Cleanup and Continue

“For what it is worth,” Talia started as she slipped her jeans back up over her fantastically shaped ass, “I have never gone that far with a guy. I mean, being an elf kinda inhibited that but I just felt like it needed to be said. So don’t think I’m a slut or anything, you just happen to be special and shit.”

“O-okay,” John said, having difficulty remembering important things like how to speak or his name or what he was supposed to be doing beyond noticing how amazing her ass looked in those tight black jeans. Like, wow. Was this what Galileo thought when he first used a telescope and looked at Venus? Because if so there is no question as to why he named it after the goddess of beauty and sex. At least John was sure that it was Galileo who named it, he knew he was the first to look at it through a telescope. But that was beside the point. Her ass was just so perfect and shapely and it was like a heart and John swore if you bounced a quarter off it that it would come back as a dollar- Oh crap, Talia was saying something and he just spent like 30 seconds looking at her ass. Was it only thirty seconds? Felt like an eternity. After all it was so nice and GODDAMN IT, GET IT TOGETHER AND LISTEN TO YOUR MAYBE SORTA GIRLFRIEND SPEAK!

“... And that is why I always prefer to use fresh orphans for my jelly. As opposed to old kittens who just make it fuzzy.”

“What- what the fuck?!”

Talia chucked, leaning down to kiss John’s forehead. “Just kidding. It's a trick I learned when people obviously stop listening. Just ramble on about the most disturbing or random things till they start listening again.” She offered John a hand, which he accepted to stand up. “Distracted by something~?”

“N-no..”

“Oh really?” She turned her body, making sure John got a nice look at her ass again. “Noooothing at all?”

John remained silent, trying desperately to think of something to say, but his brain was currently short circuiting. He was broken from a trance as a MTG card suddenly hit him in the forehead. He looked up to see a giggling Talia.

“C’mon, dork. Calm yourself. You gotta go talk to my dad and it will be kinda a bad impression if you keep staring at my butt the whole time.”

John gave her a nervous laugh but followed her. “Yeah, sorry. It’s just… it’s a very nice butt. And in jeans it’s like…”

“Trust me, dork, I know. Why do you think I bought these skinny jeans? Gotta show off my best assets.”

John chuckled at her slight pun, suddenly overcome with the desire to hold her hand. “Um… I… uh… question. Most people, after doing what we did or before doing what we did would classify each other as boyfriend and girlfriend. Or boyfriend and boyfriend. Or girlfriend and girlfriend. Or gender non binary title and-”

“Oh my gods, get to the point, you cute dork.”

“Right. Sorry. Um… the point was… am I… well, am I classified as your…”

Talia shut him up then and there by quickly kissing him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He swore supernovas went off with less **** than what was going through his mind right then and there.

She broke off the kiss, a smile across her face. “Yeah, you’re my boyfriend now. And I am your girlfriend.”

“R-r-r-r-r-r-r.”

“Oh gods, you broke him, Talia,” Frida spoke up, leaning on the doorframe to the living room with a smile on her face. Talia gave her mom a smile before letting go of John, giving her mom a kiss on the cheek and practically skipping into the kitchen.

John finally resumed normal brain function after a moment or two, turning to look Frida in the eyes. Well, only after a quick sweep of her body. He was a red blooded male with a high libido and Frida was a walking, talking MILF. Elf Milf. E-MILF.

“Uh… hello Mrs. Bragadóttir,” John said, recalling her name from the party member sheet.

“Please, John. You and my daughter just probably had oral sex. Call me Frida.”

“W-what? We didn’t.. I mean, we did but… how…”

She held up a hand to stop John’s rambling. “Please. I remember what it was like dating Hálfdan. When your lust starts to build, it becomes very hard to avoid certain things. And he is only half human. I figured when you two went upstairs something would happen.”

“A-and you’re okay with it?”

“Of course. You seem like a nice boy, John.” Frida gave him a smile, walking up to him. “I am sure Talia made a good choice, and I don’t wanna impede on her love life. But I will offer you this.”

Frida held out her hand, which John just noticed had been clenched since she started walking towards him. When she opened it, her hand was suddenly engulfed in fire. Her other hand also opened up, this one being surrounded by an aura of cold.

John suddenly remembered what her level and magic type was. Level 24, elemental mage.

“Remember this, John Newman. I have studied for a very long time how to use elemental magic. I am one of the very few female elemental mages, and I have worked hard to be where I am today. With a thought, I could fry your skin, burn your eyeballs, freeze your dick off, and crush your remains in a rain of rocks. If you hurt my daughter, I will teach you new forms of pain that only an elemental mage can show you. Understood?”

John nodded. Sure, she was only 24. In terms of your most basic MMO, not that high. But this was real life, not some random MMO. He had no idea what the level cap was or how fast leveling happened.

Plus, he could feel the power from the spells she was using. She was not a woman to be trifled with.

That ice spell looked cool though. He quickly used his Runic Observe on it. Hopefully it would teach him a new ru-

More Runic Observes needed to learn spell.
1/49

‘Gods damn it.’

John turned back to Frida, and gave her a nervous nod. “I swear I only have the best intentions for Talia.”

“You better for your sake. With that said…” Frida shook her hands, the spells disappearing and her smile coming back. “You two are adorable together. I would recommend buying her Jazz music for a present. She happens to love Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong.”

John nodded, his brain less focused on those new facts and more on the ability for Frida to go instantly from terrifying threatening mage to sweet mother in an instant.

“Good. Now with that settled, I believe my husband wanted to discuss something with you. He is in the forge right now. Just go through the kitchen and out the back door. You cannot miss it.”

John gave her a small smile, slowly and carefully walking past her into the kitchen. He gave her one last look before going in, and when their eyes met he swore he saw a fire in her eyes that yearned to burn him to ash. She gave him a bigger smile, and he quickly dashed in fear away from her.

By the time John had reached Hálfdan’s forge, he had been able to calm himself from Frida’s intimidation. He had also taken a more in depth look at his Runic Observe, as he wanted to know why it was that he did not learn the skill upon Observing it. Apparently, there was math involved.

Runic Observe lvl 1
You are able to look at magically inscribed runes to learn the meaning behind that rune and cast the rune yourself. In addition, you may use Runic Observe on a spell cast and learn the Runic equivalent of that spell.

That was the original part. However, after taking a deeper look at the spell, he learned some more prerequisites.

The caster of the spell must be Observed first, and the amount of times you must cast Runic observe on the spell in question is equal to 5+((Caster Level*2)-Your Level).

John had done the math. Any spell that Frida would cast he would need to Observe 49 times to learn it. Hálfdan’s spells would require 31 castings, and Talia’s would need 11. This would all go down by one casting per level he gained, but still it seemed a bit ****. He hypothesized that this cost would also go down as he leveled up the skill, as this seemed to be the only part of the skill that could be upgraded in any conceivable fashion.

‘I know I managed to level up my base Observe through using it a bunch of times in class and on different people. I guess this one will level up the same way. The only question is how many times will I have to use it…’

“Ah, John. Welcome to the forge. Please, please. Pull up a chair and have a seat.”

Hálfdan’s greeting broke his train of thought, and he offered the half-elf a smile. “Hello sir. You wanted to speak with me?”

Hálfdan put down the hammer he had in hand and rolled his shoulders. He had changed his attire and was now wearing a pair of slightly burnt jeans, a sleeveless shirt, and a heavy leather apron. His arms, now on full display, clearly showed evidence of his blacksmith lifestyle. John swore he would never have seen a buff elf before today, since elves were always the graceful and lean ones. However, Hálfdan could give bodybuilders a run for their money and clearly spent the better part of a hundred years or so swinging hammers and crafting blades.

“I did indeed, John. You see, I must admit that I am a bit more than happy to see runic magic coming back, at least in terms of norse runes. Now, I know this is a big favor, but I wondered if you could reawaken my memories and nostalgia for the good old days and help me enchant a blade.”

“Um, sure, sir.”

Hálfdan gave him a huge grin. “Wonderful! Tell me, what kind of blade do you want to make? I remember that Erik was quite good at making frost blades. Oooh! But maybe you want to make a blade of luck! Or maybe a blade of infinite sharpness. Or perhaps-”

“Uh, Mr. Hálfdan, sir? I… I don’t wanna burst your bubble, but I don’t really know that many runes.”

“... Oh. R-right. Sorry. Got a little excited there.” He gave John a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “Please, tell me, John. What runes do you know?”

“Well, I know a couple fire runes, a strength rune, a world rune, a REALLY powerful fire rune, and a healing rune.”

Hálfdan stroked his chin in thought. “Hmm. Well, I suppose we could go with a fire blade. The strength rune could work, but that is a rune better etched on someone rather than a blade.” Halfdan walked over to a nearby barrel, searching though it for ore.

John walked over to watch Hálfdan work. “Um, excuse me, sir. But you seem to know quite a bit about runic magic. You said your friend taught you how it works. May I ask you how much you know?”

“Sure. Erik and I were really close friends, and he was one of the last runic mages to actively employ runes. He taught me the basics of what runes are, how he learned them, and how they worked in terms of enchanting.”

“Can you tell me more about that last part?”

Hálfdan walked over to his forge, placing an ingot of metal and placing it into the fire. “Well, he told me that when a rune mage enchants a weapon, they are placing some of their essence and some of the god’s essence into the rune. That's the same with all runes, but the difference with enchanting is that the rune is cast as inert, which takes a greater amount of strength and control than normal.” He had been pumping the bellows as he talked, taking a moment to rest against a wall while the metal heated up. “When a rune is inert, it can be activated later by any mage by pumping just a bit of mana into them.”

“So, it's like a soda and mentos?”

Hálfdan was checking the metal when he stopped, turning to look at John. “Interesting metaphor. Care to elaborate?”

“Well, it’s like this. When a normal rune is cast, it’s like putting a mentos into a bottle of soda. You get a reaction. Enchanting is like… putting paper between the mentos and soda. Another person can come in later to remove the paper and activate the reaction.”

Hálfdan gave him a smile, taking the metal over an anvil and began to hammer at it. “Not a bad metaphor, John. Yeah, it's kinda like that. But there's a third option that Erik told me took him a while. See, most people who enchant runes can only put in enough power to have them activate once and that’s it. The rune disappears after that. However, powerful runic mages are able to enchant them so that the rune can be activated many times over and still have the full effect. Think of that, at least in terms of your metaphor, as someone creating a device that only feeds one mentos at a time to the soda from a big bucket of mentos. Much more complicated and time consuming, but so much more powerful and fun.”

“I don’t think I can quite do that yet, sir. I’ve never even enchanted something before.”

“No problem, John.” Hálfdan moved the metal, which had started to take the shape of a sword but just barely, back into the fires before walking over to his work table, reaching beneath it and pulling out a black case. He handed it to John. “Here. Erik used this to write runes onto my blades. I have no idea if it’s specially made for runic magic or not, but I figure it’s gotta be better than putting your bare finger on this blade.”

John smiled, opening up the case. Inside was a long, black stick, which John quickly used Observe on.

Runic Enchanting Pen
A common item for any student of runes to have. These sticks are designed to help mana flow through them, giving runic mages an easier time with writing out runes. This particular stick is quite old and has helped write many runes.

‘Huh. Guess it is special after all.’ John walked over to the forge, and watched Hálfdan work. He repeatedly pulled the sword from the fire, hammered it out a bit, and then put it back into the fire. John was fascinated, as blacksmithing was always something he found very cool but not actually doable, at least for him. He knew that there were options to try his hand at forging at Ashcroft, but his weak upper body strength and lack of desire or ability to improve that aspect of himself made it an impossible dream. ‘But these gamer powers seem to avoid that problem. I increased my intelligence and wisdom by leveling up. Maybe I can do that to strength too.’ After a while, Hálfdan plunged the blade into a bucket of water, steam billowing out as the sword cooled. He brought it over to his workbench, and gestured for John to take a try at enchantment.

John looked over the sword. It was a simple one handed short sword, its edge not sharpened and its grip not yet quite finished, but it did have the shape of a blade. He thought for a moment of where to start before carefully holding the pen above the base of the blade, where it met the crossguard. He focused on his Kenaz rune, but tried to think not of the torch but the form that Surtr taught him, the one designed for combat. Slowly and carefully, he began to write it out.

The moment his pen touched the sword, a new pop up appeared in his field of view.

Enchant for greater cost?
No
Yes (12mp)
Yes (60mp), Enchantment Materials

‘Wait, materials? I have to have materials for enchanting?’ John tapped on the final option, figuring it would tell him what was needed for said Enchantment Materials.

Enchantment Impossible! 0/3 materials.
Enchantment Materials Needed:
-Pyro Beast Dust x5
-Ashes of Surtr x1
-Runic Ink x1

‘Damn. I guess long term enchantment is not an option. At least until I do some item farming.’ John assumed this was a way to slow him down and save late game content for later, at least that’s what it would be in an MMO. He took a look at the blade and sighed. ‘Looks like I’ll only be able to make single use runes for now.’ John tapped the second option, and began to carefully write Kenaz, in the damaging form. Even though the sword had been cooled, and his enchanting pen was made from what felt like wood, the moment it touched the sword it carved into it, almost like the sword was freshly pulled from the fire. The pen and him worked in tandem, his mind focused on the rune he wanted and the pen never straying from that, seeming to almost stay on a preset track. Once he finished, the rune glowed for a moment before dimming, just becoming a simple etching on the blade.

He felt Hálfdan’s heavy hand on his shoulder. “Well done, John.”

John repeated this process for the next half hour. Hálfdan would heat up the blade, making sure John could deeply etch the runes into the hot metal. Then John would cast his single use rune, each time wishing he could have made the repeated use rune, but he was at least happy he was making something. Hálfdan was quite cheery as they worked, joking and laughing along with John. John found himself getting along with Hálfdan a bit better than he expected and was growing quite close to him.

‘Wonder if my dad would have been anything like this if he stuck around.’ John thought. He shook his head, trying to clear that thought away. Hálfdan was not his father. Maybe one day, possibly, but he was not. He was just a nice blacksmith who HAPPENED to be the father of the most beautiful girl John had ever met who happened to like John back. That was it.

Just as John finished his sixth casting of the rune, the door slammed open. Frida stood in the doorway, a worried look on her face.

“Hálfdan, the Guardsmen are here. They are under orders to bring the Surtr mage before the council.”