The Runic Artist

Nate’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead as Aisling asked him if he was ready to meet his teacher. Teacher? What teacher? Had she found someone who could help him discover more Sigils? Or explain Enchanting to him so he could figure out how to apply some of the same principles to his Runecrafting?

Frick had leaned forward slightly at the news but wilted when Nate shot a small frown at him. He hadn’t forgotten about Frick’s little admission. The Familiar had always come across as incredibly informed about the System and the mechanics behind it. To find out at least some of the Familiar’s knowledge was either secondhand, or potentially just wrong, was not reassuring.

Thinking about it, Nate felt a little of the displeasure fading away. Frick hadn’t technically lied to him. He’d just been wrong. Or at least not completely right. It sounded like most Dungeons of Uncommon or lower rarity did in fact dissipate after being completed. It was best he supposed, not to assume the worst of the Spirit. He’d been incredibly helpful lately and was really starting to live up to a reward titled ‘Assistance’. However, there were questions that needed to be answered. They could do that later in his suite though.

“We’ll discuss this later, alright Frick?” Nate sent to his Familiar, his mental voice softer than the one he’d used before. Frick nodded, sitting up a little straighter. Clearly chastised but he no longer gave off an air of apprehension.

Turning back to Aisling, he asked the obvious question, “What teacher?”

“I told you I was going to find you a teacher,” Aisling replied with a pleased smile on her tanned face. “He should be along shortly.”

Her brown eyes turned serious as she stared at him, “I had to call in a favour he owed me to get him to even consider teaching you, Nate. So please, for both our sakes, don’t fuck this up.”

He was about to nod his agreement when he heard the door open behind them. Turning to get a glance at what he assumed would be his new teacher he found the space empty, the door left open.

“This the kid?” came a cultured voice from near Aisling. Nate spun back around to see a tall man with dark brown hair and striking blue eyes leaning over Aisling’s shoulder.

“You done showing off, Luc?” Aisling asked, clearly a little annoyed. “Yes, this is the one I told you about. Luc Crozier, meet Nate.”

Had it been invisibility, or something else? The door had clearly been opened as a distraction but had Luc just casually strolled over, hidden from sight? That didn’t seem like a skillset likely to be able to help train him. He’d figure out the trick soon enough though.

He took a moment to assess the man Aisling had called ‘Luc’, noting as he did that Luc was doing the same back to him. He would’ve said Luc and he were of a similar height and build. Both reasonably tall without being giants and on the skinnier side of athletic. Luc wore an interesting ensemble that seemed somewhere between clothes and armour. He was dressed in what looked to Nate, like a fancy black silk shirt and black leather pants. The shirt was covered by a black leather chestplate. All the leather appeared to be studded with small bits of black metal. Even the boots seemed to follow the same pattern, with black metal studded around the sole.

Nate couldn’t restrain his curiosity and activated Eyes of the Runic Artist, focusing on Luc’s Core. There was a momentary haze around the man's Class Core and Nate traced that haze to an amulet he wore under his armour. Pushing more mana into his skill, he could see truths in the haze. There was more than one concept present but after a few seconds, he isolated the most prevalent one.

At first he thought it was ‘Hidden’ but after watching it for a moment, he realised it was actually ‘Obfuscation’. With that understanding, he felt the mana in his eyes pierce the concept, the haze fading from his vision as Luc’s Class Core became clear and the identification flashed before his eyes. He glanced at the notification that came with it before moving on to Luc’s Classes.

Eyes of the Runic Artist 15 > 16

Luc Crozier

Arcane Riftwalker (E) (57) / Magnetic Arcanist (R) (34) / Toxic Arcanist (U) (12)

“Interesting eyes, kid. They do anything useful?” came Luc’s voice, breaking Nate out of his trance.

“He just read your Class Core, Luc,” supplied Aisling, her smile growing as Luc snorted in response.

Luc looked at Aisling with an air of confidence, “Unlikely. I’m warded. Can never be too careful.”

“Your Primary Class is Arcane Riftwalker, an Epic Class. Should I say what level?” Nate asked Luc.

Luc turned back towards Nate, his eyes now showing signs of interest, “You can see all three Classes?”

Nate nodded in response, at the same time activating Spatial Sensitivity. The Class name had given him an idea of the trick Luc had pulled. Just as expected he found a small ripple in space. The lingering effects of someone, or something, altering space. His eyes drifted to the location he sensed without thought. He had barely glanced at it for more than a second when he felt the entire ripple snuffed out by a flash of mana. It happened too fast for him to catch how it had been accomplished, but the ripple was entirely gone. Not a trace remained. His eyes drifted back to Luc who was staring at him with considering eyes.

“Did your eyes detect it?” Luc asked calmly.

Aisling looked between them as he spoke and she seemed content to let whatever was going on play out, a pleased smile glued to her lips.

Nate shook his head, “They can’t see spatial ripples. I have a separate detection skill for that.”

“They’re called spatial tears, or just tears, when we’re training. Ripples are different. Ripples are what happens when you alter space. What I did was punch a hole through it. That tears it. Did you see what happened afterwards?” Luc asked, still studying Nate with his blue eyes.

“All I saw was a flash of mana and then the ripple…I mean tear, was gone,” Nate replied.

“So your eyes can see mana too? Useful. Might even mean you’re capable of learning. Alright, I am interested. Only one question remains. Can you pay?”

Nate frowned before his eyes flicked to Aisling, “Pay?”

“The favour I owed Aisling covered coming out here to the middle of nowhere to see if you were worth teaching,” Luc explained, clapping Aisling on the shoulder as he did so. “She said you were a halfway decent Enchanter. So that’s how you’ll pay.”

Nate wasn’t sure how to respond to that so he just nodded awkwardly, which Luc seemed to take as agreement.

“I need an Epic Tier Mana Gathering Array. Can you manage that?” Luc asked.

Nate glanced at Aisling, unsure exactly how much to say. He had expected her to be subtle in response but instead, she turned slightly in her chair to look at Luc.

“Did you bring him schematics and materials, like I told you to?” she asked bluntly.

“Of course. Of course. Just testing the kid, Aisling. No need to get angry,” Luc replied, holding his hands out as though defending himself, though the amused smile on his face gave lie to his little act. He clearly enjoyed riling up Aisling and Nate supposed he could see why. They were almost the same level, Aisling only edging Luc out by four levels.

Thinking about that made Nate wonder about Luc’s other two Classes, as he ignored the pair bickering good naturedly. Both had Arcanist in the name and they seemed kind of clear what they did. Magnetic alluded to using mana to manipulate magnetic fields. Or so he was assuming. Toxic probably had something to do with poisons. But how did that all work with his Arcane Riftwalker Class?

“Aisling said Classes should have some sort of synergy,” Nate said, interrupting the pair. “But I can’t see how your three Classes fit together, beyond all sounding like Mage Classes.”

“You’ll find out tomorrow kid, when the training starts. For now, have a look at this and tell me if you can do it,” replied Luc as he handed over a few pieces of paper that had appeared in his hand from nowhere. Spatial storage. Nate still had both his sensory skills active and he’d felt the spatial storage opening and seen the mana move. The storage Luc used was his belt buckle. An interesting choice but Nate supposed it did mean it was unlikely to be stolen, unlike jewellery.

Taking the pieces of paper, Nate laid them out on Aisling’s desk, tuning the two out as they began discussing something about the Capital. It only took a moment to realise he was looking at Enchanting schematics. It was his first direct insight into how Enchanters accomplished what they did and he quickly realised the similarities and the differences.

Where Runecrafting used geometric shapes to create overlapping mana density fields, Enchanting used what looked like some kind of medium to effectively create what he was now mentally calling ‘mana veins’. Looking over the sheets it quickly became apparent that Enchanting relied on something akin to his Imbue Intent. The schematics detailed a three dimensional construct in the shape of a gem with mana veins infused into it. He couldn’t figure out what the mana veins were made of so he moved on.

The next page detailed a number of different precious stones, each denoting why they were chosen. Interestingly it was because each gem was thought to have an affinity towards a specific concept. Next to them was the Sigil they were supposed to be ‘infused’ with, whatever that meant. The final page detailed where each gem was to be placed on the construct, alongside a small note on the Intent necessary to make the gem work correctly as part of the greater whole.

All in all he could see some similarities between his discipline and Enchanting. Enchanting made him think of a circuit board. Or maybe a flow diagram. The sigils themselves didn’t directly interact. They seemed to do things in isolation that then gave way to a greater whole. Kind of like a flow diagram, he supposed. Also the number of sigils used was significantly less than he expected. Only nine in total, including the ones used more than once. Each of the nine had been matched to a gemstone. He was pretty sure he’d used more than that on his Projectile Gathering Rune and that was a single rune. Not an array.

The schematics, even with the parts he didn’t quite understand, gave him an idea. A method for creating his own version of the Array. Glancing through the sigils he made sure to memorise them. Not because he intended to use them, or at least he didn’t intend to use the Journeyman quality version of the Sigil when he knew the Master tier version. No, he just wanted to see how his idea compared to this when he was done. Because he was finally going to get to use his Runic Artistry Skill.

He had no idea how long it was going to take to create the array. The schematics detailed the Enchanting method, which he had no intention of replicating. However if he wasn’t going to use the Epic materials provided by Luc that meant he was going to have to make them himself. Given his idea he expected he’d need almost a month as he had six individual components in mind and at four days per piece it was going to take twenty four days to raise them all to Epic quality. If his idea worked it would come in at just under a month. Better than that, he thought his Array was likely to be stronger than the one in the schematics, purely based on the quality of the sigils he had available to him.

The problem with the Enchanted Mana Gathering Array, as he saw it, was that the mana veins it used to guide the mana to a central repository were rate limiting. They could only draw in so much mana at a time and would likely function the same, no matter the ambient mana around them. They had a maximum draw. His concept didn’t. Time would tell, he supposed. That left just one question.

“Do I need to do it like this?” he asked, interrupting them a second time, though neither seemed to care.

“Aisling, you’ve brought me some kind of genius? He gets one look at a Mana Gathering Array schematic and thinks he can do better,” Luc said with a slight sneer. “Tell you what kid, as long as I get paid in the form of a Mana Gathering Array comparable to the one you’ve got in front of you, I don’t care how it works. You bring me that and I will train you for the next two months. Deal?”

Nate grinned and nodded his agreement, choosing to ignore the sneer. Spatial training and getting to make a Runic Array. Seemed like a great deal to him. What could go wrong?

“Good. Here are the materials required, according to the schematics. Anything else you need to make your changes is on you, kid. Meet me tomorrow morning at sunrise at the Southern Gate,” Luc said, turning back to Aisling.

“Can we make it the Northern Gate?” Nate asked. That was the gate he went out to check on the Dungeon so it would save him some walking time.

“Sure, kid. One Gate is as good as another I guess. Don’t be late. Or do. Either way you’re paying up at the end of the two months,” replied Luc.

Nate glanced at Aisling who gave him a small approving smile before nodding at the door. He looked down at the various gems and materials Luc had dumped on the table then back up at Aisling. For the barest of moments he regretted giving up his spatial storage.

“I’ll have someone bring them to you at the Oaken Ring,” Aisling said with a smile before making a shooing motion towards the door. With a grin he stood and headed back to his suite. It was time for him to go start planning out this Runic Mana Gathering Array. He was already excited.

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

Xalvoloth slipped over the wooden walls that enclosed the town. The System Contract it was bound by didn’t strictly forbid it from killing mortals other than its target, but it did strongly discourage it. Normally it would have waited for the feast that was its designated target, but after walking through the wilderness for days, it felt it had barely gotten halfway to its target.

The System clearly had something in mind, playing by whatever esoteric rules it was bound by, just as it was in turn bound by the System. It couldn’t wait any longer. It wanted, no, it needed something. Just the smallest of tastes, a whiff even. It had sensed the nearby souls in the village and it was so hungry. It just needed a little bit. One wouldn’t be missed, it was sure. Slipping through the streets, it bent the light around itself. It was dark now in this world but even if the light had shone down on it, these mortals would not have seen a thing.

It sniffed the air, inhaling the sweet scent of mortal souls. These were nothing. Their souls barely developed. They would barely whet its appetite. But something was better than nothing. Slipping into an alley it found one. A lone mortal. This one was old. Old, and easy. It slit its throat with a blade of light. The mortal never saw it coming, and as its lifeblood bled away down its stained shirt, the soul started to flee the body.

Slipping away to the Spiritual Plane. Or so it would’ve, had Xalvoloth not interfered. Opening his maw, for even in this mortal form, what could its mouth be but a maw, it drank the soul of this unfortunate mortal. Unlucky to have crossed its path. It felt the expected twinge in its Contract as it finished its meal. The System would tolerate this one lapse. There would not be a second. That was fine with it. It was close enough now, and temporarily sated. It hoped its target provided a fuller meal as it slipped back over the wooden walls, angled towards its true target.