The days passed slowly, but on the morning of the sixth day, Aodhán woke up to find Rahim leaning casually against the walls of his cell, an anti-nullification ring glinting on his fingers.
“Rise and shine, stormy.” Rahim greeted with a wide smile.
Aodhán scowled at his mentor even though he was happy to see him. “We’re not on speaking terms.” He muttered as he adjusted his rumpled self and stood up from the bed.
Rahim simply chuckled and asked. “How are you feeling?”
“Much better.” Aodhán admitted. He wasn’t sure if it was something Helzarvauth had done or just the consequences of talking about his emotions with someone, but he felt better and lighter. A part of him was even looking forward to his next meeting with Helzarvauth, even though he was still apprehensive around the nosy empath.
“I’m glad.” Rahim replied sincerely, and when Aodhán stepped out of the cell, he said. “You’ve missed a few classes and exercises, but not enough to terribly affect your grades. I really hope you’ve learned to stop fighting within the school’s premises.”
“He had it coming.” Aodhán insisted and rolled his eyes. “But yeah, next time someone attacks me, I’ll come running to the principal for help like a scared little baby.”
Rahim sighed. “The rules are there for a reason, Aodhán. We will not have you students kill yourselves all because you want to defend your petty egos.”
Aodhán didn’t respond. He understood Rahim’s point; it just felt weird. While they walked to Cyrus’s cell, Aodhán’s mind drifted to the number of classes he had missed. Awakened Plants and Herbology on Friday, AAT on Monday, and Understanding Elemental Affinities on Tuesday. Aside from the classes, though, he had also missed training with Eldrith and the rift delving session he’d planned with Andrew and Daruk.
A cough from Rahim drew his mind back to the present, and Aodhán found the guard standing beside Cyrus’s cell with a tray containing all their items in hand. She opened the door to reveal Cyrus surrounded by half a dozen exercise equipment. Even now he was lifting high-density null weights the size of a truck’s tire, and Aodhán mentally kicked himself for not having thought of doing the same.
“You’re free to go, Mr. Valerion.” The guard muttered when Cyrus finally deigned to acknowledge their presence. Aodhán tried not to take offense at the rude gesture, but he just couldn’t help it. He did manage to contain a scowl though and simply shook his head as he reached into the extended tray and took out his chain and chip.
“Is it finally time, Jackross?” Cyrus asked, still lifting the weights as if they weighed nothing at all.
"Yes, it is.” Rahim responded with a faint scowl, irritated by Cyrus’s actions. When Cyrus still didn’t respond, Rahim flared his aura, infused his voice with willpower, and glared at him. “Put down the weights, Cyrus. Impudence isn’t a good color on you.”
Cyrus scowled but finally heeded Rahim’s words, and fifteen minutes later, the three of them finally stepped out of the sink. Aodhán and Cyrus both breathed a sigh of relief as their cores sprang back to life and energy surged through their pathways once more.
Aodhán’s chain tingled slightly, and multiple notification pings sounded in his mind as more than a dozen messages made themselves known. The first thing he did was create a new storm scarf that he wrapped around his neck lovingly before taking the time to scrutinize his spirit. His connection to Varéc had returned, and he spent the next few minutes assuring Varéc that he was fine and no, they didn’t need to kill anyone for caging him for the last five days.
After assuring Varéc, Aodhán turned his attention to his core, then his pathways, and finally the opening within his spirit. He scrutinized each one until he was certain they were all in working order and hadn’t been mutated or affected by the nullification runes before finally turning his attention to his seal.
“Do you want me to create a portal to your residence?” Rahim asked, breaking Aodhán’s concentration, and when he turned, he realized that Cyrus had left them already.
“No, thank you. I’m good.” Aodhán replied, and Rahim nodded, saying. “Be careful, Aodhán; I’d rather not have to drag you out of the sink again.”
Rahim teleported away the next instant, leaving Aodhán standing in front of the admin building with nothing but the chilly morning air for company. Not wanting to be alone after five days of loneliness, Aodhán summoned Varéc from his spirit and smiled when the Fury appeared with a rumble of thunder and chaos essence. Varéc tackled him to the ground, and Aodhán laughed, glad there was no one here to see him. “I’m fine, Varéc, I promise. Do I look injured?”
Varéc growled worriedly, and Aodhán nodded. “Yeah, we have to work on that Varéc. We can’t keep losing control and attacking people with an intent to kill them.”
Varéc growled again, and Aodhán petted his snout. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out. Maybe we should talk with the principal.”
Varéc growled again, this time in annoyance, and Aodhán chuckled. “You’re absolutely right. She’s a terrible person.”
As he spoke, he suddenly felt the attention of the principal and a few other advanced-class individuals on him, but Aodhán ignored them. He was angry with Principal Zatya, and the next time she summoned him to her office, he was definitely going to give her a piece of his mind.
After a few more minutes of reassuring discussions, Aodhán mounted Varéc, and a couple minutes later, they descended onto the roof of house 14. Fortunately, no one was home. No doubt, they were all at the gym undergoing another one of Coach Harvey’s torturous routines. He definitely didn’t miss that part of school.
Varéc returned to Aodhán’s spirit, but when Aodhán entered his room, he came out again and settled on the pristine bed while Aodhán went to the bathroom for his first bath in five days. His tier of advancement didn’t require him to bathe as frequently as he used to, but the last five days had been a true test of his limits.
While he washed himself, he went through the messages on his chip. Most of them were from Daruk, Yurin, and Andrew, who had been worried about him, while others were from some of his other friends, such as Aida, Scarlett, Ayisha, and even Lupin. Unrid had also texted, urging Aodhán to write a letter so Synové would stop prowling around the house worriedly like a deranged cat.
Aodhán replied to Unrid’s message, promising to send a letter as soon as he could before closing the message menu and switching to the leaderboards. Even with him and Cyrus gone for the past five days, there was barely any real change on the leaderboards except a few names that had been shuffled around.
—Leaderboards.
—Tower of Ascension (1st year)
Aodhán Brystion, Level 26—1st [01:37]
Cyrus Valerion, Level 25—2nd [17:45]
Lilith Bloodmoon, Level 25—3rd [10:14] → [14:37]
Lysirel Cosmind, Level 25—4th [08:17] → [13:12]
Daruk Brystion, Level 25—5th [00:22] → [13:07]
Cameron Lorde, Level 25 → Level 25—6th [00:00]
Alesh Vilaris, Level 24—7th [12:14] → [19:45]
Azul Fetherson, Level 24—8th [04:36] → [15:32]
Isis Anvindr, Level 24—9th [02:12] → [10:11]
Grendar Bladewynn, Level 24—10th [09:10] → [08:12]
----------------------------------------
Cameron had somehow weaseled his way into the 25th level even though it was obvious he’d barely spent a second within it, and somehow Grendar’s second run was much worse than the first, which had pushed her to the tenth rank, just below Isis and Azul. Aodhán couldn’t deny the fact that he took more than a little pleasure in seeing Grendar fall. It would have been so much better if it had fallen below the top ten.
Apart from those changes, though, the leaderboard had barely changed, but now that Cyrus was out of the sink, Aodhán expected the competition to resume. After bathing, Aodhán put on his uniform, laced his boots, cajoled Varéc back into his spirit, and without further ado, headed towards the runic lab.
The lab was unsurprisingly empty when he arrived, so Aodhán moved to his usual workbench, donned his lab suit, and took out his practice note. He wanted to try and draw the nullification runes he’d seen within the sink, but they were much more complex than they had seemed, and his memory wasn’t so accurate.
He battled with the rune for the next fifteen minutes before giving up and moving on to the 10th runic alphabet, THALVIND, the rune of darkness and shadows. The rune seemed to be the inverse of LUMUS, and although it was a lot more complex, Aodhán was unfazed. While the other first-year students wheezed and gasped for breath in the gymnasium, Aodhán worked diligently on the tenth rune.
He was still working on the rune when the small door at the front of the lab suddenly opened, and Professor Caldwell poked her head out of it with a curious expression. Her hair was messed up from what seemed to be an experiment gone wrong, and when she saw him, she raised an eyebrow and smiled. “Welcome to the land of the living, Mr. Brystion. I hope your stay in the sink wasn’t too unpleasant.”
Aodhán smiled awkwardly. “It’s not an experience I want to repeat any time soon. Good morning, Professor Caldwell.”
Professor Caldwell chuckled. “I can understand that. Good morning to you too, Aodhán. Can you help me with something?”
“Absolutely. What do you need?” Aodhán quickly closed his book and rushed forward. Ever since he’d started taking this course, he’d been curious to know what was behind that small door, and now that he was finally being offered the opportunity, how could he possibly say no?
Professor Caldwell waved him through the small entrance, and Aodhán’s expression collapsed in mild disappointment. He’d been expecting a grand display of machinery, runes, and... Aodhán wasn’t sure what exactly he had been expecting, but he definitely hadn’t expected to see a simple workshop littered with scraps of metal, animal fur, bones, and some crystals. The only impressive structure within the workshop was a sleek forge that emitted vibrant blue flames from what seemed to be advanced plasma jets, surrounded by smooth, metallic surfaces. Suspended above the blue flames was a black, hiltless sword crafted from bone.
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Despite the burning forge, the workshop was surprisingly cool, and a quick glance around the workshop revealed large chimneys on the roof as well as an array of ISA runes that pumped chilly air into the small space.
Professor Caldwell walked towards the forge and motioned for him to follow her. When they reached the forge, Aodhán scrutinized the bone sword and asked. “What do you need my help with, Professor?”
Professor Caldwell looked at the bone sword and sighed. “This is the femur of a tier 27 Mamacore. It has been crudely shaped into a sword, which I intend to inscribe and present to my grandson by evening for his awakening ceremony.” She chuckled and shook her head. “Some grandmother I am. I should have done this weeks ago, but this is the best base material I can find on such short notice.”
Aodhán was surprised to hear that Professor Caldwell was a grandmother. She didn’t look a day over thirty. He shouldn’t have been surprised since she wasn’t the first such kind of person he’d met in his life. Principal Zatya was definitely over a century old, although she didn’t appear to be a day above thirty either.
He glanced at the floating sword, which seemed almost resistant to the flames, and asked. “What was the affinity of the Mamacore?”
Professor Caldwell snorted. “Earth. It’s entirely unimpressive, and its only noteworthy ability is its resistance to fire. It’s not exactly the best material for a sword, but there’s nothing I can do about that. I’ll just have to make it work.”
Aodhán scrunched his face and shook his head in disappointment. “An earth sword doesn’t seem so useful.”
“It isn’t.” Professor Caldwell nodded in agreement. “That’s why I need to scrape the bone clean of its previous affinity and add a new one. I would have simply used my affinity, fire, but my grandson is averse to the element. Lightning though, that’s something he definitely likes.” She scowled and shook her head. “Children these days, always picking and choosing.”
Aodhán chuckled, not really understanding why people hated one affinity and loved another. He would be perfectly content with any affinity, although, to be honest, if he had been given a chance to choose, he definitely saw himself going either with nature or something nature-related.
“I wasn’t exactly expecting you to be available,” Professor Caldwell continued with a chuckle. “I was hoping to find either Lyra, Yurin, or Ankaz, but I’m glad I found you because then I can take the rarity of the weapon up a notch.”
Aodhán grinned, excited to witness and take part in his first ever forgemastery experiment.
“How do you intend to increase the rarity?” He asked, and Professor Caldwell winked conspiratorially. “Chaos infusion.”
Aodhán understood immediately and focused his attention on the sword. “What do you want me to do?”
“Not yet.” Professor Caldwell grinned, enjoying his enthusiasm. “First, I need to erase the affinity and energy residues within this bone, and for that I’ll need a VoidEraser. You can watch for now, but what I really need you for is to open your spirit to the origin plane and channel that chaos energy directly into the bone so we can attune the blade to your affinity instead.”
Aodhán barely understood half of what Professor Caldwell had just said; however, he was too eager to ask questions and just nodded instead. Professor took the VoidEraser, a torus-shaped metallic instrument, inlaid with what seemed to be solid void essence. She passed the blade into the eraser, and slowly, the natural affinity of the bone began to fade, its black color paling to a whitish-gray color as earth essence trailed off the bone like smoke.
The process was slow going, but Aodhán noticed that as more of the bones natural affinity was erased, it became less resistant to the flames, and at one point, when the eraser was nearly halfway through the bone, it began to darken again, this time from the char of flames. Professor Caldwell reduced the intensity of the flames after each round, trying to maintain a balance, but more often than not, the bone suffered damage. Professor Caldwell didn’t seem too concerned, though, simply continuing the erasing process until the unburnt part of the bone was as white as snow.
Aodhán watched with rapt attention for about fifteen minutes until Professor Caldwell finally dropped the VoidEraser and sighed. “There, the hardest part is over. Now I’ll just have to inscribe an Affinity rune and an Attuned-Aspect rune on the bone whilst preventing it from crumbling to pieces.
Aodhán frowned at the mention of an unfamiliar rune and asked, “What is an Attuned-Aspect rune?”
Professor Caldwell picked up her inscriber and replied to his question with a question of her own. “You know what aspects are right?”
Aodhán nodded. He wouldn’t say he knew exactly what they were, but he had a vague idea of what they were about. In his understanding, aspects could be referred to as the branches of an element or other affinities closely intertwined with another. Basically, aspects made up an affinity. For instance, the aspects of a storm were wind, water, sound, light, darkness, and so on.
Light and darkness weren’t as closely intertwined with storms as wind and water, but they were still important building blocks in the formation of a storm. He explained as much to Professor Caldwell, and she smiled. “Very good. I see that you’ve been taking your AAT studies seriously.”
Aodhán grinned at the praise and she continued. “Well, when you channel your energy into an item, you channel all of these aspects at once even though you naturally cannot access them until the mythic tier, where you slowly gain the ability to control and manipulate each aspect, but I digress. What an Attuned-Aspect rune does is filter all these other aspects in favor of one. In this case we’ll be discarding the other aspects in favor of lightning, although in the case of Storm Awakeneds, lightning isn’t really considered an aspect. Anyway, we’ll discard the other aspects so only lightning essence gets into the blade.”
Aodhán frowned. “What about chaos? Won’t the filter hinder it?”
Professor Caldwell snorted and rolled her eyes. “Chaos? I’ll pay good money to see a rune that can hinder chaos.”
She began inscribing the blade a moment later, and Aodhán watched her closely. The Attuned-Aspect rune wasn’t one he was familiar with, but as professor Caldwell drew the rune, he could immediately tell that it was nothing less than a grand rune. The rune was so complex and delicate that Aodhán just had to ask. “What rank is this rune?”
“It’s a pseudo-elder rune.” Professor Caldwell replied, chuckling at Aodhán’s frown of confusion before explaining. “Okay, there are four major categories of runes, but there are some that fall into subcategories. For instance, this rune is too complex to be a grand rune but not complex enough to be an elder rune, so it falls into a subcategory. Nothing special about the subcategories.”
Aodhán nodded in understanding while Professor Caldwell explained. He had always wondered what rank a storm rune would be. He’d been leaning toward the advanced rank, but now he wondered if perhaps it was a pseudo-advanced rune.
“What rank is a storm rune?” he asked, and Professor Caldwell smiled as if she’d seen that question coming a mile away.
“You know, when professor Alaric told me you, Ankaz and Celeste had already begun activating runes, I knew you would eventually ask me this question. Let me advise you, kid, you’re not ready yet. The more complex an affinity, the harder the rune, and when I say complex, I mean the number of aspects intertwined with such an affinity. The element of storm is not a simple one; it is a pseudo-grand rune, and until you can easily inscribe advanced runes, I suggest you take your mind off it.”
Aodhán sighed in disappointment. He’d been looking forward to perfecting the rune and start merging it with other runes, but it seemed he would have to push his expectations even further. One thing baffled him though: if the base rune for Storm was at the pseudo-grand rank, then didn’t that mean that any merging he wanted to do would push the rune into the grand rank?
“Focus Aodhán.”
Professor Caldwell’s words drew him out of his thoughts, and Aodhán focused his attention on the blade, which threatened to crumble to pieces at the slightest touch. The erasing process had weakened the bone terribly, and as Professor Caldwell inscribed the Attuned-Aspect rune on its surface, it shuddered imperceptibly.
As simple as Professor Caldwell made the inscriptions look, Aodhán knew it was far from easy; however, watching Professor Caldwell work granted him some insight into his own work. It usually took him about a minute or two to draw a single initiate rune, more if it was slightly complex, but Professor Caldwell drew a pseudo-grand rune in the same amount of time. Less even as she’d added the affinity rune during the same duration.
Her speed was still nowhere near that of the Witch of Selia, Geneva Ryntharion, who threw out elder runes like candy. Aodhán suspected that Champion Geneva had most likely created the rune ahead of time, a feat that wasn’t too hard to believe considering the absurd amount of fur she wore to cover her body.
“Done.” Professor Caldwell announced a minute later and dropped her inscriber. “It’s coming up nicely, isn’t it?”
“It is.” Aodhán agreed as he stared at the half-charred bone, which seemed to be holding itself together by a thread. To be honest, it looked terrible, but Aodhán had the utmost faith in Professor Caldwell and was sure it would come out nicely.
“Now for the interesting part, wear this.” Professor Caldwell handed him a pair of yellow gloves that exposed his finger tips. They looked like normal gloves at first, but when Aodhán put them on, he sensed the anti-inflammatory runes inscribed within them. He dipped his hand into the burning flames and grinned when all he felt was a cozy warmth that licked his fingers instead of burning it to crisp.
“Are you ready?” Professor Caldwell asked, and when Aodhán nodded, she explained. “Okay, I need you to open your spirit to the origin plane of storm, pull in all that chaos energy, and channel it directly into this blade.”
Aodhán breathed in deeply and prepared himself for the torrent of chaos, pain, and pleasure that was about to enter his spirit. He waited for a moment until Professor Caldwell gave him the go ahead, and with a slight shiver of anticipation, Aodhán opened up his spirit to the origin plane.
The experience was much more exhilarating than he’d expected. It felt like coming home after a long time spent away, and Aodhán nearly groaned from pleasure. He placed his hands gently on the blade and without hesitation channeled all that storm-chaos brimming within his spirit into the bone blade. Storm essentially burst out of his fingertips with the rumble of distant thunder and flashes of lightning. The forge flames rose higher as they intermingled with chaos essence and began to run rampant.
Professor Caldwell muttered something under her breath, and suddenly a host of runes lit up, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow as they fought to contain the outbreak of chaos. Energy undulated around him, but Aodhán soon noticed that most of all that energy was just being wasted. Only a fraction of what he poured into the blade entered it, just like Professor Caldwell had said, and before long the once feeble blade began to take on new life. It flashed with lightning of different colors, from red to black, from black to green, and then to a white gold that seemed much purer than the others.
Aodhán pulled on more chaos energy and gasped as his spirit strained pleasurably. Had it always felt this good? This pleasurable? Or was it because he’d just spent the last five days deprived of any energy? Whatever the reason, Aodhán didn’t care; he just wanted to bask in this feeling for as long as he could.
“You’re doing great, Aodhán.” Professor Caldwell encouraged him, but Aodhán barely heard her through the roaring of thunder in his own mind. Aodhán poured chaos energy into the blade for what seemed like hours, and by the time his spirit began to ache, the feeble-looking blade had transformed into a sleek black blade made almost entirely of electricity. It’s edges were pure electricity, and even the part that remained bone glowed with so much power and lightning that Aodhán had a hard time looking away.
He cut off the infusion of chaos a moment later and took in the magnificent blade they had created. “I can’t believe it.” He muttered as the blade slowly floated upwards—towards him, as if asking him to brand it with his willpower, but before he could even entertain the idea, Professor Caldwell plucked the blade from the air and nodded at him. “Whenever you want, come to me, and we’ll make you a weapon together. It’ll be payment for helping me craft this masterpiece.”
Aodhán nodded mutely, still awed by the item they’d just created. Professor Caldwell chuckled and sheathed the blade. “You should see your face right now.”
Aodhán chuckled and shook his head in amazement. “I just can’t believe... I can’t believe we created something so beautiful.”
Professor Caldwell smiled gently and patted his head. “Well, believe it, because—"
A notification ping cut off the rest of Professor Caldwell’s words, and Aodhán’s eyes widened when he saw the message that appeared before him.
Congratulations! You have been instrumental in the creation of an Epic-ranked item.
New title gained!
[STATUS]
Name: Aodhán Ashoka-Brystion.
Title: Neophyte, Storm Spirit, Origin-marked, Seal Bearer, Silver, Amateur Runesmith.
Class: Evolved storm awakened: 99.9% (PENDING)
Tier: 21—13%
Glimpse--->Opening: Increases elemental affinity and abilities by 2.5%
Techniques: Perfect will imbuement (8).
Skills {Innate}: [Storm creation and manipulation] [Lightning creation and manipulation]
{Other}: [Lightning surge] [Lightning beam] [Lightning descent] [Create constructs] [Absorb lightning] [Spear rain—Lightning] [Spear rain—Storm] [Vortex of lightning] [Vortex of Storm] [Elemental lightning—Stage 1]
Bloodline: Origin Storm supremacy. {Unique}
•Amplifies storm abilities by 3%
•Grants major resistance to lightning
•Aura of Origin supremacy.
Familiar—Dragonkin (Fury)
Perks: psychic bond, merge, Berserk.
Amateur Runesmith: A title given to anyone who has taken the first step onto the path of rune smithing. Grants passive bonus to all runic activities. Drawing runes and activating them have just become a little bit easier.