NOVEL WEB 23. A Runic Puzzle
Constantine climbed the verdant hill, the reddish setting sun at his back. The silhouette of his small shack loomed closer with each step, the darkening forest behind it already dark and submerged in shadows. As he approached, his eyes widened, and his steps faltered. The door was slightly ajar.
‘I didn’t leave it like that.’ His heart lurched, hammering against his ribs, as a dozen grim scenarios raced through his mind. ‘Did the wolf run away even in daylight? Or did someone try to enter?’
Reaching the house, he slowed down, moving as silently as possible. The windows were sealed with rough planks, their edges splintered, making it impossible to peer inside. He clenched a monster core at his belt with a trembling hand, the heat within it pulsing in sync with his heartbeat as he drew upon it. Two faint runes appeared on his pale hand.
‘If there are intruders and they’re still inside, they might be waiting to ambush me.’ A fleeting thought of running away crossed his mind, but he dismissed it. Even if there was an intruder, they likely wouldn’t expect him to summon lightning; he had surprise on his side.
He stood rooted, ears straining, desperate to catch the faintest sound. Besides the sounds of cicadas and the rustling of the grass in the wind, it was utterly silent. A deep, unnerving silence. ‘Wolf, is my wolf alright?’ He approached the doors, inspecting them carefully. The wood was stretched, the hinges bent, and the lock broken. ‘A violent entry.’ He thought immediately. His heart skipped a beat, his gaze landing on the path leading to the door. A trail of discolored, dark dirt led away, vanishing into the grassy pastures. 'Blood? Already absorbed into the soil. There was a fight.'
With one last, shallow breath, he pushed the door open, the damaged hinges creaking louder than ever before. His purified eyes adjusted swiftly to the darkness inside. A thick, metallic stench, mixed with the sharp smell of ammonia, hit him like a wall. He scanned the room—it was darker than it should have been. Just inside the threshold, a dark, stain spread across the floor, its blackened color making him pale.
‘More blood… and by the smell, also urine,’ he analyzed, stepping in. Every muscle in his body was tense, mana swirling through his legs and arms, ready to propel him at inhuman speeds. Shadows shifted. He spun around, eyes widening as two red orbs lit up in a dark corner. He exhaled, recognizing those eyes. ‘The pup is still here. The intruder must have been injured.’
“Come out,” he commanded. The shadows seemed to recoil, peeling back to reveal his wolf, blood-slicked and growling, its sharp canines gleaming dangerously. His tense muscles relaxed, his anxiety evaporating—his wolf was still alive and well.
Constantine’s jaw tightened, his hands curling into fists as rage kindled within him. ‘The doors were secured. Someone broke them. It must have been a thief.’ He spat at the stain near the entrance, a savage grin spreading across his face. ‘Hope you bleed to death.’ He was already tired of those scum making his life harder than it needed to be. No not just his, but of everyone around them.
Stepping over the mess, he moved toward the wolf, his eyes never leaving the creature. He knelt beside it, running his fingers through the soft, dark fur now matted with blood. "Good job," he murmured, his voice thick with a dangerous edge. "I hope you bit that idiot well." With a flick of his wrist, he tossed the core to the small beast. It snatched it from the air and gulped it down, the glow in its crimson eyes flickering brightly.
His anger calmed slightly as he surveyed the scene again, piecing together what had likely transpired. First, he examined the broken door, barely hanging off its hinges. ‘It wasn’t a secret that I was leaving today. So, someone who knew I wouldn’t be home, thinking I was some rich city folk, decided to rob my house.’
His gaze shifted to the bloodstains, a dark satisfaction curling his lips. ‘The thief entered and was ambushed by my wolf, got bitten badly, and…’ he snickered as he sniffed, a loathing gleam in his eyes. ‘And then he pissed himself.’
He glanced down at the wolf, which was rubbing its head affectionately against his leg, its sharp canines still bared, a low growl rumbling in its throat. Constantine felt no pity for the intruder. ‘Finally, the piece of crap threw my wolf off and ran away.’ But as his thoughts deepened, a sharp pang of anxiety pierced through his anger, knitting his brow into a tight furrow. ‘Whoever it was, now knows I keep a monster wolf at home.’
The blood drained from his face, and a gnawing unease settled in his stomach. ‘What if that scum accuses me and the pup of attacking him? It could bring me trouble.’ He shook his head. ‘No, not likely. If I were him, the last thing I’d want is attention. He’ll probably keep quiet, lick his wounds in the dark, or die in some dark corner.’
But then another thought struck him like a thunderbolt. ‘Right, the thief must be injured. Maybe I could track him.’ Yet just as quickly as the idea formed, he dismissed it with a frustrated shake of his head. ‘Then what? I can’t report it. Drawing attention to myself won’t bring any benefits. Take revenge personally? No, the risks aren’t worth the benefits.’ Although he burned with the desire to break the thief’s bones, beat him to a pulp, and maybe even throw him injured into the forest to die without a trace, he knew he couldn’t act on his feelings.
Constantine resolutely locked eyes with the wolf’s crimson gaze. "I’m done sneaking around trash, done being weak. We need to grow stronger." Exhaustion weighed on him—exhaustion from constantly sidestepping petty criminals, spoiled nobles, and arrogant cultivators. He was sick of being at the mercy of others.
‘The only way to find peace in this world is through strength.’ It was a truth he’d learned the hard way. If he wasn’t strong enough, he’d end up used by someone else or dead in some forgotten ditch. ‘Power is what I need.’ His thoughts narrowed in on the essentials. ‘The power of a mage depends on the quantity and quality of their mana, their control over it, and lastly, their knowledge. Let’s call these the three pillars.’
He sensed the warm mana swirling in his solar plexus. He couldn’t easily improve the first pillar in a short time, nor the second, but the third one… ‘Runes. I have new runes. They might be what I need.’
Without hesitation, Constantine plopped himself onto the floor. ‘Implant, show me the runes recorded from the Firefox tail. Also, start recording.’ Although his elemental summoning was powerful, its greatest drawback was its limited range. If he could amend that with new runes, it would greatly enhance his combat capabilities.
The room darkened around him as four calligraphy-like patterns floated before his eyes. He immediately recognized two of them and mumbled to himself, "Summon fire. No, let's test it out first."
Taking out another core, he curled his fingers around it and took a deep breath. ‘Four runes. That’s a lot. Let’s temporarily call these two new ones alpha and beta until I decipher their meaning.’ So far, he had only cast spells with three runes at most. After a quick calculation, he nodded. ‘Four should still be doable with my control. Five, I’m not so sure about.’
He outstretched his palm under the curious eyes of the wolf. Using the projected image as a template, he slowly drew lines and curves, imprinting mana onto the surface layer of his skin. His eyebrows furrowed as he reached the third rune. The runes were small and packed close together. Taking another breath and squinting his eyes, he drew the fourth rune. His mind was focused, his breath steady. ‘No, I don’t want to mess with fire in the house. Let’s replace it with shadows for test purposes.’
He hesitated momentarily, wondering if shadows could even be shot like a flamethrower. His mind wandered to memories of the wolves controlling shadows, how they became almost three-dimensional, defying the usual behavior of shadows. It also wandered to the arcs summoned by the rabbit. ‘They don’t behave as they should anyway. Maybe it isn’t even shadow, but darkness. This way, I’ll at least combine two experiments into one. If it fails, I’ll try lightning and fire.’
Erasing one of the runes and redrawing it, he looked at the faintly glowing pattern on his palm, mesmerized by the intricate design.
‘The next problem is that I don’t know the activation sequence since I only have the pattern.’ Taking a moment to think, he nodded. ‘Logically, first should be the summon rune, followed by the element, since I need material to work with. In my case, summoned darkness or shadows. That leaves two combinations for the remaining two runes,’ he blinked, ‘Well, four is more correct, as it also depends if I connect the new runes to the summon or the elemental rune.’
Slowly, the rigid structure of the core softened, and the solid form began to liquefy under his control. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple as he forced the liquid mana to stay contained. The first rune on his palm absorbed the mana eagerly, flaring to life with a brighter glow. Encouraged, Constantine guided the liquid mana into the second rune. Darkness gushed out, wrapping around his hand, and dimming down the entire room. He grabbed the string of mana from the darkness rune and connected it to the third one, the alpha rune. Pain pierced through his hand. Swiftly, he cut off the stream of mana before it could cause any more damage. The shadows dispersed as if they had never existed.
Chuckling weakly, he pondered his bad luck. ‘Only three options left.’
Gingerly, he flexed his fingers, testing the extent of the damage. The pain was still there, but dull and manageable. He would need to be cautious, but he wasn’t about to let a little pain stop him. The core warmed in his hand as he began the process again, this time with renewed focus. He coaxed the energy out more slowly and with greater precision, letting the liquid mana form in his palm.
The first rune flared to life on his palm, drawing in the mana with ease. Constantine watched carefully, feeling the energy flow smoothly, more balanced than before. Encouraged, he moved to the second rune. Again, the mana responded, the lines glowing brighter as the liquid power was absorbed.
‘So far, so good.’ He watched the darkness emit from his hand, seemingly pushing back all the light. It was a mesmerizing sight, defying how light should behave. ‘It’s as if, in this world, darkness isn’t just the absence of light but something entirely different. Something more material. Or maybe it isn’t? What if it emits some kind of particles that perfectly absorb all the light?’
He pushed back the distracting thoughts. His heart pounded as he approached the third rune, this time the beta rune, with the mana of the darkness rune. He flinched, another wave of pain rushing through his hand.
He gasped, shock evident in his widened eyes. ‘Again wrong?’ He paused, an observation flickering through his mind: 'It never works when I connect anything from those elemental runes.'
Grinding his teeth in frustration, he repeated the process again, reaching the second rune. He took in a deep breath, bracing for the upcoming pain. He drew the string of mana from the first summon rune to the alpha one. A pain exploded through his entire body, pulsing and boiling.
He chuckled madly in the pain, frustration gnawing at him. ‘The last one.’ He repeated again. Mana lit up the first two runes. Drawing the mana of the summon rune, he connected the beta rune. Bracing for the pain, he closed his eyes.
‘It works?’ Feeling no pain, he opened them. Darkness streamed out of his hand. However, the shadows previously uncontrollably gushing out his entire hand and flooding everything around him now only flowed out of his palm, drowning out the space before it.
‘Huh? What is your meaning? What do you represent?’ He curiously moved his palm, the shadows always coming out in the direction it was aimed. It didn’t move far, only lingered around. Waving his hand, he cut off the power, and scratching his chin, he pondered, ‘Why are you like this? But it is still not like the flamethrower I was promised. Let’s try more combinations.’
Constantines' mouth formed into a manic-looking grin. He realized how complicated the reverse engineering of runes was without the ability to observe and watch them in use over and over. 'Like a nice puzzle. If I find the pattern behind it, it will become easier.'