Edward was alone on the battlefield, surrounded by dead bodies. He hadn’t bothered to count, but he estimated that there were more than a hundred Harpies carcasses spread around him. To think I killed all of them by myself. Such a force would be able to raze Agripin to the ground several times over. This shows how great a distance I have crossed. This is not something a normal human would ever be able to do. Not that I’m complaining, my new powers are awesome. Already my improved physical capabilities let me surpass any free run or parkour that could be done on Earth. But being able to run in the sky, is simply awesome. It’s something I could have only experienced in dreams before.

Edward chased the idle thoughts away and began to absorb the blood essence from each corpse, one by one, beginning with the Harpy Queen. The Harpy Queen had roughly the same amount of blood essence as the huge Lusus naturae that Edward had slain not that long ago. This was a non-negligible, albeit small step toward the next level. He would have to kill many more such monsters if he wanted to break through to the next stage. More importantly, Edward could feel his aura grow with the blood essence he absorbed. This monster could use aura. Its effect on my aura growth is pronounced. The Vega family also acquired their aura boost power from a monster able to use aura. I feel like this is the way to go. Monsters able to use aura are more dangerous but the risk is worth it.

Aura is way too versatile. This is becoming the deciding factor in fights. My aura is already used as a sensory power, to drastically improve my offensive and defensive abilities, and even to increase my mobility, letting me run freely into the sky. Someone cannot defend against aura without having aura oneself. Edward kept aura practice at the top of his priorities. He felt that he didn’t have explored all of his aura potential yet. His latest trick with the aura steps was proof that he still had a lot to learn.

Compared to the Harpy Queen, the other Harpies remains felt as nothing more than snacks. Monsters at the awaken level weren’t enough anymore for him to progress. His blood essence was already incredibly richer than theirs, and they were able to add only a slight increment to his growth. Absorbing the power from all the slain harpies felt more like a chore than a reward. If this trend continues, at one point it would be a more valuable usage of my time to simply let the bodies of weak monsters rot rather than absorb their power.

I wished I had a flame thrower or something to burn all the corpses. This place will stench. I wonder if Leyla could tinker a magical equivalent. I feel that she will become this world’s greatest inventor. Edward smiled fondly. Having finished his business with the Harpies, he came closer to the cliff. With all the fighting, he didn’t have the time to explore their nests.

He extended his aura sensing the different cavities inside the cliffs. He didn’t feel any more life in it asides from egg-like structures. I guess I killed all of the Harpies. Edward shuddered when he felt the eggs. I hope they are not like the Lusus naturae eggs. Those were disgusting.

He took a deep breath and teleported inside the network of caverns. Behind him was an open view of the sea, with the unending waves crashing against the cliff, producing white foam. The iodized air of the sea was coming inside the caverns with the wind.

In the other direction, the cavities were extending deeper, the soil was covered with dry plants, bones, and cartilage. Some of it belonged to wild beasts or fishes. However, to Edward’s distress, others were clearly from human bodies.

At the end of the path, several eggs were resting against the walls, their base stabilized by a heavier layer of dry plants. Just like for the Lusus naturae, their size was enormous, they reached up to Edward’s hip. To his relief they didn’t have an organic aspect, looking more like classical eggs, except for glowing grey ridges. The ridges had a crystallized appearance, just like minerals. Moving closer, Edward could sense the strange material absorbing mana from the air and feeding it to the egg, ever so slightly increasing its size. Edward watched the process in silence and fascination.

This is how monsters are growing so numerous. They are relying both on biological processes and mana to grow. The mana enables them to exceed their biological limits, drastically improving the speed at which they reproduce. That’s why they are so many of them, and why I only ever saw adult monsters rather than younglings.

Then, when throughout a surge their number is greatly increasing. I doubt this is because their biological rhythm is changing, not for a forty-something years cycle between surges. This could only mean the mana is increasing periodically and the monsters use it to boost their growth.

If there are more monsters for this surge, it means the mana is increasing more than normal. I have no idea about the natural cycles of mana, but I’m worried that it depends on astrological events. I have forgotten much of my school years but I do remember that some events like the Milankovitch cycles have periods of hundreds of thousands of years and an impact strong enough to change the global climate of a whole planet. I have no idea if this is what is happening with mana in this world. I hope not, astrological forces are not something one can contend with. To change such events, one would have to be the equivalent of a god, able to affect a planet by oneself. Edward shuddered at the thought.

Now that I think about it. Mana is the source of magic, and monsters have powers and are using mana to grow. Adventurers hunt monsters and can obtain the monsters’ powers by assimilating their blood essence. Mana must be the true source of their powers.

However, I can both use mana and powers. I do feel that they are different when I used them. By assimilating mana, the monsters must have changed it somehow, bonding it to themselves to form their powers.

Edward took some time to proceed with the implications, he was feeling light-headed, his head spinning a little. This discovery was toppling his vision of this world and explaining a lot of things.

If that’s the case there may be a way to absorb mana directly to boost one power. I have to talk about this to someone else. If my theory is right, it would already be great if scholars were able to link the increasing mana with a known astrological event. Maybe they would be able to predict how much the mana will increase and how long this surge will last.

One of the eggs creaked lightly, taking Edward back to the present. What was supposed to be a simple monster extermination had become something much larger and more impacting. Edward had still no idea how to solve the current crisis, apart from beating the shit out of monsters, but he at least now had an inkling of what was happening.

Edward sliced the egg with an aura blade, not bothering to come closer to it. He didn’t want to repeat the experience with the Lusus naturae eggs, where he had been drenched in amniotic fluids. The blade sliced through the egg and its content, a half-formed Harpy dropping from it with a sulphury smell. To Edward’s relief and thanks to the open passage to the sea, the smell didn’t linger and was washed away by the wind. Opened spaces are a lot better than underground ones. I think I can update my monster handbook with a ranking depending on how unpleasant monsters are to hunt.

Edward was surprised to realize that although the egg had been cut cleanly in two parts, it didn’t break further than that. He picked up one piece, testing its strength. He had no problem breaking it, given that he was way past the human baseline by now. However, he realized, that the material was as resistant as a dry piece of wood, not something you would expect from an egg. I guess it makes sense for their egg to be more resistant, otherwise given their size they would probably break on their own. He kept a piece of the egg with some of the grey ridges absorbing mana on it. Maybe Leyla would be interested in that.

Edward teleported into each cavern, destroying all the eggs and making sure that they weren’t any monsters left. Apart from more bone remains, he didn’t find anything. Having finished what he came for, he teleported back to the top of the cliff. Time to go back. Edward looked in the direction of Gobéliard, watching all the way he had to walk back. He paused, then grinned widely. After all, why not? Why shouldn’t I? Edward jumped into the air and ran on the aura forming under his steps with a shout of glee. Dashing through the air he quickly disappeared into the distance.

*****

Not wanting to alarm the guards for nothing, Edward descended to the ground before reaching Gobéliard. He walked the small distance that separated him from the city. At the entrance, the city guards greeted him respectfully. Edward’s exploits had already spread through the whole city, and while the citizens were still worried about him, the city guards had a more positive view of him. Before they had to bow down to the main families’ antics. Now that a new balance had been reached empowering the city inhabitants, they felt free, they could do their duty without being bothered by influential individuals’ wishes.

Edward first went to Leyla, he needed to talk to her about his new discoveries. He had to warn Cornelius as well. Since the latter had arranged a residence for Leyla in the city hall, Edward could kill two birds with one stone.

This time he didn’t teleport directly inside but took the time to walk through the entrance normally. He sensed Leyla with his aura, she was currently sitting at her desk, scribbling notes in a notebook. He knocked on the door, watching her through his aura. She raised her eyes and got up. He smiled when she opened the door. “Hey, I’m back. How are you?” he asked.

“Edward! I wasn’t expecting you to be back so soon,” Leyla beamed. “Are you all right? Did everything go well?”

“Yes, I’m all good, the Harpies weren’t my match, although the fact they were able to fly was annoying. Also, they had a variant able to use aura, and I made some worrying discoveries.” Edward’s face grew somber. “I have to talk with you and Cornelius.”

“I see.” Leyla went to her desk and picked up her notebook. “I’m ready to go.”

The two of them walked to Corneluis’ office. A guard was standing in front of his office door. Edward spied on Cornelius inside his office, he was busy talking with several individuals.

Establishing a new governing power after toppling the previous one must be a lot of work. I’m glad it’s not me doing it. But honestly, although I do enjoy roaming freely outside, in the current situation, I do feel this is the right move. I’m a lot more valuable slaying dangerous monsters rather than doing paperwork that somebody else could do.