The Runic Artist

Nate glanced out of the carriage as it rolled into the District of the Nobility, trundling along towards the Royal University.

“Is this really necessary?” he asked, glancing across from himself at Aisling and Evindal.

Kiri was seated next to him on the plush seats that were enchanted to absorb the shocks as the carriage rolled over the uneven rocks that made up the roads in the Capital. Luc was nowhere to be seen, but the way this was going to play out told him his mentor would show up soon enough.

“It is,” Aisling explained. “A show of strength is important. A reminder that the Guild is far from weak. That we possess more Platinums than a Ducal House. That our students are not to be trifled with.”

Evindal nodded his agreement with his wife as Nate glanced out his window again, spotting a second carriage right behind them.

They’d grouped up and left the Guild compound enmasse, with apparently an entire Platinum team added to the mix. When you included Prefect Allais and Raoult, who were riding in one of the other carriages with their children, that took the total Platinum’s in the entourage to eight. One for each student. He suspected that wasn’t by accident. Only Prefect Porter didn’t come, likely holding down the fort back at the Guildhouse.

“I must say,” said Evindal, breaking the temporary silence, “that your veil is masterful. I’ve looked at it now four times, each with the intent to search for a flaw. To find a way to reveal your true classes. You’re not even actively resisting me, are you?”

Kiri and Nate both shook their heads as he brought up his Status section to glance at the changes.

Status Effects

Divine Translation Spell (Permanent)

Familiar Contract (Permanent)

Illusory Class Core Veil Soul Engraving (Illusory Class Core: Runecaster (E) (39) / Space Mage (R) (1) ) (Temporary, Legendary)

Obfuscated Mana Soul Engraving (+40% Bonus to Hiding Mana Signature) (Temporary, Legendary)

System Contract - Luc Crozier & Evindal Ravalynn (Temporary)

The rune had worked perfectly, pushing his level down by one to the expected forty levels for a new student of the Royal University. In addition it was displaying his false classes. Classes he was confident he could masquerade as with ease. Finally, Evindal was right. Nate could sense the Legendary Class holder attempting to pierce his veil. But unless the elf possessed a mythic identification skill, it was likely impossible. He now had three layers of protection.

The ring on his finger was an enchanted item providing a Rare tier Class Core veil. The ring had been provided by Aisling. Evindal had managed to bypass it, as expected. Beneath that, was his utterly convincing illusory class core. He could tell that it was returning a result for the elf. Finally, the concealment of his true Class Core was about as perfect as you could expect from something of the Legendary tier. Three layers. About as much protection as he could hope for. He was confident it would be enough, for now. By the time they needed something better he suspected he would have the knowledge he needed to improve the rune further.

Kiri grabbed his attention by patting his arm excitedly and pointing out the window. At the same time he felt the mana concentration in the air increase. It was the first time since Helmfirth that he felt somewhere with such a strong mana concentration. It was enough that he was finally able to relax, letting out some stress as he didn’t need to constantly hold onto the mana in his reserve. He didn’t even realise how hard he’d been clamping down on his mana ever since he returned from the Fourth Hell.

Evindal noticed and gave him a small smile, “Don’t get used to it. The higher your level and the greater your mana reserve, the more you’ll need to hold onto it so it doesn’t try and escape.”

Nate nodded his understanding and finally looked out the window to where Kiri had pointed. What greeted him was his first view of the Royal University grounds and his jaw dropped a little. He had already found the city quite beautiful. Even the rougher parts, like the Slums, had their charms. It was a lack of upkeep that did them a disservice, but beneath the broken down veneer was a city of sights and wonders, like he might have expected to see in certain parts of the middle-east or Africa back on Earth.

Sandstone was the building material of choice and while there was grass on the plains beyond the city, it wasn’t the rich green grass you’d have found in the Americas or Europe. It was the arid brown and yellow grass you’d have found in a place where the water carried a little too much salt and with no clouds to shade it from the sun. That was why seeing the green and tended grassy fields of the Royal University grounds left him staring in wonder.

“The cost in mana…” he whispered.

Aisling gave a disapproving grunt in response, “Wasteful. So very wasteful, and all to impress the nobility and wealthy.”

Nate found he couldn’t help but agree. It was beyond beautiful, but the cost was hard for him to measure. The amount of mana that would be required to keep the grounds looking like this had to be considerable. Not to mention the mana concentration in the air. It all added up to a gorgeous backdrop that he knew he was going to struggle to come to terms with given the obvious waste for appearances. It wasn’t beyond him to see the parallel with his art, but in his defence, his art was on the micro-level. The pieces were, relative to the University, quite small. It would’ve taken over five thousand artists wasting as much mana as he wasted on his graffiti piece every day to even come close to how much the University must spend in a day to maintain their grounds and the mana concentration in the air.

Aisling patted him on the leg, clearly able to tell he was concerned, “Don’t fret over things you cannot change. Just do your best. That is all anyone can ask. That is all I ask.”

He smiled a little, letting go of his worries. For now, he was a small fish in a big pond. Maybe when he was a big fish he could try and be the positive change he wanted to be. But to get there, he had to survive. Small fish were prey for big fish after all.

The carriage pulled around to the side giving him a view of the buildings that made up the University. There were three main buildings, arranged in a shape similar to a horseshoe, with a huge fountain in the middle. Between them, he could see more buildings behind the University’s front. Of the buildings he could see, each was four storeys tall with the one in the middle that made up the bend in the horseshoe having a tower protruding out of the middle that stretched an additional five stories tall, making it the tallest building he’d yet seen on Galle.

The carriage finally rolled to a stop in front of the fountain. Aisling opened the door of the carriage and climbed out, followed by Evindal, before Kiri and he joined them, boots crunching on the yellow stone beneath their feet. It led to an interesting colour scheme when paired with the incredibly green grass and the iridescent blue waters of the fountain. It made the University grounds seem that much more vibrant than the rest of the city.

From the other three carriages the other Platinums and their Silver charges all exited, congregating as a group. The grounds around them were not empty and he could see other carriages approaching while a few were on their way out, heading for the gate. Other students and their guardians approached the building to their left and after a nod from the Prefects the Guild members moved as a group towards the same building. It was time for their induction.

In his sphere of awareness he felt Kiri glance at Coralie and blow her a kiss. He was glad their date had gone well, even if he still wasn’t a fan of her mother. Prefect Allais could kiss his ass as far as he was concerned. The other Silver badges had all grouped into pairs. Flash and Coralie, Null and Britt, and then Karim and Ameera. He’d heard a rumour that Prefect Porter had taken Karim on, similar to how Luc was his own mentor. That hopefully meant a promising future for the Earth Mage.

Upon entering the building, he wasn’t surprised to see how decadently it was decorated. The walls had enchanted lighting every few steps and the windows seemed to be enchanted with temperature control, air filtration and even sound suppression. In addition there were a few other quality-of-life enchantments that served no other purpose than making the place more comfortable for the denizens of these halls.

Entering through a set of double doors found them in an auditorium with enough room to play a full court game of basketball. Desks were set up with attendants standing behind them and waiting patiently. The Guild members moved as one towards the two closest desks. It was hard to miss the looks they garnered from their soon-to-be classmates. He’d expected derision, hostility and maybe arrogance. There was a small amount of that, especially from a few he suspected were nobility, but for the most part the sense he got was of curiosity, calculation and from a few, fear.

The latter were definitely wealthy merchant families and he could see how they might view the Guild members with worry. The Guild was, almost entirely, a combative organisation. It focused on developing members that could clear Dungeons, hunt down monsters and act as mercenaries. He could see how that might lead to both fear and calculation from those with more crafting and social based Classes. The Guild members were a commodity they could make use of, but a sword could just as easily be used to cut the hand that held it.

It made sense that some of the less experienced members of the merchant-class were somewhat wary of the warrior-class Guilders. He chose to ignore it all and looked at the desk to see how it would all work. A pile of small gems were next to the attendant behind the desk and as he ran his Awareness of the Runic Artist over the clearly enchanted items, he got a small hint at what they might be enchanted to do. Unless he missed his guess, they were meant to store a student's subjects and the current grade they were in. There was also a sense of a new Concept coming off of them that he tried to sort through with Runic Knowledge. The problem was there was clearly a Copy Concept, but he suspected that was for the subject information. Instead there was something else near the edge of the gem. It took him the entire time of waiting in line, with Kiri veritably buzzing in anticipation next to him, to figure out the final Concept involved. It was Imprint.

He’d realised it after he’d found a section next to it that he was pretty confident meant Mana Signature. Weirdly, it was harder to figure out because the Concepts involved felt relatively weak. Rare at best was his guess. He tried not to smile and mentally scolded himself for being arrogant. Walking around the campus acting like anything Rare was beneath him, no matter how true, was likely to garner attention he did not want.

Pulled out of his thoughts by Aisling, he stepped up to the desk alongside her. The man behind the desk glanced up, showing neither disdain or pleasure at seeing them.

“Name?” the attendant asked, brushing his dark hair out of his darker eyes.

“Nathaniel Weber,” he replied, adding “of the Adventurer’s Guild” a moment later.

The man grunted, apparently finding his name on the paper in front of him. The man marked it with a small burst of mana which left a flowing inky letter that Nate guessed was a signature next to his name.

The attendant looked back up at the Stormspear, “Are you the one verifying?”

Aisling nodded and the action came across as slightly regal. Aisling had always been forthright, even blunt, but she’d never shown this side of herself before and he wondered if it was for his benefit, the University’s, or the Prefect’s.

“Aisling Teigland, The Stormspear, Platinum of the Adventurer’s Guild.”

The attendant’s eyes widened a little and again he pressed a finger in the space next to Nate’s name on the page, ink flowing beneath the fingers as Aisling’s name and titles were entered as the individual verifying his identity.

“I’ll need to identify your Classes and levels to confirm you meet the requirements of entry. Can you please remove any veiling you currently have?” asked the attendant, glancing nervously at Aisling.

He pulled the ring off that was his third layer of protection, placing it on the table and waiting. The wave of mana that hit him was honestly weaker than what he’d dealt with from Evindal and he ignored its tickle as he felt it check multiple times over his illusory class core, before withdrawing.

The attendant stared up at him with wide eyes, clearly impressed, as ink wrote on the page beneath his fingers. Nate read the word Runecaster before being satisfied and placing the veiling ring back on his finger. It was only a Rare enchantment and could be broken, but that was kind of the point.

“Do you know what subjects you’ll be taking?” asked the attendant, giving Nate a little more attention now, courtesy of Aisling’s display and his own Class tiers.

“Combat, Skill Development, Concepts and Embodiment, Dungeon Knowledge, Monster Studies, Mana and Affinities, Enchanting, and Art,” Nate rattled off quickly. He’d debated adding Spellforms but Aisling had suggested he could do so after completing Dungeon Knowledge or Monster Studies, both of which were unlikely to take more than a year of his time.

The attendant had grabbed one of the enchanted gems and pushed a small amount of mana into it before handing it over to Nate.

“This is your University Gem, or unigem, as it is commonly called. It is your everything. It will record all your subjects, you can put mana into it to get your timetable, class locations, current grades, any examinations or projects that are due and when they are due. It has a map of the grounds as well and can guide you to your classrooms or the grounds where your subjects will be conducted. I need you to input a small amount of mana here to imprint it to yourself. Note, it is constantly copied to another unigem which tracks any changes input as well as the mana signature of the changer. We’ve had more than one enterprising enchanter think they could trick the system and give themselves better grades,” explained the attendant.

“Forgive my question,” replied Nate as he pushed a small amount of his mana into the unigem, imprinting it with his mana signature, “but why would someone want to alter their grades?”

The attendant looked from Nate to Aisling, then back to Nate, confusion writ on his face, “Because the Royal University awards Dungeon Access as well as processed mana-gems based on performance and grade.”

Nate’s smile lit up his face. A way to earn processed mana by Enchanting, or he supposed, Runecrafting, and creating Art. It was hard to argue against that kind of reward structure and he could absolutely see why students would try and game the University system with their own progression on the line.

“Now that we’ve got you all set up, please use your unigem to guide yourself to the various induction locations for each of your subjects,” said the attendant, before glancing pointedly behind them where other students were waiting their turn.

Nate followed Aisling and Evindal out of the building, with Kiri at his side, his best friend holding onto her own unigem. This was going to be fun, he decided. Hard work, but fun!