The Runic Artist

Nate wanted to ask Frick what the hell a demon was? Beyond the obvious that is. But he didn’t have time as Xalvoloth rushed at him. Splitting his focus, he activated two barrier runes. The first was used to interpose small shields between himself and Xavoloth’s claws made of red streaked light as the demon unleashed another flurry of strikes at him.

Nate kept walking backwards, trying to gain a little distance without expending more mana on teleporting. He unleashed his second barrier at ankle height to trip the demon over but instead all he got was a quick stumble as the demon instantly recovered after the sinister light it was emanating ate through his barrier, almost before the demon had even touched it. The demons Devouring Light apparently destroying anything in its vicinity.

Nate’s flesh continued to dissolve slowly from the spear of light that had passed through his shoulder, the pain so excruciating it was making it hard to think. Frick, sensing his weakness, flew out of the Familiar Contract, blue ears flapping in some non-existent wind as the spirit raised a finger, pointing at Xalvoloth as he activated Runic Creation and Imbue Intent. A second later a thin jet of fire blasted out at the demon. The creature skipped back, unleashing a wave of the red-gold light at the stream of flame. The two attacks met and rather than an explosion, they seemed to dissolve into each other as the red-gold light ate through the magical torrent of flame.

Nate took the short reprieve to activate the Powerful Earth rune on his robe and Imbue Intent. With eleven intents to work with he was able to create a void in the dirt beneath the demon, before quickly pulling the remaining earth out from under it, dropping it into the large hole before burying it under layers and layers of soil. Panting from the exertion and his injury, Nate turned and started running towards Helmfirth. Jorge might’ve been able to help, but then maybe not and he didn’t want this thing getting anywhere near Kiri or Rania. Better to try and fetch Aisling and Deverell!

Pumping his arms his shoulder continued to scream at him, but between the adrenaline and the fear he kept going, Frick flying along beside him.

“Oh fuck,” yelled his Familiar and he chanced a glance over his shoulder. The hole he’d carved out with his rune and intent was glowing with the same malevolent light as the energy that had coated the demons claws and a moment later, a dirt covered Xalvoloth climbed out, the creature’s previously passive face contorted in rage. Rather than fading, the light sealed itself around the demon as he started sprinting through the grass after him. Nate kept running, his mana reserves closing in on half as Frick, flying backwards, launched off a number of spears of earth using the rune on Nate’s robe and Imbue Intent.

He could hear Xalvoloth’s roar of frustration as the steady stream of earthen spears kept forcing it to dodge or defend itself, though its naturally higher physical stats meant that it was still closing the distance between them. He glanced back again in time to see the light around Xalvoloth grow in intensity before bursting out to the sides, reforming into five human forms.

The copies looked just like Xalvoloth at first glance. However with his Eyes of the Runic Artist, he could see that four of them were made entirely of mana. Frick seemed to agree as without pause he kept targeting the real demon, which had tried to slip itself to the left. Illusion magic was his guess. Useless against his Eyes of the Runic Artist which could see the mana constructs for what they really were.

The demon seemed to recognise that as the illusions faded away and it doubled down on trying to reach him, even allowing a few of the earthen spears to strike its arms. Nate gauged the distance to Helmfirth. He was still too far away. Using No Steps Necessary only moved him five metres forward again and almost threw off his running rhythm. The jolt from the extra hard step jostled his shoulder which sent another wave of pain rippling through him. Whatever Xalvoloth was doing to prevent him from teleporting had to centre on him, right? He was somehow devouring the amount of space the Skill could connect. But that connection was inside of Nate. So he needed something to deal with the Devouring Light.

Shadow seemed like the obvious solution but he didn’t have the rune on him. He’d left it with Kiri. Instead he activated Runic Creation, projecting the rune into the air from memory. It meant the mana expenditure almost tripled as he was effectively using mana to form the geometric shapes to guide itself. But it worked and at this point, that was all Nate cared about. With Imbue Intent he replicated the Shadowskin effect, coating himself in creeping shadows. Immediately he felt slightly different, as though a pressure he hadn’t even known was there had been lifted. Pushing mana into No Steps Necessary he teleported across the field, covering the full hundred metres this time. He repeated it twice more before he was almost at the Gates.

Looking back over the grass he could see that Frick had used the opportunity to float up higher into the sky and was tracking the demon. Thankfully his Familiar wasn’t using any mana besides Eyes of the Runic Artist as he was down to the dregs after the teleports. He could see the demon had paused in its pursuit, watching him from across the fields. After a moment it turned and jogged in the direction of the forest it had come from.

Nate winced in pain and mentally called Frick as he hurried through the Gates. He needed to see Aisling. Mostly for healing, but also for advice. The two guards had waved him through the Gate and quickly closed it behind him, glancing out at the field worriedly. He wasn’t sure how much they had seen but whatever it was, it had clearly been enough to leave them a bit shaken. He would be too, he supposed, if all he had was an Uncommon Class with a level in the early twenties. One of the guards moved to help him but he waved them off as he started stumbling down the quiet street.

He’d always found evenings in Helmfirth peaceful and beautiful but it was hard to see that through the agony of having his flesh slowly eaten away. The shadow rune had done nothing to affect the devouring effect in his shoulder and he could barely think straight as he trudged on almost drunkenly with Frick’s encouragements faint in his ear. Before he knew it, he was half jogging across the market square. The doors to the Guild were still open as the night was young and he was able to enter without an issue, quickly ascending the stairs to the top floor before banging on Aisling’s door.

He heard a muffled yell of “What is it?” before he barged in, stifling a scream as he felt the devouring effect in his shoulder start to eat away at the bone. What happened next was a blur that he could barely process through the pain but when he finally came back to himself, he was covered in sweat, looking at a whole and healed shoulder.

Without thinking he muttered, “Bastard put a hole in my robe…”

Aisling’s relieved laughter brought him the rest of the way back as he looked up and realised the Guildmaster was leaning over him with Deverell standing off to the side.

“What happened?” Aisling asked without preamble, the tone not as demanding as he had expected.

He quickly explained the encounter, his suspicions on the nature of the creature and the reason for its presence. He didn’t doubt for a second that this was his ‘punishment’ come to seek him out. There were other possibilities but they seemed more far fetched than the obvious. Occam’s Razor. The simplest answer was the most likely one.

“I wish you’d mentioned this sooner Nate,” Aisling said, sounding a little frustrated. “Deverell, can you see if Saskia can track it? I doubt she’ll be able to, if the System really sent it, but have her try anyway. Also, have her warn Jorge.”

Deverell nodded, his straight black hair swaying with the movement, before he swiftly exited the room.

Aisling paced back and forth, clearly thinking through his recounting of the fight.

“Light that devours? That’s an advanced Concept. You did really well Nate,” she paused for a moment glancing at him and then offered a smile. “Seems like Luc’s training is paying off?”

“It is,” he replied. “Without it I don’t think I would have lasted beyond the first few exchanges. Frick certainly helped.”

His Familiar grinned as he floated above the seat to Nate’s left, “Oh yeah, boss. I went full goblin-mode! If only we had some runic bombs I could’ve pulled the old goblin suicide bomber trick! That’s a classic!”

“So, what now?” he said, turning back to Aisling.

“Now I keep you here until Deverell returns. Then you can head back to the Oaken Ring to get some rest and Deverell will watch over you throughout the night. Saskia can replace him tomorrow when you’re not with Luc,” she replied.

“Can you ask Luc to delay training for a bit tomorrow? Kiri and I were hoping to speak with you and Deverell in the morning,” he countered.

“Fine,” Aisling muttered, clearly still displeased with his choice to force Kiri into the Tournament. She was in for a rude shock on the morrow.

They spoke for a little longer with Aisling inquiring about his development until Deverell returned. Then he was quickly shipped off back to the Oaken Ring. He was tired and worn out from the battle and his healing, but rather than rest he gritted his teeth and started looking over his work. If he was being honest with himself, he was more angry than fearful. Not at The System or even the demon. They were both probably just following their natures. No, he was angry at himself. Angry that he felt he was still too weak. Of almost dying, again. So, burying himself in his work seemed like a good distraction, which is how he found himself looking over the pieces for the Mana Gathering Array. The refinement was mostly done and he just needed to add some flourishes to the control panel for the array.

He spent a moment assigning Frick to start bringing the piece up to Epic quality using the mana gems that had been charging for most of the week. That mana wasn’t going to be needed for his work on a concealment rune. Taking off his amulet he focused on it with Eyes of the Runic Artist, ignoring the sight of someone sitting on the roof of the Oaken Ring above him, their mana and soul energy visible through the wood for his eyes.

Concealment Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)

Class Core Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)

Those were the only sigils that Nate could see in the amulet, which confused him. How was it powering itself with mana if it didn’t also contain a mana gathering enchantment. Looking over it carefully, he moved it around to see if there was a second gem hidden somewhere in the jewellery but he couldn’t find anything that seemed to indicate there were any hidden parts to the relatively simple amulet. Letting a little of his mana out of his almost empty reserve, he watched to see what would happen. Surprisingly, instead of the mana flowing to the enchantment, the majority seemed to flow into the metal chain, where it looked like it was slowly fed to the inset gem.

Was this some aspect of Enchanting he was unaware of? Everything they had used so far seemed to come down to gems. Yet here was a metal necklace that seemed to have some sort of mana gathering property. His eyes couldn’t see any Concepts baked into the metal. That wasn’t to say there wasn’t any though. His eyes weren’t infallible after all. Something else was going on here. No matter how many questions he had answered, there were always more. In its own way, magic was every bit as complicated as science had been back on Earth.

His eyes narrowed as he thought about Earth sciences. He’d done well with them in class, even if he was just dipping his toes in the deep pool that was human understanding. He would do the same here. He would learn how magic worked. He would keep asking questions, and one day, he would probably return to Earth, even if only to visit it and offer his friends a chance to explore the multiverse.

Focusing back on the Sigils, he went over his plan. He needed to make a Class Core Concealment rune. However, the quality of the Sigils was only Apprentice quality, which was roughly comparable to Rare tier. That meant that alone they were unlikely to shield them from Epic tier Identification skills, let alone Legendary tier. Aisling had made it clear the latter was a strong possibility at the upper echelons and Nate could believe it. Someone over level one hundred with an Epic tier Class that specialised in information gathering could achieve a Legendary tier Skill.

That meant he had a few ways to approach this problem. Either he could try a Runic Array, where he used better quality Sigils to reinforce the lower quality ones. Most of the Sigils he had gotten from Arikanvil’s research station had been Master quality which seemed to be equivalent to Legendary. It was interesting that none were of better quality than Master. Was Arikanvil not a Runecrafter like he was? Shaking his head to refocus on the problem at hand, his other option was to try and improve the Sigils. His Runic Knowledge Skill was Legendary and was supposed to help him to understand and recognise Concepts and Subconcepts. Surely if he focused the Skill on the Sigils it might whisper some truths to him. Point him in the right direction at least.

Drawing out the Sigil for Concealment, he focused on the pictograph while consciously flowing mana into Runic Knowledge. In the past he’d rarely actively funnelled mana to the Skill so any hints it had given were due to it absorbing small amounts of mana that were circulating through his body. He hoped with an active flow of mana it might whisper more loudly, or at the very least, more easily.

The Sigil itself reminded him of a celtic trefoil knot. Its lines were clean and the geometry that surrounded it, as almost all sigils seemed to incorporate, was that of a hexagon and an off-centre heptagon inside of it. But the pictograph itself, which had always seemed to be at the heart of every sigil, was a triquetra. He didn’t know how he had remembered that word but it was the perfect description.

The triquetra was uncomplicated and that presented an interesting opportunity. He was familiar with their designs as he’d considered them for a tattoo when he turned eighteen. He could also see how it related to the concept of concealment, as the heart of the image was hidden by the three petals that bloomed around the heart. But that left weak points at three sections of the sigil. Points where the ‘heart’ was only hidden by a thin line. However, when reviewing the images for trefoil designs on Earth he’d seen more complicated versions of the triskelion that might have resolved this problem by putting up additional barriers and effectively creating mazes around the ‘heart’.

Starting to draw he drew out the variations he remembered that also looked like they would better conceal the heart of the pictograph. He kept the outer geometrics of the image, as nothing about them felt off or triggered a whisper from Runic Knowledge. After the seventh picture, he finally got a response from his Divine Translation spell. The image was a triskelion celtic spiral. Bringing up the Notification he smiled in triumph.

Concealment Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)

Runic Knowledge - Concepts (L) 21 > 22

With the major hurdle handled he got down to crafting the runes format. It’d be ready on the morrow and then he and Kiri could get the Guild’s resources, push to leave earlier for the Capital, and start preparing to get into the University. He didn’t even notice when Saskia visited the roof above him to report to Deverell, so engrossed was he in his runecrafting.