Chapter 15：Permanent Rune (1/2)

After replenishing his mana, Arthur kept hunting in the same pattern. He hunted 7 more furred monsters and that made him level up once and gave him only 5 points of agility. Counting the three he hunted earlier, he hunted 10 monsters this day. After absorbing the eighth, however, the monsters stopped giving him any agility points. It seems he has already absorbed the essence of these monsters and he needed to hunt others if he wanted to keep getting stronger. At the end of the day, with his credit balance increasing $900 for selling 9 mana cores, Arthur's stats looked like this.

[Scholar Guardian's Legacy]

[Level: 4 (22%)]

[Strength: 15]

[Agility: 21]

[Stamina: 14]

[Perception: 10]

[Mana: 4/4]

[Abilities: Beginner Runes Wordsmith (2%), Useable Runes: 5]

[Skills: None]

[Stats Points: 0]

The weird thing is that his strength increased after he went through the process of hunting and resting. He was reminded that he can get stronger without relying on his legacy. As for his agility, it has broken past the 20 points mark and Arthur could feel like the world moved a fraction slower than before. Well, he was the one being able to move faster than before.

The reason why Arthur kept one mana core is that he wanted to try the other part of his ability, permanent runes. He wanted to use the mana core as a medium of energy. He was excited at the prospect of increasing his stats permanently and he raced back home to test it. His first day at the academy was tomorrow and he wanted to increase his stats in case he faced any problems. After all, he would be meeting people who awakened since they were 15. They had three full years to learn how to control their ability or their mana.

As he got home, Arthur went to his room after he had an early dinner and decided to use the rest of the night reading his curriculum and experimenting with his ability. As he closed the door, he grabbed the mana core from his pocket and sat on the bed. He then used his ability to imprint a [Strength-I] rune but he stopped before he did that. If his hunch was right, he needed to fuse the rune with the mana core.

Grabbing the core with his right, a faint red rune symbol appeared in his left. Arthur moved his hands as they neared, fusing the two. With the vibration of both the rune and the core, the rune started moving as if it came to life and started fusing with the core before breaking down and starting to circulate the core. The core then turned ethereal as if it has abandoned its physical form in return for something greater.

[Permanent Rune: Strength-I has been created. Increases Strength stat by 5. Cannot be used on the same person more than once.]

Arthur was thrilled at his success as he thought he would fail. He knew the mana core from an unranked monster was of very little purity, almost being a normal crystal. However, it appears that since this was a basic rune, that was enough for it to turn into a permanent rune. Arthur hesitated no longer as he slammed the rune into his chest as he felt the power rush through him. He opened his stats and saw that his strength was now 20 as well. As the feeling coursed through him filling with power almost a third of what he originally had, he felt almost invincible. However, the feeling then faded as he started getting used to it. He calmed down and remembered he was still only a fish in the wide ocean.

[Strength has increased by 5.]