The usual large crowd was gathered at the entrance to the Den to welcome the new arrivals to their home and watch their reactions as they saw the interior for the first time. The rescued witches all looked so happy to see welcoming faces that Wolfe didn't have the heart to tell everyone to back off and at least let them in the door first, so the procession turned into a double file line, with resident witches lining both walls as they got to the first hallway that had been enchanted to improve its appearance.
"We will need a few more areas updated as well. There are a lot of new rooms to go over, and we would like the mana-gathering spell upgraded for the upper east wing. Plus, there is a second recreation area that we need you to take a look at with running tracks and a pool." Priya welcomed Wolfe back to the Den.
"I don't think that will be a problem. I will do the rooms right away so that our new arrivals can get settled in. There should be enough rooms for a few visitors as well since I'm sure the Covens will start sending someone to come spy on us soon enough." Wolfe agreed while opening the rolled design plan that Priya handed him.
It was a lot like the gym at the Academy, just a big sports facility for the witches to exercise and keep in shape without going outside. The area around the Den was becoming safer by the day, but it was still not a good idea to draw too much attention to themselves before the army had left for the season, so indoor facilities would be in high demand.
Wolfe took the plan to his room to look it over and noticed that the sports facility wasn't the only thing on the sheet. They had planned a new library and a lounge area as well, with lots of couches.
"Are these other areas already formed? I can update them as well, but we don't have any books to put in the Library." Wolfe reminded her while he mentally planned out how the sports facility would look.
"Mary brought a few with her, and we're making copies of them as fast as we can, but we will have to find a way to get more. Even a few copies for us to reference will be a good start." Priya shrugged.
Witch Magic could make paper easily enough, though Wolfe wasn't sure if it could copy text. From the sound of it, they were writing the copies by hand, which would take some time, but it would also be a good study method for the witches doing the work.
After writing it out a dozen times, they should have a pretty good idea of how every spell in the book worked, even if they had never studied it at the academy.
Wolfe and Priya smiled at each other as they listened to the witches' first reactions to the magic-enhanced splendour of the Den, and Wolfe realized that it was time that he got to work on enhancing the rooms.
"Follow me, and we will go through them as we reach them," Wolfe instructed. Before he got up, he tweaked the mana-gathering array to increase the density in the hallway that his room was in, as well as the one next to it, where the first group of witches who had come to the Den stayed.
They were all reaching the Second Rank soon, so the density wouldn't feel as suffocating to them, even if he doubled it from what it was. It would chase away most of their visitors, but not many people brought messages directly to someone's bedroom unless it was urgent.
With so many identical rooms and the basic furniture already made, it only took Wolfe a few minutes to update the sleeping quarters and reach the new cavern for the sports arena.
There wasn't much for him to do here since they had done most of it with Earth Magic already. All they really wanted from him was a fancy crystal appearance for the bottom of the pool, which was a pain to do with their magic, and a fake sky for the ceiling.
Priya, or whichever Second Rank witch was working on this project, had made marble walls and pillars, as well as very well-crafted furniture and a soft sand running track. Terrible for actually running on but great for working your leg muscles. There were workout benches and free weights as well, all magically created, and even piles of towels for the pool, which they hoped would be open soon.
Wolfe put a layer of off-white translucent crystal created with Air Magic over the flat blue surface that was already in the pool, giving the underwater surfaces a shimmering appearance and the water a light blue tone, and then got to work on the ceiling.
There was an artificial sun on the roof, a natural light spell cast by the witches, and Wolfe wondered what he should do for a view.
"Does that light move?" He asked.
"It was too hard to make it match the natural sun's movement, so it's fixed in place and on at all times," Priya explained.
That made it easier, so Wolfe created a partially cloudy sky illusion, with moving clouds that would avoid that one spot in the sky, keeping the light in the room even no matter how the clouds shifted.
Each cloud was its own layer of the spell, and the layers really added up before he was finished and had ensured that none of them would overlap and cause chaos with his plan. It was an excellent workout of his array creation abilities, and Wolfe was quite impressed with the false sky that he had come up with.
"There we go, a workout room under sunny skies. If you want to get really fancy later, I can update it to have a twilight and night cycle as well, but that would make actually using the room more difficult, even if I'm sure some would be delighted with the idea of a moonlight dip in the pool." Wolfe joked.
"We can hold off on that until we need to expand facilities again. They've expanded the gardens as well, but those can be left in their natural state. They don't need to be anything fancy." Priya smiled while staring at the pool.
"There are swimsuits on the tables over there. You might as well be the first to test out the waters."