Ruth ended up getting two new runes from the bow. A water-element rune, and something called a “verb Attack” rune. Josh wasn't entirely sure what that meant. It seemed to modify the water rune, make it so that the bow used water to attack. That made sense, but Ruth insisted on calling it a “verb” rune. Not a verbal rune, which was his first thought. A verb.
When he asked if elements were nouns, her eyes had gone wide, and she whispered “that makes so much sense.” Then she scribbled in her notebook for an hour.
Mary and Darius came back late. Almost disturbingly late, in fact. Josh wished they had radios. Mary still didn't talk to him, but she did give him a polite nod before she went to sleep, so he would call that a win.
Darius confirmed that they didn't do much. They shot some monsters, but nothing large or valuable. They hadn't leveled, or found anything worth bringing back. Still, Mary had burned off much of her frustration, and that was the real point.
The mayor came around the next morning to see what they could do. Mary walked right out of breakfast, dragging Darius with her, declaring that they were going to find him the materials he needed. Josh wished them luck.
The mayor was impressed with Ruth's steam frag grenades and Josh's runestone talismans. However, what she really wanted to see was what kind of structures he could create. When he built a table with a literal wave of his hand, she was suitably impressed. He said he didn't want to build another shack, since they didn't need another shack. The mayor agreed.
“What about your abilities with stone?” she asked. “Wood is a useful building material because it is in infinite supply. But if you can build a stone wall, that will be quite the improvement.”
“I haven't done much yet,” he admitted. “I need some real tools to do most of it.”
The mayor nodded. “We'll make a list.” Her bodyguard took out a clipboard.
The list was short. Josh didn't exactly have experience working with stone; he didn't know what he would need. Still, he thought the basics were easy enough. A hammer, a chisel, a pick, a hand drill. Once he had all of those, he thought the rest could be covered by his spells.
He did have a chance to make some stone equipment, though, even if it wasn't that impressive. He made a stone spear and got a blueprint for it. The mayor pointed out that they had metal spears. He had already tried to get a blueprint for a spear with a metal head. Despite the majority of the weapon's mass being wood, it hadn't worked. Josh assumed he needed a skill to craft metal first.
Stone armor was out of the question. Well, mostly. He made a stone breastplate out of a single large, flat stone that was about the right shape already. He chipped away at the edges, drilled holes for leather straps, and attached it to a leather chest piece. He immediately received a blueprint for [Stone Chest Piece (stone) (shoddy)]. It was considered a poor variant of the [Wooden Chest Piece] blueprint he already had.
Mary was much calmer now, though she tried not to speak to the mayor. She laughed at his stone armor, and was very impressed with Ruth's new runes.
“I wish I could learn your spells,” she said ruefully. “I need at least eight spells to be able to advance to Mage Gunner. I have one.”
The mayor walked over. Ruth was carving runes into wood, muttering to herself about palindromes of all things, while Josh made large bundles of arrows with [Instant Crafting]. Mary lounged in the chair Josh had made.
“What's this?” the mayor asked. She quirked an eyebrow at Mary. “You're trying for an Improved-tier class so early?”
Basic-tier classes were easy to earn. There were a dozen ways to earn every one, through various combinations of bloodstones or stat milestones from a specific class. Everything beyond that required a specific achievement to earn, sometimes along with a stat milestone. Mage Gunner was a well-known one: You needed eight Gunner spells by the time of your class advancement. The problem was that Gunner was a physical-type class. It was hard to get spells for it.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Yeah,” Mary said. “It's always fit my style, and this doesn't seem like the year to experiment.” She jerked a thumb at Josh. “We've already got one doing enough with a class he's not used to.”
The mayor nodded. “I've tried for Mage Gunner before. I gave up and went with Sniper instead. What do you have?”
“Pyro Shot,” Mary grunted. She had learned that spell without too much trouble because she already had Pyro Arrow from her Archer class.
The mayor made a noise of agreement. “Yes, that's how it was for me as well.” She shook her head. “I wish it was easier to learn more elements.” She gave a small smile. “One time, I tried tying a rock to the end of my arrow to see if I got a spell for that.”
Darius walked over. “Fire is easy. It is energy. Natural fire and magical fire are not so different. Natural earth and magical earth are something else altogether.”
“Yes, but I was frustrated and willing to try absurd solutions.”
“I got it!” Ruth cried, jumping up with the piece of wood in her hands. She held it up triumphantly. It had a circle of glowing runes on it: One large rune at the top, and the rest circling around it.
They all flinched back. Not just because she had suddenly surprised them, but because the ground under their feet moved. Every time she waved that piece of wood around, the light of the runes flared, and the ground shifted. As if trying to follow around the board like a puppy.
“Ruth,” Josh said, exasperated, “what's got you all up in a tizzy? What did you do?”
She grinned. “The runes on the dungeon were so confusing. There were almost no major runes, and so many connector runes, and I only know what some of them are, but then the Attack rune was a verb, and you said the elements were nouns, which means—”
“Oi!” Josh clapped his hands. Ruth jumped as if he had grabbed her. She looked at him with wide eyes. He spoke slowly. “What did you do?”
She grinned widely. “The runes are a language. The 'connector' runes are most of it. Each rune-chain has to be a sentence. There has to be a major rune to form the core, and then the rest describes what that rune does or how it's used.” She pointed at the circle. “I still don't understand most of this. I copied this circle exactly from the dungeon. This one controls earth in a small area.”
“Okay...” Josh said. “Can you give it a toggle?”
Ruth blinked. “What?”
Darius sighed. “He means turn it off, Ruth.”
She finally noticed that the ground under their feet was shaking every time she twitched. “Oh!” She concentrated on the board. The light faded, though Josh noticed there was still a subtle glow. A minimum required for the runes to be considered valid, perhaps? She had said she had to put magic in them all at once. “It didn't really have enough power to do anything, though.”
“It did a sight more than nothing,” Mary muttered, wiping off her pants.
Josh thought for a moment. “But you could make some runes that could shake something bigger, yeah?”
“Well, sure, but I don't think I'm going to be burying any monsters any time soon! It's too slow.”
Josh laughed. “I was thinking more a magic shovel.”
Ruth blinked for a moment, then smiled. “Yeah! I think I can do that.”
The mayor took the board from her, frowning. “This rune, the large one.” She tapped it. “It controls the earth?”
Ruth twirled around. “Oh by the Eight, it's so much more complicated than that! It's not just dirt, or soil, or whatever, it's everything! Stone and mud and I think metal? I haven't gotten that far yet. That's why all the extra minor runes are needed to control it! I think all the runes are like that, with a bunch of extra functions that have to be controlled manually.”
“But it controls elemental earth,” the mayor pressed.
“Yep!”
“Can you put it on a bullet?”
Mary stopped muttering to herself and looked up at the mayor. Darius looked at her for a moment before pulling out a notepad and quickly writing. Josh grinned.
After a moment, so did Ruth.
“Yeah,” she said. “I think I can do that.”