Since he couldn’t move much with his injured leg, Edward kept his distance from the Murloc group, harassing them from a distance thanks to his teleportation. Teleporting also allowed him to restock ammunition since he was losing a spear each time he was throwing one. The Murlocs were running after him but since Edward’s teleportation wasn’t in a straight line, it threw their aim off. They had to change direction each time he was teleporting around. Edward wasn’t able to kill one with each throw because he didn’t have much time to aim and he wasn’t that familiar with throwing spears in the first place. But the Murlocs were still numerous enough that his spear was finding a target more often than not.

Just like that, their number dwindle down, until they didn’t put a threat to him even in his current state. Edward looked at the last five Murlocs facing him. This went forever, but at last, the end is coming. Next time I go hunting for monsters, I swear I will go for powerful but single ones. It’s a chore to kill that many low-level monsters. He threw the last spear, killing a Murloc, before equipping back his daggers and teleporting to them. Even without being able to move much, he had no difficulty disposing of the two nearest Murlocs.

The last two monsters turned back to face him, Edward could have chosen to face them frontally but he didn’t want to take any risk after getting his injury and he teleported behind them before killing them swiftly. The blood he absorbed from them relieved his wounded leg a bit. Edward looked at the battlefield, even with all the mess, the Murlocs he killed by throwing spears were noticeable compared to the other corpses.

Since I killed them from a distance, I wasn’t able to absorb their blood. I have the time to do it now. I hope it will be enough to bring my leg back to normal.

As he walked to reach the corpses, his feet made little splashing noises at each step due to all the blood around them. When killing the Murlocs he was able to absorb part of their blood, but he didn’t have the time to absorb the full amount from their body. Moreover, he was absorbing the essence from their blood rather than all of their physical blood, otherwise, his body would have already exploded from the insane amount it represented. Due to those reasons, the deceased Murlocs were still leaking blood on the ground, even if it was less than what would expect from such grievous opened wounds.

Edward stopped at every Murloc he had killed with a spear, not enough time had passed for the power in their blood to dissipate yet. With each little additional amount he was absorbing, he felt the condition of his leg improve. When he took care of the last body, his leg was feeling only slightly sore, as if he had been running too much, and not all as if it had been pierced through less than an hour ago.

That’s not fully healed, but it is not far from it. Honestly, it is better than what I was expecting. It feels kind of surrealist to see my body recover in such a record amount of time.

On top of that, I don’t know how much blood I absorbed, but it does feel like I made some progress. Even if Murlocs have a weak essence, and even if I consumed some of it to heal myself, there is still a lot of it left from such a large number of monsters slain.

Edward walked in the middle of the massacre but the Murlocs didn’t have anything of interest. Apart from their spear they hadn’t any kind of tools or weapons on them. Only the chieftain was a little different with his algae headgear, but Edward wasn’t interested in that.

One would think that there would be something interesting to loot in a place with so many monsters. The only noticeable thing here is those glowing crystals providing the light.

Edward walked near one outcrop to observe it since he didn’t have the time to do so until now with all the fighting. The crystals were glowing a soft blue and were having a typical polyhedral aspect, flat sides separated by sharp edges. The outcrop was a meter high and constituted by three different crystals gathered together. Apart from their glow and size, the crystals didn’t have anything special.

Edward pokes one with his dagger without injecting his aura. The crystal didn’t bulge but emitted a clear ringing sound. Edward looked at it with his aura, as usual, the color vanished in his perception, everything turning into shades of grey. With his attention on it, he noticed that it felt weird in a way. Usually, his aura perception was more attuned to living things, making them easier to spot. Here, the crystal was obviously not a living organism, and yet his perception registered something more from it than a simple inanimate object.

It was as if this crystal had the energy of a living being without being alive, it didn’t have its own aura but it still registered in his perception as something more than an object. This is the first time I’m seeing something like this. Edward stored his dagger and put one hand on the crystal. The stone was cold to the touch, but as soon as his hand made contact with it, Edward felt the mana flowing inside the crystal and partially leaking from it.

Mana? Is this a magical crystal? He virtually smacked his head. Duh, it’s a fucking glowing crystal. What else did I expect but magic?

I remember reading about mana storing crystals. I doubt this variety makes good mana storage if they are leaking mana like that, but this is something to keep in mind. Maybe the way crystals are shaped helped them to store mana. It could make good material for a magical weapon. I don’t know how to exploit this material but I’m sure Leyla will be happy to experiment with it.

I wonder if anything else found them before me. But now, that I think about it, it may explain why Egregius was so fixated on inhabiting this island even against his friends’ advice. It’s better if I keep those crystals a secret. With how things are right now if I told somebody about it, the families will probably appropriate it for themselves.

Edward gave a last look to the cavern. Well, I guess it is time to go back to the base. He winced. With how long this fight lasted I hope they haven’t left yet. I wasn’t planning for it to take this much time. He gazed at his appearance. His clothes were a mess, they were covered with blood, both from him and the Murlocs, and the previous dirt stains seemed clean in comparison. Moreover, his trousers were cut at numerous places, in particular having a big hole where the spear had pierced his tight. His shirt wasn’t in a better state, the armor had protected him, but the clothing on top of it had been turned into shreds.

There is no hiding I have been in a fight. What should I tell the others? It’s not like they will believe me if I told them I killed all of the Murlocs by myself, and anyway it is better if they underestimate me. Let’s tell them that I got ambushed by a small group of Murlocs after falling inside a trap and that I managed to kill them after a grievous battle. Appio also went into the forest to hunt them, and with all the traps set up inside, he will confirm what I’m telling them. It will be a much more believable story.

With his story straight and nothing better to do in the cavern, Edward left to join the camp. Since he was worried about the time, he hurried on the way back, it is not like he could be in a sorrier state than he was now anyway. He teleported past the entrance on the way back instead of crawling through the tunnel. He blinked as he appeared outside, the bright light blinding him, he had fought for the whole night. He had to put a hand in front of his eyes until they adapted to the ambient luminosity.

Looks like I skipped breakfast. No time to lose let’s go back before they leave me behind. I would be free of the families but I would end up stuck here. And I have plenty of opportunities if I just want to leave the families behind me, it’s not like they can stop my teleportation. No, I want to be free to roam in Gobéliard without the families hunting me. I still need information about this world, there are so many techniques and monsters that I know nothing about. Besides, if I want to explore the world, I will need a vessel to cross the sea. Being an outcast would only harm me. And on top of that, I don’t want to be the one who has to fly away when I’m on the right side. Gobéliard’s families deserve to be down a notch if only to avenge the Artificium family.

Edward ran through the forest, zigzagging between the trees, and the traps left over by the Murlocs. While running past them, he noticed that a lot of them had been disarmed, and obviously not by him. Appio must have had a fun time combing through this forest filled with traps while the Murlocs were hidden away.

He soon left the cover of the forest and saw with relief that the vessels were still moored near the beach. Good, my ride didn’t ditch me yet. He shook his head. Why do I feel like a student running after his school bus?

He run on the beach while shouting and making big waves with his arms to be noticed. As Flavius had stated the night prior, they had slept on the vessels directly, and there wasn’t any camp on the beach. If they didn’t notice him, Edward would have to reach the vessels by swimming after them.

He noticed some movements, figures stirring on the different vessels. Before long rowboats were lowered to sea level and sent to him. Obviously, the rowboats weren’t only to bring him back onboard. Flavius, Heraeus, and Appio were all standing at the prow of their respective rowboat.

“Hey!! Glad to see you all, I was afraid you’ll leave without me.” Edward greeted them.

Flavius scrutinized him from top to bottom with contempt, noticing his state, clothes reduced to shred and covered in green and red blood. “Don’t think we were waiting for you.”, he said coldly. “If a group of Murlocs hadn’t attacked during the night we would have departed already.”

They were attacked by other Murlocs. I thought I had taken care of all of them. Well, now that I think about it, there was a lake inside the cavern. It is probably linked to the sea, which would explain how those Murlocs found this place. Some stragglers must have left once I killed their leader.

Appio saw the green blood on Edward and grew visibly annoyed. “Where did you find Murlocs? I searched through this whole dawn island and didn’t find anything but traps. I even missed their attacks on the boats.”

Appio wasn’t showing a hint of neglect, wearing clothes without stains and without even a single crease. Obviously, he had the time to change his clothes. I would have liked to see his state after he came back from scouring the island overflowing with traps.