The trainer pulls up a basic rune on the 3d display, “Anyone can form a rune like this with a thought. If the rune you formed with the skill was only this complex, then changing it would be fine. It isn’t of course. The procedural rune you form with the skill is so complex that to try to change it would either slow the activation down way too much or reduce the power.”
“At the core of this subject is the difference between ranged and melee combat, at least in my opinion. The power of a mage comes from their vast array of powers which can let them destroy entire cities if given enough time. A martial artist however must live in the moment. When you are fighting someone in melee, there isn’t time to take a few seconds to form a complex rune.”
“Now there are some types who manage this but neither of us are the tanky type so we can ignore them as well. No disrespect to them. A proper wall of heavy defenders will win a war faster than the same number of martial artists but that isn’t what we are training for. So for this skill we let it form the runes. You will get more power at a faster speed than those fools who can’t see what the actual core of my technique is. Nevermind the fact that when I put it out, I might have left out were to form the rune on purpose. Anyone who looked into the skills background would have found my personal biases and figured it out.”
“But yeah, there is so much space inside of you why have the runes be external? I put it in the same category as having to say a skills name. Sure some stuff you just can’t help it, for everything else, why give your enemies a heads up?” With a nod to complete her thoughts she turns to the display again and highlights the figures heart.
“Your core is located where your heart is. A very common location. About one in five humans who get their core will have a heart-core. Technically, this would mean that just from the perspective of distance any use of your energy in your hands or head would be faster than a foot related use. Luckily since your physical body won’t impede the power this doesn’t matter in the least. Plus that doesn’t even go into any of the other power sources like your health. In fact, depending on if there are any field-based skills your power can move faster inside your body than through the air. ”
“This quirk of my theory allows for a more circuitous route without a loss in activation speed. Now I said that the rune forms itself. That was a half lie. The rune which attacks is self forming. However to get your power to do that you need to nudge it in the right direction. For that you will have to form a few runes yourself.”
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“If you just learn how to use the skill through other methods, this step will be offloaded to the System. In fact, with how the System works, unless you specifically start with this it will be immensely hard to ever do the skill right. Much too hard to turn off the System assist for some things.”
“Now there are three simple runes you need for this. Technically, you only need two runes, one to draw on the power and the other to start it turning. In fact, that is part of the problem with the System learned version of the skill. See those two runes are specific to the type of power you learn to use it with. This means you’re stuck and unless you get the System to recognize you attempts to use it with another source that is it. The two rune method also balloons out of proportion if you try to learn it my way. After all to use two powers that is four runes you need to know.”
“I actually started out that way which is why I was able to only give that away to the System. Once I mastered the skill, I spent a couple hundred years to perfect it to the current state.” She gestures at the simple rune on the display. The lines of the rune twist and turn as they shift around. As it comes to a stop, it has taken on a depth as the lines no longer restrict themselves to a 2d plane.
“This is the first rune and second most complex. It is what lets you use any power you want with the skill. One traveller I worked with on this specific rune commented on it. He said it looked like a combination of the symbol used for a power source called a battery and a transformer that have overlapped and intertwined with each other. This of course isn’t an accident, she was testing what symbols from your world would do here. The most important thing to note about it is how it is all one line to draw the rune. For some reason it would not work if the lines didn’t connect. That traveller had theorized that because the world recognized the two symbols separately, it wouldn’t read them as one unless connected.”
“The second rune is the easiest. Just a spiral three lines deep with an arrow at the center. In fact, you could use any number of runes here but this was the most efficient for the skill. All it does is get the energy moving the correct speed and direction.” She motions the first rune over and has the second rune form next to it. With it on the screen what she meant by three lines deep becomes obvious. The arrow tip ends exactly where the outer part starts so that you can count three lines whichever way you go from the center.
“Last but not least is a rune I can’t teach you. Don’t need to either. This could actually be considered a hidden third rune in my original skill and why everyone has different effects develop for the same power source. Now this will sound cheesy but you need to look into your heart and find yourself.”