Edward left to study the rune book in depth. They had to quickly seal the ruins from where all the monsters were coming from. However, it would be counterproductive to leave before being sure that the runes were working. Moreover, since the Bloodmaws had already reached the village, leaving for the ruins would be a difficult endeavor in itself.

Edward was trying to understand how to better reinforce runes barriers. He couldn’t wait to check if the runes were not strong enough before searching for a solution. He had to plan for the worst scenario because it would be too late if he didn’t. Protection and durability runes could be added to a barrier to enhance its strength, but the added runes meant that one would also need more energy. To work properly the runes would need an increased density of mana, to accomplish this other runes would have to be installed to gather the ambient mana. The different rules to join the runes were quite complex, and Edward was having difficulties understanding how to set up such a barrier.

As Caspian had suggested he searched for offensive means just in case, Edward quickly leafed through the tome to find relevant information. He stumbled on a passage explaining the diversity in the usage of runes. For example, the durability rune could be used to enhance a magical barrier or a physical one, alternatively, it could also be useful to prolong the shelf life of food or the service life of a tool. Wow, this rune is so useful. I didn’t expect a barrier rune to be able to expand food shelf life. It could be useful for my travel to store some food, I won’t regret my mushrooms-only diet. Actually, this is probably what the Damkinans have been using to store their products. The only room where their green lines had been destroyed, was the one with its content reduced to dust.

Wait a minute…If it increases the durability of anything exposed to it. Can it prevent the blood power from dissipating? That could be game-changing. We used the corpses of the Bloodmaws who attacked us to enhance some of the guards. But if I store their blood while keeping its effect, then I can simply hunt for Bloodmaws without waiting for an attack. I could help the guards to become awakens. This wouldn’t solve directly the monster problem, but at least the village would be able to hold its own without the risk of getting destroyed. This is huge and way better than some offensive help.

However, I will need something to store the blood, that’s the problematic part. I can’t simply carry a Bloodmaw's corpse back with me to the village, that would be ridiculous. Edward then remembered Caspian stopping a full charge of one such monster while displaying rippling muscles. Okay, maybe that’s not that ridiculous if it’s him doing it.

Edward went in search of Caspian, the latter hadn’t managed to fall back asleep yet. He had to take care of the guard duty during the night and he was trying to preserve his forces, especially after having to fight before his watch. Edward explained his plan for him to carry Bloodmaw corpses hunted from the forest.

“You want me to do what?!” Caspian asked a bit groggy but nevertheless shocked by Edward’s crazy idea. “Don’t you think it is difficult as it is to defend the village? You want us to leave Balin alone, while we go hunt for Bloodmaws. That’s dangerous enough, but I could understand if you had an important reason. But on top of that, you want me to carry back a whole bloody Bloodmaw corpse on the way back. You do realize that I wouldn’t even be able to run if I had to carry one of those things. We wouldn’t be exactly discreet either, with all those monsters running around, all we would manage is to end up surrounded. Why would we want to do that anyway? By the time we go back to the village most of the blood power would have dissipated already.”

“You don’t understand. I have discovered a rune that can preserve the durability of anything! With that, we could maintain the blood power until it reaches the village. All the guards could become awaken, we wouldn’t have an awaken shortage anymore. A group could be hunting monsters while there would be enough awakens to keep the village safe. And even if it doesn’t really solve the monster problem in itself, it would make the village strong enough to not have to fear those monsters anymore.” Edward explained excitedly.

That gave Caspian a pause to think. “You can do that…You are almost the equivalent of an alchemist.” Caspian looked at him with a strange expression. “You don’t realize it yet, but if what you said is true, you just became someone very important. Certainly more valuable than me in any case. A guard captain can be replaced, but alchemists jealously keep their secrets. An alchemist who dies can be an irreplaceable loss, especially for villages like us. Yes, monsters don't simply come to die at our doorstep so we are unable to extract their power. Otherwise, everybody here would be an awaken already. But if you can prevent their power from deteriorating, we can hunt for them, this would change things a lot.”

“So do you agree?” Edward asked anxiously.

Caspian gritted his teeth. “Even if you can maintain the blood’s power it doesn’t change the fact that is a very dangerous plan. We could easily be surrounded, we don’t know how many of those monsters are in the surroundings right now. And at the same, it is very tempting. The first step will be the more dangerous. When we get a few awakens it will have a snowball effect.”

Edward grinned as Caspian was slowly getting convinced by his idea.

“Did you have time to add the runes to reinforce the gates?” Caspian asked him hurriedly.

“Yes, I just did, only for the gates though. It would take a lot of time to apply them for the whole length of the wall.” Edward answered quickly.

“Good, that will have to do. Are you able to draw this durability rune already?”

“…I haven’t tried it yet,” Edward answered honestly, feeling stupid. He had been so excited about this discovery that he went straight to Caspian without taking the time to practice the rune.

“Go practice it. Add it to the wall if you can. While you train for it, I will get ready to go out. We will take Balin with us too. We will have to go all out. Kill a Bloodmaw as fast as we can and get back to the village. We won’t be able to go too far, however. The village will be defenseless without us, and we don’t know yet if your runes will be able to hold them back. If we don’t find any Bloodmaws in the vicinity we will have to give up this plan.”

“Also, for the loot, we can’t do like this afternoon. We will have to give the whole monster's blood to a single person only. Otherwise, the rewards per person would be greatly decreased and it would take too much time to get another awaken. We need to get someone at this level as soon as possible. The more of us there are, the easiest the process will be to repeat.” Caspian decided.

“That works for me,” Edward answered, happy that the captain had agreed to his plan.

Edward left to practice the durability rune, this rune looked like two snakes interwoven with each other. Each was biting the other tail and the resulting shape was forming a fallen eight symbol like the infinity sign. Edward wasn’t the best at drawing, but these kinds of shapes were still doable enough for him. At least as long as he wasn’t under pressure. He wouldn’t be able to draw or engrave such a shape while in the middle of a fight.

He went to another part of the walls where he hadn’t engraved runes yet. This part of the walls should be good enough. I’m far away from the other runes, so there are no risks for these runes to interact with the others and mess with everything. The wooden pillars were just wide enough for him to draw a rune onto a single one. He wouldn’t have been able to draw the rune on two different wooden pillars because it would have altered the rune shape. He used the same tactic as before and used his aura on his dagger to make it sharper so that he could cut the wood without resistance.

The size could become a problem. The rune should still work if I make it smaller, but then it would be harder for me to draw it with all the details. A shape the size of my hand is good enough, but if I want to engrave runes on equipment, the size will become a limiting factor. Especially if I want to apply more complicated runes with several ones linked together. He looked at his dagger. The dagger’s power must work with runes too, but I’m not able to recognize them. I still have much to learn.

He drew the rune a few more times to be sure that he could draw it easily and memorize it. He would have to apply this rune after hunting a Bloodmaw, and he wouldn’t have his tome with him. I’m feeling runes are much more useful for craftsmen than for fighters. The rules to link runes together are particularly difficult, and you have to memorize all the different runes on top of that. If you have the proper work environment you can prepare advanced runes, but if you are out in the wild you will only be able to do basic ones. However, once runes are applied to weapons they become the perfect boon for an adventurer.

Maybe one day, once I master the basic runes, I could lend this book to a trustworthy craftsman. He would be able to go a lot farther than me with it, and I would be able to reap the benefits, of getting enhanced gears. However, they won’t be able to read the original book since it’s in Damkinan so I will have to translate it. The main problem is finding someone that I can trust. Such knowledge could make you rich very easily, and if you don’t care with whom you are working there could be bad consequences. I don’t want brigands having access to runes weapons when I see what my daggers are capable of. It’s something I will have to think about.

Now that Edward was confident in his ability to draw the rune, he went to find back Caspian and Balin. The latter looked somewhat apprehensive.

“Are you sure about this plan? Without us, nobody will be able to fend off those monsters. If we get seriously injured or if we get stuck fighting the Bloodmaws while others attack the village this could be the end of it. You are usually against taking such risks.” He asked Caspian.

“I know…But we don’t have much of a choice. We can’t keep waiting inside the relative safety of the walls. The more we wait, the more of them are gathering out there. If this goes on, we will only end up overtaken by their sheer numbers. Already five of them attacked us and we barely repelled the assault. We can’t wait until eight of them attack us at the same time.” Caspian defended his decision.

They both turned to Edward when they sensed his arrival.