Chapter 106: The Value of Legendary

Kael’s words came out without looking at Peter, like he was reading the thought off him, anyway, like Peter’s “why” was loud enough to hear. And at the same time, those thoghts were meaningless.

There was a lone building in front of them, quite tall, very tall in fact, probably the tallest building they’ve seen in this city.

It rose out of the ruins like a broken tooth. A skeletal tower of cracked concrete and exposed steel ribs, leaning slightly, stubbornly refusing to fall. The wind caught in its hollow floors and made a low, constant moan that could’ve been the building breathing.

Broken, destroyed, and barely standing.

Kael checked his Mini-Map and realized that he wasn’t wrong when he first thought that [Excise] was at the top of the building. It really was. And he needed to climb it, but the problem was that now he was close, the building was full of red dots.

The closer they got, the more the map confirmed what Kael’s eyes already suspected: the inside wasn’t empty. It wasn’t safe. It was a nest.

“We’ll go up there,” Kael said.

“Inside? Buildings like those are quite dangerous,” Peter said.

Peter’s voice came tight again, the memory of night monsters and the tower’s cruelty still fresh. His gaze tracked the broken windows, the gaping holes, the shadowed floors where something could stare down and wait.

“I know, just follow me for now,” Kael said as he moved closer and closer to the main building.

His steps were purposeful, but not rushed. Rushing made noise. Rushing made mistakes. And mistakes in a place with that many red dots meant dying in ways that didn’t leave a clean corpse.

Just as they arrived at the base of the building, Kael turned to Peter, “Stay here, I’ll check things out inside.”

He said it like an order, but it was also a test. Will you actually do what you’re told when it matters? Or will you try something stupid?

“You need a weapon?”

Peter’s hand drifted toward his own, like offering it might buy him favor. Like being useful might patch over the poison.

“I have what I need,” Kael said as he raised his gauntleted arm up.

The rune socket in his palm sat quiet, but Peter’s eyes lingered on it anyway. Runes had a reputation for being unreliable, dangerous, and more likely to kill the user than the target if you didn’t know what you were doing.

Peter sounded a bit skeptical. And he couldn’t amass the courage to say that outloud.

“Are you sure?” Peter tried to confirm again, but Kael’s unwavering gaze was all he needed to see to understand that Kael wasn’t backing out of this.

Kael didn’t blink. Didn’t sigh. Didn’t reassure. He just stared until Peter’s question felt stupid in his own mouth.

“Fine, I’ll stay here for an hour, if you don’t come out by then…” he stalled.

Peter tried to salvage some dignity by setting a boundary, by pretending he had agency. His eyes scanned the street behind them and the alley mouths around them, already anxious about being left alone.

“Then just leave, don’t come looking for my corpse, if anything here kills me, it’ll definitely kill you too,” Kael said and walked inside.

He disappeared into the building’s shadow, the daylight swallowed by broken concrete and stale darkness. The air inside hit him immediately: dust, old rot, the metallic tang of exposed rebar, and something damp that had been trapped for too long. Every footstep echoed.

***

After going up a couple of stories high, while making sure to keep a lookout for the red dots, which thankfully, for now, and unfortunately for later, were all at the upper floors of this building.

“Finally, some peace and quiet.” Kael sighed as he pulled the newest item added to his collection.

The moment the outside world muffled behind him, his shoulders loosened a fraction. Not because he felt safe, but because he felt alone. Alone meant no eyes reading his face. No mouths asking questions. No teammates turning into problems.

He leaned against a cracked pillar where the light from a collapsed wall cut in at an angle, then opened his inventory and drew the rune out like a gambler checking his last card.

***

[Rare Rune, Heft- ᚻᛖᚠᛏᚾᛖᛋ]

Heft Rune adds weight to weightless concepts.

The Mana consumption of anything with [Heft] added to it is doubled.

Increases the chance of making an afflicted spell become Volatile.

***

Kael’s eyes widened as he read the spell. He thought it would be something like gravity. But no, this was far better for what he needed right now.

His mind immediately snapped to that worthless fireball, beautiful, fast, hot… and weightless. It burned, sure, but it didn’t hit. It didn’t shove. It didn’t smash. Against walls and armor and anything that wasn’t flesh, it was a fancy torch.

The only issue was the two constrictions of the rune.

Two lines that looked innocent until you pictured them happening at the wrong time. Double mana draw and volatility, both the kind of things that got you killed in the tower because the tower loved “risk” right up until it loved your corpse more.

Its main effect was basically a godsend. “Now even the Fireball would have a weight. But… that volatility is scary,” he thought.

He pictured it instantly: a fireball that didn’t drift and splash, but slammed like a cannonball. He also pictured the other possibility: a spell forming in his palm and detonating before it left.

In his head, he could already see himself trying to shoot a spell in a decisive moment, and the fireball blows up in his face.

The mana being doubled was not that much of an issue. Since he could barely feel the draw of mana from using runes.

Not with his current pool. Not after all those stats. He’d gotten used to the tower’s little tax on his body. But “used to” didn’t mean “immune.”

But there was one thing that caught his attention. The word Volatility.

He read that somewhere else. And read that in another rune. A rune that felt far too bad to be any good.

A rune that described itself with nothing but negatives.

His mind replayed the text like a solved puzzle being placed back on the table.

“No wonder it’s a legendary rune.”

Kael smiled as everything finally clicked in place.

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