Chapter 46: RUNEBOUND

Kael stood up and began a sprint of life and death, while the goblins that were around him seemed to have realized that he simply wasn’t there anymore.

The movement felt surreal, his legs working, his lungs pulling air, but the world not responding to him the way it should.

Goblins turned their heads too late or in the wrong direction. A few stared straight at him and still didn’t react properly, their expressions confused, their bodies hesitating as if their eyes couldn’t convince their brains of what they were seeing.

Kael turned and watched the goblins, though they stared at him, they couldn’t even locate him as he sprinted as fast as he could toward the nearest alley. He didn’t slow down to enjoy it.

He didn’t trust it. He just ran, feet slamming against stone, breath tearing through his chest, pushing his body harder now that pain wasn’t dragging him down. The alley ahead looked like salvation, not because it was safe, but because it was narrow, shadowed, full of angles that broke lines of sight.

He stopped next to a rundown building, heaving as he caught his breath. The wall was rough under his hand when he leaned against it, and the smell of rot and old stone seeped through even his dulled senses.

He bent forward slightly, hands on his knees, letting his lungs catch up while his eyes flicked constantly toward the street he’d just fled, expecting pursuit even though the map suggested otherwise.

A few notifications had shown up in front of him, but he didn’t have the time to go through them earlier. Now they hovered insistently, as if the Tower had been waiting patiently for him to stop running so it could deliver consequences.

****

[You have been Runebound]

Your magic circuits have been forcefully altered.

You cannot exert magic outside of your body anymore.

Mana within your body has double the efficiency and power. But it can no longer be emitted outside of it naturally.

You have obtained [Stigmata]

[Your body has entered shock due to the abrupt addition of multiple stats at once]

You can now use Runes, [The Tongue of Gods.]

***

’Tongue of Gods, my ass. This is nothing but a limiter,” Kael couldn’t help but curse inwardly as he watched his surroundings.

The words “forcefully altered” stuck in his head like a splinter. Not learned. Not awakened. Altered. Forced. It confirmed what he’d already felt: this wasn’t him gaining something. This was him being modified to fit a system that didn’t care if he liked the fit.

But no enemies seemed to be coming toward him, and the mini-map was telling him that he was currently safe, and that thin layer of safety was the only reason he allowed himself to keep reading instead of running again.

[The Presence Rune effect will end in 10 seconds. Please supply the Rune Stigma with more mana to increase the duration!]

“Stigma?” Kael said. The word came out quietly, confused, and he immediately regretted speaking at all, as his own words slurred out, sounding like they echoed from everywhere but nowhere at the same time. [Presence] was hampering even his ability to speak.

Kael frowned as he realized that he missed something. ’What was that stigma thing?’ and then he remembered the sharp pain in his chest. He reached up with one hand, fingers pressing lightly over the left side as if he could locate the heat beneath the fabric. The burning sensation was still there, muted but present, like an ember buried under cloth.

He unzipped his sweater and noticed two things that shouldn’t be there. The first was his chest. Kael was a tall guy, and his former work gave him a decent muscular build to begin with. Working in construction builds both strength and stamina. Not the stats but the actual things. He knew his body. He knew its limits. He knew where the muscle sat and where the fat collected.

But what he was looking at right now were pectoral muscles that definitely didn’t feel like his. The shape was wrong, fuller in a way that didn’t match his memory, like someone had swapped the blueprint overnight. He even lost a bit of fat from his abdomen area and what looked like abs started showing. He ran his fingers across them with a stunned disbelief, half expecting it to vanish like an illusion.

’The fuck is going on?’ he frowned and could only think that maybe the pain and agony from earlier was the cause. There wasn’t a better explanation. The Tower had rewritten him with numbers, and his body had obeyed.

The second thing he noticed was the large burn mark on his left chest. It looked like something was singed, more like a branding of sorts. And it was awfully similar to the Presence Rune schematic. The mark wasn’t messy like an accident. It was deliberate, shaped, a symbol pressed into skin with intent. It made his stomach twist because brands weren’t just wounds. Brands were ownership, identification, and proof of change.

[The effect of the Presence rune has ended.]

Kael only realized it when the time had ended, and with it, a jolt of pain came rushing back in. It slammed into him like the world had been holding its breath and finally exhaled violence. His muscles seized again, though not as brutally as before, and his knees threatened to buckle.

His body was once again suffering from the sudden changes. Thankfully, they were much less powerful than before, more like deep throbs and sharp aftershocks rather than the full bone-rearranging scream.

He took a couple of deep breaths and paced himself. In through the nose, out through the mouth, forcing his lungs into rhythm until the panic didn’t control the timing.

First things first, he needed a place to hide until the pain goes away, and second thing was. If he can’t get rid of this Tongue of the Gods thing, then he might as well start understanding more about it, since basically he’s in a boat that already took off anyway.

The thought didn’t comfort him, but it anchored him. He was changed. He was marked. He was still alive.

Now he had to figure out how to stay that way.

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