“Why would you overlap these shapes?” asked Professor Marnier, pointing at an overlapped square and octagon in the centre of the rune.

“Mana prefers geometric shapes. But it’s a distribution field. Prefers does not mean adheres too,” Nate explained. “By overlapping the shapes we’re increasing the amount of mana that gathers where the two shapes meet. This is ideal for empowering certain Sigils above others. For example, let's say we didn’t have a Sigil for Ice, we could use this format to link Sigils for Water and Cold or Freeze and create ice without the sigil for it. Another example is if we have a particular Sigil we want to couple with an empowering Sigil. Like, I will use myself as an example: if I wanted to create a barrier that was stronger against a particular element…I would put the empowering Sigils and the Barrier sigils around the overlapping area, so they received more mana. Then I would put whatever elemental Sigil near the sides. That way it would get some mana but the rune would clearly focus on the barrier. Not the element.”

Nate had learned that the Professor had recently gone through his Class Evolution at level sixty. As part of that process, he’d been offered the Epic Runecrafter Class, a Class similar to the one Nate himself was masquerading as. This meant the Professor’s Skills had up until now mostly been focused around Enchanting. The offer of an Epic Class had been too much for the Professor and he had dived in head first without considering the impact. It turned out, unsurprisingly, that Enchanters didn’t really care about mana distribution fields. The imbued gem dust they used created mana circuits that had very little loss as they transmitted mana through whatever series of sigils or other controls for the enchantments they created. Thankfully, the Professor was more informed when it came to Sigils, Concepts and Subconcepts, because the fact was Nate didn’t sign up to be a teacher. If he wasn’t getting Sigils out of this deal he wouldn’t have even bothered and left the Professor to his own experiments.

“I understand,” nodded Professor Marnier. “Rather than mana circuits you’re controlling mana distribution using the shapes of the rune. I’ve heard you can create them in the air, without any material substrate?”

“Mana scaffolds. Mana in a geometric shape attracts other mana. It’s far less mana efficient than using a physical material, but it works if you need to adapt on the fly,” explained Nate. The question got him wondering if the same would be true if the geometric shape was formed from soul or demonic energy. Experiments for future Nate.

“So, that should give you enough to improve your runes and make them cost significantly less mana. Maybe next time you’ll be able to record the entire symphony,” he suggested. “So, did you get the Sigils I asked for?”

Professor Marnier extracted a notepad from his own spatial storage and Nate glanced at the two drawings with a grin.

Metal Sigil (Quality: Novice)

Size Sigil (Quality: Initiate)

“I could only get the Size Sigil at the Initiate tier. I couldn’t find anyone who would admit to having a higher tier version.”

“That’s fine,” replied Nate. It was annoying, but if his Skill evolution went the way he intended he could figure out how to grade up his Sigils with enough time and mana.

“Next time I will go over how runes can interact to form runic arrays. You do have the Runic Intent Skill right?” Nate asked.

“Yes, it was obviously the best Skill from the options available,” answered the Professor. “What Sigils were you after for the next lesson?”

“Distance and Direction, if you can find them.”

“And if I can’t?” queried Professor Marnier.

“Then find some that you think will interest me. You’re a smart guy, Professor. I’m sure you can figure out some that I might be interested in,” responded Nate, getting up from the workbench and heading for the door. “See you in a few days!”

Walking down the stairs towards the building’s exit he considered his next move. He had something to do later that night, but Britt had asked him to drop by for a little while after his late ‘class’ with Professor Marnier. With a smile he headed in the direction of the dormitory. He had an hour or two to kill before he headed to the Den of the Desire.

*************

Closing the door behind him he left Britt’s room, strongly considering the moral implications of using his Life Drain rune on others without their consent. He had to admit, this was the first time he was lamenting his lack of physical stats. Britt clearly had him beat in Strength, Endurance and Constitution. If it wasn’t for his respectable Dexterity stat he doubted if he would’ve been able to keep up with her. That being said, his hand was sore and he suspected he might have a few bruises. The pain was undoubtedly worth it, but there was something to be said for the soothing balm of restoring himself by draining the life energy from something. Maybe he could find some rats around the Den.

Shrugging, he checked his spatial storage to make sure the two bars of manerium were in there. The agreement with the smugglers had been one per week and he’d already missed the first delivery window due to their dungeon excursion. An excuse he hoped didn’t cause issues with the smugglers. Sending out his farsight sphere of awareness, he began teleporting across the city. He considered using his farsight sphere of awareness to try and spot Kiri as he appeared near the Den of Desire, but decided against it for now. Better to watch out for himself than try and search for his friend.

The bouncer gave him a nod as he entered the Den, which made him wonder if he had been here too often. Walking up to the bar he checked if his contact was in, only to be informed she was with a client and would be available in a little while. With a nod he ordered a drink and found a table in a corner of the room. Taking out his notepad it didn’t take long for the first escort to approach him. The woman had straight black hair, done up in a coif and held in place with a green pin which matched her eyes. The blue satin dress completed her outfit, loose enough to blow in the breeze or hug her form. He had to admit the outfit was perfect for accomplishing what he suspected was the goal, hinting at what lay beneath.

“You’re Nate, right? The artist?” she asked coyly. When he nodded she rushed on, “Florence and Adrian showed me the paintings you did of them! They were so gorgeous! What would I need to do to get one as well?”

The tone was suggestive enough that he knew what she was offering, but he didn’t need a reason or excuse to engage in the creation of art. Besides, he had a little time to while away. Might as well spend it creating art.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Mind drawing the curtains?” he asked, indicating the curtains that could be pulled out to shield the corner of the room.

She giggled flirtatiously as she drew the curtains and her movements indicated she was putting on a show, which made him regret not being clearer. When she approached him, sashaying and starting to drop the blue dress over her shoulder he shook his head.

“That’s not necessary. Would you mind arranging yourself over there however you want to be painted?” he asked, indicating a corner of the seating with a few cushions.

Ignoring her look of confusion as she backed away towards the location he specified, he reached into his spatial storage and pulled out an easel, a blank canvas and started arranging his paints on the table around his unfinished drink. The candlelight from the table made for an interesting lighting situation, and he glanced over to check that the woman was comfortable. She wasn’t. She seemed unsure.

“Relax, the painting will look better if you look natural,” he said calmly.

“But, what about payment?” she asked, confusion writ on her face as she tried to move into a more natural position.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got an hour and I don’t need much of an excuse to paint. Besides, this lighting is new for me. Just try to hold whatever pose you choose, which is why it’s better if you get comfortable,” he added.

She finally seemed to relax and settled into the cushions, the blue satin clinging to her. It was such a perfect image to paint, between the flickering candlelight and the shadows thrown across her by the folds of her dress. He lost track of time as he painted, only becoming aware as he sensed someone approaching his corner of the room through his sphere of awareness. Glancing up before the curtain had even been parted he saw one of the bartenders peaking in, eyes scrunched in confusion when he saw the escort was still clothed.

“She’s ready for you,” he added, before closing the curtain.

Looking back at the painting, he added the last few finishing touches before he started packing up his paint supplies. The escort tried to thank him but he explained it wasn’t necessary before confirming she had somewhere to keep the painting while it dried. If he was being honest, her reaction when she saw the painting had been payment enough and it had been fun to paint the piece. Heading upstairs he drew his sphere of awareness in. He really didn’t need to see what was going on in the various rooms around him and while it was perhaps a little risky he still had his barrier up so he wasn’t completely unprotected. Entering the same room where he had met Luc he found the woman waiting for him, touching up her makeup after her last customer.

“You’re late,” she said, without turning away from her mirror, hazel eyes glancing at him. “They were annoyed but I explained that you might have had to leave the city on an errand and that I was sure you’d have both when you got back. You do have both, right?”

To answer her question, he removed the two Epic quality manerium bars from his spatial storage. She glanced at them hungrily and it made him wonder what Luc was paying her. Hopefully it would be enough to keep her honest, though greed did funny things to people.

“We good?” he asked.

“We’re good,” she replied, standing up to scoop up the metal bars before glancing at him. “Well? Off you go then. A girls gotta keep a few secrets doesn’t she?”

He tried not to laugh at that and nodded, heading out the door and out of the Den. Hopefully this plan of Luc’s panned out, because it was his path to making up for his Stat Orb deficiency. As he left he scanned the area with his farsight sphere of awareness. He noted there were at least two individuals watching the square, but when neither reacted to his sphere or himself he guessed they were watching for someone else. Ducking into an alley he began his teleportation journey back to his room. He had a date with some Skill development.

*************

Lothar did his best not to freeze as he felt the sensory skill pass over him. Keeping his eyes scanning the square and ignoring his target, he waited for another twenty minutes even after the kid had vanished. This job was more dangerous than he thought. But it was done. The sighting was enough for the boss. They would just have to decide what to do with the information he had gathered. Climbing down from the roof he headed for the warehouse. Hopefully this wouldn’t blow up in their face, else he’d need to get out of here real fucking fast. This shit wasn’t worth dying for, no matter how attractive the face that was paying them was.

*************

Kiri ground her teeth in annoyance. She had followed Nate out but he was just sitting in the Den. She had hoped he would only visit for a moment, maybe to drop off a painting or something, but given where she could sense him, using her Soul Tether, and the position of the others in the Den, based on her Soul Sense, she knew he wasn’t coming out for a while.

The question was, did she stay here and wait, missing her debut. Or did she trust him to handle himself. In the end, she wasn’t his babysitter and he wasn’t out painting walls in the Slums. He should be fine here. With that thought she began using Soul Shift to cross to the edge of the Merchant’s District where it came up against the Slums. The Pit, as it was called, was the go to place for all your fighting and brawling needs. The meaty looking bouncers let her in at a glance when they recognised her.

The noise washed over her as the door closed behind her. That and the smell. Sweat, blood and unwashed bodies intermingled in her nose as the sound of men and women screaming for violence filled the room. The fight looked like it was coming to a close as some scarred woman with a red mohawk continued to punch some bald behemoth into the sandy floor of the miniature arena. The poor guy had seen better days apparently.

Skirting the edges of the room she made her way over to Petrov. The slimy bastard was as fat as an okra and just as ugly. But he was about as honest as you could hope an okra would be. She had asked around and apparently he never short-changed his fighters. Honour amongst thieves or some other bullshit, she thought.

“Was startin’ to think you wouldn’ show,” said Petrov as she approached, the big bastard leaning forward and sucking on his teeth. “Ya’re up next. You ready? This ain’ tha fuckin’ Guild. No weapons. No healers. Jus’ you, ya fists and the sand.”

“I told you I got this. What are the odds?” she asked, bouncing from foot to foot a little as she prepared to throw down.

“Ya’re five to one, since ya’re under-levelled for tha under sixties division. How much ya puttin’ on yaself?” he asked.

She handed over the gold that she had exchanged some mana gems for. Places like this preferred coinage to the gems. Easier to move. Easier to measure. “Tha’s a lotta gold girl. Ya sure?” he asked.

She just grunted in response. She was done talking. It was time to fight.

Petrov nodded, handing the pouch to one of the thugs around him, “Split it up ‘cross a few bookies. Bring tha slips back to me for holdin’. Well go on girl. Get down there.”

With her bet handled she headed down to the sandy floor. A couple of people were raking the sand, hiding the blood stains, as if that would ever be enough to conceal what this place was.

Her opponent walked out the other side. A sailor at a guess, his bare chest tanned and tattooed, which matched his bald head. Kiri was tall for a woman, but her opponent was bigger still. That just made her grin as she balled her hands into fists. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, she thought to herself as she waited for the bell to ring and the fight to start. A moment later the bell rung and she rushed across the sand, kicking it up behind her as she started using Soul Drain and Soul Imbuement. Without blades this was going to be a fight of attrition and she intended to bleed her opponent for all he was worth. She laughed in joy as she dodged his first swing. It felt good to finally be paying her own way by doing what she was good at!