Chapter 87: Going Around Problems (1/2)
It was quite ironic that Arthur, an uneducated person who had to drop out of school, would receive an ability containing the word 'wordsmith.' After his dinner with Emma, Arthur came back home and looked the word up.
Wordsmith, someone who skillfully uses words. If he combined that meaning with runes, that his ability would mean someone who skillfully uses runes. Another word that popped out was a 'writer.'
Arthur has always used his runes like skills, but past incidents proved otherwise. When he was in the trial, he was able to set conditions for the ring to alert him of incoming monsters. When he saved Hazel, he altered his detection rune's range of work by expending mana. With Dimon, he targeted a specific poison using his heal rune.
It has been obvious all along, but Arthur failed to see it. His runes weren't items to be used, they were his ability. To put it simply, his runes didn't have a separate gate each. His knowledge of runes, engraved deeply in his mind, would allow him to access the Reality Gate that was in his soul.
To put it more simply, his runes weren't skills. They were his ability, a unique gate to himself. The researching for the past three weeks wasn't for nothing, he had learned many things that could solve his questions. Abilities were gates unique to each person, some people would have a gate that generates fire, others control gravity.
Arthur's gate was unique in that it controlled runes, the ancient language of the world. The language of creation itself.
He spent a whole day to think these things through. He had a hypothesis in his mind that would serve as a way for him to lie his way through the world and hide his ability.
His ability was like an onion. The more he peeled, the more layers he would find. He had already discovered that he could set 'conditions of activation' or 'range of activation' or 'target of activation' for temporary runes.
What about permanent ones? Can he alter those too? His time was limited, and he spent days sitting in his room to find a method. He started by picking up the first core, looking at it like a surgeon would look at his tools right before surgery.
”Time to see what are the limits of my ability.” Arthur breathed in. With a flick of his hand, a fire rune appeared. The rune floated gently, emitting a bright red color as if it was made of flames themselves. Arthur controlled the rune and it danced around him like a firefly.
Arthur then brought the rune in front of him, not to the core. With his two hands, he fused the two, and just like before, the core broke down and turned ethereal as the rune enveloped it. It looked like a ball of red lines for the observer. This was a permanent rune.
Instead of fusing the rune into a sword or someplace else, Arthur tried to expand the rune. At first, he only used his 'will' to look into the rune or change it. His attempts were a failure as the rune wouldn't budge, only moving as he willed it.
”Hmm…” He scratched his head in a dilemma, not knowing where to go from here. Remembering that mana was needed for temporary runes, Arthur used his mana and allowed it to seep into the rune.
Like an exploding star, bright colors dyed his vision as his consciousness shifted toward the inside of the rune. Like a holographic sphere surrounding him, Arthur saw the rune from the inside. He felt as if he was standing in jelly-like water, observing the surrounding.
This change needed a few moments for Arthur to take in. He studied his surrounding, feeling like being surrounded by snakes as the runic lines twisted and turned. He felt them be so familiar like he would feel toward his kin. In the middle of this world, surrounded by the rune, existed a single gate. It raged with fire like it would burn anything that passed through it.
'It would even burn mana…' Arthur realized this was the Reality Gate that would turn mana into the fire. However, he still couldn't move his body as he wished. Furthermore, he had no idea how to alter the permanent rune.
His goal was simple. Staring at the gate, Arthur knew exactly what to do. He needed to destroy this gate. This was the method he would use to create artificial runes when he needed to. However, looking at it…
He realized it wouldn't be that easy. To alter even temporary runes, he needed to expend a large amount of mana. As for eliminating the gate itself? Arthur looked at the ancient-looking gate, created from pillars of fire and twisting flames in absolute amazement.
”Fascinating…”
He wouldn't be able to witness such a sight in the real world. This was the source of runes and held the power to alter the reality behind it. However, this masterpiece of nature needed to be destroyed. Arthur gathered his mana and sent it into the rune. His blue-hued mana enveloped the surrounding gently and then crashed like a fierce, angry, wave at the gate of fire. The gate distorted and the whole space started shaking.