Thirty-Four

"Wow. This place is a shithole," Benny said as he walked down the ramp of the Puca, holding the package over his shoulder. Kon followed right behind, his favorite shotgun in his hands while his mace hung from his hip. He had to suppress a groan as gritty sand flew around, scouring his exposed skin within moments.

"It's a desert. Why would you remember it fondly?" Kon asked as they stood on the edge of the ramp. The hardbaked stone of the cliff they'd perched on had a constantly shifting layer of sand that the wind carried in scouring waves.

"I think there was more vegetation here. Maybe? All these shitholes blend together, memory isn't what it used to be," Benny grumbled as they stepped onto the rock.

Diur hung back in the ship, slowly gathering energy as she tried to regain what she had expended. She had begun to complain about their constant fighting was draining her to a level she couldn't operate at. Benny complained loudly about the weakness of cultivators, but put them down on the planet and agreed to spend a few weeks here while the computer tried to figure out what the goblin's machines knew.

Benny grunted and tossed the shroud wrapped figure of Te'Vin's body off the side of the cliff. The goblin had lasted two days into their trip before his mind had snapped. Kon had watched the interrogations Benny had put the goblin through. He'd never hit him, or hurt him. He'd simply asked questions as pieces of Truth leaked out around him.

Killing the goblin had been a mercy by then. It led to a frustrating moment in their investigation as the goblin had only known the name of the contact that had hired them, not the actual financier. Benny shrugged and said it was the way these things worked. Layers of cut outs to give plausible deniability.

"I told you we'd start working on mage craft. I don't think your body can handle it, not yet anyway, but we can get you started on the basics," Benny said once they were off the ship, they stared over the distance, nothing to see aside from badlands and sand.

"And my runes," Kon reminded him, not wanting Benny to just saddle him with homework.

"I didn't forget. You have one more to go, what do you want it to be?" Benny asked. He pointed towards a narrow trail that Kon hadn't seen and they started down from the cliff.

"I have a bunch of passive runes that slowly strengthen myself. I think that should be the entire first layer. If the mage stuff works and I don't blow up, I won't need to incorporate attacking runes like other Knights. I can just use them. Alice said that our armor enhances what's already there. With the body cultivation and this methodology I think I could be the greatest physical candidate in human history," Kon said, not turning to look back at Benny, his embarrassment at his own words coloring his cheeks.

"Not far off. I can't think of anyone else who could rival you at the first layer. So we need something that continues to passively strengthen you and a cap that will allow your body to keep going," Benny summarized, humming as they reached the bottom of the cliff.

In the shadow of the tall cliff, the wind lost much of its bite, reducing down to nearly nothing as they stood there. Now that he was at level with the ground, Kon saw that the solid stone was actually cracked, narrow ravines shooting forth across the plains. Not wide enough to wedge oneself down to avoid the wind, but enough that it could break an unsuspecting hiker's ankle with ease.

"I think that we can work with that. Right now your bones are strengthening, your muscles are constantly repairing themselves, and you have a great filter rune. Along with two sensory runes and how body cultivation works, I think we need to worry about you being an energy drain. You'll be worse than everyone else when it comes to energy depletion. A Knight can keep fighting even when exhausted, their bodies have been enhanced for years. A cultivator can keep fighting when they deplete themselves, just can't use their techniques. You will have the best of both worlds, you'll be able to harvest monster core energy directly thanks to your runes and won't leak like a sieve since your runes will keep your energy contained. You will have the drawback of needing a lot of fuel," Benny said, he reached down and grabbed a rock, bounced it in his hand and threw it.

The rock sailed across the distance, striking the ground in an explosion, something long and wiry leaping off the ground. It slammed back in the ground and suddenly the empty badlands were teeming with life, creatures slithering away and back into the ravines.

"You're a giant motor. Building the nastiest, most powerful engine in the world. But you're going to need fuel, so I think a siphon rune will work well. Place it on your throat and you'll be able to passively draw in energy and filter it. Now, for the main rune I'm thinking Absorb."

"Absorb? So I just keep holding energy?" Kon asked.

"Can't tell you. My interpretation of the rune will flavor yours and could end up limiting what could be the full impact of the rune. I'll tell you this, Truth didn't start out like it is now. I had to work on it, a bit at a time. Understanding what Truth was. Was it what I saw and believed, or was my willpower strong enough to make my desires the Truth."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"That's terrifying," Kon muttered as they watched the rest of the snake-like monster scurry back into their dens.

"It is. Most Knights don't think about it. They have an idea and they stick to it. It's why they end up stopping in their advancement or why someone with less runes can overpower them. Truth is a powerful rune, but so is absorption. You'll need to think about it before you incorporate it and continue to work on it even after its settled. But first, we need to find you a good treasure to build the rune on," Benny said, setting out across the cracked lands.

"I need a treasure to power it?" Kon asked.

"No, you need a treasure that is suitable to the rune that you can work into being. Did you think a full-rune was the same process as a fragment?"

"Yes," Kon admitted.

"I should have known. Rather than needing simply more energy, it needs an anchor to hold to. You'll find a proper treasure out here, most will be ok since absorb is basically what all treasures do, and then you'll begin your caving of it. It can take a few weeks to get it there, but we have plenty of time. Anyways, we need to get the ingredients Diur requested for your baths," Benny chuckled evilly.

"Is this place so dangerous I need your protection?" Kon asked as they entered the badlands. Now free of the shadow of the cliffs, the hot wind made its presence felt again.

"There's some D-Grade out here that'd shrug off that shotgun of yours and you'd have trouble knocking some sense into them even with the mace. Anything else kills you, that's on you," Benny said. Kon fell silent for a minute, just walking along the badlands and wishing he'd grabbed a helmet.

"Are you from Earth?" Kon finally asked. It had been gnawing on the back of his mind for a while, ever since Benny had spoken about finding a home. There was something in Benny's maniacal eyes that had tipped him off. It wasn't the look of a man who wished to find something new, but that of a man who longed for a time that was lost.

"Took you long enough," Benny said, he sighed and spat to the side. Kon tried not to notice the red tinge in the man's spittle.

"I was a little boy when Earth finally fell. It took a long time. We fought and we fought hard. Generations lost to the battle, but in-fighting is what truly destroyed us. We couldn't unify, even with extinction pushing against us. That's what I was born to." Benny went silent as they kept walking before he spoke again.

"Her skies were so blue. I've never seen that shade of blue again. The wind boyo, I can feel it in my dreams. It calls to me. I was born on an island, a wet, dreary place, but it was full of life and green. I was seven when we left the planet. An emergency, temporary evac. We never went back down." Benny spoke quietly, his words a prayer to a forgotten god.

"My family was one of the first mage families. We pioneered early methodologies for using runes."

"I thought you said it killed them. Burned them up from the inside?" Kon asked, horrified as he looked at the truly ancient person next to him.

"Yes. Happens to everyone. Without the tempering of a body cultivation method, I don't think that anyone can truly harness that power."

"Would Diur be able to do it if she finishes her own body cultivation?" Kon asked, the thought springing to his mind. Benny went still for a moment, not even breathing as he looked far beyond the horizons. The long second stretched out, further and further until Kon felt nervous sweat bead down his back.

"Maybe. Would you vouch for her? Would you say she'd honor the loyalty to you above that of her people? That she would not betray us? Not betray humanity for her own ascension?" Benny asked, each question slow and full of dreadful meaning.

"Yes." Kon responded before he could think, his gut answering for him instantly. They'd fought together, bled together. She'd tried to save him when he had wanted nothing more than to die with his brothers-in-arms.

"I'll think about it. But to learn to be a mage is difficult. Others still practice a form of it. Carefully and controlled, they use a mix of technology and cultivation arrays to perform a weak mimicry of what our ancestors could do. They don't die quite as fast," Benny said as they resumed their walk.

"Is that why you're…not who you once were?" Kon asked as he glanced over at Benny from the corner of his eye. His heart was beating in frantic rhythm, the entire walk out into an abandoned wasteland taking on a new meaning to him. They were truly isolated out here, nothing would observe them as they spoke.

"It's part of it. Didn't make it easier, I'll tell you that. Don't worry about me, I've got plenty of time," Benny said with a chuckle as they continued on.

"You'll be my first true apprentice. I never could take one before, giving them a death sentence wasn't what I envisioned when I looked at young people. I was lucky that Karey figured out how to incorporate runes when she did. Helped keep age at bay and limited the effects of my use of rift energy."

"Karey?"

"If there is such a thing as the first Knight, it'd have been her. She died pretty quick after she figured it out, so doesn't get as much credit as she should. She never found a full-rune. That took another century of tinkering and experimentation. Arjun is officially the first Knight. He found by implanting a carved treasure he could cap the layer and begin another one. He died a few years after that before he could figure out a second rune," Benny said. Kon didn't say anything, just let the font of history next to him slowly unravel.

"I survived by being on the edge, boyo. I wasn't the first into the breach, I was never on the cutting-edge of runecraft, or anything else. I was a spoiled, rich, scion of a family who killed themselves to save humanity. I wonder what it says that I'm alive and they're all dead?" Benny wondered. He moved his foot and with a crunch shattered the skull of some snake monster. Kon kept his eyes on the ground as he slowly became the confessional to the oldest human in the galaxy.

"I tell you this because I offer you an apprenticeship. It used to be something that was deeply tied to our roots. Offered only to your family. Grimoires were fiercely protected, our runes the entirety of our power. More meaningful than being my Squire, you shall become my heir. My family's history shall be yours, our debts, our sins, our failures. And in return you may use my name, Lorgairi." Kon stared at him, stunned silent for once in his life.

" I shall teach you power that was lost to time, wonders in the galaxy experienced by no living creature, secrets that have been forgotten shall be yours to hold and use. And together, we shall sail across these endless expanses, searching forevermore for our home."

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