Return of the Runebound Professor

Noah and Tim arrived at the transport cannon just a short while later. It was, predictably, empty. Tim went right over to the controls and his hands played across them like he was a musician plucking the strings of a harp.

Energy hummed within the control panel and light flickered to life along it as the transport cannon turned on. Tim continued to adjust the levers, his brow furrowed in concentration. “It’s a bit harder to control everything now that the cannon isn’t what it used to be anymore.”

“How much harder?” Noah asked, a flicker of worry passing through him. He wasn’t keen on getting ripped to shreds by the cannon midway through his trip to wherever it was that Tim was going to send him.

“Don’ t worry,” Tim said with a laugh. He pressed his palm into the control panel and it emitted a loud hum. “Go head over to the entrance and lay down. I’m more than capable of controlling the cannon, even in this state. Just be aware you won’t be out for as long as usual due to the restrictions.”

“Do you know exactly how long it’ll be?”

“Three hours at most. We’ve got to ration the energy since it’s being filled by hand.”

Noah sat down on the metal of the cannon as the humming in the tower grew louder. Tim adjusted a few more settings and Noah grimaced as the sound reached an uncomfortable level.

“Will you be here when I get back?” Noah called over noise.

“I can be,” Tim called back. “But why? I’m not needed to pull you back. The cannon will do that on its own. I’m setting everything up to make sure you return before it runs out of power. If its reserves get low enough to risk a failed recall for any reason, it’ll just immediately summon you back and use the rest of its power. There’s no risk of you being left behind.”

“It’s not that. I trust you to use the cannon,” Noah replied and held his travel bag up, shaking it to draw Tim’s attention. “I’ve got a potion in here for you. After I get back.”

Tim’s eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

“Why not? I like to finish what I start and it’s been far too long.”

Tim gave him a sheepish smile. “Well, if you’re going to insist, then I certainly won’t object. I’ll be here when you get pulled back. Now, get yourself ready. I’m sending you to a location called the Bleached River. It should be a safe area to land in, but it’s got stronger monsters than a lot of the other areas the transport cannon has sent you to before, so make sure you’ve got your wits about you.”

Noah nodded his understanding and lowered the bag, holding it to his chest and laying back in the cannon’s tube. It was a bit of a challenge to get himself to fit with the grimoire on his back, but he managed it anyway. The buzzing reached a crescendo. Power crackled all around Noah and flashed before his eyes in arcs of blue light.

“Good luck!” Tim called.

A burst of energy swallowed Noah’s response and body alike. The world dematerialized and he shot off, a streak of blue energy carving across the sky and leaving Arbitage in its wake.

***

The world slammed back to normal abruptly. Noah landed on his backside and skidded across white sand for a foot before coming to a stop. He muttered a slew of curses and shook his head off, pushing himself upright and shaking the sand out of his pant legs.

He hadn’t gotten a chance to ask Tim why the location he was being sent to was called the Bleached River, but that question looked to have been answered. He stood on the bed of an enormous, rushing riverbank. Water crashed up against the jagged rocks lining it and splashed over to land on top of the pure white sand that stretched as far as he could see.

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I don’t think they’ve actually got bleach in this world, so I guess that’s the best translation that Vermil’s knowledge of language could give me. Definitely lives up to the name, though.

Noah turned in a circle. There was nothing immediately visible on the horizon and the sky was completely empty aside from a few clouds and the harsh sun bearing down on his back from above.

It had only been a few seconds since he’d arrived, but it was already heating the shoulders of his jacket to a decidedly displeasing temperature. He got the feeling it wouldn’t be long before he was soaked through with sweat.

Good thing there’s a convenient river right over here to cool off in. I’m sure it totally won’t be full of ugly monsters.

He extended his senses into the ground to check for vibrations. The sand around him and the rushing water just a short distance away didn’t make that easy, but as far as he could tell, there wasn’t much around him — or at least, if there was, it wasn’t within the sand.

His powers were completely useless with regard to the river. The whole thing was moving, so it was basically one giant wall of information that provided absolutely nothing. It was also the most likely location to house monsters given the location’s name.

That’s fine with me. I don’t need to go around killing anything yet. If I’ve got three hours before I get pulled back, I’ve got enough time to test out Crumbling Space. I’m not going to be relying on it in a fight yet and the opportunity to see what I can do with it is too useful to pass up.

Noah extended his hand and focused his thoughts before reaching out to the new Rank 4 Rune. He drew power from it, letting the energy course through his arm and into his palm. Tingles broke out along his skin and pressed against his fingernails like a nest of ants trying to break free of his veins.

Can’t say I love the feeling of this rune. Sunder is much smoother. Even the Fragment of Renewal is a lot nicer to use. I wonder if that’s due to Space Magic I’ve got in this or if it’s because I made a Rank 4 Rune rather than a Master Rune.

Noah shrugged to himself. For the time being, it didn’t matter. What did matter was just how far he could push the rune. He drew out every last scrap of power the rune had to offer. It wouldn’t work with less. There was no reason to hold himself back. His eyes narrowed and he pointed his hand at the air before him, picturing the white cracks shooting out in a straight line rather than in the spiderweb pattern that they’d taken the first time he’d tested Crumbling Space.

The power ripped out from his hand. Cracks of white nothingness ripped out through the air before him, but instead of following his desires, they just shot off in every direction, making the rough shape of a sphere.

Every direction unfortunately included his own.

Noah hurled himself out of the way as the air collapsed in on itself. He hit the ground with a grunt and rolled over to watch the energy fade from the air. There wasn’t anything there to break, so the magic faded without a single sound.

He stared at the air for a few seconds. Then he muttered a curse and pushed himself upright, brushing the sand off himself. His brow furrowed as he played the attempt back in his mind.

That’s rather odd. It straight up just ignored what I wanted. I’ve never had a Rune completely disobey me before. I didn’t get any feeling of Crumbling Space actually not wanting to obey my commands. I don’t think Runes have that much autonomy… so did I just imagine things wrong?

That hardly seemed likely. He’d been pretty straightforward about his desires. If that was the case, it meant he’d literally just asked the rune to do something it couldn’t manage, either due to its normal limitations or due to a lack of energy.

That orb did seem like a default expenditure of power, just releasing it all in one point. Only way to find out why that happened would be to go find some monsters and fill this thing up so I can test it some more.

Noah let out a huff and glanced around. His eyes landed on the river once more. He wasn’t too keen on striding over to it as he was. It wasn’t that he cared all that much about dying. Dying was fine — but if he died with all his stuff on him and something dragged him into the river, then he wasn’t getting it back.

He used Natural Disaster to raise a platform from the sand, then stacked his grimoire, travel bag, and gourd on top of it. Noah turned toward the river.

Wait. Did I ever get a second set of clothes after I got killed in Bird’s Space Monster Wonderland?

Noah spun and pulled his bag open. He let out a groan. It didn’t have a change of clothes in it.

That left him with two options. The first was to hope he didn’t get killed and head out as he was. If things went poorly, that meant he’d be showing back up to meet Tim as naked as the day he was born.

The alternative…

Goddamn it. You have to be kidding me. This is karma for what I told Bird. I shouldn’t have tempted fate.

Noah took his clothes off.

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