Chapter 68: Combined at last

Chapter 68: Combined at last

Despite his excitement, Noah stopped before he and Lee just walked off the campus. He was still a suspect. If they saw him leaving, there was no way he’d be able to play it off.

He could always try to use the transport cannon, but the less anyone thought about him, the better. And, as such, that was how Noah found himself standing in the garden as the moon rose overhead, waiting for Lee and saddled with a new promise.

I don’t see how collecting a few monsters for me to kill is equivalent to ten gold to use for shopping. That’s such a scam. A whole month of salary in exchange for a few measly monsters. Lee is just taking advantage of how impatient I am, that brat.

Noah, of course, didn’t entertain the thought of simply waiting until they were on the road to find some monsters to kill. There was only so much sitting around he was willing to do and, considering Brayden was currently making his room uninhabitable, this was as good a time as any to finally make some progress on his Runes.

He still did have to wait for Lee to get back, though.

Mercifully, Lee didn’t take long. Perhaps the thought of all the things she could spend Noah’s ten gold on motivated her, because she returned less than ten minutes later, dragging several... things.

Noah stared at the battered tarp bags Lee had slung over her shoulder, like some perverse, twisted Santa Claus. One of them twitched. It had been far too little time for her to get to the Scorched Acres and back.

“Lee,” Noah said slowly. “I told you to get me monsters. What do you have in there?”

“Monsters,” Lee replied cheerfully. “Go on. Stab them.”

“I am going to open this bag. If there’s a human inside it–”

“They’re Skinwalkers.” Lee rolled her eyes. “They smell different. It was pretty easy to spot them, especially because they were lurking in alleys hoping someone would be stupid enough to walk past them. It was easy to steal a few bags and ‘nap them. Go on. Stabbing time.”

Noah pressed his lips together. He wasn’t quite sure how perverse Lee’s humor was. There was the very mild possibility that she’d actually grabbed a bunch of random people and stuffed them into the bags.

He used his rusty flying sword to cut a hole in one of the bags. They were already bloodied, so it wasn’t like Lee was about to be returning them anytime soon. A furious eye stared out of it at Noah – centered in the middle of someone’s chin.

Noah stabbed it. Energy slithered into his body, all pouring into his Greater Wind Rune since the rest of them were already full. He grimaced in distaste.

“Right. It’s a Skinwalker. Why was its eye there, though? Not very convincing.”

“If you bounce them around hard enough, they can forget what they’re supposed to look like.” Lee shrugged. “I wasn’t particularly gentle. That would have meant taking longer, and you aren’t a very patient person. Go on, then. There’s another.”

Noah shook his head and stabbed it. A moment later, he superstitiously wiggled the sword around in the bag to take a glance at what it was he’d just run through. He quickly looked away. When Lee said they could get a little scrambled, she meant it. The Skinwalker’s face looked like it was stuck in a washing machine.

Energy rushed into his body again. His Rune hummed within him and he let out a satisfied sigh as he felt the power coming off each of them finally equalize once more. They were all full once again.

“Told you,” Lee said.

“They had more energy than most of the monkeys I killed,” Noah observed. “They didn’t put up much of a fight, though. I almost feel bad.”

“You paid ten gold for an express service. You got an express service. Now you’re complaining about it.”

“Okay, okay. Sorry. I hope express service includes taking care of the corpses.”

“Of course it does,” Lee said, affronted. “What sort of business do you take me for?”

Noah didn’t grace her with a reply. Lee gathered the dead monsters up and zipped away, presumably to eat the bodies and somehow dispose of the bags. Hopefully, they didn’t get found by anybody who was particularly prone to fainting.

He smiled to himself as he felt the power of his runes shifting within his soul. They were ready. It almost felt like they were asking him to combine them, and Noah wanted to oblige. He nearly did it at that very spot, but he forced himself to wait until Lee returned.

He went to stand and nearly headbutted Lee in the stomach. She grabbed him before he could and Noah grunted in surprise.

“What the hell?”

“Relax. You just let a ton of energy seep into your body. Combining Runes makes a reaction that releases power, so you’re stronger and faster than normal for a few minutes until your soul absorbs everything,” Lee said. “How full was your Rune? The more synergized the Runes you combine are, the more max capacity you’ll have compared to what you initially had.”

“About fifty percent,” Noah said, blinking as Lee helped him sit back down.

“If there’s a perfect combination, then I’ve heard that your rune can be as low as ten percent full because of how much the capacity has grown,” Lee said. “Fifty percent is pretty decent. All that excess energy will help expand your soul and then dissipate. Just sit for a bit. What Rune did you get?”

“Pyroclastic Resonance.”

“Fancy name,” Lee observed. “Might be difficult to combine. Are you just going to focus into it?”

“I think I’ll figure something out,” Noah said with a wry smile. Even if the combination wasn’t perfect, he was beyond excited. The next step was already waiting for him to take it. “I need to do something. Do you have a piece of paper or something on you? I need to Imbue a Rune.”

Lee blinked in surprise. “It’s a bit early. I wouldn’t Imbue anything quite yet. Wait until you’ve filled it at least a bit.”

Noah opened his mouth. Then he slowly closed it. Telling Lee why he wanted the paper would technically also give away exactly what Sunder did. He chewed his lower lip, then nodded.

That isn’t something I can share. Sorry, Lee.

“Right. I got ahead of myself,” Noah said sheepishly. “Do you know if I can still form Rank 1 Runes? Or do I have to somehow go straight to Rank 2?”

“Nothing would stop you from making Rank 1 Runes again, but it would just be a waste of energy in many cases,” Lee said with a frown. “Your soul absorbed the excess energy from the combination, so it’ll be able to handle you forming a Rank 2 Rune directly. The increase in your soul’s size is enough to let you hold another Rank 1 Rune, so you could combine another set of seven Rank 1 Runes into a new Rank 2 Rune, but starting from scratch again would be a lot of work. And that extra rune won’t be useable since your body can only handle using seven at once, so it’s just sitting there until you combine it.”

Ah. That explains it. So every time I combine Runes, it’ll make my soul grow a little larger and give me more room to house a bit more, eventually allowing me to get another set of seven Rank 1 Runes. That way I can continue to combine Runes rather than having to Imbue the existing ones onto paper to make space. Convenient.

“Would that mean I could technically combine eight Runes?” Noah asked.

Lee shook her head. “Not unless you want to blow your combination up. Only seven. Never more, never less. Nothing else will work. I have no clue why, but that’s just how it is.”

“I see. So, aside from making it normally, I could just find a Rank 2 Rune in nature, on a monster, or buy it from someone?”

Lee nodded. “Yes. You could also get rid of your current Rank 2 Rune if it didn’t work right or the combination was very poor. Your soul can handle Rank 2 Runes now, so you don’t really need that initial combination, but it’s a big loss if you give it up. That’s a lot of wasted energy, not to mention the soul damage that you probably took if your combination failed that badly.”

“Makes sense. Back up a moment. I want to test this thing out,” Noah said. He waggled his fingers, then held a hand out. Lee quickly put some distance between herself and him. Noah paused for long enough to make sure she wouldn’t mistakenly get caught up in anything, then called on the magic of his new rune.

It flowed instantly, and Noah whistled softly. His lips tingled as magic poured out from between them and the air around his head warmed. The note sounded off – more haunting than it should have been.

“Impressive,” Lee said sarcastically. “That was the spookiest whistle I’ve ever heard. I hope your magic leans more toward the pyroclastic side than the resonant one.”

Noah ignored her. He called on Combustion, just drawing a small droplet of the Master Rune’s strength, then snapped his fingers. A spark of flame rolled up from his fingers and Noah whistled once more.

The flame lunged, following the call of his voice. It whipped around his head like a flaming bullet, the whistle elongating into a shrill, screaming note as the fire accelerated. Then it vanished, burning away and leaving a grinning Noah sitting before a wide-eyed Lee.

“That was... a good bit cooler,” Lee admitted.

Noah’s smile widened. He was going to have a lot of fun with this.