Jonathan drifted in a half aware sight, watching the colorful strands of his mana interact with the outside world. They were beautiful, in a stark, austere way. Although it was all of the same color, it looked like tiny auroras were forming around his skin. Eventually, many hours later, Jonathan reached a sufficient level of understanding to upgrade his mastery.
You have reached Journeyman Rank 4 with Mana Manipulation!
He opened his eyes, spotting Edgar meditating a few dozen feet away. It was dark outside, which meant that more time had passed than he had thought. The other man was surrounded by a mantle of wind, and it cycled in and out of his body as he worked.
Jonathan watched in silence, and then went back to his own work, realizing that Edgar was in a world of his own. Before he ascended the last few levels to the peak of the Tier, he would need to consolidate his runic expertise, perhaps creating a new array, or at least finding a new rune. Jonathan sat back down, feeling the miraculous looseness in his joints that only high stats could preserve after hours of sitting still.
As he sat, he meditated on his skill arrays, searching through the runes for something that looked useful. Eventually, his eyes landed upon a rune that was shaped vaguely like a curled bicep. The shapes of runes were purely conceptual, and it could have meant anything. However, Jonathan was sure that it was something to do with the concept of strength. With it, he would be able to empower his other arrays beyond their normal parameters, or perhaps even empower his own body. The possibilities were endless.
Jonathan carefully plucked the rune out of its array, trying to memorize it to a sufficient degree. It was a bit more complicated than other runes that he had seen, but he needed a bit of a power injection anyway. Eventually, he had the rune in his mindsight, and he began to transcribe it onto the stone before him. Almost immediately, something went wrong. His rune went out of control, and the small patch of rock that it was on bulged violently, cracking the floor of the cave. The rune pulsed again, and the rock continued to swell. Jonathan quickly banished it, not sure where he had gone wrong. This rune had a more conceptual bent than his others, in that he needed to keep it tightly under control with his will to make full use of it.
He started again, more slowly this time. Eventually, he realized that the arm of the bicep, or at least the vague shape that made it up, was drawn a bit bigger than it was supposed to be. It was almost as if the rune was fighting against his attempts to control it.
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Jonathan wrested it back under his will, and started to force it to bow down to his power. The rune came into being once more, its form rippling as it tried to claw its way into the world. It seemed a lot more sentient than the other runes he had and it seemed to want to further its own agenda within the world, rather than obeying him. He had found a higher tiered rune. However, he would be damned if he gave up now. He was only getting started.
It took him over five hours to eventually force the rune to bend to his will. Five long, tortuous hours that tested his resolve to its utmost. However, he finally succeeded, creating a perfect version of the rune.
You have discovered a new rune!
Rune of Physicality
This rune adds a greater degree of strength and permanence to whatever it is attached to. While it is a far weaker form of the Rune of Strength, it shares many of its abilities.
The name of the rune was not exactly what he had expected, but it was still useful. The amount of experience towards his Runecrafting skill was less than he would have expected, given the difficulty. Then again, the entire concept of a Journeyman in a skill was of a person who spent years of their life honing their craft. It would have been stranger for a single rune to make that much of a difference at this point. Rather, it gave about a half of a rank in his skill in terms of experience. To further it, he would need to continue to create more of the runes.
As Jonathan and Edgar trained, the city started to ramp up its development. Everyone could sense the tension in the air, created by the burgeoning hope that this circle of hell would be liberated. Jonathan was almost at the same level as Granath, if not quite as powerful, and his mere presence instilled hope in the citizens of the city.
People began to sign up for the city’s armed forces in record numbers, and with the help of the Uthraki, the walls expanded. The trickle of prospective citizens had turned into a flood by this point, and thousands arrived every few days. At this point, it was a city in truth, built out of the inhospitable ash from the hopes and dreams of its inhabitants. Slowly but surely, more and more Tier 2s joined the ranks of the city, bolstering its fighting capabilities dramatically. Every few days, Jonathan went to the realm of Tartarus to train. With his pinnacle strength for the realm, he was able to defeat almost anyone there. However, the innermost core of the realm had remained unbreached, as it contained old monsters and powerhouses that were close to his level.
Jonathan wanted to wait until he was ready for the final push to level 199 to go there. Of course, his short trips barely provided enough essence for a fraction of a level, let alone a full one. Only Peak Tier 2s would be able to sate his thirst at this point.