Cole slept without trouble, waking up keen to test out his new ability. He made his way down to the mess hall, quickly shoveling down the delicious meals provided by the mess hall staff once more. While he missed cooking, it was hard to complain about the quality of food.

As far as he knew, Cole was free to entertain himself until the afternoon, when he’d go with Thesta to train once more. Today however, he was incredibly eager to do some solo work. After he’d eaten, Cole went back up to his room, grabbing his two spears. He wasn’t going to be caught empty handed in the wilderness again. As he passed the reception desk to exit the building, he heard someone call his name.

“Cole! Hey!”

He turned around to see the armour-clad figure of Godrick waving at him, beckoning him to come over. Cole waved back, walking over to see what the man wanted.

“You’re not due for training with Thesta till this afternoon. Where are you going with those spears?”

“I wanted to do some exploring around the borders of the village, if that’s okay…”

Godrick stroked his chin, which made a comical clanking sound due to his metal gauntlets.

“I don’t love the idea of you being out there on your own…”

Cole couldn’t stop his face from dropping. He would have to wait until this afternoon to test out his powers. Even though he could technically use them inside the village, he wasn’t sure how powerful the Hallowed Blast would be, and he didn’t want to cause any collateral damage that would draw attention to himself.

Godrick brightened, “I have just the solution! Come with me “

The armoured man led Cole through another door, opposite the one that led down to the Pylon room. Inside was another one of the iron doors with no visible keyhole. Godrick pressed his gauntlet against the cool iron, causing it to glow white. The door swung open, and the pair passed through.

As Cole went underneath the doorframe, his jaw dropped. They’d entered a large hall, where the walls were arrayed with weapons and armour. At the end of the room was a large iron door that seemed to be specially reinforced, and this time had a keyhole. This was the armoury.

“Wait here,” said Godrick, striding down to the end of the room. As the man opened the door, Cole took the time to look around at what was on display. On one side were the weapons, standard straight swords and spears lined up. There were hatchets and knives, and some ranged weapons like longbows, crossbows, and slings.

The other side of the room had armour. Ranging from hard leather, to tough steel, Cole felt like he’d walked into a fantasy themed H&M. He eyed a majestic set of armour with a crusader style helm that was way too big for him, picturing himself charging into battle empowered by the strength of Runes.

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Cole’s daydreaming was interrupted by the return of Godrick, who held in his hands a piece of paper that glowed with a soft white light. In the centre was a blue rune. Godrick pressed the piece of paper onto Cole’s skin, rubbing it into him, which wasn’t a hugely pleasant sensation coming from a huge metal gauntlet. When he took his hands away, the paper remained stuck there, blue rune facing his skin.

“Percy’ll kill me if I lose you. Although Venture’s Adventurer’s Guild is large for the town’s size, we only have a few heavy hitters. The vast majority of people who have combat classes in this town are stuck in the first phase. Our strongest defenders have been spread thin, and are barely holding themselves together. You walking into our hands was an unexpected gift, and it would be a shame to waste that.”

Cole nodded, he supposed that made sense, but it didn’t explain the piece of paper that was stuck to his arm. Godrick noticed the questioning look on his face.

“I took a page out of Thesta’s book,” chuckled the armour-clad man, far too impressed with his own joke. “That there is a Beacon. They’re standard issue for our adventuring parties, but this one is directly keyed to me. You get into something you can’t handle and that there will let me know exactly where you are so I can come to your rescue. All you need to do is rip it off your skin, and tear it down the middle, which will break the rune. Got it?”

The young man nodded, looking at his new accessory. I guess it’ll let them find my body if I die too quickly as well, he thought grimly.

“Thanks Godrick, I really appreciate it.”

As the pair left the armoury, Cole looked wistfully at the heavy, iron tipped spears that were filling up a wooden barrel. He almost asked to take one, but decided against it, unsure if he’d be able to get used to the weight of a real spear that quickly. Once they’d come back to the reception area of the Adventurer’s Guild, Cole bid Godrick farewell, and headed out the door.

The streets were as busy as they had been the night before. It was definitely this world’s equivalent of a weekend. Cole amused himself by examining the shops and merchant stalls along the way, until he almost bowled a citizen over for the third time, resolving to keep his eyes fixed forward. Soon enough he made it to the palisade. The guards, who had seen him with Thesta the day before, must have assumed he was part of the Adventurer’s Guild, and merely waved him through the gate.

Once outside, Cole traced out his Runic Speed, letting out a satisfied breath as energy filled his legs. He dashed out, veering away from the river, and heading into deeper forest. He didn’t run quite as fast as he knew he could, instead taking extra care not to bash through every bush and low hanging branch, for the sake of his clothes. While traveling out, Cole didn’t see any monsters, and only once saw a pair of deer which were startled away by the noise he was making.

Sometime after he was forced to reapply his speed, Cole found a clearing, similar to the one he and Thesta had been using. He dismissed his Runic Speed, making sure not to just release the energy out, instead drawing it back into his mana pool like he’d been taught. It was sort of like meditation. Cole focused on his breathing, attempting to reconstitute the runic energy back into his soul. He wasn’t entirely successful, but he was improving.

Although he wasn’t using Runic Speed anymore, the excitement Cole felt about using his new rune filled his entire body with electricity. He couldn’t delay any longer.

Looking inwards, Cole pictured the Hallowed Blast, taking careful note of its jagged lines, far different to the purple and blue runes that were his and Thesta’s. While those seemed carefully designed, almost scholarly, the golden runes had an ancient, divine feeling to them.

Cole’s finger trembled as it began to trace out the symbol. While his purple runes seemed to be generated by him, drawn into existence by a glowing finger, the Hallowed Blast was being carved into the world. It felt like he was releasing the energy from some unknown place, merely splitting the barrier between the two worlds and allowing it flow through.

Although Cole knew he could go faster, he made sure to get everything right on his first run through, carving it out carefully. He paused before the final stroke, and the rune began to tremble, as if it was going to fall apart. He drew the last line, and the rune was complete.

A golden blaze flashed out. It was far larger in size than his Runic Blast. Cole felt like he’d just looked directly at a camera that went off. Straight after came the sound. A huge *CRACK*, split the air, not loud enough to damage his ears but definitely loud enough to be heard. It was a good thing he’d waited till he was outside of Venture. A few birds flew out of the closest set of trees, startled by the sudden noise.

The grass was scorched in a 2 metre cone in front of him, no fire left behind. Cole smiled. This new ability basically tripled the range of his Runic Blast. It had been a successful experiment.

Cole thought about trying it again, feeling much like a child with a new toy, when he heard it.

He turned towards the source of the sound. A low snuffling noise punctuated by a grunt. As his eyes met with the beast, a huge boar with tusks the size of his arm, it pawed at the ground.

It seemed his experiment had drawn some undue attention.