Chapter 44 – Runic Spellcasting

  They spent the rest of the night and next day cutting the arrow shafts into the right size. Jack’s new Woodworking toolkit helped to make the process smoother. To make the arrows straight, they went back to fire-treating and bending the arrows into the proper alignment. By the end of the next day, they had close to a hundred arrow shafts, notched and waiting to be fletched.

  Jack was going to have to spend the next day knapping pieces of stone to make the arrowheads, while Sylvian and Rayne worked on fletching them. The process was slow and meticulous. He had to be careful, as every so often when he struck the rocks together, he would end up shattering them instead of shaping them.

  Every now and then, when they needed a break, they would go hunting or practice sparring to keep their skills up. Training and sparring like this wouldn’t increase their skills or even get them new ones. The System required real stakes to progress or learn skills. But it was still useful in building good habits and real understanding of their abilities.

  By the end of their third night, Jack was staring down at a small bundle of fully assembled arrows and some very welcomed new messages.

  *Item created: Stone Arrows (Common) x85*

  -Multicrafting experience gained.

  *Level up! Carpenter (Level 7)*

  +2 Dex.

  *Level up! Stonemason (Level 2)*

  +2 Str.

  ~*~

  *Level up! Stonemason (Level 4)*

  +2 Str.

  “This is good,” Sylvian said looking over the bundle. “But we still need more.”

  “You think we will go through all this in a night?” Jack asked. “The goal is just to rescue the elves right now.”

  “More we have the better,” Rayne said. “But it can wait until tomorrow. I’ll be going to meet Zephyr shortly.”

  “Maybe tomorrow we can spend the day working on teaching each other some skills for the upcoming fight,” Sylvian said.

  “I also want to work on breaking my Node,” Jack said. “I been working on it for a while, but I think I am close to finally breaking it. I want to do that before we attempt the rescue. I’m hoping it will give me a boost for the fight.”

  “That’s fine,” Rayne said. “Some cultivation training would help us all.”

  “What abilities do you think we should try teaching each other,” Jack asked.

  “We have a few archery skills we can teach, but I’m not sure our spells will be compatible with each other,” Sylvian said.

  “I wouldn’t mind trying at least,” Jack said.

  “Do you have any spells that has an innate air, light or primal affinity?” Jasper asked. “Most elves have those as their natural Affinities. Learning spells and skills that matches those will have the best chance.”

  Jack looked over his spell list. “I don’t think so. Most of everything I have is Darkness and Fire focused. I think Mend is a Water Affinity and my shield spell might be an Earth one?”

  “Neither of us have any spells that would work with either fire or darkness,” Sylvian said. “You are closer to that of the moon elves. They tend to have Darkness and Air affinity.”

  “That’s interesting,” Jack said. “Elaine told me she has those as well.”

  Sylvian and Rayne shared a look.

  “What?” Jack asked.

  “It’s nothing,” Sylvian said quickly. “But you should be careful around the moon elves. They can be very dangerous.”

  *~*

  “Fine, we will go the long way that doesn’t involve breaking through these incredibly majestic Berdun abysmal walls,” Savgar complained loudly. They were on their way back to the others with nothing to show for their work. After two days of trying to get through the wall, nothing they did had any lasting effect. The wall managed to recover from everything any of them had thrown at it. They weren’t even able to chip away at it.

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  “I’m not sure if that was a compliment or an insult,” Bryant said.

  “Are you angry or impressed,” Victor asked Savgar.

  “I can be two things,” Savgar said.

  They came across Teresa and Elizabeth near the bottom of the Candidate’s tower. Elizabeth was sprawled out on the ground recovering from whatever training Teresa was just having her do.

  “You’re back,” Teresa said as they approached. “How’d it go?”

  “Never thought I’d say it, but there might be such a thing as too well made,” Savgar grumbled.

  “We accomplished nothing,” Bryant told them. “Looking for a new spot to work from now.”

  “I think I know why there are openings into different caverns,” Savgar said. “They needed places to expand.”

  “We’ll start again tomorrow from one of the caverns this time,” Victor said.

  “Shame,” Teresa said.

  “It’s not all bad,” Savgar said. “Might even be better. If we make the tunnel far enough away from the entrance, we could use it to sneak the elves out of the camp without them finding out about Kharzast.

  “That could work. If you need an extra hand we can help,” Teresa offered.

  “Need more shovels,” Bryant said. “What’re you two doing?”

  “Celebrating Elizabeth’s new hand,” Teresa answered. “Teaching her how to fight with two now.”

  “Let me guess,” Victor started to say, but stopped remembering Bryant.

  “Yes,” Teresa answered for him knowingly.

  “Speaking of,” Elizabeth said, pulling herself from the floor. “Oh, great and skilled Savgar, would you mind doing a small favor for me?”

  “Save the honeyed words for the elves child,” Savgar said. “What you want?”

  Elizabeth stopped mid-sentence at the dwarf’s words.

  “Dwarves don’t care to being flattered,” Victor explained quickly.

  “She was hoping you might make her a weapon and armor,” Teresa explained, helping her out. “A rapier if possible.”

  “I can do that,” Savgar said. “It’ll be a while though. And no masterwork. You have to earn a masterwork. Dwarf rule. Might have the boy make it. It will be good practice for him.”

  “If you call all of us boy,” Bryant asked. “How do we know who you are talking about?”

  Savgar ignored him. “Need a proper forge first. You can look for that while we work on the tunnel.”

  “Works for me,” Teresa said. “But I can only look until Sia finishes the Trial. Then I plan on going topside with her. A few more levels hunting will probably be the best I can do to improve our chances right now. Elaine told me they killed an Apex last time. Can’t be letting them get ahead of me.”

  “Can I have a masterwork?” Victor asked.

  “No,” Savgar said without hesitation.

  “What about me,” Teresa asked.

  Savgar thought for a moment. “We’ll talk.”

  *~*

  “Is it not strange to you?” Daniel asked Reuf. Both were staring at a small bird sitting in front of them. They had been working on their spells for the better part of the day and had even managed to teach each other a couple. Reuf picked up Daniel’s Mist Form spell easily and Daniel had improved several of his own. Now they were taking a break and Daniel was taking the time to show Reuf the project he been working on.

  “Is it not an illusion?” Reuf asked.

  “It is, but it doesn’t have the characteristic of a typical illusion,” Daniel said. “I cast the spell on a rock. Typically, this will make it look like a bird, but it should still be a rock. That means it could only do what a rock can do. But if I focus…”

  The bird took off into the air flying around them before settling a few feet away. “It behaves like the thing it is imitating…”

  “Is it not still a rock?” Reuf asked. “What happens if it runs into something.”

  “That is the strangest thing,” Daniel said. “Try touching it.”

  Reuf reached out to pick up the rock, but the moment his hand came within range, the bird pecked it. Reuf shook his hand in pain noting the small amount of blood that had appeared from the bird’s peck. “It’s real?”

  “But is it?” Daniel asked. “If I stop concentrating on the spell, it will return to being a rock. I have even tested it. If I drop the spell while the bird is in flight, it will change back to being a rock while retaining the momentum that it had while it was a bird.”

  “That is most unusual,” Reuf muttered, thinking on it for a few minutes before speaking again. “And this came from trying to imitate the child’s toy?”

  “I was trying to just recreate whatever it did to create the image of the rune,” Daniel explained. “In the process, I stumbled upon this while I was experimenting and got a skill called Runic Spellcasting. But strangely, it only seems to work if I use the Runic script. I’ve tried it with every language I know, but nothing happens with those. Not even a new skill. It only works with Runic.”

  “Have you tried it with other Runes?” Reuf asked.

  “I have been hesitant since realizing this issue with the bird,” Daniel admitted. “If I used the rune for Fire, would it just create a ball of fire on the spot? Would it give off heat, or spread? What would it burn? If it did spread, could I make it disappear just by dropping the spell or would that continue to burn? What about water? Would it retain it shape or fall apart and disappear?”

  “Hmm,” Reuf muttered. “Could be dangerous, and useful. You are thinking of using this for the fight?”

  “I was,” Daniel said. “But now I’m not so sure.”

  “You are wondering the ethical aspects of such a spell?” Reuf asked.

  “No,” Daniel said. “I worried about that at first, but while it may look and act like the illusion. It is still very much an illusion. If you inspect the bird, it will show you nothing. Just like a rock would. And skills and spells that only affect living creatures will either have no effect on the illusion or fail completely. Furthermore, without me directing its action, it will just continue to sit there acting like a bird but not leaving the spot until I cancel the spell. I could also just avoid animals and other creatures.”

  “That is good, yes?” Reuf asked. “What is the problem then?”

  “The issue is that I don’t understand how it is doing what it is doing,” Daniel said.

  “I’m sure you will figure it out,” Reuf assured him. “You only just learned the spell. Maybe try a different rune next?”

  “Perhaps,” Daniel sighed scratching his chin.

  “In any case,” Reuf continued. “Sia should be finishing the Trial soon. That doesn’t leave a lot of time left to prepare. If you choose not to use this spell, then perhaps it is best to put it aside for now. Focus on something that you will be able to use in the upcoming fight.”

  “I had thoughts on that as well,” Daniel said. “Something that might help with your healing spells as well. Have you ever tried to split a spell?”