Tyler did not sleep well. At all. He tossed and turned as nightmares plagued him, of faceless people in gaudy robes and armor stabbed him over and over, mocking him and calling him weak. He dreamt of damp caverns, or the wet river that dragged him down. He dreamt of Yarla, in chains, and his dagger piercing her body and killing her. Suffice to say, he woke up several times and had tried meditating, as he had back on Earth. But even doing that offered little solace.

Soon enough, the morning sun came up and Tyler groggily made his way down the stairs, but not before getting dressed. Seeing the bartender, he gave the man the room key back and asked the man if he had coffee, and just got a weird stare and an awkward silence before Tyler excused himself. Add that to his note of things to do. Find, or invent coffee or an equivalent. Agha hadn't shown up yet, so Tyler guessed he was alone until she found him. Given how early it was, it could be a few hours. Having no idea what to do, he got an idea. That building, the Runesmithery, was it? It had called to him yesterday, so he may as well check it out.

The brisk morning air hit Tyler with the scent of died-down smoke and musky stones as he exited the tavern. Thankfully it wasn't so cold that he shivered. Turning to the left, he made his way down the still empty streets of the village, nodding at the slight few people who were just getting ready for their work day. Before long, he was in front of the blue-tinted stone, the magic of the place resonating with him somehow. Then, he stepped inside.

What he saw was strange. There was a counter for selling things, that much was obvious. Several slabs of stone with runes inscribed on them dotted the shelves, each glowing slightly. Tyler tried to figure out what they did, but doing so gave him a headache. On the left side of the building was what looked like a forge of some kind, but it was shaped oddly, almost like a mechanical skull. There was no fire inside of it, but despite that there was almost a heat coming off of it.

Looking around, he saw some bookshelves lining the right-hand side of the Runesmithery, and beyond that in a corner, was a flight of stairs. Probably to where the owner slept if he had to guess. There was a tiny metal bell on the counter, so Tyler did the courteous thing to do and stepped forward, ringing the object. A soft chime rang through his ears and some muffled grumbling could be heard from upstairs.

"Hold your butt, I'm comin'!" A gruff, scratch voice rang out.

Sure enough, a dwarf came down the stairs in...pajamas? That's what they looked like to his eyes at least. The man was old, probably the oldest dwarf he had ever seen. But wait, was he a dwarf? Now that he did a second take, that couldn't be right. Every dwarf he had seen had gray skin, but this man had peach-colored skin like one would expect of a human from Finland. He was also a bit shorter and had a bigger head than other dwarves.

"What, never seen a gnome before?"

Ah, that explained it. Sort of. Tyler rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner.

"Yeah sorry, I'm kinda new around here."

The gnome narrowed his beady blue eyes at him and wrung his beard, before snorting and moving behind the counter.

"So, what do you need, Voidborn?"

"You...can tell my race?"

The old gnome waved nonchalantly. "Of course, you're not the first I've seen, plus I got a skill for this sort of thing. Back to my question though. There's gotta be a reason you woke me up this early."

"Right, sorry. I was wondering, why does this building seem to call to me. When I first saw it there was like some sort of...resonance. I don't know how to explain it."

The gnome hummed a bit and ruffled around under the counter before grabbing a blank slate and sliding it onto the counter. Tyler looked at it and raised an eyebrow, prompting the gnome to speak up.

"Take that slate and channel some mana into it, we'll see if my theory is correct."

Shrugging, Tyler did so. Grasping the object in both his hands, he closed his eyes and started to pull from his...well he guessed it was his core. Most of the time he just used mana via cards so it was a bit hard to pull on his mana without any system assistance. Slowly but surely, trickles of his energy moved towards the rocky slab before it infused into the stone. The thing buzzed slightly in his hands as patterns and colors shifted and swirled onto the surface, making a dancing display of lights. The gnome sputtered in his seat.

"A-aspectless Mana?!"

Blinking out of his trance, Tyler looked up at him. "Huh?"

Regaining his footing, the gnome spoke up, adopting a thinking pose.

"Mana usually has aspects based on where you are born and your race. For instance, the duergar here always have earth and some fire in their mana. This allows them to use cards of those types easily and once they reach Bronze Tier, to be able to act on the ambient mana to conjure fire and shift the ground without cards if they have the mind for it. But aspectless mana...

Regardless of the reasons why your mana is, 'pure', the reason you are drawn here is because you have a calling. Magical professions like Runesmithing or Cardmaking have to resonate with one's mana, which the System helps facilitate by guiding one subtly towards places where it thinks they will fit. Since your mana has no aspect to it, that means you're perfect to become a Runesmith. A Runesmith always runs the risks of his own mana tainting a project he's working on. For instance, someone with fire-aspect mana will find it hard to make runes and enchantments themed around water and vice versa."

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The gnome said all this as he gestured wildly and with flair, using his mana to create several projections of what he was talking about.

"I see, so what does that mean for me exactly?"

While the info dump was interesting, especially finally knowing what Bronze Tier actually entailed, he still didn't know what any of this had to do with him, per say. The gnome turned to Tyler and stared at him intently, making Tyler take a step back. Then, the old man spoke.

"Simple really. You need to become my apprentice."

"Huh? I'm not sure I heard you right?"

The sudden declaration from the wizened old gnome stunned Tyler for a moment and made him stumble over his words. Man, he had a real habit of doing that. He should look into getting that fixed. Whatever that entailed. Still, the words gave him pause and he furrowed his brow in consternation. Sure, it was his paranoia getting to him, he knew that deep down. But considering what happened to him when he first entered this world, it only made sense. Perhaps it was less noticeable with Agha since was attracted to the stocky woman. He could at least admit that much to himself.

The gnome, for his part, didn't seem to sense the hesitation. Or if he did, he simply didn't care. The short old man reached under the countertop of his Runesmithery before he pulled out what looked like a magic wand of sorts. Then, he hobbled over to the bookcase on the right side of the store. With a swish and a flick of the small wooden rod, there was a slight buzzing in the air before the object slid to the right, revealing a spiraling staircase that led down. Huh, neat trick.

"Come come, this is no time for dawdling about. With your race's aptitude for rare magics and your unaspected mana, I have no doubts that in a century you may even surpass a Master of Runesmithing such as me. If you work hard enough that is."

As the gnome beckoned Tyler to follow him, he simply shrugged. Well, it can't be that bad. And he couldn't be looking over his shoulder all the time just because the church had, literally, backstabbed him. So, he decided to follow the short man down. Part of the words struck Tyler though, and he just had to ask. He had questions, dammit.

"You know what a Voidborn is? I'm afraid I'm a bit at a loss."

"I'm not surprised," The old man said, as he twirled his wand in the air and small dim crystals of some kind of material lit up, giving the staircase a dim blue glow. "Voidborn are, in essence, a forced race evolution when one comes into contact with void energy to such a degree that the System changes their race so they can survive. Not a common thing, but not terribly rare. At least back in my youth. I won't pry into how exactly it happened to you, but just know that surface dwelling races won't look kindly at you."

That made Tyler hum in thought. "Why's that? Is the void evil?"

That was a question that had been bugging him now that he asked it. He didn't want to be forced to become some evil edgelord.

"Of course not. Void simply is, and creatures of the void are typically what we call 'true neutral'. They don't attack or interact with anything unless you force them too. They may look odd, and carry esoteric and eldritch properties but they are not evil. It's a common misconception by the poor, and propaganda by the surface races, that misconstrues the Void with the Abyss.

The Void exists separate from everything, almost as if it doesn't exist. But like the Axian Planes, it is a force of neutrality. The Abyss on the other hand, is the realm of demons. A chaotic plane of evil where rape, murder, gore and torture is an everyday occurrence. The most base demons from the Abyss only exist to cause havoc and destroy. But you needn't worry about that. Demonologists are rare, and looked down upon even here. After all, 99% of the time a Demonologist just ends up causing an incursion of demons. Which forces the opposite forces to act and in the end, starts a miniature war that leaves the common people scattered and ruined. You won't see demons anytime soon. Now, no more questions."

They duo had reached a large ornate door of wood, actual wood this time, with several runes inscribed on the surface. The gnome moved his wand and intoned his mana, moving the stick like a conductor almost as the runes lit up one by one. Once all were glowing the doors swung open and revealed a large, brightly lit stone chamber. As Tyler entered, he took a good look around at the workshop. And boy oh boy, was it a strange sight to see.

Various desks were strewn about the area in place, the majority of them empty. Some of the wooden desks though had blank slates on them, with some kind of glowing powder. Others had simple items like boots or daggers laying about. Aside from the desks, there were also various bookshelves interspersed in the workshop that likely held several important manuals or tomes. There was a large chest behind the biggest desk that sat in the front-center of the chamber, as well as a large inactive magic circle in the middle of the room.

"This looks like a classroom, at least as far as I can tell."

Tyler just had to state it, it really did feel like some magic academy room. The gnome snorted a bit and moved to the main desk before gesturing with a wand to cause a large book to come flying slowly at Tyler. Catching it, he looked at the title using his Analyze and laughed.

Runesmithing For the Inept

Type: Book

Rarity: Rare

It was Runesmithing...for dummies. Tyler just stared blankly at the book and was about to ask, but the gnome spoke before he could get the words out.

"When I first moved down here from Cogsprocket fifty-three years ago, I had intended to build a school for Runesmithing. It's such an underappreciated art. Unfortunately, no one has had much potential in decades. That is where you come along. Now, since I see your bewilderment, I guess I should explain the basics of the craft to you. Take a seat if you will."

Mentally shrugging to himself, Tyler did so, finding a seat at the nearest desk. Man this felt so weird, he hadn't been in school in over two decades if he counted his years on Earth. Still, knowledge was power he supposed. SO Tyler decided to pay attention to his lecture. If you could call it that.

"Runesmithing is, in its simplest form, enchanting items with magical properties by using magical powders, essences, and other materials and combining them with mundane objects to make the ordinary something more. And yes, tall-man. I can see in your eyes the question. Why not just call it Enchanting then? The answer is simple.

Enchanting, while much the same, requires paper much like Cardmaking. And as you can see there's no wood around here for miles aside from some furniture I brought with me. Theoretically one could use the mushrooms from the nearby fungi forest, but no one wants to deal with so many damn mushrooms. Where was I? Ah yes.

The simplest part of Runesmithing is just engraving on an object and adding the right ingredients. The tricky part is infusing the mana in a correct pattern. It's different for everyone, so it will be up to you how you accomplish that. Now open your book and turn it to page forty-two."