The stinger floats inside the jelly, breaking down into tiny fragments. Each fragment got enveloped by a separate bubble, dissolving it further. Within a few seconds, the potent sources disappeared without a trace, leaving the poison behind.

The jelly wriggled and struggled to consume the poison. Once that doesn’t work, a few bubbles trap and carry parts of the poison out of the rhino’s body.

The bubbles jumped out of the rhino’s jelly form and splattered on the floor, effectively removing the poison, while its vital energy eliminated small traces of poison left.

Tetsu climbs off from the invisible shield, taking every step with the utmost care. With poison splattered everywhere and his naked bruised feet, he didn’t want to take any chances.

Once he got a safe distance away from the Rhino, Tetsu slumped back and sighed. “Of course you have countermeasures...” His breathing gets heavier. “All you do is eat.”

The rhino did what Tetsu assumed was a shrug and went back to eating.

“I wish... Can I?” He wonders.

A spark lights up another theory in Tetsu’s head. Before he wasn’t able to differentiate one part of the jelly from another, but now he could differentiate a lot better. The rhino’s expressions got clear, and he also understood bits of her digestion process.

Was it just him getting familiar with her, or was there another hidden clause lurking around?

He didn’t or rather couldn’t divert his mind at this moment. This new spark had too much untapped potential behind it and he required even more data before it could grow into an unstoppable flame.

Tetsu focused on all of his senses. His eyes got sharper, peering deeper into the magical digestive system of the rhino. His ears ignored unrelated sounds, while his skin noted down any and every slight temperature change.

One Runic letter consumed his consciousness.

“Consume.” His entire being wanted to consume anything and everything in their path.

Many ideas formed in his mind. Each theory argued against the other, disproving and solving each other until only one solution emerged victorious.

Tetsu followed the rhino for more insights. After all, she was the inspiration behind the rune and the cornerstone for him to understand it better.

Intent played a huge role in instructing a rune. Any incomplete information, conflicting thoughts, or inconsistent ideology can ruin the relationship between him and his runes.

Runes were like little fairies born from their creator’s will. If the creators ‘will’ wavers, the same rune that worked and created magic for centuries can cease to exist.

Tetsu had to learn this the hard way.

He lost a skill and two runes in an hour. In times like these, Tetsu hated his inner sage the most. A little warning or heads-up would’ve been great. But deep down, he knew it was his own fault. Tetsu forgot his simple and foremost rule.

Any skill or power comes with drawbacks and, Like any other power, entering into the muse realm also had its drawbacks.

Lost in the realm and between his experiments, Tetsu completely forgets his surroundings. It’s like when you are playing your favorite game or eating a prepared favorite dish over the perfect movie. You hate it when someone intrudes on this quality time.

Sage must have warned him at some point, he honestly doesn’t recall. He only has vague recollections of ignoring the system front and forcing his experiments to work. In the end, he lost two runes and a skill.

But as Kile would say, “To take the good out of the bad,” Tetsu noted down the first huge drawback of rune force.

Comparing runes to tiny fairies who are born from the will of the creators, here are Tetsu’s red flags for those bitches.

Red flags of runes.

1. Perfect Communication.

The creator has to have super clear communication. One word should mean one thing and one thing alone. Like some English words, you can’t use the same word in a different sentence and then mean a different thing. Or use the same darn word for different meanings.

Oh, but if I use this or my emotions... No bitch. Simple and clear.

Communication is the key in this relationship and once broken, they ain’t coming back. Sure, you can find or make another fairy, but it would still be your second best as the first creation takes away a lot of intent as she leaves.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Yeah, alimony is still a bitch but with a slight change, as it’s all your fault.

Now, Tetsu was happy that he figured this out sooner rather than later. He missed the opportunity to fly, but what's gone is gone. These fairies never go back to their exes.

So if you think Tetsu is being unreasonable and overly cautious, there’s a goddamn reason behind it. His creation should not only be perfect now but also never conflict with his later creations down the road.

It assigned Tetsu to create the perfect language or maintain many bitches without one knowing about the other. Either way, no conflict should ever arrive.

Tetsu liked his first analogy. It made him the founder of the very first clear language. Under his system, there wouldn’t be any miscommunication. In fact, they would force everyone to have clear and transparent views.

On the other hand, his second analogy scared him pale. One crazy bitch was enough to scare the rest of them away. Based on Tetsu’s history, he would be single or powerless in one stupid move.

Rune is a personal instruction that you, and only you, apply to bend reality. Upset the rune and reality shall collapse upon you. This doesn’t mean Tetsu can’t use some other Ru’nic master’s rune or someone couldn’t use his unique rune. Both of them should just make sure they have similar intent while using said rune and any other future rune does not comprise their current rune.

To make it less complicated, the Rune force is for everyone, but runes are highly personalized to the dot.

While an overthinker has many unimaginable plans for the future, they also contradict every other choice at present. This is even more true for a rune user as Tetsu struggled to make his current rune.

He already had a hard time infusing the procedure, as it clashed with every other question possible. Now, he even had to think about any possible future rune.

The rune that let him fly already downgraded itself as it left Tetsu. He lost it once, and making another rune meant lower power output. If that wasn’t enough, it also contradicted his current rune ‘consume.’

Both of them had similar instructions. One pushed the environment away to float, while the other had to pull the environment inside to consume. One pushed, and the other pulled. This slight difference was enough to upset the two runes. They found out about each other and diffused their powers from within, never to return.

“Moody little…” Tetsu controls his anger.

This forced Tetsu to find a different instruction to enforce a different rune. His intent and the way he approached the rune were also ruined. Pun intended.

After many roadblocks, Tetsu moves on to physical training. If one power is down, train the other.

Tetsu went back to the basic push-ups, sprints, and stretches. Overusing the flash step, he drained a lot of his resources and now ran around naked.

Yes, he named his new rune combo ‘Flash step.’ He knows it is a far step from the actual power, but he is confident to reach it, nonetheless.

And also no, the stingy system didn’t offer him any skill for this awesome invention.

“Weird how the system picks and hands out skills.”

Tetsu understood he would never really figure out the system. There will always be more, and immortality is not going to change that.

————/ /————

Little did he know, his best bud had much more luck tackling the system.

Kile smiles and takes a step forward, disappearing into nothingness.

A real flash step.

————/ /————

Even after several hours, Tetsu faced the same roadblock. With his mana and health dangerously low, he removes his pants and focuses on other theories.

Lines separated half runes, broken materials, and experiments. Except for Tetsu, everyone else will call it garbage but for him, everything was exactly where they were supposed to be, and if they aren’t...

“Did you eat my shiny boom boom thingy?” Tetsu yells at the rhino.

She raises her with several shiny orbs in her mouth and shakes it sideways.

“Don’t lie! I can see them in your fucking mouth.”

Tetsu gets up to run, but his legs remind him they are still on cool-down.

“Wait right there and I will be there in an hour or two.”

She smirks and heads closer to Tetsu. Tetsu raises his fists and warns her. “Stop. No... Whatever is it you are planning? Please don’t.”

She strolls around Tetsu, eating all of his research materials. She even stopped and took her sweet time chewing and imitating Tetsu’s chewing motion.

“You don’t chew…”

Tetsu ignored his legs and tried to crawl with his hands, but even his hands were too exhausted. He yelled and splashed in a place like a fish out of the water while the rhino slowly consumed every bit of his research.

The damn jelly rhino eats his research. How was ever going to convey this story?

“I will never forget...” Tetsu’s mouth shuts down mid-sentence.

Words resonated in his head, but his mouth was too exhausted to move. Next, his eyes felt heavier and his head felt lighter.

“What is...” His brain denied him access.

Fatigue: 98... 99...

“Oh!” Tetsu realizes.

He had just over-exhausted himself and now his body did a forceful restart.

‘Very game-like.’ He. smiles. ‘Need to remember all the items before nap time.’ Tetsu concentrates and uses all of his leftover energy to make mental notes of what’s needed and where he found them last time.

[Ding! Skill: Resource Radar is available: A General direction for something good. Have a radar ever present to point you in the right direction. In a world unknown, every resource is a boon. Level: Initiate. Rarity: Unique.]

[Warning! The exact nature, size, or potency of the resource won’t be known until tested. Once you deem a resource valuable, it shall be added to the database. Increase the information and nature of your findings to build a better database. Radar works and changes based on the database.]

[Do you accept skill?]

[Y/N]

[Warning! Unique skills are amongst the rarest skills in the universe. These are personalized, so they change based on the creator or user of this skill. Acquiring such a skill will block you from picking up any other skill that resembles the unique skill. Choose with caution.]

‘Sweet.’ Tetsu and his inner sage agree.

He gains the skill and passes out with a smile. The knowledge entering him was enough to bump his fatigue levels over the limit.

Fatigue: (-1)

The rhino was concerned about the human sleeping naked, in the open, and in the middle of the day.

But he always bounced back, right?

‘Ah!’ She shrugs and gets back to eating.

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