Note: Once a weapon or armor rune is attached to a piece of equipment attempting to remove it will destroy the rune.
You may now craft the following recipes:
Minor Warding Rune (consumable): The least of the wards. Place this invisible rune on a surface. If anyone passes within two meters of the rune you will receive a mental warning.
Minor Striking Rune (weapon rune): The least of the attachable weapon runes. Provides a meager increase in the users ability to hit and cause damage with the associated weapon.
Doubling Rune (weapon rune): Placing this rune on two different weapons will confer all of the effects of the runes on one weapon to the other.
Returning Rune (weapon rune): A light weapon inscribed with this rune will return to the hand of the wielder after being thrown.”
Mystal was humming nearby as I made my way through the crafting interface. It was relatively simple. Based on the details there it appeared that I could craft all of the runes multiple times. Almost all crafting components were generic, although the system suggested that rarer components could craft better items. So far I had only gathered one rare crafting component.
I queued up twenty Minor Warding, four Minor Striking, four Doubling and four Returning Runes before the HUD indicated I could not prepare any more. Each time I selected one of the runes to join the pile the supplies appeared from my inventory in an ever-growing selection of piles. Bone dust, animal parts, ectoplasm, and wood chips the growing conglomeration of items. Shrugging in my dive chair and getting comfortable I hit the ‘CRAFT ALL’ button.
Without my input, my hands started to weave between the different piles of materials and a progress bar appeared showing that I would be working for the next ten minutes. I spoke out loud to my nearby comrade, “I will be here for a little while Mystal. Remember, if you are going to eat make sure it is not any humanoids or their pets.”
She called out in her typical chipper tone, “Sure!,” and I pulled off my helmet. The screen above showed my avatar working through the supplies with the skills of a practiced Rune Carver.
I took the time to go to the restroom, make lunch and survey the street outside. It was a sunny and quiet day, and I considered whether spending the better part of my time playing games in the dive room was healthy.
A memory of the baseball thrown at my house came to me and I sighed. I felt the cold blank stares of my staff, many whom I'd known for years. Sydney refusing to look at me in her dive chair. That kid pleading with me to leave him alone…
Grimacing and closing my eyes, I took deep calming breaths. With a sigh I turned away from the bright window and checked the timer on my patch phone before making my way back toward the basement.
Spotting a note on the counter in the kitchen that I had missed, I pulled it free from the very same spot it had been in my dream and read it.
Mr. Voss, I cleaned everything Lydia told me to.
She had me prep some meals for you!
She seems to care a lot.
- Olivia <3
Tapping the note, I rubbed my temple with a grimace. Did she leave the same kind of note before? Is that how it worked its way into my dream?
I couldn’t remember.
Leaving it there I made my way back downstairs, shedding the robe back down to my dive suit, I hooked myself back in as my crafting timer entered its last minute. Settling back in I took a deep breath as I pulled the helmet back over my head.
I was finally comfortable just as the timer reached zero. A series of notifications awaited me in my log:
You have crafted Minor Warding Runes x 16
You have failed to craft Minor Warding Runes x 4
You have crafted Minor Striking Runes x 3
You have failed to craft Minor Striking Rune x 1
You have crafted Doubling Runes x 4
You have crafted Returning Runes x 2
You have failed to craft Returning Runes x 2
When the last crafting notification had streamed into my HUD, Lydia made an announcement:
“Congratulations!
You have gained 9 levels in the Rune Carving skill.
You are now trained in the Rune Carving skill.
You may choose a specialty in Wards, Weapon Runes or Armor Runes”
After Mystal’s advice earlier I settled on Wards as my skill. The versatility of being able to set my own battlefield as a rogue type character was a fascinating concept. I hoped that it would somehow synergize with my Trapsmith skill. Lydia made an announcement and I was not disappointed:
“Your Rune Carving (Wards) skill and your Trapsmith skill have combined. Your previous levels in Trapsmith have been applied to your skill in Rune Carving (Wards).
Rune Carving (Wards)
Rarity: Uncommon
Requirements: None
Training Level: Trained 3
Key Ability: Spirit
Description
Boom, baby.
Quick Trap becomes Quick Ward: Once per day you may throw out a temporary ward that lasts 30 seconds + 10 seconds per skill level. The ward either slows an affected creature by 50% or causes a damage over time effect (2 hp per skill level) for 15 seconds. Choose the damage type when created.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Added: You have gained the elemental suite of explosive minor warding runes for free. Be vigilant, you may be able to find new recipes in the wilds!”
The explosive rune variants included: fire, acid, electricity, cold and light. Each was the same variation of:
Minor Fire Warding Rune (consumable): The least of the fire wards. Place this invisible rune on a surface. If anyone passes within two meters of the rune it will explode.
Damage: Spirit + Rune Carving x 2 Fire
Effect: Target may catch on fire and take damage over ten seconds.
Each of the different runes had a different effect. Cold slowed targets down. Electricity stunned them in place for a few seconds. Light’s damage was much higher but was only effective against Undead and Remnants, and so on.
Checking my nearly depleted reagent supplies I decided to craft a few of the new wards for our foray into the wilds of Braithe. I called out to Mystal, “Alright, form your drones and meet me at the gate!”
She gave me a mocking salute and blew me a kiss before closing her eyes and summoning her mists. The writhing tendrils of vapor washed out of her body and started to roll across the stones as figures started to form within it. Shaking my head I muttered as I turned back to my crafting, “This is what we’re doing now.”
Slotting ten of the electrical wards into the queue, I was relieved when the queue was empty and there had been no failures. The items themselves were thin, surprisingly light stone playing cards with a stylized lightning bolt on them. I set them in a pouch on my belt and stood from my place at the alchemy station to look for Mystal.
The strange mist creature was nowhere to be found. Instead I found five gruff looking guards who I recognized from the border fort staring at me with the butts of their spears on the mist shrouded stones at their feet. None of them looked happy. I recognized Stupid and Not Stupid amongst them.
Stupid grumbled in his thick accented voice, “Fine to see you again, sir.” His tone did not indicate that things were fine.
Wait, did these men remember me separately from Mystal?
Not Stupid spoke up, answering my question, “We’re told you are to be trusted now sir. We are to venture into Braithe.”
Another guard, a woman, chimed in, “We’re all from here sir. Eager to find out what happened.”
“Are you all going to be fine working with me after what happened at the fort?” I asked as I went through the process of applying a Minor Striking Rune, Returning Rune and Doubling Rune to my Ritual Dagger and then finally pressing a second Doubling Rune to my Cultist’s Shortsword. The rune sank into the blade leaving the symbol of a pair of combined rings in its place.
Not Stupid grumbled with a tightness to his voice, “Commander has told us that you are to be trusted, sir. It’s all been a big misunderstanding, he says.”
With a nod in response I gestured toward the gate crafted out of an old iron fence and a barn door, “We’ll be heading through there. There are some kind of mutants in the city.”
The five of them saluted by thumping their spears against their chests and I sighed as I turned toward the gate, “Let’s go.”
The ramshackle gate screeched against the stones as I dragged it open to reveal the city. Its layout surprised me. While most of the cities I’d read about chose to build in high areas Braithe was laid out in a massive descending bowl-like valley. The buildings were all dark gray or ebony stone covered in sharp spikes and points. Every building screamed as gothic but alien to my architectural sensibilities. The districts of the city were laid out like the spokes of a wheel and it appeared we had to descend a staired avenue to reach the city proper.
There was only one high point in the entire city. A mesa sat at the city’s center with a small walled district atop it. It appeared you could only reach it by taking a long street that curled around the mesa all the way to the top. Even from here you could see the faint green glow pulsing from within the walls with its sharp, jagged towers and palatial structures. All of this required crossing the district before us.
Even from here I could see movement on the streets. Something was shuffling amidst the debris and destruction of the city.
Pulling up the hood of my cloak and I spoke to the others softly, “Alright, I’ll range ahead and return to warn you if we are approaching any targets.”
Raising an arm I traced a line through the air over one of the avenues below that led directly to the city center and the mesa, “We’ll take that route. If you see a target do not engage. Either retreat or hunker down and wait for me.”
With a deep breath I set off down the broad black stairs toward the spoke-like avenue. Hurrying between the darkest shadows amidst the rubble and debris I remained out of sight.
The cobbled streets of Braithe were dark and filled with rot. It quickly became clear that the cult did not turn every victim into Branded. Those who didn’t survive the process were now decaying corpses in the alleys and avenues. Each and every one was a dried out mummy. Many times I was able to make out the faces of men, women and children. In some cases I found distinctive burn marks in their flesh in the shape of the Immolated Order’s coat of arms.
The avenue was lined with all manner of buildings including a tavern that had obviously burned recently, a bakery that still had racks of rotten black confections on its many racks and a stable with horse-like animals that had starved to death while brutalizing their confines in a futile attempt to escape.
After I had spent nearly half an hour weaving through corpses, destruction and carnage on the darkened streets I came across my first Branded mutant. I got the feeling that our friend at the gate undersold the creature to a significant degree.
The monster shuffled aimlessly in the center of the avenue, its leathery skin covered in black burn scars in the same shape of the ones I had found on the bodies earlier. It was more than three meters tall, and its bones appeared to have mutated significantly. One arm was longer than the other and ended in a twisted form of the human hand split at the tip of the fingers by bone white claws. Every part of the monster’s facial features were distended and smooth too-tight skin. Its lips had been dragged away from its teeth revealing a black and red rictus grin that oozed pulses of hissing red fluid that left a trail of open wounds on its bare featureless chest and hissed when it hit the stones.
When I analyzed the creature Lydia happily described it, to my growing dread:
“Branded Brute
Level 23
Weakness: Earth Magic
HP: 1125
MP: Unknown
Special Ability
Poison Spit - This Branded’s mutation allows it to spray a line of acidic poison at its enemies”
How the hell had I wormed myself into an area with a creature ten levels higher than me? These things would eat me alive and they would bat the Mistguards behind me into a wall without a second thought.
Surveying the creature’s movements I considered how I would have handled this situation in EO… No, not how I would handle it. How would Sydney have handled this?
Studying my surroundings I spotted a tight alley between a nearby Inn and what seemed like a warehouse beside it. Confirming that the creature was pathing away from me, I slipped over to the debris-strewn tunnel.
The creature would fit down the narrow opening, but just barely. It ended in a wall with a narrow switchback stair cut into it leading up to an adjoining street at a higher elevation, which just happened to be at the same level as the warehouse roof.
With a nod I whispered, “This could work.”
Smirking, I snuck my way back out of the tunnel as I said, “Time to power level.”
An hour later I was bounding over a decaying cart and activating my Crimson Dance as a furious three meter tall mutant tore apart a roadside cart in pursuit of me. Rolling and spinning away from the exploding cart I hurtled into the ally, running toward the far stairs and sliding to a stop.
My shortsword and dagger appeared in my hands and I bounced on my feet as the hulking monster rounded the corner using its elongated claw to pull itself along on the stones as it loped toward me.
Baring my fangs as it got within ten meters, I yelled, “Now!”
Three of the guards' faces appeared on top of the warehouse and they immediately heaved the hammers and daggers I could scrounge from my inventory down at the creature. While the weapons didn’t do much damage they vanished and reappeared in the hands of our ranged attackers to be thrown again.
The creature let out a strangled and gurgling roar as I spied the remaining two guards at the mouth of the alley laying down several of my Minor Electricity Ward tiles.
Activating my Blazing Boots, I rushed the beast while it was confused and started weaving my blades into its flesh as I danced around it, watching it try and react in slow motion. Its vibrant hissing red blood started to spray out into the air as the Slice effect of my Light Blades skill activated again and again.
Lydia didn’t usually announce regular combat notifications but her voice echoed happily in my ears as the blood sprayed onto my avatar’s skin. I hissed as my health started to drop slowly.
“You have fed on contaminated Essence!
You are poisoned!
You took 5 poison damage!
You took 5 poison damage!”
“Damnit, thanks a ton Abstract Feeder.”