Runeblade

Spider-webbing cracks spread out across one wall of the obstacle course, the only evidence of the lethal trap that had almost taken Kaius's head off. He eyed the shattered stone suspiciously, flicking between it, the path where he had been standing, and the wall where it must have been shot from.

There had been no warning — not from his Skills, or the trial itself. If the very first trap was so lethal, so well hidden, then he needed to be careful — plan.

There was no doubt in Kaius's mind that things would only get more dangerous as he progressed through the course. While he couldn't see too much of what lay in the far distance thanks to a tall climbing wall a few obstacles in, what he had seen was ruinously complex. There'd been a lot — everything from complex jumping courses filled with dozens of blades that left only moments to slip past them, to hallways that seemed to fill with fire at random.

What were the chances that the hidden traps wouldn't escalate to a similar degree?

That wasn't the only reason for him to take a more cerebral approach. Even if he didn't quite see the trick to the trial yet, it was designed to progress Mentis. So far the course looked physical — had no repeating patterns that he could see. It was much more like what he had expected from a Corporus trial than anything else.

There was something he was missing.

Clenching his jaw, Kaius stepped back and made his way back to the room where he had entered. He was still wired from the trap. Every step, his stomach lurched — half expecting another dart to fire upon him.

It would have been a petty trick to have it only trigger when he returned, but at this point he wasn't taking any chances.

Thankfully, his suspicion was proven wrong. He sighed in relief, and hurried over to the bed at the far room — taking a seat as he stared out at the floating pathway that had bested him completely.

Resting his chin on one hand, he wracked his brain for any advantage that could help him. Throwing himself at the challenge like a brute was likely not the intended way to solve the problem — and might just get him killed. Besides, he doubted that it would help him feel the weight of Mentis.

His eyes sharpened in realisation.

Both Vyrthane and Eirnith were only a handful of levels off their second spell. While there were no guarantees, both had a chance of helping. The defensive abilities of Vyrthane — if he picked the right one — could be immensely helpful for surviving any blunders he ran into on the course. Eirnith was even better — it had mental magic. His first selection had offered a spell that would boost his reaction time. That could be perfect.

The only problem was training them. Warhaven wouldn't be too bad. Even if it's mana cost was excessive, without the looming threat of beasts he would have far more freedom to experiment with his shaping of the spell — test his mastery by stretching it into shapes that he would normally never bother with. Plus, he could still use it to give himself some cover from the dangers of the trial.

Zone of Discombobulation would just be a grind. He had no targets to actually use it on, so would be forced to rely on simple repetition.

The thought of it made him frown. Even if he had the freedom and safety to do so, it wasn't exactly riveting. Though, at the very least it would give him the opportunity to really dive into Tonal Weaving and Resonance amplification.

With his focus on inscribing quickly, he'd left some of the more complex approaches to manaweaving to the wayside. It had left the Skills lagging — now two of the only general Skills that hadn't reached the tier cap.

A net benefit, even if it did mean spending more time stuck in this trial alone.

Kaius jumped to his feet, approaching the start of the trial. If he was going to do it, there was no reason to waste time lounging around.

He raised his hands.

Destruction reigned.

Almost every spell he had was unleashed in a constant deluge — saving only the Slip Steps and Shunts he would need to keep himself safe and navigate the course. Nails screamed through the air, vibrating as the tore divots in the stone walls of the hall; Stormlash crackled its fury, lightning striking again and again as an echoing boom of thunder bounced around the confined space; Zones of Discombobulations shimmered into being, a field of madness layered on the track in front of him.

It was over quickly — the spells flying as fast as he could will them into being, his only limitation the short delay to aim and direct their effects.

He grinned at the carnage as he eyed the smouldering streaks of black and deep scratches on the stone. Gods, he loved glyphbinding, even after almost a year, there was something so addictive about being able to unleash unbridled chaos so quickly. It was only sweeter because of how rarely he got to just unload his spells like that — it was so rarely appropriate in real battle.

Unfortunately, it also meant his mana was drained — now he really had to wait.

With two hours and change to kill, Kaius turned his back to the obstacle course. His eyes settled on the parchment that stretched across the wall. It was empty — conspicuously absent of the drawing he'd seen flash at the start of the trial.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

There had to be something more going on with it — the bait was too blatant and obvious for anything else. It hadn't so much a flickered since that first appearance.

He took a seat in front of it — doing his best to tear a hole in it with his eyes alone.

It made no gods' damned sense! None of it did. There was something more, he knew it.

The Veteran's Edge was almost entirely focused on learning and memory, but nothing about this trial seemed like it would force him to rely on that aspect more than he ever had before. Sure, information that was only briefly available sounded right — but to have it so easily missable? To give him no warning that he needed to pay attention to it?

It was counterproductive! How in the hells was he supposed to try and remember the damn thing if he hadn't even seen it?

Rotten roots, it wasn't the only bit that rubbed at him. Absolutely nothing about an obstacle course screamed to his aspect — not in the same way his Corporus trial had spoken to him. Hells, if anything, this trial just seemed like more of a focus on Corporus — something he could only best by mastering his physicality.

For one, the traps weren't sign posted — so it wasn't like he could work on memorising how they worked and overcoming that way. For two, the course was unbelievably varied. There was no way it had anything to do with learning specific methods on one obstacle to apply to a more difficult version later — at least, it didn't seem like it.

Even the bloody name was odd. 'The Trial of Obstinance'? How the hell did that have anything to do with The Veteran's Edge! Did it want him to just brute force the entire course? That didn't seem particularly helpful.

No, there was something he was missing. Unfortunately, he had no idea what it was.

He groaned, running his hands through his hair and abandoned the board — there was still no sign of it returning.

Feeling peckish, he scourged up some food and settled in to wait — lounging on the bed while he tried to make sense of as much of the obstacle course he could.

By the time his mana was full, he was no closer to an answer than he had been two hours before. He sighed, rolling onto his back and closing his eyes.

It seemed that he'd need to continue with brute forcing the issue. For now, at least. Regardless, it was time for him to inscribe.

He brought Warhaven to life in his mind's eye, a tangled spellhymn of interlocked three dimensional runes that sprawled out before him.

There was a temptation to fall into contemplation of Vesryn runes in an attempt to tease out their secrets, but Kaius held himself back. At this point, the gains that Tonal Weaving would get for that were minimal — he'd reached a bottle neck of understanding that no amount of pondering would break through.

Far better he focus on the fundamentals.

Tonal Weaving and Resonance Amplification were interesting skills, for all he had let them languish. Both were utterly necessary for inscribing his glyphs. The former was the most obvious, what with the way it helped him weave his actual runes and bind them to his flesh. The latter, however, went far beyond imbuing his mana with a destructive vibration — it was a deft tool: the very method through which he actually controlled the streams of mana within him. Without it, he would never be able to make the fine adjustments he needed for runework.

For a moment, Kaius considered how he wanted to split his pool, before he settled on focusing on Warhaven alone for the time being. For one, its shapable barrier would be helpful for testing hidden traps on the course.

Plus, the spell was just plain expensive — if he unlocked another spell for Vyrthane quickly, it would be far easier to train the skill in the future.

He grabbed his mana with a delicate application of will, teasing out a fine thread that he pulled through his channels. It tingled as it ran towards his chest, the latent resonance within almost physically palpable.

The process was shockingly easily. Once, a thread like this would have tested his limits — would have been all he could bear. Now he could wrangle a veritable torrent if he had to.

Keeping himself calm and focused, he guided the thread towards the Vyrthane glyph — pausing just before he reached it. Kaius wanted to push himself — which meant he needed a challenge.

A slight smile tweaked his lips as he thought of something. He split the stream — guiding each independently towards where he would inscribe his spell. It required focus and a slow pace, but he managed it. Whorling runes appeared two at a time, a Warhaven woven tightly to his flesh.

Holding the spell in his mind while he worked on different segments was surprisingly difficult — it forced him to double check against his mental map with every rune he worked on. Sure, it slowed his pace. Hells, he was certain he was going slower than he every had before.

It didn't matter — speed came with time. What was important was that it was hard. New, and forced him to stretch his skills to accommodate.

Besides, it was slow because he was taking his time to check for accuracy. The structures themselves were easy. They seemed to snap into place without his urging, binding close to his natural mana channels that suffused his body.

By the end of the first time, he'd grown more confident. Kaius was ready for more. He split his mana again, grappling with a third stream as he carved out another inscription. That was hard — even with his mental stats and Glass Mind. The three dimension structures of the runes were fiddly things, and trying to manage so many at once felt like he was trying to thread a needle behind his back.

His pace slowed to a crawl — rather than finishing the spell in seconds, he moved almost as slow as he had as an unclassed. Multiple times he almost made an error — mostly when he focused too hard on a tangled cluster of runes, only for his other threads to fray as his grip on them slipped. Each and every time he'd have to reel them back in — use Resonance Amplification to carefully tease away the partially bound mana back into his control. Those moments took most of his attention, his other areas of work halting. It was all he could do to stop himself from losing progress.

The effort was well worth it. Rising out of his flow, Kaius peered down at the eight inscriptions that surrounded his glyph on his chest.

**Ding! Tonal Weaving has reached Level 172>173**

**Ding! Resonance Amplification has reached Level 177 > 179**

Kaius nodded in satisfaction at the notifications. With the pressure to keep training and fighting in the last year, he'd done far less experimentation with his mana control than he should have. Mostly — it had made sense at the time to focus on speed, rather than pure control, but now he had the opportunity it was work that would likely make him even faster at inscribing in the long run.

Especially since this trial seemed like it would be a long one. He would get plenty of time to practice.

Rising to his feet, Kaius approached the course once more. It was time to test his spells, and see if he could make a little more progress — he'd take another break if it got too much.