Runeblade-Chapter 298B3 : Rematch, finale

**Ding! level 245 Ruinbringer - Waiting Death slain - Experience Gained! Bonus Experience for slaying a foe of Significant Strength!**

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**Ding! Runeblade Initiate has reached level 120 > 124!**

**+3 End, Str, & Int, +2 Dex, Wil, +1 Vit, Free - from Class & Racial Traits!**

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**Ding! Class skill available for selection!**

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The chimes finally came. Kaius yanked his blade free from the carcass of the ruinbringer, a steady stream of ichor falling as the flat of his blade ground against the hardened and abrasive edge of the hole in its carapace.

Pending skill increase notifications and his waiting class skill were left where they were, an awareness at the back of his mind he would have time for later.

Plunging his sword into the desert sand, he bent over and just allowed himself to breathe, feeling his body recover swiftly as his stamina revitalised aching muscles and soothed his lungs. Around him, he could hear his team groaning out their own complaints at their fatigue.

He grinned at the sand, enjoying the soft glow of victory. Another skill, and their second victory in the Depths, this one coming with less injury than last time. Porkchop had been beat to the hells and back, and the scorpion had managed to break more than a few of his ribs when it had body slammed him with desperate fury — not to mention the ragged holes its spines had left in his chest and stomach — but they’d managed to halve their close brushes with death!

Once they’d removed its pincers and tails, the scorpion had been limited to blind fury and clumsy swings of its locked up claws.

Still, it was a heavily armored second tier beast and he wasn’t bent over with sweat on his brow for nothing. Looking up, he eyed the oozing piles of liquid and organs that spread free of the dozens of seeping holes in the scorpion's carcass; some of them as large as his head. The beast just hadn’t wanted to go down. Hells, he’d seen undead in better states by the time it died.

It was like fighting the drake all over again.

The next time he saw Ro he’d need to thank her for her warning that monsters wouldn't stay so easy to kill at higher levels. While he hadn’t quite expected it to be this severe, without it he would have likely taken risks to secure a ‘killing’ blow — something that easily could have left him maimed when it didn’t work.

Their performance gave him confidence. While they were nowhere near ready to fight entire legions of monsters, this fight had proven that they could work together to pick apart and eliminate a stronger enemy.

It was a cohesion that would only grow, and with a few more levels under their belt he couldn’t wait to see what they could accomplish — how deep they could push in pursuit of greater strength.

That was for the future though. He had a skill to pick.

Straightening up, Kaius lay a hand on his pommel and saw the satisfied smiles on his teammate’s faces. Even Kenva, who had previously been more than a little wary of the dangers of the twenty-fifth layer.

“Alright folks, great job — love the improvements, we’ve gone from two partial disembowelments to one!” he said with a grin and clapped, drawing eyerolls from his team.

Clapping Porkchop on the back, he nodded towards the shimmering dome that Kenva and Ianmus stood under. His War Haven. Regardless of their gains, leaving before they had recovered their spent resources would be a fool’s choice, and the barrier would give them at least some protection while they rested.

“How’s your chest?” he asked, eying the bloodsoaked holes in his brother’s under armour.

Porkchop chuffed, shaking his head. “Fine — it’s all healed now. I had plenty of time to recover after you filled it full of Nails.”

“Better than risking one of the squishies.” he gave Porkchop a wink.

“True. Still a little boring though.”

Shaking his head with a smile, he caught Kenva giving him an odd look.

“Do they always do that? Just walk around silently making faces at each other?” she said to Ianmus, blatantly loud enough for Kaius to hear.

“All the time. It makes Kaius look more than a little mad when he’s walking around Deadacre.” Ianmus locked eyes with him and grinned.

Kaius paused. He didn’t really do that, did he? It wasn’t like people went around staring at him for laughing at ghosts only he could see. Feeling a heat rising on his cheeks, he heard his backline laugh goodnaturedly and gave them a half grin.

Stepping into his War Haven felt like tepid water running down the back of his neck as the barrier rippled to let him pass effortlessly.

“Alright, did either of you get your next skill?”

Both Ianmus and Kenva shook their heads. A shame — it would have been fantastic if they could each unlock something new. Still, it wouldn’t be long before the gap between them started to equalise. Another scorpion, maybe two at most. Definitely before they moved to the next biome at least.

Kaius gave them a nod, unceremoniously plopping himself down onto the sand. It stung his palms with its heat, but it was a pleasant burn after such an extended bout of swordplay.

“I suppose it’ll just be me and Porkchop then — give me a moment to check how my skills have progressed, and I'll see what I've been offered,” he said, before turning his attention to the gentle tugging of his notifications.

His skill increases almost jumped into his vision, like they’d been under pressure after building up since he’d last checked.

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**Ding! Class Skill Notifications Consolidated!**

**Latent Glyph of Drakthar has reached level 139 > 141!**

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**Initiates Glyphic Bladerite has reached level 110 > 113!**

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**Latent Glyph of Aelina has reached level 125!**

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**Mystic’s Rend has reached level 88 > 93!**

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**Latent Glyph of Vyrthane has reached level 2 > 5!**

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**Sigil of Vesryn’s Pact has reached level 5!**

**General Skill Notifications Consolidated!**

**Liturgical Bladeform: Primus Ordo has reached level 146 > 147!**

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**Explorer’s Toolkit has reached level 108 > 109!**

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**Resonance Amplification has reached level 100 > 104!**

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**Uncanny Dodge has reached level 134 > 138!**

Seeing the growth of his abilities laid out so plainly brought a simple smile of satisfaction to his face. Nearly half of his general skills had already been capped, and he was progressing nicely with the vast majority of others.

He’d been worried that they’d end up stuck at the peak of the first tier for some time with how fast he expected them to level their classes, but it seemed he might not have to worry. In all likelihood, it would be the full development of their Aspects that would bottleneck them.

Something that he couldn’t complain too much about, since he had it on the authority of a god that they needed to finish them before they moved up. It wasn’t like the time would be wasted, they’d definitely still have more than a few class skills to work on at that point to continue growing their strength.

Regardless, his skill growth was only of nominal interest to him right now with next class skill right there. Scrunching his fist, he pulled up his next notification.

Latent Glyph of Eirnith:

Class Skill - Tier I

Affinity: Arcane, Mind

Type: Glyph-binding, Runic, Spellcasting, Psionic

Selection Available!

Heroic

The ‘Glyph of the Watcher’, it is through Eirnith that Vesryn knows all and can influence much. Hardening the mind into a tool of war, its hymns provide silent and unseen support in order to further the goals of a Runeblade. It is inscribed on the temples, so all may know of the cunning of Vesryn.

This skill allows you to inscribe Vesryn sensory, mental, and psionic spell-hymns to be activated at will, limited only by the availability of mana to reserve into the working, and sufficient space on the body. Creates a hymnbook on the user's status if one is not already present. Multiples of the same glyph can cast hymns inscribed on their counterpart.

Each level moderately increases the power, range, and area of effect of spell-hymns cast through the glyph.

Each level slightly decreases the physical size of inscribed spell-hymns.

Every 100 levels the user may learn another runic hymn of the relevant tier to add to their hymnbook.

Spell-hymns Known:

Tier I -

Selection Available!

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Vesryn Glyphlink:

Class Skill - Tier I

Affinity: Arcane, Union

Type: Glyph-binding, Teamwork, Enhancement

Selection Available!

Heroic

An interesting man, rather generous, even. Always giving away this or that to someone he shouldn’t have the care to even glance at. I know its not quite what you might expect from someone who is effectively a spectre haunting the underworld of Hinseth, but it’s true — you can check the old records yourself.

This skill creates a glyphic link that connects you with an individual of your choice for fifteen seconds. When you cast a self-enhancement, the effect duplicates across the link at half potency.

Cost: 100 mana

Each level significantly increases the duration of effect.

Each level moderately increases the potency of the shared enhancement.

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Lingering Cut:

Class Skill - Tier I

Affinity: Martial, Arcane

Type: Spellsword, Armament Technique, Slash

Selection Available!

Unique

Beware the cutting edge of magic, for it cares little for those it destroys.

This skill infuses the point of your sword with arcane energy. The trail of your next attack leaves a cutting edge of arcane that lingers in the air for five seconds, damaging foes who touch it and degrading their defenses.

Causes affliction: Arcane Blight

Cost: 100 mana

Each level significantly increases the power of the arcane edge.

Each level moderately increases the corrosive and armour penetrating effects of Arcane Blight.

Each level slightly increases the length of time the skill persists.

Elation welled at the sight of what was waiting for him. Another glyph. He hoped, but had still tried to avoid getting his hopes up. A rather difficult prospect, since he’d been offered one every second skill for the length of time he’d had his class.

“You got something good then, I take it?” his brother asked, nudging him out of his concentration.

He beamed, saying nothing.

“A glyph then,” Ianmus chimed in, nodding seriously. “That makes things easy then, not like you’re going to pick anything else. What’s it do?”

Kaius laughed. The mage wasn’t wrong — the formations were far too valuable to pass up. Not only did each one drastically widen his capabilities, but they gave him another vital example that he could use to decipher the script that they were made from.

“Mind spells — sensory, mental, and psionic effects. I haven’t heard much about that last category of spell before, but hey, I’ll get some cool swirls on my temples so why not.” he said, joking.

Ianmus, true to form, completely ignored his joke to focus on the magic — nodding his head appreciatively.

“Psionic, that’s rather uncommon. A branch of the craft that is vastly more dependent on the use of Will than almost any other. They’re exclusive to mind magic. Hells, they might as well be mind magic, for how often people associate its effects with the affinity.”

Kaius scratched his chin. He didn’t know much about mind mages, only what most did — abilities like telepathy, force projection, and a whole litany of abilities that were extremely illegal to use on a member of the higher races without the proper licences, something true for literally every government he knew.

Ianmus saw his pensiveness. “Don’t worry, it can do a lot more than emotional manipulation and mind-cracking,” he said with a smile. “At its core, it’s a category that revolves around causing effects through impressing your Will upon the world. Usually with a bent towards utility, which would line up with the mental and sensory spells that the glyph uses,” he explained.

Utility, eh? That sounded like a fine addition to his capabilities — there was a lot more to magic than combat, and much of it would be dramatically helpful over the full course of his life. Especially in the Depths, which hosted what had to be an infinite number of challenges that couldn’t necessarily be solved with a good punch.

“Well then, I guess we can see what spells it offers in a second then, can’t we?” he said, making his choice.

**Ding! Latent Glyph of Eirnith Class Skill Available, would you like to proceed? This choice is pivotal and irrevocable.**

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