Edward was sitting cross-legged on his bed and had a small bead of aura floating in front of him. Sweat was forming on his forehead as the bead was bulging erratically. Finally, he lost control, and with a bang, a blast of air brought chaos into the room. The nearby chair was knocked on the floor, the door shook, and the pillow on the bed flew to the other side of the room.

The aura bead was small, so apart from the noise and the mess it didn’t make any real damage. Edward winced as he heard footsteps in the corridor. He had tried to concentrate his aura, but the only times he had done it was to produce a blast of air. He could indeed concentrate his aura but it was harder to maintain control of it. For now, his condensed aura only took the shape of a bead. He had tried to change its shape to a sword, but that’s when he had lost control and the bead had exploded.

A guard knocked on the door. “Is everything all right sir?”

Edward sighed and got up, opening the door. “Yes, everything is okay. Sorry for the inconvenience I was trying something and the result wasn’t what I was expecting.”

The guard eyed the mess in the room with curiosity but he didn’t make any comment. “Understood, sir.” The guard hesitated before adding. “If I may ask, could you refrain from such activities in the future? Repeated false alerts will become a problem for the security of the building.”

Edward sighed once more. “Dully noted.” He doubted that a mere guard would usually make such a demand on a predator, but it was a sign that the nobles’ oppression was over, and that ordinary people could do their job without fear of repercussions.

Where am I supposed to go now if I want to continue experimenting? If I stay in the city I will encounter the same problem, and it’s too dangerous in the wild. Jeez. He shook his head. I will have to go outside the city while staying in its proximity.

Edward closed the door before teleporting to the building’s roof. He looked around. I need an isolated but safe place. An island would be ideal, Egregius’ Folly is too far away but a simple rock outcrop will be enough.

He headed to the docks, running from roof to roof to avoid the pedestrians in the streets. Once he reached the sea, he formed aura steps above the water and continued to advance. He run alongside the coastline, going far enough not to be seen by patrolling guards, but not so far that he couldn’t see the city anymore.

He encountered several rock outcrops on his way. The waves were crashing against the cliffs on the coastline, eroding it slowly. In some places, part of the cliff had been cut off and surrounded by water. Edward chose such a place to settle. This should be enough not to get bothered.

Now able to focus, Edward went back to work. Again, he formed a dense aura bead in front of him, which he then tried to change into a sword. However, just like before, it grew unstable and exploded with a bang. The shockwave temporally halted the waves assaulting the cliff.

After several unsuccessful tries, Edward decided to change his way of processing. The aura beads are too dense. When I’m changing their shape, they inevitably become unstable and explode. I may succeed with more practice, but certainly not in a short time frame. Let’s try the reverse instead.

Edward took one of his daggers and elongated it with aura. He slowly poured more aura into it, attempting to increase the aura density. However, the aura blade simply grew longer instead without increasing in density. Edward tried to stop the blade growth while still adding more aura. The two processes were antagonists. He felt as if he was adding water to a glass while at the same time preventing the water from spilling everywhere when the glass was full.

He wasn’t without success. He did notice a slight increase in the density of his aura blade, but it couldn’t be compared to the density of the aura beads he had formed before. Edward scratched his head unsure in which direction to proceed. After thinking for some time, he decided to continue the exercises with the increase in density by forming the aura blade first since he was at least achieving slight success with this method. The method with the aura bead could be continued at a later time.

Edward decided to leave only when night had already fallen for several hours. He wasn’t a normal human anymore, his body had been enhanced several times by the monsters’ blood essence and he didn’t need as much sleep as before.

Even if the training was sometimes frustrating, in a world without smartphones or the internet there were a lot fewer distractions. Moreover, this world wasn’t kind to weak people. Growing stronger was the assurance for security, especially in a monster surge where the monsters themselves were growing stronger, and where all sense of normalcy was slowly crumbling.

Additionally, Edward felt a deep sense of satisfaction knowing that he was doing the right thing and seeing himself grow slightly stronger every day. He threw a last look at the sea. The night was clear and this world’s two moons illuminated the sky while surrounded by stars. Even though the sea was calm, its surface wasn’t still due to the occasional waves. In Edward’s view, the sea looked like a dark abyss, its depth inscrutable.

*****

The next day Edward said his goodbyes to Leyla and left for the Vipin Forest once more. Let’s make it quick, the distance to Oshle Tirion isn’t that far, I should be able to make it within a single day if I don’t encounter trouble.

Edward was alone and didn’t have to protect anyone, thus he decided not to stay on the path where he would be visible. He didn’t stray too far from it, but he ran directly inside the forest. The fact that he wasn’t on the path would have slowed down the advance of a normal human due to treacherous footing, but for him, it was the reverse. He was moving so fast that he was able to jump from tree to tree. When the trees were too far apart, he either teleported directly to the next one or climbed to the canopy to run on the branches and jump to the next tree.

Contrary to when he was escorting Agripins’ villagers, Edward didn’t project his aura around him. This time he didn’t need to confront monsters so he retracted all of his aura inside of him to go unnoticed. Not all monsters could sense aura, but lately, he had encountered more and more monsters able to use aura, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

Retracting his aura prevented him from sensing his surroundings, but his senses were now sharper than a regular human, so it wasn’t much of a problem. Besides, since he had no aura, monsters wouldn’t be able to sense him either, they would have to spot him directly which wasn’t an easy thing at the speed he was moving while under the cover of the trees. He did see occasional movements in the ferns or bushes, but he was moving too fast to see which monsters were causing it.

Using this method, he was able to reach Oshle Tirion before noon. The ruins hadn’t changed one bit since the last time, they were still overgrown by vegetation and his runes barriers were still there. The only difference was that the pile of Bloodmaws corpses he had dragged on the outside had disappeared.

It must have made a few monsters happy, free meals offered on a platter. At least, thanks to Leyla, I have a flamethrower now. I will be able to deal with corpses myself without taking the risk of feeding and attracting other monsters.

Thanks to his token Edward crossed through the first barrier blocking the way in. It was made with block runes and the more dangerous drain runes that he had installed back then. He crossed the hall entrance and frown when he saw Bloodmaws’ corpses stuck against the second barrier that had been engraved to prevent the Bloodmaws from going out.

There are still enough Bloodmaws roaming in the ruins for them to attempt to get out. With how many we killed and the size of the ruins I would have thought they would have grown spare by now. Besides what do they even have available to eat? Unless there is another exit they should all be dead thanks to starvation by now.

Edward felt his heart tighten. He had never explored the entirety of the ruins, deeming it too dangerous. The Damkinans possessed magic, and it was a race that had been desperate at that time, delving into biological engineering. Bloodmaws were certainly not the worst thing they could have produced.

If there was indeed another exit, Bloodmaws would have been able to spread into the world for all this time. He calmed down when he realized that he hadn’t encountered any Bloodmaw for a while. If there was another exit, it wasn’t situated near Agripin or Gobéliard.

Let’s deal with the corpses for now. A second exit is just a hypothesis anyway. The Bloodmaws in front of me are as dead as they can get.

Edward dragged the corpses outside to avoid filling the corridors with smoke, and he burned them with his rune equivalent of a flamethrower. Now that the path was clear, Edward delved once more into the ruins. Since there were no lights and since he could deal with the Bloodmaws he projected his aura around, probing his surroundings.

Edward had only entered the Damkinan’s library when he met a first Bloodmaw roaming around. He looked at the beast, its circular maw wild open and dripping with saliva, while its numerous beady eyes were watching him. God, I forgot how ugly they are.

Edward took out his daggers, enhanced them with his aura, and flung a two meters aura blade at the beast. The blade cut it cleanly in two, crossing through the monster without resistance. It dropped in two pieces, dead. To think I have struggled with such monsters. Now that I have aura blades they are defenseless. They can’t use aura, so they can’t defend against my attacks. And since I can control the size of my attacks, their own size and vitality are useless. They may be resilient, but that won’t do them any good if they are cut into two.

Edward threw a glance at all the books stacked neatly on the walls, and then at the Bloodmaw’s corpse. He sighed. I guess Leyla will have to wait. I should better investigate the ruins. If there is another exit I can’t let Bloodmaws spread everywhere.