Chapter 66: Runes Finale

Kaus sat in a comfortably overstuffed armchair, his legs splayed out in front of him thanks to its slightly too short height. He had returned to the office as soon as he had woken, rising with the dawn of the crystal sun that hung high above the Depths-created dwarven city. To his luck, he’d been able to slip out of the bedroom without waking Porkchop. By his measure he had at least an hour until his friend woke, giving him plenty of time to mergeRunic Lexicon.

His chest rose and fell with his slow and measured breaths. The steady cadence helping him to empty his mind and prepare him for the battle of wills ahead. Even with his enhanced mental visualisation capabilities thanks toTrue Sight, he knew that it would require a devoted effort to ignore the calls of his legacy skills as he went through the merging process.

Thankfully, with each step on his path, the amount of skills that needed to be merged decreased. He doubted that even with his drive and capped Willpower that he would be able to handle the strain of merging more than five.

He could do this. It was time.

His inner world spun into existence, sharp and defined. Where previously entering his soul space felt like puppeting a marionette, now he felt in control. More able to visualise and direct his will. His soul burned with a warm orange fire, lighting up the nebulae of his resources. Pulling the crystal shards of his general skills into its orbit.

A full half of them glimmered with the platinum shine he had come to expect from legacy skills. A testament to his steadily growing foundation, though only one had buttressed up against the imposed cap on growth that the system imposed on the unclassed.

The other half glimmered, almost overshadowed by the aura of their superior cousins. Each and everyone bled meaning into the void. Their energies twisting and turning into mind bending geometric shapes. His runic mastery skills.

At this point, spinning out his initial thread of soulfire was simplicity itself. He took a moment to weave it tighter. Visualising it less like a diffuse rope of fire, and more a wire of metallic gold. Condensing it into a strengthened form. The image weighed on his mind, but he knew the bond would be necessary, would help to anchor his soul more securely to his first skill. Help him to ignore the siren song of his legacy skills, already whispering their obsession into his mind.

He lunged for his first skill, wrapping it in a gilden net of soulstuff. Ykkardian shrieked of truth. Of philosophy. It condensed the world into its core principles. Leaning on layered meanings to hide profound mysteries in a single sentence. It connected to something higher. Acknowledging that interpretation and context was where true insight was formed.

The weight of the skill settled heavily on his brow, dragging at his willpower. Kaius grit his teeth, staying focused as his legacy skills shrieked. Screaming for his attention. He moved on, feeling sweat starting to bead on his brow.

Reaching out to his soul once more, Kaius took the time to spin out another metallic wire of soul-stuff that shined with inner light. A finger length at a time he pulled it from its soul. It was agonisingly slow, every added moment giving his legacy skills more space to resonate, demanding that he connect with them. It was worth it, the extra density of the connection remaining steadfast against their covetous desire.

He touched the next skill. It was exacting. Uncompromising. There was onlyonetruth, one correct way to interpret the union of the physical and magical. To be inaccurate was to give false commands. How could one expect obeisance from mana when one could not even direct it clearly? Complexity was necessary if one wanted to truly describe the myriad complexities of the heavens.

Holding his mind steady under the buffeting winds of meaning, Kaius watched as the skill pulsed with light. Connecting to his soul. Tension spiked as the call of his legacy skills redoubled, rising into a hellish squeal that tore at his mind like an icepick. He grit his teeth, the physical pain spreading through his jaw keeping him grounded.

Another wire of soul condensate shot from his soul, moving with speed as he grew used to condensing his inner self into a stable speed. Wrapping around his next skill, he dove into it. Feeling its depths before his other skills could call to him once again.

Yosh’s Supplementary was relaxed. Understanding of the confusion and difficulty that could arise when concepts struggled to cross barriers in communication. It was such a foreign concept to Kaius. That truth was not universal. That meaning did not have one description. Yosh had known, and as such so did his skill. It was a mediator. One that heard, understood, and passed on. Twisting the message so that it was received correctly, its core preserved untouched. It did not seek to explain, merely translate.

The skill connected, a shockwave echoing through Kaius’s innermost self. The three skills he had connected to his soul started to resonate. Singing with joy at a coming union. His legacy skills raged, the metaphysical weight of potential whipping them into new heights of furor. Kaius pushed on, his nails digging into his palm.

Lashed in golden wire, High Lothian spoke to him. It called to the deft mysteries of magic. The immutable secrets of mage craft. Observed. Understood. Transcribed. Magic might have been a higher force, but it was still bound by laws. Shaped by rules. Will and intent might suffice, but true control came from direction and control, not manipulation. Bound by logic and argument, diffuse power could ignite into so much more.

Binding to his soul, High Lothian joined the growing chorus. Four rune mastery skills, leashed to his inner fire, began to shake. Quaking with an intensity of desire. Waiting on the cusp of somethingmore. Garbed in platinum luminance, his other skills raged. Avaricious of the attention they did not receive, buffeting Kaius’s soul with their power as they scorned him. It drove his mental agony to new heights.

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Yet Kaius was no stranger to pain, to the strain of overburdened will. A hoarse yell slipped free of his throat, breaking the silence of the office. It went unnoticed as his entire being focused inwards, dragging a new connection to his last skill, resisting the pull of platinum shards of power.

Heat trickled free from his nose.Healthtorrented from his soulspace.

The last skill connected. His legacy skills fell blessedly silent, defeated. Impressions tore through his mind.

Simenoan had no interest in the categorisation and binding of the world. Oh sure, it was valuable, but it was exactly that value that it had interest in. Such a fragile thing. So ridgid, so easily torn out of alignment with deeper truth. A moment of instability was all it took, and something precious was lost for evermore. Simenoan was a guardian. A protector of the fragile insight that sought to bring order to chaos.

For a moment all stood still, then there was a pulse of yellow fire. Rocketing out from his soul, burning across links and penetrating the new union of skills. A single crystalline note rose above the hateful shrieking of his legacy skills, resonating.

Moving quickly, Kaius threaded soul-fire between the skills. Feeling how they fit together. It was an easier link than most. All runic scripts sought to impress order and insight onto the inherent mutable chaos of mana. Sure, they each did so differently, and some were more focused than others, but all stood in service of a common purpose.

He connected the final lash of gold. Skills slipped together, crashing with violent excitement. In a final conflagration they detonated, forming a nebulae of power, insight, and meaning.

**Ding! Skill Merge Detected! Would you like to proceed?**

Kaius accepted the system's assistance. Feeling its controlled power settle around the diffuse potential of his dissolved skills. Mixing them. Urging them to condense. Under the system’s ministrations, his own will, and the pull of his soul the cloud started to spin. Crystallising into a new form.

The burgeoning skill hit critical mass, collapsing with a pulse of force, buffeting his soul.

Another shard of platinum slipped free of his grip, drifting to join its now silent brothers and sisters in orbit around his inner fire.

**Ding! Skill Merged! Runic Lexicon obtained!**

Taking a deep breath Kaius relaxed his body, letting his jaw unclench and his hands loosen. He opened his eyes, taking a moment to simply drink in his success. This was a major milestone. Not just representing a crossing of the halfway mark, but one that brought him within a stride of finally being able to work on his casting.

Jittery excitement bubbled away at the thought. Sure, it wouldn’t be easy. Even withRunic Lexicon,Mana Manipulationand having pre-designed his formation, actually imprinting the thing would be enough of a challenge in its own right. At the very least, he would be surprised if by the end of it he hadn’t capped both of those legacy skills.

Kaius shook off his musings, turning his attention back towards his newest skill. He pulled up its description.

Runic Lexicon:

Level 1

Unusual

Embody the unity of knowledge. Transcribe order from chaos, bring harmony to the discordant, and power to the inscribed.

This skill improves the users ability to create runic formations, and increases the stability of the formations themselves. Formations utilising certain languages have their efficacy slightly increased.

Each level moderately increases speed and accuracy when inscribing runes.

Each level moderately increases stability of runes.

Each level moderately increases memory and learning capacity of runes.

Each level minutely increases the power of formations utilising the Ykkardian, Vhaxanish, Yosh’s Supplementary, High Lothian, and Simenoan runic scripts.

Merged from: Rune Mastery - Ykkardian, Rune Mastery - Vhaxanish, Rune Mastery - Yosh’s Supplementary, Rune Mastery - High Lothian, Rune Mastery - Simenoan

Kaius honed in on the final part of the skills description. He had known that it would providesomekind of boost to the scripts that he had used to create it, but a broad boost in power had been beyond his hopes. It raised questions. If his spell casting formation was bound to his body, would it receive continual boosts as he raised the skills level? Or would the skill only affect formations at the moment of their creation.

He hesitated to lean one way or the other. For normal formations, he was almost certain that they were only impacted at the moment of inscription. Disconnected from his soul, he doubted that his skill would be able to impact them from a distance. Yet, his spellcasting formation would be bound to his body. Linked to his mana, and by extension his inner self. Something thatshouldprovide the skill a pathway to continually impact it.

He hoped so. One of the main drawbacks for his attempt at casting was a lack of general skills that would improve his spells. All magi had those. It seemed he might too, if his suspicions proved correct.

Kaius heard a chuff from behind him. Jumping a full stride in the air in shock, Kaius spun to find Porkchop standing patiently just inside the office.

“Hells, Porkchop!” He yelled, pushing his sweat sodden hair out of his face as he let out a slow breath. “I thought you were sleeping.”

“I was.”Porkchop snorted.“Until you started yelling like you were being stabbed.”

Kaius gave his friend an awkward smile. Hedidvaguely remember making a bit of noise, though he didn’t think it had been that loud.

“Sorry. Getting towards the end of my legacy. The call of the already completed skills is getting… a lot.” He explained.

“I know. It only gets worse from here.”Porkchop said solemnly.“Now c’mon, let's go eat breakfast. I can thrash your manipulation skills after we are done.”

Kaius grinned. Breakfast soundedgood. He wasn’t sure how long he had been working onRunic Lexicon, but it must have been a while - he wasstarving.