The Runic Artist

Nate groaned in pain as he collapsed to the forest floor. The metal ball that had struck him in the head rolled through the grass before vanishing to appear in Luc’s hand. The bastard just smiled at him. It had been four days. Four gruelling days. The fact that the training had paid dividends was all that had kept him going. After that first day, Nate had brought a few of his own mana gems.

He needed all the mana he could get and at first it had made a difference, as he was a little more cavalier with his mana usage. Luc had punished him for that in the most casual way possible. He’d skipped six and seven and gone straight to using eight metal balls to attack Nate. Even modifying his barrier to sit just over his skin hadn’t helped as the bombardment had quickly depleted his mana leaving him to be pelted by metal balls. The unspoken lesson was clear. Don’t try to game the training.

He’d settled in for the long haul. Every morning he checked the Dungeon. Finding no change he would then go meet Luc by the Northern Gate. They’d teleport, or he supposed, riftwalk, into Firth forest. Then the training would start. On the second day Luc had pulled out a book to read while he pelted him. He’d finished the day at six metal balls. On the third day, Luc’s casual pastime had been preparing a miniature feast. Nate could even recognise the smell of the Oaken Ring chef’s cooking as he perceived and defended against eight metal balls.

Now, it was midday on the fourth day and finally, after being bruised and beaten as he defended against ten metal balls, he had gotten the notification he’d been waiting for. The notification that had distracted him enough to let two of the balls through his defence. The one that struck him in the stomach had stung but the one that hit him in the head had hurt.

Slowly climbing back to his feet, wincing with every little movement he locked eyes with Luc. The man had closed the book he was reading, ten metal spheres hovering around him.

“Finally got there?” Luc asked, all too casually.

“Finally,” Nate agreed tiredly as he brought up the notification.

Spatial Sensitivity 14 > 21

Spatial Sensitivity (R) is ready to evolve.

Evolutions Available! Please Select 1.

Skill Evolution Options:

Spatial Guidance (E)

A Spatial Mage needs to be conscious of how to mould space to accomplish their goals. Be it creating walls of condensed space or stepping off into the distance and traversing the world. This Skill aids the user by allowing them to detect Spatial fluctuations and manipulations at a greater distance. Distance increases with Skill Level. Mana Cost decreases with Magic Power and Magic Control. Initial distance is fifty metres. Skill Level increases distance by Skill Level * fifty metres.

Spatial Awareness (E)

A Spatial Mage needs to understand the nature of space. However due to your training, you have learned to sense when the space near you is violated. You don’t need eyes to know when objects move near you, for they are passing through space, your domain. This skill allows the user to detect spatial fluctuations and manipulations at a distance while giving perfect awareness in a smaller field around them. Distance increases with Skill Level. Mana Cost decreases with Magic Power and Magic Control. Distance for Spatial Detection is Skill Level * five metres. Distance for Sphere of Awareness is Skill Level * ten centimetres.

Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.

Nate motioned Frick over as he sat down in the grass, trying not to wince at the bruises he’d accumulated. As his Familiar floated over to him, Luc stood up from his chair and walked over.

“No privacy, kid. If I am going to keep training you, I need to know what your options are. Lean on my advice. I can swear a secrecy contract if you want but the difficulty with that is, to do so, either your secrets would need to have a lot of value, or you’d have to pay me,” Luc paused, smirking at him as he continued. “Or you could just trust me to keep your secrets. Aisling trusts me, if that helps you make up your mind.”

Nate pursed his lips. That was a hard one. He knew his secrets had value just based on the System Contract he had with Aisling and Deverell. That meant he could enforce a contract on Luc. But for what terms? Levels seemed like the obvious choice but if so how many? How did the System decide what his secrets were worth? Another question was, would he be considered in violation of the System Contract if he only revealed a few secrets? Some of his secrets might make others obvious.

If he told Luc that his Skill options were Epic, would that reveal that his Secondary Class was Epic? Obviously it was Legendary but he doubted Luc would make that leap. Luc knew it was his Secondary Class which would mean at best, he would think Nate had a Legendary Primary Class. That had sounded pretty rare to Nate. Something only a small portion of the Nobility managed to purchase for their children with their wealth. What a depressing thought. Even in this world the wealthy got all the opportunities which just gave them access to even more opportunities.

“There’s no need to think about it so hard, kid. If you really don’t want my help I suppose you can decide alone. I mean, not like I can’t figure out what it does from observing you while we train anyway,” Luc said, that amused smile plastered to his face.

Nate looked up at Luc. The man was only going to train him for two months and it seemed like it would be focused completely on his spatial skills. Was it worth telling someone who’d be in and out of his life in the blink of an eye? Worse. Did he trust Luc to know his Path better than he did? He didn’t. The thought was firm and unyielding.

Nate had taken input from Frick in his decisions. But Frick was connected to him. Frick knew his full background. Knew about Earth. Knew about the things he loved and the Path he wanted to walk. Ultimately Frick was an Assistant that had all the information so his advice had use, had value. Luc was none of these things. Luc knew about spatial magic. But he was in the dark about everything else, and in the end, Nate wasn’t willing to let him in. A teacher, sure. But not a trusted advisor.

“I’ll decide on my own,” he replied in a firm voice.

“Suit yourself, kid,” Luc said, walking back to his chair.

Nate watched him go. It felt good to decide for himself. To not give in to the pressure. With a small smile he looked at Frick.

“Can you see the options?” he asked mentally.

“Yep, Boss. Whatcha thinking?” Frick asked back.

“Spatial Guidance is the obvious choice for long range teleportation. But, if I am going to use this Class for combat in the Tournament and defending myself, then Spatial Awareness makes a lot more sense. I don’t have eyes in the back of my head and it sounds like this evolution could solve that,” he thought back at this Familiar.

“I agree, Boss. Besides, pretty sure you can get other Skills or Spells or maybe even Runes to do long range teleportation. Might take more time and more setup but that probably ain’t a problem for you,” Frick replied quickly.

Nate nodded. Combat was not his main interest. He knew that. Frick knew that. Kiri knew that. But combat was a fact of life in this world, and very likely, the multiverse. His conversation with Aisling had shown that. Nobles competed with each other for resources while the commoners got scraps, a few managing to uplift themselves through the Guild. He was sure there must be other organisations out there that worked on similar premises. But competition bred strife, even back on Earth. With strife came conflict. It was the same tired story, told with magic instead of mortars.

Nate shrugged off his morose thoughts. All he could do was put himself in the best possible position to achieve his hopes and dreams. Become one of those that managed to uplift themselves. Walk his own Path. With a sigh he selected Spatial Awareness.

Standing slowly he activated his newly evolved skill. He’d expected it to be somewhat similar to the original Spatial Sensitivity skill. He’d been almost entirely wrong. Beyond two metres around him, the skill was the same as it had been. But within two metres in any direction he could feel everything. It took him a minute to adjust as the information overwhelmed what he could process.

Slowly his mind, enhanced by mana and his Intellect stat, started to parse all the details the skill was revealing to him. He could count the stones in the earth beneath his feet and the worms and other bugs that burrowed through it in search of food. He could feel the leaves falling through the air nearby and when small eddies of air pressure changed their trajectories. He could feel the water in the tree behind him, slowly being drawn up from the earth to feed the leaves above. It was both beautiful and amazing. His little bubble of awareness.

Interestingly, the only thing he couldn’t feel was Frick. Mana and Soul Energy apparently did not occupy space..or at least, not in a way the skill could sense. That was fine, for now. After all, his Eyes of the Runic Artist could see those energies. He closed his eyes to better take all the information in, revelling in the newfound awareness. As he took a step forward to get used to his new sphere of awareness, he felt a spatial rift form to his left.

As the tear opened up to let the metal ball fly through, Nate found he could sense the opening on the other side of the rift. The other end of the rift was over next to Luc and well and truly outside of his sphere. The new sense finally revealed what the rift skill Luc used was doing, and how it was different to his own skills. The rift was clearly forcing space to overlap and then punching a hole through them to create a pathway, like a knife through a cardboard box, the edges jagged and torn.

As the flying metal ball approached Nate he flicked up a small barrier between himself and the projectile using a rune on his robe. In his sense, he could feel the condensed space around the metal ball compress as it impacted his barrier. It seemed Luc had been telling the truth when he said it would help Nate take less damage when he failed to defend against the little bullets. His constitution was pretty low and he just wasn’t made to get hit.

He grudgingly admitted to himself that Luc knew what he was doing with the training. Teaching him to make better use of his mana and how to defend himself was definitely going to help in the Tournament. That was the last thought he had time for as Luc had taken his defence as proof of readiness and more rifts began blooming around him, both inside and outside his sphere.

Nate chose not to open his eyes, using his new Spatial Awareness to sense everything entering the sphere around him. His Perception and Intellect stats proved their worth as he spun up smaller and smaller shields. The number of bullets began increasing, first five, then seven, then ten. Nate thought it would stop jumping by so many then but it instantly went to twelve. Barriers flashed around him as rather than try and reactivate his rune, which would’ve been a lesson in futility with his Channelling Speed, he kept a constant flow of mana to the rune. He coupled his rune activation with a similar constant flow of mana to Imbue Intent to alter the shape and position of the barrier.

As the number of metal bullets flying at him from every direction increased to fifteen he finally missed one, unable to shift enough Intents to block it. It flew in between two small barriers that blocked other bullets and slammed into his arm with enough force that he spun, losing his balance and crashing into the ground. Rolling over and spitting out the grass in his mouth he held back a groan and instead grinned through the pain. Fifteen was more than just a new record, even if he hadn’t been able to maintain it for very long. He’d smashed his previous best.

“New Skill is interesting, kid. Some sort of improved awareness it seems. You were keeping track of way more orbs that time,” Luc said cheerfully. “We’re going to use that to push the skill even further so I’d start preparing yourself mentally. This isn’t the last time you’re going to eat grass. But that’ll do for the day. Seems there is someone that wants to see you.”

Nate looked up and found that they were not alone in the clearing. He grinned from ear to ear when he saw Jorge standing not too far from Luc, both feet planted firmly on the grassy forest floor. That grin transformed into his stomach dropping when he saw the look on Jorge’s face and sunk even lower somehow when Jorge spoke.

“Where’s Kiri?” Jorge asked, his body language relaxed but Nate could hear the stress in his voice.

Ah fuck. Damn it Kiri you’ve thrown me under the bus on this one. You were supposed to leave a note!

“She’s err,” he hedged. How much was too much? Maybe she did leave a note and he just hadn’t found it. Should he just convince Jorge to check Kiri’s room? Surely she hadn’t forgotten? Who was he kidding? Forgetting to write a note for her father that detailed how she was off alone in a Dungeon risking her life for a shot at a Legendary Class sounded exactly like something Kiri would do. And by forgetting, he meant actively choosing not to leave a note telling her Father that. Kiri definitely subscribed to the school of ‘better to ask forgiveness than permission’.

“Nate,” Jorge said, his voice lowering to a growl.

“She’s in a Dungeon,” he blurted out in response. Time to follow the same school as Kiri. He’d ask her forgiveness later.

“She’s what?” Jorge said, his face morphing into one of confusion.

“She’s in a Dungeon not too far from here,” he repeated.

“I didn’t think there were any Dungeons this close to Helmfirth. This place is pretty well checked by Adventurers and locals collecting herbs and hunting the occasional beast. How did they miss it and you didn’t?” Jorge asked, eyes narrowing.

“Umm, well, it was underground which is probably why they didn’t find it, and we kind of stumbled onto it with Frick’s help,” he replied, motioning at the Familiar. “He can just float through walls and the ground.”

Frick helpfully took that moment to sink into the earth before floating back out closer to Nate. Jorge didn’t look convinced though. Nor did Luc for that matter, though his erstwhile teacher seemed incredibly amused at the interaction rather than curious, which Nate thought was a little odd.

“Alright. Take me to it then,” Jorge demanded in an even voice.

“Can you give me the direction?” Nate sent to Frick, appreciating when his Familiar simply floated up into the sky to do exactly that.

“Seems you’ll have a busy afternoon, Nate. No training tomorrow as it’s Restday. For me I mean. You better make sure you’re working on my payment. Enjoy your afternoon,” Luc said with a laugh before vanishing into a rift that Nate sensed. It was outside his sphere so he couldn’t tell where it ended.

Frick sent a mental message of the direction he needed to go and Nate started trudging that way with Jorge next to him. It was going to be a long afternoon. At least Kiri’s father didn’t know she’d gone into the Dungeon without a Class. He was sure they’d both get an earful when that came to light. Better to enjoy this moment as it was. It was probably going downhill from here.