Chapter 8: Chapter 7 - Runic Alphabet
Finished with my swords practice, I trudge my way back inside the house, heading upstairs to the library for my lessons in rune magic with Clarissa.
I knock on the hardwood door and it opens before me revealing the familiar scene, with a few additions. Annette is stood holding the door open for me while Clarissa is sat behind the desk at the end of the room next to an empty chair.
Annette then gives a deep bow and leaves the room, shutting the door behind her.
I can feel my body relaxing. This place always gives me a sense of comfort.
"Cain, come on over", Clarissa tells me with a straight face.
I slowly head towards her and sit down on the seat next to her, trying not to cause too much strain on my aching muscles.
"Before we get started, do you know how to refine mana?"
"Yes mother", I reply.
"Then, I assume you know how we measure strength?"
"Strength is measured by the amount of refined mana the person has in their mana sea or organ. Every 10 percent, the level of strength is different, from tier 0 at 0-10 percent of refined mana, all the way up to tier 9 at 90-100 percent."
"Can you name the different tiers?"
"From tier 0 it goes Novice, Apprentice, Beginner, Intermediate, Journeyman, Advanced and Master. Then from tier 7-9 for mages it goes Court Mage, Grand Mage and Archmage. For Warriors it's Combat God, Battle God and War God."
When I first heard the names for the tiers I couldn't help but think that humans truly were biased towards warriors, giving them the title of Gods. But I guess it's to be expected considering humanity's history.
After describing all that I know, I look towards Clarissa to make sure I didn't get anything wrong.
For a few seconds she simply stares at me, her eyes seemingly trying to pierce through me.
'Did I say too much? Should I have pretended not to know?'
I can't help but think so to myself.
Finally, after what seems like an eternity Clarissa emits a bright smile and quickly pulls me into a hug, oohing and aahing as she fawns over me.
"Great job, full marks! As expected of my darling Cain. Even when you're explaining something as boring as this, you manage to look adorable."
What a doting mother.
Once she gets like this it's hard to stop her.
A few minutes of cuddling later and she's back into her serious mode, but she looks much more energised now.
Clearing her throat, she speaks.
"As you know, refined mana attracts unrefined mana and the more unrefined mana we have, the more there is to compress and the easier it is for us to refine it, which is what we call the cultivation cycle. However this leads to a problem. As our mana sea gradually fills with more and more refined mana and our tier increases, it becomes harder to progress as the amount of space left for the unrefined mana gradually shrinks."
After making sure that I'm understanding everything, she continues,
"Therefore people born with larger mana capacities have an advantage during the later stages of cultivation. Even when they're a tier 9 being, they will still have a large enough space left to continue cultivating at a steady pace. On the other hand, those with smaller mana capacities might advance faster at the earlier stages, but they will struggle to reach the higher ranks."
"Is there a way to measure the size of your mana sea?", I ask.
"That's right", she replies. "Tomorrow I'll take you into the town and we'll get your mana sea measured."
Yes!
I've always wanted to explore the town that our family governed, but unfortunately I couldn't go outside by myself.
"Now for your first lesson, your job is to memorize the runic alphabet."
She reaches under the desk and brings out a thin book which she carefully places in front of me. Already prepared are sheets of paper with a quill and a pot of ink.
"I'll come and check on you later to see how you're doing. Good luck!"
"Don't worry mother, it's just memorising a few letters."
Despite me saying that she looks like she can't bear to leave, but she forces herself to exit the room anyway.
She slowly closes the door, peeking at me until the last moment before a *Click* as the door snaps shut, engulfing the room in silence.
Whew.
I let out a breath.
Let's get started.
The thin book looks like it has been used a lot. The cover is weathered and greyed out in some parts, the edges worn from years of opening and turning.
I open the book to the first page and there, in large letters, a message.
'As you set foot on the path of a mage, you must do your best to protect this knowledge. I hope one day you can become a pillar that holds up humanity and defends the realm. - Merlin'
If the information is so secret, I wonder how they determine who gets a chance to learn this stuff.
Is Clarissa actually a bigshot?
But reading that has gotten my expectations through the roof.
Not wanting to wait a second longer, I turn the page to the first rune.
"What the..?", I can't help but speak aloud.
There on the page in front of me is a large capital 'L', and on the page opposite, a capital 'N'.
"This must be a coincidence right?"
Turning to the next page, a capital 'O' and 'H'.
"No way"
I continue to flip through to the end of the book but what I find only confirms my assumption.
The runic language of this world is the same as the latin alphabet from old Earth.
Wait a moment.
Looking through it again, I notice something.
There are only 18 letters here.
"Does that mean it's not actually the same, they just look the same?"
But it can't be that coincidental right?
The 18 letters in the book are L,N,O,H,P,S,T,I,V,Y,R,E,G,M,A,C,F and K.
Was Merlin actually someone from old earth?
But then why would he only reveal a portion of the alphabet?
The history books say he found them on a tablet in some ruins. Could this actually be the future?!
Hmm..
But they also said the ruins disappeared and couldn't be found again. If it were the case that this was the same planet, there would probably be more cases of ruins like those cropping up, and they wouldn't simply disappear like that.
Alright. There's no point worrying about this for now. Until we can find more information, lets just work with what we have.
So the runic alphabet is the same as the Latin alphabet huh...
Suddenly, an idea popped into my mind.
'Aren't runestones just words carved into rocks? What if I write a word on some paper and channel my mana into it?'
I considered what word to write with the letters available.
'FIRE' would be way too dangerous, and I wouldn't want to burn the house down.
There's no 'W', so water is also no good.
'Then let's go with 'LIGHT'. Should be harmless enough.'
I write the words down and wait for the ink to dry. Once it's ready I roll the paper up, hold it in my hand and channel my mana into it.
As the feeling of mana slowly leaving my body stops, the paper turns to a fine powder and a dim ball of light appears, hovering in front of me.
I'm speechless as I silently stare at the orb in awe.
Minutes later and it vanishes, snapping me back to reality.
"Amazing"
I can't stop now though. I have to do more experiments.
--------------------------------
My findings are like this.
The light will appear wherever I concentrate, but only within a certain range. The further away I try and cast it, the dimmer it gets. I assume because there's less mana for the light itself.
I can also choose how much mana goes into the intensity of the light. If I want a brighter light, the duration of the spell goes down and vice versa, but once the spell is cast it can't be undone.
The maximum amount of mana I can channel seems to be determined by the medium. It seems paper is only good enough to hold a small amount of mana.
I can also make objects give off light by imagining the spell being cast around it.
The word 'GLEAM' has the same effect as the word 'LIGHT', though I think I prefer the latter as I'm more used to it.
I can even make the orb move by either following a fixed path, or by imagining it at a fixed point relative to a certain object. For example, if I imagine the light to be above my hand, it will follow me as I move my arm around.
As I'm playing with magic, I realize that the door to the library is being opened.
Unfortunately it's too late.
I try in vain to cancel the spell as Clarissa and Annette enter.
"Cain my darling, I'm here to check up on..."
They both stand slack-jawed, staring at the ball of light on my hand which I have held up in front of me, Clarissa in front and Annette behind carrying a tray with what looks to be tea and snacks.
*CRASH*
The tray slips out of Annette's hands as Abraham sprints over.
"What happened? Is everyone okay?"
Seeing me casting magic, he seems unperturbed.
"Wow, great job Cain! As expected of my son. But I thought you told me you were just going to have him memorise the letters today. I didn't think you'd be teaching him magic already."
"I... I didn't", Clarissa stammers, still in shock.
Realising the gravity of her words, it slowly dawns on him and he starts to take on a shocked look of his own.
Now how am I going to explain this?
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