Leaving his earnings aside, Arthur took a couple of cores and decided to experiment with them a bit. There has been something bugging him ever since he got his ability.

It was that there was a clear difference between runes.

Until now, Arthur has encountered two runes other than his Legacy runes. It was whether their action was active or passive. For example, Strength-II, Agility-II, and Stamina-II were passive, but he only used them as temporary runes or a one time strengthening permanent rune. The other one was the active ones, like detection, protection, force, restore, and others. They would act as artifacts when inscribed on inanimate objects and as skills for living beings.

Here comes the real question. What if he used his passive runes on inanimate objects? He has always considered them to be buffing runes since the first time he received his legacy. That thinking was influenced by his 'gaming' mentality that he had developed because of the status menu.

Runes were alive, they weren't coded effects. They were what created everything.

Arthur picked up a low-mid-tier core and decided to inscribe a Strength-II on his armor. Even though there was a chance of failure, there was also the chance that he could come up with something extremely crazy.

And he did.

The rune fused with the armor, glowing faintly on its surface. A single message made Arthur's started heart beat so loudly that he doubted the whole village heard it.

[Permanent rune created. This item would now boost its wearer's strength by 10 points.]

"Holy…"

Arthur was ignorant of artifacts and runes. He knew that much. He didn't know if such artifacts were available, or even artificial runes, out there in the world.

He still doubted it.

Artifacts boosting its wearer's body were unheard of. Even if they exist, they would be rare. As far as Arthur's knowledge was concerned, he didn't know of such artifacts. There could be some, but he doubted the public would know of them.

He knew who would, though. The military. This would be a military secret.

What would happen if Arthur started selling these? Countries, kingdoms, and any power would fight over them. They were the perfect equipment to make armies. If you gave one thousand people several artifacts, each strengthening them by 10, you'd have an army of awakeners in a matter of seconds.

Such a terrifying notion. Wars would happen at a moment's notice. Arthur even feared someone might find his equipment and find out what they did. What would he tell them? Did he get it out from the military? He either needed to discard old equipment or only inscribe new ones.

He felt a headache thinking about this.

The world was already brimming with tension, as Si said. He knew the reason for this. His breaking of the trial. He didn't know why, but it seems that the major powers around the world are tensed at the unexpected occurrence.

Someone has succeeded in prematurely ending the trial. Someone they didn't know his identity. They were probably thinking a new power has emerged.

The blood of the guardians.

This was the key to enter the trial. Arthur remembered bits of his conversation with Jizo.

'Long ago, there were nine guardians that ruled over the world and protected the human race. Worshiped by the people as the Lords of the world, these guardians boosted great prestige.'

'However,' Arthur remembers how his body felt like it was going to get crushed when Jizo looked angry. It was for a brief moment, but Arthur could label that moment as one of the scariest in his life.

'Five of the guardians betrayed the wills of their people, two remained neutral, and two opposed the other five.'

'I was one of those that opposed.'

'And what happened?' He remembered himself asking.

'We split the world into two.'

***

Leaving the hut in the afternoon, Arthur felt the power surge within him. He strengthened himself using three mid-tier cores. He increased his strength, agility, and stamina each by 5 points. After his runes evolved, he was able to evolve the permanent runes he had on his body as well. The net increase in stats was 5 points each since he already had the previous version giving him 5 points.

[Scholar Guardian's Legacy]

[Level: 17 (32%)]

[Strength: 85] [+10]

[Agility: 80]

[Stamina: 72]

[Perception: 60]

[Mana: 80/80]

[Abilities: Beginner Runes Wordsmith (25%), Useable Runes: 12]

[Skills: Lesser-Mana Breathing Skill (F), Poison Strike (F), Camouflage (F), Earth Manipulation (E), Bladeless Wind Slash (E), Shadow Swap (E), Goblin's Bond (Unique)]

[Insignia: The Breaker.]

This was his current stats. A whopping 95 points in strength. If he used them with his Strength-II rune, that meant he would have 105 points in strength. If he further used his legacy rune to burn mana…

If by a sneak attack, he could probably kill a high-tier monster in one blow. As for fighting against one for a long time, Arthur didn't see much hope with the huge backlash his rune gave him.

"Ka, Gu Kakan!" A loud screech resounded from the village's entrance if an opening in the wall could be called an entrance. The three middle-mid-tier goblins came back with something on their back. That 'something' was wiggling.

Arthur frowned heavily at this, making the goblins sense his intention and stood by the entrance. He then called to the blacksmiths and had them make an iron mask. He tied it to some leather before wearing it.

The quality of their work increased greatly, making their creations lighter and more refined. It seems their manipulative ability of metal has evolved when they got the skill compress or something, as they could now refine metals of impurities by compressing it first.

Wearing the iron mask, Arthur headed to the village's entrance. His suspicions were right when he saw what was on the goblin's shoulder. It was human.

"Let go!" He cried and thrashed about. He looked to be only fifteen years of age, leather clothing everywhere. His skin was tanned and ripped despite his youth, making it clear that it took some handiwork for the goblin to restrain.

Being monsters in nature, the goblins wanted to kill this human. However, Arthur's bond prevented them from attacking any human beings in the area. This was one of the instructions he gave them before he left the village.

The reason was simple, he didn't want any guilds to attack his village. If humans became aware that a goblin village was slowly evolving, they would make sure to eradicate it before it grew into real danger.

"Why did you bring him here?" Arthur's glare was filled with discontent, making the goblins tremble and whimper. They tried explaining with their language, a futile action if not for their bond. After several minutes, Arthur understood that this human was found lurking around the village. The goblins tried to chase him away but he ended up following them.

With a gesture from him, the goblin threw the kid on the ground and restrained them. Arthur studied the kid's clothing finding them extremely bizarre. A leather robe covering the entirety of his body and a belt around his waist. It was almost medieval.

"Who are you?" Arthur's voice was colder than he wanted it to be, but there was no helping it as he tried to sound different from usual.

The kid faced Arthur, looking at him with a helpless but defiant expression. His features were rough as if carved by a sculpture, an amateur one, giving him a fierce-looking face. His brows were inclined downward making him look angry even if he tried not to. With an equally big nose, his eyes were a shade of black.

"I not know this was your village, I want food." The boy grunted at Arthur before looking downward. His weird manner of speech made Arthur doubt if he was a foreigner, but he didn't know of any foreigners around these parts.

"I asked," Arthur pulled his head to meet his glare. "Who are you?" The boy was quite shaken when he met Arthur's golden eyes.

"I- I Dimon, from the village." He stuttered with fear, it seemed he has realized it was unfavorable to oppose the iron-masked man.

"And why are you here, Dimon?"

At his question, the young boy, named Dimon, turned a shade of red as he tried to stop himself from crying. He smacked his head to the ground as he squeezed the words out from his throat.

"Family, dead."

Their conversation ended here as Arthur didn't know what to say. He stood up and order the goblins to restrain him with metal cuffs crafted by the blacksmith. Then, he made them carry the boy into his hut. The boy was resisting and begging for mercy, probably thinking Arthur was going to do something to him.

Arthur sighed when the boy was in the hut, restrained. He had a headache as to what would he do to the boy who had found his village. Should he just let him go? That was the most reasonable answer. Before that, he needed to make some lunch.

With the goblins' diligent help, the aroma of meat covered the village. Dimon's screams died down and Arthur picked up a plate to serve him. Entering the hut, Arthur placed the plate in front of him.

"Listen here, Dimon. I'm not a bad person, but I need you to promise me to never tell anyone about this village. Do you understand?"

He picked up the plate as he asked, and Dimon's eyes traveled from one side to the other, unwilling to leave the plate. He nodded his head without saying anything and Arthur began to feed him.

Dimon was so hungry as he ate the whole portion in three minutes.

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