Chapter 329

Luvian gave him a room in the chief's own house, high on the cavern wall, with a window that looked out over the whole glowing city. He left a tray of food on the table, along with a few small glass bottles of something pale green.

"From our alchemists, Great Hero," he said. "To ease the mind when it grows tired."

Grid uncorked one later and sniffed it, and then drank it, and then sat very still for a moment.

[You have consumed the 'Mental Clarity Potion'!]

[All Mental Fatigue has been removed!]

[Focus is enhanced by 20% for 1 Hour!]

It tasted clean and cool, and the fog in his head from the last few days lifted almost at once. He looked at the empty bottle, then out the window at the workshops below, where glass glinted in the rune-light and thin coloured smoke curled out of chimneys.

Their alchemy is good, he thought. Really good. Better than any potion he had ever bought for fifty-two gold.

He filed that away. Then he sat down at the stone table, opened the Book of Runes, and before he had even read the first page, a window appeared.

[Legendary Rune Interpretation (Lv. 1)]

[Allows a Rune Master to interpret a rune by studying it, learning its structure and storing it in their Rune Library.

Every time you successfully learn a new rune, your stats permanently increase based on the rarity of the knowledge.

- Rare-rated Rune: +2 to all stats, +2 to [Willpower].

- Epic-rated Rune: +4 to all stats, +4 to [Willpower].

- Unique-rated Rune: +12 to all stats, +12 to [Willpower].

- Legendary-rated Rune: +25 to all stats, +25 to [Willpower].

* Something special will occur with every five Legendary runes learned.]

Grid read it twice, slowly. He could finally farm stats again, especially since the stats he could gain from blacksmithing had been reduced because of the five-Legendary-item condition in his [Legendary Blacksmith's Mastery].

Though the last line in the system window made him feel like the S.A Group is going to pull something over him again.

The book was thicker than it looked. The first and largest part of it held the Normal-rated runes. There were thirty-six of them, each one short and simple, each one with a few neat lines of explanation underneath. Grid recognized some of them at once from the walls of the city. The Rune Library effect of his class had already filed them away the moment he saw them.

[Light]

[Rating: Normal]

[Gives off steady light for as long as it is fed.]

[Warmth]

[Rating: Normal]

[Slowly heats the surface it is drawn on.]

Others he had never seen. A rune called Chill that kept whatever it was carved on cool. A rune called Bind that kept a knot or a stitch from slipping loose. A rune called Seal that held something sealed shut until it was told to open. A rune called Clear that kept water from going stale.

They were small, everyday things. The kind of runes Dark Elf children probably learned before they could read properly. And none of them gave him a single stat point when he learned them.

[You have learned the rune 'Chill'.]

That was it. No bonus. No extra line.

Grid learned all thirty-six anyway. He was a blacksmith. He knew better than anyone that the boring basic things were what everything else was built on.

Then he turned the page, and the Rare-rated runes began.

The first was called Harden. Its shape was short and blocky, with a line through the middle. Underneath, the book explained each stroke in careful detail. Grid read it once, then again, tracing the shape on the table with his finger.

And here, for the first time, he noticed something strange.

He understood how to draw it. He knew which stroke came first, which way each curve should bend, how hard to press. But why those strokes, in that order, made something harder, he had no idea at all. The meaning underneath the shape was a closed door.

Then the system opened it for him.

[Legendary Rune Interpretation has been activated.]

[The structure of the rune 'Harden' has been analyzed and recorded in your Rune Library.]

All at once, it made sense. Not completely. But enough. The way the lines folded the meaning in on itself. The way the center stroke anchored the rest. He felt it click into place.

[Harden]

[Rating: Rare]

[Increases the toughness and durability of whatever it is engraved on.]

[You have learned a Rare-rated rune. All stats +2. Willpower +2.]

Grid stared at the last line. Then he turned the page so fast he nearly tore it.

The Rare runes went on and on, thirty of them, and they weren't all suitable for him, only some were.

[Sharpen]

[Rating: Rare]

[Keeps an edge keen for longer and increases the attack power of a weapon.]

But there was also Mend, which slowly closed small wounds on whoever carried it. Preserve, which kept anything it touched from spoiling, food or herbs or reagents. Pierce, which drove a point deeper through whatever stood in its way. Swiftstep, which made the wearer's feet a little lighter for a while. Steady Heat, which kept any fire, in any hearth or oven or furnace or cauldron, perfectly even from edge to edge. Repulsion, which pushed everything nearby away in a single burst. And Supple, which let cloth or leather stretch and bend without ever tearing.

By the twentieth Rare rune, he had a rhythm. Read the explanation. Trace the shape. Wait for the system to fill in the meaning. Collect the stats. Then, around the twenty-second, his head started to feel heavy, as if someone had poured sand into it. The strokes on the page began to swim.

He opened his status window, frowning. Two new entries had appeared at the bottom, and he tapped them both.

[Willpower]

[A force of the mind strong enough to distort reality.

- The higher it is, the greater the effect of any rune you create or activate.

- Stat points cannot be distributed to this stat.]

[Inscription]

[The mental energy required to create and activate runes.

* Consumed whenever rune-related skills or abilities are used.

* Regenerates naturally over time, based on your Willpower.

* Can be poured into a rune to strengthen it beyond its normal limit.]

His Inscription bar was nearly empty. Learning runes drained it. And it came back slowly. Painfully slowly.

"Master has been reading for six hours, Nyang," Noe said from the windowsill. "Master said to remind him."

Grid groaned, closed the book, and lay down on the warm stone bed to log out.

As he went, a thought drifted through his head. Thirty-six runes for everyday life. Thirty for craft, for healing, for speed, for war. He could use maybe half of them himself. But the other half...

Lauel would know what to do with these, he thought sleepily. Which ones for the walls. Which ones for the guild. Who gets what. He could already picture Lauel's eyes lighting up, already hear him covering half his face and declaring that the board had changed again.

Grid smiled, and logged out.

The second day, he finished the Rare runes and started on the Epic ones.

There were fifteen, and they were harder. Longer, more tangled shapes that took him an hour or more each to trace until the system finally opened them up. But they were worth it.

[You have learned the rune 'Interpretation'. All stats +4. Willpower +4.]

[Interpretation]

[Rating: Epic]

[Allows those within its light to understand one another's speech, whatever their language.]

"That's the one Luvian used on me," Grid muttered.

[Barrier]

[Rating: Epic]

[Raises a wall of force in the shape of the rune that blocks incoming attacks until it breaks.]

[Purify]

[Rating: Epic]

[Draws out what does not belong from whatever it touches.]

That one, Grid read three times. It was so vague. Whatever it touches. Poison from a wound? Dirt from water? He could think of a dozen uses before he had even finished tracing it.

There was Restore, which healed whoever stood inside its circle a little at a time. Hearthward, which made a building stand firm against fire and storm. Accelerate and Sever, the two combat runes he recognized from Arisha's Sword. And Echo, which made a voice carry across a whole battlefield, the kind of thing a commander would kill for.

On the third day, he reached the Unique runes. There were only five, and each one took him most of a morning.

[You have learned the rune 'Blink'. All stats +12. Willpower +12.]

[Blink]

[Rating: Unique]

[Instantly moves the user a short distance in the direction they are facing.]

Grid tried it once, just to see, and appeared three meters to the left with his face pressed against the wall. Noe laughed so hard he fell off the windowsill.

[Fortress]

[Rating: Unique]

[Surrounds the user with layered barriers that grow stronger the longer they stand still.]

[Seamless Bond]

[Rating: Unique]

[Joins two things beneath the rune so completely that they become one, without seam or weakness.]

[Sanctuary]

[Rating: Unique]

[Wounds close and fatigue lifts faster for all allies standing within the rune's light.]

On the fourth day, he turned to the last page.

There was only one rune on it. It was larger than all the others, a slow spiral of strokes that curled back on itself, and the page around it was empty except for a single line of old writing: Not to be engraved lightly.

Grid studied it for six hours. He used up all his Inscription twice. He logged out, slept, came back and kept going, and finally, near the end of the fourth day, the system opened the spiral up all at once.

[You have learned the Legendary-rated rune 'Stilled Moment'.]

[Stilled Moment]

[Rating: Legendary]

[Slows the flow of time around the user. For a short while, everything within a small radius moves far more slowly, while the user moves freely. The effect, radius and duration grow with Willpower.]

[You have learned a Legendary-rated rune. All stats +25. Willpower +25.]

[Something special will occur with every five Legendary runes learned. (1/5)]

Grid's satisfied grin froze.

He read the last line again, and a very old, very painful memory crawled up out of the back of his mind.

There it was. Just like the [Legendary Blacksmith's Mastery], where reaching five Legendary items had left him gaining stats only from Legendary-rated items, and very few at that.

"...No," Grid said out loud, glaring at the window. "No. Not again. I'm not falling for that twice."

"Master is talking to the air again, Nyang."

"I'm making a vow, Noe." Grid jabbed a finger at the floating line. "I'm not going anywhere near a fifth Legendary rune until I've learned every other rune I can possibly find. Every Rare. Every Epic. Every Unique. Every single stat I can squeeze out first. Only then."

He closed the window with great dignity.

Then he opened his status. Four days. Every stat he had was two hundred and five points higher than when he walked into this room. His Willpower, which hadn't even existed a week ago, sat at a number that made him blink.

Now there was only one thing left to try.

He took an old Rare-rated dagger out of his inventory, something he'd made months ago and never sold, and laid it on the table. He picked up the engraving tool Luvian had left for him and pressed its tip to the blade.

[Legendary Rune Engraving]

[Active]

[Engrave a rune onto a surface, the air, a weapon or your own body, consuming Inscription and Willpower rather than Mana.

- Runes can be added to any item to grant extra effects and improve its base stats.

- Allows engraving on intangible and conceptual mediums.

- The effect of the rune depends on your Willpower.]

He chose Sharpen. The simplest combat rune he knew.

His hand moved slowly. Too slowly. The first stroke came out wobbly. The second was too thick. He could feel the Inscription draining out of him with every line.

[You have consumed 120 Inscription.]

[You have consumed 140 Inscription.]

The shape on the steel looked nothing like the clean, perfect version in the book. But Rune Master didn't let it fail. And as he drew the final stroke, something warm moved through his hands into the steel, and the clumsy little rune lit up with a clear glow.

[Legendary Rune Saint's Breath has been activated. The rune's effect has increased by 12%.]

[You have successfully engraved the rune 'Sharpen'.]

Grid checked the dagger. Its attack power had gone up. Not a little. A lot. Between Legendary Rune Mastery making every rune half again as strong and the Rune Saint's Breath on top, a sloppy first-ever engraving had turned an old dagger into something noticeably better than anything else in its price range.

Grid turned it slowly in his hands.

Even since he got his legendary class, one name had always stood in front of him. Pagma. The Legendary Blacksmith. The man whose skills he had inherited and whose shadow he had been chasing ever since.

But Pagma had never known runes.

Grid looked at the glowing mark on the blade. He thought about Steady Heat in every furnace, Seamless Bond joining every seam, Harden and Sharpen and Sever woven into every weapon he would ever make. A craft Pagma had never touched, layered on top of everything Pagma had left him.

For the first time, he could see it. Clearly. A road that went past where Pagma had stopped.

"Noe," Grid said. "I think I just found a way to surpass Pagma."