“And done,” I said with a smile as I finished copying the massive, stupid book, Transversal of the Dungeon by famed playwright, Aaron the Orator. It had been a struggle to focus for the entire thing, but that was what made it such a great tool for leveling. It forced a person to pay attention and copy that flowy Eldarin Script and writing that would put even an insomniac to sleep.

“Congratulations,” Tutor Damian said from across the library table with a smile on his face.

“That should have pushed your skills both up to mastery at level 100. Now comes the tier 3 skills, Eldarin Runes and Empowered Writing,” he said.

“What exactly does Empowered Writing even mean?” I asked. I had some guesses, but Damian was here to answer these types of questions.

“Skills that the System doesn’t recognize are called tier 0. Eating or Talking are considered such skills, they don’t use any Mana and can’t be imprinted upon your soul. The only known tier 0 is your starting class tier, but I digress. Tier 1 skills use the tiniest amount of Mana. Tier 2 skills use a bit of passive Mana, an incredibly small amount that doesn’t register normally. Then you have tier 3 skills, which actively use a small bit of Mana. Tier 4 skills use a larger amount of Mana. That is why resistances are tier 3 and spell skills are tier 4. The tier skill list by the System is thought to be based on Mana use and complexity. But the more complex skills tend to use more Mana, with very few exceptions. It is an ongoing debate within the College of Advancement to better understand the tier aspect of a person’s status,” Tutor Damian explained.

“So, these are Mana skills then?” I asked with a touch of excitement.

“Yes, but they only use a small bit of your Mana reserves, rather than large chunks, unlike spells. Magic is your lowest stat, which isn’t too concerning since that stat will improve much more later on in your life when you focus on spell skills.” He then pulled out two thick books and a stack of paper.

“The first book is Eldarin Runes Compendium, 7^th Edition the most up to date edition and quite well done after I looked through it myself. I learned from the 6^th Edition and I can say that improvements have been made to how the information is presented. The second book is The Precise Details of Empowered Writing. It is incredibly technical. The stack of paper is for copying runes. One rune per piece of paper no more. Otherwise you might create an effect accidentally.” I looked at the newest two massive books with a touch of despair.

“Precision is key for runes. If you can copy all the runes precisely, you will advance to around level 60 in both skills. I do mean precisely. It gets very technical the further you dig into the subject, including ambient Mana, environment, and other esoteric factors. Once you can do individual runes, then you will work on runic seals, or tags as adventurers call them.”

“Tags?” I asked, since I hadn’t heard that term before.

“The paper used has a peelable side that then allows them to stick. Often used as explosives. So explosive tag, or fire tag. Normally if you can touch a monster you want to use your own skills to kill it and improve your skills, but they can also act as an emergency resource in the dungeon,” Tutor Damian explained. I nodded at this explanation.

“Oh, one more thing. Your father had this commissioned for you. A tier 3 runic writing set,” Tutor Damian said and got up, pulling out a tray from under the table. On it were several fountain pens of various sizes. All ornate, made of gold and silver, with no decoration on them. No, it wasn’t silver, but platinum! The most magically aligned metal.

“Gold and platinum. How is equipment tier determined and how does my status know?” I asked and Tutor Damian smiled at this.

“Based on Mana usage. You can feel the Mana?” I nodded at this as I could sense a slightly different Mana flow around the equipment. “Silver and gold make up tier 2 equipment. Gold and platinum make up tier 3 equipment. Then there are higher tier alloys with better Mana flow after that.”

“Platinum only goes up to tier 3?” I was a bit surprised as I looked over the writing tools.

“As a pure metal. Alloys require a much higher level of craftsmanship. While the writing tools look amazing, that is their artistry, not the alloys used to make them. Getting crafting skills up to a high tier is far more difficult for a simple reason. While one can get experience from crafting and killing monsters, killing monsters is much faster. And if a crafter splits their focus to learn fighting skills, they will struggle with all those skills and splitting their time and focus,” Tutor Damian explained.

“Surprised my father didn’t get me a higher tier set,” I replied.

“As long as the tier matches your current skill level it is more than enough. Having a higher tier doesn’t speed up your skill growth. It only means you don’t have to get another set later on. This set is bit high end for just starting, but the metals let your mana move more easily. Without these it would be very difficult to improve Empowered Writing. As for the ink, it is a special blend. The book on Empowered Writing details how to properly make it. You use monster cores blended in with the ink. I will do it for now, so you don’t get an Alchemy skill,” he explained,” he explained.

“That is Alchemy?” I asked in surprise.

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“The most basic, of basic Alchemy. But yes, it is. You are taking at least one material with Mana inside of it and mixing it with other materials. It is a tier 3 skill. You don’t have any of the supporting skills below it, but after mixing the ink several times you would probably get the skill.”

“So, hold off on it for now, got it,” I said, and Tutor Damian nodded at this.

“Otherwise, Healer Castelle will be quite annoyed. Unfortunately, with more complicated processes like runes, there tends to be overlap with other skills,” he said.

Just another minor setback, nothing major. I had a lot more reading to do. “Did the System create the skills like Eldarin History, when the Empire formed, or was it always there?” I asked. The question had been bothering me, but not enough to ask until right now. Tutor Damian was great at answering questions like this.

“If a group is large enough and is cohesive enough, then the System will recognize them. There are Elven and Dwarven Runes. We also have the precursor to the Eldarin Empire, High Vostner and Demonic Runes as well. I know the College of Advancement is looking to create a unified base runic language, but there hasn’t been any results despite their efforts. The new sets either aren’t unique enough, widespread enough, or some other missing factor for the System to take them into account,” he answered.

“What is going to happen with my completed book?” I asked. I never did find out what happened to the dictionary I had copied.

“Will be put away with the dictionary you copied. They are yours and you can sell them for a couple gold coins each.” While it was a lot of money, the materials weren’t cheap and it was a lot of content to copy over to a new book.

I opened up the runic book and began reading. There was only so much I could put off studying.

Runes are symbols that interface with Mana beyond one’s body and direct control. While there are only so many runes in each runic set, the variations are near endless. We will initially focus on Eldarin Runes with the assumption you understand Eldarin Script.

Runic symbols are not words, but compressed ideas. Eldarin Script has broken out sub-components of runic symbols into its own writing form without interfacing with Mana. Each idea is heavily nuanced and several of the most common definitions are given. This book only takes into account Eldarin Runes interacting with other Eldarin Runes as an introductory book and does not go into depth on cross rune interaction.

Only write runes by themselves in the presence of someone experienced in runes to avoid any accidental activations.

The introduction did a good job of explaining what runes were. A way to use Mana outside of spells. The symbols and overall symbology of linked runes came together to create effects.

This was where precision was important. If someone made an explosive, they needed to be sure how long it took to activate. If it went off too quickly or too late, that could be disastrous in combat.

As for individual runes, they tended not to do anything unless there was a lot of Mana. I would need the skill Mana Manipulation to activate them. There were exceptions when certain runes were combined or they were drawn improperly, causing an accident.

I concentrated on the book in front of me and began reading through it. I would read through both books first to get an idea of Runes to begin with before drawing any. The information was quite dense, and I didn’t want to keep copying it all this time. So, while I was reading it much faster, I would retain less of the material. That was why I was going to do an initial read through and then work my way through the books afterwards.

While it was tempting to get right into copying runes, the number of warnings from my Tutor and the book were enough to make me want to rush through the reading part first. Then after I had a decent understanding of runes, would I attempt to write some out.

“Are runes part of enchanting?” I asked after reading a section, that was a bit confusing.

“Yes and no. Enchanting is about creating a permanent Mana structure within an item. This can be done with just a skill spell or it can be done with or it can be done with both a skill spell and runes if one has the necessary skills and levels. The higher up you go the more interwoven things become and the more complicated. That is why many skills starting at tier 4 are unique. Trying to find structured skills that go higher is actually a challenge, since that structure is assumed to create the most stable skill for advancement,” he explained. I got the first part but I was confused on the second part.

“Can you explain the second part of that again?” I asked.

“Take your rune skill. It is tier 3. It is a very stable skill in terms of development and study. There is very little unknown about the skill. Same with many lesser skills. But once you get to tier 4 you start getting more unique skills. It is speculated, not confirmed, that these skills are more unstable, meaning it is harder to level them, and advance them into the next tier. It is harder to maximize their level. By the time you get to tier 6 they are all unique skills. That is why there is a push to develop a systematic approach to developing skill chains or skill trees past tier 4 and into tier 5 and 6,” he explained.

“I am guessing it isn’t going well?” I asked.

“Some skills don’t progress well after a certain point, even if they provide a broad foundation to work off of. Weapons Mastery and Runes Mastery are two perfect examples of this. They are very solid tier 4 skills, meaning they are well known, but once they reach mastery, level 100, they transition into a unique skill for an individual, not another standard skill in a chain,” Tutor Damian explained.

“And that makes it harder to keep the skills going up in tier,” I replied.

“Exactly, or at least that is what the College of Advancement believes. There are countless studies they have done regarding this issue. While the status is very simple, there is a lot of hidden processes occurring with the System behind it that they are trying to understand,” he explained.

“That doesn’t get them in trouble with the System Church?” I asked. I knew it was a separate organization and trained System Priests.

“The System Church’s opinion is that the professors at the College of Advancement are wasting their time worrying over numbers and not actually improving their skills. Looking for answers that will always be unknowable. Um, they regularly mock the Professors at the College of Advancement. They aren’t enemies, but both sides consider the other one hopeless,” he explained.

“Even with how well they are regarded?” I asked.

“I am from the College of Advancement, so I have a bit of bias in this regard. One uses numbers the other uses feelings to advise people. Many prefer numbers, but there is merit to using feelings. Your mother being a perfect example. No one held her hand to reach the pinnacle of power that she currently resides at. She fought her way there through sheer grit and determination doing what she felt was best,” he explained.

I loved my mother, but I was starting to realize I would never escape her legacy or shadow easily. But that was okay. She had cleared a path for me, which I would take, but would make my own.

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