Edward came back to the battlefield after successfully hunting the last surviving monsters. A small crowd was waiting for him in front of Gobéliard’s opened doors. Silence reigned as the people gathered were still stunned by Edward’s seemingly impossible feat. If somebody had told them such a story, they would have accused him of being a drunken lunatic, but having seen what happened with their own eyes, they could only laboriously convince themselves they weren’t dreaming.

The awkward silence was broken by Leyla as she wended her way through the crowd, she didn’t hesitate and jumped at Edward, hugging him tightly not minding that he was covered in blood. Edward reddened not used to such displays, especially in front of so many people. However, he also missed Leyla dearly and hugged her back after a moment of hesitation.

“Edward it’s so good to see you back,” Leyla declared while smiling so brightly that it stunned Edward for a second. “With all those crazy monsters besieging the city I thought our time had come. I did my best to improve the city defenses but seeing how those monsters fought against you, the city would have collapsed if they went at it seriously. You were also gone for so long that I was worried something happened to you.” Leyla said all at once.

Edward smiled kindly. “You did amazing work. Gobéliard wouldn’t have been able to hold off without your improvements to the defenses. And those monsters didn’t hold back by kindness. They were afraid of your rune bombs, you had them in a stalemate. They were trying to use their army to wear down your munitions.”

“I’m glad you are back. Everything will be better from now on.” Leyla stated before pausing as she saw Edward’s thoughtful look. “It’s not over yet…” She whispered with horror realizing the truth thanks to Edward’s behavior. She squeezed his arm, “But enough of that, we will have time later. Go harvest their blood essence before it goes to waste, you have more than earn it.

Edward nodded silently, teleporting near the closest Mare Irae corpse. The blood essence had already spread leaking from its impressive wounds, mixing with the dirt, and decreasing in potency. He could hear Leyla take the lead from a distance. “Don’t you just stand there helplessly! Help me out to pick up all the javelins. Bring the wounded over here as well. There is so much blood essence that even the ground is drenched in it, we have more than enough to heal everybody and we can even make progress toward the next stage. Such a gift won’t come twice, let’s not waste it!”

A flurry of activities ensued, guards and adventurers alike running everywhere on the battlefield. Edward settled himself to absorbing the blood essence of the stronger monsters that had been able to use aura, leaving the rest for the others. Anyway, such weak monsters wouldn’t be of any help to him.

Even when they finished absorbing the blood essence and picking up the javelins the hustle didn’t stop. More teams were sent to butcher the monsters’ bodies, harvesting their scales, fur, and bones as materials. Edward’s jaw opened when other teams were sent to even dig up the ground. Much of the blood essence had been absorbed by the soil, becoming unavailable for the adventurers. However, Leyla had recently developed a new rune system to improve Gobéliard’s farming, countering the food shortage. Such soil was a premium to boost the growth of cereal and other vegetables even further.

As things calmed down a familiar group of adventurers came to see him, Aquamarine, Brian, Norte, and Charles were all here, and Leyla came back as well. Charles nodded solemnly to greet Edward, “You came just in time. We were having a hard time here.”

Norte chuckled. “What he meant by having a hard time, is that we were all convinced that we would die. Without Leyla’s amazing work at renovating the defenses we would all have been killed already.”

“Yes, it was horrible. The whole city was besieged by those monsters. We could feel the mental pressure even from the center of the city. Those Mare Irae were terrifying, their presence permanently looming even from the back of the army. It’s the first time I’m seeing such a gathering of monsters.” Aquamarine admitted.

I had forgotten about the Mare Irae terror field. It didn’t affect me at all. Maybe my domain protected me, or I’m so far above them in terms of aura that it failed to affect me.

“Not only that, it’s a first for monsters of different species to work like that. It wasn’t just a swarm, it was an organized army.” Charles added.

“Though, honestly, it’s just ridiculous. We were struggling to fight back, thinking we were down for, and you arrive lightheartedly and bam, problem solved, all the monsters are dead.” Brian complained. This made the group break into a laugh.

“Enough of us. Tell us what happened to you for you to become this strong. We were very worried after you were gone for so long. I tried to reassure Leyla, but after the monsters came…we thought you were either dead or stuck somewhere.” Aquamarine asked.

“Yes, judging from the state of your armor, I’m sure it must not have been easy for you as well,” Leyla added, gesturing at the prominent hole where the tarantula had struck him.

“Yes, I can’t say it has been smooth sailing. But it’s a long story. Let’s talk over a drink.” Edward proposed.

Thus, the small group departed in search of a tavern. People were making way for them, recognizing Edward. At this point, it would be impossible to find someone in Gobéliard who didn’t know who he was. Guards thumped their fists on their chests as a sign of respect, while kids looked at him with amazement, their eyes full of stars.

“Mom, I’ll be just like him when I grow up,” one kid declared while pulling on his mom’s clothes.

Edward smiled awkwardly while his friends laughed. “Look at you, you have become the children’s idol,” Leyla teased him playfully.

They reached the tavern, gathering around a low table. They weren’t the only ones celebrating. After suffering under the monsters’ siege, the population was rejoicing from the unexpected turn of the situation for the better. When they had almost given up all hope, the army that had assailed them disappeared like a bad dream with Edward’s return. Drinks were flowing, and people were cheering together, laughs could be heard even from the outside.

Edward retold the event that he had witnessed. Leyla already knew about the spiders, but the others were shocked to learn how a whole forest had been turned into a spider nest. They realized that Gobéliard being surrounded by monsters wasn’t an exception but rather the rule. This made them worried about the state of the world. How many places had already unknowingly fallen to the monsters’ sway? There was no way to know, the world had been a wild place even before the monster surge, many places staying unexplored. It hadn’t been unusual for small hamlets to huddle together in the middle of nowhere. Just like Agripin, such places wouldn’t have been able to survive through the continuously increasing number of monsters.

Their face whitened when Edward explained to them how he got the hole in his armor, a giant tarantula dragging him into its lair while he was paralyzed by poison. It wasn’t rare for adventurers to disappear on a mission, and never to be seen ever again, but usually their friends tried not to think about how the missing adventurers may have been eaten alive. Few that walked so close to death were able to come back to retell their story.

Their shock only grew when Edward described his fight with the Arachne, and how the spiders weren’t local monsters but rather aliens coming from another dimension. When Edward told them how such portals could be opened in random places right at this moment, dangerous monsters gushing out of them, their expression darkened. Their problems weren’t over with Edward’s return, it was only the beginning.

A grim silence descended on their area while the celebrations continued around them. Leyla was the first to break it. “I think it’s enough for tonight, it has been a long day. I don’t know about you but I’m exhausted. We still have work to do in the following days so let’s get some rest. As for the distant future let’s not worry about that for now, we just won the biggest battle in Gobéliard’s history and it deserves celebrations.”

The group dispersed, wishing each other good night. Leyla and Edward came back together. Usually, Edward was only sleeping a few hours by night, and he needed even less sleep now that he had broken through to the next stage. But this time, he made an exception, he had been away for a long time and under constant pressure while in the spiders’ lair. He cuddled with Leyla and managed to sleep for a good six hours, which was the equivalent of a sleep-in for him.

He had his breakfast with Leyla, no bacon was available since there was still a shortage of meat, however, Edward was able to taste different samples of pastries. The accelerated growth area that Leyla had helped to put in place had born their fruits, and the city wasn’t lacking in cereals and flour.

“You should give me your armor. I can’t let you walk wearing it when it has a big hole on display.” Leyla said while munching on a particular creamy pastry. “By the way, I looked into it, and I finally managed to produce self-repairing material. Your armor is due for an update.”

“Wow, that’s amazing!” Edward exclaimed genially impressed. “No matter what I do, I always end up with broken armor. It would be super useful if it was able to repair itself.”

“Yep, and you will look a lot more dashing. If it wasn’t for the presence emanating from you, you would look like an adventurer who had seen better time.” Leyla chuckled. “Though since we are able to sense a glimpse of your power, you look more like a powerful knight in need of rescue.” She winked.

“Would you be kind enough to help me out?” Edward asked with big pleading eyes. They both laughed.

“Actually, your talk yesterday about how the spiders wove their webs gave me an idea,” Leyla said after finishing her pastry. “I never envisaged a design on this scale, but it should be possible in theory. We could implement a rune design on Gobéliard’s scale to draw mana in. If we concentrate the mana enough, I think we could manage to make those mana crystals grow, securing us permanent access to mana crystals. Actually, it would be even better to draw the mana from further away rather than from the city directly, but such runes would be vulnerable,” Leyla thoughtfully tapped her finger on her chin.

“Does it matter if the runes are under a layer of material?” Edward asked.

“No, not really,” Leyla answered.

“Then why don’t you put the design underground? It would be out of range of usual monsters’ activities.” Edward proposed.

“See, that’s why I love you,” Leyla replied kissing him.