Rune World
Victoria infused her Qi with the intent to heat, carefully infusing it into a large pair of horns as she slowly shaped them into the arms of a bow. She let the arms cool as she braided together a bow string made from tendons, before fitting them together with a steel handle and stringing the bow. “Chris!” She called out as she finished, holding up the bow as he appeared next to her. “This one is made from the materials of a peak Core Forging Essence Beast. Give it a shot.”
Chris nodded, taking the bow as an arrow appeared in his other hand, knocking it and pulling back as his Essence flowed into the bow, aiming at a nearby target before releasing, the arrow driving into the bullseye of the wooden block, right down to the fletching. “Not bad.” Chris nodded. “A few cracks, but it should last a good four or five shots before I have to fix it.”
Victoria sighed. “I'm beginning to understand why archery never took off in this World.”
Chris grunted in agreement. “Still a shame though.”
“Yeah, alright, could you send me back to my room? I need to meditate on my Craft Rune.” Victoria asked, shaking her head.
Chris paused, giving her a look. “Beatrice is there.”
Victoria raised an eyebrow. “Okay? And?”
“If you want to meditate, you shouldn't go where Beatrice is.” Chris commented.
Victoria rolled her eyes. “Chris, I'm perfectly capable of controlling myself.”
“No you aren't.” Chris retorted firmly. “Of the past fifty times you and Beatrice have been alone together, forty-four of those times have resulted in sex within half an hour. The other six resulted in sex within two hours, after about an hour of talking.”
Victoria flushed. “That isn't- you can't- stop- Fuck!” She cursed. “I know you can't keep yourself from monitoring my sex life, but could you at least pretend you aren't?!?”
Chris shrugged. “I'm just trying to help you make better decisions. You should go to your mediation room. You can be with Beatrice after you're done.”
“I don't need you babysitting me.” Victoria grumbled, crossing her arms petulantly before letting out a sigh. “Fine. Send me to the meditation room.”
“Have fun.” Chris nodded, sending her away, before leaving himself, reappearing outside his world next to Jade. “New bow.” He announced, handing a duplicate of the one Victoria had made to her.
“How many shots?” Jade asked as she took the bow.
“Four or five for me. Maybe a bit more for you.” Chris answered.
Jade sighed. “That still isn't great.”
Chris shrugged. “It's hard to find materials that are both durable and flexible. This is probably as good as we're going to get.” He then gestured to the town they were currently standing in the main square of, at a recruitment stand for the Eternal Sect with Tiffany and a few others. “How are things going here?” They'd been visiting the towns closest to Tamara in preparation for the invasion, recruiting people into the Eternal Sect and gathering resources while setting down portal points so they could respond to whatever the Hidden Blades did.
“The same as usual. Some are eager to join, some are hesitant, some want nothing to do with us, and some actively oppose us, what little good that does them.” Jade replied, hesitating for a moment. “This town does have an interesting shop that sells a candy made from the sap of one of the local trees. I was wondering if you'd be interested in trying it before Greg kills them all?”
“He's been getting better. He only killed half the trees he used in his last cultivation session.” Chris commented. “But we should probably see if this candy is worth encouraging him to avoid this species.”
Jade smiled. “Great! There's also this cute little garden near the shop with some interesting flowers you may not have encountered before. We could explore it while we try the candy?”
Chris nodded. “Good idea.”
Jade's smile widened. “Shall we then?”
“Lead the way.” Chris agreed. Tiffany smirked as she watched the two leave. Jade was getting much better at tricking Chris into dates.
Meanwhile, Andrew was in a nearby forest in the form of a wolf, searching for Rune Beasts. He sensed a Circulatory Realm Beast with his aura vision and picked up the pace, making his way closer. He pulled up short as a piercing cry echoed through the forest and a hawk swooped from its perch, flashing through the air right in front of Andrew, before landing on a nearby branch.
“This is my territory, wolf!” The hawk declared. “Leave or die!”
“I'm here with a warning and an offer!” Andrew countered. “One of the human sects is planning on uniting all the nations in this region under their rule, forming an Empire. If they do so, they will subdue any powerful Rune Beast in the region and hunt the rest for resources! If you want to be more than a simple resource for humanity, join us! We can give you the power to cultivate like a human, resources to improve your cultivation, and ensure your survival! All we ask is that you help us defeat this threat!”
“To cultivate like a human?” The hawk asked. “How is that possible?”
“That is a secret of our sect, but I assure you, it is effective.” Andrew replied, closing his eyes for a moment and focusing on his Rune to gather energy. “See?”
“Incredible.” The hawk muttered, before pausing. “A sect? You wish to play like the humans?”
“We wish to play with the humans.” Andrew explained. “The Eternal Sect is composed of both humans and beasts, cooperating together. Our goal is to stop the conflict between the two sides, between everyone really. And the first step is preventing the Hidden Blades from starting a war that will tear this entire region apart.”
The hawk considered the idea for a moment. “I will think on this. Where might I find the Eternal Sect?”
A card appeared next to Andrew, and he used a Spirit thread to pick it up and hand it to the hawk. “Rip this if you wish to contact us.” Andrew replied, giving the hawk a nod before leaving to find the next Rune Beast to give his recruitment offer. All the powerful Cultivators were attached to sects or nations already, so the Eternal Sect had turned to the Rune Beasts for their upper level combatants. Rune Beasts were easily satisfied with simple quality of life improvements like food and shelter, plus they practically jumped at the chance to improve their cultivation speed.
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As for Greg, well… “I want that damnable creature erased!” Jocelyn roared, pounding the table in the war room. Dozens of their supply lines had been destroyed by that cursed smoke creature! And since that fucking girl’s system had stopped working after her territory had been destroyed by a Beast Tide, every supply lost was another delay, which gave the other sects more chances to learn of their plans and prepare for them! She had to waste precious resources creating protections against the fucking thing, just so their supplies would be safe! Where had it even come from?!? And why was it targeting them!?!
A small patch of smoke watched Jocelyn rage in amusement, before Greg merged it with a section of the ceiling. His self in the Eternal Sect's war room opened his eyes, chuckling as he turned to Albert. “I think if I fuck with that woman any more, she'll have an aneurysm.”
“And you wonder why you have the Terrorize Rune.” Albert muttered under his breath. “So, how much longer do we have?”
“Well, they finally wised up and started protecting all their supplies, so once they have everything they need, they'll march. Given their rate of gathering… I'd say a week before they cross into Farova?” Greg shrugged.
Albert sighed. “I suppose that's all we could hope for. We've already delayed them for a month. Hopefully it will be enough.”
“The problem is we still lack anyone powerful enough to face their Unification Realm Cultivators.” Foratuna frowned. “Our best combatants are mid-stage single path Circulatory realms, and they're all Rune Beasts, or at least they used to be. Without the proper techniques that a sect would provide, their power is halved.”
“Yeah, Horace leaving kinda screwed us there, didn't it.” Greg grumbled.
Ursa shook his head. “This isn't his region. It isn't even his continent. He has no reason to get caught up in our war. Besides, a single low-stage Unification Realm wouldn't win this war for us.”
“Still would have been nice to have though.” Greg retorted.
“Let's focus on what we do have.” Albert interjected. “How are our forces looking?”
“Of those willing to fight, we currently have about four thousand Cultivators in the Energy Gathering realm, a tenth of that in the Core Strengthening realm, and thirteen in Circulatory realm.” Maurice listed off.
“Make that fourteen.” Chris interjected as he appeared at the table. “Just recruited a hawk.”
“Not exactly the most terrifying force.” Foratuna muttered.
“It is when you consider the fact that they're all immortal.” Chris commented.
Semloh shook his head. “This is a defensive war. It doesn't matter how many times you can bring your soldiers back if you can't keep your enemies from overrunning you. What does it matter that your soldiers are still alive if the town you were protecting is destroyed?”
“I'm sure it matters to the soldiers, but I get your point.” Chris agreed.
“I'd say we should go on the attack, but I don't think the Hidden Blades will just let us destroy their army, so without the ability to overcome a Unification realm Cultivator, that idea is fucked.” Greg sighed.
“We could keep hitting supply lines.” Foratuna offered. “Chris's ability gives us the mobility to strike anywhere we please. There's no possible way they could keep them all defended.”
Albert nodded. “That's a good idea. Without supplies, they have no army, and without an army, they can't hold territory.”
Greg chuckled. “Yeah, we're definitely going to be giving Jocelyn an aneurysm.”
*
Andrew woke everyone up in the Core Room. “I think this World might be a bit more complicated than Maze World. Look.” He gestured to the crystal in the center, where barely any blobs were present, no matter the color.
“To be fair, we haven't exactly done much here.” Chris commented. “This region alone has dozens of kingdoms, and we've barely covered a fief in one of the smaller ones, while in Maze World, we're involved in three or four major nations.”
Victoria frowned. “Three or four?”
“The Elven Kingdom, the Damir, half for the Dragons, half for the Doppelgangers, and then the question is whether you'd count humanity as a major nation. If you throw in Earth, I'd definitely say yes, but Earth is also a half, so I'm not sure.” Chris explained.
Victoria paused for a moment, before nodding. “Yeah, that math checks out.”
“Even there we're nowhere close to filling the entire crystal.” Andrew commented, frowning slightly.
“Hey, we still don't know for sure whether that's what we have to do.” Greg retorted. “Plus, influence is something that builds on itself. The more you have, the faster it grows. You see it all the time in books. The main character struggles for the first one, starts gaining momentum in the second, and by the third he's steamrolling everyone. Which, of course, is when the author sends him to a higher- realm, shit.” Greg groaned. “Higher realms are a staple of cultivation novels, and higher realms are going to be a bitch for us.”
Victoria raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“Because in higher realms, everyone is at a minimum level of cultivation.” Greg explained. “Like, if this World has a higher realm, I'd bet money that the minimum cultivation there would be the Unification realm. Which means an entire realm of people our abilities can barely even touch!”
The other three paused to consider that for a moment. “So we'll have to depend less on our abilities.” Chris shrugged. “We're still immortal. We'll figure it out.”
“I never said we wouldn't, I just said it'd be a bitch.” Greg pointed out.
“Also, we don't know for sure that's the case here.” Chris continued. “Another staple of cultivation novels is expansive worlds where the power level- increases by region, which is essentially the same thing, so nevermind.”
“Alright, forget all that.” Victoria sighed. “What are our next steps? We're obviously going to be working on stopping the Hidden Blades, which is going to be a mess, I'm sure. The question is what else should we be doing? Like should we start spreading the system outside the Eternal Sect, or should we wait until the Hidden Blades are defeated? Though… even without the Hidden Blades, the system is going to cause chaos, so I'm not sure.”
“I think we should continue as we have.” Chris replied. “We're expanding slowly, but surely, and once the Hidden Blades make their move, it should go faster. If we spread the system now, people will think they have a chance on their own, which they won't, and a lot of people who didn't have to die will.”
“Good point.” Victoria muttered. “Okay, then I suppose what we really need to work on is increasing our Cultivation. If what Greg said is true, we're going to need it.”
“What we need is a faster way to gain energy.” Andrew sighed. “The system helps, but cores are a huge boost, and we've put them completely off the table, except for the cores Chris makes. But even with Chris filling cores with energy for us, we still need something to actually provide that energy.”
“Because Rune Beasts are people.” Greg rolled his eyes. “You're the one who made the argument that hunting people for our own gain is bad.”
“I know, and I still say that, but it still slows down our progress.” Andrew retorted. “I'm not suggesting we do it, I'm saying we need another way.”
“He's not wrong.” Chris agreed.
Victoria shook her head. “No, he isn't, but I honestly don't know any way to increase your cultivation speed besides raising your Runes or collecting cores. Even items designed to increase the energy density around you only make it so your Rune can work at peak capacity.”
“Another thing to work on then.” Greg nodded. “Maybe Obanonos would know?”
Victoria paused. “Good idea, I'll ask him.”
“Finish meditating first.” Chris insisted. “And maybe ask Beatrice to leave the room.”
Victoria groaned. “Chris, I hate you.”