The Runic Artist

Nate walked back to the Northern Gate in the quiet morning gloom of Firth forest. In the sky above him floated Frick. The tug on his Mana Reserve from his Barrier rune and Familiar was enough to be noticeable as Frick utilised his Eyes of the Runic Artist to scan for threats. The Dungeon had remained locked and Nate was taking that as a good sign. That meant Kiri had been in the Dungeon for almost three days, which suggested that she had most likely already gained a Class. He had no doubts that with a Class, she could conquer the Dungeon. Unless of course Dungeons remain locked for a set period, regardless of whether the challengers inside were still alive. But he wasn’t going to entertain those thoughts, and besides, Frick had admitted he didn’t know the answer.

It was a nice feeling, to hear Frick concede that he didn’t know. Not because Nate liked remaining in the dark while his best friend potentially fought for her life. No, it was because it showed that their Familiar and Master relationship was finally getting to a point where Frick was comfortable admitting ignorance. He hoped it would continue, but he’d been disappointed before.

Sighing he gave himself a shake to clear the bad thoughts that kept trying to encroach. He knew it was just anxiety, worrying about Kiri. He just needed to remain confident that she knew what she was doing. He couldn’t stand in the way of her dreams. Which brought him to his task this morning.

His first training session with Luc. He’d never gotten to play much in the way of sports back on Earth so he had no real concept of how a coach might train someone. Sure he’d seen a few movies and shows but they were always so over the top, with some old guy screaming at a bunch of kids like a drill sergeant. Is that what he’d signed himself up for? No, worse than that. Was that what he was paying for?

Thinking it over, he supposed he could suffer through it if it meant that he’d be prepared for the Tournament. He didn’t want to let Kiri, or himself down. The Royal University sounded like a great opportunity. Specifically, their library. How many Sigils might such a place contain? He could further his understanding of Concepts and Subconcepts. Maybe even learn some more about Enchanting and see how he could apply that to Runecrafting. He was definitely not confident about being able to learn Runecrafting. It hadn’t sounded like a common crafting Class. Thought you never knew, he supposed.

Exiting the trees Frick flew down, alighting on his shoulder, or at least appearing to. Off in the distance Nate could see someone leaning against the wall near the Northern Gate. He was about to activate his Eyes of the Runic Artist to see if it was Luc when the person stepped to the side and vanished. He was a second too late activating Spatial Sensitivity when he felt something impact his barrier. The mana drain had been small and with his skill now active he could sense spatial ripple. Spatial tear, he mentally corrected himself.

Spinning around he found Luc standing casually a few metres away. He wore the same clothes as before, a dark cloth with black leather and black metal studded within it. It was an odd ensemble for a Mage, he thought.

“Good to see you’re paranoid, kid. That’ll keep you alive,” Luc said before glancing back into the forest.

Before he could react, Luc vanished again, appearing inside his Barrier and laying a hand on his shoulder. Nate was about to try and move away when Luc spoke again, “Fuck walking.”

The next thing he knew they were standing somewhere, surrounded by trees stretching into the sky. He felt the tether between his Familiar Contract and Frick snap. It wasn’t painful but there was a notable absence where he normally could sense Frick. He went to frown at Luc but found the man had moved again and was standing across from him in the clearing, placing a chair down in the grass that he’d pulled out of nowhere. Now there was an idea. He could fill his spatial storage with creature comforts for when he and Kiri went hunting in the forest.

He was getting distracted again and this time he did frown at Luc. The man looked confused for a moment before he glanced around and then, with an awkward smile, looked back at Nate.

“Ah. Sorry about that. Your Familiar. I err, should’ve considered that,” Luc said apologetically, sitting down in his comfortable seat in the middle of the forest. “He’ll be fine, right?”

“Yeah. Just going to take him a little while to reform,” Nate grumbled in annoyance. Thinking about it for a moment, the transition had felt different to his own No Steps Necessary skill. When he moved through space he could feel the distortion caused by the skill as it formed a funnel, pulling one point towards the other. There was a pressure, both around the funnel, and from behind him as he was pushed towards his destination. Kind of like the spatial tunnel was collapsing behind him and that force was what was driving him onward.

Whatever Luc had done hadn’t felt like that at all. With Spatial Sensitivity active he’d gotten a feel for the spell or skill that Luc had used. The man had simply ripped a hole in space and somehow connected it to another one. There had been no transition. It was like moving through a doorway. Only Luc had somehow moved the door rather than them, sliding it over them so they transitioned through the spatial tear.

He was about to continue analysing the sensation when a cough interrupted him.

“You get easily distracted, kid. Not a good sign. That’ll get you killed in a fight,” Luc said, lounging his chair. “Now that I have your attention. We’re going to start out with some basics so I can figure out the best way to teach you.”

“Aren’t you just going to help me train my Spatial skills?” Nate asked.

“We’ll get to that, eventually,” Luc muttered. “But before that, I need to know you’ve got the basics. Aisling said she’s nominating you and your friend, wherever she is, for the Tournament. Good on you both. Competed in it myself. Came fourth actually. Which means if I teach you I am going to expect you to do better, and Aisling tells me your fundamentals are, for lack of a better word, shit.”

Nate opened his mouth to protest and promptly shut it. Hadn’t he just been pleased that Frick was finally admitting his ignorance. It’d be pretty hypocritical of Nate not to do the same. Sure, he’d been in a few fights now. But was Luc really wrong? Nate was basically making it up as he went with input from Kiri and Frick and one of those two had recently admitted he knew a lot less than he had originally claimed. So, maybe Nate’s fundamentals were shit, and here he had an opportunity to fix that. Locking eyes with Luc, he nodded slightly in agreement. It hurt a little to admit it, but sometimes the truth was like that.

“Good,” said Luc, grinning slightly. “Glad I don’t need to spend time breaking you down before I build you back up. Ego will kill you. It’s a miracle I am still alive with mine and I wouldn’t want any student of mine, even a temporary one, learning from my bad habits. Alright, details time. How do you defend yourself? Just the barrier or you got something else?”

“Mostly the barrier. I have a spatial skill for movement though,” Nate replied.

“Show me.”

Nate activated No Steps Necessary, moving across the clearing.

“Hey, not bad!” Luc yelled with a big grin on his face as he leaned forward. “Didn’t expect that. That was spatial alteration. No wonder you called them ripples instead of tears. Was probably your first time sensing a tear! Now, that we can work with. Later, though. So your first problem is going to be the same problem almost every Mage faces. Mana consumption.”

Nate walked back across the clearing listening as Luc started lecturing him.

“With some rare exceptions, like Aisling, most Mages lose when their mana runs out. We’re not warriors who can avoid attacks or defend with just our body. We rely on mana to both attack and defend, which means it’s the only resource that matters. You’re using your mana inefficiently. A barrier completely surrounding you might make sense sometimes but in the Tournament, in a real battle, it’s a waste. How quickly can you form your barrier?”

Channelling Speed was his second lowest Magic Stat, only sitting above Mana Absorption. It took barely past a second to form a second Barrier around him using one of his other Barrier runes in his robe. They were still his favourite rune, just for the diversity of use.

Luc clicked his tongue in annoyance. “That was slower than I would’ve expected from a Mage of your level, though I suppose you’re more Crafter than Mage right? Well, you might not get as much benefit out of this for combat as I hoped but it will still accomplish what I intend,” he paused to favour Nate with a wolfish grin. “Today's training is going to be simple. You’re going to close your eyes and use your skill that lets you sense my spatial tears. I am going to be launching things at you. Sense them, create a barrier to block them and the moment you feel them falling away, drop the barrier. Even if it won’t be as important to you yet, we're going to at least get you started on the basics of mana conservation and what I like to call a reactive defence.”

Before Nate could respond, the first object bloomed in his senses. Spatial Sensitivity had been left active, mostly in case Luc randomly decided to move them again, so that Nate could try and further understand how the Arcane Riftwalker was transitioning them through space. The object looked like a small metal ball, maybe two centimetres in diameter. It wasn’t the metal he could sense though, but a bubble of space that encapsulated the ball as it hovered in the air. It was like a thin film of dense space, compacted until it acted as a shield around the metal sphere.

Nate looked from the ball to Luc who had a shiteating grin on his face as he relaxed in his chair, “Did Aisling tell you what they call me?”

Nate shook his head.

“Luc of a Thousand Needles. Start defending, kid,” responded Luc as he launched the ball at Nate.

The attack was so unexpected that he didn’t have time to react and the ball hit him in the stomach. He winced in pain as the ball fell to the ground before it vanished, appearing back in the air by Luc. It had hit hard enough that Nate suspected he would bruise but not so hard he was worried it would do something like breaking a rib.

Before Luc could launch it again, Nate spoke up. He’d seen Luc’s classes. All of them. He now had a good idea how the man must normally fight, but his curiosity wouldn’t let him continue without asking.

“The ball, you don’t normally coat it in condensed space, do you?” he asked.

Luc looked at him for a moment before nodding slowly, “No. Normally I don’t. That’s actually to reduce the damage it does when you fail to defend and to make it so you can sense them coming.” Luc waited a moment, giving him a pointed look to remind him he’d just failed to defend himself. “Also interesting that your sensing skill couldn’t recognise that the space is condensed in layers to make it compact on impact. That’s why we’re doing this. We’re going to train up your sensing skill because it will help us advance your other spatial skills faster. Now, less talking, more defending.”

With those words he launched the ball again at Nate. This time Nate was ready, flicking up a smaller barrier between himself and the trajectory of the metal ball. As he defended he felt it vanish again, a small spatial tear marking its movement. He ignored the notification that went off as Luc yelled at him to close his eyes. With a mental sigh he did so, recognising he was in for a long day.

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

The day had indeed been painful. Long and painful. At some point towards the end of the day, Frick had managed to reconstitute himself, the Spirit taking up residence on the forest floor as Luc pelted Nate with small, spatially enclosed, metal balls. After Nate had proven he could defend against the single ball Luc had upped it two, then three, finally Nate had capped out at four. The balls had been flying at him from every direction. Luc had even started flicking the balls through tiny spatial tears which had made it even harder to track them. Not because he couldn’t sense them, but because he had to focus on the difference between how condensed space felt compared with spatial tears.

He’d run out of mana three times and the man had simply thrown him a few low quality, well, lower quality than he was used to, mana gems. The constant drain between Imbue Intent, Spatial Sensitivity and activating his barrier runes had worn him out over and over again until he was covered in sweat. That wasn’t even mentioning the bruises. They were everywhere. He’d been hit in the head a couple of times but he suspected Luc had pulled those blows as he only felt welts where they’d struck, the bone underneath not feeling as tender. Those were the only ones that wouldn’t bruise though.

He’d debated using his Life Drain rune on Luc but eventually common sense had prevailed. The mage didn’t even look like he was breaking a sweat as he’d manipulated the four balls and at times two to three spatial rifts. That level of control was insane to Nate. He’d have cursed the man for the training if it wasn’t for the notifications he had been getting. Glancing at them as he dismissed them he allowed himself a small, pained, smile.

Spatial Sensitivity 10 > 14

Imbue Intent 22 > 23

Gaining four levels in Spatial Sensitivity in a day was fast growth and gaining a single level in Imbue Intent was excellent. The latter had likely been driven by the amount of finite control he’d had to exhibit as he created multiple barriers in different locations to defend against the same attack. Luc had chastised him for using too much mana and he’d stopped using the skill to create individual barriers, instead using a single activation to create small barriers in multiple locations. Three Intents per shield, allowing him to control shape, distance from him and size. That meant he’d capped out at three barriers at once and he’d had a moment of pride before Luc had upped the ante again, creating spatial rifts without launching the metal balls through them to distract him.

The only saving grace was that once Luc was finished with him for the day, he’d dropped him off back at the Northern Gate, with an admonishment to be back tomorrow morning. Nate was not looking forward to that. For once, tomorrow was not going to be ‘another’ day. It was going to be mild torture. Torture he was paying for.

With a final sigh he collapsed into his comfy bed in the Oaken Ring, still fully clothed, the sun barely set. Frick would watch over him while he slept. That was his last comforting thought before sleep claimed him.