Runeblade

Sitting on a plush bear hide, Kaius readied himself to dive into his final skill. This was it — his last major milestone before he evolved his class for the first time.

He quelled his nerves. Whatever happened, happened — no matter what he was offered, it would be good enough. Everything else had been.

Still, he had some questions. While his education had been comprehensive in many aspects, there were some aspects that were lacking. With a full legacy and a mountain of runecraft to teach him, Father hadn't had the time to cover everything. Many aspects of class development fell under that camp.

In another life, one where Father hadn't been stolen from him, it would have happened after his class selection. Now, he had to rely on his team.

He already knew about the role of final skills — how they were usually emblematic of the class in some way, and potent at that. Still, he wanted to be sure there was nothing else.

"Before we jump in, is there anything else I should expect beyond the skill being a capstone? Any other differences from my previous selections?"

Porkchop grunted beside him, bobbing his head, "Just remember that the skill might not be more directly powerful. It's just pivotal — usually something that can become a lynchpin. Other than that, the only major one that I know of is that you might not get as many choices as normal. Might get more, as well."

A variable number of options? That was weird. He cocked his head, giving Porkchop a questioning look.

Ianmus answered for him, "It depends on the class. It's more of a statement on how focused it is, rather than quality or capability. I'd expect you to get less. Classes tied to certain institutions, or more specific roles tend to be that way. I'll probably get more — my class is flexible in the ways it can develop, like most apprentice classes."

That was interesting — he hoped Vos would be one of them, if it was a skill. At the very least, it made him feel like the chances were better if it was — if it was important enough to appear in the description of another skill, it fit the bill.

His anticipation built — made him feel like jumping to his feet and pacing. Enough delays, it was time to do this.

"Shall we, then?"

His team nodded. Before he could second guess himself, Kaius pulled up his options.

There was only one.

Latent Glyph of Muthryn, Throat of VOS:

Class Skill - Tier I

Affinity: Arcane, Order, Reality

Type: Glyph-binding, Runic

Selection Available!

Heroic

The 'Glyph of the Godtongue', only through Muthryn can Truth be spoken into being. Powerful in its simplicity, and wrought to carry only a single hymn, it is designed for one purpose alone — survival of the demands of VOS. This goes beyond the moment: to speak Truth is to be shaped by it, and that metamorphosis requires guidance — lest the weight of VOS become crushing. It is inscribed on the tongue, lest it be torn free in the violence of Truth.

This skill allows you to inscribe a single, extendable hymn, 'Redoubt of the Speaker'. When cast, this spell-hymn will burn like a wick to provide some measure of resilience to the backlash of speaking VOS.

Additionally, Redoubt of the Speaker can be used to gradually soothe the tears and ripples that VOS leaves in its wake, infinitesimally tempering the soul to better withstand higher order concepts. Muthryn aids this transition — stabilising the self when suffering from backlash.

Creates a hymnbook on the user's status if one is not already present.

This skill provides an initial understanding of VOS, a syllable of the System's own script and tongue.

Each level slightly increases the effectiveness of Redoubt of the Speaker, including repair and strengthening from VOS-induced soul disruption.

Each level infinitesimally increases your ability to withstand the damaging effects of VOS-induced soul disruption.

Spell-hymns Known:

Tier I -

Redoubt of the Speaker - Variable Mana

Kaius froze, staring at the name of the Skill. There it was — Vos. Or VOS, he supposed — there was a strange reverberating weight to the word that he could feel through the notification. Somehow.

That alone was enough to stoke his excitement. It morphed into a stomach churn of trepidation, anticipation, and confusion as he kept reading. The godtongue? What the hell did it mean by that?

And an entire glyph dedicated to a single hymn, itself purely to withstand the backlash of something his Skill didn't even explain? Even the meagre description it did give him raised the hairs on his neck. From what little he knew, anything that improved the soul in some way — even if it was limited to a single facet — was immensely valuable. For something as mysterious as 'higher order concepts'? It could only be immensely beneficial, even if the danger of it worried him.

He'd noticed something else — something in the description that spoke to runecraft in a way he hadn't expected.

The System's tongue? It clearly didn't mean common — but…

Surely not.

There was only one other thing that Kaius could think of that could be described as the system's 'tongue', its 'script'. System runes. The same inscrutable ones that covered Depths portals and the artifacts located there. The same ones that morphed and shifted as they pleased, changing with every new look and unintelligible no matter how long they were studied.

How could the Skill teach him one of those? How would he even use a single rune, or, more importantly, how the hell was he supposed to speak a rune in the first place?!

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Kaius frowned — this skill was weird. At the very least, it had to be potent — anything that carried such a clearly signposted warning as this, for a Heroic skill, had to be strong. Right?

Blinking away the notification, Kaius looked to his team — finding them similarly absorbed by their own options. He waited patiently, curious about what they had been offered. Considering he didn't really have a choice on whether he accepted the skill, he didn't mind waiting until their minds were clear of distraction to talk it through with them.

Ianmus was the last to blink, his eyes refocusing a few seconds after Kenva. Porkchop had finished almost as quickly as Kaius had, giving him a concerned look after his emotions filtered through their bond.

He'd just waved him off.

"I'll go last — I got something weird." Kaius said. "Who wants to go first?"

"'Course you did; I expect nothing less at this point." Porkchop replied, chuckling in a low rumble. "I suppose I will — I only have one option, so it'll be quick."

"It's called Gladespirit — A bit of a boring name, but the Skill itself looks good. Full body enhancement, with some minor transformational elements. It'll let me 'mantle' the first Warden, empowering me significantly and giving my attacks a bit more magical punch. Apparently, I'll get a few ghostly features of theirs — antlers or something. There's a size increase too, I'm not too fussed about that, since I should develop control over that naturally next tier anyway."

Kaius looked at his brother in shock, "Wait, what? You'll be able to change size?"

He got an emphatic nod back, "By the Matriarchs, yes. I'm going to keep growing every tier, could you imagine if I couldn't? Apparently it takes a bit of practice though, so we'll see how well I pick it up without instruction. Regardless, the smallest I've ever seen anyone go is the size of a large mundane bear, and they were very old and known for practicing a lot."

Once he got over his shock at the sudden reveal, Kaius realised that it made sense in the context of what Porkchop had already told him about his people. Their growth was supposed to be relatively consistent, and considering how much bigger Porkchop had grown with his first class, the older members of his family would have been categorically unable to fit inside a den of any reasonable size.

The skill itself sounded good too. Even if it was mostly an empowerment to his physical abilities and toughness, that was such a cornerstone of Porkchop's fighting style that he couldn't really imagine anything better — especially with added magical potency to his attacks.

Porkchop thought so too, considering the fact he looked like someone had just offered him a free barrel of stew. Kaius leaned over and clapped him on the back.

"I suppose I'll go next," Ianmus said, giving Kenva a questioning look.

"Like I suspected I would, I got more options than normal. Theurgic Apprentice classes are relatively common among more successful students at the academy, they're well known for being malleable towards multiple different modes of spell casting, especially as they're highly influenceable as your spellcasting skill improves."

"All of which is a lengthy way to say I only got one option I am interested in — a keyseal." Ianmus beamed in pride. "First Circle of Stability — it looks like it might be a more refined version of what I have already developed, but the ability to level it alone is a huge plus. Summoning it reserves a chunk of my mana while it's active — a little like your spellhymns, Kaius — that gets consumed when I dismiss it. It'll stabilise and speed up the rest of my casting while it's active."

Kaius grinned back at his friend. It sounded like the perfect way for Ianmus to build a foundation for his next class. He was curious about these keyseals. Ianmus's current one seemed explicitly supportive in nature, but he doubted an entire pillar would be devoted to such a thing. There had to be more direct applications — he couldn't wait to find out what they were.

"What about you, Kenva? Get something good?"

She nodded, though it came a hair slower than Kaius would have expected.

"I'm a little torn, but it's mostly for sentimental reasons. One skill looks amazing for the long term — Gift of the Hungry Forest. It's almost a spell, really — I can use it to channel mana into plants so that they grow me arrows. The better the plant, the better the arrow, and the skill itself will make them more and more effective as well."

"Why's that disappointing?"

Kaius leaned in — he was curious too.

"It's silly — but I almost feel bad because it will make my quiver obsolete quicker than what would have happened otherwise. It was a gift, you know? Still, it's good. Ammunition gets more expensive than steel in war at higher tiers — the materials are a costly thing to spend on something that is ultimately consumable. This will let me circumvent that entirely. Especially since we're surrounded by so much good material in this jungle."

He could understand that feeling. Hells, he'd been grappling with the same thing for a while now. His travelling clothes were one of the few gifts he had from Father, and even now that he could easily replace them with something better, a part of him always made him hold off — justifying that it would be a minor change at best, or too expensive, or something else was more important to replace with their funds at the time.

Even his sword. If he found a longsword before they left the delve, Kaius would have to confront the fact that A Father's Gift was lagging hard without its final material. Sure, he could fix that as soon as they returned to Deadacre, but even replacing it for a second felt wrong. Like a betrayal. Likely, Kenva's situation was closer to his clothes than his blade, but still.

"I get it — at the very least, you don't need to get rid of the quiver. It'll still be useful for target practice, or anything too weak to bother with using better arrows."

"That's true." she nodded. "What about you — you said you were offered something 'weird'? Is it just the one?"

Kaius laughed, nodding. "Weird is a bit of an understatement, really."

He dove into an explanation of the Skill — how it was tied to a system rune, the strange soul-tempering he barely understood, and how it seemed oddly detached from actually using the ability that the Skill seemed to be centred around.

"Rotten roots, the entire damned glyph just seems to be so that I don't blow myself up, or whatever hellish consequence there is for using the System's power."

His team sat silently, staring at him. Ianmus broke first.

"What! You can't just one-up me like that; that's horseshit and you know it!" he jabbed his finger at Kaius's chest in outrage.

Kaius could only shake his head and laugh, "If it's any consolation, I have a slight suspicion that it's going to take a long time to truly get a grip on how to use it effectively."

"Well, regardless, a strange and unknowable power is about what I expected from you. Should we get it over with?"

Nodding emphatically, Kaius dove in and accepted his waiting prompt. Time to find out what Vos was!

Everything went black.

….

He came too in a familiar office, looking straight into the eyes of an aged reflection of himself.

His system guide gave him a sad smile. It hit him like a physical blow — why would the guide give him that look unless something was wrong?

"Sorry, Kaius — there's no real way for me to make this bit suck any less. Just brace yourself."