The group of pirates and bandits had taken root nearby the town and were still causing problems. They had also recruited more people and become a deterrent to most of the town's people.
The business of Fiona had stagnated, with the increased cost of collecting material because of the pirates' and bandits' existence.
Similarly, Hazel felt annoyed at their existence as it had prevented the town from development.
***
His relationship with Emily and her daughter greatly improved. Aile is the only person Sophie trusted. They usually spend a lot of time talking, and Aile had also helped her train so that she would be ready to start cultivation in an optimum state.
***
Sara still keeps on coming to him every morning, and they have their daily ritual of talking. In the past five years, Sara had matured, and she valued her relationship with Aile. She had trusted Aile with her problems and started to rely on him more and more. Aile also liked her attitude and full of life nature.
***
Diana was mentally exhausted. Because of her crippled son and a daughter that is always in an adventure with Marcus. She had been left behind in cultivation by Emily, who reached the 4th stage and Fiona, who had reached the 3rd stage. Emily still suppressed her cultivation in front of everyone to the 3rd stage.
Aile talks with the beautiful Diana, but minimally. Aile wants to help her, but still does not fully trust her as she and Marcus are officially married.
He does not want his support to end up in the hand of Marcus. Thus he is reluctant to help her too much. He knows that he is being too cautious, but in this world, trust is hard-earned, and there is a reason for it.
Especially since so many had been betrayed for gaining little advantage. Aile thought if Diana would betray him if it comes between her daughter and Aile.
Although they had developed a close relationship, Aile without a doubt knew that she would choose her daughter's side.
Since her daughter is in Marcus's hands, Aile does not want to trust her too much. Ellie can be used as leverage against her.
Thus, she was not being easily trusted, at least for now that Aile is still weak. Aile first wants to get Ellie back from Marcus, as she is not happy with him and Diana is unhappy too. Perhaps after that, he can bring her into his side.
***
Fiona is the most fun to have around, she talks about a lot of things that interest Aile. For some reason, she did not treat Aile as a child since long ago. She trusts and confides in him, and she had noticed his exceptional brilliance and a calm mind.
They have a proper conversation regarding her future, and she takes Ailes suggestions to heart. For example, her supplier was targeted a few times, and she noticed that it was weird that only her workers were being targeted.
She came and told Aile about it. Aile researched a bit, used his senses and from her description concluded that she was targeted.
Aile told her to stop the production and not go large scale just yet, because just like Hazel, Aile believes someone does not want this town to progress. Thus, they targeted something this town was getting popular in.
Fiona took his suggestion and stopped large-scale production, even though it could make her rich. After a while, they gave out information that they would not make a profit because of increased prices of material.
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Then she was no longer targeted. In fact, during that time, Fiona felt like she was followed many times. Her security had been at risk too. It stopped after she stopped growing her business. This further improved her trust in Aile.
Aile too trusted her a bit and told her about Jana. She quickly solved his apprehensions. He found out that her information is purposefully being hidden by Hazel. Because Hazel was worried that she would be a target again, as she could identify her assailant. Thus, she had hidden Jana and protected her.
Aile trusted Fiona a lot and wanted to bring her to his side when he fully takes over the body. He has fully integrated with the body's energy channels.
He also wanted to bring in Emily and Sophie as he also trusts them a lot.
He had asked if Emily could find him a book on runes. Emily had used all her savings to buy him the elementary book on runes. When Aile found out she had spent everything she owned on the book, he was touched. He made a vow to compensate her in the future and always look after her.
Aile had many improvements over the five years, one of the most notable was on the control of his senses. Notably, he can now effortlessly hear everything in 3 km radius.
Although it is only a 1 km radius increase, the area it covers is much larger than the previous 2 km.
He can maintain this without exerting too much energy like before.
Before he could hear things at 2 km radius for a maximum of 10 minutes with his energy.
Now he can maintain the 3 km radius for 2 hours without worrying.
Aile also learned the basics of "Runes" from the elementary-book that Emily bought him. "Runes" use energy to create energy channels in a specific sequence on an object. These unique sequences can provide complex functions.
In simple cases, they can be an "Alert Rune." This "Rune" is simple as you can draw it at a location. If someone steps on it, they activate it and alert you.
More complicated "Runes" can act as cameras or mics. They can be drawn under someone's table to collect information or listen to secrets and spy on them.
There are also "Runes" that can be used for the offensive. A fire "Rune" can be drawn instead of the alert "Rune," and anyone that steps on it will get hit with fire energy. "Runes" can also be stacked on top of each other, making it so that the single "Rune" can record sounds and visual information, or be an alert and fire "Rune." There are many more complex combinations.
He learned the elementary structures of "Runes." These are simple, "Runes." They can be used for temporary barriers (Tich), alerting, and elemental gathering.
"Tich" are logical "Runes" that prevent two things from happening unless it meets the right situation. "Tich Runes" can act as locks. A condition needs to be met, for it to open.
It could be specific energy. For example, if a scroll has a light element technique, then a small "Tich Rune" can be added locking it, until someone inputs light element.
This way, it protects the scroll from unnecessary wear and tear, reducing its degradation.
Thus, libraries and educational institutes use this system to prevent their scrolls from degradation.
The last class of "Runes" Aile learned was elemental gathering "Runes." These "Runes" can be drawn on any surface, and it would gather the specific element.
If one draws a water gathering "Rune," it can gather the water element and form water, allowing one to have it anywhere with its "Rune".
Similarly, fire gathering "Rune" can gather fire elements to start a fire with.
Other elements can similarly be gathered with these types of "Runes."
Aile was extremely grateful to Emily for getting him the book on "Runes."
When Aile expected to get more information from his auxiliary field connection, he found out that he only understood 56 percent of the beginning knowledge.
Hence, he had been trying the find more knowledge about it since then. He had people search through the entire town, and there was no additional book on "Runes." He wondered how Emily found one here.
He might have an opportunity soon, as Duke White had sent a letter to tell Hazel, Sara and Aile to go to the Princess's birthday.
The Princess is turning 9 this year, and she wanted to visit the sea and celebrate her birthday there. The area she chose was a town called Cape Tie.
Cape Tie is three days from Port Kiar and Aile, Hazel and Sara are to go there in six days.
Aile really does not care about the birthday, he has two goals.
The first goal is to find out why Duke White invited him there.
His second goal was to find more information regarding "Runes."
Cape Tie was a famous town and a high tier town. Thus, Aile has a lot of hope tied to getting information regarding the "Runes" from there.
He also wanted to visit the library and look for creatures that have both light and dark elements. This is because he will need their bloodline to advance to the third level of cultivation once he starts cultivation.
He had a lot to think about, and what worried him was how to get the money to get stuff.
He remembered that Emily had to spend a lot to get the elementary-book of "Runes."
He had a money shortage, he can ask Fiona, and she will give it to him, but he did not want to be reliant on others.