The Lone Wanderer

While Percy prided himself as a relatively fast reader, he was operating under a strict self-imposed time limit during this visit. Naturally, he couldn’t afford to carefully read all seven of the volumes he’d just bought.

Luckily, he didn’t need to either. Obviously, he had no intention of learning hundreds of variants of the new runes – he just had to pick the ones most suitable for his current needs. Consequently, he’d devoted the first few days of his reading time to skimming over the books, identifying the best candidates.

The preservation rune had a circular shape in general – like most of the Vault’s enchantments – though it differed slightly from the concealment rune he’d previously mastered. It was made of two concentric circles, down from three, though it contained many more curved lines linking the two shapes.

Each sub-variant differed some more from the general case, altering the properties of the enchantment subtly, to make it more suitable for specific applications or mana types. In the end, Percy found 13 variants in total that could be used with soul mana to do what he wanted.

‘But only 4 of them work with other mana types too… Hmmm… What if I draw them using my fused mana? Can I get them to work on both souls and corporeal objects at the same time?’

Percy was confident it should work, though it wouldn’t be without cost. According to the book, the less specialized the rune was, the lower its efficiency would be in each area, which frankly made sense. Picking a variant suitable for multiple tasks would make its effect about 10~15% less potent.

‘It’s not that bad. All things considered, it’s a small price to pay for versatility. At least, it’s better than wasting my time learning two separate variants…’

Beyond that, there were a few more factors to take into consideration. For example, he had to pick a variant that could be overlapped with other runes in general, and his own concealment runes in particular. This would make his life easier later, once he graduated from basic runecrafting and started working on composing the runes together into more complex enchantments.

Suffice to say, it took a fair amount of head scratching, but Percy eventually settled on a variant he deemed to be the best match for his needs.

Percy wasn’t a magiscript expert, nor was he that well versed in the Vault’s runes. He understood his decision-making process was probably full of blind spots, but he figured he’d done a decent job given the circumstances. Perhaps, he could revisit this in the future once he was more experienced and had the credits to splurge.

Next, he spent the rest of the week practicing with the new rune. Memorizing the shape and getting used to drawing it accurately was a laborious process. That said, it was notably easier the second time around. The more runes he learned, the more he would familiarize himself with the Vault’s language, and the more skilled he’d grow in drawing them precisely.

Sadly, he couldn’t test the enchantment’s effect on souls just yet, as his limited stash of fused mana wasn’t enough for that. However, he could at least tap into the more general effects of the rune by drawing it with earth mana. That should be enough to get him through the challenge.

***

’10 days…’ he grimaced.

Getting to an acceptable level with the preservation rune took him a bit longer than he would have liked. It was still within the allotted two weeks, but it didn’t leave him much time to learn the other one. At least, not without extending his trip by a little.

‘Oh well… It can’t be helped. I need a third rune to get through the wave. Also, Nesha’s progress is going to stall if I don’t bring this back to Remior.’

Fortunately, the control rune was easier to learn than the others. In fact, it was by far the simplest rune he’d ever seen. It was only made of a single circle with a cross inside it. There wasn’t much to memorize, and even drawing it was trivial.

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Using it, on the other hand, was where the problem lay. After all, the control rune wasn’t supposed to be used on its own. Its enchantment allowed it to be turned on and off at will. The person who inscribed it could do that remotely, though anybody could use it by pouring their mana into it. That said, the effect was only valuable once it was combined with a different rune.

Normally, combining runes fell under the field of magiscript, not runecrafting. However, the control rune was much easier to overlap with other runes due to its simplicity, allowing even a novice like Percy to accomplish this. Still, it wasn’t exactly trivial either, as the scribe had to visualize two distinct effects while drawing the composite rune, while also keeping their joint function at the forefront of their mind.

‘I guess it’s something I’ll have to learn sooner or later anyway…’ he sighed.

The good news was that he didn’t need to do that right now. A quick test confirmed the challenge accepted the control rune when drawn separately. This meant he could learn to combine it with the other runes later, after he returned to Remior.

Even better, both his drawing speed and his success rate would skyrocket if he used the control rune to fill the bulk of his quota. He still had to draw 50 concealment runes and 50 preservation runes, but the remaining 200 would be a piece of cake.

***

Meeting all the cube’s requirements did take a while, but he managed to do it by the end of his fourth week in the Vault.

‘Enchantments: Control (General, variant #172), Concealment (General), Preservation (Soul-specialized, variant #31). Difficulty: 1. Runes drawn: 300. Time taken: 5923 rits. Success rate: 95%. Score adjusted due to difficulty: 95%.’

‘Finally!’

“Congratulations! Wave 3 has been cleared! Calculating rewards…”

“Awarded credits: 90. Current balance: 160.”

Percy couldn’t help but grin as he saw his balance hit the triple digits for the first time. This was already enough to buy several more books, though he didn’t know how expensive the spell he was interested in would be.

‘Gabe was trying to buy a fire spell using a bonus reward back when we first met…’

This meant that at least some spells were either prohibitively expensive, or only obtainable from the restricted lists. Then again, Gabe had probably been looking for a Refined spell. Or maybe even higher. Percy would be happy with a Crude one, as long as it did what he wanted. He could improve it later.

‘Let’s try earning as many credits as I can first. I’ll browse the database afterwards.’

Next, Percy started the fourth wave. He seriously doubted he’d be able to clear it anytime soon, though he figured it was worth checking the requirements anyway, for future reference.

‘Draw any ten runes 1000 times in total, in under 15000 rits, with at least a 95% success rate. Each individual rune has to be drawn at least 50 times.’

‘Wow... Talk about a steep difficulty curve.’

Becoming sufficiently proficient with ten different runes was a project that could easily take half a year. It was a little disappointing, though it made sense. If Gabe’s combat challenges were anything to go by, getting past the fourth wave required both a blessing and a bloodline. Of course, this wasn’t the case for the magiscript challenge, but its difficulty should scale in an equivalent manner.

And this was still somewhat achievable, relatively speaking. Going by what Gabe had told him, the Green level of the challenge involved proper applications of magiscript, requiring decades of preparation.

‘Sadly, I don’t have any decades to spare right now…’ Percy smiled bitterly.

In the end, reaching this point had taken him a little longer than his original estimates. Though he didn’t regret it. At least, he’d already met the primary objectives of his trip. He and Nesha would have the means to continue progressing once he returned. As for any more runes, they’d have to wait for his next visit.

‘For now, let’s try to speedrun the combat challenges.’

He didn’t know how far he’d get, but it would be a waste of his host’s oversized body to not even try. He couldn’t take his sweet time planning his approach like he’d originally intended, but he could still try earning all the “easy” credits. After that, he’d buy his prize and be on his merry way.

“Let’s do it then… Cube. Start the ‘gauntlet’ challenge, Red level. User ID: WANDERER.”

“Authorization granted. Choice confirmed. Wave begins in 18 rits.” the soulless voice said.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Percy stretched his limbs, as the parrot awakened from his slumber. He brought the creature up to speed, hastily explaining what this challenge involved.

“Wave begins in 12 rits.”

Strictly speaking, the bird wasn’t particularly accustomed to fighting. His life back in his home world had been relatively peaceful. Still, a wave of excitement seeped through their bond. Evidently, the parrot was so fed up with runecrafting by now that he was willing to do pretty much anything else.

“Wave begins in 6 rits.”

Soon, the familiar black sludge began pouring down the sleek walls. Percy grinned, finding it a little nostalgic.

‘Time to pummel some golems!’

“Wave begins. May your challenge be successful!”