Return of the Runebound Professor

Power slammed into Noah like a tidal wave, but it was still nothing in comparison to Sunder or the Fragment of Renewal. Seven familiar Runes took form in the churning magic of what had once been Natural Disaster.

Pyroclastic Resonance

Pyroclastic Resonance

Focal Quake

Howling Maelstrom

Howling Maelstrom

Trilling Monsoon

Deafening Thunderstorm

Noah waved his hand, moving one of the Pyroclastic Resonance Runes to the side and replacing it with Freezing Blizzard. For an instant, he paused to consider his Runes. As far as he knew, diversifying his Rune this much by having six unique things going into it was likely to make the Rank 3 Rune powerful, but it would make further growth down the line much, much harder.

Noah raised his hands, then brought them together. The seven Runes ground against each other as Noah’s mind forced them together, causing the lines that made them up to interlock and overlap.

Magic enveloped Noah’s body, coursing through his veins and lighting his eyes up. His hands trembled as pressure pushed back at him, but he resisted it. Inch by inch, the Runes pressed closer to each other until they had all overlapped over a single area.

Noah closed his eyes as a brilliant flash filled his soul. He staggered as the pressure that had been building up suddenly multiplied, nearly throwing him off his feet. Noah skidded backward, squinting through the dots floating in his sight at the new Rune that floated before him. Without even looking, he gathered all the residual energy and forced it back into the Rune to make sure he lost as little as possible. Only once the energy had all been spent did Noah allow himself to actually take a step back and examine his handiwork.

Natural Disaster

A flicker of disappointment passed over Noah’s features. It looked as if nothing had changed. He took a step toward it, examining the Rune closely. And, almost immediately, Noah realized that he was wrong.

Something had changed. Even though the Rune had the same name, it wasn’t the same. His mind was automatically translating the Rune into English, but the physical shape was different. The lines that had previously been jagged and sharp were now smoother and more perfected, as if they’d been polished and looked over by a careful eye. Natural Disaster’s name hadn’t changed, but its composition and appearance had.

Interesting. It was like it was just written in sloppy handwriting before, and now it’s clearer. I wonder just how much effect that has on its actual power.

Remaking Natural Disaster had actually reduced how full it was, taking it from around forty-five percent down to about thirty. Noah was fairly certain that the majority of that energy loss had come from destroying and recombining the Rune, though.

Taking a few steps back, Noah crossed his arms and examined his handiwork. The Rune felt right. And, perhaps even more important than that, he’d learned even more about combining Runes.

His attempts to put Freezing Blizzard together had been more enlightening than he’d expected. Intent and the actual Runes Noah was using were obviously important for the final result of a Rune, but there was another factor that he’d only just started to touch on, and that was actually understanding the Rune itself.

The physical form of the Rune, Noah realized, was more than just a descriptor. It was power itself. Every time he’d formed and taken apart his attempts at a Blizzard Rune, Noah had seen the name slightly shift and change with the modifications he’d made.

He could see the imperfections in the word that were holding it back, keeping it from achieving its full potential. And, in those repeated attempts, he’d learned just a little more about how Runes looked like when they were perfected.

Noah hadn’t even intentionally modified Natural Disaster’s shape, but now that he was looking at the final result of his work, it became clear that his findings were true. The closer a Rune was to its perfect form, the more controlled its lines were. There were fewer imperfections and sudden breaks that led to nowhere.

Runes are power manifest. In the future, I definitely need to try to pay more attention to the shape of every Rune I see, even if they don’t have any power in them or I can’t absorb them. This almost feels like a different language. Maybe that’s what Formations are. Stringing words together into sentences.

Noah caught himself before he could go any further along that path.

One thing at a time. Formations come next – but after my Imbuements. I want tremorsense back at a bare minimum.

He let his Runes float back to their proper positions in his mind, looking over everything with a small smile. Natural Disaster was perfected, and he could finally get out of the small rut he’d been in and start progressing once more.

Noah’s eyes opened, the satisfied smile still on his face. The next morning was going to be fun.

“All done?” Moxie asked.

“About time, too.” Noah let out a huff. “How long has it been?”

“Not that long. A few minutes, maybe?”

“That’s it? I honestly thought it was way longer than that.”

Noah pressed his hand to Dayton’s grimoire. There weren’t a ton of open spaces left on it, but he still didn’t want to walk around lugging a bunch of Runes he didn’t need. He went through, Imbuing his Rank 1 Ice Rune, both Greater Shadow Runes, and the Reflective Water Rune.

“Whatcha doing?” Lee asked, swinging to try to get a better look at the scroll.

“Just putting down some of the Runes I didn’t need,” Noah replied, handing the scroll up to Lee. She scanned over it eagerly. “You added some Shadow Runes!”

“Figured they might be useful for you,” Noah said with a nod. His body still felt energized by all the energy he’d absorbed during the Rune combinations, so he took care not to move too aggressively. The extra energy would be gone by the morning, but he didn’t want to mistakenly rip a hole in Moxie’s plant tent before then. “The scroll is all yours again, Lee. Let me know if you figure anything out.”

“Will do.” Lee buried her nose in the scroll.

“I can take watch for now,” Moxie said. “Sleep, then tell me if anything interesting happened later?”

That worked just fine for Noah.

***

The following morning came quickly. Moxie woke Noah several hours later for his watch, but the night was silent and nothing of interest happened. The sun soon rose over the horizon, pulling Lee and Moxie out of the tent to join Noah outside it.

Lee rifled through Noah’s bag while Moxie rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

“So?” Moxie asked. “I take it by your grin last night that you managed to accomplish what you were aiming for?”

“I did,” Noah confirmed. He pulled a folded paper out of his pocket and Lee handed him his quill, continuing to dig through his bag. Noah accepted the quill without missing a beat. “I can finally get to repairing my Imbuements. And I can also do this.”

With a flourish of his quill, Noah crossed out a line in his paper of ‘shit to deal with’.

Improve my own Runes to make sure Natural Disaster is completely perfect. Adding something snow-based should help balance it a little better.

He paused for a moment, searching for a line about his own Imbuements, before realizing he’d forgotten to add that part in. He quickly added an extra task at the bottom.

Fix my Imbuements.

Lee let out a victorious huff as she finally located what she was searching for – a strip of jerky that Noah had hidden for himself at the bottom of his bag. She stuffed it into her mouth and pulled the flap over the now-disorganized bag, patting it once.

“Shall we get back to hunting?” Moxie asked. She sent a pointed look at the bag of Ice monster parts that still rested on the ground near the entrance of their tent. “We should try to reach Dawnforge by today so nothing in there rots. I know the heart can be worth a lot, but I don’t think it’s going to smell very good after two days.”

“Just think of the money,” Noah advised, slinging the bag over his shoulder and giving Moxie a nod. “I’m ready. Let’s go. Think you can find some more… normal monsters for us to fight against?”

“Probably.” Moxie sounded a little less confident than she had the previous day. “As long as we don’t get any more interference from whatever seems to be after you, then I can find some more normal enemies. I think I’ll refrain from tying my vine too tightly around myself, though.”

“That might be a good idea,” Noah agreed sagely.

Moxie took their tent down, sending the vines retreating back into the earth, and then they all set off in the direction of Dawnforge.

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