Author Frank Morin
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Ch 127 - Runesmith
🕑 Added 2025-02-05 17:00:07 +0000 UTCThe final new thing I noticed in my inventory was a set of expandable bracelets, but they did not have boosts to defense.
“Tinkerfuse Restraints. Common. Invented by the quirky genius, Garrik Tinkerfuse, these simple items have revolutionized recreational sports.”
“What the Handel?” I wondered. The bracelets were made of a very stretchy fabric. With them came a pair of thin metal disks about 3 inches across. When I put on one of the bracelets, I sensed how to activate it. As soon as I did, one of the disks snapped up against it like it was magnetized.
Nigel nuzzled one of the bracelets and whined. “Stop playing. Let’s ride.”
“Got it!” That shouldn’t have taken nearly so long. Identify usually did a better job explaining things. “These aren’t for me. They’re for you!”
Jeeves had come through again. I slipped the bracelets onto Nigel’s front paws and summoned Switchblade. As Nigel alternated shaking his paws in annoyance from the unfamiliar feel of the bracelets, I placed the disks against the front dash and they locked in place without glue. Then I swung onto the hover bike. When Nigel jumped up in front of me, he finally got it and activated the bracelets. They locked his front paws into place on the front dash, just the way he liked.
“Now you can fly faster,” Nigel said simply.
So I did. I wanted to feel the wind on my face as much as Nigel did. After that insane near-death encounter, it felt wonderful to just be alive and enjoy moving. With Nigel urging me on, I kept the throttle wide open and we picked up an insane amount of speed going down hill.
Any monsters had fled the area when Ashkaroth descended from the night sky with fiery death in his wings. I spotted a few red dots on the fringes of my map, but ignored them. I’d survived enough fighting for one night.
I had to swap my wide-brimmed hat for the skullcap version for the ride. My goggles had survived intact, if singed, so the wind didn’t impede my vision. Nigel didn’t seem bothered by it, so we ripped down the mountain at at least 300 miles per hour.
I kept the rest of the head shield disabled so I could enjoy the cool night air. Breathing deep despite the risk of inhaling another alien bug, I savored the feel of my new lungs filling with air and the feel of wind rushing past my new skin. I felt reborn and invigorated.
Instead of slowing when we reached the last forested canyon, I banked the hover bike over and launched off a final cliff with a whooping laugh. Nigel leaned forward, tail lashing back and forth with glee as we rode Switchblade down to the rolling hills of the grassland in a graceful descent.
The view was spectacular. With dawn still hours away, the moons and stars blazed in the cloudless sky, bathing the entire second stage in soft, silver light. Plenty for both me and Nigel, who purred loud enough that he sounded like another engine.
I banked north, leaping Switchblade off of every hilltop I could as I aimed for the long lake with its tall ships and solitary castle. The new bracelets kept Nigel fixed in place, and he constantly urged me to go faster and jump higher.
Soaring off each hilltop gave us perfect views of the lake and its interesting new addition. A huge wooden raft now floated in the center of the lake with Base Camp tents on it. Sentries patrolled the perimeter, while large bonfires illuminated the water. The raft could easily house 80 people. It appeared the first stage of cooperation with the zombies was well underway.
I was so tempted to hit the throttle and shoot Switchblade across the lake. I’d love to check in with the group there to hear how the first day went, but I resisted the urge. I’d prefer heading back to Midmount Vale to my castle for a break, but I had to go visit Noctarus again.
Not only should I put in an appearance in response to his invitation, but Cyrus had said Noctarus knew runes. I needed all the training I could get. Stage 2 was proving even more dangerous than I’d expected, and Alpha was but one of the monsters who had nearly killed me on the first day. If learning runes could help me get stronger, I’d be an idiot not to leverage the opportunity.
Besides, I could hopefully learn more about Noctarus and his plans. The council was taking a huge gamble working with the zombies. Maybe I could get a feel from the zombie side of the bargain to confirm things would continue positively, at least for the next couple days. So I slowed on the western edge of the lake and lowered Switchblade into the tall grasses.
“Why are we stopping?” Nigel demanded.
“End of the line. Sorry. Can you head back to town and tell Ruby I’m okay?”
“I thought we discussed not sending me away again.”
“I have to go to the zombie castle, and I don’t want Noctarus to know about you.”
“Why not?”
“Because chances are high that he’ll try to double-cross us in a few days. When he does and we need to fight, you’ll be my secret weapon.”
“Secret weapon. I like that,” Nigel admitted. “I’m glad you told me here. Trees are gossips, but marsh grasses are stupid.”
I had no idea if he was being serious or not. “Okay. Do you want me to send you back using your collar?”
“I’ll run.”
I suppressed the urge to warn him to be careful. He knew the dangers of this stage better than I did. Nigel swelled, but only to lynx size. He noticed my look and said, “Practice.”
Then he disappeared into the grass, slipping away so quietly I couldn’t track him by sight or sound. I could still feel his presence through our bond and the enhanced animal perception of my Beast Master title, though.
I decided to banish Switchblade so the zombies didn’t learn more about my capabilities. Then I jogged around the lake to the floating wooden walkway through the marshes leading to the castle. There, I encountered a group of zombies blocking the path.
“Hey, guys.” I waved.
The one in the lead turned out to be the same grumpy captain who had escorted me out after my first training session with Noctarus. He seemed to have lost more skin around his lower jaw. That would make me grumpy too. I held up the rune-covered free pass disk the envoy had left for me.
“Follow me,” the captain said, and the group fell in around me.
As we marched toward the gate, I asked, “So you promised to tell me your ship once my people started helping you make repairs.”
The captain did not respond until we passed under the open portcullis. The dilapidated castle reared high above, wind making a soft whistling sound as it passed through gaps in the stone. Finally, he said, “The Pyrantis.”
“Have my people started repairing it yet?”
“Yes.”
“You’re welcome.”
He did not speak again, but his dead-eyed gaze seemed thoughtful, if I was reading him right. Or maybe he was just considering the best way to eat my brains. I couldn’t tell.
Noctarus waited for me in his study, which looked unchanged since I’d last left. Could that only be a single day ago? It felt like half a lifetime.
I did spot a golden chain necklace sitting on his desk. That hadn’t been there last time. The black metallic disk on the necklace was marked with a white Jolly Roger skull and crossbones. I suppressed a chuckle. Way to live up to the stereotype.
The only other difference I noticed was that Noctarus’s head seemed blockier than I remembered. Had he changed his skull, or had I just not noticed before? I’d been kind of rattled after Alpha nearly ripped me in half. Then we’d dived right in to mana training. It was possible, I guess.
The old necromancer greeted me with his same weird mixture of happy smile and lifeless eyes. “Ah, Lucas. Welcome back.”
“Sorry I missed the opening ceremonies.”
“We held no ceremonies. Were we supposed to?” Noctarus asked with a frown.
“No. Just an expression.”
“Ah. Good. Our first day can only be called a resounding success. Despite far fewer of your people working than I had hoped, the work progressed with remarkable speed. The variety of your skills is astonishing.”
“Yeah, we’ve got a pretty diverse set of builds. Glad it’s working.”
“Indeed. We are likely to miss my projections of completing the work in 3 days, but even if it stretches to 5, that gives all of us plenty of time. I am impressed by you humans with your generous natures, willingness to cooperate, and creative productivity.”
“If I ever need a character reference, I’ll give them your name.”
He hesitated, then managed a smile. “Another homeworld reference?”
“Sorry. I’m tired. It’s been a long night already.”
“You encountered Alpha again, and by your change of attire, may I presume you escaped with some injuries?”
“Yeah, it got pretty rough. He captured some of our people and sent them against me too.”
Noctarus shrugged. “It is his way.”
The casual acceptance of death reminded me he was a necromancer, not a harmless college professor. Noctarus gestured me to one of the soft chairs near the fire and a zombie maid entered with a tray of refreshments for the necromancer. This time she knew enough not to offer any to me. I pulled another tankard of ale from my inventory as I plopped into the chair with a sigh.
“I am glad you survived,” Noctarus added when he sat. He hesitated before continuing. “You . . . Did not kill Alpha?”
Strange, he sounded almost worried. I had to be reading that wrong.
“I hurt him pretty badly, but he’ll recover. Might not bother us for a day or two.”
“How?” Noctarus asked, not hiding his amazement. “Alpha is so very strong.”
“I’d rather not talk about it.” He could interpret that any way he liked, but I wasn’t about to share the secrets of the multi-stacking attack abilities I’d just figured out how to use.
“Of course. I understand.” Noctarus sipped his tea before adding, “Your aura is far more powerful. I do not understand how that is possible in so short a time, but you have gained much strength.”
“Like I said, it’s been a busy day.”
“Then let us resume our mana training. May I scan you again first?”
He started to rise, but I waved him back down. I wasn’t ready for him to discover the truth about my double-upgraded convergence mana. I didn’t know how to mask my aura yet, but it didn’t appear he could clearly sense all my upgrades unless I let him scan me.
“I think I need more time practicing with meditation.”
“Indeed, your breakthroughs in our first session were both remarkable and unusual. It is likely your progress will slow considerably.”
I sat forward. “I ran across something else I’m very curious about, though. Do you know anything about runes?”
Noctarus’s eyes lit up with more life than I’d ever seen. “Why, yes! Runes are a specialty of mine.”
“I noticed symbols on the disk you sent for me.” I held it up.
“Indeed. A simple rune sentence to notify my people that you are an invited guest.”
I glanced down at the disk. “I’d like to understand more about how this works.”
“The study of runes is a much more advanced topic. Perhaps you should focus on mana manipulation for a while.”
“Probably, but I like to get a sense of what’s out there. Will you explain some about them?”
When he still hesitated, I added, “How about this? Teach me some basic runes and then we’ll get back to mana manipulation. If I can make another breakthrough with my mana, I’d probably need another scan from you to check my progress.”
Noctarus regarded me for a moment, then nodded. “It seems you humans struggle to focus on one subject for long. Perhaps an introduction to something else would be beneficial.”
More like he really wanted to scan me again. What was his end goal with those scans? If I could understand that, I might gain some real leverage over the old death mage.
Noctarus rose and strode to his desk. “As simple as that token you hold might be, it is not the place to start.” He returned with an easel, a blackboard, and some chalk. For some reason that surprised me. I mean, we were in a fantasy death battle world. Blackboards seemed so archaic. Why not use some kind of magic whiteboard?
Noctarus quickly drew several very basic symbols. The closest thing I’d seen on earth was maybe Japanese script. Then again, would I even recognize Japanese if he wrote it? Probably not.
“So runes are a way to harness mana when you don’t have a spell for a task?”
“In a sense, yes,” Noctarus said, finishing the last symbol with a flourish. “That is not all runes can do, but it is a good place to start. The most basic runes help the runesmith to connect with mana attuned to various truths, or to help you attune mana to your purpose. We will begin with the most basic. These symbols are the foundation for the most basic rune words, scripts, or matrices. Each represents an attunement of mana you plan to work with.”
He pointed to the first one, a weird bent U shape with tails off both ends. “This symbol represents light, or light mana. These others are the elements of fire, water, earth, and air.”
He pointed to each symbol in turn. The symbol for fire was more like an upside-down V with squiggles rising from the top. It gave an impressionist vibe of the mountain I’d just melted with Ashkaroth. With my high Intelligence, I easily memorized the first 20 symbols. Noctarus made me write them all on the board several times to ensure I’d remember them.
“Now, to use runes. The simplest use is to inscribe the rune on the ground or some other surface.”
“Does it matter what you use?”
“For more advanced rune scripts, indeed it does. If you were trying to create a great fountain to spray water in a particular pattern, you would ideally use a piece of stone smoothed by centuries of water. Using a block of wood or stone that has never been immersed in water would dilute the attempt, as those materials have no inherent resonance with water.”
“That makes sense.”
“Good. Good. For our purposes today, the material does not matter. Our runes are so simple, the need miniscule, and the duration of the script but a matter of seconds.”
He wiped the board clean, then drew the symbol for light again. “Your purpose must be clear even before you make the first stroke. For this first experiment, the goal is to make this rune draw in mana and glow for a moment. Chalk on this board is a sufficient medium for such a simple task.”
The rune began to glow with a soft white light. “Like so.”
I activated Spellseer’s Gaze and the world turned vibrant. With it, the streams of mana flowing into the rune became clearly visible. Several types of mana floated around us, from fire mana to air mana, to life mana. Very little light mana, though. The study was dim, the only illumination the fire and a lamp on the desk.
I frowned. “You are calling on light mana to light the rune, but what if there is no light mana available?”
“Good question. For such a basic rune, other types of mana will also fuel it. They will be first converted to basic mana, then transformed again to light mana. Much efficiency is lost, but that does not matter here.”
He paused for a moment before adding, “The various degrees or levels of mana are an entire conversation we will need to have. Suffice it to say that mana at its lowest level, which we call basic mana, can be used for any purpose, but is weak. Mana can be attuned to various aspects of power, making it more dense and more powerful. We call that attuned mana. When the right attuned mana is applied to your spell or rune, it empowers it a full magnitude higher.”
“Makes sense.”
He eyed me carefully for a moment and I could read questions in his eyes. He had not expected me to accept that summary without more questions.
So I asked, “Does that mean a more complicated rune script requires attuned mana, and a lot more of it?”
He nodded. “Ideally. If not, you can add modifiers to make the conversion of other mana types far more efficient. However, that adds complexity, and the more complex a rune script, the more likely it is to fail.”
“Keep it simple, stupid.” The KISS methodology was well-beloved by programmers back on Earth. Apparently it applied across the multiverse too. Made sense. Whether programming a web app or an arcane rune script, efficiency mattered.
Noctarus flashed his odd smile. “Yes. I see you understand enough to begin. Now, your turn.” He made a dismissive gesture and the glowing rune faded out, disappearing completely. Not even the original chalk symbol remained.
“Does the act of triggering a rune consume the material it’s inscribed in?”
“Quite often, yes. Some rune scripts are designed to last a long time, though. Back to the example of the fountain. Should a runesmith wish to keep the fountain working in the same way for a long period of time, they would carve the symbols deep into the stone. In that way, the weight of sustaining the rune falls to the stone. Just drawing the runes on the surface would burn out the script far sooner since the chalk or material used to draw the runes would be all that sustains it.”
“So there’s an ongoing cost to the medium used to activate the runes?”
“Yes. It is not high, but the movement of energy does have a cost. Something like chalk or paint will get burned up quickly, where a stone or tile or wood can withstand the energy flow much longer.”
“Again, makes sense.”
“The best rune work does, once you understand the principles. It is a branch of mana manipulation that is far less arcane than many others.”
“I like it. Back on Earth I used to create scripts to make our technology work. We did not use magic, but many of the principles seem parallel.”
“Ah. Good. Then you will pick up the basics more quickly. Come. Time to learn to work with runes.”
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