After playing cards and drinking till most of them went back to sleep, Warden looked for a spot to practise his rune smithing. The main camp was littered with people even during the night, many on patrol, many training or just playing around.
With a thought, Warden decided to go back near the banks of the stream. That was probably the soundest place in the front lines to practise the runes as far as he was concerned.
A slow cold wind blew, chillier than usual, kissing his cheeks as he settled down under a ridge, the unreal sight before his eyes. He brought out a light construct along with his instruments. And finally, a shield made out of Tier-9 alloy and other expensive material—which he was to carve the scripts on.
Warden withdrew the paper glued to the unadorned shield to read what kind of runes were commissioned for? He had an idea, but after reading the necessary details, he was sure he could finish this up within four hours.
As always, he began with the tier-5 empower script, laying the foundation for five shells. Within half an hour after planning out the rest of the shells, Warden entered the flow state, his fingers working perfectly with over a hundred dexterity points. The surroundings became dull as his mind hovered only in the carving of the geometric shapes and runes.
Runesmithing was creative in the beginning of planning on how to carve the highest numbers of runes, but after that, it was mostly a repeated task of carving out the same runes in chains again and again.
That didn't mean it was easy, however. The sheer amount of control and perseverance needed to complete a single shell without even resting a moment was something most common rankers were unable to perform.
The flow made it easier, obviously. Only when Warden had a spear or a carving stylus in his hand did he enter the flow state. The world becomes so much brighter and real during this state... Even his energy recovers so quickly...
This was a phenomenon only a master of the work was privileged to experience. Only a master could absorb the ambient energy of nature into their being. In this state, running out of energy was nearly impossible if the ambient energy was heavy in the environment.
Warden continued on his work. He thought it would take four hours, but looking at the pace he was going, he would be done in three hours. He already completed two-thirds of it in a couple of hours, completely forgetting anything else other than the runes.
Warden didn't even notice when someone jumped from atop the ridge and into the water. When he finished carving, however, he finally noticed a person floating in the water as if they were dead.
"Then is it my fault?" she asked, her cheeks turning red in anger and embarrassment.
Warden thought for a moment and nodded. "This is an open stream, after all. If you're going to swim naked, then the bystanders are obviously going to look."
The naked woman's anger flared and she threw another attack. This time far more vicious. Of course, Warden had already prepared layers of wards right after her first attack. It was always wise to be careful around women who think they were wronged, even when it was their damn fault.
The woman glared up at him.
"If drawing my blood will quench your anger," Warden said with a sigh, "then do it... Just don't be too vicious. It's my first day in the army."
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Warden dismissed the wards and raised his arms in surrender. Although accidentally, he did wrong her... not to mention any flesh wound would be healed in the blink of an eye with his superior regenerative abilities. Not that he thought the woman would really attack.
Her first attack was on instinct, thinking of him as some wild beast, or some unscrupulous pervert... The next attack was also in anger, though calculated considering how he dealt with her first attack.
As Warden thought she did not attack.
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