"Time to run some tests."

Expelling a deep breath, Lucas took a seat on a red cushion. He currently sat in his personal meditation room with his bushy tail curled around him. He rarely used this room since he didn't like how stuffy it felt but given what he was about to do, a little discomfort was preferable to destroying parts of his room and possibly parts of the manor beyond it.

After clearing his mind, he produced a small sphere of Spirit energy in his palm. He looked at the ball deeply, his right ear flicked as he reminded himself,

"Runes are not just abstract symbols. They are a language used to communicate with the world. The 16! Rune kept failing because my 'sentence' was incomprehensible gibberish. I should focus on improving the Rune itself before testing anything out."

With a clear goal in mind Lucas began the tedious process. He first went over his old Runes and fixed every inefficiency he could find, his understanding of most of them increased greatly.

'It seems my Hardening Rune is just a weaker variant of my Strengthening Rune, even though I'm not exactly sure how they manipulate my Physique and Spirit, I can understand that at least. My Sharpening Rune just augments the nature of my Spirit energy to be more efficient at cutting stuff. If I can figure out the oscillation frequency, I should be able to create a similar or even better effect. As from my Lightening Rune… I can't even tell what it's doing. Good thing it works as is.'

He smiled at that last part before fixing his expression, It was finally time for the 16! Rune.

He calmly inscribed the broken Rune on his right palm and observed it, doing his best to understand what it actually meant. After meditating on it for two hours, he had made no headway but he was unbothered. At some point he had forgotten his initial goal.

In his semi lucid state, his mind streaked with various methods of redrawing the Rune but dismissed them just as fast. This process suddenly came to a halt when he felt something nudge at his memories.

"?"

Even though he was surprised, he stayed in his meditative state. He just followed this intuition and the world of Rune formulations before him vanished. His Mind was transported back to the battle against Jaxsyn.

The memory was extremely hazy but the flow and shifts in Jaxsyn's energy was as clear as day. He sensed Jaxsyn's Spirit energy weaving across his shield.

He could see it interacting with the 16! Rune on his shield but due to the haziness, he could not trace it out. Surprisingly, this didn't bother Lucas as he was entranced by the flow of energy itself. After watching the fight dozens of times over, he mumbled,

"That's it."

This subtle excitement woke him from his tranquil state. Opening his eyes, he looked down at his palm.

"So that's focused meditation huh? No wonder Evélyne mentioned it, it's basically a cheat code."

He then smirked to himself,

"A cheat code I have as well. Too bad I can't enter that state at will. But according to the book, the higher my Mind, the easier I can tap into that state."

He shook his head and refocused. He had a Rune to draw. He took a look at his palm and the Rune which had troubled him so much now seemed trivial.

"Who knew the Rune was so broke? Seems I got really lucky in the cavern to not freeze or vaporize myself."

With a sigh, he produced another ball of energy. He configured the Spirit energy into an elegant Runic shape. The two nested rhombuses and the outer octagonal polygon all blended together smoothly. The previous Rune looked like the etchings of a madman compared to the fluid design of this Rune.

He imprinted the new Rune without a change in expression, already used to the pain. Regarding the Runes for a few moments, he nodded,

"Good to go. Now, let's test it out..."

With a focused expression, he carefully applied his Spirit energy to the Rune. He followed the sequence he used for his final test way back in the cavern.

The Rune smoothly activated as expected. It glowed a soft white light as Lucas waved his hand, trying to infer its effects he had theorized.

"Hmm… is my hand heavier?"

Unsure, he threw out a fierce punch. Oddly, it made no sound and the weight of his fist spiked as it traveled. The Runes also began absorbing slightly more of his energy. Lucas narrowed his eyes at this change.

"Hmm..."

Recalling Jaxsyn's fighting style, he placed the pointer finger of his heavy hand on the floor. He mentally commanded,

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

'Release.'

Crack.

A sharp burst of kinetic energy shot out of his finger, spearing through the floor and bruising his finger in the process. He looked as bruised finger in thought,

"Interesting… Can the Rune absorb and redirect kinetic energy? Or is it reaction forces? Or… both? I will just have to keep testing to find out."

With his work cut out for him, he kept experimenting with the Rune. He would do various activities like walking, jumping, and various attacks while paying close attention to the Rune. From his experimentation, he quickly came to a few conclusions. Standing with his tail wagging slowly, he thought to himself,

'It seems the Rune magnifies and redirects both my kinetic energy and the reaction forces my body experiences. That's why my body feels heavier while I move, I'm under almost twice the usual strain. And this strain increases the longer I keep the Rune active.'

But at the end of the thought, his eyes were gleaming with fascination.

'With this, I can build a proper fighting style. But first, I need to get a hang of this Rune… after I get some sleep. Can't let my comfy bed go to waste.'

He walked out of his training room with a yawn. All the thinking he had done today wore on his Mind. It didn't take him long to pass out on his bed into dreamless slumber.

———

Waking up to the gentle sounds of chirping birds, he quickly rose to his feet and freshened up. He quickly left his room, heading to the training field. He moved through the halls silently as thoughts of his fighting style bounced around his mind. In no time, he found himself on the stone path to the training yard.

'Hmm? Where's Sasha?'

Gazing down at the field, he could see only Evélyne was present in the training yard. She practiced with a plain staff, her movements were as smooth and flawless as her facial features. It didn't take long for Lucas to get to the training field and call out to her.

"Hey Evélyne."

Evélyne paused, her staff freezing in a measured thrust. She turned her head to him and greeted.

"Good morning, Lucas."

She refocused on her training, completely ignoring Lucas.

'Is she… angry?'

Lucas just watched on for a few minutes before asking,

"Where's Sasha?"

Evélyne paused again, a slight frown appearing on her face.

"She is… busy. Mother requires her presence."

Lucas raised an eyebrow at that,

'No wonder she is pouty.'

"So… do you want to do something other than training?"

Evélyne left her stance as turned to Lucas.

"Like what?"

Lucas smiled as he said,

"Exploring the surroundings."

Evélyne shook her head.

"We can't."

"Why?"

Evélyne gestured at everything beyond the manor.

"All of this, is part of mother's domain. The instant I step out, she will know."

Lucas' tail tensed but he continued,

"Well, I'm not saying we should leave the manor. Let's just go for a quiet walk or something. You train for like 12 hours a day and the other 14 hours are for meditation and reading, doesn't it get boring?"

Evélyne kept silent. Lucas chuckled,

"I will take that as a yes. So follow me, princess."

Lucas beckoned Evélyne as he walked out of the training yard into the bushes nearby. Evélyne returned her staff to the weapons rack and followed after him. It didn't take long for Lucas to find a clear path. They both walked stride to stride as Lucas looked around the alien foliage.

Even though the plants didn't seem too different from earth plants, one thing that stood out was their varying coloration.

'I should read up on plants. Who knows? It might inspire some super cool transformations.'

He smiled subconsciously, Evélyne caught this and followed his gaze to the plants before raising a brow in confusion.

Lucas didn't notice her expression as he kept looking around. He saw small harmless creatures hopping through the foliage watching them. Their round bodies were covered in soft, mossy fur, blending seamlessly with the underbrush.

Long, tufted ears twitched at every sound, while their large, glassy eyes reflected the dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy. Every so often, one would pause mid-hop, sniffing the air with a tiny, button-like nose before scurrying deeper into the foliage.

Lucas' eyes sparkled as he asked Evélyne,

"What are those?"

"Moss hoppers."

"They are so adorable."

Evélyne nodded curtly, a small smile forming on her cherry lips,

"Yes, they are."

Lucas stopped, prompting Evélyne to stop as well.

"Wanna pet one?"

He turn to her and asked while raising his eyebrows nefarious smirk.

Before Evélyne could respond, he shot away and gently caught one. When he returned, it was anxiously shaking in his grasp.

"I'm sorry little guy, I didn't mean to scare you."

Lucas cooed as he pet it gently. Evélyne watched this interaction for a few seconds before she said,

"I want to pet it as well."

Lucas smiled and offered it over without a word. Evélyne held it snugly and pet the moss hopper into near delirium, drawing a laugh from Lucas. She eventually let it go and it hopped a way groggily almost smacking into some trees.

"You really like animals don't you?"

Lucas asked as they stood in silence.

"Only cute ones."

Evélyne answered bluntly. Lucas laughed and said,

"Yep. I could tell."

With nothing left to do, the duo continued their quiet walk, both feeling somewhat relaxed. As they moved forward, Lucas spread out his senses in waves. He had a thoughtful expression as he asked,

"How come there are so few animals here?"

Not breaking her stride, Evélyne responded,

"What do you mean?"

"There is a lot of foliage around but apart from the plants I can detect only about twenty creatures including birds in a kilometer radius. Isn't it too sparse?"

"No. All the fauna and flora you see here has been carefully created by mother. If it was a natural domain habitat, these woods would be overrun by powerful creatures."

"Dang…"

Evélyne smiled,

"Dang indeed."

They walked forward further as they took in the beautiful landscape. Eventually the arrived at a heavily wooded area, Lucas gazed up at the rather tall trees and said,

"That should do it for today. Let's head back."

Evélyne just nodded and they began the trek back. As with most walks, going back seemed to take less time as they got back to the training yard smoothly.

"So how was that?"

Lucas asked as he curled his tail around his waist.

"Surprisingly pleasant. I will go on more walks from now on, thank you for giving me this wisdom."

Lucas in turn gave an exaggerated bow as he said,

"It was my honor, princess."

Evélyne just shook her head as she said,

"I still don't understand these… jokes you make, Lucas. You shouldn't push yourself to humor me."

Lucas just brushed off her words,

"If I don't joke around, how will you ever understand jokes?"

Evélyne didn't say anything and just walked towards the weapons wrack. Lucas called out to her before she got there,

"Evélyne."

"Yeah?"

"I have a favor to ask."

Evélyne paused and turned to him. Lucas continued.

"Could we spar?"

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.