After the assembly, Caspian went to Edward. “Be aware that some villagers like Carlson may grow hostile toward you. They will see you as the cause of the problem and will take you as responsible for it. I know that you have your part of the responsibility in this, but it’s better if they don’t know that. I swear some would like to have the messenger burned at the stake thinking it would solve their problems.” He shook his head, it seems it wasn’t the first time he had problems with some of the villagers.

“Well, I can’t really blame them, I did release the monsters from the ruins,” Edward answered apologizing.

“Yes, but firstly, this danger was lurking nearby and we were unaware of it. At one point or another, an adventurer could have stumbled upon it, releasing them as well. And secondly, you are trying to correct the situation. Blaming and punishing you would just push you not to help them, and it would be hastening their end. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

“Yes, you are right.” I will try my best to solve this situation. I have to find a way to seal those ruins. “By the way, since the ruins are almost one day after running away, I might have to stay the night in the forest. Do you have any tricks to spend a night in the wilds when you are alone?” Edward asked, bothered by this problem ever since he realized he was limited in his exploration of the wilds to a one-day distance journey from his hideout.

Caspian let out a short laugh. “My first advice would be not to spend the night alone in the wilds. The night is dangerous, more monsters come at that time, and some of them are nocturnal only. We don't have a good knowledge of the nocturnal monsters, not many are brave or stupid enough to adventure outside at night. Some might be not more dangerous than your average day monster and some might be nightmare-made flesh. All I can say is be careful and be discreet, you don't know what kind of things could be roaming unseen. If we had to spend several days in the wilds we were always in a party, with adventurers sharing the guard duty. I did hear some adventurers speaking of some kind of technique that put them in a half-asleep state. They were able to rest while still being aware of their surroundings. It is not as effective as a real sleep, but you won’t be slaughtered unaware by a beast while you are doing it. Not knowing this technique myself I won’t be able to teach it to you though.”

“Okay, thanks for the information at least.” The half-asleep state makes me think of my meditation technique, but it is more focused on the body than on monitoring the surroundings. There may be other variations of this technique that could achieve that. Perhaps I can find something about this in the library. I’m feeling it contains the solution to my problems. The two books I found about auras already helped me so much. What kind of other precious knowledge awaits me in there?

Edward finished thanking Caspian for the money and for all the advice and information he gave him, then he went back to his room in the casern. I need a good night of sleep, the next one will be a sleepless night in the woods. This night Edward dreamed he was a guinea pig running in a hamster wheel, continuously running but never advancing.

The next morning Edward was ready to go, taking his backpack with him, not so much as to take things with him, but rather to have space to bring back books and equipment from the ruins. He quickly left the village, just warning Balin that he was leaving as Caspian was resting after assuring the night guard duty. He once again ran at a jogging pace, entering the forest. How many times did I travel on that path? I did one round-trip with the expedition, and one round trip with Caspian, is it already the fifth time that I’m crossing this path? I will end up knowing it by heart if this continues like that.

As he was running, he smelled something that made him retch. God, what is this smell? As he was having this thought he noticed a dark shape laying on the ground in the woods, not far from the forest. Is that the corpse of a dark wolf? Seeing from the size of the injuries, the only thing I know that could cause those is a Bloodmaw. He corrected himself afterward. The only thing I know yet, the creature that made the regal wolf flee shouldn’t have any problem killing an ordinary dark wolf either.

It means the Bloodmaws are starting to fight with the beasts living in those woods. It is monsters against monsters, but somehow it makes me sad to see that wolf in that state. At least the wolves are mostly staying inside the forest and not threatening the village, those Bloodmaws are a real threat though.

Edward went back to running, but this time he got more careful, leaving the path as to be harder to notice, and paying more attention to his surroundings. The Bloodmaws are getting closer and closer to the edge of the forest. When I escaped the ruins, I only saw a few dozens of them leaving, but for them to continue to expand like that, more of them must have been leaving the ruins continuously.

As he was running, he detected one Bloodmaw nearby thanks to his aura. The monster hadn’t noticed him yet. Edward reacted quickly and ducked behind a tree before teleporting upward, on one of the branches. Teleportation is really handy for situations like this. Edward carefully looked around with both his aura and his eyes, but he didn’t spot any other Bloodmaws in the vicinity. This one is alone. I could try to kill it. The Bloodmaw was roaming around leisurely as if it owned the place. No, don’t do it, Edward. There is always a risk that it will be able to roar, calling for help, before I can finish it. Don’t take risks, you are not here to kill those monsters, but to find a way to seal the ruins.

Edward let the monster walk away, blissfully oblivious to the fact that Edward’s internal musing just saved its life. Edward waited for a bit longer, before teleporting down the tree, and running straight towards the ruins. The closer he got, the more Bloodmaws he encountered. Until now, he was always able to hide before they noticed him, but there were a few close calls. Sometimes the Bloodmaws were alone, sometimes they were in a group of twos or threes.

The night was already falling and he hadn’t reached the ruins yet, all the times he had to hide to avoid the Bloodmaws had delayed him. The night is falling already, I’m slower than I expected. Still, I can’t back down, if I fall back to the village when I’ll attempt to reach the ruins again, I will have the same problem. There are simply too many Bloodmaws in the area. It’s too risky to run on the ground by now, I will have to teleport from trees to trees, it will be slower but I don’t have any other choice.

That’s exactly what Edward did, teleporting on the branch of a tree, slowly crawling forward until he was close enough to another tree and teleporting to it. When monsters were roaming nearby, he would stay immobile, waiting for them to go away. This way, he was finally able to reach the ruins, but what he saw didn’t please him. How many of them are here? I can see at least five of them. There is no way I can take care of that many. I’ll have to sneak my way in, but this will be difficult. This is the only entrance I know of, and I can’t teleport continuously, there is a delay in between that may cause me to be spotted. And then, I will be running for my life again. That won’t do, I won’t be able to stop to pick the right books if Bloodmaws are running after me. I have to stay unnoticed, but how?

Edward went as close as possible to the entrance, teleporting to the nearest tree from it. I can teleport to the entrance, but with this many monsters, I can’t be sure that one of them won’t be looking at me when I’m doing it. I need to distract them somehow. While Edward was thinking of a solution to solve his problem, he heard the prideful roar of a regal wolf, many howls answering it. Uh, oh, seems like the regal wolf sees the presence of the Bloodmaws in his territory as a challenge. The Bloodmaws reacted to the howls, all turning in their direction before charging towards its source. Even more Bloodmaws, previously unnoticed by Edward, came from the ruins themselves. No wonder there are so many of them in the forest. Caspian was worried that us fighting would draw more of them, but the forest monsters are already doing that. Well, now is my chance, since they all left, for now, I can sneak in before more of them come here.

He used the opportunity to teleport to the entrance of the ruins, before quickly running behind one of the decorative statues when he heard more trampling coming from the corridor. He had no sooner managed to hide, that he saw three more Bloodmaws pass him by. He kept his aura suppressed, even though he wasn’t sure if the Bloodmaws could actually detect auras.

Once he was sure they were gone, he rushed inside the corridor to reach the gathering room, with the big table inside. The door separating the room from the corridor had been destroyed like the others by the Bloodmaws, so Edward was able to go directly inside, the table previously in the middle had been pushed aside by their passage. The expedition hadn’t checked all the walls to see if there were other runes traps, but seeing all the Bloodmaws that had run through here, Edward figured that the area was safe regarding traps.

There are other monsters incoming. Need to hide. Quick. As he detected other monsters coming through with his aura, Edward teleported to a side room with a strange veggie symbol on top of it. He was able to hear them running towards the outside through the door. Their weight actually made the floor shake a little. How much do they weigh for the floor to shake like that? I wouldn’t like to take a charge like that head-on, with this speed and mass, they must have quite the amount of kinetic energy. While he was waiting for things to calm down, he looked inside the room. He hadn’t been there until now.

This looks like the kitchen. Uhm, they actually have runes over there too. And I don’t see any place for a fire. They must have used runes in their daily life to replace our modern devices. They must have been quite an advance and developed society. Their demise is getting odder and odder, I haven’t been to a city yet, but from what I saw in the village. Society in this age is far less developed.