Chapter 10: Soul Rune

Aion looked carefully at the book in his hands, Soul Rune, this was the book that he would have to use in case he didn’t manifest a spirit. Unlike the other books he didn’t dare skim through it as it was very important for him to know all the dangers that came with it and all the advantages.

 The first pages were similar to the others explaining the creators life but instead of skimming or outright skipping it Aion began to carefully read it as the creator might have the same problem that he might face of having not manifested his spirit. 

“For the later generations that read this if you use the methods in this book you will undoubtedly be unmatched once you reach the master stage, unfortunately most of this book is theory as I have only reached the primary rank in the human stage. Do to the treachery of my comrades my soul was badly damaged and my core destroyed, but through this I empowered my soul and even came up with a way to regain what I have lost. Sadly I'm to old to continue and only ask that this technique I call Soul Rune be completed.” 

Reading up to here Aion was astonished because his grandpa had told him that even if your core is destroyed a person can rebuild it and although that person would have to start from the beginning it wouldn’t be that difficult to regain one’s strength as all the necessary insights into an element would already have been learned. So coming up with a new cultivation method was generally a bad idea and a waste of time. 

“This method of mine does not require the cultivation and understanding of elemental energy, instead you are required to have a strong soul and endurance to pain. At the primary rank of the human stage I already had the use of a movement technique that could be considered unmatched even by those in the master stage, because I have figured out part of the space element.” 

Aion was astonished, the space element was somewhat more of a theory than something anyone had practiced, the only reason why it was theorized to be a useable element was because of the existence of two arrays, the first one being what was used to make holding bags and the second was the teleportation array. 

But no one understood how these worked as activating them was possible with any element just being slightly easier with light and darkness elements. 

“With this I should have been able to raise to the top but unfortunately in the process of creating this I have grown old and will not live much longer, but you who is reading this has a chance to succeed in this and become the most powerful being on this world, as a warning before you decide to use this technique, it will be impossible to use elemental energy to attack before you have completed the fifty-fourth rune and fighting will be done solely with your body as you will be unable to project elemental energy, in place of elemental energy using techniques will drain you of your stamina. As you will not condense a core you will not have to worry about having it destroyed this was the main focus of my technique and the reason developing it took so long.” 

With this Aion was extremely surprised as the only known and proven way for living creatures to go beyond the body's physical capabilities was to store elemental energy inside a core and learn to use it. 

“This method of mine is however very painful as it rips off part of your soul and uses it to write runes on ones body, every twenty seven runes written will be equivalent to a rank, every eighty one runes will mark the completion of a stage and when you have written two hundred and fourth-three you will no longer be just a flesh bag but an unmatched existence in this world, at least in theory. The basics of this technique is simple the first eighty one runes will be inscribed onto your skin and penetrate into your muscles, the second set of runes will be on your bones, and the final eighty one onto your organs.” 

With this Aion finally began to read the actual method he was already in a trance, this book was to much, as far as the soul goes his grandpa had told him that damaging it in any way would be a pain beyond anything he could think of and this book was telling him to do exactly that by directly using his soul as “ink”, it would be a pain most wouldn’t be able to bare. 

As he continued he found out that the in the very first part it was necessary to inscribe two arrays on his soul, these two arrays were for the space element one was minor teleportation and the other was for a holding bag, both were considered third ranked arrays. 

After doing so one would need to sit in a large array and made of elemental energy which you are most proficient in and wait for the rest, as it would move forward on its own from then on, after your soul healed it would grow stronger once the growth process finished you would just repeat the process of ripping your soul and placing runes on your body. 

He finally finished the book and shuddered this was not something he desired to do, he now strongly hoped that he would manifest a spirit as he had absolutely no desire to continuously rip apart his soul and feel great pain every time he would breakthrough into a new level, rank, or stage on top of all that everything here was mostly a theory that had only been used to the peak of the primary rank in the human stage. 

Aion got up slowly and walked towards his teacher with a pale face, seeing his face David understood perfectly what he was feeling because he had read and memorized the book. The promise of unmatched power was rather nice but didn’t have a guarantee and seemed like the most painful method anyone could have thought of. 

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“Kid don’t look so pale but remember that if you don’t have a spirit this is the only way I have, your grandpa told you I would have a way and this is it, I don’t know how he knew maybe by the technique I used but this really is the only solution I have.” 

Aion heard this and couldn’t help but nod he had faith in his grandpa and teacher even if this was a theory it would be solid, sense it was given to him by his teacher and recommended by his grandpa. 

What the two didn’t know is that his grandpa had meant something else entirely, the spirit came from the human soul and so his grandpa was sure that Aion wouldn’t have one but on the test either David's or Alexander’s spirit had a high chance of showing up after that all it would take was either of the two releasing their spirit and using it to help Aion condense a core. 

Ban had understood the connection between the soul and spirit because as a necromancer he would work with souls whenever attaching one to an undead creature and had understood his own spirit to the extent that he knew where it came from. 

The only reason Ban hadn’t shared this information with Aion was fear that he would form a core early and it would affect him later in his growth. But David lacked this knowledge and had let the determined Aion see this Soul Rune book in order to bring up his strength if nothing else was possible.

Aion spent the next three days continuing his staring contest with the unknown array while thinking about the Soul Rune techniques, but as much as he thought about it he couldn’t bring himself to fully accept it as he greatly desired the Lightning Tyrant’s Body techniques, considering that they had everything that Aion desired speed, strength, and to rely on nothing but ones own strength.

 Seeing Aion this way Ban decided to give him an array that he would be able to figure out, it was considered a sixth rank array but it was actually rather simple and with a little work Aion would be able to figure out what the array was in twenty days or so which would give him a better distraction than continuing this staring contest. 

“Aion here I have a better array I won't tell you what rank it is but you should be able to figure it out in time.” Saying this Ban tossed him the paper where the array was drawn. 

Taking the paper Aion looked outside and suddenly remembered something, his friend Paul, Aion treasured his friends almost putting them on the same level as his family and Paul was the same age as him so he would be going to the spirit manifestation test as well and would need a book on magic as he desired to be a mage. 

“Grandpa, do you have a book on magic that Paul could use?” This question surprised Ban, as he knew that Aion had made friends with the boy but did not think that he would ask a favor for him especially as he rarely asked for things in the first place outside of food or borrowing books. 

“Hm, did little Paul ask you for a book?” Aion promptly shook his head 

“No.” 

“Then why do you ask for one?” Aion had to think on this because he wanted to give a complete answer and because he had asked in the spur of the moment And wasn’t to sure. 

“… To help my friend.” 

“Then wait until after the spirit test if I have something suitable for him that won’t cause any problems, we’ll give it to him.” 

“Un” 

“Good now go out and find your friend, play outside for a while and you can continue with the arrays tomorrow.” Hearing this Aion nodded and began to walk out of their house, it was a small home with only four rooms a bedroom for each person, Ban’s study, and a washroom other than that was just a small kitchen and living room in one the only large part of the house was the back yard which was twice the size of the house. 

As Aion was walking towards the Inn people would occasionally stare at him, but as most people had already seen him and more importantly his eyes, it didn’t really bother anyone except children and a small number of the adults. When he walked into the inn Mrs. Waterbear immediately noticed him and called out to him 

“Aion, Paul is doing his chores and helping out but if you want to stick around and help there will be a good meal waiting for you when you finish.” To this Aion happily nodded and ran towards the back of the inn prepared to do chores, this was something he did occasionally to get a good meal from Paul's mother. 

Aion had met Paul by following the sent of the food that Mr. Waterbear had cooked and asked his grandpa to order food from the inns dinner. In the end Aion had even eaten a portion large enough for an adult and had impressed the four year old Paul, from then on Aion and his grandpa would eat at the inn at least once every ten days. 

Once he had located Paul Aion informed him that he was there to help and the two boys spent their day washing dishes, cleaning clothes, and tables all the while sneaking snacks and eating delicious food at fixed intervals. 

As the sun was staring to set Aion informed Paul of what his grandpa said and told him to keep it a secret as it might cause trouble, after all Paul wasn’t planing to join an academy because his parents wanted him to take over the inn when he was older but what kid doesn’t dream of being a mighty warrior or a powerful mage.