Shades of the New World

"As you can see, runes can be pretty useful if you have mana to waste. And before you ask, I can't teach you about runes other than the 20 basic ones that practically all mages learn about. The kids at Ekhri Tribe learn about those 20 and 20 more that the North decides to teach them as a bonus from studying in a Tribe," Tusa spoke with a smile, "After that, you need to find an institute or master whose willing enough to share their secrets or work your ass off for the country to take a peek at the more advanced runes. Though I'd recommend you to get in a team like this one to learn, since there are thousands of known runes in existence and new ones are still being discovered nowadays."

"How much does it cost to see the runes of the country?" Evin asked.

"Well, mostly depends on the runes, but I suppose a month of service would get you about 50 useless runes, 10 decent runes, and maybe one good rune. But you really don't need to worry much about it. As you've just tried out yourself, if you can recreate the effects of a rune by yourself, it's better to just do it that way. Most of the time, runes only offer a shortcut to a means," Tusa shrugged.

"Where do these things originate from anyway?" Evin asked, before quickly realizing what the answer was almost immediately.

"Tons of theories and speculations regarding that, but sadly, or should I say inevitably, the most reliable one is that the Empress was behind its creation. But nonetheless, the speculations are quite fascinating to read about. My favorite one is one proposed by a Northern lesser-imposer that goes by the name, Ke." 

"He proposes that all shapes and figures possess a certain amount of mystery and inherent meaning to them. And, by applying mana or World energies to them, we are able to bring out those meanings and secrets. He then lists many different folklore and myths which include certain symbols in them and describe the related stories. Then, he brings out a rune which looks similar to the symbols in these stories and describes its use. Weirdly, the effects of these runes match the effects the myths describe," Tusa explained with fascination.

"And the rune that you just used is the same as well. We all know that a plus sign indicates the increase of something. And lo-and-behold, the moment you draw it on a spell, its size increases! As you can probably guess, if you draw a minus sign on your spells, they'll become smaller as well!"

'Sounds like the Empress was behind this. After all, there were no signs of Runes and engravings in Anna's memories,' Evin concluded after listening to the story.

As for why she decided to make plus signs and minus signs create the same effect as they're implied to, well, Evin was pretty sure it was just because it was easier to understand.

"This is one of the reasons why mages are discovering new runes to this day, they spend their days digging through old archeological findings, reading through piles and piles of old folklore and myths, until eventually, they stumble upon a new rune," Tusa concluded.

"Although it all sounds interesting to read through, I'll probably stick to thinking that the Empress was probably behind it all," Evin smiled, to which Tusa laughed loudly.

"Anyhow, I'll find you a small guidebook on those 40 runes. You can study them at your own leisure, or you can also choose to not study them, no hair off my back. Though, if you want to become a successful Magical Engineer, you probably have to dabble in the things one way or another," Tusa smiled.

Evin heard the statement and realized what Tusa was hinting at.

"You mean to say that the engravings on magical artifacts are the same as runes? Then what about Inscriptions?"

Evin remembered reading about Engravings and Inscriptions when he first started on his journey to the North. The book had explained that Engravings were symbols that one drew on objects to give it a magical aspect, while Inscriptions were symbols that one drew on their bodies. 

Evin was slightly interested in the former, but he quickly lost interest in the latter. After all, all that Inscriptions offered was a nigh-instant method of casting a spell. For Evin who possessed his battle-mode and his gestures, inscriptions were no more than glorified tattoos.

"Exactly so. Granted, they require some rather special ink and carving techniques, but the shapes are practically identical."

"Well, I guess that makes things a bit easier," Evin commented.

"It definitely does. I personally wouldn't want to learn three different versions of what is essentially the same thing. But why do you think only a few people ever become masters of Magical Engineering?"

"I suppose some runes become a bit too hard to consistently draw? After all, quality handwriting could be considered a pretty neat skill to flaunt about," Evin said.

"There's that too, but once could easily fix that problem with some practice and dedication. After all, I definitely didn't have the prettiest of carving skills," Tusa laughed, "No, the trickiest part about Magical Engineering and Runes in general is the fact that you can combine them. Theoretically, you can endlessly combine them as well… thousands of them at the same time! But naturally, that isn't so plausible in practice. After all, lots of runes have the exact opposite counterpart. If you draw an [Increase] rune alongside a [Decrease] rune, then all you get is a waste of mana."

"I can see why your job can be very well respected by others, but not really envied," Evin said, thinking of the countless combinations that were possible with thousands of known runes in the world.

"Hah, you couldn't have said it better. Half of a Magical engineer's spare time is spent trying to mix in different runes and seeing if it works or not. It would be fine if one was just trying out new spells, but us Magical Engineers have to consider what magical material it should be engraved on, what size should the engravings be, coz the size of the damn drawing also matters a lot, in which order the runes should be engraved, and all sorts of other tedious things to worry about. But you know what, that's the painful joy of our job." Tusa said with a sigh.

Evin could really feel the weight of Tusa's speech. This was one of the reasons why he loved to listen to people passionate about their craft. Even though Evin was completely disinterested in the subject of Magical Engineering, after Tusa's speech he was properly invested in the subject. At least for today, that is.

"And I'll tell you what. If I could ever only shake one man's hand in this entire World, it'll be Ke's hand. I'll tell you why. That absolute genius of a man managed to create theoretical laws which explain how runes interact with each other. No longer we have to fumble aimlessly in the dark, hoping to chance upon a combination through luck. No longer we need to try out a rune combination on countless priceless materials, praying to the Empress for her blessings and magic…"

"We only need to write down the rune combination on a piece of paper and follow the laws that Ke painstakingly deduced for us. If you are correct in your deriving, bam! You will receive a simple answer of whether or not your rune combination will be successful," Tusa said proudly.