The Runesmith

Roland stared spaced out for a moment after hearing those notifications. He quickly brought up his status window to look at his new title, not really sure what it was all about.

’Understand my ass, I just redrew what my skill was showing me! Does this title even give me anything?’

Roland rubbed his chin, it seemed that creating a schematic was all that he needed to do. Maybe the system mistook his understanding of circuitry and computer programming as knowledge of runes? If so, then he might have been on to something.

’Hm... that 1000 experience points though... Will I get just as much if I redraw other runes?’

That amount of experience points wasn’t small at all, he would probably jump a couple of levels instantly if he had switched classes beforehand. He knew that he would lose out on some of those points after changing classes now, but part of the xp would be carried over.

’Think I’ll be losing half of them... shame...Still, this is a great discovery!’

This was something unprecedented, his debugging skill had given him an easy way to earn more experience and do it fast. He only needed to get his hands on some magical items. He then would be able to create improved schematics which in term would give him more experience.

His skill allowed him to see every rune as a diagram, it even fixed any faulty pathways or misplaced components, shifting them into the correct places. The biggest problem would be actually acquiring the runes, they cost a hand and a leg.

’I wonder if I could sell those schematics or create some my own...’

He knew that knowledge about crafting and creating runes was a trade secret. Other people would never disclose those as their livelihood depended on it. He now had a way of producing complete rune diagrams, which meant that he wouldn’t even need to look for a teacher or master for such things. He might even be able to sell those schematics for a large sum of money later on in his carrier if he ever needed the funds.

’Okay, I think I’m getting ahead of myself here. I have no idea how to even create a rune even with this schematic... still need to change my class to Mana Scribe to be able to actually put magic to paper...’

He calmed himself down, he now felt that his future as a runesmith might be rosier than previously he expected. Still, he needed to actually get to that tier 2 class before he could even do anything with these rune schematics. He also noticed that without having to even look to that diagram that he just made, he could probably redraw it from memory. He attributed that to his fast learning and knowledge retention traits that he had gained by possessing this youth’s body.

He continued fiddling around with the runic rapier but even after glancing at it from all sides and injecting more mana, he didn’t find any more uses for his skills.

’Maybe if I understand more about runes, there will be other things I can do with this skill?’

He looked outside and it was already dark, most people were asleep. He glanced over to the crystal that allowed people to change their classes and then nodded. He had tested out the runes as he previously intended, so now was the time to change his class and get to work.

’Well, here goes nothing...’

He activated the crystal and found himself back in his old apartment building once again. He was down on the first floor just like before.

’Time to go up...’

He walked up all those stairs to his apartment room, the inside looked as bad as it always did. He tested the windows again but they wouldn’t budge and the outside looked like the empty void as it did before.

’No changes here... time to check if I can actually change my class, if not then I might as well go back home and become a butler.’

He was slightly worried that there might be another error. He got that strange zero elemental affinity after getting his first class, there could be another mishap with this strange system that would keep him from advancing yet again. He waited for the windows screen to boot up, he then hovered his mouse cursor above the familiar icon that was used for class changing.

He waited a moment before clicking the icon, scared of what he might find there. Finally, he mustered up the courage to go forward and clicked it. He was greeted to a familiar image of a tiny pixel art version of himself in a mage robe. The image had the usual three frame walking cycle as before.

’Heh, there is a lot of them this time...’

Previously there was only one arrow pointing to his mage class, now there were a lot of them. He hovered the mouse over one of those pixel sprites as he was unsure of what classes they were. The moment he hovered over one, there was writing on top of it.

He could see the usual tier 1 classes becoming available. There was the warrior, the archer, even the blacksmith class that he was going to take on the next try. There were mostly filled with the basic of basic classes that you only needed a certain amount of stat points to reach, he finally managed to find the Mana Scribe one, but there was a nice surprise waiting for him.

"Huh? there is a Runic Mana Scribe?"

"Is it a variation of the regular Mana Scribe class?"

He tried recalling the books that he read in the past that described the way to get him to the Runesmith Class. There was no mention of a Runic Mana Scribe class, or of any other way of getting his desired tier 2 class. This might have been a secret class and he had a theory on how he was now able to select this class.

’Runic Scholar title, that must be it.’

He was quite sure that it had something to do with it, the books did describe classes that required certain titles to unlock and this was probably one of them. The only other explanation that could also be true, would be his debugging skill or his circuitry skill. The system already thought that they were related to runes, so it wasn’t that far of a stretch.

’Maybe it’s even the three combined...’

Roland hovered with the mouse on that Runic Mana Scribe class, but it wasn’t giving him any info besides the name. From the way it was named he could deduce that it was focused on runes. It could also give him some bonuses to creating spell scrolls. He could also create rune schematics from other runes, which meant he could produce higher caliber spells while being at a lower class.

’But these names... wouldn’t just Rune Scribe, or Runic Scribe be better? Why make it so unnecessarily long? ’

He shook his head at the naming sense of the person responsible for this and then steeled his resolve. The first class was a freebie but this one had some kind of test behind it. It could be anything simple from making a horseshoe when choosing a blacksmith class, to fighting some monsters in a closed room when going with a fighter class.

He went over the classes again before choosing, he was mostly interested in the magic-related ones. He actually did find some interesting choices he could go with, like a mana warrior and a mana archer class. The requirements were probably having a mage related class along with all the basic weapon proficiency skills that he had previously unlocked while he was training for the past five years.

His adventurer sense tingled as he wondered what it would be like to be a magic swordsman but then he remembered. He remembered that if he actually wanted to progress past a tier 2 hybrid melee and magic class he would need an advanced magic class as well. At most he could hope for some lesser choices that might even be worse than a regular tier 3 warrior.

He gave out a sigh after remembering that, he had to bring himself back to reality. He already found a hidden class related to runes, this was probably the best choice.

The mana scribe class was also a popular choice for mages as their second tier 1 class before going for an elemental mage at tier 2. There were other choices like a ritualist that lead to a tier 2 thaumaturge and then into a tier 3 warlock. There were other various options that gave you a wizard class or a sorcerer class. Each of those differed in the way they utilized their spells and some were race or bloodline specific.

’If I go by its name, this class probably has all the bonuses of the previous one. So it is probably a better version... though that could mean that the trial for it could be harder to pass...’

He gulped before finally clicking on the Runic Mana Scribe class sprite.

The book he read before described the process of getting the Mana Scribe version of the class. In it, he would have to use his mana to inscribe one of his basic spells to paper. The ability to do so would be somehow given to the person taking the test. If the person had the aptitude they would pass without any problems, if you tried doing it with no talent then you would probably fail. If you failed you, the knowledge of the skill would be forgotten.

The VR headset that he previously used popped out once more and he didn’t hesitate to put it on. He was greeted by a flash of light than a quick scenery change. He was sitting in a chair in front of a large desk that was at an angle. There was a large empty parchment laid out on it, to the side a white quill resting in an ink bottle.

The room that he was in looked like the inside of a medieval castle. There were various books spread on bookshelves to the sides and right in front of him was a large hourglass. It was at least two meters tall and the sand was already slowly going down.

’That’s probably the timer...’

It was one of the timed trials, he would probably fail if he didn’t manage to complete whatever he had to finish before all of that sand fell. He quickly looked at the closest things, there was a quill and a large piece of parchment there, he probably needed to write something there.

’Scribe class... need to write something down here, but what?’

He looked around and spotted a red book right on top of the desk. The cover was quite intricate and it had a drawing of a rune on it. He took it into his hand and started reading. His eyes moving between the pages rapidly.

’This... it’s the instructions to scribing a lesser fire orb rune onto a spell scroll...’

Thanks to his high intelligence and added memory traits he was able to breeze through the entire book within a couple of minutes. He had also gained a reading proficiency skill by going through the Arden estate library, which allowed for faster reading and comprehension.

The book described the basics of runic scribing, how you needed special ink, and special parchment that was made from monster skin, or other materials that could retain magic, to even be able for the process to take place. It described the theory behind focusing your mana onto the quill’s tip and pushing it into the magical ink. The ink had certain properties that were required for the scribes mana to be transcribed to paper and make the runic symbols function.

This wasn’t the hard part, that was to actually get the runic diagram the way you were supposed to. He had seen how intricate the lesser Detonation Rune was, the whole diagram that he drew of it fit on a large sheet of paper. He had to fit a similar diagram of this lesser fire orb rune on this parchment, but it had to be much smaller to make it work.Luckily this rune was less complex than the detonation rune.

He couldn’t just trace the large schematic in a 1 to 1 ratio, no he had to make it small. He needed to guide the magical ink with the quill making many tiny mana pathways between all of the components. These components were the rune parts, in this particular runic spell diagram, there were three main ones.

There was the basic fire rune that was the center of it all, then there was the runic part that shaped everything into an orb followed by parts that regulated the mana flow and made sure that the spell didn’t collapse onto itself or explode. The last part was considered a type of control rune that was responsible for the spells ’program’

’Wait... these parts are similar to logic gates, logic circuits? Do runes use binary?’

He could tell that the components in these runes had a striking resemblance to circuitry parts, like transistors, resistors, and more complex chips. They differed from the ones he knew by the fact that they were made from magic ink and not from physical components. These chip-like sections had things similar to logic gates in them.

’Interesting, I think my circuitry skill is helping me understand these runes better. Though I don’t think I need to understand this just yet, I just need to copy the schematic onto the paper now...’

This was quite more complicated than he had expected. Regular Mana Scribes only needed to write down the incantations from the normal spells without much worry, the only real problem was running out of space on the spell scrolls. He actually needed to redraw the schematic and make it fit into a small rune that looked like a symbol. The runes possessed a maximal size if they were too big, they wouldn’t work.

He had achieved the temporary skills that were needed to pass this test. A normal Mana Scribe would only gain the first skill, but this was an advanced version of this class so he also achieved something related to runes.

’I should start... time is running out...’

He had finished the book and now was the time to act. He was always better with practical things than with theory so he decided to test his skills and put quill to paper. He dipped his quill into the dark magical ink while focusing, the black liquid stuck to the tip like glue and let itself be guided to the large yellowy parchment.

Roland took in a long deep breath before focusing on the task at hand. The tip of his quill hovered a fraction of a millimeter above the piece of large parchment. He started moving his hand, but he did it very slowly. The ink started slowly pouring onto the parchment while guided by his mana. The ink split into many tiny magical pathways that inscribed themselves onto the magical paper while guided by his mana.

’Slow and steady...’

His forehead started sweating as he concentrated, it was really difficult to guide this ink in the correct way. He would only know if he managed to do it correctly at the end and his debugging skill didn’t help him either. It could only pickup mistakes on an already created diagram or schematic not during the process of inscribing.

A couple of minutes felt like an hour as he continued to pour his heart out onto the paper. This was never meant to be easy and he never tried it before but thanks to his stats he was slowly doing it. His large mana pool allowed him to be frugal with it and his traits helped him keep focus.

He was slowly moving his hand while writing the runic symbols. It looked as if he was writing three large letters but in reality, the magical ink was getting pushed into the parchment creating many tiny magical pathways and other various components. That would make the whole magical rune function after a person inserted their mana into them.

When the hourglass was about half empty he was finished with his scribbles. This was also when finally his debugging skill was activated and also why he looked distressed. Most of it was red, the symbols and the pathways with the various components weren’t looking up to par.

The piece of parchment glowed after he was finished with his first attempt. It shone with crimson light, a glow of red rose up as if trying to form into a round shape. The spell fizzled out before it could be completed and the runic pattern of the magical paper vanished, indicating that the spell didn’t form and that he had failed.

’Shit...’

He looked at the hourglass again, it was now past the halfway point and he probably only had one more try to make this work.

’Okay, I can do this...the skill showed me where I went wrong... just have to remember it.’

He closed his eyes and recalled the finished product, he could see it like a photograph in his mind, covered in red, blue, and green lines. He opened his eyes wide and went back to scribing, he still had some mana to spare. The second attempt was taking him even longer, he was afraid to blunder and fail, wasting a big chunk of money in the process. He tried not to look at the sand that was falling, afraid of getting distracted but also worried that it would run out if he didn’t hurry.

With the last ounce of his mana points, he managed to finally finish. This runic spell didn’t look like much, it consisted of three symbols. One was responsible for the fire rune, the second for the shape of the orb, and the last one for its discharge and control. There were many other hidden components, but after the magical ink dried all of those could not be seen by the naked eye.

The piece of magical paper shone once more, it was much brighter this time around. Tiny wisps of red light moved upwards and compressed themselves into a small orb. This orb was quite small and looked more like marble but it was clearly radiating heat.

’Did I do it?’

He looked up at the hourglass and saw the last grain of sand sliding down. Everything blurred afterward and he found himself back in his inn, down on the ground as he had fallen off his chair.

’Shit, did I fail? Did the time run out?’

He quickly brought up his status screen and checked his class.

’It’s there!’

He had also gained some class-related skills to boot.

Roland sprawled out on the floor, quite tired from his first-class change. He came unprepared by managed to somehow power through it. He would remember this blunder and prepare more when the time came. For now, he just wanted to sleep.

’I’ll check everything out in the morning, too tired...’

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