The Runic Artist

Nate sat by the window as the sun peaked in, going over his Class Core Obfuscation rune designs. He had done most of the initial work the night before, coming up with the geometric pattern he thought would suit his proposed design. After he had drawn up some drafts, he decided to sleep on the problem and see if that led to any additional ideas. The main issue he had to solve was that the rune needed to create two separate layers. There was the inner layer, which needed to conceal his Class Core, completely hiding his Classes and more importantly, their Tiers. Then there was the outer layer, which would show a false Class and the levels associated with them.

That was where he ran into his first problem. His Obfuscation Sigil wasn’t designed for such purposes. It was meant to make information harder to understand. He likely had enough Intents with his Imbue Intent to use a Subconcept to force it to do what he wanted it to, even if the result was less efficient or effective. But that led to his second concern. How well would his Intents carry over when Kiri used her Soul Engraving to put the runes on their souls. He wasn’t concerned about the inner layer of the rune at all. He had three sigils already prepared for that portion. Class Core, Concealment and Power should result in a pseudo-Master rune with the Power Sigil the only truly Master tier in the mix. He’d just have to overload the rune with Power Sigils to force its rank higher. But that was fine. It’d make the rune cost him more mana to power, especially when he was actively funnelling mana to it. But that was a small price to pay for hiding his Class.

With that in mind, he needed to figure out what to do about the outer layer. He was debating asking the Guild if they had any Sigils in their Enchanting tomes that might help. He hadn’t spotted any last time, but he’d so far only had one visit to the Guild Library. That visit was also only to the Advanced section. Perhaps they had what he needed in the Restricted section. Maybe a Sigil for something like Mislead or Deceive. It might cost him, but he was confident he could afford it.

Alternatively, he could go hunting for an Enchanter’s shop. That didn’t guarantee he’d get what he needed. If it was him, and he had his Sigils written down, he’d definitely keep them behind some enchanted wards. Though, he supposed he could always go and sneak in. They might have wards to prevent perception based Skills like his Awareness of the Runic Artist but he doubted they had permanent spatial locks to keep him out. Was it thievery? Kind of. I mean he was definitely stealing knowledge. But it wasn’t like he planned to profit off the theft. Still, he wasn’t keen on the idea. Especially if he got caught. He felt that ‘vandalism’ in the form of graffiti was one thing, but breaking and entering quite another. Especially when he had other options. One of which he sensed had just entered the inn.

That made his decision for him. He’d first ask Luc for his thoughts. If his mentor didn’t have a good solution, then he’d try the Guild Library. If that failed him, then seeking out some Enchanter shops was his last resort. He liked having plans and redundancies. Especially being able to rank them not just based on the level of risk, but also on how he felt about the options. Having a fallback while not immediately resorting to stealing was satisfying for him.

Luc chose that moment to barge in without knocking.

“Good, you’re up,” greeted Luc, the metal studs in his tight fitted clothes gleaming in the morning sun as the man pulled up a seat by the window with him.

Luc stared at him with his bright blue eyes and Nate was expecting his mentor to launch into a discussion about what they should aim to sell.

“How are you handling it all?” asked Luc, still looking him over. “Bad dreams? Emotions running wild?”

The question caught him by surprise and it took him a moment to formulate his thoughts.

“A bad dream, yeah. Though I think I’m okay. Emotionally, I guess I am a bit on edge, but nothing crazy. They’re definitely not running wild. I think my high Intellect might be helping,” Nate responded.

“I had heard rumours about that. The Intellect thing I mean. You don’t see many who focus in that Stat on the frontlines. Glad it’s helping. The dreams aren’t unexpected, but if they get worse let me know, alright? Can’t have my best pupil having a breakdown because they didn’t process their shit. I’m talking from experience here. Don’t push it down. Let it out, and if you need someone to talk to, I am here. If not me, Aisling’s a good choice as well. Alright?” Luc asked, a serious expression on the man’s face, slightly ruined by his tousled brown hair.

“Alright,” Nate agreed. “You look a little rough. Late night again?” Nate flicked his head towards the roof in indication.

Luc smirked in response, “Yeah, but not babysitting. Went back to the Den of Desire.” He winked to punctuate his meaning. “What’s her name again… umm… Florence! Yeah, she asked if you were going to come visit again. A couple of the other girls asked too, actually. Think they might’ve wanted their own personal painting. I gave them the run around but if you need to get out of your own head, there are worse places you could go.”

Nate nodded, doing his best to keep a straight face despite hearing Frick cackling in his mind. Maybe he would go and visit, but not now. Not yet. He had other things to deal with first.

“Alright. Thanks for the advice. So, business discussion time?” Nate replied.

When Luc nodded, he realised something and held his mentor up with a hand.

“Actually, before we get into that, how come you and Aisling didn’t want to purchase one of my… orbs? You know the ones. Evindal jumped straight on it but neither of you did,” he asked.

Luc leaned back, pursing his lips in thought, before placing a small black cylinder with a mana gem slotted into the top of it on the table. Runic Knowledge told him very quickly that the black cylinder was enchanted with the Concepts of Sound and Barrier. From there it was easy to realise that the item was meant to keep their conversation private and he could even sense the range of the cylinder which was two metres around the cylinder in a perfect sphere.

“So how much education do you have on Class Skill offerings based on Tier?” Luc asked.

“A little,” he replied quickly. “Aisling explained how you would only get offered one Skill of the Tier of your Class and everything else would be below that. The exception being Common Classes.”

“That’s good. Saves me rehashing that. Alright, what is my Primary Class Tier?” Luc posed it as a question even though they both knew the answer. Nate could see where this might be going but he wanted to confirm his suspicions.

“Epic. Which means you were only offered one Epic Skill… so even if you’ve evolved it up a Tier, you’ve probably only got the one Legendary Skill, unless you managed to evolve another up two or three tiers,” Nate explained, answering the unmentioned question as well as the one Luc asked.

“Exactly. Now that’s fine. It means I am guaranteed at least one Legendary Class option at my next Class Evolution, which I am only fourteen levels away from now, by the way. It means I will have two Legendary Skills and sixty levels to try and push one to Mythic. It’s doable. But not a guarantee. Which brings me to my next point. Those Orbs… the evolution they give won’t count as an Achievement,” Luc explained.

That gave Nate pause and his face showed it as his eyebrows drew down in a frown.

“Why not? The Achievement only mentions evolving a Skill up a tier. It didn’t have any qualifiers on it.”

“Because it’s System assistance. You don’t get Achievements for System assistance. Maybe there are exceptions, but I have never heard of them. Anyway, that means that while I might end up wanting one of those Orbs… assuming you don’t use all the ones you have left, I don’t have a need of one yet and I wouldn’t want one till I have achieved my own Mythic Skill evolution. Which honestly, could be years away. Aisling is the same. I know she’s got at least one Legendary Skill. Evindal however already has a single Mythic Skill, so if he has a second Legendary Skill then the Orb is perfect for him. Make sense?” Luc finished his speech.

“Makes sense,” Nate replied with a nod.

“Alright then, let's get down to business.”

What followed was a quick discussion on what Nate could make, how long they would take and how much mana he needed to do it. They ended up settling on making Epic Grade manerium. There were multiple reasons for the decision. Firstly, it wasn’t unheard of on the market, while remaining rare enough that the price was decently inflated. Secondly, the demand was high. There were plenty of Crafters in the city that would sell their souls for the chance to work with the material, from Blacksmiths to Enchanters and a number of other more niche crafting disciplines. Finally, it was easy for Nate to make, or more likely have Frick make. He had the Mana Sigil so he could give the metal the affinity which was ultimately what separated manerium from regular steel. Added to that was his new Metal Shaping skill which would let him make bars of the material. Luc even promised to get him a bar that had come from a Dungeon reward so he could copy it.

To sell it, Luc was likely going to use some Smugglers as a third-party to put an additional layer of secrecy between Luc and the source. Luc said he was comfortable with taking on that kind of heat and subtly hinted it wasn’t his first time working with such people. The final plan was that they would try and sell four bars of manerium every month. That meant one bar created a week which was well within Nate’s capabilities, especially with the forty percent reduction in time required for his Conceptual Material skill. The mana requirement was going to be tight if he wanted to work on other projects as well. His mana gathering arrays were working with a subpar environment to begin with. That was a problem he’d need to solve sooner rather than later if he wanted to progress in other areas.

With business handled Luc left, promising to swing by in two days to pick up the first bar of manerium which he intended to use as a sample for making a deal with some smuggling outfit. Luc had offered to help try and find the Sigils he needed for his Class Core Obfuscation rune, which was likely going to need a new name soon. However, the timelines were too tight for the Riftwalker to get him what he needed. Luc had promised he’d ask around but didn’t have a lot of hope that he’d get something before the Royal University induction.

That was how Nate found himself trekking into the Guildhouse and heading upstairs to the library. Jocelyn was at the desk and he found that he still had access to the Advanced section and that any usage of the library would be put on Lord Evindal’s tab. That worked for him, but after asking about the Sigils he needed, Jocelyn had responded that she was confident the Library wouldn’t have them and that such Enchanting knowledge was often closely guarded by Enchanters and Crafting Guilds, of which there were many.

He decided it wasn’t worth spending the time pouring over the books in the Advanced section of the Guild Library in the hope that Jocelyn might be wrong. He’d considered the Restricted section but Jocelyn had caught him glancing at the door to that area and informed he had to be at least a Gold Badge to even request access. Instead he returned to his room and continued refining his runes, which resulted in two separate designs. The first was based on his hope that he could find an appropriate Sigil in time before the Royal University induction. The second would utilise the Obfuscation Sigil and he would need to overload it slightly by adding more of them. This would hopefully make up for the Obfuscation Sigil not being ideal for the purpose.

Heading downstairs in the inn he met up with Kiri for lunch, preparing for their shopping trip.

“So, any idea what you want to wear for your date?” he asked before taking a bite of his sandwich.

“I’m leaning towards pants, shirt, boots and a coat. But you know, nice. Like fashionable as opposed to…” she paused searching for a word.

“Utilitarian?” he supplied.

“Exactly. Something that looks nice but is still me,” Kiri replied with an excited grin.

“Yeah. I didn’t expect you to suddenly choose a dress. Do you even own any dresses?”

Kiri just shoved him in response which made him laugh.

Finishing their lunch up quickly, they headed for the gate that marked the delineation between the Adventurer’s Guild and the rest of the Merchants District. He was glancing around as they passed through the gate without issue and Kiri noticed, answering his unasked question.

“Deverell is tailing us. If you can spot him without him getting within range of us, let me know.”

He shrugged in response, “Was just checking. Figured they wouldn’t let us leave without an escort.”

“Yeah, Aisling is as protective as a mother Nabat,” replied Kiri with a grin.

“Nabat? That’s the meat we ate last night right?”

Kiri nodded in response.

“Mmm, tasted like chicken. Was pretty good,” he said.

“Yeah, they’re pretty good. Mum’s was better though.”

“No arguments here. Miss your mum’s cooking.”

Their conversation continued back and forth as they took in the sight of the Merchant’s District. It was their first time being out amongst the shops and people since they arrived. Nate wasn’t counting their celebration night or his own graffiti foray since on the former he had honestly gotten too drunk to remember it and on the latter, well he’d been more focused on avoiding people so he hadn’t seen much beyond the alleys.

Taking it in now, it was beautiful and so were the people. The people were tanned and dressed in colourful clothes. It reminded him that the Capital was a port city and the merchants appeared to have a rich trade in cloth and dyes. The second thing he noticed was the types of shops they passed. At first it had been mostly equipment and shops he assumed supplied consumables. They clearly catered to the Adventurer’s Guild and so kept close to the main source of their business. The further from the Guild though, the more they gave way to clothing shops, carpenters, food supplies and basically everything else that wasn’t focused on combat.

He paused to stare at a carpenter’s store, wondering if they could help him with a bed when Kiri grabbed his hand and dragged him into the first clothing store of the afternoon. He hoped it would be the only one, but he had his doubts as he followed his friend into the shop to offer his mostly useless fashion advice. That thought made him smile. It was going to be fun!