Orion was both curious and downright impatient to see what the hell this whole runes thing was all about. Every time he tried to do something remotely supernatural, his gear put a random rune in front of him with a massive price tag attached to it. It was finally time for him to see what the fuss was all about. He directly plopped down on the couch in his sweaty clothes and mentally communicated with his gear.
He immediately closed his eyes as fifty points of Origin Energy were consumed. With a slight disorienting sensation, he found himself sitting at the front of a classroom with a middle-aged female looking at him.
"You wanna learn about runes, huh?" She asked him.
"I do," he nodded with a smile, noticing that despite the atmosphere, he was the only one in the class, and the teacher's attention was fully on him.
"Tell me, what do you think runes are?"
"Some kind of magical building blocks, probably. Something like letters that can program reality and bend laws of physics for magical effects."
"Close, for a surface-level understanding, that is," she said. "Runes, in themselves, are aspects of reality given form with different levels of effect. A fire rune can produce fire, a gravity rune can affect gravity, a swiftness rune can increase one's speed, and more. There are an infinite number of runes that one can learn, and no two runes are ever the same. Your fire rune might help you spew fire like a flamethrower, but another's might throw out fireballs. This is dependent on the intent of the person when initially forming the rune."
Orion nodded with an understanding expression. "So, runes are like tiny aspects of reality that one can command?"
"Not command," she shook her head. "Runes are, at their core, conduits for Runic Energy. This is the energy that empowers runes, creates them, and drives them. Runic Energy relies on the conduit of a rune to affect different aspects of reality. It stems from a person's mental strength. If you want a simplified analogy, you can imagine that runes are conduits that allow one's mind to affect reality itself, but first, the energy of the mind needs to be converted into a usable form, which is Runic Energy."
"And how does one produce Runic Energy?"
"That requires one to access their mindscape and create a fountain within it that produces Runic Energy. It takes apprentices decades to achieve."
That allowed Orion to understand why a simple introductory class needed two and a half years.
"Now, we will talk about the different classifications of runes. The first is based on grades that go from one to ten. With each grade of rune having a qualitative improvement over the previous one. For example, a grade one fire rune might become a grade two firestorm rune, which will release a tornado that envelopes a target. Can you think of what grade one runes might have been combined to create the grade two rune that I told you about?"
"I'm assuming fire, wind, swiftness as you mentioned before, and maybe a shaping rune to make sure that the tornado stays in control…" Orion responded after a thought.
"That is one solution, yes," she nodded. "Just as there are countless other possibilities to create this kind of a rune amidst the infinite sea of runes."
Orion nodded while inwardly grumbling.
Ugh…she's one of those. Can't praise a student for shit and would jump at the smallest chance to demotivate them. Hopefully, she isn't the one who teaches me to make the fountain of Runic Energy…
"Many runes of the same grade can be combined to form one rune of the next grade," she continued, getting his attention. "Keep in mind, however, they must all be of the same grade. Chaining runes to improve their grades requires balance, precision, and most of all, patience. Now, depending on the quality of the rune that is formed, we have a percentage-based grading for it. That percentage directly correlates to the consumption of a rune. For example, a Grade 1 rune with 100% efficiency will always consume a single unit of runic energy at its peak output. Similarly, a grade two rune with 100% efficiency will consume exactly ten points of Runic Energy. This number will increase if the efficiency drops. One with fifty percent efficiency will require double the energy that a perfect rune will require."
"What factors does this efficiency depend on?"
"The two main factors are the quality of the rune and the compatibility of its constituents. If the constituents are incompatible, naturally, more energy will be required to offset the conflicting internal nature of the rune. As for quality, that depends on the caster's capability of creating the rune. Even if the blueprint and constituent runes are perfect, if the actual rune is drawn incorrectly, it will naturally waste energy."
"I see," he nodded.
"Aside from normal runes, there is another kind," she said, and Orion thought that she would start talking about Primordial Runes. "Aspected runes. These are special runes that do not possess grades in the normal sense, and it is impossible to combine them with other runes. Not only does their progression work differently, but they are too heavy to be recorded in any physical form. They can only be transmitted directly by one practitioner to another. The reason for this is simple. If normal runes are conduits that interfere with reality, Aspected runes are made from an actual shard of their respective aspect. They can affect reality with far greater efficiency and power. This makes it impossible for them to be recorded successfully. A grade one Aspected Rune that has just been created can even rival the output of a grade three rune made from combinations. However, they do have their own grades. It is just that these grades rely on enhancing the shard of their aspect by absorbing more shards of either the same or different aspects. Keep in mind, however, each Aspected rune is unique and will require a different number of shards to evolve."
"What happens if I try to record it? Will the medium explode?"
"Nothing like that. A medium cannot store an aspect's shard, and without that, no one can duplicate the rune even if they have the structure. The only way to get the core, the aspect's shard, is with the help of another shard of the same aspect."
This might be why those runes are so expensive…they must be Aspected Runes…
"Now, let me tell you more about the mindscape and how runes are actually used," she said. "There are two primary ways to utilize runes. The first method involves the use of external objects, where one imbues them with the authority of one or more runes to achieve specific effects. This is how artifacts are given their magical properties. It also allows other forms of energy, like stamina, mana, demonic energy, etcetera, to be used to power the runes. Aside from artifacts, one can create runic arrays with various functions, single-use or reusable talismans, and more. There are endless methods of externally imbuing runes. The second method, and the most powerful means that a practitioner of the Runic system has, is the concept of storing runes within the soul. When your mindscape transforms to create the Runic Energy fountain, it is essentially a mutation that makes you compatible with the Runic System. This mutation unlocks slots where you can store certain runes. When a rune is stored in one of these slots, you gain the ability to command that rune's power instantaneously. Without the need for anything external, you can do whatever you want as long as it is within the purview of the rune's authority."
"Does this give me more versatility?" Orion asked. "You said before that a fire rune could specialize in continuous flames or fireballs. Will this allow me to overcome that limitation?"
"It will, yes. But only to a certain extent. You will be able to release fire in the form you want, but you cannot jump to forming a tornado of fire with just a fire rune of the first grade. Placing a rune within one of these slots is the same as imbuing oneself with a rune, giving them the versatility of commanding that rune freely. The only limitation is that the soulbound runes consume Runic Energy and cannot function with any other type of energy. Still, while you only start with a single slot for your runes, with each grade improvement, you get an extra slot."
"What about Aspected Runes? Are they different?"
"They are," she nodded. "Aspected Runes are already bound to your soul when they are created. These do not occupy any of your slots, but they do put pressure on your mind. If you have too many of these, your mind might collapse because of the pressure. As for the method of imbuing, you can imbue aspected runes into external objects, but their power will always be dependent on the rune bound to you. Its utilization won't consume your energy, but if you ever lose that Aspected Rune for any reason, then the external rune will also fade away."
Orion spent the next month learning all sorts of theoretical knowledge there was to know about runes. One thing that disappointed him was that there was no mention of Primordial Runes, nor did the teacher have any idea about them. Considering the completely different energy required to do anything about them, he decided to forget about anything with the prefix of primordial and focused on his current tasks.
After a month of rigorous learning and testing, he had fully grasped the basic information about the Runic System. After that came the process of awakening the Runic fountain in the mindscape, which took almost all of the remaining time. By the time his mindscape mutated, there was barely a month left. He spent that month getting familiar with both Runic Energy and gaining practical experience by using it to record a normal rune, consume it to activate the rune, and more. While it was a dud rune without any actual uses, it was enough to give him sufficient experience that all he needed was the knowledge of a rune, such that he would have the basics of working with any kind of rune down completely.
When he opened his eyes, there was an excited glint in them as he got some information from the Exile Gear.
Dream concluded successfully. Unlocking Runic System
Immediately after, he summoned his status to see what had changed.
Name: Orion Vaelor
Exile Gear: Infinite Dream
Specialization: Creation
Origin Energy: 91.84 Units
Physique: 26.84
Matter Limit: 20 KG
Runic Energy: 26/26 Units [Grade I]
Slot I: Empty
Techniques: (Expand)
Knowledge: (Expand)
Seeing the addition of Runic Energy below his physique both excited him and made him immediately want to invest his remaining Origin Energy into his physique to increase his Runic Energy to a hundred, bringing him to the second grade.
The linear improvement of my stats, instead of a constant qualitative one, means that my grades will depend on exponential increments based on powers of ten. Grades three and four will only need a my physique stat to reach one thousand and ten thousand, respectively, but going beyond will require absurdly higher numbers…Let's hope that those guys thought things through, and I won't end up with my physique stat having reached billions or even trillions in the future.
After some thought, he got up, stripped out of his clothes, took a shower, and went to bed. After a few deep breaths to prepare for the worst pain of his life, he told his gear to invest all his Origin Energy into his Physique.
Immediately, the pain hit, leaving him in such agony that he couldn't even scream. It felt as if his insides were being rearranged while painful needles were being stabbed into every part of his body. It didn't take long for his brain to shut down from the pain, leaving him unconscious.