Edward had stayed in Agripin for just over two weeks. Caspian had arranged a room where he could stay. It was in a dormitory near the guard station, the room was shared between four people. There were two bunk beds one on each side of the room and two cupboards against the walls at the back. One cupboard was shared between two people. There was no space problem for Edward since he didn’t have any belongings other than the clothes he was wearing when he came into this world.

One guard outfit had been given to him including a leather vest as protection. However, he would be responsible for its maintenance. If this outfit got damaged and wasn’t appropriate to wear anymore he would have to buy a new one with his own money. The guards were also given a lance and a dagger, this wasn’t much, but after having to fight with a stick and a stone Edward would gladly take it.

There was a small river on the East flowing out from the forest. It wasn't far from the village, people could go over there to wash their clothes. You could pay someone else to do it for you, however, Edward wasn’t swimming in money right now and had to do it himself.

As a guard, the pay was fifteen silvers per month. He had already got his pay for this month since he didn’t have any money and was in an awkward position. The economic system in this world was the same as in most fantasy worlds Edward had heard about. One gold coin was worth one hundred silver coins and one silver coin was worth one hundred copper coins. There was still one difference, in this world, they also had platinum coin, one platinum coins was worth one hundred gold coins.

Given that most people had never seen a gold coin in their life it spoke a lot about the riches disparity in this world. To this village, platinum coins were almost a myth, but Caspian who had before been in a town assure him they really existed, although he never saw one himself.

It meant that some rich lords were playing with money worth the economic value of a hundred villagers’ lives. Just the thought made him angry.

On a brighter note, it turned out that there was really some kind of magic in this world. Most beasts were ferocious and more or less magical. Several of them even had special abilities, at this point, it was better to talk about monsters than to talk about some wild animals.

The black wolf Edward had encountered was one of the common and weaker monsters. They usually traveled in packs and were active mostly during the night when their black fur was giving them an advantage. Even a single black wolf could easily kill a grown man, those wolves were stronger, faster, and more resilient than common wolves. Their fur was also very dense and could protect them from hits to some extent. Edward had experienced that when he tried to kill one. He was actually lucky that the wolf he fought was hurt otherwise he would have probably lost the fight.

Balin explained that by killing those beasts one could become stronger. The blood of magical beasts and monsters were keeping some of their magic. By being in contact with this blood you could gain some of it. It was more difficult to absorb the blood while the beast was alive because the blood was also carrying some of the intent of the beast it came from. That’s the reason why the black wolf’s blood was hurting Edward when he was fighting it, but it wasn’t hurting him anymore after the beast was dead.

Some monsters were also having monster cores where most of their power was concentrated. Those kinds of monsters usually had some magical abilities and weren’t easy to kill. Several of the monsters’ organs could also be used to reinforce magical abilities or one’s body. Parts of strong monsters were also used as materials to forge different kinds of equipment. After all, when the monsters you fought were so hard to kill it was only logical to loot their corpse to craft defensive gears.

According to the strength someone obtained from killing monsters one could be classified into several categories.

First came the common people who had never been in contact with the blood of a monster. They were normal people, although they were fitter than the average people on earth who didn’t need to do daily efforts in their life.

Then came the quiescent level. At this point, one had absorbed some blood but the disparity with other people wasn’t too shocking yet. As this name indicated the changes weren’t very visible at this stage, one became a little stronger, more resilient, and faster. This wasn’t at a superhuman level but more than enough to make a difference in a fight. An armed normal person could kill someone at the quiescent level but he would be in a disadvantageous fight. Most of the guards were at this level as well as some of the villagers.

Then came the awaken stage, at this point, one was already starting to turn into a superhuman. Be it strength, speed, or even agility and reflexes, no normal human could begin to compare. Someone at the awaken stage could bit a world champion back on earth in his own specialty. Someone at this stage could also see auras and had some weak magical abilities.

Auras were related to the power capacity of someone. When you started to absorb monsters’ blood you started to develop an aura. At the quiescent stage, it was faint but still visible to someone at the awaken stage. Someone at the quiescent stage couldn’t see auras but if the aura was strong enough they could still feel it.

That’s why the guards were so surprised when they saw Edward coming out from the forest alive without an aura. It was pure madness for someone without powers to roam alone into the wilds. There were probably other stages after the awaken level but most of the villagers didn’t know what come after. When Edward asked Caspian, the captain told him to focus on what was in front of him instead of daydreaming.

There was another method to become stronger in this world without having to fight a monster. Monsters’ blood could be considered an ingredient. Some rare people were able to concoct potions using the blood of the monsters and some other ingredients. Those people were called alchemists and were sought after by all the major powers.

One alchemist could enhance a stream of soldiers without any risks. They were mostly coveted by nobles who didn’t have to care about the cost and who value their life as the most important. They were the kind of people who had no regrets about risking the lives of others to get stronger. It was perfectly normal for them to hire mercenaries for some small money to slay beasts and gather ingredients for alchemist potions. The risk of dying was deferred to the mercenaries, it was just a monetary loss for them, and this money could directly be transformed into strength.

Still, the potency of the beasts’ blood was hard to preserve, it was like the blood had a life of its own, and it didn’t last long. Even though the blood potency could be enhanced with other ingredients it was still more effective to absorb the blood just after a kill.

To maximize the effect of the blood, the best solution would be to send an alchemist into the wild so that he could make a potion immediately after the death of the beast. But that never happened for two main reasons. The first one is that an alchemist was too precious to send into the wild where survival was never guaranteed. An alchemist had to spend a lot of time on studies and didn’t have that time to invest in fighting. The second reason is that alchemists already had everything they wanted, why would they risk their lives when they could just stay in a comfy and safe place.

For the last two weeks, Edward has stayed in the village. He was actually sharing his room with Adrien and Bertrand who he met when he first came into the village. There were nice guys, Bertrand was more reserved and Adrien did most of the talking. They both had been born in this village and hadn’t traveled much. Travel was a risky endeavour in this world.

The guards were having different schedules so that everybody wasn’t resting at the same time. For now, Edward’s trio was having training and exercises in the morning. Edward was appreciating it, he was fit and wasn’t having much trouble with running and mock barehanded fights. It was a nice breath of air compared to his life on earth and it made him remember his box sparring session. However, he was having more trouble with spear mock fight. He never used a spear before and he wasn’t very familiar with this weapon.

Nonetheless, he was starting to become a bit restless, this place was nice but nothing much had happened until now. He was glad for the rest and the safety this place offered but he didn’t want to end up stuck here when he was in a brand new world.

Then they were on guard duty during the afternoon. There wasn’t much happening at this time of the day, it was just villagers going in and out of the hamlet. Most of the dangerous beasts were active during the night. It wasn’t that there was no beast active during the day, but the ones that were awake weren’t seeking a fight with the village and were satisfied by staying in the forest.

It was Caspian who decided to assign him this period of guard duty. It was too dangerous for a newcomer, to guard during the night. It would both put him and the village in danger. If he got killed and allowed a beast to come inside the village, it would be able to kill several villagers before being executed.

Adrien and Bertrand had also been guards for several years, especially Bertrand who was starting to get old. He wasn’t the fittest but he had valuable experiences. And Edward could learn from them before being put in a dangerous situation where he could commit a rookie mistake.

Edward discovered that in this world the sun was rising from West to East, when he was trying to leave the forest he was actually going west and then north toward the village. Apart from the huge forest at the south of the village, there was a small river to the east and cultivated fields to the north. The village was between the fields and the forest and acted as a shield. The dangerous beasts nearby were living in the forest, so it was safe for the villagers during the day as long as you didn’t go too far away from the village.

The road Edward used to go to the village wasn’t used much. Until now Edward had seen no one using it. One day while he was on guard duty on the wall he asked Adrien. “Where is this road leading?”

It was actually Bertrand who answered “It’s crossing through a part of the Vipin forest and going to Gobéliard, a coastal city. It’s a three days walk from this village, we are pretty much isolated over there, if you ever want to travel the best way is to go to Gobéliard and take a boat to another town.”

“Thanks,” Edward answered, I will need a world map at one point he thought.

“You say we are isolated, I understand from the forest in the south but what about the North?” Edward continued to ask.

“There is nothing much North of here, no big obstacles but nothing really worth it either,” Adrien answered this time. “It’s already tedious to come all the way over there. So no one saw the interest to go even further when there wasn’t really anything worth the price. The climate goes colder too and it would be harder to cultivate fields, so it’s not worth building a colony over there.” He added.

While they were talking, they suddenly saw some people walking on the road, those weren't villagers.

“Youhouu!!” Edward exclaimed, “Travelers are coming, finally something interesting is happening while on guard duty!”

Adrien and Bertrand burst out laughing.