The reinforcement force departed HQ under the command of Commander Scarlett. She marshaled squads of C and B-rank Defenders, healers, and rune inscribers alike.

Among them were people like Lysara, a B-rank water-affinity defender, the kind of power the Sea Wall desperately needed.

Adrian watched from the airship’s viewport as the landscape shifted below. Rolling hills gave way to jagged coastlines where salt spray met ancient stone fortifications.

Hours later, the fortress came into view, one of the many strongholds in the vast defensive network known simply as the Sea Wall. Humanity could never wall the entire ocean, it was too vast, too endless.

Instead, they had built bastions where the coastline could be defended: towering fortresses, rune-covered towers, and choke points that turned the sea’s fury into manageable battles.

Patrol fleets guarded the quieter stretches, while runic beacons monitored the horizons.

The fortress Adrian now approached was one of the largest, the Bastion of Tides.

Its black stone walls rose three hundred meters from the churning waters, carved with defensive runes.

Even before their airships landed, Adrian saw it, C-rank sea beasts already clawing at the walls, waves crashing as Defenders fought tooth and nail to keep them from breaching. The Bastion was alive with the sound of war.

Tentacles thick as tree trunks slammed against barrier runes while defenders unleashed torrents of fire and lightning. The acrid smell of burned flesh mixed with salt spray as monster blood stained the foam crimson.

Scarlett led the reinforcements into the fortress and went directly to report to the stationed A-rank commander. The man greeted her with a grin, his tone half-serious, half-joking.

“Scarlett, you brought me reinforcements? Good. You saw the report, an A-rank sea beast is on its way. Big one. Probably hungry. Try not to die before dinner.”

Scarlett’s expression turned frost-cold, “You haven’t changed, Renard. You still joke like this after all these years? When will you stop treating everything as a game?”

Renard chuckled, unbothered by her. His weathered face bore scars from decades of coastal warfare.

“If I don’t laugh, I’ll drown before the sea kills me.” He gestured toward the walls where explosions lit the twilight. “Besides, gallows humor keeps the men fighting.”

Scarlett sighed, then turned to her squads. The reinforcements stood ready.

“Liora, take the Rune Division reinforcements to their hall. The next B-rank wave could come at any time, they need to be ready.”

Liora stepped forward, her golden robes pristine despite the sea spray. “Understood, Commander.”

…

Adrian followed Liora through the fortress corridors, salt-crusted stone walls reverberating with distant explosions.

The Rune Division’s hall occupied the fortress’s protected inner section, away from the immediate carnage but close enough that Adrian felt the tremors of each impact.

Liora entered the head hall to report, and Adrian followed. There, they met one of humanity’s Rune Masters, Master Dorian Veylan, an older man with iron-grey hair and sharp, calculating eyes. His hands still bore fresh ink stains, proof that even Rune Masters here worked without rest.

When he saw the reinforcement list, his brows rose sharply. “Adrian Blackwood? Age sixteen… Rune Master? Is this a joke?”

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Before Liora could answer, a cheerful voice broke in. A girl, no older than Adrian, leaned over her father’s desk with wide eyes. She wore the ink-stained apron of an inscriber, her golden-brown hair tied back in a messy braid.

“Father, this has to be wrong. He seems my age! No way he’s a Rune Master.”

Adrian studied her face, noting the callused fingertips and the confident way she handled the runic materials scattered across the desk. She carried herself with the easy familiarity of someone raised among these halls.

Dorian frowned at her. “Enough, Mira. If the Organization’s report lists it, we will treat it as truth.”

She was the Rune Master’s daughter, raised here, learning at her father’s side instead of the Academy.

Mira Veylan pouted but said nothing more, though disbelief lingered in her eyes. Adrian caught her stealing glances at him, as if trying to solve a puzzle.

Dorian’s voice was firm, though hurried. “I have no time to spare. Mira, show him how things work here. He’s a Rune Master, yes, but this battlefield is unlike any classroom.”

The older man was already turning back to his work before he finished speaking. Stacks of reports covered his desk, each bearing urgent seals.

Mira brightened instantly. “Fine. Come with me, Rune Master.”

She led Adrian and Liora through the fortress’s Rune Division, explaining as she went. The corridors here were narrower than HQ’s grand halls, built for function over form.

“Most of our people are assigned to maintaining the barrier runes in the walls. That’s our first line of defense. Without it, the sea beasts would already be inside.”

Through reinforced windows, Adrian glimpsed inscribers working frantically along the fortress walls. They moved in coordinated teams, one group carving fresh runes while another channeled mana to power failing sections.

“Since the walls are hammered nonstop, most of our manpower is spent patching and reinforcing them.” Mira’s tone grew more serious as another tremor shook the fortress.

She brought them next to the inscription rooms, far fewer in number than Adrian expected. Inside, inscribers hunched over parchment, hands shaking with exhaustion, inscribing scroll after scroll.

The air reeked of spilled mana ink. Several inscribers had bandaged fingers from rushed work, yet they continued without pause.

“See? Most of these are general activation scrolls. No affinity needed. Barriers, bursts of light, mana sparks. Basic but lifesaving.” Mira said.

“We don’t have enough inscribers left for scrolls. Everyone’s tied up on the walls, so the ones here are stretched thin. And since inscribers had to be sent to all other outposts and fortresses, it’s always like this.”

Adrian counted only thirty inscribers in a room that could easily hold fifty. Each worked with desperate efficiency, producing these basic scrolls.

“But since you came with reinforcements…” She smiled brightly, her tone innocent but teasing. “It’ll boost us a lot. Assuming you can keep up, of course.”

Adrian didn’t answer. His eyes swept the room, taking in every detail.

He watched their hands, saw the exhaustion etched deep in their faces. These weren’t soldiers swinging blades.

They were soldiers of ink and willpower, keeping the fortress alive stroke by stroke. Each tremor from the walls reminded him of what hung in the balance.

He understood now, the Rune Division bore just as much weight as the Defenders on the walls. Perhaps more.

He sat down at a free table, rolling up his sleeves. “Unlimited parchment and ink?”

Mira blinked, still processing his casual tone. “Of course. It’s a fortress. Resources flow here first.”

Without another word, Adrian began inscribing. His hand moved with confidence across the first sheet.

Liora, familiar with the rhythm of such halls, set to work as well. The reinforcements from HQ joined in, filling empty benches with renewed energy.

Mira stayed behind, her curiosity piqued. She didn’t believe the boy was really a Rune Master, but if he was, she wanted to see it with her own eyes.

Liora, too, glanced sidelong, remembering the aura she had felt in the Board’s chamber. The oppressive weight that had made even S-rank Kael’s affinity tremble.

Adrian’s hand moved across the parchment, swift, precise, flawless. Each rune he inscribed was perfect, glowing with stable power, without a single wasted stroke.

Scroll after scroll formed beneath his hand, faster than even veteran inscribers. The Light runes blazed with pure radiance, the Barrier symbols pulsed with defensive strength.

Mira’s disbelief melted into shock. She had grown up watching her father work, dreaming to one day match his legendary skill.

But now she was watching someone her own age surpass her expectations entirely. His technique was flawless, his speed inhuman.

“How are you writing so fast?” she whispered, leaning closer.

Adrian didn’t look up from his work. He just said “Practice.”

So she fell silent, and even Liora’s gaze lingered in awe before she turned back to her own work. The golden-robed woman’s scrolls were competent, but beside Adrian’s they seemed sluggish.

The Rune Division of the Sea Wall fortress burned with urgency. Hundreds of hands worked without pause, parchments piling higher and higher.

Outside, the sea roared with bestial fury. Inside, Adrian inscribed in silence, his presence already beginning to change the rhythm of the hall.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep