The Runic Artist

Nate sat up quickly, looking around his room frantically. The sun was not yet peeking in through the blinds of his expensive room. It only took a moment for his mind to settle, the remnants of his dream locked in his mind. He’d never been prone to nightmares, but he wasn’t surprised he’d had one after being abducted by demons. His stay in their realm had been blessedly short, but seeing such horrific creatures baying for his blood and the macabre sight of the dismembered horrors had left a mark. Thankfully, he could tell his heightened Intellect stat was doing the heavy lifting in terms of helping him process his trauma. If this had been back on Earth, his own mind would’ve replayed those thoughts and images over and over again, creating a negative feedback loop like a horror reel. PTSD would’ve been the most likely outcome.

Here on Galle, his mind recognised what was going on and he could tell that it was literally suppressing the formation of those mental pathways, aided by his own thoughts as he focused on the bright side. He’d won. He’d escaped. The demon lord had been forced by the Law of Reciprocity to give him powerful rewards. It had been terrible, but there was a silver lining, and now that he had returned he was going to the Royal University. He’d finally get a chance to be taught about the nature of Sigils, of Runecrafting, or at the very least its cousin Enchanting. And he’d learn about Embodiments and Concepts. It was a glorious day. But first, he had promised he’d meet everyone for breakfast.

Climbing out of bed he took care of the morning ablutions. His robe had thankfully repaired itself of the damage it had sustained in the demonic realm and he enjoyed its perfect temperature control and the now fourteen golden stars that decorated its surface.

“How is it looking?” he asked, reviewing Frick’s work as he looked over the gems arrayed on the table.

“Coming along, Boss man. Got five gems all done and ready. Starting to raise ‘em up now. You know that’ll take a bit though,” replied Frick happily, channelling Conceptual Material into a mana gem, using a filled mana gem to power the skill.

Being short on mana in the Fourth Hell had been up there as one of the worst experiences of his life and he never wanted to go through that again. In response, he was having Frick make more mana gems. It was going to be a long project. Even with his soaring Intellect increasing the speed at which Conceptual Material worked by forty percent, it was still the work of over a week per mana gem if he wanted them raised to Legendary. Still, as far as he was concerned, he had nothing but time now. It was also a reminder of Frick’s words when they had first met, that he would be able to assist Nate by handling the ‘shit’ jobs. The amount of time he saved by having Frick handle the simple stuff, or implement his changes, was ever growing and he knew that without the Familiar, everything would take him twice as long. Maybe even more. He also knew he’d need to solve his mana problem sooner rather than later or else they’d run short of mana to power Conceptual Material. The amount of time it would take to raise a gem to Legendary had gone down significantly more than the mana cost reduction. Still, his mana supply was a problem he had to solve anyway, so no point getting fixated this early in the morning.

Glancing out the window he could see the first signs of Galle’s sun peeking over the horizon.

“I’m heading down for breakfast,” he called to Frick as he headed for the door. He knew Frick would spend a little more time on the mana-gems then go exploring. The tether that was the Familiar Contract would let him know where his Familiar was anyway.

Walking downstairs he could sense who was waiting for him. He kept Awareness of the Runic Artist active at almost all times and his sphere of awareness had told him that Luc was already sitting below. It also informed him that Kiri was in her room still asleep, as were most of the inn's other denizens. The number of people in the inn was vastly reduced and he guessed that with the Adventurer’s Guild Royal University Entrance Tournament having finished, that many had left the Capitol.

Taking a seat across from Luc, he smirked a little at the size of his mentor's cup of coffee.

“Is that a mug or a bowl?” he quipped.

“I asked for a bucket but they said this was the best they could do,” Luc replied blearily.

Nate smiled at the tired response and looked at his mentor's hands. They were still blackened, with fresh pink skin peaking through in places but the majority of his hands still looked burned.

“Does it hurt?” he asked quietly.

“Only when I’m awake,” grumbled Luc before glancing up at Nate and seeing his concern. “Ah don’t worry about it, kid. I’ve had worse. Couldn’t let my best pupil go without a fight. Even if it was a battle I lost in the end.” Luc punctuated his words with a wink before smirking at Nate.

The reaction couldn’t help but make Nate smile in response, “Best pupil? Aren’t I your only pupil?”

“Just shows you how short we are on skilled Mages, doesn’t it?” Luc replied before lifting his bowl of coffee up for a long drink.

Nate nodded, not entirely in agreement. After all there were a couple of decent Mages in the Guild by his estimation. Karim, the Earth Mage, had had an excellent showing. Then there was Coralie Allais, daughter of one of the Guild Prefects, a highly skilled Ice Mage and Kiri’s current love interest. So the Guild wasn’t completely without Mage prospects.

“Anyway, you’re up early,” commented Nate. “Hoping to catch me before the others or was it something else?”

Luc shook his head in response, “Replaced Deverell as your watcher during the night. Haven’t slept yet. Will later.”

“Ah, sorry about that,” Nate muttered in response. He’d sensed Deverell on the roof before he’d gone to sleep but hadn’t realised they intended to keep someone watching over him throughout the night.

“Don’t worry about it, kid,” Luc said with a smirk. “You’re valuable. To the Guild and to me. Besides, after you uncovered those Unseen, we’re being extra vigilant. Little shits might come back for more.”

Nate could see how that might happen and decided he’d just be happy that Luc and Deverell were watching over him. He wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that Aisling and Evindal were as well.

The innkeeper finally approached and he ordered some pastries and eggs for his breakfast along with some juice that he thought tasted similar to pineapple. The food in the inn was pretty good but he was still lamenting the loss of the chef of the Oaken Ring in Helmfirth. One day he was going to go back there and try to hire the man to be his personal chef when he finally bought his own manor in the Capitol. Whenever that was.

The rest of his mentors and Kiri slowly filed in over the next hour. Kiri paused to give him a hug and he wasn’t sure if she was trying to reassure him or if she needed to reassure herself that he was back, safe and sound.

The talk was mostly boring as everyone focused on waking up and enjoying their food before Aisling finally broached the topics of interest.

“I’ll be taking you both to collect your Tournament prizes and to discuss your other rewards. Securing a new ‘one’ for the Guild comes with very clear rewards,” stated the amazonian woman, intentionally not mentioning the word ‘Dungeon’. “In addition, there is the uncovering of those two girls. You’re owed more than a few rewards. You’ll be given options but I would strongly encourage you to take Dungeon access as your rewards. You could likely afford to purchase Dungeon access but the wait will be noticeably longer going down that path. The Guild prioritises service over buying your way into our Dungeons.”

Nate nodded along, thinking over the known rewards. Equal first place meant he would be owed an Epic item and two Uncommon Stat Orbs. The latter would be nice but the Epic item had him thinking. Especially since all the Legendary items he had crafted had been destroyed after he had used them to power his Conceptual Automation skill within the demonic realm.

“For the Epic item, does it need to be an item, or can I change it for something like a Skill Orb?” he asked.

The question grabbed Kiri’s attention and she looked up from the other side of the table where she’d been quietly discussing her Dagger Dancer training regime plans with Deverell.

“They would likely let you make that exchange,” Aisling replied thoughtfully. “Though they may push for you to reduce the rarity from Epic to Rare. Especially if you go for a Skill Orb and not a Skill Tome. It might depend on the level of the Skill Orb.”

He nodded thoughtfully. He’d forgotten that the difference between a Skill Tome and a Skill Orb was that the latter could grant you the Skill above level one.

“Alright. And what do we think I should do with this?” he asked, extracting the Orb he’d taken from the Temporal Executioner.

Nate felt time freeze around them as Evindal used one of his Skills to seal them off.

“Be careful about pulling such things out,” admonished the elf. “While most people wouldn’t be able to identify something like that Orb, the mere fact that they couldn’t would be enough to garner their interest. As for what to do with it, there are a few options.”

Nate nodded his understanding of his foolishness before showing the notification from his Awareness of the Runic Artist.

Skill Orb (Legendary, 7)

The Time Between

The Orb clearly contained a Skill rather than a bonus to a Stat. It also seemed to suggest that the Skill would start at level seven. Finally, while it wouldn’t give him a Skill description, much to his annoyance, it was definitely a Time related Skill. That made sense, since Kiri’s own Skill Orb had contained one of her skills. The Temporal Executioner had been some kind of warrior that used the higher Concept of Time, so a Time-related Skill wasn’t a surprise.

Evindal looked around, seeing if any of the others at the table wanted to say anything. When no one did, he continued.

“You could exchange it with the Guild. I know they have two Legendary Skill Orbs in the Vault, as I obtained one of them. However, I don’t think either would suit you. Your second option is to try and sell it through the Auction House. Luc has stronger ties to them than the rest of us,” Evindal continued even as Luc nodded his agreement. “It might take a while to sell, but I imagine it would net you a very tidy sum. But then, it seems that you have other ways to earn as well. The third option is for you to use it yourself. It doesn’t fit with your current skill set but with some work you may be able to incorporate it. It might also help you get a Tertiary Class that utilises Time when the..err…time comes.”

The joke led to groans around the table except for Aisling who gave her husband a small amused smile.

“Yes, sorry about that,” continued Evindal. “Finally, I could purchase it from you. As a Time Mage, I am sure I could make use of it. But I do not want you to feel pressured. And I would of course pay fair value for it.”

Nate nodded, scooping the Skill Orb up and putting it back in his spatial storage.

“I am leaning towards selling it to you, Lord Evindal. But I need a couple of days to think about it,” he replied.

“Take your time. And Evindal is just fine. You’re one of my wifes charges. No need for the formality,” replied the elf congenially.

Luc and Aisling both nodded approvingly while Kiri winked at him before returning to her discussion with Deverell.

Aisling took the break to start informing them of what would happen next.

“The Royal University intake begins in five days. Deverell, would you please tell them what to expect.”

Deverell gave a short nod, his straight black hair barely moving despite the action, “The intake is fairly simple and will have three things we need to discuss. Firstly, they will scan your Class Cores. This happens for everyone except for special exceptions, and as neither of you are the children of Royalty or a Duchy, you will be expected to allow the inspection. If Nate can’t come up with a solution for this himself we may need to speak with the Crafters Guild about a solution to obfuscate your Classes.

“Secondly, you will have to specify the subjects you’re interested in taking. I’ll try and get a copy of what is currently on offer as it may have changed since my time at the University. However, it’s not as simple as just choosing the subjects. For every subject you choose, you will have an initial assessment to determine your level of knowledge, aptitude and skill. They’ll use this to sort you into the appropriate class. For example, if you did poorly in the combat assessment they might put you in the basic class for the subject rather than the intermediate or advanced class. Finally, your room assignments. As Guild members, they will put you all together, and almost certainly in the worst accommodation they have available. That’s not to say the rooms are bad. Just, any comfort you will need to provide for yourselves.”

Nate wrinkled his nose at the last piece of information. A lack of comfortable accommodations sounded horrible. He’d become accustomed to a life of relative comfort when not travelling, and he was unwilling to give it up. If he had to go out and buy his own bed and other furniture and use Runic Creation to carve runes all over his room at the University, then that was exactly what he was going to do.

He glanced at Kiri and raised his eyebrows at her. His best friend knew him well enough to know exactly what he was indicating and smirked back at him, nodding her agreement even as she muttered “Silk underwear.”

He tried not to laugh and considered the other points Deverell had raised. He wasn’t worried about the Class Core Obfuscation rune. He was going to work on it tonight and was confident that with his frankly ridiculous number of Intents from Imbue Intent, he could come up with something that would do exactly what he wanted. Then it would be time for Kiri to engrave the runes onto their souls. He didn’t even feel like he was being arrogant in how easy he expected it to be.

Finally, getting a list of subjects ahead of time would let him figure out what he wanted to study.

Aisling pushed her plate away at that moment and smiled, “Alright. We’ve all got things to do. Nate and Kiri with me. Time to go get your rewards from the Guild.”

At the Stormspear’s pronouncement everyone stood, Evindal’s Time Skill finally being dropped as everything around them started moving again. It was time to finally get all the rewards he’d earned from the Guild. He couldn’t help but grin with childish glee.