Return of the Runebound Professor

They didn’t need to camp out that night. As the evening started to fall, the wooden walls of a village appeared over the hills. Shingled roofs of both wood and stone houses poked over its walls, and several small pillars of smoke rose up from chimneys within it.

The faint scent of cooking meat and spice hung in the air, just enough to make everyone salivate. Not a single word was said between any of them as they accelerated, making toward the town.

There weren’t any guards at the open gate, and the motley group strode inside without difficulty. Packed dirt paths ran down the road, trodden down by years of movement to form roads.

The majority of the town was clustered at its center, while the living areas were scattered along the town’s edges. Noah could hear the sound of avid conversation coming from deeper into town.

As they headed deeper, it became clear that almost everyone had congregated around two large, two story buildings near the town center. Neither of them had any identifying signs, but it was clear by the tables past their windows and the smell of food coming within them that they were inns.

“The stars are nice,” Brayden said, striding up to the door and ducking down as he pushed it open, letting golden light from inside wash out onto the evening shadows, “but I’d much prefer a real bed.”

Isabel and Todd both glanced at each other uneasily. Before Noah could speak up, a frown flickered across Brayden’s features.

“I’ll pay, since I’m the one suggesting it,” Brayden said. “It’ll go on the Linwicks’ tab anyway.”

With that, he strode inside and thumped into the tavern. Noah and the others followed Brayden in. Every single eye in the tavern turned toward them as Brayden’s imposing form lumbered over to the counter and slapped a gold coin down on the counter. It looked puny in his fingers.

The barkeep, a diminutive woman with graying brown hair and a pudgy face, swallowed and took the coin carefully. She reached to give him change, but Brayden shook his head.

“Put the extra money in the food. I don’t need your coin.”

Brayden turned toward the tables, then paused. Brayden reached up and traced a purple line through the air with a finger. Everyone in the tavern stiffened, but Brayden just reached inside it and pulled out ten more gold.

He stacked it on the counter.

“I – it’s not this expensive to stay for the night,” the barkeep stammered. “You don’t have to–”

Brayden turned and lumbered away, his eyes on an empty table with four chairs around it near the corner of the room. People shuffled their chairs out of his way as he passed, craning their necks to watch him pass.

He stopped at the side of the table and studied one of the chairs. It looked like a doll toy in comparison to him. Brayden grabbed a nearby table and pulled it over, then sat down on top of it. The wood creaked dangerously underneath his weight.

“That’s what the extra gold was for, I think,” Noah said.

The barkeep swallowed and nodded, carefully taking the gold and shuffling off into the back. Noah and the others walked over to the table, and Brayden gestured for them to sit down. Nobody budged.

Brayden bared his teeth. “Sit down.”

Isabel and Todd were the first to move, taking two of the chairs on one side of the table. Brayden pointed at Edward, then tapped the table. Swallowing, the Linwick boy took his seat. Allen sat down across from him.

“I’m not sitting on the table,” Noah said. “I’m pretty sure it would break if we put any more weight on it.

Brayden snorted. “It’ll break anyway. Sit somewhere else, then. I’ll babysit the children. I’m sure you’d like a break at this point.”

Allen didn’t look too pleased to be included in the group of children, but he just shook his head and didn’t say anything. Noah shrugged. He wasn’t exactly frothing at the mouth to spend time with Allen yet.

Noah walked over to a table a short distance away and flopped into one of the chairs. Lee and Moxie sat down beside him. He couldn’t help but notice that the tavern was still silent, as it had been ever since Brayden entered.

Brayden seemed to notice it too. He turned, making the table creak again beneath his weight, and glared at the room. “Get back to it already.”

Instantly, everyone burst back into chatter, not willing to anger the huge man. Noah suppressed a laugh.

“That was some seriously impressive work back there,” Moxie said, keeping her voice just loud enough to be heard over the conversation around them. “Maybe you getting the best of me back in the garden wasn’t just a fluke. Well done.”

“Thanks. You weren’t half bad yourself,” Noah said. “I needed a lot of time to get things ready. Wouldn’t have been able to do it without your vines. Or Allen, I suppose. I like him less than you, though.”

“I nearly got squished. If Lee hadn’t grabbed me, I don’t think my Shield would have blocked the Root Fiend’s foot.”

Lee shrugged. “It wasn’t much.”

“It was enough,” Moxie said, her lips thinning. “But I shouldn’t have been that close in the first place. I didn’t perform the way I should have.”

“It’s fine,” Noah said. “We won in the end.”

“But we could have lost,” Moxie said. “We only get one chance at these things. I can’t afford to be making mistakes like that.”

Noah opened his mouth, then closed it. “I guess you’re right about that. It makes me think about what Emily was talking about, though. What exactly is the role of a professor in relation to a soldier? I thought professors were meant to fight and hunt monsters too.”

Moxie let out a small breath of air. “Professors are researchers. We’re paid by Arbitage to mentor students and research Rune combinations as well as what monsters have what Runes – among other things. Sure, we’re meant to be able to fight, but we’re not meant to be able to fight, if you know what I’m getting at.”

Noah scrunched his nose. “I guess. Just what are we supposed to be teaching if not just fighting?”

Moxie shook her head. “The proper ways to interact with other nobles. You know – what you saw me teaching Emily? Strategy. Ways to run businesses. Basic knowledge. Survival skills. Fighting as well, obviously. It’s a big part of the curriculum, but it’s not the whole part. We aren’t soldiers.”

“So I’m learning,” Noah said. “About those things you listed off – all the ones that weren’t fighting, actually…”

“They can sit in on my class,” Moxie said, rolling her eyes. “I was wondering when you were going to ask. Maybe you should as well. Once certainly wasn’t enough.”

That’s honestly a really good idea.

“Brilliant,” Noah said. He glanced at Lee. “Maybe both of us need this.”

“Why’d you look at me like that?” Lee asked. “Are you implying that I don’t know how to interact with people?”

“Just a bit.”

A waitress interrupted their conversation, walking up to their table to place a basket full of bread and butter down before them. Before she could even leave, Lee grabbed a huge handful of the bread and squished it into a ball before popping it into her mouth.

The waitress swallowed. She picked the basket back up and headed back into the kitchen.

“Okay, I might see your point,” Lee said through a mouthful of bread. She swallowed, then wiped her mouth with a napkin before shaking it in front of her face. “I know how to use this thing, though.”

“Good job,” Noah said dryly.

The waitress re-emerged, this time with two baskets. She set them both back down on their table before hurriedly retreating to avoid having to get any more. Noah grabbed a roll for himself.

“Say, Moxie?”

“Yes?”

Noah lowered his voice and leaned close to her ear. “I’ve got another question. The hell is a domain?”

Moxie snagged a roll of bread herself and cut it open, slathering some butter on its inside with a knife. She lowered her voice to match Noah’s volume. “Do you know how to do literally anything other than fight?”

“Do you want an honest answer to that?”

Moxie sighed. “Domains are the reason that there’s such a big power discrepancy between Rank 3 and 4. The Gap.”

Noah nodded knowingly. “Ah, yes. The Gap. Of course.”

“Domains are the manifestation of your Runic magic around you. They let you keep other people’s magic from getting inside your body unless they can overpower it, and also let you summon magic without having some form of physical contact with the space you’re trying to bring it into as long as it’s within your domain.”

Damn, that’s significant, especially if the range of this domain is large. That could be a huge boost in power.

“And that’s not even the only benefit you get from reaching the Mid ranks,” Moxie continued. “The lengthened longevity is a real nice benefit as well.”

The what? You get to live longer when you reach Rank 4? The one thing that I’m still actually worried might take me for good is old age. Either that or I end up in a revival loop of dying and waking up constantly because I’m so old that all my organs shut down on me. I can avoid that by getting to the next Rank?

“Two hundred and fifty years,” Lee put in. “That’s how much more you get at Rank 4. For us, at least.”

“For us as well,” Moxie said with a nod. “And then more with every Rank after that. The headmaster is Rank 6, and I’ve heard he’s over seven hundred years old.”

Holy shit. Goodbye, death. I’m going to live forever. Take your lines and shove them up your ass.

Noah popped the bread roll into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Moxie specified that Rank 4 was the entrance to the Mid ranks, which implied that Ranks 1 through 3 were Low, and there was probably a set of them that were classified as High above that.

“7 through 9,” Lee said, reading Noah’s lips before he could even bring the question out. He cleared his throat.

“The High ranks. I know.”

“Right,” Moxie drawled. “Good for you.”

“I’m not sure if I’ll ever even reach Rank 4,” Lee said with a small frown. “My Runes aren’t really that well combined. Surviving the ascent through Rank 4 – it’s not common for my kind. We don’t usually have the liberty to make sure our combinations work well due to the… competition. Usually, the force of the Ascent ends up ripping us to shreds. I guess that’s what makes the ones that survive so strong.”

“Is that why you’re still Rank 3?” Noah asked, slowly pulling more puzzle pieces together.

There’s some form of bottleneck that separates these rank groupings. Presumably, passing the bottleneck is also what lets people’s souls expand enough to get the domain.

Moxie grimaced. “You don’t have to put it that bluntly. I’m… having difficulty determining what my strategy is going to be for my Rank up, and I can’t really afford any combinations. Guesswork is a terrible idea when your entire future is at stake, so I’m just sitting on it for now.”

I could fix that for you. All of it.

But… that would involve revealing Sunder’s power. I can help both of them – but this isn’t the time to reveal Sunder. Especially not before we get to the Linwick Estate, with all this other shit happening. I will do it, though. I need my allies powerful. They’ve both been stuck for a little while, though. There’s no need to jump the gun.

“Your family doesn’t provide you a Rune combination?” Noah asked, frowning. “I thought that was kind of the point of noble families.”

Moxie’s features hardened. “No. They don’t.”

That was clearly the end of that particular conversation. Noah glanced at the other table, but they’d all gotten their food and were furiously eating to avoid drawing Brayden’s ire. No more than a few seconds later, the waitress arrived at their table and deposited three bowls of stew before them. She darted away the moment the food was out of her hands.

Lots to think about, but no point rushing it. For now, I’ve already got enough to focus on improving. I want to figure out what other Rank 2 Runes I can get my hands on and push my Pyroclastic Resonance Rune farther. I know it can do more than what I’ve seen, especially with the Resonance aspect. But for now… food.

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