Chapter 512: Old dog

Chapter 512: Old dog

“You’re back sooner than I expected,” Moxie observed as Noah stepped back into their tent. Her hands were cupped around a blooming flower with a head the size of her palm. Every petal on it was its own color, vibrant and bright. A faint sweet scent rose from it and crossed the tent to greet Noah.

“I found Yoru pretty easily. Saved me a lot of work.”

“She adjusting well?” Moxie asked, not taking her eyes off the flower. The tip of her tongue protruded from the side of her mouth in concentration and a ripple passed through the flower’s petals as they grew a few inches.

“No,” Noah replied. He walked over to stand beside Moxie and watched the flower curiously. It felt unerringly... alive. That wasn’t to say that he thought other plants weren’t living organisms — it was just that the way this one was squirming made it feel like it belonged more in a cradle than in the dirt.

“Somehow I’m not surprised.” Moxie pulled her gaze from the flower and it wilted instantly. The petals folded inward and its stem withered, bending under its own weight as it crumpled into a pile of greying sludge. She pulled her hands away and shook them off. “How bad are we talking? You saw how Pirren was treating her. Yoru isn’t just some random kid.”

“Oh, I’m more than aware. She’s almost certainly a higher rank than we are.” Noah scratched the back of his neck. “Rank 6, maybe. It’s hard to tell. I never realized how useful Domains were for figuring out your opponent’s strength until I couldn’t do it anymore. Yoru could be a Rank 9 for all I know.”Discover new chapters at novelhall.comehow I doubt that,” Moxie said dryly. “If there was a Rank 9 just sitting around in Treadon, much less in the Damned Plains, I doubt they’d be in need of our help for just about anything. But Yoru is a good reminder. We can’t sit still. Even with all the power we’re building with the demon camps, we’re going to need to be a whole lot stronger ourselves if we want a chance of fighting Wizen.”

Noah rifled through his bag and pulled out the strips of leather bearing all the runes they’d gotten at the auction. He splayed them out on the rough stone table beside Moxie. “More than aware of that. I came back to try and figure out my next rune. I’ve got enough components here to toss something together.”

“Unstable Mass, Unstable Corrupted Mass, both at Rank 4,” Moxie read off, moving some of the pieces to get a better look at the rest of them. “Those two are obviously going to be useful. I’m less certain on Bleeding Blades or whatever this last one is.”

“That’s Falling Shadow, if I remember correctly. It’ll be for Lee,” Noah said with a half-shrug. “I don’t have any Shadow Runes.”

“What about the Broken Master Rune?” Moxie asked, plucking another leather strip from the pile and examining it with a critical eye. Her lips pursed and she returned it to its former place before pushing another Imbued Rune over it. “We better make sure that one isn’t just sitting around. We’ve got enough enemies as it is. Antagonizing some annoying Death Demon is far from the top of my list of things to do.”

“Hey, you’ve got one of those as well?” Noah’s eyes lit up. “I thought I was the only one.”

Moxie rolled her eyes. She swiped the pile of sludge that had been her flower off the table and onto the ground, where it landed with a wet splatter. They both looked down at it.

No matter. I’ll get to see all the soul expansion I want once I actually make a new flawless rune. I can’t get ahead of myself. First things first, I need to figure out what the hell kind of rune I’m trying to make with Matter.

There wasn’t exactly a lack of options. Just about everything in the universe was made up out of matter as far as Noah was aware, though he wasn’t about to put any money on his incredibly rudimentary understanding of physics.

Minutes ticked by as Noah thought. He had more ideas than he knew what to do with, but he carved away everything that he couldn’t intimately relate to. The Line had given him a perspective and understanding of things that no other living mortal could ever claim to manifest until their time among the living came to an end and they found themselves where he had once been.

Therein laid his advantage. He needed to find something Matter-based that related to the Line. It had been pretty easy with Crumbling Space. The Line. The Gods. Everything he’d seen. Everything he’d done and all the times he’d died. There had to be something he could reference to—

Noah paused.

A second ticked by.

He swallowed. An idea lodged itself in his mind like a splinter and a flicker of fear passed through him — not toward what he was about to do, but because he was going to have to explain it to Moxie.

Noah’s eyes drifted back open to find Moxie watching him intently. She didn’t even bother trying to pretend like she’d been doing anything else. Moxie just arched an eyebrow.

“That was fast. Done already? I don’t really feel a difference in you.”

“Not really. I only just started,” Noah hedged. “I just had to prepare things out here first.”

Moxie’s eyes narrowed as she caught the look on his face, even through the wrappings. “Prepare? For what?”

“I think I know what I have to do to make my next Rune.” Noah blew out a breath and gave Moxie a sheepish grin. “I’m going to have to kill myself.”