Chapter 20: Rune Magic
Chapter 20: Rune Magic
In the end, I did not invest any of my unallocated points into Arcane Acuity. As it turned out, I merely needed to complete three layers of Way to reach 25 points in the advanced attribute, and all three were already close to completion.
Well, not Engraving, but I was so new to the path that I could practically complete the next two layers in two weeks if I put my mind to it.
Then there was Essence Sense. My progress stood at (928/1,000). In about 72 more hours, I would gain 8 points in Arcane Acuity—more than half of the points I needed.
In the next two days, I managed to draw ten perfect elementary Fire runes in a row, which meant Mum would finally allow me to inscribe them onto metal pieces and potential fabricators. However, I hadn’t asked her yet.
Instead, I put my mind to the other elemental runes—Earth, Water, and Air—and began practising those. There were many variations within these elements: ice or vapour for Water, metal or sand for Earth, and don’t even get me started on Wind.
It was arguably the most complex elementary rune I had practised. Water was as easy as Fire. It had two alternative runes—one that absorbed vapours and humidity from the air to form water, and the other that simply transformed essence into water. The first was more complicated but more cost-efficient; the latter burned essence to produce water, but its formation was quite similar to the Fire rune. I practised both. Since I had already perfected the Fire rune, mastering them wasn’t too difficult.
The octagonal forms were identical; only the inner runes needed practising. Five days after Mum’s promise, I completed the second layer of Rune Engraving.
[Congratulations! Rune Engraving II (25/25) is complete.]
[+2 Arcane Acuity.]
[Way of Rune Engraving III (25/50) is now accessible.]
It was only the beginning. I stole time from my playing hours and even from other activities such as reading, painting, and music to practise Engraving. Since I had been working on foreign essence, there was no strain on my body.