Runeblade

B2 Chapter 239: Team Gains

Gold light filled the gully, thrown off by the burning logs that were slowly reducing themselves to embers a good two hundred strides down its length. The flames threw the corpse of the drake into relief, silhouetting it in shadow.

Kaius searched for a target to practice his latest skill on, eyes piercing the gloom with ease. There was plenty of stone around, but even he wasn’t reckless enough to think hacking at boulders with an explosive skill was a good idea. Even if he was protected from the detonation, he doubted that extended to shrapnel.

He settled on a handspan-thick branch that had been thrown free from their deadfall trap. Rushing over, he groaned as the thin blue-white line of energy that surrounded his blade fizzled out a few seconds later.

No matter, it was a cheap skill, and he’d regenerated enough mana to use it a dozen times over if he wanted to.

He used the skill again, taking a high stance with his blade poised to chop. Arcane brilliance zapped along the edge of his blade—lighting his surroundings in a flat bluish hue. It crackled, fluctuating like a lyre’s string as the magic fought to keep itself contained.

Grinning madly, Kaius struck. It wasn’t an especially hard blow—if he went all out, mundane wood wouldn’t hold up, which would ruin the test. He still cut into the green hardwood with ease.

A shrill whine filled the air as dissolutive magic ate through the branch, growing in intensity over the space of two heartbeats as the thin wire of magic around his blade warbled and shuddered.

Then there was a crack, loud enough that Kaius jolted despite expecting it. Wood shattered, the branch splitting in two. Splinters and shards erupted from the site of his attack, his eyes instinctively closing.

The line of energy coating the edge of his blade had seemed to contract—condensing at the point of impact. Suddenly overloaded by the density of power, it exploded.

With far less force than Kaius had been expecting.

He’d hoped for something earth shattering. A power worthy of a Heroic skill, vaporising the branch and liquifying the stone beneath. That hadn’t happened—sure, he’d split the branch cleanly. He could have done that without the skill, though.

He frowned, crouching down.

Only for his eyes to widen as he saw the result of his skill. Right under where the branch had lain, the stone was cratered. A hole, perhaps half a handspan deep, by two wide, had been gouged in the stone.

Kaius felt like slapping himself on the back of the head. The description had said it was a shaped explosion. Even if it was small at level one, the force had been directed outwards to a point—ruining the sturdy surface.

Suddenly glad he’d had the sense to not attack one of the many boulders, Kaius found himself reevaluating the skill. If it had done that to solid stone, at level one at that, what would it do inside of his enemies?

Not bad at all, especially for only sixty mana.

“Satisfied?” Ianmus called from where he and Porkchop were sitting.

“It’s not as flashy as I thought,” Kaius replied, rising from his crouch to walk back to their still-cooking meal. “But yes, very.”

“Great! That means it’s my turn!” Porkchop said as he sat back down.

Kaius only grinned as his brother’s eyes unfocused before he could reply.

A few minutes later, Porkchop shook his head, returning his focus to their surroundings.

“There’s some good stuff here!” he said, clearly excited.

“Oh? Do share.” Ianmus replied.

Porkchop jumped into his explanation.

The first of his options was The Warden’s Maw, a skill that would summon fangs of jade around his jaw, which would launch themselves deep into a target's flesh if Porkchop bit someone.

Kaius was immediately partial to the skill—even if he was a Bastion, Porkchop would need at least a couple of skills focused on directly damaging his opponents. Overspecialisation would leave him weak if he was ever caught in a proper fight without their help.

Holding his tongue, he still waited for the other options before saying his piece. Afterall, there was no reason to think it would be the only offensive skill.

The next option Porkchop had received was the Protector of the Glade. It was an interesting option—an ability that would make him far harder to move and far tougher, and would last as long as he stood in one spot.

Potent as it may have been, especially considering the synergy it had with a number of Porkchop’s general skills, Kaius was still uncertain it was the right choice. Not only was staying immobile a risky proposition in any circumstance, it would also deeply conflict with Porkchop’s role in their party.

Kaius was an agile fighter, and if Porkchop was supposed to soak up hits for him wherever possible, he needed to move. It was as simple as that. Let alone the fact that both of them had their work cut out for them keeping Ianmus safe—the man was so terrifyingly fragile.

Thankfully, Porkchop clearly felt the same, for he rejected the skill outright in the same breath that he explained it.

His brother’s final option was something called Concussive Parry. A skill that would imbue a parry with an explosive force that was explicitly focused on the weapon and limb carrying it. If it didn’t shatter the weapons that he parried directly, it was highly likely to disarm his opponents—if not literally dis-arm them.

There was something to be said for a defensive skill with offensive applications—Porkchop did it brilliantly with his Prismatic Shardwall, afterall—but Kaius still favoured the first skill.

“What’re you thinking?” Kaius asked with bated breath.

“The Warden’s Maw, I need an offensive skill, and it sounds like it would be very easy to work into my normal style.” Porkchop replied, his voice clear and resolute.

Kaius held back from sighing in relief. He was worried that if Porkchop waited any longer to pick one, the system would start to offer them less and less. Unlikely, considering that the ability to leverage hostile force was a cornerstone of all combat classes, but a proposition that worried him nonetheless.

Ianmus nodded in agreement as well—none of the team seeing any reason to pick anything else.

With there being no alternative viewpoints to consider, Porkchop moved quickly. His eyes stared into the mid-space as he made his selection, before he jolted to his feet a few moments later.

Mana surged within his brother's core a moment later, and four conical spikes of jade popped into existence. They hovered right next to his brother's jaw, flanking the position of his incisors.

Kaius stared at the jade spikes with glee. Each one was three handspans long, and tapered slowly to a viciously sharp tip.

Shaking himself with excitement, Porkchop rushed over to the cold body of the drake and hurled himself into a lunging bite. As his teeth sunk into its flesh, the tips of the Warden’s Maw touched the drakes scales.

They launched forwards in the same instant, accelerating so explosively that they seemed to vanish before his very eyes. He just barely caught the spikes coming to a halt inside the drakes flesh, before the summoned jade faded away. The only remaining evidence of their existence, four finger-width holes left in its flesh.

A strong skill, one that would keep his brother safe—that was good.

He smiled as Porkchop huffed in joy, and raced back over to them.

“Did you see that? It punched right through its scales!” his brother replied, nearly bowling him over in his excitement.

Kaius laughed, boxing Porkchop’s ears.

“Careful, you fat oaf!”

Porkchop only snorted, shoving him with a paw. The casual move sent him thudding to the ground.

Ianmus cleared his throat, pulling their eyes towards him right as Porkchop was about to pounce.

“I do believe that it is my turn?” Ianmus said, cocking his brow at them.

“Ah, right. Sorry.” Kaius replied, pushing his hair out of his face with an apologetic smile.

“Yeah—go ahead. We’ll behave.” Porkchop added, backing up before taking a seat once more.

Ianmus only rolled his eyes—though he smiled too—before his attention turned to his system notification.

He shared his findings shortly after.

It was an interesting collection of skills that he’d been offered—two of the options were metamagic, an indication that the system was aware of his attempt to twist the class in the direction of freecasting.

Burning Light was the first offer. Every light based offensive spell he used—which was all of them, thanks to his Solar affinity—would linger. Wounds would fill with the scorching power of the sun, leaving behind an affliction that would continue to burn his enemies from the inside out.

It wasn’t a glamorous, or particularly honourable one, but Kaius knew it would be potent indeed. Most metamagic scaled at least partially to the spell they were linked to. If Ianmus used one of his overcharged beams, or the light plane he had used at the end of the boggart den, the affliction that it left behind would be the stuff of nightmares.

Even he wouldn’t feel comfortable dealing with such a contagion, not until his Rapid Adaptation was far higher level at least.

The next metamagic Ianmus was offered was almost the complete opposite. Chlorophyllic Rejuvenation. When applied to a healing spell, it would cause it to also restore half that amount of stamina, and vice versa.

Simple, but effective. Apparently it was rather costly though, and Kaius was unsure of its true value. There was something to be said for an efficient economy of time—he’d be pulling double duty for a single channeled spell—but he wasn’t sure if it was worth it compared to the other options. Afterall, Ianmus could already restore both with free-casting, it just took a lot of time and effort.

Ianmus’s final option was a sorcery. Ray of Tender Recovery. A healing spell, one that was at the rarity cap of what his class could provide. It was of only middling strength—restoring only five-hundred health—but it had a miniscule mana cost and a quick channel time. An emergency response that could easily save one of their lives.

In the end, he didn’t get to share his input. Ianmus made an executive decision to pick the healing spell.

“It’s simple really—even the most devout free-caster needs at least a few sorceries to rely on when time is of the essence. With this, I will have rounded out three spells that focus on the full core of Solar magic. Physical enhancements, ray attacks, and restoration magic. I already rejected a heal last level to further cement my path, but now is a good time to pick it. After this I can fully focus on abilities that will enhance my free casting” Ianmus explained when Kaius asked how he had made his choice.

“Besides, it’s a good healing spell. With how often the two of you seemingly try to compete on who can get stabbed the most, something fast and cheap will get plenty of use—I’m sure of it.” Ianmus said, giving them a knowing smile.

Now it was Kaius’s turn to roll his eyes. They weren’t that bad. Sure, they got injured more than most—but they had the skills to handle it, and it was to be expected that they’d get a little battered when they did things like fight drakes.

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A moment later, Ianmus accepted the skill.

When he’d returned to the world of the living, he scooped his staff off the stone floor, a focused look on his face.

Solar mana flowed around him a moment later—coalescing in seconds. From the conglomeration of magical potential, a white scintillating beam shot forth to splash against Kaius’s chest. It felt…good. The magic seeped into him with the warmth of a gentle embrace, and the soft caress of a summer’s breeze.

“Huh.” he said, looking down at his chestplate—still slightly damp from the water he had used to wash off his earlier gore.

“What’d it feel like?” Porkchop asked with curiosity.

“Like getting a hug.” Kaius replied.

“That’s fairly normal for solar healing magic—it’s an affinity of dichotomies. Searing heat, and invigorating growth handed out in equal measure.” Ianmus explained.

Kaius nodded, only for the faint scent of smoke to enter his nose. His eye’s widened in a panic, head snapping to the pan where the slab of drake meat had started to scorch.

“Shit!”

He dived for the pan, the rush of fear joined by the chuckling amusement of his companions.

Savages, they had no respect for his artistry.

Turning the heat down with a flutter of mana, Kaius sighed in defeat as he flipped the steak to reveal a surface that had been seared far too black by half.

“Guess I'll have this one.” he groaned.

Resigned to his subpar starter—because of course he would cook another, he just didn’t want to waste food—Kaius settled in to watch the cooking food with closer attention.

They still had a fair few hours until Ro would arrive, so it wasn’t like he had anything better to do.

He just hoped she wouldn’t be too harsh with her teasing for the state of the drake’s carcass.

B2 Chapter 240: Beast Lore

After waking with the rising dawn, Kaius pushed his way out of the tent they had pitched right by the site of their battle and set about making breakfast. His companions were still dozing, sleep claiming them deeply after the rigours of their midnight soiree with the drake.

Fetching another cut of meat from the body of the drake, he decided to pair it with some bread and scrambled eggs. A simple meal, but one that would be relatively easy to make.

He prepared an extra serving—it was likely that Ro would arrive within an hour at most.

Kaius shook his head wrily at the thought of the woman crossing that much ground in only eight hours. The trip had taken them the better part of two weeks—that sort of speed, sustained over that long, was ridiculous.

Not for the first time, he wondered what level she was—and Rieker too, for that matter. The second tier was the bare minimum, he suspected that Silver was a requirement to hold the sort of rank that they had within the guild.

It felt too low for the kind of feats he had seen from them. Gold rank—level three-hundred—perhaps?

Regardless of their exact level, he was almost certain that they had good classes too. People who put in the sort of consistent effort required to reach that level in the low mana zone that was Central Plains almost invariably grew strong as they passed through the tiers. Before beasts had swamped the land, reaching that high in any sort of reasonable time frame required nigh constant delving, or trips far afield to where powerful monsters were able to be found.

It was still hard to believe; people in the second tier were rare. Almost unheard of, from what he’d heard from Father and the discussion he’d had with Ianmus after they had first witnessed Ro’s blinding speed. Sure, it was obvious that he’d run into far more of them in the Guild, and that his own strength meant he was all but certain to brush shoulders with people of nominally similar pedigree.

But Deadacre? It was a backwater—and not a particularly pleasant one at that, from what Ianmus had said.

Meeting not one, but two delvers of their capability was mind boggling. It was somewhat explainable in that they clearly knew each other well—too well for the mere handful of years that Rieker had been stationed in the city.

He still questioned why they were there though. There had to be a reason.

It wasn’t so much a burning need to know, but there was a curiosity there.

Maybe he was wrong, and the second tier was more common than he was led to believe—certainly, both Rieker and Ekum had implied that the third tier was not the legendary achievement he had believed it was. For all he knew, bigger cities could have second tiers by the dozen, and guildmasters solidly into the third.

On the other hand, maybe there was something about Deadacre that held the guild’s interest enough that they’d station two elites just to safeguard it.

It was by no means impossible. The city had its mysteries. The circle of blighted land that grew around it, and the rumours of its origin, for one. Even if that wasn’t the case, it could be something as mundane as politics.

The frontier was large. A poor and underpopulated region, it nonetheless was the nexus between the Hiwiann steppe, Mystral, the Dukedoms, and the elvish Domains. With only two major cities in such a region, maybe the guild simply needed some display of strength to project their will through the region.

Honestly, the more he thought about it, the more likely that was the case—though he hoped it was not so. The other two options were far more exciting secrets.

Lost in thought as he dreamed of hidden lairs in the Deadacre sewers, and secret societies of high level delvers, Kaius smiled as he continued his preparation for breakfast, cutting the drake meat into long strips.

….

“Fucking hells, you guys really did a number on this thing.”

Surprise physically jolted him at the sudden noise that came from behind him, a desperate blurt escaping from his lips as Kaius jumped upwards. His team mirrored his responses—Porkchop bolted upright, hackles raised, and Ianmus snapped his head upwards from where he’d been staring mindlessly at the ground in front of him.

Kaius’s hand lurched to the hilt of his sword instinctively, before he realised he recognised who the voice belonged to.

Ro.

Whipping around, Kaius found the guild manager grinning at them with a knowing smile—clearly finding amusement at the fright she had given them.

“Gods’ bollocks, woman!” Ianmus replied with a glare, clutching his chest.

Ro only cackled madly, the mage’s protests inspiring more delight.

“Never gets old,” she finally said, wiping her eyes as her laughter petered out.

Walking over to their group, she waved at Kaius to shuffle to the side—staring at the nearly finished breakfast cooking away in his pan.

“Shuffle over,” Ro said. “Do you have enough for me? Some asshole activated a communication token at midnight, so I've been running for hours on last night's dinner.”

Kaius winced—suddenly realising the imposition they had placed upon her.

“Sorry about that—its nightly patrol was the only time that it came through this valley, and it was the best shot we had.” he explained, moving to his right to create some space for Ro.

“Bah,” Ro said as she waved him off, and took her seat on the stone ground. “Think nothing of it—this sort of shit is just part of the job.”

Craning her neck back, she took in the still body of the drake. Nearly fifty strides from snout to tail, Kaius would have needed to stand on his own shoulders with his arms outstretched to just barely reach its back.

“Even seeing it for myself a few weeks ago, it still amazes me just how damn big these things get. It’s only the second I've ever seen, you know? And the other was in the depths, so I couldn’t be sure if they got to that size naturally.” Ro said, turning back to them.

Kaius nodded. Things like drakes were unheard of in the central lands—seeing one at all was seen as something of a sign of a successful career. Hells, anything of that size was seen as a serious threat—the irontusks around Deadacre were something of an outlier, and probably would have been culled if they didn’t tend to stay low level and keep clear of major settlements.

“Guess it goes to show just how much is changing, huh?” Kaius replied.

He only got a slow nod in response—they were all well too aware of the effects the phase change had had on the settlements in the region.

Finally, Ro looked up and gave them a smile. “Still, I wasn’t joking about you tearing that thing to shreds. It looks like a pack of flaming dogs got at it.”

Porkchop snorted in amusement. “It might as well have been—that thing just wouldn’t bloody die no matter what we did. I’d bet the fight would have gone far differently if we hadn’t had the sense to drop half a forest of logs on its back.”

Ro cocked her brow at the mention of their ambush. “Oh? Is my little team of greenhorns starting to use their brains? I saw the embers, but I didn’t dare hope.”

Kaius rolled his eyes at her jab, but smiled all the same.

“We aren’t that bad.”

“You can tell me that once a few years have passed since I saved your asses from suicide by boggling plague.” she scoffed.

Kaius had the sense to look embarrassed, but he held to his belief that they could be far worse than they were. Sure, they’d had to learn a few lessons, but he doubted that was unique to them. The fact that the dangers they faced were greater than most didn’t change that.

With her impeccable sense of timing, Ro had arrived right as their meal had finished cooking.

Shuffling forwards, Kaius served out heaping portions onto the plates that they brought with them in their spatial storage. He passed the dishes out, receiving thankful nods in return.

With the smell of food in the air, the conversation died out for a short time—everyone too focused on shoving as much meat and eggs into their mouth as they could without choking. Simply put, the meat was delicious. Richer and more flavoursome than any cut he’d had before, it all but dissolved in his mouth.

“Regardless of our prior follies, I would love to know why it was so hard to kill—if you know, that is.” Ianmus asked once he was half way through his plate.

Ro chewed through her mouthful, holding her hand up to ask for time.

“It’s something you’ll notice more and more—a factor of Endurance that becomes apparent as you grow closer to the second tier. Once you cross that threshold, it’s something of a universal challenge you will have to deal with.”

Kaius raised an eyebrow at that. While Endurance made things tougher, it was hard to imagine that everything would be able to survive the level of devastation that the drake had persisted through.

When he asked, Ro shook her head.

“There are degrees to everything—of course some things will be much more fragile than others. Even so, you’ll start to see more and more creatures persisting through wounds that should have killed them. You can still kill things without fully draining their health, but it will get harder to do so with every level. Thankfully, I have yet to see something that a good old fashioned decapitation can’t take down.” Ro explained.

She continued on—talking about how the drake was a special case. While eventually everything would grow that tough, it would take far longer—at which point their own growing abilities should be able to keep pace. Apparently, all inherently magical creatures had some decreased reliance on the mortal concerns of the body.

It varied, and draconic creatures were some of the worst of the lot—at least as far as beasts went, things like spirits and elementals were far stranger.

Their blood would keep beating even through a burst heart, their legs would hold their weight through shattered bones and torn muscle, and other such impossibilities he would struggle to believe if he hadn’t seen the evidence with his own eyes.

Sure, it would hamper them greatly, and they couldn’t persist like that indefinitely—but that simple power of persistence made them a dangerous threat.

One that he was proud to have slain at such a low level—even if it was only a lesser drake.

“Why didn’t we find references to that in the archive?” Ianmus asked, clearly a little affronted that his research skills had been stymied.

Ro gave them an awkward smile. “A failing of Rieker and myself. It is…easy to forget that you are only bronze, when we so handedly send you on threats that most Steel teams closing in on the second tier would balk at. More detailed information on threats of this caliber are usually held in the rooms which you would not have been able to access.”

Ianmus frowned at her response, his unhappiness at not having full access to the information they had sought evident.

“Why would that information be locked up? I can’t exactly see the harm in people being more wary of taking on a draconic creature.” Kaius asked.

“In this case, it wouldn’t be an issue—but those shelves hold far more than just bestiaries, and even those have more than just the strengths and weaknesses of strong monsters. More than one cocky idiot would try their hand at something they shouldn’t, if they knew that a creature's corpse could bring them more than a single mission of their tier.” Ro replied.

Kaius struggled to believe that—people with their specific brand of reckless abandon were supposed to be as rare as hen’s teeth.

It turned out that Ro had an easy explanation. While yes, it was unlikely that anyone would seek out something clearly higher leveled, there had been many, many cases of someone learning of a creature's value, and foolishly attempting to track down a juvenile.

Almost invariably it ended up with the team in question getting eaten by angry parents, or simply overwhelmed by the natural strengths of more powerful varieties of beasts.

At the very least, Ro would apply for special dispensation for their access. She couldn’t just jump them up through the ranks, but having individually vetted teams access information they otherwise couldn’t was not unheard of.

It was likely to take some time, but in the interim she offered to fetch any relevant bestiaries herself.

As their conversation wound down, Ro finished her meal. When she had, she slapped her knees and leapt to her feet.

“Well! As nice as this has been—and as good as the meal was—duty calls. I can’t be away from Deadacre for too long; last time the build up of work was unbearable.” she said, before walking to the drake’s corpse.

Kaius was about to ask her how she planned on segmenting it for her storage artifacts—he’d spotted the new collection of rings she sported on her fingers earlier—when Ro drew her sword.

Eyes sharpening, Kaius stilled as Ro casually pirouetted her blade through the air. It was similar to his own, though a hand shorter to make it equally comfortable using either single handed, or with both.

Then Ro seemed to…flicker, the only evidence she had moved being seen in the blood dripping from her sword.

The drake’s stomach opened, offal falling free as she flickered again.

Another blur of motion, and Ro stood with her chest notably heaving as the drake slid into four distinct pieces. Each cut was flawlessly straight and smooth—and Kaius saw no evidence Ro had truly struggled, other than a little exertion.

Approaching the segments, Ro tapped each one in turn. They vanished with a pop of displaced air—disappearing into her spatial artefacts.

Ro gave them a final wave—grinning at their slack jawed expressions.

“See ya!” she replied, before vanishing in a blur—though one that was notably visible compared to her earlier attacks.

“By the Matriarchs! How the hells does she do that?” Porkchop asked, still staring at where Ro had been standing.

“I have no idea,” Kaius replied.