The Runic Artist

Nate looked at the pile of books on the table before him, the light through the windows already fading as the sun had begun to set. Finally, after months of wondering, he had some answers. For so long, he’d wondered why he had found so few sigils on enchanted items. The items clearly worked, but he couldn’t find all the sigils that should make them work. His own robe was a great example. It clearly should have had a number of sigils on it for its various functions. Temperature control, self repair and his rune slots to name a few. Not to mention the Stat enhancements. Yet he’d found none. That made no sense, until now! Those sneaky bastards, he thought. They were using Sigils. The book had explained the process they used. He had no idea how the Adventurer’s Guild had gotten someone to detail the secrets but they had.

So, how were they doing it? Gems. Specifically, gem dust. According to the book before him, Enchanters had a series of skills that worked in tandem to create the effect in much the same way that he had a series of skills that let him manipulate runes. The skills allowed them to engrave the sigils into a gem and imbue the sigils with intent, in much the same way he could. Interestingly, the author of this tome, apparently an epic class enchanter, talked about being able to only imbue four intents into a gem. That was half of his imbued intents and it already showed the difference in Skill rarity. It was the next Skill that he lacked though. The skill allowed for the imbued sigil to fade and become permeated throughout the gem. After that they had skills to reshape the gems, including into dust, that could be used to imbue items. By the sounds of it, that was what had happened with his robe. The fabric must be imbued with gem dust with his various enchantments.

That was all well and good, but it left him kind of screwed in terms of stealing sigils from enchanted items. Not that he was worried about that now though. He pulled up the day's notifications with a huge smile painted on his face.

Water Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)

Wind Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)

Wood Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)

Shadow Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)

Light Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)

Target Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)

Hope Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)

Calm Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)

Obfuscate Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)

Connect Sigil (Quality: Apprentice)

Strength Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Dexterity Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Agility Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Endurance Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Constitution Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Intellect Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Creativity Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Charisma Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Willpower Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Perception Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Magic Power Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Magic Control Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Channelling Speed Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Mana Reserve Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Mana Absorption Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Gravity Sigil (Quality: Journeyman)

Runic Knowledge - Concepts 23> 26

The list was a long one and it unlocked a path he’d wanted to pursue for a while, creating his own runic equipment. The quality of the Sigils for Stats wasn’t that great, only at Novice, which made it the equivalent of Uncommon. But it was a start, and hopefully, with his Runic Knowledge skill, he could find ways to push and improve those Sigils. Even if he didn’t, while it would likely result in a lower bonus, he could make up for it with the quality of the materials. With that in mind, he’d need to obfuscate anything he made as well, to prevent identification skills recognising the material quality. He’d also finally gotten a targeting sigil, which he hoped meant he could make something like a wand that launched target-seeking fireballs, or at least something along those lines. A fireball wand seemed like a good start, if only as an experiment.

The emotional sigils reminded him of the skill he’d been offered, Artistic Expression. It was meant to make the emotional reactions of people to his art more pronounced. How would that factor in if the art itself contained runes that also caused emotional reactions? Could he make a piece of art that when people viewed it sent them into a rage? Or created a sort of perfect calm? Or inspired hope? He wasn’t sure, but he was already considering how it might alter his plans for the evening.

With a smile he closed the book and left it on the table. The librarian, Jocelyn, had asked him to just leave them there so she could make sure that they were put back in the right place. Standing up he headed for the stairs down to the Standard area of the library. He glanced back once to look at the door that led upstairs. Restricted was emblazoned across it and even now, after testing it all day with his Awareness of the Runic Artist skill, he hadn’t been able to sense what lay beyond it, or upstairs through the roof. Whatever enchantment they had obfuscating it wasn’t just powerful, it was also well powered, as his attempts to whittle it down by being perhaps a little too careless with his mana usage, had not been rewarded.

Heading outside he made his way over to the more expensive inn. The one Deverell had declined to let them stay at. It still mildly annoyed him but he supposed Deverell and Aisling probably had their reasons. Besides, they could resolve the issue by telling him what ‘embodiment’ was over dinner. With a smile he pushed open the door to the inn, prepared to catch up with his friend and mentors.

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

Nate waited patiently for Frick to get into position. They’d planned out this escapade together, preparing the appropriate runes and supplies. He double checked his spatial storage to make sure he’d counted out eight mana gems. He wasn’t taking any chances that he’d run out of mana while leaving the Adventurer’s Guild compound on his own. His robe had continued to grow with his Creativity stat, now allowing him to store eleven runes in the star symbols that bloomed on it. As always he had two Barrier runes and then one Earth, Mana, Shadow, Light, Gather, Release, Life, Drain and Exclusion. Eleven at first glance seemed like so many but it already meant he was working without runes like Fire, Water, Air and Projectile. That was before he even started adding new Sigils which was his plan for the following day. Evindal getting him access to the advanced section of the Guilds library was a game changer. Finally, after months, he had new sigils to work with.

“Found a good spot, Boss. Ready when you are,” came the whisper in his mind via the Familiar Contract. Mana flowed from his reserve into True Teleportation and a moment later he was standing in an empty alley. The moon’s light didn’t touch him here and he created a Gathering Shadow runic array to hide himself as he mixed in Imbue Intent, drawing the shadows to him.

Frick hovered nearby, still a blue goblin but reduced to the size of Nate’s hand instead of the size of a large child. Being able to travel underground through solid rock was quite useful. Well not completely solid, as Frick had pointed out there was a sewer system below. Rather than risk the streets where he might be spotted, even through Shadowskin, he waited as Frick moved forward again, finding another safe spot. Like this they leap frogged across town until they arrived at the planned destination.

They were firmly in the slums and before them was a slightly toppled sandstone wall, with an empty fountain behind them. Looking around to make sure they weren’t seen, he didn’t spot anyone at a distance or sense anyone within his sphere. That meant the operation was a go. Setting up his four Legendary Razorlash Scales around his area he activated the runic array, modifying it with Imbue Intent and adding the new rune he’d created after dinner, Obfuscation. He left the roof of the shadow walled area open so the moonlight could shine in, as while he could sense everything perfectly, for what he intended, he definitely needed to be able to see.

Taking out his mana gems he got to work on the wall. The material was only Common and while he did want to make sure his intended artwork would last, he couldn’t push it too far. Using Conceptual Material he raised the wall to Uncommon. Placing the empty mana gem back in his spatial storage he lamented that he couldn’t add a Concept to the wall. He’d considered it, even wanted to do it. But the concern he had was, if he did, and the Nobility or even just a wealthy merchant found out, they would confiscate it. This artwork wasn’t for them, and a pile of Uncommon sandstone shouldn’t be worth their time. Or so he hoped.

He would have actually chosen to leave it as Common if he could have, but that would’ve presented a different problem. He had no way to clean the sandstone so he could prime it before painting it. The tier improvement had allowed him to smooth it out, saving him the trouble of trying to sand it. All that was left to do was clean off any remaining dust. He stepped up with a towel he had, admittedly, taken from the inn. He was probably going to destroy it before returning as he didn’t want any evidence of his link to this nightly activity.

With the first part done, he stared at the blank wall. Just a canvas to him. The feelings that welled up in him left a small tear in the corner of his eye. Sure, he’d gotten to create plenty of art since coming to Galle, but this was the first time he was returning to his graffiti roots. It was a big thing for him. He’d been here almost a year now. Eight or nine months, he thought. It was hard to keep track. Almost a year without creating any public art. Painting and drawing his friend, her family, even Valeria, was not the same. Those pieces were private. Meant to convey something personal to a select few. This was different for him. This wasn’t him painting what he thought others might like to see. This was him painting something he felt and then leaving it for the rest of the world to do with as they wished.

Wiping away the tear he picked up the primer and got to work. With his improved dexterity, it didn’t take him long to cover the wall and while he had considered using runes to speed the drying process he wasn’t sure how that would affect the primer and so opted to let it dry naturally.

Sitting down to wait, he looked at Frick, who was waiting quite patiently nearby.

“So, Embodiment?” he said to his Familiar.

“Yeah, Boss. First I had heard of it as well. Seems you’re already on your way if your intention is to stick with Wandering. That what you want to do though?” asked the little blue goblin.

Nate looked back at the wall in thought, Frick remaining silent, letting him think. Embodiment was apparently something you achieved when you unlocked your Tertiary Class. Something he was still quite a ways off doing. Embodiment would convey bonuses in the form of a Unique Status. The bonuses were static and it sounded like the only thing that affected how valuable the effects were was based on how many of your Classes you managed to align with the Concept. It was effectively, how strongly you Embodied a Concept. Evindal apparently almost perfectly embodied the Concept of Flourishing, whatever that meant. He’d seen it in other Class descriptions. Luc wasn’t quite as good as Evindal, but he’d been close. Two mentions of Arcanist and one of Arcane likely meant he had some fairly powerful effects from his Embodiment.

Funnily enough Aisling was the weakest of the three in that respect. Her Growth Mage Class had not had the word Storm in it. That brought him back to his own Classes. He’d always wondered why they included the word Wandering, even when none of his Skills seemed to particularly lean in that direction. His interaction with The Wanderer and his own journey across the multiverse had apparently left a very powerful mark on his Path, and the simple fact was that it was making him question himself. Was that the Path he wanted to follow? To be a Wanderer? Was that how he viewed himself? The simple answer was no. He thought of himself as an artist. How could he embody that though? Looking up at the wall he took a deep breath and firmed his resolve. This would be a start.

Standing up, he pulled all the paint out of his spatial storage. On their trip to the Capital he’d stocked up in any town that had a decent supply of paints. He had more than enough for his needs as he began to paint. What did he want his art to say? He wanted this piece to bring a measure of hope to this little corner of the slums. He’d chosen this location for one specific reason. They had a fountain nearby. A dry fountain, its stone bed filled with nothing but sand. That would be the second part of his artwork.

Painting, he lost himself in his work, hours passing until finally it was done. Had this been back on Earth, before his developments, this piece would’ve taken much much longer. Twelve hours, and that was just a guess. Here, in Galle, he managed it in four.

The painting depicted the area around them, showing the houses and fountain, with children playing in the fountains waters and the people dressed more vibrantly. To further improve his artwork he’d added runes into it, hidden in the shapes of barrels and cracks in walls. The two runes worked in tandem. The first was a simplified mana gathering rune only meant to power the secondary rune. This one mixed the sigils for Hope and Release, creating what he hoped was a zone of hope around the artwork. Finally done, he took a moment to enjoy the artwork. He loved it, not because it gave hope to others, though he did want that for them, but because it gave him hope.

Collecting up all his paint and other materials, he stored them before packing up his Razorlash Scale runic array, already cloaked in shadow once more. Now it was time for the final piece. Making his way over to the fountain he looked over it. It had seen better days, but he was sure that once upon a time it had been beautiful. Taking out one of his mana gems he gauged it. It was only a little more than half full. That meant it would probably last about a week. Two at best. He’d see if it was still here when he returned.

With his Awareness of the Runic Artist he could sense the slot deep inside the fountain where a mana gem was meant to go. To power the functions of the fountain that produced water. With one last glance, he used True Teleportation on the mana gem. A moment later the spouts of the fountain began to burble as whatever enchantment lay within the fountain began to work again. At first the water only dribbled out, but after a few minutes the fountain was working again. Clear water flowed into the basin and he gave it one last glance before he teleported to where Frick waited, making his way back to the inn. Tomorrow he had some runecrafting to do in preparation for the Tournament, but tonight had also been a necessary step on his Path.