Kaius breathed, calming himself as he looked down at his hands. His left pinky and ring finger were missing — a return to his state from a year ago, when he’d lost them fighting the Siege Ogre. Working through the permutations of Vesryn runes he’d discovered had been troublesome, to say the least.

  Each detonation hadn’t severed a finger completely; they’d been blown off over hundreds of detonations, each removing another chunk. With his battle experience and Pain Resistance, he wouldn’t call it agonising — more annoying, given the lack of access to the digits. Still, as a mild upside, he’d gained great insight into how Greater Regeneration worked.

  When the skill said that regrowing lost body parts would be slow and resource-intensive, he’d worried his considerable health pool would idle at zero until the limb was fully regrown. That would have drastically reduced the ability’s usefulness, forcing downtime for even otherwise minor injuries, such as missing fingers.

  Thankfully, his pool was only drained for active injuries. The regrowth occurred only when he was at full, siphoning away excess regeneration to rebuild flesh.

  The process was expensive — almost unimaginably so. Even discounting the constant re-injury he’d inflicted upon himself through nearly a week of training for several hours a day, his fingers still took nearly a full day. It worried him — if it took that long for just a digit, would an arm take months? Years?

  Sure, it would speed up as the skill increased in level, but he doubted he would be regenerating limbs in battle any time soon.

  Regenerating his fingers has proven to be fruitful training however — the constant drain had earned him a smattering of skill levels.

  The rest of his training had been lacklustre and frustrating. After working through a dozen permutations of over fifty different arrays, he had yet to find anything stable. Tonal Weaving had better breakthrough soon — he was running out of usable digits. Stable runes would be nice as well, but they were less immediately useful.

  His toes were too important for balance to risk, and he needed something small and isolated at his extremities, where his minor conduits grew thin and less forceful in the transference of his natural energy. He could not, however, risk many more fingers. The pinky of his dominant hand — that was about it. Any more, and he would start overtly impacting his swordplay. Sure, they were nestled safely in Deadacre, but it would be foolish to leave himself crippled, even for a few weeks — especially when they would soon embark on an expedition into the ruins beneath the city.

  Tonal Weaving, at least, felt good, and the limits of its power and influence had been more cleanly defined by the bottleneck it set. He felt how it eased his grip on his internal mana flows as he used the skill to inscribe runes and bind them to his flesh. While Spellblade’s Harmonic Control was the source of his mana-manipulation abilities, Tonal Weaving granted him mastery of runes and how he wove the threads of that magic into the sacred shapes of a secret language that he alone on Vaastivar knew.

  Day by day, he grew certain he was pressing up against the limits of the Skill. As he forced his magic into the most stable forms he could find, he stretched the understanding the skill gave him of the Vesryn runes. Each time, it pushed his control forcing him to make use of finer and finer work, as he did his best to identify what caused the explosive destabilisation of the arrays he was inscribing.

  Kaius was almost certain he just needed a little more. He knew that not every skill would come as easily, but these were runes — something he lived and breathed. Many of the insights he’d used to stretch the skill had been brewing over dozens of idle nights as he pondered the craft of Vesryn.

  It was different from his bladework or his direct spellcraft — only now had he finally gotten the opportunity to test all of his questions about the skill.

  Still, if the skill’s advancement to the second tier was going to come soon, he hoped it would be today. They’d had a week and a half of relaxation, peace, good food, and freedom. Now their slated conversation with Rieker and Ro about using the guild to spread knowledge was tomorrow.

  Soon after, he imagined they would begin planning the various expeditions needed to ensure the city was safe. Sure, there would be time for learning and training, but those limited opportunities would be best spent pushing his other skills past the second tier — those more directly applicable to combat, like his bladework, or his defensive skill Tempered by Dissonance, or even Rapid Adaptation if he felt particularly harsh on himself.

  Kaius shook his head, “Focus.”

  He reached for his mana, ready to test his next set of runes. As he did, he poured his efforts into connecting fully with Tonal Weaving at the deepest level he could.

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  The skill leapt to his command — an old hound that had been with him long, one of his favourites. As he wormed his mana through his flesh, he devoted his mind to every curve and facet of the runes he was engraving. This one would likely fail, but that was secondary to what he might learn. He took his time, spending minutes to analyse each line from every angle, feeling how his tightly controlled mana was passed off from Spellblade’s Harmonic Control, then shaped according to his knowledge and mastery of Vesryn runes. The synergy between the skills muddied his connection, but it had clarified more and more over the last few days.

  Now he felt it clear and true.

  He wove the last line, filling the tip of his pinky with black runes. For a moment he held it there, assessing his work, trying to sense the array’s potential stability. While Tonal Weaving gave him no system-backed intuitive knowledge of how the runes functioned, it did make him familiar with their physical form and the flow of mana through them. After so many repetitions inscribing the damn things, he was developing his own sense, and he forced his skill behind it. In that moment, he had his breakthrough.

  As the ding sounded in his mind, Kaius gasped. His grip on his mana slipped, leaving the array to rest on its natural stability alone.

  It detonated with a howl of pain that shot through his finger, spraying gore across the rough-carved stone of the training hall.

  Kaius paid it no mind, laughing as he stared at the system notifications in front of his eyes.

  He’d done it — broken through with his first general skill without the aid of a system-backed evolution.

  Tonal Weaving:

  General Skill - Tier II

  Affinity: Arcane

  Type: Glyph-binding, Runic, Meditation, Mastery

  Level 201

  Unique

  Inscribe the resonance of wisdom upon the flesh, become a living tapestry of arcane harmony. With each rune and hymn, carve order from chaos, uniting body and soul with the potent iconography of the Vesryn Order.

  Tier I:

  This skill improves the user’s ability to inscribe the glyphs and runic hymns of the Vesryn Order. Enables direct inscription of the body through meditation and mana control.

  Tier II:

  This skill now draws attention to the loci of instability when inscribing Vesryn runes and glyphs. This insight is broad and vague, but scales moderately.

  Each level significantly increases speed and accuracy when inscribing Vesryn runes.

  Each level significantly increases the stability of Vesryn runes.

  Each level moderately increases memory and understanding of known Vesryn glyphs and runic hymns.

  Each level moderately increases the specificity of insight into formation instability.

  Each level slightly reduces required focus and time to directly inscribe the body.

  Evolved from: Runic Lexicon

  Originally Merged from: Rune Mastery - Ykkardian; Rune Mastery - Vhaxanish; Rune Mastery - Yosh’s Supplementary; Rune Mastery - High Lothian; Rune Mastery - Simenoan

  Kaius laughed as he read the description. It was exactly what he’d hoped to get — and what he needed — system aid in identifying what caused instability. Even if vague, his progress in identifying the basic tenets and syntax of the Vesryn script would be accelerated monumentally.

  Though perhaps it would have been best if the insight had come without the bone of his pinky being exposed.

  New flesh boiled over its surface, sealing the bone in a thin film of scar tissue as his finger slowly began to regenerate.

  A short way across the hall, Ianmus looked over from the shining Key Seal floating in front of him, smiling. “Did you get it?” he yelled.

  “I did. It’s a good boost as well. It’ll help me figure out what’s causing instability.”

  “That’s perfect for experimentation. I wish I had something like that. I still can’t make heads or tails of how these keyseals direct mana into spell effects autonomously.”

  “Still nothing?” Kaius asked.

  Ianmus had been laser-focused on figuring out how the key seals created their spells for the last week. If he still hadn’t found anything, it must be truly complex — especially given the mage’s expertise with traditional spellcasting. Keyseals must form their magic in a way as divergent from standard magery as his own glyph-binding.

  “Well, at least one of you got it done,” Porkchop said, padding over with Kenva.

  Kaius grinned, while Ianmus only let out a disappointed sigh.

  “How about you — much luck?” the mage asked.

  Porkchop grunted. “No, nothing yet. I think I need more of a push than running laps in an underground room.”

  That set Kenva chuckling, “It was fun for me, at least. Not often I get to pelt a moving target for hours on end. Usually they stop moving pretty quickly.”

  Porkchop growled, snapping at her playfully. “At least I got a few levels of Beast Knight’s Hide out of it. That Howl of the North Wind is something fierce — damn near shattered my plate on the first bloody blow.”

  Kaius laughed as Kenva pouted. He knew the ranger was frustrated that Porkchop’s armour could defend against the skill at all — but what did she expect? He was a greater beast in heavy plate.

  “Shall we call it there for the day? I know it’s early. We could pop off for lunch and kick back for the rest of the afternoon before we have to get back down to business tomorrow.”

  His team collectively sighed in relief.

  “Gods, yes — that sounds nice,” Kenva said.

  That drew a grin from Kaius. They were all a little maniacal in their pursuit of strength, but personal training in an underground stone room got old quickly — there was none of the adrenaline rush of real combat to distract from the monotony.

  He rose to his feet, groaning. “Come on then, let’s get to it. First round’s on me.”

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