We walked for another two days before the scenery underwent a change. The forest slowly vanished behind us and the area ahead became austere and flat. There was open ground for as far as the eye could see. Only the occasional tree graced our view.

The sky was calm and blue. There were very few clouds in the sky and the sun shone down on us. This was a mild and beautiful day. It was odd to think a war could be fought on a day such as this one.

Encounters with monsters increased by the day. Our party remained strong even without Julian, who we sometimes passed while he worked hard at his drills. There were dark bags under his eyes and his face constantly shaped itself into fake smiles.

It seemed the training he was undergoing was quite intense. Enough that someone of his former attitude was now acting the part of a puppy. Julian had become a yes man who didn’t dare let out the slightest peep.

I caught him glancing in my direction and I smiled; in response, he gave me back an even bigger smile. The bully in him had been broken, or at least suppressed.

According to reports from our scouts, the main force of monsters was only a day away. Our squadron’s mission was to push onwards to Dragon’s Pass and set up camp there. I wasn’t sure how that would be accomplished, but I didn’t ask questions.

In fact, the entire goal of the army was unclear to me. I did know we weren’t alone in this regard though. All of the top guilds had but a single squadron going on ahead into the pass. The reason behind this thinking hadn’t been released to anyone, though.

The following day, we marched into a valley whose walls rose gently at first, but steeply by mid-day, on a route carved out by a fast-flowing but narrow river. In the far distance, a line that I had taken for vegetation resolved itself to be a wall of beasts in front of us. The situation was eerie. These were monsters that would no doubt fight each other to the death over territory, and yet here they were side by side, brothers in arms.

That there was something controlling them all didn’t need to be said. But what creature? What deity had the ability to do so? Was it even a living being, or just the will of the planet itself?

I wouldn’t get an answer from anyone around me, even if I bothered asking, so I kept those questions buried in my head. Faced with the massed horde of creatures in front of us, my second biggest concern was: how would we sleep safely at night?

The answer came after another couple of hours marching. The caravans had been loaded only with food and carried no materials for building any kind of wall or fort. It seemed the mage in Rhea’s party had the answer to my concern.

She cast an earth magic spell that formed walls of clay a dozen feet high. We were suddenly inside of our own little compound. I guessed that she could even have encased the entire structure like a dome if she had wished.

When I expressed my relief, it seemed that one else around me had shared my previous discomfort. They were familiar with the spell. I was the only one out of the loop. I didn’t even know the name of the mage, let alone knowledge of the extent of her abilities.

Julian was finally allowed to return to our party, and he was much quieter than he previously had been. We sat around our own campfire in a circle; it was eerily quiet.

“Thank you for before,” I addressed Joy. I had put off expressing my appreciation of her assistance, because I hadn’t known when to approach her. In fact, I had expected that she would seek me out to clear any misunderstandings. That had never happened of course.

“It’s fine. You let me see something amazing.”

“What did I miss?” Julian asked.

“He’s an enchanter,” she said. “A gifted one.” In her voice was none of the disappointment from before.

And all of a sudden, the docile attitude Julian had been presenting to the world vanished. “Enchanting is no big deal. Runecrafting is truly difficult.”

He glared at me and I refused to take the bait. Why should I? I couldn’t understand why Julian felt the need to make this a competition anyway. He seemed disappointed, but I felt he was playing a child’s game. Was I a ten-year-old who couldn’t refrain from snapping back boastfully? Of course not.

My ignoring Julian’s provocation seemed to make him madder, and he started to ramble on incessantly. It was then that Joy sent me a message through telepathy. I knew that Mages could have the telepathy spell from when Lady Briele had used it on me, but this was the first time I had felt Joy in my head. The feeling was that of an intimate whisper in her voice. He just wants to challenge you to runecrafting and beat you. Humor him so he’ll shut up?

I felt like I was being thrown under a bus, but everyone was suffering with Julian’s rambling. Maybe also giving Julian an easy win was an opportunity to mend our group’s relationship. I was a terrible actor though, “Oh yeah? Well, uh, runecrafting is for noobs,” I said.

Julian had his arms crossed and both eyes closed as he rambled into the night. As soon as he heard my response a single eye opened. It was eerily similar to a child checking if their tantrum was working or not.

“So, you think enchanting is harder?” He asked.

“Yep.” It wasn’t what I truly thought, I actually didn’t know.

“Then let’s have a competition, right now.” And Joy wasn’t wrong. It was likely he had pulled this little maneuver before. Amber and Rodrigo shook their head at his shamelessness while Joy couldn’t help but laugh.

“Alright, how should we compete?” I had zero idea about runecrafting. “I’ve never even seen a rune before.” And this was the truth.

I was basically a guildless country bumpkin with no experience. That caught him off guard and he sat in thought for a moment. “Alright, how about this… I have my runecrafting book here. if you can form even the most basic rune then I will consider it your win.”

I didn’t fully understand, but I took the book from his hand and started to browse. Runecrafting was also an application of mana, but in a different form. It required incredibly fine control and finesse.

Runes were formed by ‘writing’ mana. The shape itself was dictated by the type of rune you were forming. This was unlike enchanting where you simply had a cloud of mana, and that mana needed to be a certain density and property.

Runecrafting required very little mana, but it required fine mana control. The entire process was dictated by you, and the difficulty lay in forming and maintaining the shape entirely. Once the shape was formed, you finished the rune by imbuing it onto a piece of gear.

There was an added difficulty past the fine control though, and it was understanding. The shape of a rune was complex. You might look at a rune and never understand it, not even after studying it for your entire life.

When you looked at a rune you didn’t understand, it might look like a chaotic mess of lines with no purpose. But once you understand, every line had a purpose, every bend and turn and connection was a means to an end.

“Are these rules even fair?” Joy suddenly asked. “Didn’t it take you six months of studying to form your first rune?”

Julian coughed, “…something like that.” He was more shameless than I thought.

Winning the challenge didn’t matter to me, but I found the information in the book intriguing. From looking at a few example runes I could tell what ‘understanding’ meant.

It wasn’t that most runes were blurred, but rather, they just looked like random scribbles on the page. There was, however, a single rune that I could definitely understand. The feeling was peculiar.

The rune in the book was already drawn, but I could somehow understand how it was drawn: what order the strokes were made in; where the lines connected; and which line they connected with.

This felt like asking someone to write down the number 8. Everyone knew how to do that, but could you look at a number 8 after the fact and pinpoint exactly where their pen first touched the paper? How the line was drawn? If they drew it in two strokes, or if it was one fluid motion? That should be impossible, even more so for a rune that looked perfectly crafted. It was just one solid symbol, completely seamless, “It’s fine, let’s do it his way,” I said.

Julian’s eyes suddenly perked up in delight, no doubt hoping my voice had just betrayed an over-confidence that was about to be painfully humbled. Little did he know that fine mana control was turning into one of my specialties. I held the book out to show them, “I’ll draw this rune.” I said.

“But…” I added, “shouldn’t we make a bet to make this interesting?” There was a confidence bubbling up inside me. Something told me I would be able to draw the rune.

Julian was a cautious creature, “What do you suggest?”

“How about if I win, you give me your runecrafting book?” Runes had suddenly taken on a new interest for me after reading the introductory contents of the book.

Julian paused to look at me and seemed to think very hard on the bet. I had never taken a look at runecrafting costs, but I knew that runecrafting was considered a rich profession. If there was no cost from materials, then the cost of learning them must come from books such as this, which provided the form of runes.

What I found particularly interesting about Julian’s book was that I could only remember a single rune from the dozens I had seen: the one that I had experienced as a complete and meaningful rune. That brought me to another thought.

Where did runes come from? What kind of knowledge was required to write a book of runes? If they were somehow incomprehensible without the flash of insight I had experienced, did that mean you couldn’t jot down the rune without understanding? That you couldn’t simply trace or otherwise copy them. I had another thought too, were there runes in the world which had never been understood, and therefore never recorded. Even if discovered – as drops from monsters? – was their meaning still hidden to the world?

Julian had finally come to a decision and his asking price, “If I win, you give me seventy-five thousand Zeny.”

“So steep?” I asked. “You’re asking me to do something in one night that you took six months to do.”

Joy sent me another message, His rune book is special, and it was specially written for him by the Valkyrie guild. If it were to sell at auction it would be worth somewhere around seven or eight hundred thousand Zeny.

That was a much larger figure than I expected. And I still didn’t understand why Joy was even telling me this information. It would be easy to convince myself that she was on my side, but deep down, my intuition was that Joy liked excitement. She was stirring the pot for her own enjoyment.

“Fine, I can do that.” The price tag of the book made the challenge a thrilling one. This was no longer about Julian having the satisfaction of beating me. Now, I wanted to win. I held my finger out in front of me without even asking to see the book again. From complacency, Julian’s face suddenly registered alarm. The fact I could remember without the book meant I understood the rune.

He had probably been expecting me to squint over the book in full concentration, doing my best to imitate a rune, element by element. That wasn’t the case at all, and instead I started to draw in the air. My finger moved up and down and left and right with a fluid motion that I was sure matched the rune.

The problem was I didn’t know how to form the mana. I could draw the strokes from memory, even in their correct order, but I couldn’t form the mana. I looked at Julian, “This is fine right? You didn’t say I only had one attempt.”

He wiped the sweat from his brow, “Right, that wasn’t a part of the rules… but we don’t have all night.”

I closed my eyes and had an inspiration: I summoned a fireball to my hand. I thought hard about how the mana moved, what it felt like, all the intricacies. I contemplated for a dozen minutes. When I opened my eyes, I started to draw again.

This time, a fine thread of mana escaped my fingertip and symbols were forming in the air. It remained attached to me like a thread. I found this part incredibly easy to execute. It was no different from manipulating a cloud of mana for enchanting.

The difficulty came in the next step. This rune required two strokes. I needed to fully separate the mana from my control, and then start drawing again from a different part of the rune. If I failed to do so, my half-completed rune would completely shatter.

I carefully removed my finger the a half-rune floated in the air. There was no time to think about anything else at all, but I knew Julian was sweating heavily now. My finger remained held high in the air, just to the side of my creation and I started to draw again.

The rune was coming together beautifully, but it wasn’t easy by any means. My eyes felt strained and I felt a strong headache coming on. I was on the homestretch. My finger slid across in the air and I attached the final connection between the two parts.

There was a flash of light as the rune formed in the air. It suddenly became one solid form. There was nothing different about it at all from before the moment of connection, but I could tell it was ‘complete’. Despite a surge of triumph, I couldn’t help but let out a groan from the pain.

My head was killing, but I had done it. There in front of me was a rune waiting to be imbued, unfortunately, I had no idea how to do so. “Is it my win then?” I asked.

Julian was shocked and his face was pale. This was something he never expected to happen. Would Rhea chew his ass out again for losing the book? Probably. Was it my problem? Absolutely not.

The rune shattered in the air after a short duration. It couldn’t be maintained very long on its own. It needed to be imbued as soon as possible. It would then borrow the structure of the gear to maintain its shape.

Rallying himself, Julian looked rueful, “Hmmm, looks like you were close but still failed in the end.” His shamelessness was on a level I’d never seen before. Even I knew from a short paragraph of reading the rune could not maintain itself indefinitely. I hadn’t failed.

“Imbuing the rune wasn’t part of the bet.” I said.

“Your rune just shattered, everyone here saw it!”

Someone I wasn’t expecting to speak up now did so, “Hand the book over to Joseph.” It was Amber. There was a certain majesty in her voice. She was about to beat some ass if he didn’t listen.

Julian was stuck between a rock and a hard place. “How can I explain this to the guild?” When his ploy of cheating me didn’t work he turned towards the sympathetic route.

“I don’t know, but you should have thought about that in the first place. You bet and you lost.” Amber didn’t speak much, but when she did, she meant business.

Julian reluctantly handed the book to me and I accepted it happily. “Thank you.” I said to Amber.

“I didn’t do it for you. The Valkyrie guild has a reputation to uphold.” And then she turned away as if she didn’t intend to speak for the rest of the night.

Rodrigo seemed the most uneasy of everyone. I could tell that he agreed with Amber but he couldn’t help but feel bad for Julian at the same time. On the other hand, if popcorn existed there was no doubt Joy would be munching on it happily while enjoying the show.

“You should probably go inform Rhea of this now,” Joy suddenly said. “Get yourself ahead of the news. They will find out eventually, best if it came from your own mouth.”

Only after Julian walked away did she turn to me and ask, “Is there anything you can’t do?”

I didn’t have an answer, not because I could do everything, but because there was so much I couldn’t do.

The chilly night felt just a bit warmer than before. I slept well despite the ominous growls and calls coming from the wall of monsters.

I woke with sweat in every line of my body. The nights were chilly but the mornings grew hot. In a valley that ran east-west, there was now shade to hide the sun once it had risen above the earthen walls of our defenses and it shone down from above.

We were scheduled to travel further onwards today. Yet had the plans for us incorporated the line of monsters in our path? Perhaps they had. Because as the Valkyrie squadron marched towards what ought to have been a terrible conflict, the beasts in front of us showed no reaction, neither good nor bad. It felt like they were indifferent to us.

My expectation had been that a battle would be necessary for us to break through, but the monsters parted ranks. There was a clear path for us to travel between them if we so wished, but I really didn’t feel confident about this. It was too inviting, too trap-like.

The monsters ­­– or whatever was controlling them – had given us a frightening display of intelligence and confidence, and I was relieved when our march halted and Rhea sprang up on a rock for all to see. “This is not at all what we expected. On my authority, everyone will turn around and head back.”

This was a completely unexpected piece of news for us, but something must have changed. And it might have been that Rhea was informed of wider developments. There were hawks constantly delivering and sending information from the army to the guild leaders.

“I can’t in good conscious risk all our lives,” she added, as if having to justify a change in her orders. “So just my party will scout ahead and try to understand what we face. Our goal was to delay and disrupt this army, preventing it from advancing up the valley. Now we are here and they are encouraging us to go on… well it makes no sense.”

I agreed. The behavior of these monsters showed an intelligence at work and an even scarier control. In the wild, these beasts wouldn’t hesitate to rip Adventurers – and each other – limb from limb.

Yet here they were, edging away to allow us safe travel? It was completely nonsensical. Rhea made the decision that only her party would enter. Her intention was to rendezvous with the squadrons of other guilds who were reported to be ahead of us in Dragon’s Pass.

They were forming a raid of elite parties, and it was no doubt to take down a formidable foe. The fact we were being sent away from anywhere near that battlefield was a testament to the danger. Rhea could, after all, summon a barrier large enough to protect a city.

Without discussion, Rhea and her four party members disappeared within the army of monsters. No one moved, in case a battle should begin. Yet there was no fighting, no wanton slaughter. The beats simply closed up ranks as the Valkyrie team passed and they disappeared into the fold. I felt that I would not see Rhea alive again.

The rest of us began our retreat, as attacking the enemy now was pointless. They were too unified and outnumbered our forces by about a dozen to one. If the army of monsters did intend to advance, our best results would come through defense and guerilla warfare to slow it down while a major army of Adventurers formed in our rear.

We had to gain time—time to prepare and time to train ourselves, however little that was.

There were no cities this far west. The monster level was too high for any average person to reasonably reach this area. Our new destination, I was told, was a small outpost a day south-east called Skuld’s Hand.

The name of this settlement came from a nearby mountain that looked like a resting hand. There were four peaks with deep canyons between them: in normal times a remote leveling spot for those 55+.

The day after we arrived at Skuld’s Hand I heard of a new development. The wall of monsters had made their move and begun to advance. But instead of moving in one huge force, they had begun to disperse widely.

This posed a problem for us. How could we defend the land when there were so many monsters moving in so many different directions?

Too many monsters would slip through the cracks towards the eastern cities. Our leaders decided we had to match them as best we could, even though that forced to spread ourselves even more thinly than the enemy.

Each low-level group was paired with a high-level group. The midlevel groups were paired with one another. This balanced out our fighting ability. A squadron of 12-15 parties was broken apart just like that.

I found myself in a group of ten: my party and a high-level party. We headed north in an attempt to stop as many of the incoming forces as we possibly could.