Chapter 17：Ancient Runes Club (2/2)
”What?” Arthur was suddenly amazed. It felt as if his bubble just burst as he heard that he was not the only one using runes.
”We drew the rune path on the container and made these tea leaves enriched with mana. It's an old technique but we struggled to make it work. Cost us most of our budget for the materials.” As the student saw Arthur's interest in his words, he felt proud and kept explaining. He felt their new member was a good addition to their club.
”Drew the rune path? Does that give similar effects to the original runes?” Arthur asked confused.
”What? Of course not!” The student was stunned. He then continued, ”Since ancient times, runes were considered the language of creation and magic. Even now, skills are thought to be the products of runes. They're a series of complex runes that would activate once supplied with mana. However, to be able to use ancient runes, the person has to have a connection to the origin of the world. That's what many ancient scriptures said. The method to establish such a connection is said to be lost.” The student entered a full-lecture mode as he grabbed a pen and a whiteboard to demonstrate.
”For example, if a rune was drawn without the connection to the origin, it would be called a mana path. Most artificial artifacts are made using mana paths. These paths show effects similar to runes but at a greater cost of mana but much lower efficiency. If an artifact had a rune that controlled the sea, then the same rune would only create a pool if made artificially. If artificial runes were the same as the original, then artifacts would be worthless.”
”That makes sense. Then what about runes that are one-time use? Would they disappear if they are used? What happens to the weapon afterward?” Arthur asked. He always knew that artifacts had a version of permanent runes. However, he didn't know enough about this field to know what temporary runes did.
”Well,” The student then paused and grinned. ”That, my friend, is why Runes Cards were created.”
***
”Is Ori already in the clubroom?” Jia asked the petite girl next to him. The two walked together in the hallway making a stark contrast. He was tall athletic with flamboyant blonde hair and the girl was meek, quiet, and doll-like. To his question, the girl simply nodded and kept reading her book. Jia had to move the girl left and right to get her out of other students' way. She was so absorbed with her book that she didn't pay attention to anything else, except Jia occasionally.
The two reached their clubroom where a sign said Ancient Runes Club, a place that not many people came to. Their usually quiet clubroom was noisy for some reason and confusion could be seen on Jia's face. If he had to describe the atmosphere in his club, it would be the word 'dead.'
”Why can't we use the air as a medium to imprint runes?” This question was thrown as soon as the two opened the door. The two came to a halt as this was the question bugging the Runes Research society.
”We just can't. To imprint runes, we need a medium and a material for the mana path. Air can't be the medium for the runes as you couldn't draw a mana path, to begin with.” Jia and Ellen walked in as they saw Ori explaining things to another student. They could see Ori's red face of excitement as he discussed possibilities upon possibilities. The weird part was that the student threw a question after the other without pause and each one of them attacked a fundamental aspect of artificial runes.
”Ori? Who's this?” Jia asked as the two took a seat at the table. It was only then that Ori finally calmed down and introduced Arthur to the two.
”He's our newest member, Arthur Silvera. He's an A-Class student, so Ellen should have already met him.” The three turned toward the petite girl who kept reading without reacting.
”She probably didn't even notice they had a transfer student,” Jia said to which the rest of them laughed. After getting over with the introduction, another heated discussion began where Arthur learned a lot about his new profession. In the end, they agreed to meet at the weekend.
”We'll be going to Green Golems Dungeon. It's a neo rank dungeon but we'll only hunt on the outer layer. The goal of this to decipher the runes moving the Golems there. We'll try to replicate the runes there to make our own Golem.”
This was this year's project. Making a Golem that would fight with you. They would also use a tool where they would imprint runes resonating with the Golem's runes to make a remote control device. As they discussed the time and place, Arthur left the place more excited than ever.