Azrael woke up in his own bed. His entire head was pounding. His body was similarly sore. Blearily, he looked at the ceiling, trying to recall what had happened. The fact that he couldn’t remember how he’d gotten to his own bed was almost as bad as the headache. Had there been a party and he’d drunk too much? Did he burn down the tavern? He shook his head. Nope, wrong game.

Glancing around the room his eyes fell on Alena. She was fast asleep by his bedside, her head and arms resting on his bed. He looked around his room. Something else was different. It took him a moment to realise what it was. There was no mana. His room was devoid of even the faintest trace of mana. [Mana Sense] couldn’t pick up anything. He opened his [Status], ignoring the mass of notifications.

Status

Name: Azrael

Class: Runist (Lv.3), Sorcerer (Lv.2), Lord (Lv.2)

Race: Human

HP: 150/150

MP: 190/190

STR: 15

END: 15

DEX: 16

AGI: 14

INT: 19

WIS: 16

Titles:

{Sinner}, {Heretic}, {Master of Status}, {Rune Master}, {God Watched}, {Lord of the End Forest}, {Teacher}, {Oath Maker}.

Unique skills:

[Status], [Elemental Mana]

Skills:

Weaving (Lv.2), Crafting (Lv.11), Spear Arts (Lv.17), Mana Sense (Lv.17), Mana Manipulation (Lv. 24), Soul Sense (Lv.8), Mana Control (Lv.24), Dramatic Flair (Lv. 2), Stealth (Lv. 11), Calm Mind (Lv. 9) Lord’s Domain (Lv. 1), Lord’s Insight (Lv. n/a), Leadership (Lv.6), Stone shaping (Lv.23), Reinforcement (Lv.6), Dagger Arts (Lv.11), Meditation (Lv.13).

His mana was completely full, which alleviated his worry a bit. And it seemed that he’d gained another level in [Runist] for completing the accumulator rune array. The accompanying stats were a nice addition too. Looking at the rest of his skills he was extremely happy at his progress. Meditation’s level had increased a lot, but then again, he had used it a lot, so it was only fair. Carefully, as so not to disturb Alena, he slipped out from under the blanket and out of the house.

Outside the accumulator array was happily absorbing all the ambient mana but was powering nothing. He also had a suspicion that his headache had something to do with a lack of mana in the surrounds; a problem he was going to rectify now. Drawing on his own mana he reached out the first ring and linked it straight to the fourth. He was hoping to do them all today but decided to fix the problem with the ambient mana first. The pounding headache was not pleasant.

Rerouting some of the power from the first ring he led it all round, barely having to use even a quarter of his own mana pool. The effect of the completed fourth ring was instantaneous. It was like stepping out of a vacuum and into proper air. While very little ambient mana actually made it through the accumulator array to the house a fair bit of mana was still getting lost due to stone’s terrible transference and mana capacitance and ending up trapped in the dome as ambient mana. This meant that he was effectively creating a mana greenhouse effect and it was slowly restoring the mana levels to normal. He breathed in deeply. He it felt like he could breathe normally again.

After all those weeks of planning and emboldened by the lack of fainting during the powering of the fourth ring, Azrael was eager to complete the barrier. Stepping forward to power the second ring he was about to begin, when he realised something. There was actually no way to enter and exit the barrier once it was activated.

Gazing over the rune work he grudgingly accepted that he didn’t have anywhere near the skills to make a magic key system for his barrier, yet. Changing the rune script for the part of the circle closest to his door he added another line of runes to the circle, that simply acted as mana channels, so that mana continued flowing in a circle, but had no effect within the designated area. Within the area the magical and physical barriers would not take effect unless he manually changed the flow back to the original sequence. If he did that he would once again have a complete barrier. It was a bit like a magic door. The first and fourth ring however stayed untouched. Marking the entrance to the magic barrier with two raised stones, he completed the second and third rings. Left with under a quarter of his recovered mana he looked at he completed project satisfied.

Congratulations!

For completing a great runic piece you have gained a level in ‘Runist’.

END +1 DEX+2 INT+2 WIS+1.

He smiled. A trembling in the soul-link informed him that Alena was awake and he turned to find her standing at in the door way, rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

“How long was I asleep?” He asked.

She held up four fingers.

“Four hours?”

She shook her head. “Days” she signed.

He gulped. Last time he’d completely emptied his mana pool he’d been out for a few hours. This time it had been for days. Was it related to mana pool size, or did ambient mana play a role in the recovery? He opened his status to see if he could find a clue.

Status

Name: Azrael

Class: Runist (Lv.4), Sorcerer (Lv.2), Lord (Lv.2)

Race: Human

HP: 160/160

MP: 45/210

STR: 15

END: 16

DEX: 18

AGI: 14

INT: 21

WIS: 18

Titles:

{Sinner}, {Heretic}, {Master of Status}, {Rune Master}, {God Watched}, {Lord of the End Forest}, {Teacher}, {Oath Maker}.

Unique skills:

[Status], [Elemental Mana]

Skills:

Weaving (Lv.2), Crafting (Lv.11), Spear Arts (Lv.17), Mana Sense (Lv.17), Mana Manipulation (Lv. 24), Soul Sense (Lv.8), Mana Control (Lv.24), Dramatic Flair (Lv. 2), Stealth (Lv. 11), Calm Mind (Lv. 9) Lord’s Domain (Lv. 1), Lord’s Insight (Lv. n/a), Leadership (Lv.6), Stone shaping (Lv.23), Reinforcement (Lv.6), Dagger Arts (Lv.11), Meditation (Lv.13).

His stomach rumbled and he closed it, finding nothing. He walked towards the house.

“Breakfast?” he asked.