After letting a domestic show him his accommodation, Cornelius left Edward alone to arrange a meeting with the various Gobéliard’s influential families. With nothing better to do, and since his time was counted before he ran out of runes to trade, Edward read the information on the technique he had just obtained.

To sense aura, one had to focus his intention on the internal of one’s body, for the mana sensing technique it was the reverse with the focus directed toward the outside. For this technique, it was a bit of both. The aim was to let your aura warn you of danger while resting. The first step was easy enough, just like when he was trying to see in the dark, he had to project his aura around his body to sense his surroundings. The tricky part was that his aura had to be maintained like that while he was resting.

Edward was familiar with aura control, even though it hadn’t been that long since he had become an awaken, his aura control was already on the level of a seasoned awaken. However, he wasn’t at a level where he could simply sleep while his aura was still active. From what he understood, the aura didn’t need to be as active as when he was using it while awake. He didn’t need to sense his surroundings while sleeping, he only needed to be aware of any sudden changes or any aura coming in proximity.

Even so, it wasn’t something that one could achieve simply by knowing about the theory. That’s why the tome was first describing several exercises in order of increasing difficulty to train one’s aura. No wonder he didn’t hesitate to trade this technique with me. It may be an uncommon technique but it isn’t something you can achieve simply by knowing of it. Edward sighted. I guess it is still good that I got my hand on it now, instead of when I will be in a hurry to escape into the wilds.

Edward had been introduced to aura with exercises asking him to suppress or flare his aura. This tome was doing the same thing except with a variation. The objective wasn’t to vary the strength of one’s aura but rather its focus. The reader was asked to focus his aura only in a small volume without being aware of the rest of the surroundings, or the reverse, to expand one’s aura all around oneself. Edward was already using his aura to be able to detect enemies coming from his back in combat situations.

Here the exercise was asking to expand one’s aura until one couldn’t sense everything simultaneously, the details growing blurry. This was the aura concentration that was required for the technique to work. One had to dilute one’s aura to this level and then fall asleep while maintaining it. Edward spent the whole afternoon training, stopping only when a domestic came knocking at the door to bring dinner.

****

Edward didn’t have any news from Cornelius until the next day when he summoned him into his office. Edward sat on the padded chair in front of Cornelius’ desk, the latter looked amused.

“I must say, I wasn’t expecting you to be asking for protection directly from the Vega family. That was a bold and unexpected move on your part, it has been a long time since I have seen the Vega’s head, Quintus fuming like that.” Cornelius laughed while Edward tensed waiting for the meeting’s result. “You can relax, the Potentia and Regalis families jumped onto the occasion. As you have guessed the different families don’t like each other. They wouldn’t miss a chance to get benefices while humiliating another family. According to the rumors, the Vega forces scoured through the city for the whole day hoping to find you.” Cornelius shook his head. “They certainly didn’t expect for you to be in my office for this whole time. In any case, the deal is adopted. As long as they can obtain your runes, they agreed not to come after you and to protect you against other potential enemies.”

Cornelius paused. “To assure your security, each family will send an awaken to keep guard on you. They are currently waiting in another room.”

“I see that they are taking great importance in my…security,” Edward responded.

Cornelius smiled. “This was only expected. After all, you are an esteemed runemaster. What is more, you are not affiliated with any of the existing families. You wouldn’t be the first runemaster to mysteriously disappear.”

He is warning me directly but still smiling. He is enjoying the turmoil I put the Vega family in, but that doesn’t mean he will help me get out of this situation. As a spectator, he is enjoying the show while getting the benefices. It doesn’t matter, I will be able to solve this situation myself, I just have to grow stronger.

Cornelius stopped his train of thoughts. “Concerning your request to have priority access to monster’s expedition. You are in luck, one such expedition is planned for next week. A group of Murlocs has been assaulting trading ships lately. Their crews are usually able to fend them off, but the monsters have grown in numbers lately. The young master families will participate in the expedition to prove their courage and skills. Ordinary adventurers are usually not allowed on such expeditions,” Cornelius added.

If young masters are participating, I doubt there will be any danger. It is more an advertisement campaign to show off than to grow in strength by killing monsters. Do they want to prevent me from growing stronger?

“I was expecting more of a challenging expedition,” Edward answered, probing him.

Cornelius was still smiling. “I’m afraid that is the only one available right now. However, even if they are only Murlocs, it is unusual for them to grow this numerous. Who knows? You may find the challenge you are seeking.”

You are enjoying this too much old fox. Well, I don’t have a choice, I only have to hope he is right.

“Naturally, for such an opportunity, it will be a good omen to gift us another rune. Who knows what could happen in such a dangerous expedition into the wilds?” Cornelius added.

Edward gritted his teeth in anger. You just admitted that this expedition was mostly without risks. What dangerous expedition? You are just threatening me to obtain another rune. Fine, I will play the game, for now, I still have many runes to trade if I need to.

“But of course, it will be my pleasure.” Edward let out in an annoyed voice.

We will see who will have the last laugh, you old scrooge. Since you want a rune so bad, let me just give you the durability rune. I saw they used it to reinforce the arena so they must already know about it. Moreover, it is the base for any alchemist who wants to make a potion. It is an important rune, but which knowledge should be already widespread.

Edward wrote the rune on a page of paper and gave it to Cornelius who accepted it before showing him the way out. Edward was escorted to his room by the three guards from the families that Cornelius had mentioned. They stayed in front of his room without a word when he went inside.

You may keep watch of the exit but that doesn’t prevent me from teleporting away if I want to. The only reasons that I’m not fleeing away are to get the most benefices out of the situation and to avoid the three whole families from pursuing me wherever I go.

Once in his chamber, Edward continued to train his aura control to achieve the requirements for the new technique he had acquired. It wouldn’t help him to grow stronger but it would help him to become autonomous. It was a necessary step if he wanted to be able to spend time alone in the wilds far away from civilization. After a few hours of training, he took a break to think about his future prospects.

Apart from the blood aspect to progress to the predator level, what do I need? What are my weaknesses and my boons? My power set is based on my teleportation. I have to get close to my enemies to damage them with my daggers. Those weapons are one of my advantages, with the help of my aura they can pierce through armor, and I can absorb the enemy’s strength through it, even healing me in the process. The main problem is that I first have to get close to my enemies, and if I use teleportation to do that, it will be on cooldown when I need it to avoid hits.

I need a way to get close to my enemies without relying too much on my teleportation. Against a single enemy, this isn’t problematic since I can kill it before it can retaliate. But against a crowd of enemies, I’m at a disadvantage. An area of effect power would be nice to have. However, until now the only powers I saw with an area of effect potential are wind and water control. They don’t seem that effective yet, and they are more suited to ranged users.

The other way would be to shorten the distance to my enemies without my teleportation. I think the acceleration power is a good match for my power. Especially, if I can control my body at the same time with the Rèng khwāmrĕw spell. I should try to obtain this power. Once I feel that I am close enough to the predator level, I will have to go on a rampage on Lusus naturae to be sure to obtain it.

This Rèng khwāmrĕw spell is not that useful on its own but it will give me an edge once I obtain the matching acceleration power. I should check if there are other useful spells mentioned in the tome.

Edward opened the ‘An introduction to magic’ tome and leafed through it. Since it was written in Damkinan, he wasn’t afraid of another person trying to read it. Though, just in case, he decided to keep it with him at all times, just like the rune tome. The three families were after this knowledge and Edward was certain that they wouldn’t hesitate to steal his books if they knew about it, even if they weren’t able to read them immediately.

As Edward was reading through the books, he was disappointed to realize that there weren’t any powerful spells mentioned in them. What did you expect Edward? This is an introduction to magic, not forbidden magic to obliterate your opponents, he thought to himself. However, he stopped on one spell that could be useful in his situation. A telepathy spell heh. A plan started to hatch inside his head.