Now that his friends had left for Agripin, Edward was left alone in Gobéliard. He passed the time with meditation and aura exercises. If he had to fight Quintus, the Vega family master, every additional bit of strength counted. He had nobody to train the telepathy spell with, but the fact that he was able to communicate with Charles meant he was proficient enough. Things could be improved but that wasn’t a priority right now.

Of course, Edward didn’t forget to bother Cornelius every day to inquire about any monsters culling expedition. Increasing his mana and improving his aura control was nice, but it was only a slight boost to his strength, even if it was regular. The core of his strength came from the enhancement of being at the awaken level and getting the power associated with it. If he wanted to fight with Quintus, he needed to be at the predator level, and he still needed more blood for that. He was close but he needed to participate in at least another expedition.

Cornelius didn’t have any problem with sending him to kill monsters, but the issue came from the families. Currently, monsters’ problems were coming from the forest side. Contrary to the Murlocs expedition, this meant he would be in an open space where he would be able to leave on his own. Edward had already proved he could escape his bodyguards if he wanted to.

Additionally, the main monsters causing problems were Lusus naturae, and they were far more dangerous than Murlocs. Facing them could be a real danger, and the families were hesitant to risk their young to deal with such a problem. They didn’t mind a few farmers dying as long as the city wasn’t threatened.

However, since the monsters weren’t going away and were growing more emboldened by the day, the issue had to be resolved. In the end, they agreed to let Edward go as long as he was ready to pay two more runes for this opportunity. Edward had the distinct impression that they were giving up on him. A runemaster knew only so many runes, and he had already traded four runes with them, with those additional two, it would reach a total of six runes. This was already enough for a runemaster to gather a bit of fame and stay reasonably wealthy for life. They couldn’t know that Edward had way more runes than the common runemaster thanks to the Damkinan’s knowledge.

Of course, they could have chosen to drop the pretense and detain him, but the families didn’t trust each other to let one of them detain a runemaster. What if they stole his runes and only told the other families that he didn’t know anything more? They preferred to drop the matter, ready to let said runemaster run to his probable death rather than to let one of them gain an advantage against the other. Naturally, it would have been another matter if Edward had chosen to stay in the city. They couldn’t let an unaffiliated runemaster prosper on its own.

Edward was bemused. He thought he would have to fight before the families let him go. And he wasn’t prepared to see them drop the matter in such an anticlimactic way. It is as if they consider me as already dead. Do they have so little faith in my fighting prowess? Although, if Flavius and all reported that I came back in a sorry state after contending with a small Murloc ambush, it makes more sense. They have no way to know that I took care of the vast majority of the Murlocs on my own.

Cornelius invited him to his office for a debriefing.

“This mission will be different from the previous one. The last time you wanted a real challenge. Your wish has been granted. The families won’t be participating in this expedition, not even your usual bodyguards. It will be composed only of regular adventurers.” Cornelius told him.

“They are letting me go just like that. I thought they loved me more.” Edward sneered.

“Don’t overestimate yourself, you already don’t have that much value left in their eyes. A piece of advice, if you manage to survive from this expedition don’t bother to come back. The fact they are dropping your protection also means that they won’t protect you anymore from the Vega family.” Cornelius cooled him down.

Quintus’ face flashed in Edward’s mind.

“I see…thanks for the information.”

“You have more value to me killing monsters than as a corpse,” Cornelius answered bluntly.

“Still, it seems as if they think I’ll die in this expedition. Is it that risky?” Edward insisted.

“I wouldn’t consider it as a death wish. In an expedition such as this one, in normal conditions, it would come back successful, although with some casualties,” Cornelius paused. “But things are everything but normal. Even simple Murlocs are getting organized and thus harder to deal with. Who knows what monster variants this expedition could encounter? The families don’t want to take risks. If none of them are participating, it’s because they are treating the expedition as a scouting party.”

Edward remembered that in addition to the Murloc chieftain, he had to fight buffer and poisonous variants.

“A Lusus naturae variant…” They are fast but can’t control their speed. If a variant can control its speed or pierce through armor it will become troublesome.

“Looks like you have understood the problem. With this unknown variable, no one can be guaranteed to come back alive,” Cornelius stated.

I have my teleportation and I have experience fighting monsters in the wilds. I would say I have more chances to survive than the average adventurer. But even then, if I’m caught by surprise I could die before I could react. But this is my last chance to reach the predator level before Leyla comes back or before the Vega family acts against me. I have to take it.

Edward gave two runes to Cornelius for the payment. He gave the growth rune that he had already asked Leyla beforehand to add to the rune booklet. Additionally, he added the earth rune. It wouldn’t be on the booklet and it would give the main families an edge, but Edward didn’t think it would make a big difference.

*****

After his talk with Cornelius, Edward prepared himself and joined the adventurer’s guild on the next day for the expedition’s departure. Twenty-something individuals were gathered in the building in small groups. They were not wearing any kind of uniform and everyone had their own equipment. The resulting view was a contrasting bunch of individuals with only a modicum of organization. All of them were at the awaken level. Charles, Norte, Aquamarine, and Brian would certainly be there if they hadn’t left for Agripin.

One man, presenting a few impressive scars that his clothes weren’t able to hide, approached Edward.

“You are here to join? Name, age and power,” he asked.

Edward answered, when he started his power, the man raised his head looking at him straight into his eyes. “Not from here? It’s my first time seeing one with a teleportation power.”

“No, I’m not. What kind of powers do we have here?” Edward asked, trying to get more information.

“The usual, wind, water, physical buff, two guys with acceleration, one girl with plant manipulation. I’m Osoric by the way.”

“So how does this work?” Edward inquired.

“There is no point in changing everybody’s habit. I let adventurers work together in their usual groups. Guess you are on your own, but with a teleportation power you can go on the offensive alone and come back in the safety of the group, so you should be fine.” Osoris told him.

It’s fine by me. But they are really not the neat and tidy sort.

Although the organization was lacking, Edward noticed that the adventurers weren’t nonchalant either. Hushed discussions were happening inside the different groups. The member of each group knew each other’s well and they were adjusting their strategy to handle different scenarios. The expedition was a loose agglomerate of tight adventurers’ groups.

Only a few adventurers are old. The ratio is what, three young people for an old one. However, they are not pushed aside, on the contrary, they seem to be well respected. I guess this makes sense, to grow old in this line of work is proof of your capability.

Since he was left on his own among groups of people discussing themselves Edward felt left out. He decided to approach one of the older adventurers to ask him what he felt about the current monster situation.

“Excuse me, nice to meet you, I’m Edward.” Edward intruded. “You look knowledgeable, I wanted to know if you had ever experienced a monster surge like this one.”

The small group of adventurers stared at him but the old man, maybe in his fifties, wasn’t offended. “Aye, you are not the only one to ask me this question. To answer you, yes, I have experienced the last monster surge. However, in my memories, problems didn’t start before the middle of the year.” He glanced at the whole group. “Youngs lads, hear me out. If this monster surge follows the same trend as the others, it will only worsen as the year progresses. You better be careful.”

Some in his group looks concerned but others were more skeptical. One of the most brazen ones retorted. “Gramps, isn’t it about time for you to retire?”

The old adventurer snorted before answering. “I still want to amass a nice nest egg before retiring. Adventurers’ contracts do pay well, but if you want to survive the next contract you need good equipment. Even if you manage to fulfill a contract, if your weapons or armor gets too damaged, you might lose money instead. And I always keep a healing potion on me since that time I almost lost an arm.”

Edward’s eyes open wide in surprise. “Wait, you guys have healing potions?”

“Aye, costs a small fortune, but can save your life in a pitch. This shit requires an alchemist to produce, though they can give you a discount if you provide them a monster’s fresh corpse.”

I didn’t know there were healing potions in this world. But it does make sense if you can heal through monster blood. They must have found a way to enhance its healing property. There were no alchemists in Agripin, so it’s not something that was available to me at the time.

I’m realizing how much an advantage I have on regular adventurers. Thanks to my daggers I can heal directly in the middle of a fight, while they have to kill the monster they are facing if they want to use its blood to heal. Also, my daggers never got damaged in a fight so I don’t have to buy new weapons. I must be saving quite a lot of money this way.