Return of the Runebound Professor-Chapter 804: Directions

The rocks reminded Noah of cereal.

Not the kind of cereal that anyone ever should have been putting into their body — and that wasn’t because they were rocks. It was the colors. Nothing that vibrant was ever meant to be edible, but that logic had never stopped children.

The rocks, which were no more edible than they had been a moment ago, were green and white and blue and just about everything across the rainbow, with a few new colors tossed in just for fun.

Noah was not a child. He was well past the age where he could be tempted to pop something into his mouth due to its shiny color or any bird-adjacent marketing.

That didn’t stop him from considering the thought of tasting a few of them. In his defense, it had been a very long time since he’d last had cereal. He was pretty sure Arbitage had never invented the concept. For that matter, it had been a long time since he’d had any manner of proper meal whatsoever.

The only actual food he’d eaten recently was the jerky that he’d liberated from the Researcher’s office. And while that was more than sufficient to sustain him, Noah wouldn’t have exactly placed it on the top of list of desired foods.

He suppressed a sigh as he climbed across the seemingly endless sea of stones. It really did feel like some arrogant rainbow had managed to offend a god and gotten itself blasted into a million fragments, tossed to the earth, doomed to forever stare up at the sky where it had once reigned.

Noah had been wandering through the sea of cereal-stones for three days. For once in his life, he was actually certain of the passing of time. He’d counted the number of times the sun had risen.

There had yet to be any sight of civilization. Of people — or even of monsters. There was nothing but stones, and it was starting to get on his nerves.

I didn’t escape the depths of the Beyond and the Citadel just to get myself lost in a goddamn pile of fancy rocks. There has to be something out here, right? My supplies aren’t that low yet, but if I went this long without dying only to end up starving to death, I’m going to be bloody pissed.

There was always the chance his gourd would work. Perhaps killing himself would be the solution to all his problems. But it also bore the risk of not working. Noah still didn’t know the full extent of the changes he’d wrought to himself.

The idea of risking getting caught back in the Beyond or otherwise wasting time getting back to Moxie and the others… he just couldn’t accept it.

No. I’m not letting myself die until I see them again. Everyone has been waiting too long. I will only permit myself to die after we’ve met and I have ensured they’re still alive. I can make it that long, right?

Noah scratched at the side of his chin. His eye twitched. He let out the sigh he’d been holding back.

Then he continued on.

Another day passed just as the previous ones had. More rocks. More walking. The temptation to call upon the Line prickled at Noah’s mind. It beckoned to him tantalizingly, as if the Line wanted him back upon its path. Shimmers of gold danced past the edges of his vision whenever they thought he wasn’t quite paying attention, so fast that he could only catch the fading remnants of their memory.

Annoyance bubbled up within Noah. He refused to indulge the Line. Its power was closer to the surface than ever, but he had absolutely no desire to draw upon it. Using the wretched power felt like chipping away at what little remained of his humanity. He’d walked upon that golden path long enough. Unless there was absolutely no other choice, Noah had absolutely no plans of stepping on it again.

I miss my sword.

The temptation of using his runes to fly was strong. It would have let him cover ground a lot faster, but it also would have wasted a lot of power. And, when there were no monsters to kill, that meant he’d chew through his supplies at an incredible rate.

If he’d had a proper Wind Rune, flying around would have been much more efficient than walking. But with only the components of one buried deep within Unraveling Disruption, the amount of energy he’d have to use would just be too vast. He couldn’t call on Concentrated Singularity either.

The gravity rune was great for dodging out of the way and repositioning during fights, but it was horribly inefficient for covering distance. It would probably be a good idea to get his hands on some kind of rune that gave him a better way to cover ground in the future. Noah made a mental note of that. But there was nothing he could do about it right now.

And so he walked. He walked — and the horizon changed.

Silhouetted against the setting sun arrived something new. A break from the sea of rocks in the form of a shadowy wall in the distance. Sharp, triangular peaks poked up above it in the unmistakable form of a rather large town. Of course, it was nothing at all in comparison with Arbitage, but most things weren’t.

The town looked roughly comparable to the Linwick Estate — and that meant there would be people. There would be answers… and a way out of this damned sea of cereal.

Relief sliced across Noah’s features. He drew on Unraveling Disruption in an instant. Now that there was an end to the walk, there was absolutely no reason to play things so safe with his energy.

He reached deep within the Rank 5 Rune and found the aspects of wind within it, pulling them forth and taking a running step before launching himself into the air with a delighted laugh.

Wind whipped through his hair in a howl as he took to the sky. The remaining distance between himself and the town shrank rapidly as he pushed himself through the sky. It wasn’t quite as fun as using a flying sword, but it was certainly a hell of a lot better than all the walking he’d just been doing.

It only took a few minutes for Noah to close the distance between himself and the town. He didn’t want to go flinging himself right over the wall. Generally, the purpose of a giant barricade was to keep people from doing that, and the last thing he wanted to do was piss off the local populace.

There were a few guards standing along the top of the wall, but Noah was moving far too fast and the wind was biting at his eyes too much to grant him a good look at them.

He lowered his trajectory to aim for the area before a large, twenty-foot tall stone door that had been drawn closed. A rather sizable crowd had gathered near it — probably around twenty odd people — but they didn’t seem to be paying him any mind.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Noah used a sharp gust of wind in the opposite direction to keep himself from splattering against the ground as he landed. He touched down on the ground, hurriedly combing his hair back into shape with his fingers. It would be a shame if he made a bad impression.

The people at the back of the group stumbled from the force of the wind that Noah’s arrival put off. They spun toward him — and it struck him that all of them wore black cloth masks over their faces, leaving only their eyes uncovered.

“…the gate!” a man from the group in front of Noah yelled.

Sweet. They speak whatever language they spoke back in Arbitage. Good to know that those books really were just in some kind of cypher. I wonder what the masks are for.

And why are they staring at me like that?

“Heya,” Noah said, raising a hand. “Sorry to interrupt. I—”

“I don’t care who you’ve brought!” the guard on the top of the wall yelled. His voice cracked with fear, but he pointed the spear in his hands down at the group Noah had just inadvertently joined. “We’re not opening the gates for you bastards! Tell your wretched scumsucker of a boss that we’ll all be dead before we let you through this gate.”

“That can be arranged,” the man at the front of the group called back with a dry laugh. “We’ve given you long enough, Far-sed. And you can tell him yourself. After all… he’s here.”

The guard’s face went as white as a sheet. He glanced over to Noah.

Noah’s stomach sank.

What kind of bullshit side-plot did I just walk into?

The crowd before Noah parted, revealing a bulky man clad in black armor. He held a rune-covered javelin in one hand and sported a rough crown of jagged black metal upon his head. Any intimidating effect the crown may have had was slightly reduced by the fact that he’d jammed it on top of his facial covering, making it look kind of like a video game avatar that had been optimized for stats rather than for style.

Murmurs rolled through the group as a few more of then glanced in Noah’s direction. His arrival hadn’t gone unnoticed by either of the two parties.

“Could you guys hold off on this for a moment?” Noah asked, clearing his throat and raising his voice. He still had his soul shaped and his pulled tight around him. Garina’s teachings had ensured that. There was never a good reason to let someone know how powerful he was. At best, it just spoiled the fun. “If you just let me know where the nearest city is other than this one, I’ll be on my way.”

“I’ll not help a single one of you,” the guard snarled. “You want to try and take something from us? Come and get it.”

Oh, come on.

The leader of the masked group turned toward Noah. Malice burned in his dark green eyes. It looked like he didn’t much appreciate having his moment stolen. “Who are you? A hired mercenary?”

“A man looking for the nearest city,” Noah replied. “Preferably one that isn’t going to waste a bunch of my time on bullshit. I’m looking for some people. Care to point me in the right direction?”

“I can’t sense his domain,” one of the men in the crowd said, not even bothering to speak quietly. “He’s weak.”

“A likely story,” the crowned man said with what was clearly his dry laugh. A part of Noah wondered if he’d practiced it in the mirror. The large man certainly had it down to a T. “I say you’re a mercenary who lost his guts the moment he arrived before us. You’ve fallen low, Far-sed. You couldn’t even afford one with proper armor? What is this, a beggar? Pathetic.”

Noah looked down at himself. He did look rather… haggard.

“He isn’t with your lot?” the guard, whose name must have been Far-sed, asked. Suspicion creased his features. His eyes narrowed. “A likely story, that is. I don’t believe it for a second. You won’t get me to drop our defenses and come out that easily. You’re all talk. Even if your entire gang is here — you can’t breach our Rune Shield.”

Noah pinched the bridge of his nose. “Hey. I’m not with either of you. Just… point me in the direction of the nearest town, would you? Then I can leave you both to whatever this is.”

“You think you can leave? That easily?” the crowned bandit laughed again — confirming Noah’s suspicion that he most certainly had been practicing. Nobody laughed this often. “I don’t think so, mercenary. Beggar or not… nobody crosses the path of the Jagged Daggers and lives to tell the tale.”

Far-sed’s eyes narrowed. His grip tightened on his weapon as a flicker of confusion passed through his features. He glanced from Noah to the masked men, clearly trying to figure out what was happening.

Noah didn’t blame him. He was pretty confused too.

“That clearly isn’t the case,” Noah said. “This Far-sed guy knows you, and he’s still alive. So—”

“Be silent!” the crowned man snarled. He raised his javelin and pointed it at Noah. “Your words will only remain sharp so long as your heart still beats.”

Noah pursed his lips. Then he tilted his head to the side. “Hold on. Did you say you brought your entire group with you?”

“That’s right,” the leader of the Jagged Daggers said with his signature laugh. “So you should realize—”

“No next of kin?” Noah asked. “No random extra wandering soldiers that are going to come after me after this? No relation to some random rich dickhead that inexplicably has a deep love for you?”

“Your insults only make your death more painful,” the leader growled. “We are the Jagged Daggers. We rely on nobody but ourselves, and we have nobody but each other. Tremble in fear of what is to come, beggar.”

“Oh. That’s great!” Noah said, blowing out a relieved sigh. “I really didn’t want to go on a whole side thing here. I’ve got a bit of a job I’m trying to handle right now. This makes it a lot easier.”

And then Noah released his domain.

It ripped over every single Jagged Dagger in an instant, and Noah’s mental gaze passed over them all equally as fast. They were all roughly around Rank 4, with the leader at Rank 5. They would have been a decently strong group back in Arbitage, maybe enough to be valued members of a family.

Not a single one of them was powerful enough to even try casting magic while under the pressure of Noah’s domain.

If the bandits here are Rank 4, then how strong are the real powerhouses?

Meh. That’s a question for later. Better make sure to be thorough. I’ve got no idea what I’m dealing with here.

Noah drew sharply on his runes. He drew a huge amount of power from Concentrated Singularity even as the bandits’ eyes went wide behind their masks, realizing far too late that Noah most certainly did have a domain.

He raised his hand. The air in the center of the group just before him crumpled, collapsing into a twisting black vortex the size of Noah’s palm. The bandits were yanked off their feet with a cacophony of curses and cries of surprise.

Their runes must have been rather terrible, as even the combined pressure of their domains wasn’t enough to save a single one of them. It did help that they were all rather close together. All of the men were yanked together in an instant to collide with each other.

Noah dropped his grasp of Concentrated Singularity and swapped to Astral Ruin immediately. The men in the group started to scramble to their feet and tried to untangle themselves.

They weren’t fast enough. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Magic drained out of him as the air by Noah’s head ignited. He didn’t spare a single speck of power, draining the rune as much as he could with a single spell. A molten black stone twisted into reality, formed from raw power and snarling with furious purple flame.

Noah flicked his hand down.

The meteor hurtled forth. It slammed into the center of the group — and every scrap of magic contained within it was released at once. A deafening explosion shook the ground. Black flame tore out in a hungry roar, swallowing the entire group with a flash of light.

Its angry glare faded as quickly as it had arrived, leaving behind nothing but a smoldering crater on the ground. Far-sed stared down from his wall, jaw hanging agape.

The only sound that remained behind was the faint crackle of flame fading against the now-scorched and shattered rocks.

Noah looked down at his hand, then back to where the Jagged Blades had once stood. Not a single one of the bandits had survived the attack.

Whelp. That might have been a bit of overkill. I didn’t think they’d be that damn weak.

At least I avoided the side-plot.

“So,” Noah said, adjusting his tattered coat and craning his neck back so he could look up at Far-sed. “About those directions…”