Akata made his way over to the battle between Lord Tafei and Priest Bambe. He was going in order to gain enlightenment regarding runes. Although he knew that his actions were reckless he was still going anyway, just because this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. He was going to make the most of this chance and become stronger.

It didn’t take long before Akata could see two figures clashing back and forth. The light of runes lit up the night sky and illuminated their bodies. Akata stopped some distance away to make sure he wouldn’t be caught up in their battle.

The pressure from them was so strong that it crushed the surrounding forest. Fire, water, wood, illusions, sand, time, and other elements could be seen flying through the air and smashing into objects. Of course, most of the damage was done to Lord Tafei and Priest Bambe’s bodies, who were the focus of the attacks. As Akata watched in amazement, there was one particular aspect to the fight that he noticed was not being incorporated. He couldn’t help but notice this.

“Where’s the hand to hand combat? All they do is keep their distance and launch runes at each other. Although their use of runes is amazing and I can’t even interpret the skill behind it, they don’t get close to each other at all. I can’t gain any enlightenment at all regarding physical combat at all. I would think, being beasts, they would focus more on hand to hand combat.” Akata couldn’t help but shake his head as he watched the fight go on.

“Ah child! How close minded and ignorant you are. I could’ve told you that this tribe only focuses on long range attacks and that they don’t do physical combat at all. It’s not because their bodies are weak, but because they have grown around the use of runes and solely focus on its applications. The sad part is that they have no true knowledge of runes and only know basic uses of them. Truly a shame. If they could learn how to fight closer or if they knew other uses of runes, this tribe could truly shine and grow stronger.” Plantist Noluck said with a sigh.

“Their application of runes aren’t good? So they aren’t using runes correctly then?” Akata asked in confusion. This was the first time he was actually engaging Plantist Noluck. Plantist Noluck was surprised that Akata was actually talking to him and became excited.

“Hahaha! It isn’t that they aren’t using runes correctly, it’s just that they don’t know that many methods for using runes. All they know are long range uses and even those are lacking. But even with their basic use, they rose to such power. Truly amazing hehe.” Plantist Noluck was jubilant as he spoke.

Akata sort of regretted talking to Plantist Noluck but even so he listened in closely. He couldn’t deny the fact that the person who was now dwelling inside of him was a powerful figure and had a lot of knowledge. It was a good thing he listened in too. Even though Noluck spoke briefly, he imparted a lot to Akata, letting the latter know that other applications of runes were possible.

“What other applications of runes are there?” Akata asked with a bit of enthusiasm. ‘Maybe Noluck will actually benefit me throughout my years. Perhaps I can even reach that immortality level he was talking about.’ Akata mused to himself.

Noluck remained silent however. A complete contrast as to what he usually was. This development shocked Akata. “Since I’m overseeing your growth I’ll leave you to find out exactly what other applications there are. You’re originally a mortal cultivator, right? Then once you reach the Saintly Rank I’ll tell you a special application of runes that has been lost to time.” He spoke calmly which was a completely different character trait for him.

Akata also fell silent for a moment and considered Noluck’s words. After a bit of thought, he considered that Noluck was thinking of his well being and therefore didn’t retort him. “Thank you.” was all that Akata could say.

“Ahaha, no need to thank me, really. I just need you to grow powerful, but if you grow off of only me, then you won’t have any experience or skill, which would do more harm than good. That’s all. Hehehe.” Noluck laughed out.

“Mn. Okay.” Akata nodded his head and looked back toward the battle between Lord Tafei and Priest Bambe. This was the only battle that he could watch without harming himself. The battle between Great Lord Taple and Great Priest Bayou was too intense. Akata wouldn’t even be able to get close enough to see the fight otherwise he would get injured.

His eyes glowed with a bright gleam as he paid much more attention to the runes. Instead of paying attention to the battle, Akata focused what made runes and what they did to the environment. He still had trouble creating runes by himself so he wanted to know what made their runes stable.

As the battle dragged on, Akata silently waved his hand creating a core for the Inner Element of Illusions and caused an illusory aura to emanate out. The core he created was extremely basic so it didn’t need much essence of illusions to fuel it. The problem was that Akata didn’t know how to regulate how much essence of illusions he poured into the core. Therefore when he poured the essence into it, it caused the core to blow up.

Boom!

“Again.” Akata willed himself to create another core and poured more essence into it. Each time it blew up he would look into the sky to look at the runes created by Lord Tafei and Priest Bambe to study them. Every time he did this, he gradually came closer to perfecting the amount of essence he needed.

“So that’s how it is.” Akata focused all of his attention on the runes. He watched as the runes were formed and activated. As he looked, it seemed as if the creation and use of the runes were put into slow motion in his eyes. He could slowly see the core being developed and feel the essence of the element being put into the rune. Each core was given the right amount of essence to sustain it.

The more complex the core was the more essence was needed to sustain and operate it. Akata saw the varying degrees of essence for each rune created. Whether they be Inner Elements or Outer Elements, each one needed a certain amount. But through watching all of the countless runes flash by him, Akata was able to further his knowledge regarding the process of creating and operating them.

“This is it? This is it! I’ve finally done it! Hahaha!” Akata yelled out in joy. A purple rune could be seen floating in the air in front of him. It was a dim purple but even so it showed brightly in the night. It had taken a bit more than an hour to finally get the rune to last and not blow up. Akata felt extremely accomplished.

“Hmm not bad for your first time but it could still get a lot better.” Noluck said contently. “A little more practice and you should be able to produce this level of rune without even thinking about it. You know, as I look at this rune it starts to look worse and worse. Disperse it and start over.” He started to become more solemn as he spoke and spoke.

“Are you particularly skilled in runes?” Akata asked as he waved his hand and dispersed the rune in front of him.

“Skilled? No no no, not on the level of truly skilled users. But compared to you? Hell, even compared to the Scarlet Tigers off in the distance, I am worlds above you all. A single rune from me could wipe out this whole island. Hahaha!” Noluck felt proud and joyful as he bragged about his skill.

“Then what can I do to improve my rune?” Akata asked. He wasn’t the least bit displeased with Noluck because he thought what he said was reasonable. If he truly walked the path of immortals then of course he had the power to back it up. Besides, he even said that he wasn’t even skilled compared to true talented users of runes. So, Alata took what Noluck said to heart and immediately complied.

Noluck, thinking that Akata was displeased with his comment, went silent as soon as Akata asked his question. With a bit of thought he replied, “Well, since you want to know so bad I’ll tell you then. There’s actually a simple way to know how much essence of an element is required for a core. All you have to do is imprint the core into your body. Once it is imprinted there, your body will automatically know how much essence is needed for the core.” Noluck said as if he didn’t care about telling Akata this at all.

“Imprint the core into my body?” Akata went silent for a moment trying to contemplate how he was supposed to do this. After some thought, Akata had a bright idea. ‘What if I put the core into my soul region along with my other two runes? Would that work? Well only one way to find out.’

With the swish of his hand Akata caused a core of the illusion element to appear in front of him. With another wave of his hand the core trembled and flew towards him and into his forehead. Akata entered his body through his subconscious and guided the core through his body toward his soul region. Eventually, he guided the core to a spot in his soul region by his red and gold runes.

‘That should do it.’ He mused to himself with a smile on his face. Akata waved his hand once more causing another core of the illusion element to appear. Almost instantly the illusion core within his soul region connected to the one outside his body and caused the essence of illusions to flow into it. The illusion essence poured into the core and caused it to shine with a bright light. It was the perfect amount of essence, not too much and not too little.

Noluck looked at the rune outside of Akata’s body and couldn’t help but take a long deep look at it. ‘His skill in runes is too amazing. Even the monsters that I encountered weren’t as terrifying as him. He instantly fonud out how to imprint the core into his body. This could be considered dangerous to many people as it could backlash and cause essence power to attack your body. But not only did he succeed in doing so, he actually completed it with utter speed!’ Noluck felt that Akata was a true genius regarding runes.

‘He will definitely be able to revive and create a body for me. I believe it!’ Noluck mused to himself.