Year 1, Spring, Third Month, Second Week.

Karl spent the whole month trying to imprint a Rune successfully. Last night, he almost succeeded. To be fair, Runes were very advanced Keys, usually only taught to Specialist Alchemists, it could take Karl as much as ten years to achieve this rank.

When Master AI gave an overview of the teaching plan, Karl pleaded for restructuring. He needed to learn something useful quickly, and he didn’t have the materials to craft Arrays. So Runes was the best option.

Runes are a set of symbolic keys from an ancient magic language. They were taught to more experienced Alchemists because they have more complex concepts and required a large amount of spiritual energy to be drawn.

Fortunately, Karl had dense spiritual energy and a good mindset for learning Alchemy. Also, Master AI had an easy way of teaching Karl. The form and concept of the Rune would appear on Karl’s mind directly, he only needed to meditate on it.

However, the imprint part was much more difficult. He took almost a week to draw it perfectly and three more weeks to form the concept with spiritual energy. That was for only one Rune. Karl requested that his first Rune should be something useful, easy and that it could be used to gather more materials. Master AI chose to teach him the Sharpness Rune.

Karl was trying to test it on a stone knife. Because the villagers were very poor, they couldn’t afford to buy metal. So their tools were mostly made of stone, wood, straw and bamboo.

Every family had a stone knife, but it was very dull. Since Karl wanted something easy, the Sharpness Rune was indeed useful. And if he had to go out of the village to get more materials, the Rune could help him make weapons.

.........

Tael was very annoyed with today’s work, usually, he would enjoy talking with the boys in the morning while attending to the fields. He was taller than most, so Toni would call him a bamboo stick and he would tease Toni back for his short stature.

He would also laugh at Karl’s crazy ideas. He loved to do different things and would fuel some craze plans from Karl. But he was much more mindful than the other two boys so he would call off anything dangerous.

However, today Karl and Toni were nowhere to be seeing. Lately, they were crazy talking about something called Alchemy, but he didn’t pay attention to it and dismiss it as one of Karl’s mother’s magic tales.

‘They’re up to something... They shouldn’t neglect their fields, if the harvest decrease it’ll be fatal for their families. I should look for them...’

He finished his work and went looking for the boys near Karl’s hut.

“Hey punks! What are you up to?”

‘Humpf, they are playing around with rocks and sticks... Hey, he cut through that rock... Strange, how did...’

“See? I told you it was worth it. Think about what we can do with better materials, We need to get an energy crystal, now that would be something!”

The boys didn’t even spare Tael a glance, they continued to talk about getting things and testing the stone knife against other rocks and sticks.

Tael knew something was going on, so he focused on the knife. It looked like a common knife, but there was a symbol drawn on it.

‘This drawing is pretty good... Really strange...’

“How did you do it?... The drawing. Looks very well made. Why does this knife look better than the other ones? You're talking about getting materials, crystals, from where exactly?”

The boys finally realized someone was watching. Somehow, they looked at Tael pretty embarrassed. Karl put on a bitter smile and explained:

“Ah... T, I have something to tell you... It’s amazing, a little crazy, maybe dangerous, but helpful. Yes, very, very helpful. So please, don’t focus on the details too much.”

Tael’s expression became even more serious. The entire time Toni only, nodded in agreement and said some affirmative words. Karl seemed a little reluctant, but continued:

“So... I’m gonna keep things short. I found a book and I’m learning Alchemy. It’s similar to magic, but once a make tools everyone can use them. We want to use it to help the village. Look here, I imprinted a Rune in this knife. When the knife cuts something, the Rune makes it sharper. So, looks like a normal knife aside from the Rune I draw, but when cutting is sharper. I’m learning other things too, but I need more materials... If I get a..... Then we can make....”

Karl continued to pour his ideas and troubles without care for Tael’s sanity. Surprisingly, until Karl pointed to the knife, saying that it was Alchemy, Tael was regarding everything as Karl’s crazy magic delusions.

‘Impossible!! How did he get this? Was it in his registration? If he has affinity, why did they let him back? He said that it’s different from regular magic, have they missed it? And, a symbol can do this much? What book?...’

It took almost an hour to explain things to Tael. When he realized that it was real, he wanted to understand everything. How the drawings work, what’s Alchemy, what materials they needed to craft other things.

Like Karl, he was initially focused on weapons. For him, if they could make something to fend off the guards, nothing else mattered. But he finally understood that Alchemy was very complicated and had a lot of uses. Although everything was too difficult to accept, Tael pushed away his doubts and dove deep into the boys' frenzy to learn and do more.

“I agree that we can use it to help, everyone is tired of living like this... But we need to think more, this isn’t playing Karl. I’m sorry, but we can’t go out of the village. Either we work with the things we have here, or we should talk with the Chief.”

Tael dropped a bucket of cold water in the whole thing. Karl remembered the wolves’ attack and couldn’t help but agree with his friend. But Toni didn’t forget to bring his simple-minded positivity to the mix.

“We should talk with Old Bill. When I’m helping him, he always complains that we’re too obedient to the Kingdom. He thinks that I don’t pay much attention, but he knows a lot about the things outside the village, he sometimes let things slip up...”

The boys took some time discussing if they should talk to the elders or not. The natural course would be to look for the Chief, but somehow they decided that Toni’s idea wasn’t crazy at all. Also, Tael argued that they should train the convincing with other Elders before going to the Chief.

.........

‘These children are crazy! Damn, this knife isn’t normal!... Why did they come to me? Is someone testing us?... But I never heard of this... Omero might know about it... I should faint some incredulity, not that it’s difficult... But this knife, the way it looks dull but when cutting it’s actually very sharp... Amazing...’

“Children, you’re talking about a lot of crazy things! I’ll take this to the Chief, after I talk to him you can have it back.”

The boys were disappointed, but couldn’t do anything about it.

.........

“Is it magic? You know more about it Omero... They know too much, the truth about the effects of the village’s barrier isn’t something a lot of people known. If they’re sent to test us, how and who got to the boy? But if his dad is on it, it’s possible... Now, the book explanation it’s too naive, if he doing it to fish out rebels they did a poor job in the excuse. Bill, are you sure that this is just a common knife?”

While distressed, Marlen didn’t stop weaving the straws, no matter what, the newborn baby would need it and it could help her remain calm. 

Since Bill explained everything and brought out the knife, Chief Omero could not stop laughing. He looked like a maniac, but strangely, the other two elders didn’t pay him any mind.

Bill picked the knife again and start to analyze it for the hundredth time. Marlen sighed, the scene was very nostalgic.

How many times, have Omero lost himself for one particular detail? He was always looking at the best angle. And Bill, it wouldn’t take much for the bitter old man to dive into the possibility of learning a new craft.

She could only serve as an anchor, tieing them to reality. Thinking about it, she felt an acute pain in her heart. She clenched her fist and spare them a look of sorrow. They never left room for her to be irrational too. The only time she lost herself to despair, they made a horrible decision, and now her daughter had to suffer for it.

“I don’t know a lot about magic, but I know about crafting, this is a normal stone knife, I craft it myself. And I willing to bet that the boy really made this magic symbol. His explanation of how it works just seems right. I don’t quite understand but his crafting mindset is very good. Someone definitely taught him... or this book was really good.”

“Yes. It’s very fortunate, that he, the only boy that knows how to read in the village, found a magic book and got all the knowledge from it before it disappeared. Too convenient. A lot of villagers mocked his mother because she insisted on teaching him how to write and read. But now, it fits his story perfectly...”

“Yeah... I remember her writing on the dirt with a stick, really troubling. But he’s not the only child that knows how to read, our children also... Oh, I guess that’s not the point... It’s so fascinating! Even with the low concentration of magic energy inside the village, this symbol can use it to improve the cut. Can you imagine if we use it outside? And if the effects are the same in a good blade, how powerful it would be. How can they use something this good as a bait?”

“HAHAHA... Finally, we have a chance... Do you understand what this means? It doesn’t matter if he’s bait from the Kingdom. If we use him correctly, we could change the results, the village doesn’t have to perish, they don’t have to dye... I know I’m being too optimistic, but haven’t we stayed for much less? Bill said that the boy knows a lot of useful things, he just needs materials. And even if he only knows this, as long as we can exchange it with the right people, we should be capable of doing something this time...”

Marlen and Bill carefully consider what Omero said.

He was right, this was an opportunity that they couldn’t miss.

‘this is why this fool became the leader, with only some words he can convince us. I guess I owe Don this much. In the worse case, I can burn some bridges to get Katlyn and the children to safety.’

.........

The three left Omero’s hut when the sun was almost setting. They discussed a lot of strategies and decided to talk with Karl in the morning. Omero gave them goodbye, and moved to the south of the village, near the bamboo grove.

Soon he heard the sound of something being cut.

The sound repeated continually, forming a rhythm. He smiled proudly.

Moving very stealthily, he got to the grove and observed.

The scene was very beautiful. The sun was leaving but could still spare some rays of light through the bamboos and trees. In a clearing surrounded by bamboos, logs fell, cut evenly. One after the other, the logs fell from different places. They were placed at least three meters apart but took little more than one second for one to fall after another.

A shining sword danced through the grove, delivering punishment to the logs. Some logs were wider, but they didn’t offer much more resistance against the onslaught. To complete the magnificent scene, the long brown hair was seen all around matching the speed of the sword. 

“Diana, the chance that we have been waiting is here... Finally, grandpa has come to ask you to get revenge...”