For him, the first step to planning was knowing what he was working with. Thinking Status brought up his updated sheet.
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STATS
Physical
Strength: 12
Dexterity: 24
Agility: 13
Endurance: 20
Constitution: 20
Mental
Intellect: 24
Charisma: 14
Creativity: 24
Willpower: 12
Perception: 16
Magic
Magic Power: 10
Magic Control: 10
Channeling Speed: 10
Mana Reserve: 17
Mana Absorption: 12
CLASSES
Primary Class – Level 3: Wandering Runecrafter (L) You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Secondary Class:
Tertiary Class:
SKILLS
Runic Knowledge (E) Lvl 1
Improve Material (L) Lvl 1
Identification – Runic (R) Lvl 1
SPELLS
STATUS EFFECTS
Divine Translation Spell (Permanent)
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He was pleased with the results, and as he sat with his back to the statue, he could feel the mana from the environment slowly flowing into his chest, as well as the little ball he felt there that represented his class. It was only a trickle, but he could tell that given enough time, it would grant him another level and, therefore, more stats. It was hard to describe how that made him feel. Up until now, he’d been running from one problem to the next. He’d been sucked out of his own universe from the only home he’d ever known. Sure, that home had problems, but it had also had his friends, some good memories, and the promise of a better future.
Then, after being effectively kidnapped by a portal that he supposed he had a hand in creating, he was confronted with an alien God who had shown him kindness while making him feel as small as an ant. It had been both wonderful and humbling. That had led to him running for his life through a strange forest from a cat creature only slightly smaller than a car. To top it all off, he’d found himself unwillingly trapped in a Dungeon that seemed to have creatures in it that were more than willing to eat him, culminating in a life-and-death battle with a giant boar.
All of these thoughts were to say that up until now, he had been leaning towards returning home as being his goal. To return to Earth. But levelling up had made him feel more powerful, more in control of himself and his emotions than he had felt in a very long time. The knowledge it had given him was amazing as well. Sure, he was only at the start of his path, but he could create runes. He could merge his art and his intellect in a way that would’ve been difficult to achieve back on Earth. Not impossible, but certainly challenging. It was difficult to stand out in a sea of billions, especially with the disadvantages of straddling the poverty line. But here, in this world, whatever it was called, he was sure a Legendary Class had value. Which meant he had value.
Nate wiped away a tear. He knew he had some self-esteem issues, but he’d never tackled them so directly before. He wondered if the extra stats in Intellect or Creativity were what was making him be more candid with himself than he normally was. Introspection had always been a hallmark of his personality, but even so, who wanted to admit that they thought less of themselves?
People saw therapists work through such realisations, and a poor kid from the suburbs didn’t have the money for that. Nate straightened his back. He wasn’t a poor kid from the suburbs right now, though. Now, he was a Wandering Runecrafter, and that made a world of difference. A grin bloomed on his face, and Nate wondered if that was the first time he had truly smiled since being sucked into the portal.
Nate glanced down at the silver ring on his finger. He had to keep reminding himself he wasn’t poor anymore. All he had to do was survive this Dungeon and then find civilisation where he could spend some of his riches. But first, food!
Extending some of his mana into the ring was still challenging, and he suspected that would continue until he raised his Magic Control Stat. He’d have to do that next time he levelled, he decided. That was something else he had to consider. So much to think about. Break it down, work through one problem at a time, he thought to himself. Food was the priority. He had water. He had shelter. Now, if he could feed himself, he’d have everything he needed to survive in this Dungeon. Then he could deal with the other problems of levelling and escaping.
The remaining half of a boar he’d blown up sat in his dimensional storage right where he had left it. But he knew enough that eating raw meat was a huge risk. If he remembered correctly, pigs were especially prone to parasites. Maybe that wasn’t the case in this world, but being as cautious as Nate was, there was no way he would take that chance. That meant cooking the meat, which meant fire. Fire he didn’t have. Exploding runes weren’t going to help. Sure, there was a noticeable build-up of heat right before they exploded, but that heat had never translated to flames. Just shrapnel in the form of chunks of wood flying everywhere. That meant he needed to tackle the problem in another way.
He considered trying to build a fire by rubbing sticks together. He’d seen a video once about how to build a firestick and use kindling to create a fire. But, if he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t sure he could recreate it. At least not easily. Taking a second, he activated Runic Knowledge, focusing on the concept of ‘Fire.’ After a few minutes of nothing happening, he gave up on that line of thinking. If he was going to try and make a fire rune, he would have to do it the hard way.
Pulling out a yellow mana gem from his dimensional storage, he looked over the runes and sigils. Staring at the sigils, he read them again. Rebuff, Mana, and Both Directions. The Divine Translation spell let him recognise what the symbols meant. Could he tap into that? Fire seemed a fairly straightforward concept to create a sigil for. What if he just kept drawing till the Divine Translation Spell recognised the sigil as fire? That seemed like it could take a long time, if he ever succeeded. But what if he coupled it with Runic Knowledge? The more Nate thought about it, the more he liked the idea. Maybe he’d even get another achievement for it?
Tucking the mana gem into his pocket, he scavenged in the corridor till he had a couple of pieces of vine big enough to carve sigils into. Getting to work, he started with what he figured the most basic representation of fire could be. Such images had been all over the place back on Earth, warning people that something was combustible. Flames with a hollow at the base of the flame. It couldn’t be that simple, could it? He kept Runic Knowledge active the entire time, trying to force it to give him a hint as he carved.
Finishing his first carving, he stared at the sigil. Nothing happened, and Nate snorted. Maybe it was too much to hope he’d get it on his first try. Setting the piece of wood aside, he moved on to the next one. Time flowed on, and by the time he’d gone through seven iterations, he wondered if maybe he should’ve just tried creating a firestick after all.
Taking a second, he leaned back against the statue and thought about the sigils he did know. Was there any commonality between them? The answer was no. But there was something worth noting. Thinking back to the rune for Strongest, it had been a layered pyramid with a circle on top. What if the fire symbols he was drawing just needed something extra? A whisper in the back of his mind made him suspect he was onto something. Assuming it was his Runic Knowledge skill and not just him going insane. Read the latest chapters at novelping(.)com.
Sighing, he got up to fetch more wood. He was running low on fragments from the explosion and knew he might need to start carving off some wood from the vines himself soon. That might pose a problem to his little pocket knife, which he doubted would last if he started using it to cut wood. Another problem he would have to deal with. He got to work with another dozen or so pieces of wood lying in a pile beside him.
The approach had to be scientific, so Nate took his first attempt, a similar flame symbol to the ones back on Earth that warned against combustible materials. He carved a circle around it that connected to the bottom and checked if the translation spell recognised it. When nothing happened, he picked up a new piece of wood and carved the same symbol into it before trying a different modification.
He wasn’t sure how much time had passed as he continued making modifications until only one piece of wood remained. He glanced down at his last attempt, and something about it stood out. The whispers in his mind were louder, and the longer he stared, the more it felt like he was hearing a word that was being pronounced incorrectly. The symbol was a two-pronged fire with curved flames overlayed by a three-pronged fire. He’d done it that way to give the sense of the heat being stronger at different layers. But it was still wrong. Runic Knowledge whispered at him, and he carefully added a diamond to the middle of the carving of fire. Fire, he thought with a smile as the word sang through his mind. He’d done it.
He should’ve remembered that many of the sigils he had seen had incorporated geometric shapes into their design. He wasn’t sure why he had associated the diamond with fire, but focusing on it, he traced it back to his chest and the spot where his Class lay. Had Runic Knowledge given him a hint because he was so close? Or maybe it was just a function of the Skill itself to fix incorrect sigils when it could recognise them? Maybe it wouldn’t grant him any advanced knowledge like runic sigils, but it would assist him if he was close to discovering them on his own. He wasn’t sure, but he had the sigil for fire either way. Activating Identification - Runic, he looked over the result.
Fire Sigil (Quality: Initiate)
Seeing the quality, he activated his identification skill on one of the mana gems.
Mana Sigil (Quality: Master)Rebuff Sigil (Quality: Master)Release Sigil (Quality: Master)Barrier Sigil (Quality: Master)All Directions Sigil (Quality: Master)
The difference in the quality of the sigils was readily apparent, but he couldn’t figure out what was driving it. The complexity of the sigils themselves didn’t seem to vary that greatly. Sighing, he rolled his shoulders as Runic Knowledge failed to respond to his question.
It didn’t matter for now; hopefully, it wouldn’t matter to his rune creation. Looking at the materials he had to work with, he felt he understood the basic idea of rune creation. The geometric shapes he drew would both attract mana, and then guide and disperse the mana around them. That meant if he overlaid a number of shapes in a small area, the mana would be more concentrated in that area. By that logic, he figured if he drew a perfect circle in a piece of wood, it should disperse the mana in a perfect sphere around it, with it being more concentrated closer to the wood and growing weaker away from it.
Carefully, Nate carved a circle around the outside of his Fire sigil. As he completed it, The System flashed in the corner of his vision.
Congratulations on creating a Fire Rune (Initiate Quality).Your achievement has been recorded.
Walk your Path. Reach your Goal. Become One with Mana.
He laughed at himself. That was a big step down from Master Quality. But it didn’t matter. He’d done it. He’d created a rune from scratch and, better yet, one that could feed him and help him escape this Dungeon. He would’ve lain back to rest on his laurels, but that was the moment his stomach chose to grumble in protest.
Nate picked up his Fire rune. He knew it would start gathering mana over time, but he hoped that it was just a circle would mean it would do so even more slowly than the Barrier rune he’d drawn. He quickly walked out into the temple corridor and headed for the valley. There was no way he would try to cook the boar close to where he was sleeping. He figured that if he went a little down the path into the valley, he could hopefully dig a small fire pit in the grass. Then, he could collect wood and tinder from the forest below and drag them up to build a fire. Probably a stick to roast some meat on, too.
Stepping out of the temple, he had a quick look around. When he couldn’t see anything nearby, he began making his way down the path into the valley. About halfway to the trees, he found a good spot at a slight bend in the road. Kneeling down, he began digging in the softer soil with his fingers until he had created a small divot about a metre wide. Standing and stretching his arms, he could feel his muscles ache, but he knew he wasn’t done.
Wandering down into the forest, Nate remained careful, checking the trees above and listening out for boars. It was hard to keep track of time, but he guessed it had taken him about an hour to grab enough wood and kindling and drag them up the path to his little fire pit. Setting up the pile of wood and tinder in his firepit, he placed his Fire rune at the bottom of the pile, nestled in the tinder. Extracting the mana gem from his pocket, Nate focused on the Mana Exclusion rune, denying it mana so that the mana in the gem could start to leak out. As it did so, Nate knelt next to his firepit and tried to forcefully guide the mana into his Fire rune.
To his delight, it took only moments for the rune to start releasing flame and, shortly afterward, catch fire itself. He’d destroyed his rune, but it had served its purpose, and the tinder quickly burst into flame, the dry wood following not long after. Putting the mana gem back into his dimensional storage, Nate extracted the boar. It landed with a thump next to him, and Nate pulled out his pocket knife. He tried to carve into the boar with it, but it wouldn’t even penetrate the creature's rough skin. Could it be a problem of quality? Activating his identification skill on his knife and then the boar he got two responses.
Pocket Knife (Quality: N/A - Degrading)Braffla Carcass (Quality: Uncommon)
The first takeaway was that the boars were apparently called Braffla. The second was his knife, which didn’t even warrant an actual quality. He supposed that made sense, given it was Dead Realm material. Thinking through the problem, he glanced at his Status. Could he use Improve Material on his knife? Focusing on the skill, he felt his mana pass through the core inside of him and then into the pocket knife in his hand. He ran out of his own mana a moment later. A quick identification showed no change in the knife's quality. He didn’t have much mana to use, but what if he could power the skill with mana from another source? A source like a mana gem. Pulling one of the mana gems out of his spatial storage device, he tried again, guiding the mana from the gem through his Improve Material skill and into the knife. The amount of mana made him tingle, but he kept it up for a minute before using Identification - Runic again.
Pocket Knife (Quality: Common)
Smiling to himself he got back to using his Legendary skill until the knife had reached Rare quality. Hopefully, exceeding the Braffla’s quality would make it easier to carve in the carcass. As he sliced into the meat, this time cutting it with just a little exertion, he sighed. The cut bled over him, and he realised he had a long afternoon ahead of him if he was going to prepare and cook enough meat for a few days. With a deep breath, he got to work. Even if he had no idea what he was doing, he would muddle through and figure it out as he went. Tomorrow, he would begin exploring the other corridor, and in his heart, he knew he was hoping it might lead to a way out of the Dungeon for him. This survivalist shit really wasn’t for him.