their security, and he had to say-

~Absolutely poor security protocols.~

There was only a single guard stationed at the guard tower, and even then the tower was erected in such a way that it could only give a back view of the mansion.

And apart from the two guards at the front gate, there was no one else patrolling the perimeter.

He gave them the benefit of the doubt, that they had concentrated most of their manpower inside the actual mansion.

~Still, I can’t just approach the walls. Maybe they have invisible guards.~

Though he honestly doubted this, as he wasn’t picking up any additional energy signals.

~Maybe that’ll work,~ he thought to himself, now eyeing a massive decorative shrub just outside the mansion walls. He had to admit, Eikthyrnir had an eye for flamboyance. If this was the den of a councillor, he wondered what the building of a king in this area might look like.

After slowly making his way to the shrub, he ripped it out of the pseudo roots that it had been given for anchorage, to use it as a disguise.

With this, he slowly approached the walls, making sure to keep an eye out for anyone approaching.

Once he was at the walls, he used earth sense to scan for nearby energies behind the wall.

~Good, clear,~ he thought, before calling out his solar crux and taking in a deep breath.

He cast [solar beam], however, an extremely thin, and focused version of it. in fact, it would be better to just call it a laser at this point.

He noted, that the super thin beam, was beginning to exhibit slight tinges of violet, something that had never happened before even when he put the utmost focus into his spells.

~I suppose I’m getting better at this magician thing,~ he thought to himself, as he used the laser to carve out an opening in the wall.

He wanted to make things quick, but it took great mental strain just to keep the laser continuous, much less move his crux quickly.

Though luckily there was very little chance someone would notice, as apart from a low humming sound, the laser strangely didn’t emit any sound.

~Yeah right, getting better at this my foot. I’m completely drained,~ he thought to himself.

He had put way too much power into the spell, after all, it was only wood he was cutting through. Still, he didn’t want to risk the laser not being strong enough and starting a fire.

Deciding that it would be too risky to continue on with depleted reserves, he switched to [Kumulipo].