Return of the Runebound Professor

“You said you did your Body Imbuements a different way than how Lee did them, right?” Noah asked as he and Moxie made their way back toward the tavern.

“All at once,” Moxie said with a nod. “Never thought about trying to do it in layers before, which is a bit stupid of me I suppose. It makes sense. Gradual change is always better than a sudden one.”

“I missed the classes where Lee started teaching Body Imbuement, but did Todd follow your method?” Noah asked. “He was using it a while ago, but somehow by accident. Is there some way to test out a Body Imbuement or otherwise make sure you don’t get a bad one?”

Moxie thought for a moment. “That’s a good question, actually. I never really thought about it because I was more focused on the others, since Todd wasn’t having any difficulties. I can’t think of any way to really do a Body Imbuement quickly or temporarily. You can always remove them, but your body isn’t Catchpaper. It’s not going to be a fun experience.”

“So you can definitely remove the Imbuements if they don’t work?” Noah asked.

Moxie nodded. “Most people remove them when they reach the next Rank. No point keeping a weaker Imbuement. It hurts, but as long as you aren’t doing it constantly, you’ll be fine.”

Good to know. No reason to keep holding off on my own Imbuements much longer, then. Just need to figure out exactly what I’m going to go for.

“Interesting. Maybe Todd’s stumbled into something different, then. Either that or he’s just a natural at Imbuing himself and got really lucky with an Imbuement that doesn’t suck.”

They reached the tavern a minute later, stepping through the doors to the sight of the rest of their group gathered around one of the tables. Brayden was in the process of pushing several large bundles of cloth into a glowing rift in the air before him.

He shoved the final one through and the purple rend sealed up. Brayden brushed his hands off, turning as he spotted Noah and Moxie out of the corner of his eye.

“Good timing,” Brayden said. “I’m all packed up. Shall we? I’m eager to get back on the road.”

***

Throughout that day, Noah’s thoughts remained on his Body Imbuements and Runes. He barely even noticed the hills going by as they walked. If something happened, he was sure somebody would get his attention.

The biggest point of Body Imbuements would be to help make up for my shortcomings. Ideally, I’d like something to make me a bit harder to kill. The problem is, I don’t see how Pyroclastic Resonance is going to do much in the way of protecting.

Noah idly called on the Rune as they walked, feeling the magic as it coursed through his fingertips. He wished he could take out his journal and write down his thoughts, but that would have been pretty difficult to do while they were walking.

Instead, he just let his thoughts drift. The Rune had demonstrated that it could do everything with ash that a normal Ash Rune could, and it also had control over a degree of flame.

Noah hummed to himself, pulling a tiny tendril of ash out from his bag and swirling it across his knuckles. A flicker of a frown crossed over Noah’s face.

I want a way to use this in my Body Imbuement. What benefits could it give me, preferably ones that help me stay alive?

Noah tapped his fingers together, generating a silent but steady rhythm. He focused on it, calling on the Pyroclastic Resonance Rune and channeling it into his fingertips. Nothing changed, but he could feel his fingers warm slightly.

Intent. Need to figure out exactly what I’m going for. It might be a bit of a stretch, but could I somehow generate ash from the vibrations, rather than just controlling them? Having a way to actively make it rather than carrying around a tool to do it could be beneficial. That does kind of go against the whole premise of not being able to generate something from nothing, though. Maybe an energy transfer of some sort would work.

He continued to tap his fingers together, not fully paying attention to his own hands as much as his thoughts. A spike of pain suddenly shot through Noah’s fingers and he yelped, shaking his hand off and sending an accusatory glare at it.

Noah paused. A tiny tendril of smoke was rising up from his reddened fingertip. He’d managed to heat his nail and burn the flesh beneath it.

Oh, shit. The energy from the vibration was enough to generate enough heat to burn me? That’s similar to what Combustion does, but it’s the vibration itself that carried the energy. That… now that could have some uses. Especially if I combine it with Combustion. I just need to figure out how to Imbue it. Maybe it’s time for some drastic measures.

The beginnings of a plan started to etch themselves into Noah’s mind. Perhaps he was approaching the Body Imbuements from the wrong angle – at least, the wrong angle for when Pyroclastic Resonance was involved.

It wasn’t a defensive rune at all, and even if he could find some way to use it protectively, it probably wouldn’t be that well suited to it. Nobody said it had to be defensive, though. There was one problem that Noah would never get away from, and perhaps this was the solution.

Instead of protecting me from other things, I can make Pyroclastic Resonance protect me from itself – or rather, ash and smoke. That way I won’t have to worry about injuring myself when I’m using it.

I also just filled my Greater Wind Rune. I can redo my Pyroclastic Resonance combination – assuming nothing goes wrong in the process. Hm. I think I’ll do the Imbuement first, as I need to test if Body Imbuements can be removed anyway. Also, I really want to see if my thoughts are right. I’ll fix the rune up and do it again if I’m correct.

Noah’s lips tugged up in a grin. He brought the Rune to the front of his mind, channeling its energy, and started to Imbue it one thin layer at a time upon his lungs.

The process wasn’t comfortable. It felt like he was inhaling hot steam. It took him several tries to figure out exactly how much power he needed to use, but now that he actually had a plan of what to do, he started to make progress. The pain was annoying, but his desire to see the results muted it enough for him to keep it from showing on his face.

Night couldn’t come soon enough. When they set up camp and headed to bed, Noah didn’t waste a second. He hadn’t completely finished Imbuing the Rune, as he wanted to put more energy into it, but the beginnings were there.

The moment Moxie and Brayden switched watches, Noah slipped out of the camp. He left all his belongings behind in the stone tent Isabel set up, then waited several hills away. From previous nights, he knew it would be a few hours before Lee showed up – so he took that time to continue working on the Imbuement.

He used more energy than he probably should have, and his lungs felt raw and overcooked after a few hours. Lee had implied it was best to do the process over a few days, not just one.

Patience has never been my strong suit. This is tolerable, so there’s no reason to go any slower. This is just the first half of my plan.

Noah kept at his Imbuement, continuously reinforcing his lungs with the Pyroclastic Resonance Rune over the course of the night. He was so focused on his task that he barely noticed Lee’s arrival until she tapped him on the back of his head.

“What are you doing?”

Noah jerked his head up. He coughed, letting a tiny stream of smoke out of his mouth, then cleared his throat. “Body Imbuement. I couldn’t figure out what effect I wanted to Imbue Got a bit distracted. After sitting around for a while, I suddenly had an idea.”

Lee arched an eyebrow. “I’m surprised it took you this long. I was expecting you to have fully Imbued something the day I told you about it. For a moment, I thought you’d actually gotten a bit better at waiting for things.”

“Perish the thought,” Noah said. “I used up all my caution waiting this long. I’ve got a great idea and I didn’t want to wait around before testing it. Moxie confirmed that Imbuements can be removed pretty easily, so I doubt they’ll stick around after death.”

“I suppose they wouldn’t. What’s your idea, then?”

“Not yet. I’ll jinx it if I say it out loud,” Noah said. “You know a bit about Master Runes, right? I’m trying to Imbue Combustion, but it won’t work. Do you have any idea why?”

Lee chewed her lower lip in thought. “Maybe it’s because their power is unique? There can only be one of any Master rune at a time, so if you’re trying to Imbue it on something, you’d technically be splitting it.”

Noah blinked. “That’s an interesting thought. Maybe I have to Imbue the entire thing at once. I’ve been trying to do just a bit of it.”

“That seems dangerous. Would you even still be able to control it if you Imbue the whole thing?”

“That’s a good point. I need to find a way to–” Noah cut off midway through his sentence. He tilted his head to the side. “Huh.”

“What?” Lee asked.

“Why do you think the Hellreaver always had a fire around it?” Noah asked. “That’s the Rune’s active ability, so it should have been something it would have to intentionally do. But it was doing it while it was asleep. How? And more importantly, why?”

“I… I’m not sure,” Lee admitted. “That’s a good point. What are you thinking? You think Imbuing the Rune completely will let you somehow use its powers?”

“I know the spot you Imbue it is what matters.” Noah chewed his lower lip. “What if you Imbue your soul? The Runes are already there, and it’s a real thing that we can tangibly see. Why wouldn’t we be able to Imbue that?”

Lee’s mouth worked. “I have no idea. I never thought of that. You think that’s what the Hellreaver did?”

“Only one way to find out. It couldn't have been a domain - the Hellreaver was just Rank 2 according to Moxie. But, if I'm right, that would explain why it had such a good control over the fire and passive aspect. It was more closely integrated with them so it could swap much faster, while it takes me a significant amount of concentration. That would be a significant boost in strength if I could copy that,” Noah replied. “Keep watch over my body, please.”

Then he closed his eyes and slipped into his mental space.

Darkness bloomed all around him, and his Runes shimmered to life. His soul was largely undamaged, as it had been a good bit of time since he’d taken a lot of serious death. If there was ever a time to fiddle around with his soul, now felt like it.

Still, Noah paused. His body was arguably the safest thing to mess with. When he died, his soul was what stuck around. If his suspicion was wrong, there was a chance of damaging himself permanently.

I can’t think what else the Hellreaver possibly could have Imbued, though. It had the Rune constantly going off. The only way that would happen is if it was an Imbuement, and it would have lost control of the Rune if it had Imbued it on its body. This is the only possibility.

I’m confident that I’m correct. The logic adds up. I just need to have the exact right intent when I imbue this, or I’m going to end up with my own ring of fire following me around. If I limit the amount of Combustion’s power I’m drawing and leave the rest in my soul, then I should be able to regulate it.

Noah steeled his thoughts. As if sensing his intentions, the Runes shifted around him. Combustion lowered, floating down toward his outstretched hand. Noah looked around, then settled at a spot near his feet.

It was as good as any other. All of it was his Soul, after all. He extended a mental tendril, calling on Combustion’s power, and started to gather it.

Master Runes were all or nothing. There wouldn’t be any layering involved. More importantly, Noah didn’t even have to run all of the Rune’s power through his body – he was pretty sure that would end up burning him alive.

All I have to do is move it. It’s already in my Soul, after all. If I can just permanently combine the two, I shouldn’t even need to handle all the strength at once. Then, as long as my intent is to keep the power I draw from it limited, I should be able to handle it.

Noah took a deep breath. Then he pulled at Combustion’s power, directing it into his soul. The Master Rune resisted at first, but Noah wasn’t trying to draw it into his real body. He was just moving it.

Go into my lungs and leave through my breath unless otherwise directed. Let the me use my breath to control your powers. Keep the amount of energy that passively flows out so low that it doesn’t actually have enough to combust. I don’t need to set myself on fire randomly. Only have enough flowing to establish access to the reservoir, and leave the rest in the soul.

The Rune stretched out like a piece of taffy, reaching out toward the spot in his mindspace that he was directing it toward. Redoubling his focus on his goal, Noah pulled harder.

A loud twang echoed through his mind. The Rune sprung, shooting from its spot in the sky and into the ground, condensing into a smaller version of itself that was roughly the size of Noah’s body.

Instantly, a wave of heat rolled over him. Noah tensed, then opened his eyes. He let out a slow breath, grimacing as a very, very uncomfortably hot breath washed out of his mouth. It was just a few steps below scalding – but it was bearable.

He’d done it.