บท 5: The Ragniel Soulrune

The next couple of weeks went by really fast, Arnik was able to successfully juggle classes with training and the results were astonishing. He had just gotten to level 5 and his Atephra kept beeping, not knowing what to do, he decided to go see Olea, it had been almost a month since he last tried to see her and he hoped he could finally talk to her. Immediately classes were over, he left for her office and when he got there he knocked tentatively waiting for a response, after a few moments he heard her voice telling him to come in, he entered and there she was. She spoke first

"Oh if it isn't Arnik Ragniel, I've been expecting you for a while now ",

" Hello Instructor Karid, I did come to see you earlier but, I was told you were unavailable " Arnik answered, he had forgotten how beautiful she was and his cheeks began turning red.

"Please call me Olea and yes I was away on official duties" she paused to take a cup of water and then continued"While I was away though, I was able to get some information concerning Soulrunes, but before I go on, sit, there's something I want to confirm ".

Arnik took a seat and Olea stepped forward and took his arm, she noticed that the Atephra was beeping and hesitated a bit before tapping the button on the device, as expected the window came up

[NAME]

ARNIK RAGNIEL

[LEVEL]

APPRENTICE MAGE

[ELEMENTAL AFFINITY]

FIRE- Lvl 5

????- Lvl Unavailable (Requirement Reached)

[MAGIC GEAR]

RAGNIEL SOULRUNE- Lvl 1

[NOTE]

*Level Breakthrough is available*~Adequate mana is required to successfully break through.

Olea stared at the screen surprised, she had learned about the exponential growth effect a Soulrune could have on a mage but she didn't expect this. Soulrunes were very hard to come by and even after they were found, not everyone could use them.

"Uhm Olea, is everything alright?" Arnik asked nervously,

"I apologize for suddenly spacing out, I was caught off guard by how much you had grown in such little time, it must be the effect of the Soulrune". She went further, explaining everything she had learned about Soulrunes.

Arnik was wide-eyed, if a Soulrune was as rare and valuable as Olea had explained, then how had this one come into his possession, he didn't even know that he had it until recently, looking back at the pop-up window, he spoke

" I think I should speak to my father about this, but that aside, I'm interested in the notification concerning the level breakthrough, It says I need adequate mana, does that mean that I just need to meditate and gather as much mana as I can?".

" Oh that", Olea stood up and began walking towards some drawers,

" There are two ways to successfully breakthrough, the first is gathering mana, but that only works when you're in a place with highly concentrated mana. This method is quite dangerous as many magic beasts tend to roam around such areas, the few safe ones are monopolized and are quite expensive to access". She paused to open the drawers and started searching for something,

"The second and more common method of doing it is with this" , she pulled out a little white ball from the drawer and held it with her fingers, " This is a mana pill" she continued, " It's basically as the name implies, a pill imbued with enough mana to help a mage breakthrough " , she handed it over to Arnik, "You can have this , use it to break through right now".

Arnik collected the pill hesitantly, "Isn't this valuable though, why give it to me?" ,

"This is the lowest tier mana pill there is, it's not as valuable as you think, besides the school provides this for elite students so consider it a gift from the school" , Arnik couldn't argue any longer , he popped the pill in his mouth , at first he didn't feel anything then all of a sudden he felt a sudden surge of energy coming from his stomach and then a ridiculous amount of mana covered him from head to toe.

" Concentrate, take it all in and break your limits" Olea said firmly,

Arnik took a long deep breath and then began absorbing the mana, within a short period of time he was done. He could feel it, he had become stronger, and his Atephra had stopped beeping, Olea said it meant that the breakthrough was successful, he was just about to take a look at his stats window when Olea stopped him,

" Before you do that, take this", in her hand was another mana pill, Arnik looked at her quizzically, he was confused, weren't mana pills used for level breakthroughs, if he had successfully broken through why was she offering him another one, as if reading his mind Olea responded

" This isn't for a breakthrough, it's to level that up ", she said pointing to his chest, " Soulrunes are magi- gears that can evolve along with their owners, and just like their owners they require a lot of mana as well as other resources to do so.

I scanned you while you were trying to breakthrough and it seems your Soulrune is just about ready to level up, you just need to feed it with enough mana, leveling it up should help you get stronger even faster ".

Arnik understood, but something but something bothered him, "If it's inside me just like you said, then how am I going to do this " he asked,

"By concentrating enough you should be able to manifest it in the material form ,go on give it a try", Arnik nodded and closed his eyes, he stretched out his hand and began visualizing the Soulrune, a bright light shone around his chest and another one shone on his hand, he opened his eyes and saw a crest on his palm, it was a circular piece of metal, and it had a red jewel engraved into it. Olea gave the mana pill to Arnik and he brought it close to the crest he was holding, the pill began dissipating with its contents entering the crest, the crest began to glow very brightly and both Arnik and Olea had to cover their eyes when they opened them, the crest appeared to have changed shapes and now it housed two jewels, the red one previously there and another jewel, a purple one , after this the crest simply dissolved.

Olea was the first to speak " That seemed to go well, check your stat window and let's see the changes, Arnik nodded and tapped the Atephra and the familiar window popped up

[NAME]

ARNIK RAGNIEL

[LEVEL]

PRIMARY MAGE

[ELEMENTAL AFFINITY]

FIRE- Lvl 5

LIGHTNING-Lvl 1

[MAGIC GEAR]

RAGNIEL SOULRUNE- Lvl 2

" Lightning, my second elemental affinity is lightning but how," Arnik asked surprised.

"I can understand your surprise, hold on let me think about this for a bit," Olea said, she paced about for a bit before sitting down in front of her computer and began typing something,

" I just checked your results from the entrance exam, it says here that the fireball you made during the exam embodied destructive power, do you perhaps remember anything strange from that test?" Olea asked. Arnik thought for a bit, nothing seemed out of place during the test except for, the shock he felt. Yes, he had felt a shock just a few seconds after releasing the fireball, he hurriedly told Olea.

" As I suspected, your explosive fire type attribute must have triggered an Arch flash, it's a rare occurrence in nature where lightning can be seen in large explosions, it's only a hunch but I believe, your Soulrune must have reacted to that and began cultivating your affinity to the lightning produced " Arnik had read about fire mages with highly explosive tendencies but the whole explanation seemed off. Olea sensing the boys' uneasiness spoke

"I think we shouldn't think rationally when it comes to you and your Soulrune, you are a special case, whatever the reason I feel it's best you keep this secret to yourself, for now, study, train and try to find out more about your powers, I'll also help you in any way I can ". Arnik nodded " I'll be on my way now Olea, thank you for your help and guidance" he was just about to leave when Olea called out to him, " Arnik, by the way, congratulations on becoming a primary mage and unlocking a second elemental affinity " she said with a smile, " Thanks" Arnik said as he smiled back, he left the room and shut the door behind him.