Unbinding that sigil had given him three ranks in the skill, and he tensed, sure that he was about to be beset by another rune, this time without the means to resist it. However, no such attack came, and he was left there, pondering what exactly this skill meant. It was clearly to do with his Divinity, but it seemed that not even the gods had it, based on the way that the System had described it. Was it to do with his special status as an Outsider? Could that have broken through some universal limiter, allowing him to catch a glimpse of the true meaning of everything? In any case, it seemed that the skill was not entirely passive, as he had been able to break that sigil. However, that had been a single rune, and when he studied the ones in his eyes again, he saw that there were hundreds, if not thousands, of intricately layered sigils there. Even just looking at it for a prolonged amount of time made his brain hurt, and he quickly deactivated the skill. That had been an entirely unexpected occurrence, but now that he had the skill, he wasn't sure what exactly he was supposed to do with it. Could he use it to empower himself in some way? Or was it only useful if the System attacked him. He knew that the myriad runes that were contained within his eyes were far beyond his ability to change, so he tried something else.

Focusing on the ground in front of himself, Jonathan envisioned the twisted shape of the rune that the System had used on him. His enhanced Intelligence meant that the memory was firmly entrenched in his mind, and he was able to draw it out with his finger and some ash. Even in its inert state the rune still looked dangerous, and it was like staring at a fragment of death itself. With a deep breath, Jonathan sent some Divinity into the sigil. The one good thing about having low Divinity was that it recharged extremely quickly. His energy poured into the sigil without stopping,almost bottoming him out. At the last moment however, it clicked into place, and the rune blazed with light. A wave of red energy surged out of the rune, washing over him. It did not harm him, but he heard a squeal from outside. Rushing out, he saw that one of the Ash Prowlers was leaning up against the wall, dead. His rune seemed to have worked. A notification chimed a moment later.

You have learned the Rune of Hatred!

This rune, powered by Divinity, will kill any enemies within a certain radius. The radius, and the power of the rune, depends on the amount of Divinity placed into it.

It seemed that each rune had a different meaning, forming some sort of runic alphabet that could be used to do things. Looking at his runic pathways as he used his Mana Drill skill, Jonathan was just about able to recognize a few runes before his Divinity gave out on him. He swayed, but managed to stop himself from collapsing, a first. He had understood a few of the basic concepts imbued in a few of these runes, such as one that seemed to embody an aspect of connection, another that seemed made to stabilize the entire thing, and another that would channel power. He had made a small, but significant step, in understanding the runes. Another notification appeared, and he quickly opened it.

You have gained a new Pathway Skill!

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Runecrafting:Novice 4

Build off your forbidden Truesight skill to not only understand the runes that make up the world around you, but edit them as well to your own desires. There are runes for every concept in existence, and finding them will be a monumental task.

Jonathan grinned at this. Not only could he read the sigils that the System was so afraid of, he could also make them. All this time, he was so excited with his new abilities, that he did not notice the small rune hovering just out of sight behind his head. If he had studied himself in the mirror, he would have noticed it, but he was too distracted to do so. Instead, he packed up and left the safety of the bell.

Nothing happened for a few hours, but eventually a faint rumbling noise started to be heard from the north. Jonathan frowned and paused, looking in that direction. A small cloud of dust was visible in the distance,but it seemed like it was getting closer. It almost appeared like some sort of sandstorm,but for the duration of Jonathan’s stay here, he had been unaware of any sort of wind in the Ash Heaps. No, this was something else. Something that he did not want to be anywhere near.

He began running for a nearby structure, looking for shelter from the coming storm. Hopefully the ruined castle that was in front of him was sturdy enough to stand up to whatever was coming. It was quite small, as castles went, but most of it was in serviceable condition, especially the walls, which were the most important part. He dashed through the splintered gate and raced up the stairs towards the top of the wall, trying to get a better vantage point. By this point, the cloud of dust was visibly larger than before, and he was able to pick out small flashes of motion within it. The motion of what looked disturbingly like titanic claws. For it to be visible from this distance, whatever those claws belonged to had to be incredibly large.

Jonathan took a deep breath and crouched behind the wall, trying to make his profile as small as possible. Whatever was coming was certainly some sort of monster, and one far beyond anything Jonathan had dealt with before. As the earth began to tremble around him, he started to desperately search for a way out. There was no point in trying to outrun whatever was coming towards him, as it was far faster than him. All that would do was get him trampled or eviscerated by the claws that he had seen. None of his abilities were potent enough to stand a chance against that monster either, except for his new Runecrafting skill, which was a loose cannon. It might do something to the monster, but it might also prove to be nothing more than an annoyance. The area of effect that the Rune of Hatred had covered had been about twenty feet, and it had been powerful enough to kill an Ash Prowler with ease. The only question was whether it was strong enough to hold against this monster. The main problem was that Jonathan only had a small amount of Divinity available with which to empower the rune, but as far as he could tell, it was his only option.

Sighing, he got to work drawing as many of the runes as he could. By the time that he had begun to imbue the first of the runes, the monster had come into sight. It was utterly terrifying. A fifty foot tall reptilian creature, it was covered in lines of dark scales, and its many legs were topped with curved claws that looked sharp enough to cut a tree in half. Two heads poked out of the top of its monstrous torso, each of which was crowned with a ridge of spikes. Jonathan quickly analyzed the monster, but only got question marks in response. Whatever this thing was, it was not Tier 1.