Ryan positioned his feet solidly on the ground, exactly how Maximus was telling him to, just standing in place. He was holding up a large shield in front of his body, because that was the task he was set to complete toady. There was just one issue with this, however.

  "How the fuck am I supposed to do this? Does it want me to do shield-bashes, or does it want me to actually block things?" he asked, but Maximus didn't seem to have an answer for that question either. The knight just shrugged.

  Obviously, Maximus wouldn't have any idea about that either, so there really wasn't a reason to ask him. But he was also the only one that Ryan could ask.

  "Motherfucking..." Ryan grumbled to himself, bashing the shield forward against the air, putting his own weight behind it. He was basically pretending as though he was slamming the shield against a dummy, but because there wasn't actually anything there, it was a bit of an awkward situation.

  [1 / 10.000 - Shield]

  "Okay, this one's going to be annoying..." Ryan sighed loudly, trying to look around. If there were just something around here that he could bash the shield against, it would be a lot easier. For the war-hammer, Ryan also decided to use that rock as a target. Maybe there was something else around here that he could use.

  Maybe the side of the carriage? One of the other weapons? No, neither of that felt right. And it wasn't like he could use Maximus as a training partner, either. If anything, the shield would pass through Maximus, and his hands would hit the knight instead.

  Ryan started walking around, and soon found a nearby tree that seemed like a good target. One of the lower branches was broken off at around the height of Ryan's lower chest. Honestly, this looked like it was basically the perfect place for Ryan to train this at.

  He had a specific target, and could actually feel the follow-through of this attack. Maybe it was because he was a lot less familiar or comfortable with these sorts of attacks, but he kind of needed that crutch a little more than usual.

  And so, Ryan tried again, positioning himself in front of the tree, trying to re-do the shield-bash on this broken-off branch.

  [2 / 10.000 - Shield]

  Ryan smiled. That was much, much better already. Perfect.

  He turned around toward Maximus, basically just trying to brag about the fact that he managed to figure something out when Maximus didn't, though he stopped when he saw the knight just... stand there.

  His arms were hanging loosely by his side, and if Ryan had ever seen anyone shellshocked, then it was Maximus right now.

  Without hesitation, Ryan dropped the shield onto the ground, "Yo, yo, what's going on, man? Are you okay? Do you need to sit down for a moment?" he place a hand onto Maximus' arm, but the knight pulled away, as if... flinching. That was the first time he had ever seen Maximus, or any of the spirits, like this.

  Something was wrong. Maybe... this was more of a trial for the spirits than Ryan thought it was. For Ryan, it was a physical trial, while for the spirits, it was a mental trial. Honestly, considering the time when knights existed, Maximus would have existed for a long time. This might be something related to a former Spirit Keeper or something. A moment in time that Maximus had to engage with.

  "Hey, hey, calm down, we can go back to the open area if you don't do well with this place," Ryan explained, and the knight slowly shook his head. He crossed his arms and used one of his hands to just wave at Ryan to tell him to keep going. "If you're sure."

  Ryan picked the shield back up, and started the shield-bashing back up.

  "And now, you throw it really hard! As hard as you can!" Runar said with a smile as he looked at Liam. The boy was a little unimpressed, holding the ball in his hand. He pulled his arm back and then shot it forward, throwing the ball over to his adoptive father. It... didn't go very far. "Great job, that went way farther than last time!"

  Liam grumbled lightly, "I don't want to play this anymore. Throwing balls around isn't fun, why are we even doing this?"

  Runar shrugged lightly, "Honestly, I have no idea. In movies, 'tossing a ball around' is just a classic father-son thing to do."

  "What did you do with your father?" Liam wondered, clearly pretty curious. Runar had never spoken about his own father before, after all.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  He thought about it for a moment. He barely had any memories of his father, and that wasn't because Runar had bad memory in general. No, it was because he barely spent any time with his father. For most of Runar's life, he could just remember his father spending time with Hayden, while shoving Runar off to the side lines. Of course, he got a great education and lived a life of luxury, but it was a life surrounded by maids and butlers. Hayden was the closest thing to a father figure that Runar had. Until he didn't. And so... "I wasn't really an activities kid growing up."

  Liam sighed, "I don't think I'm one, either."

  Runar looked over at Yamada, who was sitting on a garden chair, just trying to keep easy for a little while. She was pretty damn hurt. So was Runar, but he was hiding it a bit better. Yamada quickly signed over to Runar, who raised a brow as he signed back.

  "Seriously? You think I should...?"

  Yamada immediately nodded, and Runar let out a long sigh. He got out his writing pen and jotted down a few runes onto the ball, and then wrote one down onto his palm. Glancing down at Liam, he smiled, "Want to see how far I can throw this thing?"

  Immediately, Liam nodded his head as a big smile appeared on his face. Runar pulled his arm back, and with all the strength left in him, he threw the ball forward. The air crackled as the ball shot through it, and seemed to never want to drop.

  "Whoa!" Liam's eyes were glistening, and Runar looked down at the boy. He poured some mana into the rune on his hand, and pulled back for a moment. Almost in an instant, the ball returned to Runar's hand.

  Confused, Liam stared at the ball, "Wait, how did you do that?"

  Runar dropped down onto his knee and showed Liam the ball, "Here, do you see this rune? It means 'connect'. And this chain of runes I placed around the seam is basically a sentence, a small chant, 'return to thy place of origin, to the place where thee belong'. There's a few filler words here and there, though. The runic language isn't exactly the most efficient linguistically," he explained with a laugh, before showing his palm, "And these runes on my hand are the other side of the 'connect' rune on the ball. So, I can send a pulse of mana through my hand and have it activate that runic ring. And just like that, the ball just... reappears."

  "That's so cool! Do you think I can give it a try?"

  Runar smiled, "I can definitely teach you if you want. But you do have to know that your runes won't be as powerful as mine, if they activate at all. You need a lot of mana when engraving runes."

  "... Okay. And I don't have that mana?"

  "Oh, no, no, vampires actually have a lot of mana. All of you magically-touched people do. It's just a matter of controlling it. I can teach you that as well. I just want to make sure you know that you won't be able to do this right away."

  Liam smiled a little, "Okay."

  But before Runar and Liam could continue talking about all of this, Modak came rushing out of the workshop. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and most of his back, chest, shoulders, and part of his neck were covered in complex dark brown lines, "Hold on, you're talking about runes right now, right?"

  "... Are you putting Magic Tattoos on yourself?"

  "Hm? Oh, yeah, but they're henna. I just have to let it set a little- Okay, no, more importantly, why do runes work?"

  "What?" Runar asked confused, "What do you mean, 'why do runes work'?"

  "I mean what I mean, why do runes work? If runes are something that basically everyone can make, why are yours stronger? Why do your skills strengthen runes, if they're something that work no matter who draws them?"

  "Because they don't work no matter who draws them, obviously," Runar replied as if it were obvious, "I mean, sure, to some degree, yes. But the creator has to have some level of understanding of the runes, and then impart that understanding on the runes as they are written. Of course, accuracy in the actual runic depiction also change the outcome. Stretching out the symbol, making the lines too thin or thick, that all changes the outcome of the magical effect. Even the order of the strokes as you write the rune can sometimes completely alter the final effect, and even meaning of the word," Runar explained, figuring he might as well start his lesson to Liam here as well.

  "Okay, so... your skills help you in the actual writing of the runes, but also in deepening your extremely powerful understanding of the runes beyond things that language can describe?"

  "Yes, basically."

  "So why doesn't every symbol work?"

  "Hm?"

  "If it's about meaning and understanding of a concept, why does the actual rune matter so much?" Modak questioned, "Why does the thickness of the lines and the order of the strokes have such a clearly defined influence? Why can't we just write the spell out in Riverian, rather than runes?"

  Runar sighed, finally understanding what Modak meant, "Well, Runes are something more innate than that. They're not a language that was ever really spoken, or at least it didn't start out that way. Sure, there were civilizations that adopted runes into their language once they began to understand them, but runes are the language of magic itself. They're innate building blocks of the universe. They were discovered, not made. Though most people don't really know that, I guess? Runes in general aren't something tons of people know about, and they're not super necessary in mainstream magic theory. Sure, they're used in a lot of magic circles, but I think especially for most magic engineers, it's more important to know how they work than where they come from."

  Modak raised his brows, confused. "Wait, why do I not know about that? I specifically researched this sort of thing, but I never found any info like that."

  "Huh? No, no, I definitely wrote my eighth circle dissertation about the origins of runes," Runar explained, looking over at Yamada, who slowly signed something to him.

  "Oh... okay, yeah, right, that's... right, I forgot about that," Runar turned back to Modak, "So, while I wrote my eighth circle dissertation on that topic, I never actually handed it in. Uhm... it was right around the time when I was reconnecting with Hayden, Ryan's dad, and, well... when Hayden passed, things like what circle mage I am didn't really matter much anymore. So officially I'm still only seventh circle."

  "... That's why you didn't publish potentially revolutionary research?"

  "I told some friends at the tower about it, but I guess they never looked into it themselves. I can probably find my old research if you want it," Runar explained, and Modak nodded without hesitation, excitedly walking back into the workshop.

  "Yes! Yes, definitely! That would 100% help, thank you!"

  "No worries. So, uh..." Looking back at Liam, Runar smiled. "Still want to learn more abut runes?"

  Liam furiously nodded, seeming almost more excited than Runar had ever seen him, "But first..." he said, looking down at Runar's hand. "Could you..."

  "Throw the ball a few more times?"

  "Yes!"

  Runar ruffled Liam's hair a bit, and then grasped the ball tightly in his hand, before throwing it as hard as he could into the distance.