Nate watched as Aisling walked around her desk to get a better view of the painting. He’d been apprehensive about giving the Guildmaster the painting, unsure how she’d react and if she’d appreciate the sentiment with which it was given. He especially did not want her to get the wrong idea, as despite all the teasing and comments, he wasn’t attracted to the Guildmaster. Intimidated, admiring and thankful would be the best descriptions of the emotions he felt towards Aisling. That said, he had to admit to himself that he wanted her to like the painting. He watched patiently as she stood before the painting, giving it her full attention before she turned to him and gave him a slight smile.

“You didn’t have to, but thank you. I quite like it. It makes me look…thoughtful but resolute. Is that what you were going for?” she asked.

“Close enough,” he replied quickly. “I was trying to capture the feeling when I first met you. The air felt electric and you seemed so in control. Like a storm about to break. Not sure if I did it justice though.”

Aisling stared at the painting for a little longer before giving a half smile, “I guess I can see that. Thank you.”

A moment later the painting had vanished and Nate’s eyes widened a little.

“You’ve got a spatial storage too?” he asked quickly.

Aisling snorted, “I’m a Platinum of the Adventurers Guild. Of course I do. They’re rare, but not that rare. Besides, they tend to be given by the System as equipment rewards in Rare or higher tier Dungeons.”

“Does the Guild control many such Dungeons?” he inquired. Would be good to know what he could ask for in the future in regards to rewards if Dungeons were involved. That was assuming he couldn’t find ones of his own.

Aisling looked at him for a long moment before sighing, “You’re a bit junior for that information, but why not. You showed us trust. I can do the same. In Etrua the Guild controls eight Dungeons. Six Rare and two Epic. Which is more than any single Noble family except for the Royal family. Of course, the number of Noble families exceeds sixty…so even if they each controlled a single Dungeon, and hint Nate, many control more than one, the Guild still controls less than a tenth of the known Rare or higher tier Dungeons in Etrua.”

Nate sat back down in the chair where the painting had previously rested. Thinking through Aisling’s explanation it was easy to see how the Nobility of Etrua had a stranglehold over the progression of citizens. He’d spent time in the wilds around Helmfirth and even he could see that the number and level of beasts was not enough to support the growth in levels of the people and that was before considering the fact that crafters and other more support or lifestyle classes would need condensed mana gems. With that in mind he could see how easy it was for the Nobility to control the populace.

“The Nobility dislike the Guild, right?” Nate asked, waiting till Aisling gave a curt nod before continuing. “Then why do they tolerate your presence in Etrua? If they outnumber you that badly why don’t they just kick you out? Surely they want your Dungeons?”

“Ah. That’s all true, but as I have told you before, the Guild isn’t just present in a singular country and not all countries are like Etrua,” Aisling started, pausing to laugh a little. “This is the kind of thing they will probably teach you at the Royal University, but the number and tier of Dungeons are related to the mana flows and mana flows are not evenly distributed. Etrua is an above average country in the sense that it has a decent amount of higher tier Dungeons. What do you think happens in a country with fewer high tier Dungeons, but more Dungeons overall?”

“I suppose there would probably be less extremes. The level divide between the rulers and the people would be smaller?” Nate offered.

“Exactly right. Etrua also isn’t that large as countries go. So even though they’ve got a decent military power, the actual amount of land and to some extent the total number of Dungeons is smaller than other countries. Put that together with the Guild being present everywhere…at least everywhere I have seen, and I am decently travelled, Nate, and you have your answer as to why the Nobility don’t just kick the Guild out. It’s not worth the trouble or effort for around ten percent of the total Dungeons. Easier and less costly to fight each other for a bit extra. It’s what they’ve been doing for hundreds of years, probably tacitly encouraged by the Royal family.”

“Politics,” he muttered.

“Don’t be childish, Nate. Or naive. Everything involves politics. We had a saying on the Steppes. ‘Speak up or be spoken for’,” Aisling replied, returning to her seat.

“I suppose it was the same where I come from. I never thought about it a lot. Too busy with other things. But I think I get your point. Politics affects us, whether we want it to or not,” he mused.

“Precisely. Was there anything else, Nate? Because I really do have to get some work done if we’re going to leave in a week's time,” Aisling said with a raised eyebrow.

Nate just shook his head and together with Frick headed out the door. He’d barely taken two steps when a hand came down on his shoulder.

“You’re mine for the rest of the day, kid,” said Luc, his voice more amused than it had been earlier. “We’ve got a week to cram in a month's worth of lessons. This is going to be fun, for me anyway. You? Not so much.”

Nate had time to activate Spatial Awareness and Eyes of the Runic Artist as Luc pulled him through the rift. With his Spatial Awareness active he could feel the edges of the rift they passed through and the pressure outside of it, trying to crush the rift. To restore space. Interestingly the pressure didn’t seem to affect Frick. Stepping out the other side, he found himself in their usual clearing. It was somewhat torn up from all their training but surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the damage had been caused by him. Luc seemed to have more than enough Magic Control to only hit what he wanted to hit and nothing else. His erstwhile teacher walked away from him a few steps before spinning to face him.

“So far, we’ve worked almost solely on your defence, because frankly it was woeful. After these last few weeks I would say you’ve graduated from woeful to below average. Maybe average, if I am being generous,” Luc said, pausing to flick his eyes up in thought. “By my standards of course. But I will continue to judge you by my standards because I expect you to be better than the riff raff. Now that you can passably defend yourself, it’s time we actually develop some offensive capabilities. Battle, actual battle, is a lot like City States. You know the game?”

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Nate shook his head in response.

“Commoners,” sighed Luc, running a hand through his brown hair. “It is a game of strategy and deception. Most of the Nobility play it as do many who serve them. The reason I say it is similar to battle is because in battle, there are really only three ways to win, much like City States. Overpowering force. If you’re simply that much stronger than your opponent there is no need for any grand strategies. Beat them into submission.

“Then there are those that you are roughly equal to. Against them you need to slowly corner them, force them into bad positions, bad situations. Trap them and run them down. It takes a lot of tactics and fast-thinking, which luckily for you, is something you should have in droves. Finally there are those you are weaker than. It’s a fact of life. There’s always someone stronger, kid, and sometimes you don’t get to pick your battles. Sometimes your battles pick you. That’s where the last key strategy is employed. Deception. Baiting your opponent into a trap even they can’t escape from. You rarely get out of that last one unscathed, but better to be scathed than to be dead, you hear me? Death’s pretty final. Injuries, no matter how deep, have potential solutions.”

Nate nodded along. It was a lot to take in. He’d never really had to consider battle and tactics. Australia wasn’t a particularly military focused country and schoolyard fights were, well, amateur hour to put it simply. Life or death wasn’t really a concern back on Earth, at least not for him.

“Now that we’ve got that out the way, let's go over your options,” Luc said, breaking him out of his stray thoughts. “You probably won’t get an offensive spatial Skill till at least your tenth level in the Class. Maybe even later. I didn’t get mine till the twentieth level. Which means relying on receiving one for the Tournament is out of the question. Instead, we’re going to focus on improving your use of those enchantments you put on your robe. Let me ask you two questions. Firstly, you can alter what they do to some extent, right? That’s the whole Battle Enchanter part that Aisling told me about? Secondly, why do you only ever use them one at a time and not together?”

Nate gave it some thought for a moment. He’d only recently started delving into the realm of runic arrays. A single rune could contain multiple sigils but it still gave rise to what was meant to be a singular effect. His ability to alter that effect due to his Imbue Intent skill was something of a cheat, but he’d never really pushed that angle in combat beyond basic alterations to the underlying rune. Shaping the earth or altering the locations and size of his barriers wasn’t exactly pushing the Skill. He’d only ever been truly concerned with what it could do for his runecrafting. But Luc made a couple of good points. Why only use one rune at a time? Could he in theory start to link them together like an array? He took a second to read over the skill description for his Runic Artistry skill.

Runic Artistry (Epic)

You have created art and you have created runes. Now, combine the two creating something both beautiful and powerful. Runic Artistry facilitates the creation of Runic Arrays. A sequence of runes in a pattern that agrees with your sensibilities and the multiverse. Decrease Mana Cost of Runic Arrays by 5% and apply 5% of Dexterity and 5% of Creativity to Magic Power for Runic Arrays. All values increase by 1% per Skill Level.

Current Bonuses (Lvl 10): -14% Mana Cost, +17 Magic Power for Runic Arrays

He wanted to hit himself after rereading it. It even said that his Magic Power was increased when using Runic Arrays. That however leant itself to him simplifying some of his runes. It would be better to have a Drain rune and a Life rune as an example instead of a Life Drain rune. He could link them together by creating the Runic Array on the fly. It would then mean he could use the Drain rune on other things. Like Fire Drain to reduce the power of fire attacks or similar.

That obviously meant he could also do things like linking runes to his Barrier runes. A Soul Barrier would probably protect him against soul attacks like the Soul Dissolution spell. Maybe a Shadow Barrier would help protect against the Devouring Light of the demon he’d fought. The possibilities were endless. Just thinking about it made him realise he’d been wasting his Creativity Stat.

That answered one of Luc’s questions. The other was simple enough, if he’d viewed it in the same old way. His Imbue Intent did let him alter his runes on the fly. But, so far he had focused on the logical possibilities. Making fire hotter, making earth move, making his barrier denser or altering it so that it absorbed more of the impact. These were all linear things. Things you would expect those runes to do. Making fire hotter wasn’t ‘outside the box’.

He’d just learned about Subconcepts though and gotten some firsthand, or should he say, firstshoulder experience with some of the more esoteric properties a Concept could be forced to exhibit. What was stopping him from making fire that stuck or giving earth liquid-like properties. Maybe a barrier that deformed without breaking? The limit was his creativity and what he supposed the Imbue Intent skill could support. He doubted it would be as simple as spending a single Intent to change a subconcept for one of his runes, but he was keen to try.

His thoughts must’ve been clear on his face because Luc yelled out then, jabbing a finger towards him. “That! That look right there! That’s the kind of look a pupil of mine should have. Straighten up that spine, kid. We’ll make a man out of you yet!”

Without any warning the metal balls start flying through rifts at him. Luc hadn’t bothered to start out small, the first wave having twelve already and Nate could see him preparing more with his Eyes of the Runic Artist. He’d sensed the rifts opening with his Spatial Awareness and flowed mana to his Barrier rune in response. Using his Imbue Intent he tried to change the subconcept affecting the barrier from one of solidity to flexibility, allowing it to compress before reforming its shape. The act took eight of his eleven Intents but he felt it snap into place, two Intents being used to create the shape and distance. The last he held in reserve. He watched as the metal balls stretched the film that was his barrier before it reformed, throwing them back away. That was when he started activating From Me, To You. Using the momentum from the metal balls being launched away, he changed their trajectories using the spatial tunnels created by his skill.

Instantly the clearing was full of metal balls launching every which way. He kept track of the ones he needed to defend against with Spatial Awareness while tracking Luc and his counterattacks with Eyes of the Runic Artist. Luc didn’t seem to have any issue, redirecting the metal balls with some spell or skill of his own. None of the simpler runes he had currently imbued into his robe would mesh well in ways that he wanted to battle against Luc, but that evening, the moment he got back to his room he was going to be creating copies of all his interesting sigils as singular runes.

Luc just smirked as he casually sent more metal balls flying, slowly draining away Nate’s mana. Tomorrow’s training would be different, he decided. Tomorrow he was going to make his teacher work for it. He was going to wipe that smug smile off of Luc’s face, after all, battle could be a form of art and he was a Mythic Runic Artist. It was time to change the way he approached battle.