Heaven's Greatest Professor

Chapter 50  Calamity

"I see what you're trying to do," June said, inhaling sharply, "but trust me, it will never work between us."

"What won't work?" Warden asked, feigning stupidity.

"Don't act dumb," June snorted at him. "All that flirtation will get you nowhere."

"Flirtation?" Warden's eyes widened with mocked surprise. "But I haven't even begun flirting with you."

June shot him a glare.

"I like your lavender body odour," Warden said softly, drawing an inch closer subtly to sniff. His movement was just right so that he wouldn't look like a creep. Even though the elven woman said it wouldn't work, her cheeks heated up as she glared up at him fervently. "Now, that would be flirtation, but I'm sure that won't work on you."

He met her glare with a smile, returning to his seat.

"Can't you just act normal?" she asked, infuriated and flustered at the same time.

"Normal like the first time we met?"

"That's not normal."

"I feel like that's very normal for me."

"You don't even know yourself," June shouted. She breathed in and out to calm herself.

Warden could only shrug. "Fine, I won't make you uncomfortable."

"You better," June said in her composed tone. "Now show me the thing."

"Give me a moment." Warden calmed his breathing and concentrated on the craft he was about to show her. He drew one finger in the air, his un-attuned energy emitting from the finger as he drew in empty air. "Can you see it?"

"I can feel the energy," June answered as he drew an octagon with fresh energy. "Why isn't the energy dispersing?"

Warden smiled and began to draw the runes now.

"It's runes." June felt dumb; the answer was so obvious.

"Power is chaos," Warden said, "and runes are the way to govern order over the chaos."

With eight identical symmetrical runes sized up in the octagon, the elementary script was complete.

"This is not exactly like the runes in the fatemark," June mumbled, studying.

"Those are rather advanced," Warden agreed. "This is merely an elementary counterpart. A different type at that."

June gasped, drawing closer with her studying gaze.

[You have learned Runeforging (Elementary).]

[Runeforging: Elementary

Runeforging is the way of the ancients. Through runes, a scriber can manipulate energy to different effects. In ancient times, mages are taught to incorporate runes in their spellcraft, however, the path of runes being extremely hard to master, the old ways had been given up by the system.]

Warden wasn't surprised at the notification, though he was aware Elementary was far too low for what he should be capable of.

"Now let me show you what it can do," Warden said and took the empty bottle of vial from her. Under her studying gaze, Warden tossed the bottle over the script.

The bottle couldn't even reach the script, but instead, a repel force sent it flying as it crashed into the roof. Thankfully, the glass was made of sturdier material, as it didn't break in the crash.

"What happened?" June asked.

"This script's function is repelling whatever you throw at them," Warden said.

"It's like antigravity," June said, bringing her palm over the script to check the repelling force.

Warden snorted. "Magnetic force will be more accurate, perhaps."

The woman clearly wasn't listening to him; her eyes were studying the dispersing runes fervently.

"I think I can make them as well," June said after the script dispersed completely, losing its power.

"Be my guest," Warden said.

Obviously, June was a capable ranker to have memorized all parts of the scripts. It was honestly easy for someone like her. However, as she began to draw the script in the air, she found it was more difficult than it looked. She was always failing to intricate the runes inside the octagon.

Warden didn't say anything as June was already finding the answer on her own. Honestly, watching someone learn a new thing was a delight. Of course, it was only delightful when they were learning it as fast as her. June tweaked the script with every new piece of information and finally managed to draw the full script on her nineteenth attempt.

"The system says I learned Runeforging," June said, gasping. "It's only an elementary level, yet why is it so tedious?"

"Symmetry of energy is quite hard to accomplish," he replied. "Let's check the effect then."

Warden tossed the vial. It shot up like the last time; however, the repelling force wasn't enough to make it crash into the roof.

"Looks like you need some practice to reach perfect symmetry," Warden said.

June nodded, and soon a frown perked up in her brows. "How much of your knowledge did you recover in Runeforging?"

"I don't know," Warden shrugged. To know how much, he needed to have an idea of how far he knew. "But I guess with some practice, I can apply them to make enchanted items, artifacts, and even use them during a fight."

"Artifacts," June said, alarmed. "You can make them?"

"Maybe," Warden said. "Simple elementary-grade scripts won't be enough for artificing; I need to practice Runeforging thoroughly to know what I'm really capable of."

June stared at him unconsciously, deep in thought. "This is a very serious matter," she said. "If you can really make artifacts..."

"Mind you, I haven't recovered all my knowledge of artificing," Warden said, though he was almost sure he would get them back once he practised artificing. "There are other aspects to Runesmithing when it comes to artificing; I'm not sure if I know them all."

"Still, this is great," June said. "There are, of course, people who can create artifacts, but only a few can make high-grade ones. But as far as I'm aware, their ways of artificing didn't involve runes. If you can truly create high-grade artifacts, then we'll have another weapon to fight off the calamity."

"Calamity?" Warden raised an eyebrow, hearing a familiar word.

"Highest rank of the tainted creatures, or rather the source of all taint in the world," June said. "Even the strongest of our rankers can't contend with them alone."