Siren’s Cry [A LITRPG Adventure]-Ch. 8
After screaming at myself for the stupidity of my actions and how unbelievably lucky I am to still be alive, I pull up my passive to see what exactly it does.
-==×==-
Mana Veins (Passive): Allows for the user's veins to also carry mana through the body. Attunes absorbed mana to the user, increasing stability and manipulation.
-==×==-
So that's what the orange streaks in my constructs are, the attuned mana. Despite the revelations and my own supernatural endurance, I quickly fall asleep the moment I get comfortable in the safe-ish basement.
—
Yawning awake, I uncurl my wings and tail from around myself and stand, stretching as much as I can in the cramped space. Jumping up the ladder with a quick flap, I waste no more time in leaving the church. Trying the big double doors results in a groan of old wood and rusted metal, but they remain firmly shut. Forming a cartoonishly large hammer, the second attempt results in the doors splintering into kindling like all the others. I wince again at the thundering boom that rings out as the heavy doors crash down, but if nothing tried to investigate the previous sounds I can probably assume nothing will come after this one. Well, there goes any attempt to use this place again tonight.
Stepping outside, I'm greeted by a pleasant sea breeze and a crumbling town. To my right barely twenty paces away, a massive cliff drops onto jagged rocks below. The ocean batters against the rock face, audible even from this far away. The town looks much like you would expect a medieval town to look in every story ever. Stone bricks form the foundations of the majority of buildings, only a select few being entirely wood. Rotting thatch roofs have caved in on many of them, walls crumbling beneath the weight of years. Cracked cobblestone streets are overgrown with scraggly weeds, and withered trees drop dry limbs across the paths.
I step carefully down the road, wings folded tight behind me and tail lashing in agitation. It takes a while to realize what has me so on edge about the abandoned town, but after several unnerving minutes I figure it out. No animals. Not even the distant calls of seagulls or other birds is audible, just the faint roar of the ocean and soft whistling of the wind can be heard. Bare feet stride cautiously through winding roads, peeking into houses as I pass them in search of a suitable hideout. I find what I think used to be a blacksmith on one side of a town square, stout oak door remaining sturdy despite the building's disrepair. Inside, numerous vents and boarded up windows cover the walls while a massive forge rests dead against the far wall. Bolting the door behind me, I get to work sealing some of the broken windows with a combination of wood and threads. Only a few minutes later, my mana pool is empty and the blacksmith is well-sealed once more. My curiosity gets the better of me, and I begin to explore the town more thoroughly. All the houses are empty, looted long ago of anything valuable or useful, but I do still manage to find a few metal pots without rust and another few pieces of jewelry. Returning to my temporary shelter before nightfall, I conjure a small construct the size of a pebble to light the room and pull out the first book. Conjuration and Runes, a Primer. Opening it, I begin to read.
—
My studies into the nature of runes and how they relate to spells has finally bore fruit, and so I am writing this book as a way of documenting my findings and passing this knowledge on to any future scholars.
Magic, in its fundamental form, is raw mana. This mana has no will, no desires, and no driving force. When this ‘blank’ or ambient mana enters a creature or object, it begins to take on hints of its host's will. Trees strive for growth, so the mana will accelerate this process minutely. The boost is small, barely perceptible, but in greater concentrations of mana begins to accumulate more rapidly. Metal often is used to represent steadiness and strength, and so those concepts are attached to the very idea of metal. Mana brings these concepts to the forefront, giving formless will the power to manifest.
In an attempt to tap into these concepts, runes were discovered. Each rune has its own unique meaning, be it a vague notion such as dreams or a force of nature such as ice. No two runes mean the exact same, as some may differ even if just slightly. An example of this difference would be ice and frost. To create a spear of solid ice, both would work. However, frost would be less efficient due to the exact meaning. Frost is what spreads over the land in winter, a creeping chill that saps warmth and strength, while ice is just that; the solid, frozen condensation of water due to cold temperatures. When fed mana, the runes impart their meaning to the power and make it manifest. One man's interpretation of fire could be a raging force of destruction, meant to burn all to ash. And that would be what a fire rune fed with his intent would create. A raging flame to consume. Meanwhile, another could view flame as a force of life, of boundless vitality and meant for burning away impurities. That is what his rune would form as, a healing flame to cauterize wounds and sear away infections.
Intent is important when forming runes, as the intent of the rune while being created is crucial. If the intent is unclear, then the rune may not work as intended. Or worse, it may not work at all. A spell to call an explosive ball of flame may barely create a spark or burst of smoke. Minor alterations can be made to a rune, forming what I refer to as channels. These
channels cause the rune to ignore the intent of the imbuer, and result in a specific effect. But I'm getting ahead of myself! Let us return to the basics. Now, let's begin with how runes actually direct the magic…
—
I read well into the night, absorbing the first couple chapters. The first chapter explains exactly how the runes work and the history behind them, as well as showing a few examples of low-tier runes. I add stone and wind to my collection, though these two are only common rarity. Comparing the new ones to the others I have shows a significant difference in the quality of the lines, with the common ones being jagged and sloppy and the rare ones being much smoother and neater. They still have imperfections however, with several lines being just a little off from what I imagine they should be. Deciding to fix them up later when I have the time and resources, I move onto the second chapter.
—
And now we reach the second subject this book will cover: conjuration and summoning. You may be wondering why a rune primer also contains conjuration theory. And to that I say, for good reason. To begin with, a short explanation of conjuration and summoning, including the differences between the two disciplines.
Conjuration is exactly as it sounds. You apply mana and manipulate it to form a specific shape, before often imbuing it with the intent to be partially autonomous. Items and constructs that are conjured rather than summoned are formed entirely from the user's mana and willpower, only being as powerful as the user's magical stats and skill allow. What this means is that while constructs will grow alongside their creators, they will also be forever bound to the same level, never stronger than them either. They have no will of their own, and will always follow their owners' will to the best of their ability.
Summoning, on the other hand, is the more powerful yet risky of the pair. Summoning works by forming an ethereal link between the mortal realm and a different plane. To choose which plane, there are many ways of doing so, but the most common is to change what runes are attached to the summoning circle. The circle acts as a beacon to creatures from the other plane, and should one of them choose to respond it will manifest here. If the link is broken at any point during the summoning, the summoned creature will be banished once more and the summoner will incur a penalty dependant on the strength of what was banished.
—
It then goes in-depth on the various dangers and types of summonings and conjurations. This carries into the third chapter, but before I can get very far into it my focus is broken. A loud crash comes from outside the smithy, as though someone pushed a crate off a roof. Closing the book and conjuring my arrows, now closer to daggers with my extra stats, I swiftly open the door and peer into the darkness. Thankfully, my inhuman eyes see in the early dawn without issue. There, only a few meters from me, a large shape rests. Four uneven spindly arms unfold from a skeletal body, and digitigrade legs that look like something a xenomorph would have push the malformed creature to its feet. Its gaunt, pale face whips toward me at the sound of the door opening, sickly orange eyes glowing softly. It opens its mouth to shriek, but is quickly silenced by a dagger construct through the throat. The scream tapers off into a soft wheeze, and it scrabbles at the blade in a vain attempt to remove it. Four more blades spear the creature's arms, and another pair take out its legs. It falls noiselessly to the ground, disabled but not dead. Three constructs mold together into a larger spike, and I drive the spike through its skull and into the cobblestone beneath. The glowing eyes fade to darkness, and a system chime informs me that this is a much larger problem than I thought.
-==×==-
Revenant Hive Scout Lvl 8 Slain
-==×==-
Of course there's a hive of these things.
.
!
Ch. 8
Comments