A smile appeared on Rick's thin face. He found the rune much quicker than before. Obviously, the process of copying a single rune was much simpler compared to sorting out individual runes from the Communication Rune Stones. But that was not the only reason. He noticed that with the increase in the proficiency of the [Rune Craftsmanship] skill, his ability to draw the runes with precision had increased tremendously.

Recording the [Fire Core Rune] into the Lemegeton only took a little over three hours! Compared to the time it took him to find the other runes this was much quicker. And from the past experiences, he knew that crafting a recorded rune took much less time.

The [Fire Core Rune]! The name itself gave the impression that it was a significant rune.

It was almost nightfall. Especially with the overcast, it would be nightfall that much quicker. Carefully, Rick placed the egg in his back wrapping it with the pages and the talisman he could find to cushion any impact. 

"Now is not the time to get excited and take unnecessary risks," he spoke to himself. 

Although he did not know if it was dangerous in the night time to be outdoors, he did not want to stumble around in the dark.

Rick looked out the car to scope the streets making sure there was nothing dangerous lurking around. He did not see a single soul anywhere around, Rick immediately shuffled out of the car and picked up the cycle leaning to the side of the car. He rushed back to his house as quickly as he possibly could.  

Within fifteen minutes the familiar silhouette of the house appeared down the road. He cycled into the driveway. It was already dark by the time Rick reached inside.

With a flick, he switched on the torchlight and made his way to the room. It was time to find out how effective his [Word-Transmission Scrolls] were. 

But first, he put the bag with the rune inscribed egg carefully on his chair before moving to his bed to pick up the pile of [Word-Transmission Scrolls]. 

There were six talismans all piled up, from the shortest distance to the last!

"Well, no use praying now anyway." Rick let out a long breath before picking up the small pile. As he shuffled through the pile, a small smile slowly crept up on his lips. On all of the [Word-Transmission Scrolls] were all numbered with "one" to "six". While Rick smiled at the small scraps of paper, the words on them had already disappeared with a simple touch on the received message. The receiving talisman was again ready to send a message back.

"Yes!" Rick let out a roar of joy and clenched his fist.

Rick was sure that if the talisman worked from over sixteen kilometres away, it would definitely be able to work at longer distances. This was only a low ranked talisman if he could make a higher tier [Word-Transmission Scroll] what would its effects be anyway, Rick mused. 

Now even if Samira and Jay were to adventure far away, he would be able to keep passing on crucial information to them. And if was able to find out the runes required for the higher tier Word Transmission Scroll he could draw it and send it to them.

For now, Rick decided to give both Samira and Jay one of [Word-Transmission Scroll] each to communicate with and another [Word-Transmission Scroll] pair in case they ever needed to talk with each other. Next, he decided to give another two [Word-Transmission Scroll] in case they found someone to be trusted enough and then they would be able to communicate with Rick directly. Finally, he would give them a [Word-Transmission Scroll] pair to sell. There was no saying what type of hardships they would face as they moved forward and it would be for the best if they had something on them that they could trade with. 

The [Communication Rune Stones] were already being used by many Heroes. But there wasn't anyone who had managed to create a long distance communication device using the new resource, mana. In fact, it was surprising that Rick could create one so fast!

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He was able to create one so quickly because he had the Lemegeton in his possession. With it, he could easily understand why the runes worked. Moreover, the Lemegeton would record all the runes once successfully crafted. Without it, Rick would not have such a quick reference to work from. After all, without it, he would have had to reference from his own work or from the [Communication Rune Stones] itself.

Thinking till here Rick would have exhausted his entire stash of [Word-Transmission Scroll], but this would be a necessary investment. Rick needed to build a strong network of trusted persons for procuring the materials he would require. It had been less than a week since the Heaven's Dictate and mutation and there was no standard currency that people would accept. In such a situation the best way to show your worth to another was by bartering a powerful artifact at your disposal.

With this work done, Rick had two other things to do, to check the egg and the [Fire Core Rune].

He stretched his arms wide. After carefully arranging the talisman in his lap, he decided to first freshen up and grab something to eat before looking into the egg and the [Fire Core Rune]. 

He lit a candle and then rushed into the dining area to grab a bite. 

As he ate his sandwich, Rick checked out his skills. 

The five skills were [Tranquil Heart], [Stealth Walk], [Negotiator], [Weapon Enhancer] and [Rune Craftsmanship]. Of these, he could consciously activate Stealth Walk, which muffled his footsteps. Other than that he had no idea how to activate any of the skills. Although the skills would generally increase in proficiency, he had as of yet not activated any of the other skills consciously with his own effort. This was an issue that was always nagging at him.

He checked out his skills one by one,

[Tranquil Heart (Veteran)

Proficiency- 12%]

[Stealth Walk (Novice)

Proficiency- 18%]

[Negotiator (Apprentice)

Proficiency- 21%]

[Weapon Enhancer (Novice)

Proficiency- 1%]

[Rune Craftsman (Novice)

Proficiency- 63%]

As he was checking out his skills, from the corner of his eyes, Rick noticed a pair of headlights flash. 

Rick immediately crawled down his table and blew out his candle. There wasn't just one vehicle. Right after the first one left, there was another car trailing. 

He slowly stretched his arms towards the kitchen counter and grabbed the knife he was cutting his bread with. The cars slowed down and to his horror, the cars pulled into the driveway. 

"Wait! That must be Samira and Jay!" Rick exclaimed once he was in a position to make out the car.

He was right, from the cars climbed out Samira and Jay climbed out. 

He chuckled at his unnecessary fright, Rick walked out to greet the two. Once he opened the door to the car, a salty stench waft through from the car making Rick's nose twitch for a second. 

"What do guy even have there?" Rick called out.

"Oh, my bad. Here," Jay grinned and pulled out a small bamboo stick, the size of one's finger from his pocket and placed it on the roof of his mini-van. From the corner of his eye, Rick saw Samira put something similar on the roof of the pickup truck.

Before Rick could even ask them what they were, he already had the answer.

Within seconds the stench from the cars immediately vanished. 

Rick was taken aback for a second, seeing this sudden.

"Haha!" Samira laughed, "Close your mouth, here we got one for you too."

Samira handed a bamboo stick to Rick and him gave him a hug.

"How are you? I was worried sick about you. Did you run into any trouble?" Samira let he out of the bear hug to tussle his hair.

"Are you kidding me? You are the one who was out hunting in the forest. I should be the one asking you this." Rick smirked at Samira's remark.

"Hahaha…" Jay and Samira laughed.

"Let's just go in." Rick let the two in.

Both of them had messy hair and were covered in mud and what Rick assumed was blood. In spite of their look, they seemed especially lively and robust.

"Sit I will fix you a meal," Rick said.

"Thanks, bro," Jay replied.

Both of them sat down and Rick started preparing sandwiches for them.

"How was your hunt?"

"In the beginning, I was a little worried, but everything after that went quite smoothly," Samira replied.

"The Winged Serpent Blood that you gave us was handy as well. But we tried not using it much. We only took it out in dire situations, like when we entered one of the dungeons." Jay spoke.

Rick had told the two about the Winged Serpent Blood as well. This way the two would have another ace down their sleeves.

"So we got what you asked for. There is one carcass of every beast we ran against as well, that's what the smell was." Jay continued.

Rick and the two sat together late into the night discussing what had transpired the last two days. Jay and Samira told Rick about their hunt and the details of their hunts. The two had even stumbled across a dungeon during their raid.

On Rick's part, he told them about the [Word Transmission Scroll] he crafted and the others were equally surprised hearing that.

It was near midnight when the three retired back to their own rooms for the night.