The following couple of hours passed at a moderate place as the gnome did his best to teach Tyler the basics of Runesmithing. Tyler, for his part, got some of the terms, but there were other more strange terms he was unfamiliar with. Several times, the book mentioned a Soulspace. According to gnome, whose name he found out was Fizzlespark, a Soulspace was a pseudo-mental pocket dimension one created while within Copper Tier. It was what held cards, skills, and your soul. This was apparently a requirement to reach Bronze Tier, because to break from True Bronze into Low Gold, or the gap between Level 74 and Level 75, one had to create an Inner World, which was a more elaborate version of a Soulspace one could quite literally rest in, and each part of the Inner World offered advantages based on how one forged it. Speaking of forging, that was another term he had to inquire about.

Turns out that one had to reforge their body with special elixirs, techniques, and treasures to break past bottlenecks. This was, of course, in addition to Historum. In the Copper Tier, you had to forge a Copper Mind, Copper Body, and Copper Soul. This was to ensure one could handle the jump from Copper to Bronze. Typically this was done in the half-step stages labeled Low, High, and True to give your body time to acclimate. When Tyler had asked what it all entailed, the gnome simply laughed and said that it, like most things in the System, was personalized to an individual.

Still, the knowledge and studying he had done had paid off in system prompts.

Runic Lore is Level 3

...

Runic Lore is Level 10

New Title:

[Runic Apprentice]

Look at you, you can actually pay attention in class for once.

You gain:

+5 INT

+5 WIS

Learn more about runes, enchanting, and various related topics and apply them to upgrade this title and increase the benefits.

It wasn't bad for just some studying and asking questions, and it pushed his Mana Points to 537, and his Will Stat also increased to 36. With his first lesson done it seemed, the gnome handed Tyler a sack of twenty silver coins, telling him that each week he would gain this much amount of coin so long as he kept up his studies. He was also given an assignment when he was handed a blank slate, a chisel and some magical powder. He had to create his first rune. It could be any, he was told, but he had to make one. He could do that. As luck would have it, as soon as he exited the Runesmithery, he found Agha, who grinned up and walked towards him.

"Ty! There ya are, I see ye had fun with ol' Fizzelspark. Learn anythin' new?"

A small smirk spread across Tyler's pale visage as he gave the woman an appreciative once over, then gave a noncommittal shrug.

"Just a bit, mostly stuff I assume is common knowledge. What about you, what's with the dual backpacks?"

Indeed, the dwarven woman had two of the leather containers, one on her back, the other hanging off her shoulder. In answer to his question, she took off the loose one and handed it to him.

"Figured ye could use one, it's enchanted with Drow runes so that stuff inside won't get banged all up an' shite. Also, I came tae see if ye wanted to join my brother and his party in investigating the caverns north o' 'ere where thae Lodytes are comin' from. They've been unusually active as o' late and Pa wants to put an end tae it. I'll share thae quest he gave me."

Agha stated the words matter-of-factly and held out her hand, then a system prompt made its usual appearance.

You have been given a Quest:

[Lodytes Among Us]

Rarity: Uncommon

Seek out the local hideout of the Lodytes and find out what they are doing.

Reward: XP, Uncommon Item relevant to your build, variable.

Penalty for Failure: ???

Accept?

Y/N

Tyle mused only slightly for a second or two before he nodded, accepting the quest. He could trust Agha, he knew that much. And he had managed to sleep, briefly, in the village without being attacked, so his mood was actually higher. Anyone Agha could trust he could, or at least he hoped.

"Sure, lead the way."

With that, the two of them took off toward the gates towards the entrance of the village. Before long, the two stood in front of three people, all dwarves of course. This was a dwarven settlement after all. The first was clad in a mix of plate and chainmail, looking almost like someone from that Monty Python movie. Rather than a full helmet, he had a circlet with a blue gem in the center of it atop his mop of scraggly fire-orange hair. In addition, we wore a dark blue tabard in front of his set of armor that had a rough sa

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

The next was a woman clad in leather armor almost as dark as the knight sky. There was a cloth bandana around her face, covering the lower half. Her hair was, contrary to most dwarves, a deep black as well. He had to wonder if it was natural or dyed to match her ensemble. Around the belt on her waist were two wicked looking daggers, shaped so that Tyler assumed would allow for easy bleeding of her targets.

The final member was a bit on the older side, his orange hair having streaks of gray in it. He too wore leather, though that was where the similarities with the rogue ended. His main weapon seemed to be an oversized wrench that let out sparks every now and again. Strange choice in Tyler's opinion. His headpiece was also a pair of oversized pilot goggles that were styled after gears. And in his off hand looked like a miniature...turret of some kind. Very strange indeed.

As Agha and Tyler walked closer, the man in the goggles spotted them and walked forward, giving Agha an awkward sibling hug. Then the man looked at Tyler, raising a bushy eyebrow before extending a hand that seemed to be covered in soot of some kind.

"So, ye must be the lean fucker my sister was talking about. I must say, she was a wee bit right about ye. Ye look like a flesh ghost alright!"

Tyler shook the man's hand, rubbing his neck sheepishly with the other. It was true, compared to the stocky dwarves Tyler was a bit on the tall and thin side. And with his pale complexion, he could see him being named a ghost by some people. Still, he wasn't going to let that slide without a jab of his own.

"And you look like a boulder that grew limbs."

The man laughed, along with the rest of the party, at his statement. Ice breaking successful, it seemed.

"Finally, someone who ain't afraid tae trade barbs. I like ye, ghosty. Name's Dugin Soothammer, Engineer Extraordinaire at yer service!"

Dugin let go of his hand and turned to his other members, beckoning them to introduce themselves to Tyler. The rogue stepped forward, he glowing red eyes raking up and down Tyler's body before she spoke.

"A bit on thae thin side, ya? But I wouldn't mind takin' ye fer a tumble. Name's Desha, Rogue and Poison Expert of the group."

Blushing slightly at the crass words out of the woman's mouth, Tyler made sure to keep an eye on the woman later. Seriously, he hadn't gotten this much female attention in...well, ever. His eyes darted to Agha for a second and she just gave him a smug look and shrugged. Well at least there was no jealousy in her eyes, so that was good. Next came the other male, who gave a two finger salute and shook Tyler's hand.

"I'm Oren, thae one who's gonna make sure ye lot don't feckin' die out there. I'm a cleric of Etrigh, Dwarven God of thae Hearth. Please tae meet ye."

"Cleric, huh? I don't recall seeing a temple around the village..."

"Aye," He snorted, raking a hand through his crimson hair. "It's expensive and time consuming finding thae right materials fer a temple. Can't just use any ol' stone for a place of worship, ya? Plus not a lot o' space. There be a small altar outside thae town fer worship, but given thae state of thae heavens, it dunnae mean much at the moment. Nice tae meet another god-touched though, even iffin' yer not a cleric, I can smell divinity on ya. Some sorta shade god?"

Tyler smiled wryly. "Something like that, she's kinda obscure but was a big help in the past."

Deception is Level 2

Nodding at his words, Oren turned to the others and walked back as his armor clanged slightly with each step, prompting Dugin to speak up.

"What about ye lad, Agha here didn't tell me what yer build was."

That made Tyler blink, but he answered regardless. "Crowd control and damage over time mostly, card-wise though none of the cards have leveled up. Skills it's mostly casting in combat and staff fighting with some hand to hand but I need to work on those as well."

Dugin nodded, rubbing his bearded chin. "Good, an actual caster in the party fer once. We've actually been lacking on spells and whatnot. And dunnae ye worry about card levels. Those will come the more ye fight. Just gotta be creative with yer spells and abilities, and push them beyond what the System let's the default card do is all. Now, I assume ye got thae quest?"

Tyler nodded, prompting Dugin to keep speaking.

"That's good then. Fer now, we should set off as soon as possible. We got spare rations, so ye don't need tae grab any yerself. Ye all set, lad?"

Tyler thought about it. He lacked a proper weapon to be honest, since he had broken his staff in his fall. Still he was mostly a caster so far. But he could probably get a staff later. Looks like, unless he wanted to spend an inordinate time looking for a decent staff here in the village, he would go in with fists. Not that he expected dwarves to have much in the way of staves anyway. For some reason he felt that weapons like that were more elven things. Maybe if he met the Drow? Agha had mentioned his backpack having Drow runes, so they had to exist, right? He'd have to ask later.

"About as set as I can be, I'll just follow your lead. You tell me where to walk, cast and punch. Simple as that."

With everything set and everyone geared up, the party of four dwarves and a Vodiborn exited the town, heading north to figure just what the hell was going on with these Lodytes.

The trek to the Lodyte's current resting grounds was uneventful as far as all things went. The group made small talk and discussed strategies but there was not much that they could do until they actually saw what was going on. Thankfully, it only took a few hours before they first saw signs of the Lodytes. The short neanderthal-like creatures were shuffling out of a cave entrance, they're long disproportionate limbs nearly scraping across the dark blue dirt and stone that made up the underground floor.

Desha spotted them first, as the party's scout and rogue and made a stopping sign with her hand. Huh, it looked like that was universal. Her eyes looked over the dawdling creatures, giving the group of seven enemies a once over before she turned back to the group and fished inside a belt pouch. The woman pulled out a vial of green liquid and uncorked it, applying the poison to her blades as she spoke.

"Seven Lodytes, the aroun' thae same level as usual, more or less. Standard tactics then?"

The rest of the group nodded, leaving Tyler out before they realized that he didn't know what they meant. With a cough, Oren explained.

"Basically, Agha draws them towards us, Dehsa takes out any that look too strong, I heal ye feckers if ye get damaged, and Dugin does his fancy engineering stuff. As fer ye, just hit them with yer spells and throw a punch if they get too close. Should be easy enough."

With that out of the way, they had a short discussion but there wasn't much else of note to talk about before they attacked. A few minutes later, they did so. Agha rushed forward and from around the corner they were hiding in, her metal axe flashing forward as she engaged the first three enemies. Her axe, powered by her strength, easily pushed the creatures back and left shallow wounds but sadly, it didn't kill them in one fell swoop. Still, her wild swings and attacks did give the rest of the party time to prepare their cards and skills.

Dugin fished into a pouch at his side and pulled out what looked like a pair of crude iron balls. It wasn't until he pressed a rough button on the top and tossed them at two approaching Lodytes that Tyler realized what they were. As soon as one of the balls touched a Lodyte, the hidden fuse inside the metallic orbs ignited. This caused the rough grenades to explode, sending the Lodytes tumbling from the point of impact. One of the creatures died on the spot, a hole having been punched in its chest. The other was damaged and groggily stood to its feet, dazed. Tyler took this opportunity to act. He pointed his hand at the damaged enemy and called on his power.

"Wither!"