Edward stood up, frowning as the guard kept moving away from the camp. He teleported right next to him. “Hey what are you-” Edward heard a voice or rather sensed a call. There is something over there. I can’t see it clearly. If only I could come a little closer.

He took a step forward and shook his head in confusion. Wait. What am I doing? I wasn’t there for that. I’m here for the guard.

“HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Edward asked him, realizing belatedly that he had spoken a lot louder than he had intended. That seemed to do the trick, however, as the guard stopped in his tracks, blinking as if waking up from a dream. “Uhh…What…I thought I saw something”. He looked around, noticing that he had left his perimeter, that he was already inside the forest and alone with Edward. That’s when he understood that something was deeply wrong. His face whitened and he took a step back.

Edward also noticed the problem. This thing was playing with my mind. That bastard was messing inside my head. That’s how it managed to bypass our security without leaving a trace. It just made its prey come directly to it.

This is a dangerous monster. If it can mess with my mind maybe I won’t be strong enough to kill it. It is too dangerous. I should better let it go.

Rage erupted inside Edward, his blood boiling. His aura raised murderously around him, the grass and leaves battered by an invisible wind and small pebbles levitating off the soil. The guard near him took two more steps back, still groggy but not less terrified by Edward’s aura. “STOP FUCKING WITH MY MIND YOU MORONIC PIECE OF SHIT! LET YOU GO? AFTER YOU KILLED ONE OF US?! DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH! I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU AND TEAR YOU TO SHREDS!”

Edward projected his aura in front of him in search of the monster, his aura physically affected his surroundings. The branches, bushes, and ferns flattened or were pushed aside, making way under the force of his will and aura.

With the vegetation out of the way, it revealed a mantis-like monster only twenty meters away from their position. The monster was having a single large eye taking his full head and two scythes-like appendages instead of arms. It didn’t have legs but was rather floating and sliding above the ground, its rear part not unlike that of a slug. His mouth was on his torso, a one-meter vertical gaping maw ready to eat an approaching prey.

Edward was so angry that he could hardly think straight. He didn’t give the monster any chance to even try to manipulate his mind and sent a two meters aura blade from one flick of his wrist. The blade cut right through the monster bisecting it into two. Not satisfied with it, Edward teleported next to the monster’s body and planted his dagger right in the center of its oversized eye, finishing it if it wasn’t dead already.

Edward stayed near the corpse still heaving in fury, only calming down when the fearful guard took the courage to walk to him.

“What is this thing?” he asked in horror pointing at the monster’s corpse.

“I have no idea but it is dead now,” Edward told him while kicking the corpse with his foot.

“Thank you. I think you just saved my life,” the guard told Edward gratefully. “I don’t know what happened. I felt like I saw something and I had to go look for it. I didn’t even think about warning the others. This thing must have messed with my mind somehow.”

“Indeed. The fucker attempted to do the same with me.” Edward bent down and put his hand on the corpse sending his aura inside and absorbing the monster’s blood essence, it wasn’t much. However, Edward felt there was still power in the monster’s corpse. Not in the form of blood essence, but in raw mana. Usually, Edward pierced the monster with his daggers to absorb their power, the daggers being able to absorb the remnant mana. Although Edward hadn’t met any monster asides from the Bloodmaws with mana aside from their blood essence.

Since he had learned how to use mana and how to control and absorb it, Edward attempted to absorb the monster’s mana directly through his hand. To his surprise it worked on the first try, the mana obediently flowing into him. The monster’s mana wasn’t a lot but it was much more concentrated than in the air. Absorbing it had been the equivalent of spending three hours of meditation.

Killing this kind of monster could be useful. My blood essence is growing faster than my mana. My mana is becoming the limiting factor for my accelerated state. If I can’t increase my perception to adapt to my accelerated speed it greatly decreased its usefulness.

“All right, let’s go back to the camp. The night isn’t over yet.” Edward announced now that there was nothing more to get from the monster’s corpse.

There were still a few hours left before morning. Caspian wasn’t on guard duty right now and was currently sleeping. Edward decided to let him sleep, the danger had passed, and the report could wait, he could tell him about it once he woke up.

Edward thought back about what happened. Even though this monster wasn’t strong. Hell, I basically one-shot it. The fact that it can affect one’s mind is troublesome. It even managed to affect me somewhat even though I’m at the predator rank. I need to find a way to protect myself.

When I became enraged at it, its hold on me broke. My aura and anger somehow managed to protect me. But I can’t count on it all the time. How can I tell something is messing with my mind when it’s already controlling my thoughts? I need to find another way. Maybe a rune talisman, or something like that? Guess that’s another thing I will have to ask Leyla. I’m glad I gave her the translated rune booklet. I don’t know what I would do without her.

While Edward was lost in thoughts, the sun started to show up. In the morning, the villagers woke up and prepare their belonging for another day of travel, hopefully, the last before leaving the Vipin Forest behind. Edward walked to Caspian now that he was awake.

“Hi, you had a good night?” Edward asked him as the guard captain was stretching.

“Hey! I would say the best since I left Agripin. Not getting attacked in the middle of the night certainly helps.”

“About that. We did have an attack. The monster who killed a guard on the first night, it seems it had been following us. I thought it could teleport, which would have explained how it bypassed our defenses. It turned up this fucker was a mind controller.”

“A mind controller?!” Caspian interrupted him surprised by the news. “To think that such a monster exists is terrifying.”

“Well, I may exaggerate a little. I don’t think it is really able to take control of someone. But it has enough leverage to make its target come to it against his will. I only noticed something was wrong when one of your guards left the perimeter alone to walk deeper into the forest. Don’t worry I killed the monster. They are not very strong but their mind control ability makes them dangerous.”

“That will be one more reason I’m happy to leave this damn forest behind. Things were easier in my time, I only had to worry about some wolves.” Caspian paused. “No offense, but since I met you it’s only one strange and dangerous monster after the other.”

Edward smiled stiffly. “No offense. It’s mostly true even if I have nothing to do with it.”

Caspian laughed and patted him on the back.

Now ready, the convoy resumed its advance. Moral was high, the terrifying monsters they had encountered had been slain and they were now on the way out. The convoy walk was accompanied by the convivial brouhaha of small conversation. As usual, Edward didn’t stay inside the convoy and instead scouted ahead in case there were still any monsters in the vicinity.

To his relief, he didn’t meet any monsters or any strange phenomena. As the hours went by, the trees became more interspersed and smaller. Finally, they parted to reveal Gobéliard waiting for them. The city was standing in front of them with its reassuring stone murals and colorful banners.

There were a few changes, however. Edward could distinguish additional metal panels fixed on the walls. Said metal panels were inscribed with what he recognized as block runes. So, they already did it. With this additional layer of protection, the city should stand even against monsters able to use aura. With how many of them I met lately it is definitely a necessity.

Laughs echoed along the convoy as the villagers rejoiced, happy to leave the forest and its monsters behind. In Gobéliard, beyond the city’s sturdy walls, they would be safe. They advanced, crossing the last hundred meters separating them from the city. The guards were not surprised to see them, having been probably briefed by Cornelius beforehand. One of them approached the villagers and guided them toward the previous Vega mansion.

Lots of space was needed to accommodate the whole population of Agripin. Due to its walls, the city couldn’t expand easily, and it turned out the easiest solution was to use the Vega mansion which had been deserted and was currently unoccupied. Edward accompanied Agripin’s villager to the mansion and made sure that everything would be all right. Caspian was already directing the unpacking and the moving out into the new accommodations.

With his mission accomplished Edward left to meet back with Leyla. I have so many things to tell her. He smiled nervously. I also need to propose to her. He walked into the city hall, and up to Leyla’s room. He could sense her on the other side of the door, sitting at her desk, drawing sketches on a notebook, but he stopped in the corridor in front of her door.

What if I’m wrong? What if I misread the situation? Won’t I seem like a creep if I propose to her and she thinks of me as just a friend? I don’t want to ruin our relationship. I just want to spend time with her. She is so hardworking, clever, and beautiful.

As Edward was gripped by indecision, his hand shook from nervousness and he ended up knocking on the door, making a small noise.

“Yes?” Came Leyla’s interrogative voice. “Come in.”