A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

Ryan watched intently as Ylerias put up finishing touches on the small piece of the wall he had erected for her to write her runes on top of it.

Ylerias finished she spoke with a huff, "These are the runes that would cause any creature from trying to climb on the wall unable to do so, and on top of that I have placed an array that would act as a shield to withstand in case of any physical and magical attacks up to a certain level."

As Ryan paid undivided attention towards her Ylerias continued, "Any rune generally can be divided into four parts, power, storage, controller, and executor, amongst them the power is self explanatory as it supplies power to the rune cluster, storage stores the instructions, controller is the one that makes that the instructions are followed, executor executes it as dictated by the controller."

Ryan scratched his chin as his face morphed in deep thought as he spoke, "I see, but about the power how do I supply it."

"About that I added another array that would gather mana from the atmosphere just like the machines of your do, but not as advanced as them."

Ryan frowned as he spoke, "I see.", he then stood in front of the wall with his hands raised as he spoke out loud, "Scan."

No sooner did he speak the word a magical circle formed in front of his hands, while the iris of his eyes contracted and returned to normal after a brief moment, while everyone watched as the wall suddenly became transparent he stood there for a moment before the circle disappeared, and as the circle disappeared a new notification popped up in his head.

*******************

Host gained knowledge on Rune…

Skill Type: Support

Host Level: Novice (0%)

*******************

Ryan suddenly winced as he felt a brief moment of sharp pain on his head before he turned toward Ylerias with a smug smile on his face as he spoke, "I got it, and I can now recreate those walls with runes on them, and apparently I am a novice now, though I would want to check something."

With that Ryan quickly closed his eyes as he fell into deep meditation, while Ylerias looked at him with an unreadable expression on her face as Xuelong simply patted on her back as Ylerias spoke with a hint of sorrow in her voice, "You know it took me weeks of studying to reach even the novice level and yet he did so within a few seconds, so unfair."

Meanwhile, Ryan was busy analyzing the knowledge about runes with a furious expression on his face, when suddenly he stumbled upon a realization that made him slam his head hard before letting out a loose chuckle which changed to a burst of deranged laughter.

"Oh my God, runes are nothing but codes, codes that I can easily write."

Ryan's joy-filled laughter died as he jumped up from suddenly hearing a voice, only to sigh in relief as he immediately recognized it.

************

System accessing host's knowledge on coding….

Knowledge scanned (5%)….

Knowledge scanned (17%)….

Knowledge scanned (58%)….

Knowledge scanned (75%)….

Knowledge scanned (100%)….

Reintegrating Knowledge….

Revaluating skill level….

Rune Skill level Apprentice (85%)(Pseudo)

Host gained knowledge on Codes….

Skill Type: Support

Host Level: Expert (02%)

Warning: Host knowledge on runic language incomplete.

Caution: Incomplete knowledge can cause instability in the runic cluster.

Warning: Chances of Rune etching is only 70%.

*************

'I see so according to it I am expert in coding but even then, the thing that this system considers an expert might be different from we normally perceive, and even then I am barely an expert, maybe I should milk Andraais's brain and sharpen my skills even more.'

His mind then wandered off to another essential point as he frowned hard, 'My experience as well as my knowledge is rather lacking the only thing that I know is from what Ylerias showed me and from the pattern that I deduced from them, they are just like coding and my hunch proved right, now I will have to learn the proper key words.'

Ryan narrowed his eyes in deep thought before he mused out loud, "But, before that I would have to scan my mana gathering and liquefying system, if Ylerias is right I might gain knowledge on the runes powering them, though I hope it will work, I had tried to open them and learn of their inner workings but no matter what I do they will always deconstruct or go up in flames and turn to slag the moment I or anyone tries to pry them open."

With that plan in mind, Ryan opened his eyes before he took a glance at the piece of paper, that was filled with various symbols that Ylerias had handed him over three hundred symbols to be exact.

'I have tried to memorize them properly but they are too many and it would take some time, hmm, let me see if 'Scan' works.'

A few seconds later Ryan stared at the paper in his hand as he whispered out loud, "My powers are broken."

"Yes, they are.", a familiar but dead voice came to his ears as he turned he was greeted by a dejected-looking Ylerias who looked as if her whole world had been devastated while Xuelong was consoling her but from the looks of her face it seemed that Xuelong was enjoying the scene too much.

The reason for that was because of scanning of the piece of paper he had managed to add what was known as 'Elven Runic Symbols', into his newly created language library.

"Is there other any other language for runes?"

Xuelong replied on behalf of a depressed ylerias, "Is there are Dwarven runes, Human runes, in fact every intelligent race had developed their own type, with their own pros and cons."

"I see, is there a way to learn them."

Xuelong frowned as she spoke, "I see I will ask around the refugees and see if anyone knows about the symbols correctly, though getting someone who is a rune master would be difficult, as the study of runes is very difficult as such most only know basic knowledge."

Ryan waved her off as he spoke, "I only need to know about the symbols preferably written in this manner."

Xuelong nodded as she soon left dragging a pale Ylerias with her, while Ryan quickly made his way towards Alpha Raven 2.0.

"Hey, Ryan, where are you going?"

As a familiar voice came to his ears Ryan sun around and was greeted with a familiar face of Donna, Ryan smiled back in return as he spoke, "I am currently gathering any information about runes, and you?"

Donna frowned as she spoke with a tilt of her head, "What are runes?"

Ryan beamed at her as he spoke, "Why of course the best form of magic that can be done by coding."

Donna was even more confused as she thought inwardly, 'Magic that can be done by coding just what he is talking about.'

By the time her focus returned to Ryan he had already climbed on to engine area having removed the cover he had begun to scan the system, Donna looked at her from afar only for her eyes to widen in horror as she watched Ryan collapse like a puppet whose string has been cut off.

A few seconds ago Ryan had started his scan when everything went haywire, as his first warning came in the form of a sudden glitch in his vision which was soon followed by a severe bout of headache that suddenly spiked to an astronomical level while a familiar voice chimed in.

************

Error…

Error…

Warning: Data processing beyond Host capabilities…

Rerouting and engaging all brains…

Critical Failure…

************

With that Ryan's vision went blank while he collapsed on the ground as rivers of bright red life fluid began to flow through his nostrils.

A familiar crackling sound came to his ears as he sat of straight he was once again greeted to a familiar sight and a familiar flame sitting on the chair, but before he could greet Avtis, his patron God spoke with annoyance in his voice, "Are you a masochist Ryan?"

The sudden question made him dumbfounded for a moment before he replied heatedly, "What kind of question is this? Of course I am not."

"Then why do you act like a stupid idiotic child, I gave you powers that are completely game breaking compared to others, I gave you everything that sets you apart an edge for survival but then why? Why do you act like a stupid idiot who gets high thinking about suicide?"

"I..I…"

"Shut up, just shut up, did you or did you not get a warning that there might be complications if you carried on with your scanning?"

Ryan frowned as he thought hard as he spoke with a shake of his head as he spoke, "No did not receive any kind of warning."

A silence descended amongst them as the only sound was crackling of flames, suddenly Ryan's vision shifted as he was suddenly surrounded by multiple screens, where numerous lines went so fast that he could not make out any head or tail, but before long the screens vanished the place returned to normal.

"I see there was a bug in the system that I got rid of, now next time when there is a warning do not proceed."

As Ryan fully recalled the reason that led him to have a chat with his patron God he could not help but ask out loud, "Why did it happen?"

"Ah, about that, scanning input knowledge into your brain and the piece of machine was the work of a now extinct group of humanoid beings that had achieved interstellar travel through magic, and even though the machine would have been thought of as a junk by those as it was a very outdated piece of equipment for them."

A silence descended for a brief moment as Avtis continued, "Comparing them with the brightest rune masters of Yelrias's world, would be like comparing Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton's prowess in mathematics to that of a child that just learned the numbers from one to ten, I hope you are getting where I am going."

As Ryan nodded Avtis spoke with a sigh, "I hope you remembered what I had said during our last talk.", as Ryan nodded Avtis continued to speak, "Well then there is nothing for me to say, though except work harder and act smartly and now shoo."

With that once again Ryan's vision turned black but as he tried to open his eyes he was hit by a massive headache so massive that he simply wanted to die, as such with a loud pain-filled groan he curled up into a ball.

"Ryan, Ryan talk to me, Ryan."

A familiar voice came to his ears but his heading was too much for him as such he could only groan and speak with a pleading voice, "Please, please be quite the headache is killing me."

Ruby sighed as she left Ryan alone for the time being until some form of medicine was ready for him, as she moved away from him Ciara could not help but let out a tired sigh as she spoke barely above a whisper, "This is why I am always afraid to live him alone.", her words were supported by Michalina who simply acknowledged her word with a nod.

An hour later after being force-fed a couple of rather foul and smelly herbal concoction Ryan was free from the headache that was plaguing him.

"Are you alright Ryan?"

"Yes, Ruby thank you the headache was killing me."

"So how did it happen? Last I heard you were busy working on something."

"Something I would also like to know, in fact there is many things I would like to know Ryan, things that you were hiding from me apparently."

Ryan looked towards the speaker, who was none other than Ciara, as his shoulders slouched before he spoke, "Well then please take a seat mom it would be long talk."