Rune Seeker

With everybody – other than Hiral and his doubles – back on the ground recovering from the unpleasant process of upgrading all their solar energy attributes, Hiral finally opened the achievement notification for defeating the Mid-Boss.

Dynamic Quest Complete

Congratulations. Achievement unlocked – Don’t Hug This Tree

You have defeated a failed experiment trying to merge power from another realm (maybe they should stop doing that…) with local fauna.

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

Even after everything that went wrong with pulling the Enemy into our realm, they tried it again? That doesn’t seem… smart. They must’ve had a reason for it though. The apples?

Hiral looked again at his party members recovering under a combined dome of the Banner of Courage reinforced by his Runes of Restoration and Energy. Together, the two runes had a similar effect to the solar energy absorption increase from the banner, and it made him wonder what other combinations he could find.

“You upset you didn’t get one of those apples?” Right asked beside him.

“Can’t say any extra rank in my solar abilities wouldn’t hurt,” Hiral admitted.

“Oh, I can guarantee it would’ve hurt,” Left said, nodding at the others.

“Fair point.”

“You could try the Glacial fruit,” Right suggested.

“We both know that sounds like a horrible idea,” Hiral chuckled. “If the fruit aligned with their solar energy types did this much to them, I don’t even want to imagine what the wrong type would do.”

“Probably explosions,” Left said. “The PIMP seems to like those.”

“Especially where you’re involved,” Right added, looking directly at Hiral.

“You’re as bad as Nivian,” Hiral sighed, though smiled right after. They’d be seeing the twins again soon. Well, considering how long the dungeon was taking, maybe soon was a little relative.

“More seriously, though,” Left said. “I’m somewhat surprised the PIMP didn’t provide a fruit option for you.”

“The gravity one?” Right offered.

“Nah.” Hiral shook his head. “I was serious when I said it didn’t feel like my body wanted it. I really don’t have a solar energy type. Or, if I do, I don’t know what it is. It was definitely better Seeyela got it.”

All three looked at the woman sprawled out on the floor like she’d taken an uppercut from the Raging Behemoth in the chin.

“Not sure she feels like it’s better right now,” Right said slowly.

“And that’s with your help,” Left pointed out to Hiral.

“That is one of the reasons I think the PIMP put us here,” Hiral said. “Assuming it has that much control, I mean. Sure, anybody with the right type could’ve eaten those fruit, but they’d have been bedridden after. We haven’t even found the Boss yet. Also…”

“Also?” Left asked.

Hiral scratched at his chin before he answered. “The process of helping their bodies manage the process the fruit put them through, well, it taught me a lot. How the channels flow through the body, how energy naturally wants to circulate, of course. More than that, though, I got to see how the energy expanded their channels, and how my runes impacted that.”

“Are you suggesting what I think you are?” Left asked.

“If he is, that’d be beyond risky,” Right said.

“Whoa now,” Hiral calmed his glaring doubles. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Yes, I’m suggesting I might be able to replicate the process the fruit forced on them, using my own Rune of Energy. I figure a little bit of Unsealing, along with some Expansion – and maybe Absorption to increase the efficiency – would even improve the results. I’ve got the recovery part down now – even though each of the fruits went about what it did a little differently.

“Seena’s fruit scorched her channels, while the Toxic one… honestly, you don’t want me to describe what that did inside Seeyela,” Hiral said, actually shuddering at the memory. “If I aimed for the same thing with my own runes, it wouldn’t need to be quite as destructive, but the results should be the same.”

“Could you do it for anybody?” Left asked. “How many times?”

“Well, that’s the thing,” Hiral admitted. “The solar energy type thing would be a hurdle. That part of the process seemed integral as I watched it happen for each of them. A different type than what was running through their channels would’ve completely ruined them – like Drahn’s Pollen Poison does.”

“But, for somebody untyped – or with the same solar energy type as you – you should be able to do it?” Right said.

“In theory,” Hiral said.

The two doubles shared a look before turning on Hiral. “You’re planning to try it on yourself, aren’t you.”

“Eventually,” Hiral said. “Not yet, though. Back to your other question, I think I can only do it once – unless I get a second energy type. That’s what my gut is telling me. Even before that, though, if I mess this up, it would be bad. I want to make sure I’m confident in what I’m doing before I even attempt it.”

“That sounds decidedly not reckless,” Seena said, having joined the three of them while Hiral spoke. “I only caught the tail-end of it, but did you get replaced by another double or something?”

“I’m still me,” Hiral said.

“Which is exactly what another double would say,” Right joked.

“Probably,” Seena agreed, looking at Right. “How are the gauntlets?”

“Good,” Right said. “Noticeable difference, though I’m starting to wonder if the light show actually does anything.” The double thumbed over his shoulder at the strange, floating rope of energy that went from gauntlet to gauntlet up and behind his head. It didn’t sit on his shoulders – or adhere to any real natural laws – but also looked like it had texture and weight.

“Idiot strings,” Left said. “So you don’t forget one somewhere.”

Both Hiral and Right looked at Left to see the double’s face was still perfectly neutral.

“I can’t even tell when you’re joking sometimes,” Hiral said.

Left shrugged.

Seena shook her head at the three of them, before focusing her attention on Hiral. “We’re going to need a little longer to recover from all that,” she said. “And while there is that room across the way we’re all curious about, we haven’t found the Boss yet, so I don’t want to move anywhere before we’re all ready.”

“Makes sense,” Hiral agreed.

“So,” she went on. “While we recover – thanks again for your help on that – there’s a couple things I’d like you to do.”

“Name them.”

“First, can you get the Solar Coreout of what’s left of the golem where the tree was?”

Hiral snapped his fingers. “The golem! I’d… completely forgotten about it with all the excitement.”

“I noticed.” Seena winked, and Right just chuckled. “Shush. It’s apparently contagious. Anyway, the second thing I want you to… ah, by the look on your face, you remembered the other thing too, didn’t you?”

“The other half of the rune on the golem’s head,” Hiral said.

“Exactly. If you’re going to explode, do it now and get it over with.”

“Should I wait until you’re all recovered more, in case something comes along?”

“Not even arguing about exploding,” Seena half mumbled, but shook her head. “I think if we needed to, we could put up a pretty good fight. We’re just sore like it’s our first workout after taking a year off. The Banner and your runes are sure helping though.”

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“Okay then.” Hiral nodded. “I’ll get the core and see what the two halves of the rune lead to. No promises I’ll figure it out and explode…”

“You’ll figure it out,” Seena interrupted, giving him a pat on the shoulder. “You always do. And, yes, that was also a shoulder tap. Get going. We don’t have all day.”

“Says the…” Hiral started, but quickly cut off at the flat look from the party leader. “The… beautiful woman who obviously knows better than I do.”

Another nod from Seena, along with a cheeky “Nice save,”from Right, and Hiral and his doubles walked over to where the Mid-Boss had been. There, the stone had been blown apart and melted under the fury of Seena’s assault. Roots that had risen out of the earth to attack and defend were reduced to little more than ash, and all that remained of the Fiendish Tree was a thick stump seemingly made of charcoal.

Next to that blackened stump, the torso and head of the fallen golem lay under a layer of soot. A touch of Rejection cleared that up easily enough, and though the crystal of the body was melted in places, it looked undamaged enough the Solar Core shouldn’t be ruined. As for the rune, Hiral moved around to check, then let out a breath of relief. The thick roots the tree had placed there to tap into whatever power the rune possessed had protected it from the worst of Seena’s assault.

Just looking at the rune, there were several similarities to the one in his Interspatial Ring, and the edge where the two halves would go together was obvious. If he just…

A tap on his arm brought his attention back to reality, and he found Left standing beside him. “You should probably start with the core.”

“Yeah, I probably should,” Hiral agreed. The rune could wait the moment it would take him to get the Solar Core out. A step to the side, then he crouched down and placed his hand on the golem’s chest. With the last one, there was a latch to open the compartment, and even with the slight fire damage, it should be… there.

Mold Crystal unhooked the door, and another application of it smoothed out the melted edges keeping it closed. However, when he popped it open, Hiral could only groan. While the fire hadn’t damaged the Solar Core, the root that’d speared through the golem’s back most certainly had.

“Core is ruined,” Hiral said over the party chat, though he looked up to meet Seena’s eyes.

“Damn,” she said. “Can you fix it?”

“No way,” he replied, looking at the damage. “If I didn’t know what I was looking for, I’d have no idea this was a Solar Core. The root in here scrambled it pretty badly.”

“Well, what are we going to do now?” Drahn asked, sitting up and wincing at the same time.

“There’s still the next room over there,” Seeyela said. “Not to mention the Boss of the dungeon. One of those will probably have what we’re looking for.”

“Or at least a clue about other options,” Hiral said.

“Yeah,” Seena said. “No reason to panic yet. Focus on recovery while Hiral plays with his runes.”

“Oh, you going to explode so you can feel the same way we do?” Yanily asked.

“Maybe,” Hiral chuckled. When it didn’t seem like anybody else had anything to say, he moved back to the rune at the golem’s top. A thread of solar energy into his Interspatial Ring retrieved the body of the other golem, and he placed them near each other to examine the two runes.

Definitely two sides of one rune. They’re almost identical, just inverted. Which, makes sense in a way. Most runes seem to come in pairs… but this one is its own pair? What does that mean? Is it somehow a more powerful rune than even my Energy or Separation runes?

Hiral’s heart beat a little faster in his chest at the thought of that. He may not have gotten a solar energy increase from one of those apples, but a new rune of the level this one seemed to be… that could be even better.

… assuming I can figure out what it does.

“You two may want to stand back a little,” Hiral said to his doubles, while he dropped to sit on the ground next to the two golems.

“Somebody’s confident,” Right said, but he and Left took a few steps back. “Let us know if you need anything.”

“Sure thing,” Hiral responded absently, already losing himself in following the curves of the rune. This wasn’t quite like any of his other runes. The runes on the level of Increase and Decrease were decidedly simple, as he’d once explained to Seena – something that could probably be written with a single brush stroke. A brush stroke he could use to tap into fantastic powers.

Looking over at the Rune of Decrease on his left shoulder – glowing black on the white of his pseudo-aspect – he followed the connection until the Edict of Decrease appeared before his eyes. Unlike the runes, the Edicts weren’t always there. Well, maybe they were, but they weren’t always visible. Not until he called on their power to manifest in the area. Looking at the Edict like he was now – for the first time, really, without something trying to kill him at the same time – he got an extreme sense of… vastness.

There was a depth to the Edicts he hadn’t felt before. Like he was looking at just the tip of a building built mostly underground. No, even that wasn’t enough to describe it. He’d been using the word “concept” in his head to explain to himself how it felt to exert his will against the Fiendish Tree’s when he’d been battling the gravity tears, but it really was better applied to the idea of the Edicts.

The Edict of Decrease wasn’t just like his rune – with the ability to impose a decrease on something – it was the concept of decrease. And, with enough power, Hiral felt it could decrease anything.

Everything.

Though, Hiral was nowhere near powerful enough to even consider that. It did mean he was probably underutilizing the Edicts though. Then again, with his bare introduction into them, maybe it was better to take baby steps with figuring out how they worked. The last thing he needed was to muck with something like the Edict of Gravity and change something integral around the world. Because, theoretically, the more he looked at the Edict of Decrease, the more he realized something like that might just be possible.

He saw the Edict here, where he was, but it was really everywhere.

“Ugh,” Hiral groaned and shook his head. He was just guessing what was going on with the Edicts – though his instincts told him he was at least close – but that wasn’t why he’d looked at the Edict of Decrease in the first place.

Putting aside all the questions and theories he had about it, Hiral instead just focused on the shimmering script hanging in the air to his eyes only. Aside from the feeling of vastness emanating from the Edict, it was visually just like the rune. Li’l Ur had said somebody without a connection to the runes wouldn’t be able to create them, but Hiral could feel the importance of that shape. It was significant, and more than that, it meant something to reality as a whole.

In this case, it was also ridiculously simple compared to the two rune-halves on the golems’ heads. Moving on to his Edict of Gravity, Hiral studied its lines. Unlike Decrease’s single stroke, this Edict looked more like overlayed script as he followed the curves. And then the curves within curves. Even though it looked relatively simple at first glance, every time Hiral traced the flow of the lines, he found them drawing out a new sub-rune.

Like he’d mentioned to Seena before, there were Attraction and Rejection components in there, but that wasn’t nearly all. What those other runes were, however, was a task for another day. For now, he catalogued in his head how this rune was different from the lesser runes. That just left one other for him to review – the Rune of Connection.

This one was also different than the other two, written out more like a sentence or equation than the others. It had a much deeper feeling than Decrease, but also a more intangible one than Gravity. Similar to the latter, though, it had more interweaved lines that seemed to hint at different meanings the longer Hiral examined it.

So, what did all this tell him about this new rune he was trying to figure out? Unlike all of them, it was made up of multiple lines that did not hint at new meanings within each other. Its complexity was laid bare for all to see.

It started at a central point where the two halves met, and then seemed to branch out like dozens of rivers flowing from that source. A rune of water? No, that’s not even close to the right feeling. But, those rivers didn’t flow in straight lines. They curved. They were chaotic. They seemed like they would go in one direction, before suddenly going off on another unexpected path.

As he followed them, he felt his imagination wander, thinking back to his family. Dinners with his sisters and his father, the four of them laughing around the table, only for the whole memory to turn dark as the thought of his mother coming home filled him with a sense of dread and…

Hiral shook his head. Where did that come from? Putting it aside, he went back to following the paths of the rune, down, around, and over to… thinking of Seena. Of how they sat on the edge of Fallen Reach in that strange dungeon and looked at the stars at night. He felt the cold glass of the wine bottle in his hand, while the pungent aroma of cheese wafted up from the basket. Seena loved the pairing, and he’d gone to a lot of trouble to get it for her.

The way she smiled when she took a sip from her glass was like a new sunrise, and even Li’l Ur sitting beside her marvelled at it. The full-size and not-so-little Li’l Ur. No, that wasn’t Li’lUr, that was Ur’Thul the Undying!

Hiral snapped his head back as the… the memory faded from his mind. Memory? No, no way. Nothing like that ever happened. Just to be sure, Hiral glanced in Seena’s direction, but the little lich sat peacefully on her shoulder.

“Hiral?” Left asked. “You okay?”

Hiral ran his hand across his face, then pulled a waterskin out of his Interspatial Ring. After several sips, he dropped it back into the ring, then nodded at his double. “Yeah, just having trouble focusing, I think.”

“That’s an understatement,” Right said. “Your eyes were totally glazed over like you were a million miles from here.”

“I was daydreaming?” Hiral asked.

“Sure looked like it,” Right said.

But, that wasn’t correct, and Hiral looked back down at the two runes, inspiration washing over him. Suddenly, the chaos of it made sense. The memories that weren’t memories. Even the powers the Guardian and Fiendish Tree had used.

“No, not daydreaming,” Hiral said slowly. “Just… dreaming.”

With the word – the understanding – the two halves of the rune on the golems’ tops flared with power, and the world around Hiral vanished in a burst of color.