We were quickly sorted as a 3 to 1 ratio of Earthlings that'd already been here for days to us meant discussions of capabilities, preferences, and previous experience were all held simultaneously and since we were all from earth also meant communication was a little smoother. Being able to speak the same language isn't the same thing as having lived in the same culture and historical time frame and so having similar ideals. This even gave us a little one on one time to ask a few more questions and get a feel for the situation. We found that discussions of improving life in the city had been had, several times already. Those that got here earlier were surprised to learn, as were we that there were some buildings that actually had plumbing installed prior to our arrival, but something more along the lines of a water closet than any modern appliance. Resources were in short supply here, as well as time and manpower, so town wide modern sewage and plumbing systems weren't going to be completed any time soon, but there were plans for implementation when time and resources allowed. Currently the only reasonable effort they'd agreed upon with the town was a separate channel being dug for sewage disposal that would have an offshoot of the river fed in to keep it flushed clean. Instead of dumping everything directly into the river.

While discussing my capabilities I had a deep twinge of guilt. I know it's a common thought to not want to share capabilities or shortcomings, but I still felt an extreme sense of guilt for it . In the end I shared that I could 'skry' from another's shadow I'd previously marked, so may be good at assisting with scouting but didn't really have much in the way of defensive or attack capabilities. With further discussion we decided I'd stay with the group designated to guard the woodcutters in the same direction that the attack group was exploring in hopes to scope out a rift they knew to be in the direction. In case of any issue with the attack group I could warn those on guard duty to send aid or at least give warning of a need to retreat. Edward surprised me in taking a position among the attack group. It did make sense with his capabilities seemingly focusing on speed but I wasn't expecting it due to his demeanor the night before. I had to remind myself that people are more complex than how they behave in one single scenario. People could surprise you, and in this case I was glad for it. Avery of course joined the Attack group as well. My shadows, who were obviously able to listen in and of course knew what I was thinking jumped into their shadows.

We met up with the Vauthian contingent of the attack, labor, and guard groups that were heading out and started the march toward the treeline. The day became rather dull after that, but with an undertone of danger. We saw a few rift spawn on our way out, but with the fastidiously cleared area they weren't able to ambush us and were dealt with quickly. The archers had pin-cushioned all but one of them before they'd even moved to attack. The other did move to attack and even got close but was still killed well beyond melee range. Which reminded me I should ask about some training. I didn't fancy myself a marksman by any stretch of the imagination. I'd never hunted with a bow, but I had some minor experience with a compound bow recreationally. I'd definitely need a refresher, and extensive training on hitting a moving target but it should be something I could at least do to contribute.

Arriving at our temporary lumber camp others bustled to either set up a perimeter or got their tools and saw benches set up for both taking down trees and working the wood afterward. Meanwhile I got as comfortable as I could, taking a seat at the head of one of the wagons. I was hoping the day of shifting back and forth between looking through the two shadows I had access to was going to be uneventful. I'd rather that than the alternative. As it would mean something horrible had happened. By lunch I was thankfully correct. The attack party had run into many more rift spawn in the forest but had been thankfully unharmed. Mainly thanks to their rigorous discipline in keeping an eye out in every direction and maintaining communication between different sections of the group. It did make advancing slower but everyone was more interested in staying alive than finding the rift sooner.

My shadows and I had actually made another minor discovery while we were keeping our vigilant watch. Throughout the day, when the attack group had stopped to discuss or survey the path ahead I'd been running little tests. For hours we had found nothing, but eventually one of the shadow clones had discovered a way to alert me. There wasn't another 'node' for this. The feeling was similar to how mana felt in my body, which I'd surprisingly found the shadow had as well. Although unsurprisingly it seemed, relatively, to be one hundredth the size of mine. The connection though was an omnipresent feeling throughout the shadows being, as if every direction lead back to me. For lack of a better term the shadow could 'yell' out into this 'connection' and I would feel a sense of alarm along with whatever the message was. It wasn't huge but was a godsend to me as it meant I could focus on something else while they were scouting. Up until lunch I'd been holding off actually doing anything else. Still testing out the newly discovered capability to become familiar with it. From time to time I still directly connected just to confirm something wasn't going awry. After lunch though I was confident that even focused on something else I'd be able to recognize and respond to such a message. The rest of the day I helped the labor group chop wood to keep myself busy.

Evening rolled around and the attack group came back to the day camp having found nothing. They'd hadn't yet searched half the area that the older records suggested the rift was in so it wasn't surprising they hadn't located it yet. My shadows merged back to my natural shadow which reminded me. It'd been nearly 8 hrs since I'd spawned a shadow last, or at least I was pretty sure it was. Looking inward I wasn't too surprised to find that my mana wasn't actually full again. Could have been something to do with the last two spawns having me actually sleeping between. Something we'd need to look into later as I didn't really have a way to confirm the passing of time yet. Asking Avery apparently others had a clock in their system. She confirmed it hadn't actually been 8 hrs yet. I'd just check once we got back.

We saw nothing out of the norm on the trek back to town which made sense as we'd cleared it on the way out. That didn't mean we were any less vigilant. There hadn't been a swarm in days so tensions were higher expecting it could come at any time. Upon our arrival back to town I saw the guards around town switching for the next shift. This got me thinking back to how I'd initially wondered why it'd be so hard for 1000 people to fend off these attacks and expand. But If an attack could come at any time guards would need to be rotated. Those guarding would not be able to do much else. Any excursion outside of town would need double or triple the people you'd normally expect if any measure of safety was expected to be maintained. Much of the effort back in town would need to be focused onto defense as well, further stifling growth. And that wasn't taking into account that despite their hyper vigilance they still lost people, materials, and effort if there was ever an attack that slipped through into town or a day camp. I was beginning to see why they'd been stuck at square one for so long.

Before heading back to Marilla's I had one of the others lead me to Kendrick's place. He apparently had a few old books He had let some of the others borrow before. They hadn't read them through as three were fictions and the fourth was a dictionary, but to me it would be worth it as my shadows could read them at night and I'd get some idea of cultural norms and ideals locally. At least that was the idea before grabbing the books and realizing these were not in English. Of course they weren't in English Caroline had plainly said they didn't know English, just had some system perk capable of translating. Apparently the others from earth had something similar that allowed them to read them cause they didn't mention that at all. Having run into this after watching some of those in the attack group level up today made me question myself all over gain. The fear of sharing weaknesses hit me though so I still took the books. Maybe I could work out some deal with Edward to help me understand the words or read it out loud to me. He seemed like a pretty trustworthy guy. When I got back to Marilla's he wasn't actually there yet. Must have hung out with somebody or gone off exploring. Marilla had some soup ready so I sat down and ate with her. Having set the books on the table she looked them over and pulled on out saying it'd been her favorite. Through some careful wording I convinced her to read it to me without implying I couldn't actually understand it. While doing so I had the shadows merge with hers and 'read along'.

Luckily as she was reading to me her system automatically translated everything and I was able to hear the story while my shadows did their best to assign meaning to the words on the page. I wasn't surprised to find after heading upstairs that they'd only caught a few conjunctions, prepositions, and other basic building blocks of the language. But that might be enough to start with. After quickly dealing with the sweat and grime of the day I headed to my room. There I found what I was hoping for I could spawn another shadow. Unfortunately I'd been too distracted with the lost in translation issue to remember after getting back to town so I lost a couple hours. Not that big of a deal. Another shadow joined the other two in the room staring at the four books lying out in front of them. But, I didn't go to sleep right away, it was still too early. I headed to the barracks instead, where I luckily found a few of the guards who provided me a bow to practice with and even gave me pointers for a couple hours. The next three days passed with this routine. There were of course some changes.

There was the increase in shadows tailing me and others throughout the day. Tonight I would be able to spawn my 14th mini me. Although that was hours off yet. I'd also gained a much better grasp on Vauthian text. I'd gone through a few more books swapping out my little temporary library a few times. I'd sent the fiction books back to Kendrick, having read them to Marilla to confirm my understanding. I hung onto the dictionary though, after confirming that was fine with him. As well as asked about some others who I could borrow from. Unfortunately nearly every book was either some piece of fiction, an unimportant document regarding some local affair, or a description of the long past which was about as poetic as it was historic. leaving lost of uncertainty as to it's validity. There was one book the master blacksmith let me borrow begrudgingly that described rune working but it was more of a diary of his progress rather than any kind of instruction manual or educational text. It did contain some rudimentary sketches of some runes though. Not just the physical engraving that would bind it to the piece either. There were 2 dimensional representative drawings of what he said his system helped him see while working it into the metal. They reminded me of the strange filter vision my shadows had. Which prompted me to do the testing I'd committed to today.

While my shadows were following around Edward, Avery, and 11 of the other Attack group they were periodically looking at them in their shadow vision. Small bursts help not blow their little shadow minds. The imagery I was getting back was slowly getting clearer and more cohesive as the day went on. It seemed the spherical, line view, and multiple others in between and beyond were different angles or wavelength of viewing the same thing. I was hesitant to call it the soul or any such thing. But the imagery, especially the spherical one was heavily implying it. We'd been focusing on mainly trying to get to and keep a single wavelength focused as quickly and as long as possible. We'd found one by accident that looked like an ectoplasmic humanoid blob with strange protrusions that didn't look too far off from what the blacksmith had documented as actual runes. It was during one of these points where the shadows were particularly focused on this that all hell broke loose.

There had just been a small skirmish with a reasonably large group of rift spawn after which the attack group was regrouping. With a good perimeter set up the shadows had taken the opportunity to give the majority of their eyes to the task. The problem wasn't even that nobody was paying attention. Warnings did come from those on watch and the fight had started. But it quickly became apparent that something was very wrong as the warning had come from every direction at once. Not only that but it was clear that there were larger groups in every direction than the previously fought group. The leadership did the best they could. Tightening the formation and pushing in a single direction, hoping to punch through one side fast enough to not be pinchered fully. I had of course informed the guard group who had immediately begun evacuating the labor group while sending a few of the fastest runners back to town so they could prepare. It wasn't enough though. The Shadows were showing me the attack group wouldn't be out in time. Somebody would need to act. As the expendable man on the team I would need to act. My shadows begrudgingly separated themselves from their rides drawing gasps all around.