Rune Seeker

Hiral sat cross-legged on the ground as he focused on absorbing solar energy, Left’s Banner of Courage helping speed things along. Nearby, Yanily was splayed out on his back, while Drahn sat just past him, leaning back on his palms and looking at the ceiling. Seeyela and Seena were both still standing, but each was the almost-mirror image of each other – crouched over with their hands on their knees. The two women were still taking deep breaths like they’d run a marathon. Maybe two.

And the battle had been a marathon – almost thirty minutes to finally down the damnable Fiendish Tree. The achievement notification sat blinking in the corner of Hiral’s eyes, but he just hadn’t had the energy to bring it up yet.

“How could a tree be so tough to kill?” Yanily asked the question on everybody’s minds.

“Tons of health,” Seena said. “It was like every single leaf had a health pool it transferred to the trunk as we destroyed them. Then there were the roots.”

“Oh, don’t even talk to me about the roots,” Seeyela said. “They were even more gropey than Hiral. I’m going to have inappropriate, tentacle nightmares for a week.”

“At least you could teleport out when they caught you,” Drahn said. “I need a shower. And maybe a concussion to forget the things they tried to do to me.”

“Pretty sure I got you out before things got too far along…” Seeyela said with a chuckle.

“Believe me, any far along was too far,” Drahn replied, shivering like he could still feel the roots wrapping up his legs with the intentions of doing very bad things to him.

“We were just lucky it’s offense wasn’t as robust as it’s defense,” Li’l Ur said from Seena’s shoulder, even the lich looking like he’d been winded. Then again, he’d constantly buffed Seena nearly the entire fight.

“The attacks weren’t too powerful,” Hiral agreed. “But they never let up. I don’t know if I can get sore runes, but everything feels a little raw from how much I used them. On the other hand, it was great practice. I could almost do that in my sleep now.”

“Of course you got more OP from that,” Yanily said.

“You’re one to talk,” Hiral shot back. “Didn’t I hear you say you got an ability evolution in the middle of that?”

“Lightning Rod,” Yanily said with a thumbs up. “Let’s me attract and absorb any lightning attacks. If they’re strong enough, they’ll still hurt, but it can restore some of my solar energy while protecting you. It’s a pretty good one.”

“I got one too,” Seena said. “Feed the Flames. Similar to his, but I can add outside fire to my attacks to make them more powerful.”

“See, Growers and all your spontaneous ability evolutions are the really overpowered thing here,” Hiral said.

“Can’t you do it too?” Seena asked.

“Yeah, but I had to get an achievement ability for it. It’s not a… what do I even call it?”

“Racial skill,” Yanily filled it. “You really need to read the guide or you’re going to stop sounding so smart all the time.”

“… not my biggest concern,” Hiral grumbled, though part of him admitted the guide sounded like it had a lot of useful information. “What about you Seeyela, any sudden inspiration and growth?”

“Hrm?” Seeyela asked, taking a deep breath and standing up straight. “I got Cascading Teleport.”

“Of course you did,” Hiral said. “What’s it do?”

“Reduces the cost of subsequent teleports – portals or Bamfs – by ten percent, if I do it within three seconds of the last one. Stacks up to fifty percent for six or more in a row.”

“So, full cost for the first, then ninety, eighty, seventy, etcetera percent, down to fifty? That’s kind of insane,” Hiral said, thinking about it.

“It sounds like it could be,” Seeyela said. “I have a feeling it’s going to make me want to abuse it, so I’ll be porting more. That’s good… but…”

“But it’ll chew through your solar energy to fight like that,” Hiral finished.

“Exactly. Going to take some practice.”

“I guess that just leaves Drahn as the odd-Grower-out,” Seena said, turning to the tracker. “Unless…”

“I got one too,” Drahn said, and Hiral could only groan. “Deforestation.”

“That sounds dramatic,” Yanily said, finally sitting up.

“Not really,” Drahn said. “It’s not as generally applicable as the abilities you all got, but it will drastically increase my damage against plant-type creatures. Such as, it speeds up how fast my pollen gets absorbed and travels through the target.”

“Any ability you use?” Seena asked. “Or just the pollen?”

“Any,” Drahn confirmed. “The pollen was just an example. But, again, just on plant-based targets.”

“Now I really feel left out,” Hiral said.

“Don’t worry,” Right said from beside him. “We didn’t get anything either.”

“Doesn’t exactly make me feel better, but thanks for trying.”

“Hey now,” Yanily said. “That’s not necessarily true. That stupid tree was nice enough to give us this fruit.” The spearman pointed at the six apple-like fruits sitting in a small circle nearby. Considering each of them practically thrummed with energy, there was no way somebody would mistake them for normal fruit.

“You mean I was nice enough to risk teleporting in to steal them between the firestorm somebody was unleashing on the tree,” Seeyela said, looking pointedly at her sister.

“It refused to burn,” Seena said defensively. “Which obviously meant I needed to use more fire.”

“Obviously,” Seeyela agreed. “Back on point, what should we do with these?”

“Anybody use View on them yet?” Hiral asked.

“Haven’t had the energy,” Seena admitted with a shrug, and everybody turned to the aforementioned treasure they’d stolen. With how the tree had protected the fruit – even at the expense of itself – they had to be something decent. Didn’t they?

As View kicked in for Hiral on the fruit that seemed to have small sparks traveling across it, yeah, they were “something decent”.

Apple of Voltaic Potential

Nurtured and filled to the brim with energy from a neighbouring dimension, this fruit will forcefully expand the solar energy channels of anybody similarly attributed who consumes it.

Note: If somebody who is not similarly attributed to the fruit consumes it, the inherent energy within the apple will run rampant in the body, resulting in catastrophic solar system failure.

Note (2): Neither process is pleasant.

“Catastrophic solar system failure sounds a bit more than ‘not pleasant’,” Hiral said.

“What does the expansion of solar energy channels do?” Seena asked. “Higher capacity? If so, that’s… amazing.”

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“And we have six fruits,” Hiral said, listing them off as he used Viewon each. “The Voltaic one. Then we have Glacial, Combustive, Weighted, Toxic, and Cultivating. Most of those are pretty self-explanatory, but I’m not so sure about the last one…”

“Plants,” Seena said immediately. “I’m sure of it. My body kind of wants it, but it’s nothing compared to how I feel when I look that the Combustive one. It’s taking everything I can do to not run over and take a huge bite out of it.”

“You think we should eat them?” Drahn asked, though his eyes were locked on the Apple of Cultivating Potential. “It sounds risky.”

Risky wasn’t the only sound, as there was suddenly a sharp kind of crack.

“They’re kind of sour,” Yanily said between chews as he held the sparking fruit in one hand – the one with a large bite mark out of it. “Though I don’t know what it meant about not being pleasant, this is pretty good.” Then he took a second bite. A third. A fourth. Everybody else just watched in shock.

“Yan…” Seena started, finally shaking herself out of her surprised stupor. By that point, it was too late, though. After the sixth bite, the entirety of the apple was gone, not even a core or stem remaining.

“I can’t believe you did that without talking to us about it,” Seena said. “How do you feel? Are you okay?”

The spearman’s eyes glazed over for a second like he was looking at his status window, then he just sort of shrugged. “Nothing. Did I get a dud? Maybe I…” he couldn’t even finish the sentence as something flashed within his eyes, and his whole body seized. Arms locking at his sides, his hands crooked like bird’s claws, and he toppled backwards.

“Yanily!” somebody shouted, while Hiral moved.

Pseudo-aspect coming to Hiral as easily as breathing, he was on his feet to catch the falling spearman before he’d even gone half the distance to the ground. At the slight touch, electric shocks ran across Hiral’s hands, sparks of it arcing back and forth along Yanily as the man convulsed in Hiral’s arms. And it wasn’t just outside his body, with Hiral’s senses telling him inside Yanily was just as chaotic.

Almost like it was Drahn’s Pollen Poison, the energy rampaged through Yanily’s solar energy channels, ripping them wide open wherever it went. It smashed and tore without a care for the damage it left behind, while Yanily’s own energy rushed to fill in the space.

Just watching it for the few seconds Hiral held the other man, he could see what it was doing. It was increasing the other man’s solar energy capacity – by what had to be at least a full rank – and while it didn’t end there, the recovery time would be crippling.

If Hiral didn’t do something about it now.

Grasping hold of his Rune of Restoration, Hiral threaded his solar energy into the man in his arms. He’d already established that without some kind of guiding knowledge – like what Milly had – there were strict limits to what the rune could repair. He just didn’t know what to fix and what to leave alone. In most situations, the best he could do was slightly enhance what the body would naturally do.

Most.

Pushing his energy through Yanily’s channels – which probably wasn’t comfortable for the spearman – Hiral raced to catch up. Not with the rampant energy from the fruit, no, it was Yanily’s own desperate solar energy he needed. It seemed to know what needed to be done to keep the man’s solar pathways from rupturing, as it constantly worked to mend the worst tears. At best – on its own – it would leave the man with channels like poorly patched pipes, leaks and cracks spewing wasted energy the entire way.

With Hiral’s Rune of Restoration in the mix though, along with a healthy dose of Increase and Sealing, suddenly Yanily’s energy became supercharged. Where it had barely been keeping up and only patching the worst of the breaches, it was now almost like it was chasing the rampant energy. Urging it on to try and rip Yanily’s channels apart. No sooner had a cut formed, than this mixture of Hiral’s and Yanily’s energies sewed it right back up, stronger than ever.

In Hiral’s arms, the rigid muscles of Yanily’s body relaxed slightly, his fingers loosening as his hand slumped to the floor. Pain still etched the man’s face, flashes of energy igniting behind his eyes as the energy went round and round within his body. Thirty seconds of this – that must’ve felt like hours to Yanily – and finally the energy expended itself.

“Uuuuugh,” Yanily moaned out, his whole body shivering and shuddering like the occasional charge was still going through him. “I… stand… corrected. Not… pleasant. Really, really not pleasant.”

“Yan,” Seena said, the others having kneeled around Hiral and the spearman at some point while Hiral had been focused on the battle within Yanily’s channels. “Are you okay?”

“Define… ‘okay’,” Yanily said. “I feel…” he blinked. Then blinked again. “Actually, I feel… fine.” His eyes turned to Hiral, who was cradling him in his arms. “Pretty sure you just saved me again.”

“Maybe not saved,” Hiral said. “But I think I helped.” Feeling that the invading energy had finally spent itself completely – and Yanily’s own energy had calmed down – Hiral let his Restoration and Sealing pass through the spearman once more before completely withdrawing it.

“Help me up?” Yanily asked, and both Seena and Seeyela took a hand, while Hiral propped him up from behind. Once he was on his feet, he wavered just for a second, then seemed to be okay. The others took their hands off him, and when he didn’t immediately fall over, they stepped back to give him some space.

“Still feeling fine?” Seena asked, worry clear on her face.

“Yeah…” Yanily said, eyes glazing over again, then widening so fast it was a miracle he didn’t shoot his eyebrows straight off his head. “Ooooh… wow.”

“Wow?” Hiral asked. “Did you get a capacity upgrade? It felt like that was what was happening.”

Yanily shook his head. “No.”

“No?”

“I mean, ‘no, not only that’,” Yanily said, a smile splitting his face. “All of my solar energy abilities got increased by a rank. Absorption rate, capacity, and output!”

“Are you serious?” Seeyela asked, head snapping around to the five remaining fruit.

“Oh yeah,” Yanily said. “Even opened and closed my status window to make sure it wasn’t a mistake. And, let me tell you, I feel it.”

The others all joined Seeyela in staring at the fruit.

“Do you think we should…?” Seena asked, taking a step forward.

“Wait!” Yanily said, then looked at Hiral. “If you do eat the fruit, Hiral, can you do for them what you did for me? I… I don’t know how that would’ve gone if you weren’t here.”

“Don’t think it would’ve killed you,” Hiral said. “At least from what I could sense. However, I bet you wouldn’t have been able to use your solar energy – or any abilities – for… I don’t even know how long. The damage the fruit did to your pathways was not minor.

“Having done it once, though,” Hiral continued, looking at the others. “I’m pretty sure I can guide the rest of you through the process. Probably can’t do anything for the pain…”

“How bad was it?” Seeyela asked Yanily.

“Not bad enough to stop me from making the same choice again if I had the chance,” Yanily said. “A full rank to each solar processing ability? I never thought I’d get something like that.”

“It is a major limiting factor,” Hiral said. “If these fruit are a way to surpass that, it’s a chance you can’t pass up.”

Seena’s head turned slowly to look at him. “The way you said that was like you weren’t planning to eat one.”

Hiral shrugged helplessly. “I don’t think I can. I don’t have a solar energy type.”

“Weighted?” Seeyela asked. “You use gravity magic.”

“I use it, but I don’t specialize in it,” Hiral said. “I look at each of the fruit like they’re regular apples. My body doesn’t feel any of the draw you’re describing. As I see it, Seena should take the Combustive, Drahn the Cultivating, and Seeyela – if you’re brave enough – you should take both the Toxic and Weighted.”

“Both?” she asked. “Are you sure? Can I even do that?”

“You tell us. What’s your body saying?”

“That I’d let that dead tree grope Drahn for an hour for just a single bite,” she said. “Of either of them.”

“Hey,” the tracker said when her words clicked.

“Then take them both,” Seena said. “What about the Glacial one?”

“We don’t have anybody with an ice type solar energy,” Hiral said. “Take it with us?”

“Wule seemed to be leaning that direction before his advanced class,” Yanily said. “Maybe he’ll want it?”

“Good thinking,” Seena said. “Would be a nice reunion gift for him.”

“Maybe just warn him about the agonizing pain ahead of time,” Seeyela suggested.

“More like warn Nivian,” Seena said. “One so he doesn’t clobber us for hurting his brother, and two so he can laugh.”

“It’ll be good to see them again,” Yanily said.

“It will,” Seena agreed. “Which… means we need to stop talking so much. Hiral, you sure you can do the same thing you did for Yan for all of us?”

“One at a time,” Hiral said. “To be safe.”

“Okay,” Seena said with a deep breath. “Who wants to go first?”