Forged in Fire, Cooled in Alfheim

John looked down to the stones now resting in the palm of his hand. After his little deal, and a lesson from Wentworth about what she knew about runic magic, she had told him to take the rest of the day off and spend it learning about what his runes could do.

“You managed to get lucky, Mr. Newman. Had Gaia not given you that little runestone, and had you not activated it, you would now either be dead or a **** in the mana factories.”

“What are the mana factories?” John had asked.

“Places where they hook up little mages like you to be drained of their mana constantly, either being condensed into potions or into various magic items. You either die in a factory like that or pray to die as you are constantly drained of any mana you can generate.”

John, thinking back to his conversation with Wentworth, thanked Gaia again for the runestone. While the fact that he had killed Brett still didn’t upset him that much, he was worried that he was so calm about it. He should, at least in theory, be freaking the fuck out about how he used his powers in his very first magical fight to kill someone. That should be raising a few red flags at the very least. But no, he was calm about it and, if anything, was a bit proud that he had killed Brett.

John cringed as a wave of guilt passed over him. He was proud that he killed someone. Just a day ago his biggest moments of pride were reaching high rankings in PVP games or getting an A on a hard exam, but now? He was proud in the fact that he killed a man with magic.

'Wait, maybe its not me.' John thought to himself. 'Wentworth said that Surtr and I would have a connection now, and because I used so much of my health to summon... Maybe I'm tapping into Surtr's mental state. Yeah! He would be calm about killing someone and thus is making me calm. Its not me that's the problem. Its Surtr.'

aRe YoU sO cErTaIn oF tHaT, jOhN nEwMaN? aRe YoU aS iNnOcEnT aS yOu ThInK yOu ArE?

-S

John winced as the popup appeared. ‘Looks like Wentworth was right. I now have a closer connection to Surtr because I invoked his power.’

“Runic magic, Mr. Newman, is one of the oldest magics known to mages. It is the act of tapping into the language, the laws and powers that form our worlds, and manipulating that to summon powerful spells. Take your little torch rune. When you cast that, you rewrote the reality around that rune and formed it into a torch spell. You can already see that runic magic is the more powerful form, as your glow spell has nothing on the torch rune.”

“But why does it have to be in a rune? Why didn’t it work when I wrote the word Fire?”

“Two reasons. Firstly is that you are still a fledgling mage. Powerful rune mages have the ability to write words down in any language and summon that kind of power, but it takes quite a lot of mana. That leads into the next reason you couldn’t do it, that being the conduit to runic power.” Wentworth pulled out a piece of paper, drawing a small stick person on one end and a lot of scribbles on the other.

“You see, Mr. Newman, runic magic is tapping into the language of reality, these scribbles. However, to us it is jumbled and incoherent. We cannot understand it, as it is a language only the divine can begin to understand. When a runic mage taps into runic magic, they are reaching into this language of reality and trying to make it form one word without grabbing anything they do not need or anything that could be detrimental. Thus, it takes a lot of work and a lot of mana to do this. However…” Wentworth drew another stick figure, this one between the two other drawings, with rays of light streaming from it. “Gods are conduits to make this language translation much easier. The Gods take parts of the language of reality, form it into a simple symbol, and infuse that symbol with a bit of their power so whenever it is invoked it has the same result.”

“So the gods are like programers. They write down lines of code for the machine so when a runic mage presses a certain key it activates a certain effect.”

“Precisely. Now, like all things in the Abyss, this kind of power does have a small price. Whenever you tap into a god’s power, they notice and will form a small connection with you. To borrow your analogy, it would be like everytime you hit the letter ‘K’, the person who programed that letter took note that you did that. In the old days, when there were more Runic Mages than just you using Norse runes, something like you invoking Kenaz would barely be a blip on any of the god’s radar. You invoking the power of Surtr, however, that got some people's attention. You were a conduit for a **** of Ragnarok for a brief moment, and you did so with runic magic. I can assure you, Mr. Newman, that move will make you very popular with the gods soon enough. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if you get a call from Sol soon enough, that little burning bimbo...”*

FoR wHaT iT’s WoRtH, sOl IsN’t ThAt BaD. wEnTwOrTh AnD hEr NeVeR gOt AlOnG.

‘Surtr-’

LoRd SuRtR. i MaY nOt Be A gOd, BuT yOu WiLl StIlL gIvE mE rEsPeCt, NeWmAn

‘Lord Surtr. With all due respect, why the hell do your messages look like the caps lock key on your keyboard is broken?’

ThIs Is A nEw SyStEm FoR mE. gAiA lEtS mE cOnTaCt yOu ThRoUgH tHeSe PoP-uPs, BuT sHe GaVe Me WhAt Is EsSeNtIaLlY a BoOtLeG vErSiOn Of WhAt ShE uSeS.

'Well I respectfully ask you to stop for now. Your messages are a headache to read.'

Thankfully, Surtr did not offer a reply to that. Hopefully he would figure out how to make his text a bit more readable next time he decided to chime in. With those little messages out of the way, John went back to what he should have been doing the moment he got his hands on them: looking at his new runestones. He hadn’t used **Runic Observe** yet, mostly because he wanted to focus on the runes and not multitask into both listening to Wentworth and reading what his new runes would do.

‘Wentworth said one of these runes might give me a place to practice and learn. Granted, I have no idea what that means, but who am I to not trust Wentworth? After all, it wasn’t like she was threatening to kill me.’

John rolled his eyes as he pulled out the runestones. Sure, Wentworth was nice and gave him these, but she made it very clear she had something to gain from this. John figured trusting her would not be the wisest idea.

John looked at his first runestone, one that had been inscribed on a small red gemstone. The rune was written in gold, almost seeming to flow on the stone rather than being burnt in like Surtr’s stone was. The symbol was that of a dot in the center, with four lines stretching out from it like a cross. Or maybe something akin to north, south, east, and west. At the diagonals between these lines were strange squiggles, looking like fat stick figures with holes in their heads. It didn’t look Norse, but John had no idea what it could be instead.

'I… I have no idea what the hell I am even looking at. It doesn’t look like a word, nor any letter I know of. Hell, I’ve never even seen a symbol like this in fantasy games, books, or movies. But… It’s one of my runes now. I might as well learn it.’

With nothing more than a thought, John used Runic Observe on his new rune. As he did, just like his other runes, he could see visions of it being cast and a basic effect of it being used. He saw a man painting on a stone wall this symbol, and after a moment or two once it was finished, the symbol glowed brightly before opening up the wall like it was a doorway.

Rune Unlocked:
Aki: Land Form Lvl 1
15mp to cast, but the full cost is refunded if the rune is used to escape the barrier.
A rune passed to the Ojibwa Tribe, a group of Native Americans that surrounded Lake Superior. Taps into the power of the god Minabozho to create an illusion barrier somewhat suited to the caster’s wishes. Use while inside an illusion barrier to escape.

Well. That was… a lot of words John did not know. He did recognize the term of illusion barrier from Wentworth’s brief description, but as for the others… Well he knew the norse stuff, but he had never heard of the Ojibwa tribe, let alone some god named Mini-bozo.

Min-Ah-Bozho. Don’t disrespect a god’s name, John. We happen to be spiteful. Want proof? Go look for the village of mages who decided to call me Gay-ya for a year. Oh, what's that? Can’t find them? Probably because I evaporated them all. AND LAUGHED.

...Duly noted.

The next rune was more familiar, in the fact that John figured it was Norse. It was on a similar style of stone to the Surtr rune, like a small smooth rock plucked from the riverbank, without this one looking burnt. It looked like a lowercase ‘N’, but written by someone who could curve their letters. Once again, one skill use later and John saw a new vision to accommodate his new knowledge.

Rune Unlocked:
Uruz: Strength Form lvl 1
14mp to cast
Lasts for one minute. A Norse rune intended for warriors to give them a boost in strength. This rune, when inscribed on a person, will have their attacks deal extra damage equal to 1/6 of the caster’s Wisdom, rounded down. If cast on a weapon, it will cause the weapon to deal extra damage when used by anyone.

‘Alright. A magic buff. That is pretty easy to understand. Might be worth seeing if I can inscribe this one. Might be useful to have a few on hand.’

Then John pulled out the final runestone. This one, despite being the same approximate size as the other two, was clearly broken off from a larger piece. Even though he had a limited knowledge of runes, John already had a pretty good idea where this one came from, what it was carved on, and if he remembered his Egyptian mythos correctly, what the symbol might do.

Runic Observe
Rune Unlocked:
Ankh: Healing Form lvl 1
25mp to cast
While not known for their runic magic, this symbol is instantly recognizable to most from the Egyptian language. This rune, when cast on a single person, will heal the person for the caster’s Wisdom*3. If cast in the air, it will heal all in a 15 ft radius equal to the caster’s Wisdom.

‘Nice. I’ve been meaning to heal up, and this will be quicker than sitting and meditating.’ John smiled, slipping the runestones into his inventory before looking around. Despite the fact that the school parking lot was rather empty, he figured it would be best if he were to go over to some of the trees on the side of the school grounds rather than cast runes in the open.

John quickly made haste to go over to a small tree grove on the side of the school, and once sufficiently in the tree’s shadows, he brought up his hands to cast a rune on himself, drawing it on his off hand. It took him a bit, as drawing runes one handed was slower than with both hands. However, after a moment he soon had a glowing Ankh on his hand. It then seemed to melt into his skin, and made John feel fresh and rejuvenated like he had just had a good night’s sleep.

‘Wonderful. Now, to find somewhere to practice my magic without people walking in on me…’

Quest Unlocked: How about the obvious?
Create an illusion barrier to go practice in. Seriously, do it, John. Hell, I’ll throw in a cool reward if you do. I’m tired of watching you this closely to ensure that no one walks in on you practicing magic and I have to smite you. I have other things to do.
Reward: One cool item. Seriously. It’s cool.

‘Gee. I wonder if Gaia is trying to tell me something.’ John rolled his eyes, but figured it was still a good idea. After all, according to Wentworth, illusion barriers couldn’t be entered by non-magical people, and by most people who weren’t allowed inside, depending on the strength of the caster.

John held his hands up in front of himself, preparing to cast the odder rune he had just learned. ‘Alright. I need somewhere to learn and practice rune magic. C’mon, Aki. Let's make this work.’

John’s hands before him moved on their own, drawing the symbol needed for Aki, moving almost too fast for John to follow as his body moved by itself. In a few moments, it was finished, the symbol standing before him glowing in a blue green color. Unlike his other runes, however, this one did not instantly vanish. Rather, the symbol pulsed, and from the symbol poured fantastical colors.

Creating Illusion Barrier: Training, Random.
Creation Crit! Entering Alfheim!

You have entered an Illusion Barrier.

Quest Complete: How About the Obvious?
You followed my exact wording and summoned an illusion barrier. Honestly, you don’t deserve this, but here. It’s been on my shelf gathering dust for the longest time, and I miss the guy who used these. Make his memory proud.
Reward: Lunettes de Lecture Magiques

Lunettes de Lecture Magiques:
Glasses crafted by Jean-François Champollion, used to help him further his research after his breakthrough translating the Rosetta Stone. The glasses allowed him to translate any language he read to discern its meaning in the wearer’s language. In addition, they automatically changes to the user’s eye prescription.

John looked at the glasses now in his hand. They were small, round lensed glasses with gold frames. They looked retro, like something out of a steampunk store. The frames had small symbols carved into them, which John could tell had magic infused into them. ‘... Cool.’

John wasn’t gonna lie, he really liked these glasses. He quickly slipped them onto his face, and insantly the world around him slipped into a greater detail. He actually needed to wear glasses, as he was slightly nearsighted. However, after Frank and his posse broke one too many frames, plus the fact that they made John look like a bigger dork than he already was, he just chose to squint more often to see things rather than wear his glasses.

“Bet I look cool. Like Ozpin from RWBY,” he said to himself with a grin. The glasses felt heavier than his other pair, as if they were made from a stronger metal and thicker glass. He looked around, peering at the world from behind his new frames and seeing the beauty of the world he now found himself in. ‘Man, this is pretty cool if this is what a crit gives me.’ He could see the pine trees that now surrounded him in this barrier, the grass, the ferns, the bleeding elf, the squirrel-

What.

John rubbernecked as he looked back to the elf, who was sitting against a tree. Well, lying would be a better term for it. Her face was contorted in pain, her hand pressing against her side which had blood leaking from it. Her eyes met John’s, the brilliant blue eyes pleading for aid. Her red lips slowly mouthed a single word.