Zeke didn’t think much on how much time passed, only realizing that the crystals surrounding them have started to light up a bit.
Before anyone else could catch them, Cloud pressed the dizzy Zeke onward to the campsite before anyone else could wake up. Reason why Zeke was dizzy was simple–he was in such constant pain that he mixed both pain and normalcy together in a tranquil, agonizing trance.
For the past few hours, both Cloud and Zeke experimented on how far they can place runes into his flesh. Throughout the process before pain took over his consciousness, Zeke realized that despite his years as a mage, Cloud couldn’t really go this far himself.
While Cloud had a healing skill and had Runecraft, he wasn’t specialized enough like Zeke to handle such gruesome experiments. Zeke’s Recovery, as well as his Runist-class based skills, allowed him to keep going farther than any runists had done so far.
Now that Cloud saw that it was possible to recover from extensive injuries of trying to carve runes into flesh, he went into experimentation mode. He basically used Zeke as a guinea pig, and Zeke himself gladly let him.
With his knowledge, Zeke was able to learn more about the intricacies of carving runes into his skin. Between his flesh and his barriers, his skin was difficult to navigate with his rune scribing, but including in his magical channels, it allowed him to easily use the rune’s power at 50% higher than with his barriers. Possibly due to his own magic connecting to his channels a lot easier than through his barriers.
So that meant that Zeke went far beyond his normal limits under the guidance of Cloud’s teachings, and just as they both expected–he lost the use of his arm multiple times.
Half the time, he carved too deeply and cut an artery, and other times, his channels reacted strongly to the magic pen, causing incredible damage to his own nervous system. Thanks to his constant use of Recovery, along with healing the horrific injuries he was causing to himself, he ended up raising the skill’s level.
> Recovery Level Up! It is now Level 9.
>
> You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +2 SPI from your skill.
However, after many, many hours of painful experimentation, they made leaps and bounds in their progress. Unfortunately, they needed some more time to figure out the true connection between the runes and his channels, and they had to leave before anyone found out.
At that point, Cloud made Zeke promise with his life to not tell his wife about this. Zeke, of course, made Cloud promise not to tell this to Mikella. As both the men have families that worry about them and who each have their own overwhelming curiosity, the two agreed on this silent pact.
That didn’t mean that Zeke came out of this with only pain that would effectively traumatize him for life. He made such unbelievable progress that even stumped Cloud, but none of them could deny what a boon this was.
> You have gained +1 INT from your actions.
>
> You have gained +1 DEX from your actions.
>
> You have gained +3 VIT from your actions.
>
> You have gained +4 END from your actions.
…..
> Steadfast Mind Level up! It is now Level 7.
>
> You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
> You have gained +1 END from your skill.
…..
> Pain Resistance Level Up! It is now Level 10 (Maxed).
>
> You have gained +2 VIT from your skill.
> You have gained +2 END from your skill.
>
> Pain Resistance has been maxed. Bonuses are now applied:
>
> -Increased pain tolerance.
> -Increased body durability
> -Advancement available
The rest of the points were only natural, and he totally wasn’t surprised by the amount of Vitality points he got.
What truly stood out was that he now had his second maxed leveled skill, and of course it had to be Pain Resistance. If he kept at it, he might even be able to max out Steadfast Mind as well.
He was pretty sure that helped plenty by mellowing out the pain, though Zeke still wasn’t sure whether they were working as well or not. He still felt a lot of pain.
Pain… Pain was his very existence now. He was pain, and nothing else.
“Zeke, focus. Everyone’s waking up,” Cloud whispered, realizing that Zeke was trotting off, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. He patted him on the back, sneaking in his own healing through him to get Zeke back on track.
“Huh… yeah…” Zeke said groggily, already going through the process of advancing his skill, hoping that it would make it better.
> Skill Advancement has commenced.
>
> Your skill Pain Resistance (Uncommon) has advanced into Pain Resistance (Rare).
>
> You gain points based on the advanced rarity:
>
> +9 VIT
>
> Your skill Pain Resistance has been reset to Level 1. You will still retain the stat bonuses you have acquired before the advancement.
Once his skill advanced, he felt his pain slightly dampen now, still there but just a ghost of itself as he perked up when he noticed Mikella waking up.
“Zeke, where were you?” Mikella asked, tilting her head as she greeted Cloud along with him. “Did you go somewhere?”
“Oh, yeah,” Zeke quickly made up the lie as planned with Cloud. “We were studying the crystals around the area. Then we started discussing about runes and–”
“Got it, got it,” Mikella waved her hand at him, rolling her eyes. “Nerd talk. Just tell me beforehand, alright? I get worried when you suddenly disappear, and since you’re the only one who knows who goes in and out of the barrier…”
She trailed off, implying heavily that with him missing, nobody would know. Zeke nodded in understanding.
“Sorry, I just got curious and it got the best of me,” Zeke smiled wryly. He felt guilty for lying to her like this, but it was better than the alternative–freaking her out by telling the truth.
“I’m also sorry for taking up his time,” Cloud smiled as he shrugged. “Now come on, daylight’s burning… or crystals? Man, this place is weird.”
Getting their own chuckles out of Cloud's confusion, the group headed out to the path, ready to find the tower once again.
The next few days have been a blur. The first two were spent trying to get over a gorge that surprisingly kept Zeke’s barrier at bay. When he tried to put a barrier over the huge gap between the hills, the barrier kept being destabilized, causing it to become brittle and shatter with a single step. Thankfully it happened the very instant it was casted, otherwise they would be falling into the pits below where several nasty looking monsters called Crystal Worms wriggle about. They were crawling all over in the hundreds or thousands, giving the less experienced Rajin and Nina the shivers.
They first theorized that the same thing with what happened back at the elevator was happening again, but they found out that the worms below were capable of distorting magic spells. They sent waves of mana across the gorge, and thanks to the closeness between the rocky walls, it vibrated and amplified itself, causing any magic going above the gap to be distilled.
So they had to travel the normal way–using their own tools and supplies to head over the gorge. Along the way, some of the worms that have evolved and turned into Crystal Moths attacked them, causing them to slow down enough to avoid getting hit. Once again, the moths kept distorting magical attacks, causing only the physical fighters to fight with their skills. Even Val stepped in and reaped several moths at once when the numbers were getting too high for their liking.
This made Zeke even more sure of himself of his plans. His barrier was powerful, but there were too many deterrents that made his main skill unusable. Thankfully, his rune spells managed to work just fine, and thanks to his deeper understanding of runes, he made enough of an impact to impress even Cloud.
Throughout the passage, Zeke noticed that while Nina and Rajin weren’t technically fighters, they can hold their own just fine. Rajin for instance can use his attunement with ease, letting him use the ground to create vines made out of dense wood and leaves. The wood could grapple the monsters with ease while the leaves easily cut through their hides and cause a lot of bleeding.
Meanwhile, Nina’s bird isn’t only useful for scouting. With its fast speed, it could pierce through monsters with its small beak, and it could even send out wind slices through its wings, slashing and cutting monsters apart. Nina actually revealed that she had more familiars back at the kingdom where her family helped raise them. Her bird is just her most trusted ally, capable of fighting and scouting for the benefit of her unit.
The next few days after that were them trying to get through a cavern that was revealed after getting over the river created by the waterfall from the cliff above. The crystals made it hard to find it, but they managed to spot it thanks to Nina’s bird. After careful studying, they entered the cavern.
They had a plan on ensuring their safety with Zeke’s barriers in case they were subjected to an ambush, but with three Journeymen by their side and the closeness of the cavern made it easy for them to pass on through. The only surprise was that they found multiple ants the size of potatoes crawling all over the place. While each one was small and weak compared to their Journeyman status, they were able to blast acid streams at them. It was hot enough to even corrode the walls and the crystals surrounding them, so they pretty much spent the entire time hiding behind Zeke’s barriers.
“I can’t believe how easy this is,” Nina muttered as she looked at the barrier in wonder. “This would’ve normally take days to traverse, and a lot of trekking back and forth to avoid getting hit. We’re just… plowing right through them.”
“You see how easy it is to get addicted to Zeke’s barriers?” Myra said, pointing at Nina with a nod. “You should’ve seen the amount of XP we kept getting thanks to his shiny domes.”
“Shiny domes?” Zeke chuckled.
“Well they’re shiny, and they can be domes,” Mikella shrugged.
“Don’t act cute, you’re above that.”
Mikella only chuckled at his lame response. For some reason Zeke can’t really think of anything else other than to call her cute. Still, being called cute seems to be something Mikella was against, being a hardcore warrior and all.
Then again, she kept smiling at him in pure delight to see him grumble at her like that. It was weird.
While the group already knew of Zeke’s incredible barrier skills, Rajin and Nina were the only ones to see it in action outside of using it for convenient means. Now it was no wonder why Zeke was considered a Lord even if it was just a title. Still, no matter how much Zeke was praised for his barriers, he knew that it wasn’t absolutely perfect. The last few examples were proof of that.
Even more so when one nasty little ant the size of a golden retriever shot a stream of acidic water that could cut through steel beams. It was enough to stress the barrier out to the point where the others had to cut it down before it was taken out. Zeke felt his face turning pale at the amount of Mana he had to spend to defend the group from the acid, and it got so bad that it caused the entire circular room they were in to become jagged in places from the water that had sprayed all over.
They had to rest for a while for Zeke to get his bearings, something that he disliked a lot considering now he was the one slowing them down rather than speeding them up. He knew he was just being pessimistic, but he couldn’t help himself.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Eventually they managed to get out of the cavern with enough time to travel a little further along. Eventually they camped again, and Zeke and Cloud once again returned to their experiments with Zeke’s runes.
He was invigorated thanks to their latest adventure, and he kept pushing harder and harder to make his ideas work. The past five days have reminded him that he was still weak, and did not have nearly enough in his kit to make survival easy in this world.
Throughout the days, Mikella has shown brightly with her skills, capable of fighting with her attunement and skills to the point of surprising Val. Her way of using her lightning Mana to actually grab monsters out of their path, causing them to stumble and be shocked at the same time, before Mikella kills them was nothing short of incredible. Myra and Piker also kept going strong, using their elements and precise fighting styles to take out more than their fair share of monsters.
He delved further into his craft, the pain from before was nothing now that he advanced his Pain Resistance. While it was still painful, he was able to focus better thanks to his Steadfast Mind increasing, allowing him to study the rune patterns on his skin better than before.
And finally, he made a breakthrough. It was two hours after he and Cloud set off to do their experiments. Sometimes they had to take a break as Cloud didn’t want to be too suspicious in front of Val, and it was the same for Zeke with Mikella. After finally getting time for themselves to ‘study their environment’, they kept working hard to create the ideal rune pattern for Zeke’s body.
But whenever they get to the actual practice, it would just disappear.
“Damn it,” Zeke cursed, healing the damage done to his arm. Were it not for Pain Resistance, he would probably be groaning. Right now though he’s just cursing. “Always the same thing…”
“Maybe we’re missing something,” Cloud offered, his hand on Zeke’s shoulder and lending him his mana. Since they were out of his barrier, Zeke’s mana reserves kept dwindling, so Cloud opted out for sharing mana with him. It was incredibly inefficient, but Zeke refused to waste mana potions on his experiments. “Something that can help with the process… What skills do you have that can help?”
“I think I’m already using them all,” Zeke offered, but then paused.
Runic Library helps with remembering the complicated rune patterns. Inscription Proficiency helped with writing the runes faster. Runic Spell just allows him to cast spells via runes. And finally Phantasmal Runes increases the potency of his runes based on his massive Spirit stat.
But there was one more, wasn’t there? The one he literally forgot.
“Shit… I forgot I had a skill choice up. I can’t believe I didn’t remember it after all this time.”
Cloud looked at him as though he grew a second head. “You’re serious? Usually Runists would go mad and pick one out immediately. Leveling up doesn’t come easily for them.”
“Yeah…” Zeke’s face flushed at the mistake, then finally brought up his skill choices.
> Class Skill Choice available upon reaching Level 40. Choose your skill:
>
> -Elemental Runes
> -Runic Echo
As usual, there were only two new skill choices available. There were the past skills that he left over, but he checked the new ones for obvious reasons. The first one, Elemental Runes, didn’t catch his attention much. It allowed him to better create runes based on the elements.
It would make his Fireball and Wind Slashes probably stronger as a result, but it didn’t sit right with him. It would only make his spells powerful–it wouldn't make him stronger overall.
And is he going to keep wasting mana shooting elemental spell after elemental spell to find out his enemy’s weakpoint? His mana is better spent defending others to find it by then. Of course if he was by himself, that would be another matter.
But when he read the second skill choice, he instantly forgot the Elemental Runes. He brought it up to read the description a second time just to be sure.
> Class Skill: Runic Echoes
> A Runist’s duty is to learn and use the runes effectively. The skill allows the Runist to empower their runes further by synchronizing with the other written runes. The skill is dependent on the proper written rune used adjacent to the recently inscribed rune.
It was a unique sort of Class Skill, one that doesn’t rely on any stat at all. It only relied on the other rune, or whatever it was used to connect with it. There were so many possibilities in his mind that he could come up with, all resulting in asking exactly how far this skill can go if he tried it?
When he told this to Cloud, his eyes widened in shock.
“I didn’t think there was a skill like that,” Cloud said, surprising Zeke enough for him to continue. “In truth, I don’t really know many Runists that were willing to divulge enough about their Class skills. One thing I know is to know enough to get Runecraft as a skill. The Runists from where I am from can be… pretty conservative, and I’m putting it nicely.”
Zeke could imagine every runist keeping their skills hidden. Just one runist is enough to have the entire town prosper, and he could imagine having multiple runists can lead to a very happy country. In other words, the runists can easily be taken advantage of, considering they are extremely weak on their own.
Though if Zeke continued on with this path, he’ll be the only runist he’d know that’s willing to fight on the front lines.
“I’m learning the skill,” Zeke said adamantly.
“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t,” Cloud chuckled as Zeke went ahead to choose the skill already, adding it to his Class Skill list.
After a few more experiments, Zeke decided that this was the best skill to pick by far. Elemental Runes was just a simple additive effect, but compared to that, Runic Echoes multiplied the potency of a rune by the amount of other runes placed along with it.
The only issue that comes up would be that if the runes were written poorly, it would destroy the entire rune structure as a whole, wasting all the mana spent. After experimenting on it a couple more times on his barriers, Zeke realized that he would have no problems with that.
Thanks to his Parallel Thought and Inscription Proficiency, the chance of him mucking up a rune is basically zero, as long as he remains careful as always when dealing with runes. It was such a small power boost when looking at it at a glance, but when used with more complicated runes that connected to one another, it became an impeccable tool to create miracles–and the Runist knew exactly what to do with it.
He decided to input the rune word Strength as usual, but this time he made some modifications to the strokes and the positions of the lettering, causing it to just barely resemble the word Strength under Cloud’s guidance on that. It was possible to distort the rune word just enough for it to work without losing its structure, and it was a trick used to put in another rune’s meaning at the same place as the first rune. It took so long to make it look like something else other than pure gibberish.
This time, he was able to redirect the meaning of the word Strength, while still containing the original meaning. The new word he put in this time was something that made it possible to finally connect.
He connected Strength with the word Soul. The soul was an integral part of magic casting, as well as making skills appear into reality. He wanted to add more runes to make it stronger, but he refrained under Cloud’s advice. It was better to test out a new rune as basic as possible to learn more about the foundations of the new rune.
Then, without even putting a thought, Runic Echoes flared. The two runes, despite written in the same spot as each other, connected seamlessly to each other and empowered one another, a link that grew stronger with each passing second until he ceased pouring in mana.
He finally finished inscribing, the rune on his flesh flashing a bright blue and green, the signature color of his mana. The magical energy buzzed then settled on Zeke’s forearm.
Zeke and Cloud waited with bated breath to see whether the rune would destabilize and break again, causing a massive wreck of his arm. But this time, it stayed stable.
Zeke and Cloud let out a collective breath of relief. After giving each other a silent nod, Zeke poured his mana through his arm, activating the rune.
It was a total drain of his remaining Mana. It cost him over 25% of it, making it nearly unusable in combat. However, the rune flashed bright turquoise again, and Zeke received a notification.
His breath was caught after reading it aloud to Cloud.
> Basic Rune of Strength has been activated. Your Strength stat mirrored 25 points from your Spirit stat for the next 43 seconds.
“I-It worked,” Zeke said, and he checked his status to see if his notification was just fucking with him.
The concept was simple. He wished to use his high Spirit stat to aid in his weaker stats, but without reducing his overall mana pool and potency of his skills. The one he thought about was mirroring the stat points, but to completely mirror his large Spirit stat was too expensive and difficult to replicate, so only a small number of points could be added in for now. Still, this meant that his Strength stat of a measly 21 now increased to 46–double of what he originally had.
He let out a yelp when he realized his muscles had deeply tensed up. Veins appeared across his forearm as literal muscle bulged out of his arms and legs, throughout his entire body.
He first felt a wave of uncomfortable tingling, then it instantly became a surge of nausea as he let out short breaths, his face paling and blood beginning to trickle down his nose. Cloud noticed this instantly and reacted.
“Zeke, easy. Your body is trying to adjust to the shift in your physical stats so quickly. Breathe slowly, and control your heart rate. The buff will pass soon.”
Zeke listened to Cloud’s words like they were sweet honey to his ears. Having someone who was more experienced with magic was definitely soothing for his mind as he did as Cloud instructed. As the seconds passed, the buff faded away as his muscles quickly shifted back to how they once were.
Zeke sat down on the ground. His adrenaline was coursing through every part of his veins, the exhilaration and the feeling of power still coursing through him.
“Holy shit… it really worked,” Zeke said, his breath ragged with a small smile growing on him.
“It certainly did,” Cloud smiled back. “But it looks like it’s still heavily inefficient. The amount transferred, the duration of the buff, as well as the side-effects done to you needs some extra work.”
Zeke nodded, understanding that completely. Despite it working, it was completely useless if done in combat. Especially that feeling of being pale and almost getting knocked out from the sudden shift in stats. He also knew that the ‘Basic’ Rune of Strength was not what he intended. It just means he has to keep re-doing the process to increase it further.
But despite these flaws, it was a resounding success. Outside of having a mini steroid explosion session, he was able to finally increase his stats artificially with his runes.
And along with the success came a surprising number of notifications after he finished calming down.
> Mana Manipulation Level Up! It is now Level 5.
>
> You have gained +4 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +2 SPI from your skill.
…..
> Parallel Thought Level Up! It is now Level 4.
>
> You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +2 SPI from your skill.
…..
> Runecraft Level Up! It is now Level 10 (Maxed).
>
> You have gained +1 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +2 SPI from your skill.
>
> Runecraft has been maxed. Bonuses are now applied:
>
> -Enhanced Runecrafting
> -Decreased mana consumption
> -Evolution available
> -Advancement available
“Holy shi–”
But before Zeke could nearly scream out in pure exhilaration and confusion, another notification dropped into his view.
> New Title available:
>
> Battle Mage:
>
> Unsatisfied, you decided to use your magical might to increase your actual might. Now fighters tremble at your feet for an entirely different reason.
>
> You have gained +2 INT from your title.
> You have gained +2 SPI from your title.
> You have gained +2 END from your title.
>
> Title Skill attained: Magic Might
…..
> Magic Might (Title), Level 1 (Maxed)
> Both magic and might are within your grasp. Any body enhancements you create and use increases in potency and decreases in consumption by 1%.
Zeke was left gaping at the notifications, taking a solid minute of Cloud trying to get him out of his trance before Zeke finally snapped back into reality.
Rather than explaining the clearly worried Cloud on what happened, he just showered him with the notifications he received just now. He also took a full solid minute reading it, and most likely, being astonished at the sight, so Zeke took this moment to think things through.
“The title is not surprising,” Cloud said with a chuckle, but then he frowned. “And on top of your skill leveling, you even got Runecraft to max level. The thing is… it also has an evolution.”
Cloud turned to Zeke, his eyes showing that this was not a simple thing.
“I never had that option before. Zeke, I think you just got yourself something new.”
Zeke’s heart slammed in his chest as he considered the options. He could still go the safe route, take on the advancement and keep having the same Runecraft he knew already. It was also the same as Cloud’s, who had taken a similar path.
The thing was, he never had the option to evolve, but Zeke does. And if he was honest…
“I-I think I’m going to evolve it,” Zeke said, and he knew for certain that Cloud wouldn’t disagree.
“I’d be even more disappointed if you didn’t,” Cloud repeated his words, this time adding a cheeky smile.
With a resolute nod, Zeke chose his option for evolution.
> Skill Evolution has commenced.
>
> Your skill Runecraft (Rare) has evolved into Battle Runecraft (Epic).
>
> Your skill Battle Runecraft has been reset to level 1. You will still retain the stat bonuses you have acquired before the evolution.
…..
> Battle Runecraft (Epic), Level 1
> Evolved from Runecraft, your understanding of runes has been tailored towards warfare. This includes enhancing your own body for physical combat. Your understanding of runes and their capabilities increase according to the level of the skill and the current Spirit stat.
Zeke let out a breath he didn’t think he was holding. Showing the result, Cloud nodded.
“Tailored towards warfare… somehow that seems fitting for you. Though I don’t think you lost anything that makes you a decent Runist. If anything, now you’re a Runist that shouldn’t be messed with.”
Zeke nodded slowly, thankful that Cloud was there to keep his thoughts in order. However, being the one who had to go through the process, his mind was still muddling.
But a new sense of exhilaration unlike anything he felt before came to the surface, and he smiled so wide that he thought it would split his face.
“Haha… so this is what hard work looks like.”
He muttered, but Cloud nodded slowly at that.
“It’s still imperfect, but this way… it can work.”
Zeke could only nod in agreement. While it was still imperfect, it is no longer an unachievable goal. Now, he only had to work to master it.
Good thing he planned on doing just that even without all these fancy rewards. Though, it is always welcomed in his eyes.