Noel and the children were talking a lot about what happened to them in the past two years. They had truly put a lot of effort into their dancing, allowing them to reach this point so quickly.
If they compared themselves to Noel, their speed would be negligible, but the children were also practicing a new kind of sword style. So, it was already amazing that they could reach this point by themselves.
Ultimately, Noel agreed to let them stay in his future territory. However, Noel put on a condition, which was to follow his plan.
And the first part of his plan would require them to gain their Spiritual Energy. However, this action would be extremely dangerous, so Noel added another condition to them, which was to have Milfa accompany and assess their fight.
This way, Milfa would be able to save them in case something happened. If the kids performed horrendously, Milfa would have all the reasons to stop them from chasing after Noel. This would fulfill the promise he had with Milfa, which was not to destroy their talent.
Of course, Milfa would have no right to stop them if they managed to defeat demons brilliantly. For that, Noel was giving them basic knowledge that they taught in the Demon Banner Army.
Because Noel had no mastery in the Sword Dance, he didn't give anything regarding their sword style and spirits. Instead, he gave them the rune book, especially asking them to learn the three basic runes: Increase Agility Rune, Strength Blessing Rune, and Spiritual Energy Dispersion Rune. In addition, he gave them Spirit Techniques such as Muscle Strengthening and Spirit Aura Breathing.
With this, the kids would have the foundation for their Spiritual Energy.
If they truly passed all the hurdles ahead and reached his territory, he would definitely paint the runes on their bodies to make them even stronger.
After all of them fell asleep, Noel finally left the house, hoping for the best.
"Master." Dimitri greeted him outside. It seemed he had been waiting for him the whole time.
"Sorry for making you wait, Dimitri. Is everything there?"
"Yeah." Dimitri pointed at the inn. "Anna is also waiting for you in that inn. She arrived in the afternoon. It's the furthest room on the third floor, the one on the left."
"Got it. Thanks, Dimitri. After Anna, I'll be painting runes on your body as well."
"I'm grateful." Dimitri agreed while adding one finger. "But if possible, I'd like to express one concern."
"What is it?"
"If you are the one painting all the runes for the people around you and the elite soldiers, it will put a strain on yourself. So, why don't you find a disciple who can do that for you? Anna aside, you will find yourself in trouble if you try to do it to another female."
"That's true, but… it's not that easy to find that kind of person, you know?" Noel sighed. "In fact, I want two disciples that can be taught to do this: one male and one female. This way, they can do it based on gender."
"I see. You'll have a hard time finding one. After all, Rune is a new concept. However, you can think of it this way. Since you've spread the knowledge about runes, won't that make people who are adept at it be a good seedling? I mean, they can understand the new concept quickly."
"Yeah. That's probably the reason why Old Ru told me to go south until I meet a fateful person." Noel agreed, recalling the message Old Ru gave him before departure.
Though, he had to figure out the other party's identity since it would be troublesome if that fateful person turned out to be someone important.
"Alright. I'll be meeting her." Noel waved his hand and started heading to the inn. As soon as he reached the room, he knocked on the door and said, "This is Noel."
Anna immediately opened the door for him. "Come in."
It seemed she had been expecting his arrival the whole time. She had a translucent gown that allowed him to see through a portion of her body, including the part where the Spirit Seal was.
"…" Noel was quite stunned because, in the past, he saw her body just to mess with her. But this time, he felt weird that he could see her like this when she was expecting something to the point where he couldn't help but look away. Even Noel didn't understand why the time he should look at her ended up with him looking away.
"I have been waiting for you. Shall we start right away?" Anna asked while lighting up the candles to light up the room. Unfortunately, the candle wasn't that bright, which made Noel disagree.
"No. We'll be waiting for the morning. Since this is the first time we're painting runes on our bodies, it's better to wait until the sun is up to avoid unnecessary mistakes. The blood is precious after all." Noel shook his head, explaining his reason.
"What should we do then?"
"I'm here to talk about the type of runes that we would add to our bodies." Noel moved to the table and grabbed a paper. "You should know about the five rune types, right?"
"Yeah. Support Rune, Attack Rune, Defensive Rune, Utility Rune, and Movement Rune."
"Indeed." Noel nodded and wrote everything down. "In that case, what type of rune do you need?"
"That's…" Anna couldn't answer because even in her previous life, she never had done this.
"There is one more problem. Currently, even if I try, I can only create a Mid Level Rune, not an advanced one. It's quite hard, you see."
"So, we'll have to renew it later?"
"Yes."
Anna looked down, falling into deep thought. "In that case, how about one for all types? It shouldn't be too much to the point where it could cover one's body."
"Alright then." Noel glanced at his system and asked inwardly, 'Ardagan. Give me ten random rune scrolls.'
[Processing]
[You've acquired Reduce Impact Rune.]
[You've acquired…]
[You…]
…
[You've acquired Guardian Sword Rune.]
After getting the knowledge, Noel immediately wrote a few names. "How about this… I'll paint Empowerment Rune as the Support Rune, Energy Blast Rune as the Attack Rune, Reduce Impact Rune as the Defensive Rune, Energy Gathering Rune as the Utility Rune, and Enhance Forward Rune as the Movement Rune."
Anna assessed the names. "Empowerment Rune could increase my physical ability and Spiritual Energy for a set period of time. I have seen your Energy Blast Rune a lot. Reduce Impact Rune can mitigate the physical and magical impact. As for the Energy Gathering Rune, it's quite useful for us, especially after learning Old Ru's technique. And Enhance Forward Rune can increase our speed. That sounds good enough. We can change it later anyway."
"Yeah. I'm planning to embed the same thing in my body. Can you paint the runes?"
"I can't paint Empowerment Rune and Energy Blast Rune. But if you let me practice here, it shouldn't be a problem."
"Then, how about we practice until the sun is up?"
"Sounds good."
"Though, how about you put on some clothes first?" Noel asked while sighing.
"Huh?" Anna had just realized that she had forgotten since Noel talked about a serious matter. She instantly got flustered, but seeing how Noel acted a bit differently from normal, she couldn't help but tease him. "Oh, what's wrong, Noel? Are you embarrassed?"
"You should be the one who is embarrassed. Besides, I'm just concerned about your health." Noel shook his head as calmly as possible.
"You should know that after having Spiritual Energy in our body, we rarely get sick. And we have almost become a Spirit Grandmaster, so there's no way I will catch a cold." Anna smirked. "Just say that you're embarrassed."
"So, are you going to put on some clothes or not?" Noel asked.
"Tsk. You're no fun." Anna pouted when looking at Noel's poker face. However, the fact that he acted differently meant he was a bit more conscious of her. It somehow put a smile on Anna's face. She would never admit it though.
After that, they immediately worked on the paint. Noel supervised everything while asking Dimitri to bring him all the items. He had to prepare the sap and other things and mix some of them so that they could be used to paint the runes.
According to the knowledge he got from the Rune Mastery, this mixture allowed them to make the blood permanently stay on their body. The only way to erase it was to use Spiritual Energy and a few other materials.
This was why Noel didn't mind having Damian listen to their conversation since he wouldn't know about the secret ingredients and the method.
After a long training, Anna completed her training one hour before sunrise. She continued until the time limit before taking off her clothes.
She was lying down on her bed with a towel covering her breasts. Noel could clearly see her Spirit Seal and planned to create the runes around her waist and stomach.
"Alright. I'll start," said Noel while holding a needle.
