The Runic Artist

Nate sat in his room occasionally glancing at the floating runic array as it hovered off to the side of him. They’d only been back at the University for less than a day and he’d been vastly wrong in his estimation for how long it would take to reach his Skill evolution for Imbue Intent. He had expected that it would take at least another week but already this morning the skill had reached level forty. It was teetering on the verge of evolution as he continued to push his Intent at the runic array, or more specifically, the mana that was creating the scaffold for the runic array. It was hard, and he felt the mana continuously trying to slip out of the shape his intent was demanding it remain in, but even with the challenge of maintaining the mana scaffold, it was working. That made him confident he would get what he wanted out of the Skill evolution.

As part of the process of attempting to adapt his Imbue Intent skill he was making sure he was only focusing his intent on the mana and runic array formed from it. The idea was that once formed, the runic array shouldn’t require his focus to maintain its shape and should just require him to continually feed it mana. To that end, he was engaging in his true love, art. This painting was for Britt, so she was the focus. It was of her and her three projected shields, defending against the Caticus in the jungle. He intended to have a conversation with her later today, about what she wanted from him and his restrictions. It was a shame, because he did enjoy her company, but he just didn’t have time for a serious relationship. He already felt like he was juggling too many things. It would have been too many if it wasn’t for Frick’s assistance, but that was just proof that he was overloaded. Between his Skill development, University subjects, rune and material projects, creating manerium to fund his future plans, and his art, he already felt like he was struggling to even spend time with his best friend. It didn’t help that Frick kept whispering that if he needed to ‘relieve’ his stress the Den of Desire’s doors were perpetually open to him.

That just didn’t leave time for him to have a relationship. Well, at least not a functional one. Britt deserved better than dysfunctional. But he would at least explain it in person. The art was just going to be a gift to soften the blow. Or at least, that was his excuse. He’d likely have been painting anyway.

Frick and he both looked up from their projects as the notification pinged in the corner of his vision. Frick had been working on a manerium bar that was almost at Epic tier, while he was finishing off a painting. The System message had come through even quicker than he expected.

Imbue Intent 40 > 41

Imbue Intent (L) is ready to evolve.

Evolutions Available! Please Select 1.

Skill Evolution Options:

Intent that Shapes (M)

You have used your Intent to command mana. Be it a temporary shift, a permanent imbuement or simply to hold its shape, your intent commands the energy of the universe. The user of this Skill may permanently imbue a number of Intents in any rune they create as well as enforce mana structures. Number of intents able to be imparted to dynamic runes is equal to Intellect / 8. Number of intents able to be imparted to any permanent runes is equal to Intellect / 16. Number of Intents able to be used to maintain defined mana structures is equal to Intellect / 64. Increases Intellect by 1% per Skill Level.

Conceptual Intent (M)

You have used your Intent to shift the Subconcepts of Sigils. The Concepts of the universe hear your voice and heed your call. With this Skill you can add additional Subconcepts to runes with your Intent. The user of this Skill may permanently imbue a number of Intents in any rune they create as well as adding additional Subconcepts to the rune. Number of intents able to be imparted to dynamic runes is equal to Intellect / 8. Number of intents able to be imparted to any permanent runes is equal to Intellect / 16. Number of additional Subconcepts that can be added is equal to Intellect / 100. Increases Intellect by 1% per Skill Level.

Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

“That…was unexpected,” Nate said out loud, staring at his Skill Evolution options.

“Fuck…” Frick muttered as he put down the bar of manerium and floated over to join Nate.

“I had expected it to be an easier choice. I knew what I was aiming for. But now, does the second option resonate more closely with my intended Embodiment? Because if it does…it’s really the choice I should make, right?” he asked his Familiar.

“...it’ll mean a hit to your combat ability though,” replied Frick, offering the other side.

He sat down on his bed to think. The problem was that he wanted to change his Embodiment. He had a semi-coalesced idea of where he wanted to take it and he knew it was going to be a challenge to do so. His Wandering Embodiment had him setting foot in two different universes and one of the Nine Hells. Those were some serious achievements that he needed to override. It wasn’t impossible, but it meant he really needed to take every opportunity he could to try embodying the idea…the Concept…that he wanted to become his Embodiment. On the other hand, turning down the Skill Evolution he had been aiming for came with its own problems. He’d be limited to three, maybe four if he continued to raise his Intellect, runic arrays at a time. With one always earmarked for a barrier, that made him more limited in his ability to unleash multiple types of attacks or subvert his opponents’ expectations. He’d already seen what some of the second and third years could do in the Combat subject. They often had three to four spells running while also using their Skills. He’d be at a disadvantage.

Falling back on his bed he sighed. He knew what he had to do. He just didn’t want to do it. Winning the Tournament had made him proud of himself. It was his ego whispering in his ear, suggesting he take the Intent that Shapes option. But that wasn’t what he needed and he absolutely should be thinking long-term. He should also be spending more time on creating more items now that his three favourite creations had been destroyed. With an exaggerated sigh he made his selection of Conceptual Intent before glancing at Frick. The blue goblins floppy ears stared back at him for a long moment.

“Well, if you’re feeling down, we could always go ride the Britt rollercoaster,” Frick suggested with a toothy grin.

Nate sighed, “You’re an ass. And what’s this ‘we’ business?”

“She’s seen me go goblin-mode, Boss man. After experiencing the raw power and dominance that is goblin-mode she is definitely down to get Fricky!”

Shaking his head Nate headed for the door. He really wanted to shove Frick in the Familiar Contract for some quiet-time after that spiel but he needed him to finish off the manerium.

“You stay here. I am going to go talk to Britt.”

“Don’t forget the painting, Boss!” Frick yelled.

He almost wanted to be lazy and grab the painting using True Teleportation, but he held off, trudging back into his room to grab the painting before heading for Britt’s room. Hopefully she was home.

He knocked on the door to Britt’s room and heard some shuffling before the door was opened. Britt glanced up at him and flashed a smile.

“Pleasant surprise, come in!”

“Hey Britt, I know you were keen on getting a painting so I made you this one. Can I put it somewhere? It’s still drying,” Nate replied, stepping into her room.

The short blonde’s room was a little messy. Her silver armour was on a stand off to the side. Besides that there were a few books scattered on the table and clothes scattered on the bed and piled on the floor of an open dresser.

Britt moved past him to her table, clearing it off so he had somewhere to put down the painting. He gave her a minute to look over the painting, as she gushed about it and hugged his side which he returned half-heartedly.

“Can we chat for a moment?” he asked. Best to rip off the bandaid.

Britt glanced at him and his face, her expression going from excited to what he thought might be disappointment, or maybe hurt. “Oh. It’s going to be one of those kinds of chats? It’s okay if you’re not interested.”

“It’s not you. I’m just not in a place where I can be in a serious relationship. Between the University, my crafting and painting, the Dungeon runs and just developing, I don’t have the time to devote to a relationship. I was hoping we could stay friends of course. I do like you. I just can’t be that for you, if that makes any sense? At least not right now.”

He felt like he was rambling. He couldn’t decide if he was being mature or an idiot about the whole thing and that just made it worse as he was second guessing himself.

Britt stared at him, the hurt gone, but a curious look remained in her eyes, “And the Den?”

“Kiri’s stories are mostly just that. Stories. It happened once, and I was so drunk I don’t even remember it. I do have to go back there though. Because of Luc. He sends things there for me to collect that he doesn’t want going via the Guild,” Nate explained, the lie coming more easily than he was comfortable with. That said, he definitely wasn’t going to tell her he needed to go to the Den to hand over his self-created goods so that smugglers could collect them and he and his mentor could get paid. That was just asking for problems.

Britt looked uncertain for a moment, “So, you’re not in a place for a serious relationship? What about a casual one?”

Nate’s brain short-circuited for all of two seconds. He thanked his high Intellect Stat that it was only that long else her comment may have rendered him speechless and looking like an idiot.

“Purely casual? No strings attached?” he asked.

Britt got a smirk on her face as she approached him and started gently pushing him towards her bed.

“Purely casual,” she agreed.

He regretted that his first thought was how Frick was going to gloat about this before he forced the thought of his Familiar out of his mind to focus on the moment. And the one that came after. A whole series of moments that were shaping up to be incredibly enjoyable.

*************

Nate was sitting at his desk, slowly using Runic Creation alongside Metal Shaping to recreate his Barrier bracer. Once he was done engraving the runes into the material and had it shaped better than the previous bracer, he’d hand it over to Frick to handle the Conceptual Material portion and push the material to Legendary. He might even take the time to go for Mythic. It would be his first piece of Mythic equipment, but he also thought it would be important for the path he was pursuing. His most recent lecture for Concepts and Embodiment had drilled into him what Embodiments were and how they were produced. The simplistic view was that your Embodiment was the Concept you most closely resembled. Some of those were easy enough to aim for, such as the Swift Embodiment, which at a Perfect Embodiment, would let the user temporarily increase their Agility by five times. The interesting part was that it cost no mana to do so. He wasn’t sure how that was possible, but it was…a hint that another energy was involved perhaps? He just didn’t know.

The Swift Embodiment wasn’t even that hard to aim for. You just needed to focus on getting Achievements around speed and agility. Apparently there was an Achievement for having Agility be four times your next highest Stat as an example. There were a bunch of Achievements like that, which he’d never gotten because even in the early stages he’d not gone for doubling down on a single Stat. It also meant that such Achievements were almost impossible for Common Classes. Without Stat Orbs to prop them up their Stat spread was often too close even with the Free Stats.

So, where did that leave him? His two Achievements for Wandering were overriding everything else he did. Those were of course his multiple universes and setting foot in the Nine Hells achievements. The biggest issue was the quality, or rarity, however it was viewed, of the two Achievements. The first had given him access to a Legendary Class, ergo he was working under the assumption it was a Legendary Achievement. He suspected the Nine Hells might be the same. Possibly Epic, but that was as low as he expected it could possibly be. The rarity, which had done him favours early on, was now working against him when what he needed was to change his Embodiment.

Thinking about the second issue made him wonder if he would’ve gotten a Traveller Embodiment instead of Wandering if he hadn’t met the Wanderer. There was a second factor that the Professor had hinted was just as important. Your experiences. Professor Kandel hadn’t told them why that mattered, though she had hinted that if they were to progress to Advanced in the Mana and Affinities subject that they would likely find out. He wasn’t sure if the intention was gatekeeping the knowledge or there was a risk with knowing the answer, but he didn’t care either way. At the rate he and Kiri were going they would be in Advanced by the start of the next semester, or if not, the semester after that. They’d find out eventually, but that didn’t help him right now.

So, he had three problems to solve. Firstly he needed to get some more Achievements that reflected the path he wanted his Embodiment to take. More than that, they needed to be powerful Achievements. It was possible to go with quantity over quality, but that sounded incredibly time consuming. He’d have to slow down his development speed for that, and after witnessing the power of the Demon Lord Sag’thoz and Arikanvil, he wasn’t interested in going slow. He didn’t want to be at the mercy of others. Personal power meant freedom and he was very interested in maintaining his.

The second part he needed to focus on was his experiences and exposure. He had some ideas around that. The art classes were definitely going to help, as were his graffiti trips, and his crafting. All things he loved anyway. Lastly, he needed to find out the reason that his experiences mattered so much, so he could optimise how he was approaching them.

Someone entering his sphere made him look up and he called out for Kiri to come in.

His best friend closed the door behind her as she entered before turning to look at him with a cheeky grin, “So, Britt huh? I thought you were going to let her down softly? Not dick her down hard!”

Frick’s cackling was the background noise to Nate’s forehead hitting the desk as he struggled between laughing his ass off and rolling his eyes. What were friends for, if not for calling you out on your own hypocrisy, he thought, settling in for a chat with his best friend.