Chapter 104: Runebound and Rune-tied

Kael raised his hand. “This.”

He lifted the gauntlet just enough for them to see it properly. The metal caught what little light existed between the broken skyline, and the rune socketed in the palm gave off that faint, wrong warmth that didn’t match the morning air.

The Boss looked at it and said, “I would have asked you to hand it over for… inspection. But I can see what you mean.”

“What’s that, boss?” one of the Sun Clan members asked.

They leaned in like moths toward a lamp. Curiosity first. Then hunger.

“Never seen anything like it, looks like a glove, but it has a rune in it. I’m not touching that with a six-foot pole.” The Boss said.

His tone stayed light, but he shifted his own hands away subtly, like even proximity was a risk he didn’t want.

“Where did you find that?” One of the members asked. Greed obvious in his eyes.

Kael felt it like pressure against his ribs. That stare wasn’t just interest. It was inventory math. It was the look of someone imagining Kael as a loot drop.

Kael could have easily said he made it, but that would bring even more questions. More “hows”, and “wheres”.

“Found it in the open dungeon of the basilisk,” Kael said.

He delivered it clean. No hesitation. The kind of lie that was closest to truth, because the dungeon was real, and the basilisk was real, and the gauntlet had come from that chain of events even if the hands

were his.

“And you only grabbed that? There could have been swords, armors, and shields…” another member displayed his displeasure with Kael’s ’naïve’ choice of weapons.

Kael didn’t look at him directly. Direct eye contact turned it into a challenge. He kept walking, letting the question drift behind him like exhaust.

“In my situation, I couldn’t use anything else, I’m Runebound,” Kael said.

He made it sound like a limitation, not a strategy. People didn’t envy limitations.

“Runebound? What is that?” the Boss was intrigued.

The curiosity in the boss’s voice sharpened. Not greedy. Analytical. The kind that catalogued problems and used them.

“As in can only use runes…”

“Ah,” the boss shook his head, “You mean Rune Tied. That’s what happens when anyone uses a rune for the first time. They become tied to those runes, unable to use anything but. Same case as you. I don’t know where you got that fancy name Runebound, you’re just tied to runes.”

Kael forced his face not to react.

Inside, he noted it like a blade sliding into a sheath: Rune Tied.Runebound. Similar sound. Different weight. The boss corrected him too fast for it to be guesswork.

“Yeah, I misspoke, couldn’t remember it since I saw it only once…” Kael said. He lied.

He lied smoothly because the alternative was admitting he didn’t know, and admitting you didn’t know things in this tower was blood in the water.

He immediately understood that there was a difference. Runebound and Rune tied might sound similar, but they are inherently different, and he should figure out how later.

“So what does that thing do?” The same person asked.

Kael heard the faint edge in their voices, the subtle hand it over hiding inside a question.

“Just put in a rune and it uses it. Nothing too fancy. This one has a fire rune… so it makes fire.”

“That’s it?” he said.

“Yeah, why you expected more?” Kael asked.

He let the snark show just enough to make it seem like he wasn’t afraid. Afraid people got pressed. Unbothered people got underestimated.

“I guess not, with runes, they’re all trash anyway. Anyone who is stuck with that stuff just uses the rune directly or binds it to a staff. The output is trash, the result is trash, and the effect is also trash… are you sure it’s resistant to fire and not that thing in your hand is simply… well, trash?” the same person said.

Kael’s grip tightened, almost imperceptibly, the gauntlet creaking faintly at the joints.

He didn’t bite. Biting meant you cared. Caring meant they could steer you.

Kael shrugged as he walked with the boss.

The shrug was deliberate. A dismissal. A quiet believe what you want.

“What are we doing now, boss?” another member said.

Their voices blended together in Kael’s head, a chorus of “what now” and “how do we benefit.”He didn’t bother assigning names. Names got you attached. Attachment got you stupid.

For Kael he never cared to remember who each one was. Especially since they never mentioned their own names. He just remembers faces, and for hi,m from left to right, every member of the Sun Clan was: minion number one, number two, and so on, so forth.

“We’ll split up. For today, it’s still early morning, go around, kill goblins, and loot as much as you can.”

The boss’s tone shifted back into command mode. Practical. Focused. No more philosophy.

“So, the usual?” minion number two said.

“The usual, but with more risk. I want you to locate anything strange or awkward. Unfortunately, John seemed to have an inkling of where to find a hidden piece, but…” The Boss turned to Kael and said, “He died.”

The word “died” landed heavier than it should have, because it wasn’t a lament. It was a fact. A missing tool.

“I’ll go look for something else, too.”

“Take Peter with you.” The Boss said.

The order came too quickly. Like it had been decided before Kael had even opened his mouth.

Immediately, Kael understood the implication. Peter was the one who handed him the poisoned water. But Kael never drank it. He was also being pushed onto Kael for two reasons.

The first and most obvious is monitoring. Since Kael always came with something new.

The second one is far simpler. The Boss wanted to see if Peter would come back alive or not.

The same with what happened with John.

“Fine with me,” Kael turned to Peter, “Only don’t expect me to save your neck if something happens to you.”

He made sure the words were casual, like it wasn’t personal. Like it wasn’t a warning sharpened into a sentence.

“D-don’t worry, I can carry my own weight.”

Peter’s voice caught on the first consonant, and his eyes flicked to the boss before settling back on Kael. He was trying to sound confident. Trying.

“Everyone, split up. We’ll meet back at the base before nightfall. Everyone, go in a group of two, watch your backs. And good luck. I’ll also head out and see what I can find…” the Boss said as he finalized his orders.

Groups began to peel off immediately, pairs forming with silent agreements and wary glances. The morning light didn’t make the city feel safer; it just made it easier to see the ruins you could die in.

Kael stayed where he was for half a breath longer than necessary, letting the flow move around him, then stepped toward Peter without rushing.

Because now it was just the two of them.

And Kael already knew: in this tower, “two” didn’t mean safer.

It just meant you had someone close enough to stab you without needing to throw.

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