Chapter 76: [76] First Class

There was a slight, but noticeable shift in the air, it was almost as if it had gotten a little bit windier than it had been moments ago.

But that was not all.

The floor where they sat began to glow, outlining the shape of a large rune, then slowly, dirt began to rise from the floor, forming multiple runes and floating around them.

Yennefer stopped eating and stared at the runes, her expression a mix of surprise and amusement.

’Is every single one of them an alphabet in runic language?’ Eliron wondered.

He reached out to touch one of them, and when his finger made contact with the cool, earthen text, it began to give off a soft, golden glow.

“If you were trying to impress me with this, then consider me impressed.”

He could sense the flow of her mana, that was how he knew that she had not used any ounce of her magic to activate the rune.

The spell was functioning solely on natural mana alone.

Zenith swallowed her food, then drank some water, after which her demeanor changed.

She already had a rather malevolent aura about her, but as she was about to speak about something she had spent centuries of her life studying, Zenith seemed even colder, or rather, more serious…

“To know how to use runes, you must first learn all the basics,” she began, her voice unwavering.

She lifted her hand slightly, and one of the runes floated just above it.

“Runes are ancient texts capable of drawing power from nature. They were first created by the old age Druid’s, seeking to tighten their relationship with nature.”

She paused briefly, before continuing.

“Based on the talent of the rune crafter, you can accomplish simple results, such as lighting up a stone, or creating soft wind.”

“But the more adept the rune crafter is, the greater their applications.”

Eliron silently agreed with her.

While most people applied runes to magic technology, in the novel there were adepts who even used runes for battle.

Fighting a conventional mage was one thing, but a battle with a runecrafter was potentially more deadly.

You could never tell what sort of nasty trick they would pull out of their bag of mysteries.

Zenith cocked her head slightly to the side, her eyebrows creased.

“Basically, just like any other language, runes are a form of expression. The better you are at expressing yourself, the more successful you will become.”

Yennefer was still eating while she spoke, but both her and Eliron were listening attentively.

“Any questions?”

They both shook their heads.

What Zenith had given them was the very basics about runes, he already knew all of it from reading the novel, so none of it was a surprise to him.

“Good, now pay attention, because I will not repeat myself,” she said sternly.

“There are four principles when it comes to runecraft.” She picked up a stick from beside her and began writing on the soil.

“We have Command, Subject, Conditional Statement, and lastly, Source.”

According to her explanation, Command was a set of instructions, or a singular instruction the rune was meant to carry out.

It was the most important step in runecraft.

“Take for example…” Zenith said, as she grabbed a rock.

She then picked one of the floating runes from the air and brought it closer to it.

Click!

Like a magnet being brought to metal, the rune embedded itself on the rock.

“This rune means hot, therefore, hot is the command I have given to it.”

She snapped her finger and there was a light shimmer on the rune.

“Touch it…” Zenith instructed.

When both Eliron and Yen touched the stone, Yennefer smiled while Eliron nodded.

“It’s really warm! Runes are cool.” Yennefer beamed.

Zenith smiled. “Now, that is the right attitude to learning, unlike that one…”

She gave Eliron a side eye, annoyed by his nonchalance, before she continued.

She explained that the ’subject’ was the object receiving the action. Like the stone for example, was the ’subject’ for the simple demonstration she did.

“When the object is singular, the rune is simpler, but where there are many subjects, the rune may require additional words.”

Zenith then yawned and stretched her hands above her head, her white garments lying loosely on her shoulders.

She blinked tiredly.

If it was any other thing, then she would have probably given up a long time ago.

The only reason she was still here was because she loved runes too dearly to do so…

Plus the reward she was getting at the end of the day was far too tantalizing.

“Alright, listen up. The third principle is a crucial one. It is called a Conditional Statement.”

This time, she waited a little longer before she continued.

“A Conditional Statement is an extra instruction that works in tandem with the ’Command’ principle.”

“For example; the rune will activate when I sink my finger.”

“This is the Conditional Statement that I assigned to the enchanted rock. Do you understand?”

Eliron couldn’t hold back his smile.

To his surprise, Zenith was actually a good teacher. But that was not the cause of his joy.

’This is just like programming!’

Although they were not identical, there were some programming languages he had learned in the past that followed similar instructions.

’Who knew learning to code for that part time job would be this useful?’

Already, he could imagine a thousand and one ways to make use of runes.

Since he had no modern tech, Eliron always felt somethings would be borderline impossible to pull off.

’But maybe with runes…’

There was a slight chance he could create a lot of quality of life improvements they had back on earth.

Zenith glanced at Eliron. “Focus.” She instructed when she noticed he was in a world of his own.

“Oh, you may continue…”

“As I was saying, Conditional statements are the only reason complex instructions can be carried out.”

“For example, I can say snapping will activate the rune, which would act as my first condition.”

She carved out a rune on the stone, the words burning into it like it was fire.

“Secondly, when the stone gets very hot, the rune will alternate to a second command.

— The stone will cool itself.”

This time, the runes were a little longer, Eliron could not understand the language, but strangely, Yennefer looked at it with a certain familiarity.

’Can she read it?’ Eliron wondered as he watched her.

She was technically an angel, so there was a chance she would know ancient texts.

Thankfully, she knew not to say anything about it.

“Now, with this, we have been able to create an automatic pocket heater, from just a few runes and Conditional Statements.”

Zenith smiled mischievously as she lifted the stone up. “Perfect isn’t it?”

Yennefer laughed. “It is! Let’s try something else!”

Eliron also had a smirk on his lips, as he absorbed every single word coming out of the woman’s mouth.

The final principle was Source.

Although runes depended on nature mana, there were times it simply wasn’t enough, and so it had to depend on an alternate source of power.

The ’Source Rune’ would determine how fast, how efficient and how much load of energy is supplied to the rune.

“Nature mana is usually enough to power a rune…” Zenith said proudly.

By now, she was so invested in the class, that she forgot she was complaining about having to teach not long ago.

“…But when you are dealing with things like enchantments, then a secondary power source like a mana crystal, or spirit shard can do.”

She took in a long breath and got to her feet.

“Repeat everything I’ve taught you in your heads a thousand times. We will continue tomorrow…”

Without uttering another word, Zenith hurriedly walked away, the rune block clutched tightly to her chest, and an excited smile on her face as she made her way to her tree house.

Eliron sighed. ’What is she even building?’

..

..

A/N

Thanks for reading. I hope I was able to explain it simply enough. If you have any questions, please, feel free to ask them.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep