He can be precise enough. And he'll just come back and pay again if it doesn't work right.

"I'm going to use it to make a computer. We had 'em everywhere back home. I think they're great, very handy. It'll probably take a while and a lot of expensive trial and error though."

"Another ring if you'll tell me what they do?"

"Lots of stuff. Mostly math. But you can do amazing things with enough math done fast enough."

"Huh, it'd be interesting to see that. Remember I'm interested when you get it working. I might have a use for something like that."

"Sure. Big cities are bigger markets, but I have a good memory. Also, If I want to make them at any kind of scale I'll need full time structure mages eventually. A lot easier to get pure monocrystal silicon with you guys around."

"Yeah, I bet it is."

The mage looks pretty skeptical and just a bit hopeful.

"I think I'll be off to find Haria and get to work. Nice meeting you."

He goes outside and lurks, watching, and listens to the language tutorial.

Someone with the illusion magic symbol dyed into his fur comes wandering coastward eventually.

Advertising like that is convenient. "Hullo, I'm looking to pay you to make me a privacy item."

"Sure. How hidden do you want to be?"

"Very. And ideally something for my workshop as well, when I get around to making a workshop."

"You want something that'll hide the area around it or something that'll hide the area inside it?"

"Just the first, for now. And I have just the thing." He brings out an amulet with an image carved into it of an eye, but with a line through it. "Made it myself. Felt appropriate."

"And do you just want to hide from knowledge magic? Or do you want to be hidden from ordinary sight, too? Do you want to be audible? How big an area do you want the illusion to cover?"

"Hiding from knowledge magic should be enough." His pre-existing sneakiness will have to do for visual and audio stealth. Feels more correct, that way. "Hmm, five foot radius? Can you make it only on sometimes, say, only if it's touching skin?"

"It'll cost you more and to be honest with you it's possible to circumvent those kinds of designs, always on is safer. This one's for you to wear? Do you have an object you want the spell for your workshop on now or do you want to wait and have me enchant the room?"

He pulls out a second amulet made of a different kind of stone.

"Well, I can always stash it somewhere if I need to be knowledge-magicable, sure, always on. And this is for the workshop. But the workshop will be pretty big."

"How big? And do you want knowledge mages that you've allowed into your workshop to be able to use magic? Or will you be able to take anything out that you want a knowledge mage to look at? And do you want to hide the workshop from ordinary senses?"

"Fifty meters or so, at least eventually. I might find a smaller place before that. Yes. No. No - except for muffling sounds, both leaving and coming in."

"You want to wait and get that done on the walls. Unless you desperately need to start work in a tent somewhere before you can afford a room. If you insist, I'll do it, but I really think you'll regret it."

"Yeah, pass on that. The personal one will cover me just fine for now."

He has to go hunt some creature for blood and read up on computing manufacturing so he's not charging in blind, first. Getting that block of silicon was probably too hasty, though it's not like it was that expensive.

He can get the personal illusion surprisingly cheap, just a few dozen rings. Almost anyone can be hidden any time they want.

"If you like it you can tell people Haria the agerah made it for you." And he wanders townward.

"Sure, why not."

He goes off into the wilderness, looking for a medium-sized carnivore to drink up, and reading about early computing on his tablet.

There's a squirrel. There are birds. The woods give way to farms not too far away. Some of those farms have livestock, mostly sheep.

There are carnivores nearby but not the kind he can drink for free.

He's a vampire, he's fast. He keeps going. There's going to be big patches of wilderness somewhere.