{[Quest], Forge a functioning Rune, completed. Reward received. Should I activate the information packet now? [Yes] [No].}

Snapped out of his reverie, Lucas turned his attention to Wiki. The Rune on his hand stopped glowing as he read the notification to make sure of what he had heard. Before he could even say anything, he received another notification from the system itself.

{Requirements met,[Achievement] acquired - [Amateur Runist]. Good job!}

Lucas couldn't help but chuckle at the notification as he said,

"Haha, I guess fortunes really do come in pairs."

"Crash."

"What do you mean that's not a real saying? Didn't I just say it?"

"Crash!"

Lucas smirked as he said to Crash. Crash in turn didn't back down as they went on a full tangent about what classifies as a saying. Noticing he was getting distracted, Lucas conceded.

"Fine, I made it up. You happy now? Let's check out the [Achievement] and open the information packet first, I can always disprove you later."

"Crash."

Opening his status screen, Lucas pulled up a description of his latest [Achievement]. It read,

{[Amateur Runist]: You have taken your first steps into the art of Rune crafting. While your understanding is rudimentary at best, you have demonstrated the ability to form and apply runic knowledge. A foundation has been set, whether it crumbles or strengthens depends on you.

Reward: Trait unlocked – [Runic intuition]

[Runic Intuition] – Your mind grasps the patterns of Runes with more ease. Recognition, memorization, and instinctive understanding of their structures come more naturally to you, allowing for quicker comprehension.}

Reading through the [Achievement], Lucas nodded. He didn't really expect anything at all but this [Achievement] and [Trait] sounded quite useful. This made him think about why [Achievements] existed in the first place. What made some of the things he did deserving of them?

"The [Achievements] I have seem kind of random. I got [Anomaly] simply by existing, [Tough nut to crack] for not losing my mind during my transformation process, [Daredevil] for being borderline insane, [Notable Combatant] for my fighting skills apparently, and finally [Amatuer Runist] for simply drawing and activating a Rune… What is the through line between all these things?"

"Crash crash?"

"Yeah, they were all pretty hard to do. But there has to be something else right? Because if we go by that logic then why don't I have something like [Acrobat] for all the tendril swinging and backflips I have been doing? Or [Bulletproof] for surviving that bullet to my head?"

"Crash."

"I know you don't know, I'm just airing out my thoughts, Crash. I'm sure Wiki will be able to tell us at some point. Speaking of Wiki, let's go install the latest information packet."

Grounding his thoughts, Lucas opened his [Quest] screen and clicked [Yes] on Wiki's latest notification. The sharp migraine he usually got from installing knowledge was much milder this time.

'I'm probably just getting used to it.'

{Information packet on Runes installed, you can ask me your questions now.}

With zero hesitation, Lucas jumped to the first question.

"What are Runes?"

As usual, Wiki didn't miss a beat as it responded neutrally.

{Runes are the language of the cosmos. Those who "speak" and "write" them, commune with existence itself.}

Not expecting such a grandiose response, Lucas' eyes widened slightly as he processed the information. He closed his eyes for a few moments before opening them once more, this time, his flame-like, crimson pupils seemed to almost emit a burning light. He asked his next question, almost absentmindedly.

"So are Runes created or discovered?"

Wiki's response struck Lucas like a missile.

{Both.}

"What? How??"

{You currently don't have access to such knowledge.}

"Of course I don't… Okay, people who create Runes, what are they? And how do they even do that? Creating Runes sounds like they can create new laws of reality from scratch..."

Lucas ended up mumbling to himself at the thought. This was huge. He was bound to to be disappointed however since Wiki's next response was simply,

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

{You currently don't have access to such knowledge.}

Sighing, Lucas was forced to move on to his next question. Thinking of his next question for a bit, he asked something obvious or at least he felt was obvious.

"How are Runes written and spoken?"

{There are innumerable ways in which Runes can be "spoken" and "written" but you have stumbled upon only a few methods, limiting what I can share with you.

Carving out the Rune on objects or Willing them into existence with your Spirit energy are the main ways you have come across.

Speaking or activating Runes on the other hand has to do with the Runist's Spirit energy, knowledge, and Mental energy. Only with these three factors aligned will the Rune be activated.}

Listening to this, Lucas felt the last part was a little vague and with the new term Mental energy being involved he asked,

"Umm, can you clarify that last part?"

{Certainly. In order to activate a Rune, the Runist must power the Rune with their Spirit energy while guiding this energy in a very specific pattern using their Mental energy. Knowledge on the Rune's effect serves as the bedrock for the activation. Without in-depth knowledge of the Rune's effect(s), the Rune will not activate. Conversely, the more knowledge the Runist has on the effect(s) the more efficient the Rune.}

When he heard this, Lucas felt both enlightened and a little confused. Did he know what the Rune on his hand did? He didn't think so. But apparently, he did since it worked.

"As usual these things try their best to be confusing. But jokes on them, I will just use Runes with my janky methods."

"Crash!"

With Crash approval, Lucas nodded to himself at his convictions, he then moved onto the next question he had.

"What are those nodes each Rune seems to have?"

{Those are called Sigils. You can think of them as the words that make up the sentence that is the Rune.}

"So Runes are not the simplest structure in this language?"

{Yes.}

"Then what is?"

{You currently don't have access to such knowledge.}

Lucas caught himself smiling at that response as he said,

"Real smooth Wiki. Real smooth."

Like this, Lucas spent the better part of an hour asking Wiki various questions. The vast majority of these questions were left unanswered but the few answers he got illuminated his path considerably. As he sat cross legged on the floor, he cracked his neck and said,

"Okay, let's draw some more Runes."

He took a look at the Rune on his left hand in thought before saying,

"Let's call this one… Hardening Rune. Yeah, sounds about right."

He thought of the various Runes he still had in his mind and decided on drawing another "simple" one. This new Rune was made of three nodes or rather Sigils as Wiki calls them. It also shared a similar structure to the Hardening Rune. The three Sigils were as follows;

The first one was a downward facing triangle with a spiral within it. The lines that made up the triangle were slightly curved and three lines left the spiral at its center connecting to the vertices of the triangle.

The next symbol was a simple rhombus. Within the rhombus were overlapping, concentric outlines that slightly offset each other giving the illusion of subtle movements.

The last shape was a looped hexagon. It was similar to the looped triangle in the Hardening Rune and had no other elaborate details.

With these shapes in mind, Lucas opened his palm facing the ceiling as he said,

"Good thing I learned to create Runes with my Spirit energy. Drawing that rhombus a bunch of times would have killed me with tedium."

A ball of energy appeared in his palm and swiftly formed the Rune according to his thoughts and memories. He then placed the Rune on a rock he had prepared. He wasn't arrogant enough to start practicing with his flesh just yet.

With the Rune inscribed, he followed the process of activating the Hardening Rune. He first placed his energy in the downward facing triangle and tried to circulate it. The next instant, the rock crumbled into dust. Without a change in expression, Lucas indifferently blew the dust away and tried again.

Five attempts in, I finally figured out the circulation method for the downward triangle. Apart from starting from the spiral within, he had to split his energy into three strains to trace the triangle.

As he completed this and moved to the rhombus, the moment his energy filled out the Sigil it suddenly became as brittle as glass and crumbled in his grasp.

"Seems l underpowered the Sigil… let's try again."

With a few more tries in, he understood how to circulate his energy in the rhombus. With just the final Sigil left to activate, Lucas was forced to take a break just to temper down his excitement and check his Spirit reserves. If he got killed because he was low on energy he would be more angry at himself than his killer.

"If my guess is correct, that weird looking hexagon should be activated the same way the weird triangle from the Hardening Rune did."

As he took a break, he took some time to think about how to proceed. These thoughts came to him quite easily so he cupped his chin in thought.

"Why am I so sure of this? It's probably because of [Amateur Runist] right? Well, let's put the theory to the test."

With this new idea, he felt confident he was correct so he immediately went to work. With all the previous tests he had been running, he understood the precise amount of Spirit energy this new Rune liked.

In less than five seconds, he activated all three Sigils. As the Rune glowed with a powerful white light, he could tell he had succeeded. With a wide smile on his face, he watched and felt as the rock in his grasp absorbed his Spirit energy and underwent some very subtle changes.

Unlike with the Hardening Rune, the rock didn't become denser, rather it felt more malleable yet tougher at the same time. As he prepared to smash it with a tendril as a test, the Rune suddenly flickered weakly before shutting down. Soon after the rock began floating in his palm and rotated in place.

Lucas blinked twice as he watched the floating rock. Poking it a few times, it shifted in place but kept rotating on its axis for a few seconds before crashing into his finger on it's own.

"Cool… I guess I can conclude from this that my Spirit energy is incompatible with external objects for some reason. As always, my luck with these things sucks balls, haha."

Lucas chuckled softly as he spoke to himself. For some reason, the thought didn't leave him depressed or frustrated. After everything he had been through, something like this didn't even bother him as he generated a new Rune in his left palm with an excited smile. He would deal check on the floating rock later.

He calmly placed it behind his right arm with a prepared mind. Soon after, he felt a searing pain on his flesh for a few moments and the Rune branded itself to his hand.

He sucked in a deep breath and activated it. The Rune glowed with a bright white light and Lucas felt an immediate change throughout his body. He felt… lighter, stronger, and somehow even more flexible.

Boom!

As a test, he casually threw out a punch to the wall behind him. His fist tore through the air with a piercing shriek before smashing a decent sized crater in the wall. His smile grew even wider as his pupil danced frantically. He didn't even feel a numbing pain in his fist.

"I could get used to this. Let's call this one… Strengthening Rune. Now… let's see what else I can draw."

With genuine joy, Lucas sat back on the cave floor and decided on which Rune to draw next.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.