Rune Seeker

Hiral woke with a start, sitting bolt upright while his brain tried to fill in the blanks of things going dark. As the pieces began to fall into place, he belatedly braced for the pain he expected from his PIM. When nothing came, his attention naturally moved to his surroundings. First and foremost, he gently squeezed the hand holding his, then followed the attached arm to – unsurprisingly – find Seena beside him.

“What happened?” he asked.

Seena looked into his eyes for several long seconds before answering with a small grimace. “I was hoping you could tell me. We were back in the herd of Voltaic Plains Sprinters, then suddenly you went all glowy and grabby…”

“I feel a little violated,” Yanily said from where he leaned against a nearby tree.

“… then we were moving,” Seena said without missing a beat and ignoring the spearman. “Moving fast. Did you use Eloquently Enraged+? When we got into the woods, and the lightshow stopped…”

“So did the groping,” Yanily said.

“… you just fell over. I thought you were dead!”

“You weren’t,” Yanily said.

“Unfortunately,” Li’l Ur added, clearly disappointed by the way his little shoulders hung.

Hiral shook his head. At all of them. “I didn’t use the buff,” he said to Seena. “I was worried we wouldn’t get far enough away before it ran out, and the backlash would’ve been bad.”

“The backlash to whatever you did looked bad enough,” Seeyela pointed out, coming over to join them with Drahn limping at her side.

“Before all that,” Hiral said, looking at the others and how not-panicky they appeared. “Where are we? How long was I out? Is it safe here?”

“Just a few minutes,” Seena said, obviously relieved he was awake and talking.

“I gave a bit of a look around,” Seeyela said. “After we dragged you here – which, in case you didn’t realize, your Walk on Water ability unfairly works even while you’re unconscious. Anyway, it’s safe for the moment. You got us pretty deep in. The woods aren’t any taller or thicker than the last one, but its big.”

“There are bound to be other predators that shelter here from the rain,” Drahn added. “We shouldn’t linger too long now that you’re finally awake.”

Hiral raised an eyebrow at those last few words, and Seena turned a scowl like a fireball at the tracker.

“Ahem,” Drahn said, coughing into his hand, then taking a deep breath like he was readying for a fight. “That was… unfair of me to say. Old bias from a stubborn man. The others told me what you did for me. How you took the debuff that probably would’ve killed me into yourself.

“It sounds like you saved my life, and I’ve mostly been a jerk to you this whole time.”

“Mostly?” Yanily asked, not even bothering to half-whisper it.

“It’s fine,” Hiral started.

“It’s not,” Drahn interrupted. “I… have no love for Islanders, but you’ve opened my eyes to the fact you may not all be bad. If this grand plan for dungeon-running is to work, people like me need to get past our prejudices. I know they won’t all be good experiences, but I see now I need to be open to them being good ones, too.

“All that’s to say, thank you for saving my life. And, I’m sorry for how I’ve been treating you.”

“Awww, look at that,” Seeyela said, throwing an arm around Drahn’s shoulders. “You’re buddies now.”

“I wouldn’t go that far…”

“Thank you, Drahn,” Hiral said. “I really appreciate you saying that. I know there are hard feelings on both islands, but it’s nice to see we can get past them.”

“It won’t all be this easy.”

“This was easy?” Yanily asked.

“It only took both of you almost dying,” Seena pointed out.

“So close, yet denied again,” Li’l Ur pouted.

“For the record,” Hiral said, looking mostly at Seena. “I didn’t almost die at all there. Really, I’m fine.”

Seena squeezed his hand, then even leaned in to press her forehead against the side of his head. “I’m glad,” she said quietly, just for him. “But, please, really, stop scaring me like that.”

“I’ll do my best,” he said, and waited for Right to point out that he’d probably keep being reckless. Except that never came. “Have you seen Left and Right?”

Seena leaned back from him and shook her head. “No sign of them, but your tattoos aren’t back, so they must be okay.”

“It’s a little OP your ability is strong enough to hold off not only a High-B-Rank monster, but also survive the temper tantrum of an A-Rank Enemy,” Yanily said.

“They are getting pretty strong,” Hiral admitted. And if he ever figured out the quest to give them access to their full power again…

“They’re also far enough away we can’t reach them through the Party Interface,” Seeyela said. “Should you just cancel them and bring them back?”

“Let’s give them a bit,” Hiral said. “They may’ve found something, and I wouldn’t want to pull them away without warning. Them aside, how are you and Yan doing? Now that I think about it, didn’t you both get hit by the same acid blood Drahn did?”

“Our armor blocked the worst of it,” Yanily said, patting his Hydra-Scale Armor.

“Not even a scratch,” Seeyela said. “Apparently both are pretty resistant to acids and venoms.”

“That’s handy,” Hiral said.

“It is,” Seena said. “Now, enough stalling. What did you do?”

“I wasn’t stalling,” Hiral said weakly, but the look on her face said she wasn’t having any of it. “Look, fine. I…”

“Tried to force an Aspect,” Li’l Ur said before Hiral could finish. “Risky, and disappointingly not fatal, but impressive, nonetheless. Even with only a partial release at B-Rank, though, it’s almost unthinkable you managed what you did. As expected of my future apprentice.”

“Wait…” Hiral said. “You know what I did?”

Seena’s eyes somehow narrowed even further. “You say that like you didn’t know.”

“I didn’t have a name for it!” Hiral quickly explained. “It’s an… a what did you call it? An Aspect?”

“The start of one, yes,” Li’l Ur said.

“And… what exactly is an Aspect?” Yanily asked the question they were all thinking.

Li’l Ur’s shoulders went back as he puffed out his little robe-covered chest. How he even did that without lungs was a question for another day. “Allow me to explain,” he said, clearly enjoying being the center of attention.

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“That’s… why I asked…” Yanily mumbled.

“Aspects are a direct line to a Progenitor’s power,” Li’l Ur said. “Each of you,” he pointed at Seena, Seeyela, and then Yanily, “have begun tapping into what your sponsors can offer, but nothing as direct as an Aspect. My Mistress’s Phoenix Sheath is like the egg her Aspect will eventually hatch from. Like a prelude to the power she will command when it fully matures. However, that probably won’t be until she reaches at least A-Rank.

“The spearman,” Li’l Ur waved his hand in Yanily’s direction, even though he clearly still didn’t remember the man’s name, “is the next furthest along. The wings you sprout – with the assistance of your cloak – are the beginnings of your Aspect. However, unlike my Mistress, I suspect your transformation will be… more dramatic. Similar to what you experienced back in the dungeon when you battled the gigantic Enemy.”

“Back in the…?” Yanily started, his face screwing up like he was trying to remember. There was a pang of pain that flashed through his eyes – it was where he’d died, after all – but it was quickly replaced by a huge grin. “I’ll turn into a dragon?”

“Perhaps,” Li’l Ur nodded sagely. “Or, maybe something in between. There is still time for you to refine the path towards your Aspect. And, ultimately, it will be between you and your sponsor to decide the final form.”

“You know,” Seeyela said. “I’ve been wondering. What do our sponsors get out of helping us? Why is the Void-Venom Empress even interested in me?”

“And how do they work with the PIMP?” Seena added. “It sounds like they’ve been around a lot longer.”

“The Progenitors sponsoring apprentices is not exclusive to the era of the PIMP,” Li’l Ur said. “Almost all of us had dozens of them through our long lives. For us, it was a chance to foster a growing strength, and to reap the benefits of growth after we ourselves reached what we thought was the pinnacle.”

“You’re saying…” Hiral started, parsing Li’l Ur’s words. “By Seena getting stronger – gaining levels and ranks – the Mother of Flame is also getting stronger?”

“Excellent deduction!” Li’l Ur said and pointed at Hiral. “That’s exactly it. Progenitors long ago reached what we thought was the limit of our strength. Our knowledge. However, we found that by taking on apprentices, by sharing a fraction of our power, we could once again grow as our apprentice did.

“For us, the growth isn’t nearly as profound. With the addition of the PIMP and the how it seems to quantify advancement, you see tremendous gains with each Rank. Your strength has more than doubled, tripled, since I met you. The Mother of Flame, on the other hand, wouldn’t see anything more than a one-percent change. Likely a fraction of that, so far.”

“That’s not very much,” Yanily said.

“One percent of a lot is still more than you can imagine,” Li’l Ur said. “And for creatures such as us, any growth is progress towards breaking their current limits.”

“Are Progenitors S-Rank?” Drahn asked.

“Easily,” Li’l Ur said. “If the PIMP truly does measure beyond S-Rank though, the Progenitors would be beyond there as well.”

“Then how did they – you – lose to the Enemy?” Seeyela asked.

“I did not lose to those squids!” Li’l Ur squeaked. “I was already bound with my Urn when they arrived…”

“Then how did the others lose?” Seeyela clarified.

“Many of the original Progenitors have long since left this world, with only a few remaining, of which the Void-Venom Empress and Mother of Flame are two. Your races – your history – are barely a blip in comparison to the age of this world. Or the time we Progenitors spent here. As for the Enemy, I suspect they mainly avoid the remaining Progenitors’ territory, even while they slumbered.”

“Are you saying there could be places safe from the Enemy?” Seena asked, leaning forward.

“Yes… but I wouldn’t count on your sponsor’s patience for any other than yourself,” Li’l Ur cautioned. “Anybody else would be fodder for her children to grow.”

“All of that is super interesting,” Hiral said. “But it doesn’t answer one really important thing – I don’t have a sponsor. That’s what you said. Did that change? Would you even know?”

“I would definitely feel the touch of one of the other Progenitors on you,” Li’l Ur said. “And it is not there. You still do not have a sponsor.”

“Then how do I have an Aspect?”

“You don’t have one, per se. You instead forced a fraction of one upon yourself.”

“Great. How?”

“I… am not sure about that part…” Li’l Ur said, deflating somewhat. “Can you explain what you did?”

“I’ve only been asking him to do that since he woke up,” Seena said, and Hiral made very sure not to make eye-contact with the glare he knew was directed his way.

“I was trying to connect to the Edicts, and I…” he started.

“You what?!” Li’l Ur practically roared, which considering his size, was pretty impressive.

“Uh…”

“How do you even know about Edicts?” Li’l Ur asked. “Or what they’re called?”

“One of my achievements named them… if we’re talking about the same thing,” Hiral said, then looked at the others. “Sorry, it seems like Edicts are connected to my runes. Like a bigger version.”

“That is a vast understatement,” Li’l Ur said. “The runic language – and your direct manipulation of it – are small tweaks of how universal forces work. The Edicts are themselves the universal forces. For example, your Rune of Gravity manipulates gravity. Just a little. While the Edict of Gravityis gravity.”

“There’s a difference?” Yanily asked.

“Oh, yes,” Li’l Ur said. “Let me put it in words you would understand. If my Mistress was the Rune of the Spear…”

“There’s a Rune of the Spear?” Yanily immediately interrupted.

“Yes, but not the point,” the little lich said.

“Let him finish, Yan,” Seena said.

“Thank you, Mistress,” Li’l Ur continued. “As I was saying, if Mistress was the Rune of the Spear, and she told you to stab that tree, that would be like how Hiral uses his rune. One command directed at one spear.”

“With you so far,” Yanily said. “How would the Edict-thingie be different?”

“If Mistress was the Edict of the Spear, and she gave the same command, it would be telling all spears – everywhere – to stab that tree. More than that, it would be like the essence – the very concept – of the spear would be involved.”

“So, that’d be the end of the tree?” Yanily asked.

“… yes.”

“Got it! Runes – small. Edicts – big.”

“All that aside,” Hiral cut back in. “Why are you so surprised? Is it a big deal I can see them?”

Li’l Ur’s jaw dropped open. “You can see the Edicts?” As soon as he finished asking the question, he settled down on Seena’s shoulder and leaned against the side of her head like he was having trouble breathing. Which, obviously he wasn’t, since he didn’t breathe…

“You okay there, little guy?” Seena asked, gently patting the lich’s skull.

“Yes… I…” the lich said, puffing out a small cloud of blue flame before standing up straighter. “Seeing the Edicts, it is… uncommon. Even at the peak of my power, I could not see them – let alone command them. Only one among the Progenitors could…”

Hiral perked up at that and leaned forward slightly. “Who?”

In response, Li’l Ur looked past Hiral, and over his right shoulder.

Turning his head, it only took Hiral a second for his eyes to land on the hilt of his sword.

“The Emperor?” Hiral asked, heart beating a little faster. “Could the Emperor be my sponsor?”

“No,” Li’l Ur said immediately, though a surprisingly pained look showed on his little face. “I told you, I sense no touch of another Progenitor on you.”

“But maybe it’s because of your… form?” Hiral suggested.

Again, Li’l Ur shook his head. “Even if that was the case, it still wouldn’t be possible. The Emperor can’t be your sponsor because…” he paused to take a breath, like what he was going to say next was difficult. “Because the Emperor is dead.”