5.17

That would be his goal for tomorrow—to build a kiln of some sort, he had some of the larger rocks left over, and there were plenty along the shoreline that he could snag as well. Between that and the clay he’d filled his inventory with, he had more than enough materials to make a start on it. He’d probably have to remake it, but he was getting used to that whole process.

Haiko seemed to know what she was doing with the whole pottery thing, so if the Kiln was successful, they could potentially get started on making some containers—only August had the inventory to rely on, and the others were forced to carry everything around by hand, so it seemed like a good move.

August turned his attention back to the [Efkini Core] resting against his shin, lifting it up into the light once more. He took note of where the runes he had already learned were located, and after he’d spent some time actually looking at the patterns, something became clear—there were a lot of repeating patterns.

He found one of the shorter ones and spent a moment looking at the order—the [Contact Absorption I] rune seemed to be the third rune in the sequence. The [Energy Connector I] came directly after it, immediately followed by a [Energy Storage I]. August followed the runes back up to the beginning, where the two unknown runes sat right at the start of the sequence. He made sure there was nothing visibly wrong with the rune, no cracks, dents or other issues, and once he was certain he wouldn’t be wasting his mana, he used [Analysis].

A rune that has been etched into an Efkini Core with Mana.

[Ambient Mana] Unlocked.

August flicked through the menu to locate and read the full description of the new rune.

A reference rune that describes a predefined energy type.

It was a rather small entry compared to the others, but once he’d read through it, he tried to contextualise it with the other runes in the sequence. The description for the [Contact Absorption I] said that it was compatible with multiple types of energy, and this one seemed to be narrowing it down to one option in particular—Ambient Mana.

Given the other runes he already knew about, he was starting to get an overall idea of what was going on. He turned his attention back to the second rune in the chain, checked to make sure it wasn’t damaged, and then used [Analysis] once more—his mana dipped down to a quarter.

A rune that has been etched into an Efkini Core with Mana.

[Continuous] Unlocked.

August thought he had a pretty good idea of what that meant, given its placement between the others, and the description only seemed to confirm it.

A setting rune that describes the type of energy draw.

Including the context obtained from Ladybug’s summary, where it mentioned how the monsters fed on Ambient Mana to survive, it seemed pretty clear what this rune sequence was supposed to accomplish—August found himself smiling.

“Now, isn’t that a look,” Haiko said, amused.

August glanced up, unaware that anyone had been paying much attention to him during their own quiet discussion, and found Haiko watching him. Caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar, he held the cube up into the firelight for them to see, placing his thumb next to the first rune.

“I’ve figured out what this line does,” August admitted.

Rittan leaned forward at the announcement, clearly interested.

“Truly?” Rittan said, “How does it work?”

August tapped his thumb against the top two runes to draw their attention there.

“The first two runes inform the third rune on how to absorb ambient mana,” August said, summarising his understanding. “The first points it towards Ambient Mana; the second tells it to keep on drawing energy without pause—the third rune actually does the absorbing based on those parameters.”

August drew his thumb down to the next rune in the chain.

“The fourth one sends the absorbed mana to the next rune in line,” August said, tapping the fifth. “The fifth rune is a battery; it stores the mana for later use.”

“Fascinating,” Rittan said.

“You truly have no previous knowledge of the runic language?” Haiko said, blinking. “How do you discover the function of each rune without that knowledge?”

“One of the skills I have reports some information about what I’m looking at,” August said, dropping the cube back into his inventory. “It’s expensive, though, it uses up about a quarter of my mana each time I use it, and I’m only getting a small amount of information on a single rune each time.”

“I see—so you must investigate each rune in turn,” Haiko said in understanding. “Once you have a basic idea of what each rune does, you can use the order to determine the overall function of the line?”

“More or less,” August admitted. “It would be nice to test it out, but I’m not sure I’d be able to tell if it was working or not—this cube might be full of mana, or it might be empty; either way, I can’t tell the difference.”

“You need to learn a rune that spends the accumulated mana in some kind of visible effect,” Haiko said, tapping a finger against her chin.

“I’m sure I’ll find something eventually,” August nodded, “Between this, the summon pit and that metal ring, there should be something I can use.”

“I suppose you will also need a method of inscribing the runes,” Haiko added, covering her mouth for a moment as she attempted to fight back a yawn. “Excuse me—you could make clay tablets, I suppose, and draw the runes on the surface?”

“That’s a good idea,” August agreed, nodding. “Carving it into a piece of wood would probably work as well.”

“Something for another day,” Kalter said, interjecting. “It’s time we get some rest.”

“I wholeheartedly agree,” Rittan said, smiling.