Chapter 67: Mix and match

Chapter 67: Mix and match

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Noah said as he and Lee headed back toward his room after dismissing the students. He lowered his voice. “Are you really just a Rank 1?”

Lee sent him a shifty gaze that Noah was starting to get familiar with. She turned her eyes away and cleared her throat aggressively.

“I’m not mad,” Noah grumbled. “I just want to know how much stronger you are than you implied.”

“Rank 3,” Lee admitted. “Rank 1s of de – ah, my kind, don’t last very long. Either you get stronger quickly or you die.”

Noah nodded his understanding. They walked in silence for a few minutes.

“What did you teach while I was out?” Noah finally asked. “I’ve been lax on my stretches – again – but I’m sure you’ve covered more than that.”

“Basics of Imbuement,” Lee replied, clearly relieved to break the silence with a new topic. “Moxie and Emily already knew all of it, but it was new for Isabel and Todd. At least, it should have been from what they said.”

“What’s that mean?” Noah asked, pausing as they grew closer to the T building.

Lee’s eyes lit up. “Oh yeah, you weren’t there. Todd already knew how to Imbue.”

“Huh? Why? Did he study?”

“No! Get this. He was doing it on accident,” Lee said with a snicker. “Can you imagine that? He was mistakenly doing Body Imbuement. He’s a natural at it. Didn’t even realize what he was doing until I pointed it out.”

Noah blinked in surprise. “Seriously? That’s great to hear. But what was he–”

Noah trailed off, realization washing over him. “Damn. That explains a lot. He was Imbuing his eyes to use his heat rune, wasn’t he?”

“Yep! Not the most advanced application, but Imbuing a body part tends to make it better at whatever the aspect of the magic you’re imbuing it with. So, with heat, they got better at sensing heat. I suppose they might have also gotten really hot as well, but that’s why intention is important when Imbuing anything that’s actually meant to do something.”

“Interesting,” Noah mused. “Any idea why Todd was so good at it?”

“None. He clammed up when I started asking questions, and I didn’t really care too much. It’s much more fun to just practice. Isabel wasn’t too bad at it herself. We just practiced some basic body Imbuements and got into a little sparring. I didn’t even know it was possible to do temporary, on the spot Imbuements like what Todd was doing. Haven’t been able to replicate them myself yet.”

They reached the entrance of the T building and headed inside. Noah glanced over at Lee as they headed up the stairwell.

“You’ll have to catch me up on this stuff before our next class.”

“It shouldn’t be too hard. I don’t have to worry you accidentally killing yourself with overdraw. That’ll shave off a lot of testing time.”This chapter's initial release occurred on the n0vell--Bjjn site.

Noah repressed a grimace. “Lovely.”

Arriving at the door, Noah could hear Brayden’s snores even before he unlocked it. He and Lee silently stepped inside.

“What now?” Lee whispered. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not sleeping in here.”

“I never said anything about sleep. He’s going to be out until tomorrow at the earliest,” Noah replied. He walked over to his desk and scooped up his quill, ink bottle, and a pile of papers. Sliding his flying sword into his belt, he crept back out.

“Hunting again?” Lee asked once he’d closed the door.

Noah chuckled. “Considering I’m still a suspect, that’s probably a monumentally stupid idea. I won’t deny it’s tempting, though. It’s been too long since I filled my runes. I had to spend a bit of energy making Moxie a Greater Wind Rune, but just a few kills should get that taken care of.”

“So what are you doing?”

“Theorycrafting.” Noah held the papers up in front of him. “How much do you know about Rune combinations? It’s got to be at least a good bit since you’re Rank 3.”

“I know some. I wasn’t lying about having Runes that humans don’t, though. I’m not sure how relevant my information will be to you.”

“Well, then you can just keep me company. I’m going to go to the library and see what I can dig up on combinations. There’s nearly nothing there, but I’m sure there’s got to be at least a tidbit of information. In the meantime, do you think you could compile some information on demons? I need to know a lot about them.”

“The library? Really? You?”

“Hey, I’ve used it before. Just because I don’t like sitting still much as of late doesn’t mean I’m incapable of it,” Noah muttered. “You have no idea how much I’d rather just go punch things and use magic. Luckily, learning new magic is interesting.”

And I can’t afford to just keep making decisions based on what’s fun.

“Miracles do happen,” Lee said. “But you’re right, I doubt you’ll find much there.”

Noah glared at her. “Aren’t you supposed to be encouraging me?”

“I’m relaxing. That was one of the things I wanted to do as part of the contract – the one that isn’t technically enforced.”

“Do all of your Runes have three word names?”

Lee shook her head. “No. My Shift Runes don’t. They’re called True Shift Runes. All Greater.”

“Do they only have Shift Runes as components?”

“No. There’s also an Absorption Rune in the mix.”

Noah nodded thoughtfully. Two Runes in the mix likely made a more focused result, but that would also limit the functionality of the Rune. Ideally, he’d be able to find a combination that covered a wide spread of things without being so complicated that it would be impossible to combine in the future, but that was a reach.

He jotted down his current runes on the paper.

Wind

Wind

Ash

Ash

Vibration

Vibration

Vibration

Noah tapped his quill on the paper.

“Intention matters when you Imbue things. I assume it also matters when you combine Runes?”

Lee nodded. “Yes, but you can only work with what you’ve got.”

“Logically.”

If I left these alone, I bet they’d just end up becoming something like Flowing Ash. Or Shaking Ash. Something like that. The Ash is indeed interesting, but I’m not sure if it’s the exact combination I want.

Sunder will let me test out a bunch of combinations, but if I have to refill my Runes every single time I swap them out, this will take forever. Not to mention I’ll waste all the energy I’ve gathered on –

Wait.

Normally, people only use a small amount of energy to Imbue their rune on something. That lowers the capacity of the rune until it’s filled back up to its max capacity again, like chopping off the top of a bucket and gluing it back on.

But... they also can’t split apart runes after combining them.

“Lee?”

“What now? I’m getting to the good part.”

“How much of a Rune can you Imbue?”

“As much as you want, I guess,” Lee replied. “But only an idiot would Imbue too much of their Rune at once. You can’t control it if you fully Imbue it, so it’s basically useless unless you’re trying to give it to someone. Why?”

Because, if I keep a giant collection of Runes that I’ve completely filled, I can mix and match them. I can use Sunder to then split them apart and store them by completely Imbuing them in the paper, removing them from my mind while I test other combinations.

If someone else tried to do this, it would be all over the moment they combined their runes, as then they wouldn’t be able to ever take them apart again so there’d be no point to it – but that’s not the case for me. I can just keep testing combinations until I find the perfect one. I can find the perfect combinations for every single Rune I make.

Noah swallowed as a tingle ran down his spine and up his arms. The scope of the idea was terrifying. It would mean eventually walking around with a veritable armory of full Runes. If anyone found out, he’d have an enormous target painted on his back.

Then again, that’s already true for just about everything associated with me. If I can pull this off, I could be more powerful than any other mage my level. I’d be able to swap my Runes to anything I needed and save the old ones by Imbuing them entirely into something.

That also means I don’t have to be as careful with my first combination, so long as it actually works. And, even if it doesn’t, I know Sunder can split it apart.

“You’re drooling,” Lee said, looking at him from over the top of her book.

Noah wiped his mouth and his cheeks turned red. “Sorry. I got really excited.”

“About what?”

“Something stupid,” Noah replied, struggling to contain his excitement as he set the books back down. “I need to get a little more energy for my Runes. Care to help? It’s about time I reached Rank 2.”