The Runic Artist

Nate walked forward with purpose, the soft earth compressing beneath his feet as the smell of mould and rot filled his nostrils. They’d been two days out from Pinewater when Frick had noted the mana anomaly a couple of kilometres off the road, deeper into the forest that hemmed them in on both sides. According to his companions it was not the Firth Forest, which had stretched away from the outskirts of Helmfirth into the wilds of the mountains that were almost impassable, separating Etrua from the country of Gashana. This was the Forest of Saulon, which, when it ended, would finally give way to the Plains of Saulon and take them most of the way to the Capital of Etrua.

It’d taken them half a day to find the Dungeon causing the mana anomaly, and without his Spatial Awareness they never would’ve found it at all. The entrance had been halfway up one of the gigantic redwood-like trees that had stretched into the sky. Nate had abused his barriers to get Kiri and himself up there after Frick had confirmed the location while Aisling had simply flown up to investigate. Deverell had waited below with their mounts.

Aisling, after having done her own assessment of the Dungeon, had stated that she’d agreed with the information provided by his Eyes of the Runic Artist. She’d said that the Dungeon was only Uncommon and as such safe for the two of them, three if you included Frick, to delve alone. That was how he found himself walking through what he could only call an extended graveyard. The Dungeon seemed to be modelled on the remains of an old battlefield, as the small hills were dotted with rusted armour and weapons, not to mention yellowed bones. Most of the bones stayed where they were, but not all of them.

It was his first time encountering the undead and honestly, he was pretty disappointed. The smell of the Dungeon alone was enough to put him off, but the biggest letdown was the challenge. Sure, he hadn’t really been keen to risk his life, but a little pressure would’ve been okay. Instead they’d unequivocally mowed through the Dungeon. It was partially that Kiri was a hard-counter to the enemies they faced and the other half that his runic arrays let him adapt to do the same. Undead it seemed, were something along the lines of beings created by binding soul energy into, what he was starting to suspect, were gems alongside mana. The combination gave life, or unlife he supposed, to the remains and depending on the quantity of soul energy, a level of autonomy. The less soul energy, the more they function like mindless creatures.

The two Challenges and one Bonus Challenge had all included undead with enough soul energy for them to at least do more than charge at them, swinging whatever rusty or dirt covered weapon they’d pull from the ground. That of course hadn’t stopped them from getting steamrolled. Kiri had been able to face them all in melee and their attacks, which had so far only been of the physical variety, weren't able to threaten his friend while he’d casually used barriers to block, herd, and interfere with each and every enemy they’d faced. The whole time he’d maintained a Soul Drain rune which sapped what fleeting intelligence and unlife these beings had. Coupled with Kiri’s main dagger, a Rare item that caused cuts to bleed soul energy, and her own Soul Drain skill and everything had fallen before them without even the idea of fighting back.

The only downside was the lack of Orbs. It seemed that the undead so far, lacked sufficient soul energy to warrant a Class Core. Still, they’d gotten a few rewards for the three completed Challenges. It was Nate’s first time seeing how rewards worked when there was more than one participant. It seemed that the method was first to show the three options, and then before selecting the option they would need to choose a recipient. They’d chosen, in order, Power, which had gone to Nate, a Spell Tome and a Skill Tome, which had both gone to Kiri. She’d insisted that the reward from the Boss should go to Nate. He’d agreed, mostly annoyed that they’d only been offered Power the once. They’d avoided Knowledge, Assistance and Equipment. As the rewards were of the Uncommon variety, those options just didn’t seem worth it. If they’d gotten Wealth they might have taken that, but it hadn’t been an option yet.

Luckily for them his Eyes of the Runic Artist had been able to identify all their rewards. His Power selection had awarded him an Uncommon Orb of Intellect. Rather than hold onto it, he’d absorbed it as they walked. The Spell Tome had been for a spell called ‘Spiritual Awakening’ which, while his eyes revealed the Spellform, didn’t tell him what it actually did. They were holding onto that to see what Aisling and Deverell had to say. Finally the Skill Tome would impart the Uncommon Skill Soul Expansion which seemed to be a lower rarity version of Kiri’s The Size of a Soul. They’d held onto it to sell in the Capital.

They’d also both gained two levels already, and were expecting a third once they had defeated the final Challenge. He realised he was complaining about what was effectively free advancement, but he’d just spent the last week motivating himself to rise to the challenges of this world, and then the first Dungeon they had encountered was such a cake-walk that it was hard to take it seriously.

He sighed, a little wary but mostly unworried as he walked towards their final challenge. The creature was a skeleton, like all the others they had faced except for the Bonus Challenge. That one had been a rather fast, albeit very stupid, ghoul of some sort. His eyes had said it was called a Wraithborn Ghoul, whatever that was. It’d been almost as mindless as the normal skeletons they’d faced. Fast though. He didn’t expect the same from the final boss.

This creature stood at least three metres tall, and was wearing black armour that didn’t look rusted like the rest of the Dungeons inhabitants. That wasn’t what made him wary though, nor was it the two metre long sword it held in one hand. It was the amount of Soul Energy floating around inside of the creature. If this thing wasn’t sapient, then no Undead were as far as he was concerned. It had almost as much Soul Energy as Kiri, and Kiri already had more than twice what a normal person possessed.

He began focusing on it with Eyes of the Runic Artist as they approached until the identification worked.

Niklas Bohle

Death Knight (U) (25) / Swordsman (C) (5)

“It’s a Death Knight,” Nate relayed to Kiri and Frick.

Frick walked along beside them carrying two of the mana gathering runes in bowls filled with some gems. Nate just wished he’d finished a Mana Gathering Array already. He could’ve made off like a bandit with how much mana was in this Dungeon.

Kiri looked at him and smirked, “Work together or take turns?”

“Take turns, but I am going first. You got to solo that Wraithborn Ghoul. This one is mine. You can step in if it looks challenging alright?” he replied.

Kiri smiled, raising two daggers in her hands, another dagger appearing to fly over her left shoulder, raised on a strand of soul energy mixed with mana. Soul Tether she said the skill was, but she’d been pushing the skill with Deverell to force it to behave like a variation of his own Mana Strands skill which let him effectively wield up to six daggers at once.

“Squash em, Boss! Turn that Undead into plain old dead. Just don’t get boned! I know it’s probably old enough for you to be interested but that thing don’t want to love you long time!” Frick called, eliciting a sigh from Nate and a confused look from Kiri.

Choosing to ignore his Familiar’s antics, he started to build his runic arrays. He didn’t think he was going to need more than three, coupled with his Skills to handle this creature. With Spatial Awareness and Eyes of the Runic Artist active, he could see the spellform gathering in the Death Knight’s chest while also feeling how the concept of rot was being applied to their surroundings, the grass beneath his feet already starting to die.

Maybe in a prolonged fight the constant aura of rot would’ve been enough to cause him some actual problems, but this fight was going to be over quicker than that. With Runic Artistry active he linked his Barrier rune and Fire rune to create a flaming wall that was immediately sent forth with his Imbue Intent. The Death Knight raised its sword and swung it at the wall of flames. He’d only sent the flaming barrier at the monster to gauge its speed. As expected, given its size, it was slow. Slow but durable. But that durability wouldn’t matter against what came next.

Mana flowed into No Steps Necessary as he vanished, appearing a metre off the ground at the Death Knights back. Before it could turn, he’d used Runic Creation to burn a runic array into its armour. The first part was a Soul, Drain and Flow rune linked together that would drain the creature's soul energy slowly, releasing it into the air and then wherever it went after that. The second was a Mana and Gather rune that drew mana from the environment to further empower the rune. With the rune imbued into the armour, he activated No Steps Necessary again as he touched the ground, appearing back where he’d started. The entire action had taken less than two seconds and he could already see the Death Knight roaring and grabbing at its armour, trying to remove it.

That meant it was time to make use of the last rune he had imbued into his robe currently. Exclusion. He’d targeted the armour as it was protecting the soul repository in the monster's chest. Either it would successfully remove the armour, exposing its weakness, or it wouldn’t and it would be destroyed as the runic array slowly drew away all of its soul energy. These undead couldn’t exist without it. He supposed that meant anyone with a Necromancer-esque Class must be able to manipulate soul energy like Kiri could.

Focusing on Runic Artistry again, he created an array from the Soul and Exclusion runes he had. Imbue Intent modified Exclusion towards the subconcepts of explosively and contained. With the rune floating in the air using Runic Creation, he fed it fully a third of his mana, which took his Mana Reserve down to half filled. Then he waited.

The Death Knights armour had been minorly enchanted and seemed resistant to manipulation. An effective method for protecting its soul repository. But as the monster finally managed to rip its own armour off, Nate activated From Me, To You depositing the explosive Soul Exclusion runic array in the creature’s chest. A second later a small explosion of energy occurred, followed immediately by the shattering of the soul repository and the collapse of the Death Knight.

“That was too easy,” he said.

Kiri stepped up next to him and nodded her agreement, “Uncommon is not really a challenge for us. Technically we both outlevelled this Dungeon, stat for stat.”

The notification appeared in front of all their eyes letting them know they were done.

You have completed a Dungeon.

Dungeon: The Battlefield of Avilagae

The Dungeon will cease to exist in two hours after which you will be ejected from the spatial pocket.

Countdown: 01:59:45

He looked over the reward screen next.

You have completed a Dungeon challenge!

Dungeon: The Battlefield of Avilagae

Challenge: Defeat Niklas Bohle, Risen Death Knight.

Challenge Rewards (Select One):

1. Power

2. Equipment

3. Wealth

Please select Reward recipient: Nathaniel Weber or Kiri Beaufoy?

Selecting himself he chose Power without thinking about it. Uncommon equipment was still borderline useless, as far as he was concerned. Wealth might have been alright, but when compared with more Stats, was it really a competition? The Orb appeared in his hands a moment later and the reward must’ve been tied to his Primary Class as the Uncommon Orb gave six Perception, which he absorbed as he reviewed the rest of his advancements from the Dungeon.

Accrued Mana applied to Primary Class.

Level up…

Level up…

Level up…

Stats adjusted: +3 Dexterity, +3 Endurance, +6 Intellect, +6 Creativity, +3 Willpower,

+6 Perception, +6 Mana Reserve, +3 Mana Absorption +18 Free Stats

Eyes of the Runic Artist 22 > 23

Enhanced Magic Power 14 > 16

Runic Artistry 16 > 18

From Me, To You 14 > 15

No Steps Necessary 13 > 14

Spatial Awareness 24 > 25

Runic Creation 21 > 22

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

Looking over his Status, he had eighteen Free Stats to invest. That was an incredible amount and could really push himself forward. Four into Creativity would take him over one hundred in the Stat which meant ten total rune slots on his robe. He committed those four before looking at Frick who was sitting on the grass surrounded by the Mana Gathering runes.

“I’ve got fourteen Stats left to invest. I’m getting thirty six Magic Power from Orbs if Luc comes through. Do we just double down and put these into Magic Power as well? Or do you have a different suggestion?” he asked his Familiar.

“I’d go with Mana Reserve actually,” responded Frick, glancing up with his big blue eyes. “It’s going to become an issue for you as you tend to use quite a lot of mana when you fight. Your Skills are costly and you're both creating and powering runes. You’re going to need a much larger Mana Reserve than what you’re getting from levelling. I think you’ll break a hundred Magic Power anyway at the rate you’re going. That should be enough for the competition when coupled with your Imbue Intent. Not to mention if you can create a rune for the Magic Power Stat, Kiri can use Soul Engraving on you.”

Nate thought through it and then shrugged, nodding as he applied the remaining fourteen Free Stats to Mana Reserve before bringing up his Status.

Stats

Physical

Mental

Magic

Strength

12

Intellect

109

Magic Power

55 (20)

Dexterity

62

Charisma

17 (3)

Magic Control

34

Agility

23 (10)

Creativity

101

Channelling Speed

32

Endurance

44 (3)

Willpower

16

Mana Reserve

78

Constitution

30

Perception

89

Mana Absorption

30

Classes

Primary Class - Level 4 (24)

Secondary Class - Level 1

Tertiary Class

Wandering Runic Artist (M)

Wandering Realmwalker (L)

…

Skills

Runic Knowledge - Concepts (L) Lvl 23 - (+28% Intellect)

Conceptual Material (M) Lvl 21 - (-10.5% Mana Cost, -20% Time Required)

Eyes of the Runic Artist (M) Lvl 23 - (+54% Perception, +18% Creativity)

Imbue Intent (L) Lvl 25 - (13 Intents, 6 Imbued Intents, +12.5% Intellect)

Enhanced Magic Power (E) Lvl 16 - (+20% Magic Power)

Runic Creation (L) Lvl 22 - (-42% Mana Cost, +15% Creativity)

Runic Artistry (E) Lvl 18 - (-22% Mana Cost, +35 Magic Power for Runic Arrays)

No Steps Necessary (L) Lvl 14 - (140 metres teleport range)

From Me, To You (E) Lvl 15 - (75 metres teleport range)

Spatial Awareness (E) Lvl 25 - (125 metres Detection Range, 2.5 metres Sphere of Awareness)

Spells

…

Status Effects

Divine Translation Spell (Permanent)

Familiar Contract (Permanent)

System Contract - Aisling Teigland & Deverell Courbet (Temporary)

Class Core Concealment Soul Engraving (Temporary, Legendary)

Mana Gathering Soul Engraving (+20% Mana Absorption) (Temporary, Legendary)

Happy with the results, he sat down on the grass near the Mana Gathering runes, planning to wait out the timer to maximise the refilling of his mana gems.

Glancing at Kiri he asked the obvious question, “How close?”

“That got me to twenty. Next level is evolution. I am so excited! But, also, a bit unsure, you know? What if I don’t get any good options? Or worse, what if the Core Enhancement didn’t work? What do you think I will get?” Kiri asked, babbling a little.

“Guess we’ll find out,” he replied with a confident smile. “I am sure it’ll be awesome.”

Kiri nodded a bit before walking a few metres away to practise with her Skills. In turn he pulled the last piece of the Mana Gathering Array out and began to apply Conceptual Material. Might as well make use of the time. They’d be in the Capital before they knew it.