Return of the Runebound Professor

Despite his excitement, Noah stopped before he and Lee just walked off the campus. He was still a suspect. If they saw him leaving, there was no way he’d be able to play it off.

He could always try to use the transport cannon, but the less anyone thought about him, the better. And, as such, that was how Noah found himself standing in the garden as the moon rose overhead, waiting for Lee and saddled with a new promise.

I don’t see how collecting a few monsters for me to kill is equivalent to ten gold to use for shopping. That’s such a scam. A whole month of salary in exchange for a few measly monsters. Lee is just taking advantage of how impatient I am, that brat.

Noah, of course, didn’t entertain the thought of simply waiting until they were on the road to find some monsters to kill. There was only so much sitting around he was willing to do and, considering Brayden was currently making his room uninhabitable, this was as good a time as any to finally make some progress on his Runes.

He still did have to wait for Lee to get back, though.

Mercifully, Lee didn’t take long. Perhaps the thought of all the things she could spend Noah’s ten gold on motivated her, because she returned less than ten minutes later, dragging several… things.

Noah stared at the battered tarp bags Lee had slung over her shoulder, like some perverse, twisted Santa Claus. One of them twitched. It had been far too little time for her to get to the Scorched Acres and back.

“Lee,” Noah said slowly. “I told you to get me monsters. What do you have in there?”

“Monsters,” Lee replied cheerfully. “Go on. Stab them.”

“I am going to open this bag. If there’s a human inside it–”

“They’re Skinwalkers.” Lee rolled her eyes. “They smell different. It was pretty easy to spot them, especially because they were lurking in alleys hoping someone would be stupid enough to walk past them. It was easy to steal a few bags and ‘nap them. Go on. Stabbing time.”

Noah pressed his lips together. He wasn’t quite sure how perverse Lee’s humor was. There was the very mild possibility that she’d actually grabbed a bunch of random people and stuffed them into the bags.

He used his rusty flying sword to cut a hole in one of the bags. They were already bloodied, so it wasn’t like Lee was about to be returning them anytime soon. A furious eye stared out of it at Noah – centered in the middle of someone’s chin.

Noah stabbed it. Energy slithered into his body, all pouring into his Greater Wind Rune since the rest of them were already full. He grimaced in distaste.

“Right. It’s a Skinwalker. Why was its eye there, though? Not very convincing.”

“If you bounce them around hard enough, they can forget what they’re supposed to look like.” Lee shrugged. “I wasn’t particularly gentle. That would have meant taking longer, and you aren’t a very patient person. Go on, then. There’s another.”

Noah shook his head and stabbed it. A moment later, he superstitiously wiggled the sword around in the bag to take a glance at what it was he’d just run through. He quickly looked away. When Lee said they could get a little scrambled, she meant it. The Skinwalker’s face looked like it was stuck in a washing machine.

Energy rushed into his body again. His Rune hummed within him and he let out a satisfied sigh as he felt the power coming off each of them finally equalize once more. They were all full once again.

“Told you,” Lee said.

“They had more energy than most of the monkeys I killed,” Noah observed. “They didn’t put up much of a fight, though. I almost feel bad.”

“You paid ten gold for an express service. You got an express service. Now you’re complaining about it.”

“Okay, okay. Sorry. I hope express service includes taking care of the corpses.”

“Of course it does,” Lee said, affronted. “What sort of business do you take me for?”

Noah didn’t grace her with a reply. Lee gathered the dead monsters up and zipped away, presumably to eat the bodies and somehow dispose of the bags. Hopefully, they didn’t get found by anybody who was particularly prone to fainting.

He smiled to himself as he felt the power of his runes shifting within his soul. They were ready. It almost felt like they were asking him to combine them, and Noah wanted to oblige. He nearly did it at that very spot, but he forced himself to wait until Lee returned.

She strolled back up to him several minutes later and gave a curt nod. “They’re tossed.”

“Good. I’ve got a question,” Noah said. “I’m about to combine my Runes, but I don’t want to do something stupid. Is there anything I should know other than intent matters?”

Lee rubbed the side of her neck and frowned in thought. After a few moments, she shook her head. “No. Combining things is pretty easy as long as you’re concentrated. The hard part is not combining them into something completely useless. You’re sure that your current Runes will go together? If they don’t, you’re going to be in trouble.”

No, I won’t be. And no, I’ve got no idea if they’ll work. The ratio seems decent to me, though. Although maybe I should have another Wind Rune and one less Ash Rune. Ah, screw it. I’m not waiting for that. If this doesn’t work, I just split them apart with Sunder.

“How long will combining my Runes take?”

“A minute or two. It’s fast. Just stay concentrated. I’ll keep watch to make sure you don’t get interrupted. You’ll see what to do the moment you try. It’s instinctive.”

Even for someone not from this world? I suppose we’ll see.

“Thank you,” Noah said with a smile. He sat down in the garden, next to a bush with large, white roses that had closed themselves for the evening, and let out a slow breath. Noah sent his attention within himself and the world fell away.

Seven beautiful, fully charged Runes formed around him. Above them, Sunder and Combustion swirled in the air, waiting for their turn to be summoned. Noah turned in a slow circle, taking a moment to admire them.

Let’s see. Lee said that this would just come naturally. Combine. Mix. Do something.

Noah envisioned the runes converging on each other. To his surprise, a thrum passed through his mental space and they started to move. The circle fell apart, his seven runes floating to hover before him.

Pressure emanated off them, resisting his will as he tried to merge them together. It was nothing compared to the energy that Sunder put off, and while comparable to Combustion, it was still far less.

Without too much difficulty, Noah brought them closer and closer. The edges of the Runes began to touch. A dull whine filled Noah’s mind and he focused on his goal. Sound. Sound and heat, possibly. Even though he’d yet to actually manage to make a proper spark with Vibration, he knew it was possible, so it wasn’t too far of a stretch.

His brow furrowed with concentration and the Runes continued to merge. Lines overlapped one another and the whine grew louder. Noah wasn’t sure how, but his soul-form was sweating.

The Runes started to shudder with energy. Power crackled around them, hissing and popping as seven became one. Noah’s mind resonated with their energy, and the only thought left in his mind was his vision of what he sought.

And then, with a brilliant chime, they snapped together. The clean note was followed by a sharp click, almost like popping the cover onto a metal container. It was, for lack of a better word, satisfying.

A blast of energy washed out of the Rune and a flash lit up the darkness. Noah blinked in surprise, taking a step back and raising his hands defensively. Spots floated in front of his eyes for several moments. He slowly let his hand lower, squinting.

Floating before him was a single rune. Its energy was a ruddy vermillion and grey mixture, and it was made up of long flowing lines and sharp jutting angles in a circular pattern.

Pyroclastic Resonance

A huge smile crept across Noah’s lips. The combination had worked. He stepped closer to the Rune, examining it more closely. It glowed with energy from all the previous Seven runes, but it wasn’t full – it was just a little over half of the way there. It felt exactly as powerful as all seven Rank 1 Runes had been, even when it was only partially full.

It’s not just that, though. Combining them will let me do a lot more with an individual Rune and also opens up a lot of room to make more Runes. It’s a massive net gain.

Noah walked in a circle around the rune. The pressure washing off it didn’t seem constant. It was stronger in some locations than others. A small frown flickered across his features. The more Noah looked, the more something felt flawed about the combination. Unlike the even rings of pressure that had come off all the Rank 1 and Master Runes, this one felt… bumpy.

Damn. The combination isn’t actually perfect. That has to be it. Too much Ash, perhaps? I need to get another Rank 1 Greater Wind Rune. I wonder…

Noah pulled himself out of his mindspace and found Lee standing before him, watching him curiously.

“Did it work?”

“Yeah,” Noah said with a grin. “It worked.”

He went to stand and nearly headbutted Lee in the stomach. She grabbed him before he could and Noah grunted in surprise.

“What the hell?”

“Relax. You just let a ton of energy seep into your body. Combining Runes makes a reaction that releases power, so you’re stronger and faster than normal for a few minutes until your soul absorbs everything,” Lee said. “How full was your Rune? The more synergized the Runes you combine are, the more max capacity you’ll have compared to what you initially had.”

“About fifty percent,” Noah said, blinking as Lee helped him sit back down.

“If there’s a perfect combination, then I’ve heard that your rune can be as low as ten percent full because of how much the capacity has grown,” Lee said. “Fifty percent is pretty decent. All that excess energy will help expand your soul and then dissipate. Just sit for a bit. What Rune did you get?”

“Pyroclastic Resonance.”

“Fancy name,” Lee observed. “Might be difficult to combine. Are you just going to focus into it?”

“I think I’ll figure something out,” Noah said with a wry smile. Even if the combination wasn’t perfect, he was beyond excited. The next step was already waiting for him to take it. “I need to do something. Do you have a piece of paper or something on you? I need to Imbue a Rune.”

Lee blinked in surprise. “It’s a bit early. I wouldn’t Imbue anything quite yet. Wait until you’ve filled it at least a bit.”

Noah opened his mouth. Then he slowly closed it. Telling Lee why he wanted the paper would technically also give away exactly what Sunder did. He chewed his lower lip, then nodded.

That isn’t something I can share. Sorry, Lee.

“Right. I got ahead of myself,” Noah said sheepishly. “Do you know if I can still form Rank 1 Runes? Or do I have to somehow go straight to Rank 2?”

“Nothing would stop you from making Rank 1 Runes again, but it would just be a waste of energy in many cases,” Lee said with a frown. “Your soul absorbed the excess energy from the combination, so it’ll be able to handle another Rank 2 Rune whenever you absorb it. The increase in your soul’s size is enough to let you hold another Rank 1 Rune, so you could combine another set of seven Rank 1 Runes into a new Rank 2 Rune, but starting from scratch again would be a lot of work. Just remember that your soul can only ever access seven Runes actively. Everything else will just sit around, leeching power or doing nothing until you combine it.”

Ah. That explains it. So every time I combine Runes, it’ll make my soul grow a little larger and give me more room to house a bit more, eventually allowing me to get another set of seven Rank 1 Runes. That way I can continue to combine Runes rather than having to Imbue the existing ones onto paper to make space. Convenient.

“Would that mean I could technically combine eight Runes?” Noah asked.

Lee shook her head. “Not unless you want to blow your combination up. Only seven. Never more, never less. Nothing else will work. I have no clue why, but that’s just how it is.”

“I see. So, aside from making it normally, I could just find a Rank 2 Rune in nature, on a monster, or buy it from someone?”

Lee nodded. “Yes. You could also get rid of your current Rank 2 Rune if it didn’t work right or the combination was very poor. Your soul can handle Rank 2 Runes now, so you don’t really need that initial combination, but it’s a big loss if you give it up. That’s a lot of wasted energy, not to mention the soul damage that you probably took if your combination failed that badly.”

“Makes sense. Back up a moment. I want to test this thing out,” Noah said. He waggled his fingers, then held a hand out. Lee quickly put some distance between herself and him. Noah paused for long enough to make sure she wouldn’t mistakenly get caught up in anything, then called on the magic of his new rune.

It flowed instantly, and Noah whistled softly. His lips tingled as magic poured out from between them and the air around his head warmed. The note sounded off – more haunting than it should have been.

“Impressive,” Lee said sarcastically. “That was the spookiest whistle I’ve ever heard. I hope your magic leans more toward the pyroclastic side than the resonant one.”

Noah ignored her. He called on Combustion, just drawing a small droplet of the Master Rune’s strength, then snapped his fingers. A spark of flame rolled up from his fingers and Noah whistled once more.

The flame lunged, following the call of his voice. It whipped around his head like a flaming bullet, the whistle elongating into a shrill, screaming note as the fire accelerated. Then it vanished, burning away and leaving a grinning Noah sitting before a wide-eyed Lee.

“That was… a good bit cooler,” Lee admitted.

Noah’s smile widened. He was going to have a lot of fun with this.