After a round of discussion, Sharp Tusk the Witch Doctor now had more important matters to attend to, so naturally he could no longer be assigned to study something like "the population structure of moose."
After Blade Tusk had him select several apprentices who had long been paying attention to this line of research, he handed the task over to them.
Watching the Trolls leave, Blade Tusk turned to Sharp Tusk the Witch Doctor and said, "For now, please focus on your own research. Leave everything else to us."
"Fine. I'll first organize the foundational aspects—finding suitable materials for inscription, spells, and so on. As for the later 'rune materialization' stage, your meditation method should be the most suitable for blazing the trail. When the time comes, you'll have to spare some energy to support it."
"Of course. Then I'll wait for your news."
After bidding Sharp Tusk the Witch Doctor farewell, Blade Tusk returned to his treehouse once more, only to find the moose leader throwing a tantrum at the other doe moose.
He stepped forward and spent quite some time soothing it, swearing heaven and earth that he would make up its concentrated feed.
After finally coaxing it into calming down, Blade Tusk returned to the meditation room atop the treehouse and found his wife sitting cross-legged in meditation.
He walked over, helped straighten her overly skimpy clothes, covering the spring scenery exposed by her sitting posture, then lowered his head and kissed her cheek.
Afterward, he sat down opposite her and began the "energy-level transition" meditation he had maintained for many days.
Three peaceful months passed. Calculating the dates, the Rune Council saw off the first hunting party heading to the Nomen Outpost for rotation.
The Trolls assigned to the Finae Outpost also set out two