Akata dove into the world of runes. All that was on his mind was runes. How they were constructed, how they worked, moved energy, stored power, unleashed their might. Through his immersion, Akata’s knowledge and skills in runes increased by leaps and bounds.

“I should try and identify what kind of runes I have. What properties they’re made of and how they function.” Akata focused his consciousness to inspect his soul region.

Colorful spots of light glittered Akata’s soul region as they rotated around his soul. Normally, the soul space only kept the soul within but Akata’s was unique. Not only was his mutated soul in there, but also many different rune cores. There was a fire rune core, water rune core, earth, wind, sand, and more. The cores came from when Akata imprinted them into his soul region to instantly cast the corresponding rune.

Even with all the rune cores around, it was still easy to see three spaces that were clear of the rune cores. It was as if the rune cores weren’t worthy enough to approach the spaces. In these spaces were three runes. A translucent rune, a crimson rune, and a golden rune. They emanated supreme power that surpassed the other runes by far. Especially the crimson rune, it even outclassed the golden rune and translucent rune. It was like the crimson rune was the general, the translucent and gold runes were lieutenants and the rune cores were ordinary soldiers.

Akata focused in on the crimson rune first. This was his very first rune and also the most mysterious of the bunch. “This rune is capable of absorbing and refining blood and souls to strengthen me. Not only that but it even has its own world inside of it.” Akata remembered the world with the crimson sun and yellow grass and couldn’t help but be even more interested in his crimson rune.

In an instant, Akata’s consciousness enveloped the crimson rune and he began to inspect it earnestly.

“This!!” Akata couldn’t help but be surprised. “This rune is too profound. Even with all the knowledge I just obtained I can barely understand even the edge of the inner shell of the rune. There’s no way I can even begin to know how the outer core works let alone the inner core.” A sigh escaped his thoughts as he inwardly shook his head.

By this point, Akata’s knowledge of runes increased substantially. He came to know that runes weren’t merely made of two parts but instead four. The outer shell, inner shell, outer core, and inner core.

The shell of a rune absorbed the essence of elements into the core while the core manipulated it. That was what Akata originally thought. While it was still somewhat true, there was much more to it than that. The shell had an inner part and outer part. The outer shell was used to absorb essence, but the inner shell was made to refine that essence. This surprised Akata because he thought that the refinement of energy happened in the core of the rune.

The core, was much more complex than he originally thought it was. Once the energy being absorbed into the rune was refined by the inner shell then that refined energy would then be strengthened and compacted by the outer and inner core respectively. This type of rune would be much more powerful and efficient to use than the runes Akata used now.

Akata learned how to create runes from the Scarlet Tiger Tribe when he was punished by the sect. They had taught him that runes were made up of cores. But during his training and when he entered the world of his crimson soul rune. His interaction of the laws of the rune world led him to gain new knowledge of runes. He came to know that runes had a shell and a core. But what surprised him was the fact that the Scarlet Tigers were truly lacking in their knowledge of runes.

They didn’t know that their “core” of a rune was just the shell. The shell contained the essence of the element you were interacting with so it was able to draw in more of that same type of element to be used. The true core of a rune was used to power up and control the element. Thus, it didn’t matter how much energy you put into it, the rune would always be usable. And you would be able to strengthen it as long as you put more energy within it. That was also a reason why Akata’s runic skills increased so much.

Now that he knew about the four parts of a rune, his skills will definitely see an explosive amount of growth.

Even though the crimson rune was too profound for Akata to fully study and comprehend, he was still capable of discerning some things from it.

“I used to think this rune was only capable of absorbing blood to strengthen me. But then it became capable of absorbing souls, an Outer Element. I kept feeling as if the energy it’s emitting now is something more powerful than an Outer Element.” Akata mused to himself. “The Inner Element of Blood and Outer Element of Souls are concentrated on this rune. But how did it actually change from absorbing blood to absorbing souls? Can it absorb more elements to strengthen myself. It even seems to be connected to my bloodline.” Akata concentrated earnestly to seek out answers.

Hours passed by in the blink of an eye.

“The absorption and refinement process of this rune is utterly amazing. If I can incorporate this process into my own runes then they will be able to use a much more overwhelming and purer power.”

Akata kept inspecting the rune but eventually moved on. It was just too profound, he couldn’t even look at it for too long. He then steadied his bearing and made his way to his gold rune that sometimes flashed azure.

Akata inspected it closely for five minutes before smiling. “Heh. If what I learned about runes so far is true, then this is an Ancient Polisform Rune. Capable of switching between two or more elements on a whim with just a thought. And this one even switches between two outer elements.” Akata was stunned. Normal Polisform Runes were still used by experts but they were only capable of switching between regular inner elements. The Polisform Rune Akata had within his soul region was an Ancient Polisform Rune which could manipulate outer elements; something that was only capable of being done by experts in ancient times.

“The Holy Outer Element and Demonic Outer Element are both contained within this rune. Not only are they Outer Elements but they're also polar opposites. The strength of this rune should be unimaginable.” Outer Elements were already much more powerful than Inner Elements and with the addition of polar opposites working together it would be impossible to describe the amount of power that could be unleashed by this rune.

“Somehow this rune is connected to my kudzu vine and plant arm. When my kudzu vine turns azure it is capable of causing mass and total destruction on a scale that makes even me feel bewildered. However, when it's golden there doesn't seem to be much of a difference.” Akata pondered over why this was the case.

However, even with the knowledge he had now, Akata had no clue on what to make of his kudzu vine and Ancient Polisform Rune. Feeling a bit dejected he gave up trying to find the connection between the two, for now, and moved on to understanding his Ancient Polisform Rune.

“Ah!” Akata was at a complete loss. Even though this rune was obviously at a lower level than his crimson rune, it was still far too difficult for Akata to understand the principles behind it.

However, even with that being the case, he could still make some vague guesses about how the rune worked.

“It seems as if the shell is morphed and is somehow capable of finding a balance between the Holy Outer Element and Demonic Outer Element. It's almost like it uses one Element to draw the other element over.” Astounded, Akata wished he could understand more but his experiences with runes was just too shallow right now. It would take time for him to get a grasp of such profound runes.

Knowing that the translucent rune was on the same level as the gold rune, Akata was looking forward to seeing if he could uncover any secrets from it.

“This rune appeared after I absorbed the soul of that fairy. What did he call himself again? Ah! Lelilio Pú Pei. Ever since this rune appeared I became able to use aura. Does that mean that this rune directly correlates to my aura energy? If so, how does it correlate? And if not, what is it for?”

Again, as Akata inspected this profound rune he came up with more questions than answers.

The structure of the rune was complex and the energy it drew in was different from normal elemental energy.

“Sigh… this rune is much more different than the others. It doesn't even run off of elemental energy but instead aura. Yet it doesn't seem to absorb any aura but seems to be a fixed amount.” Even after wracking his brain around the translucent rune, Akata was at a complete loss. He had more understanding of his crimson rune than even this rune. After all, Akata was proficient in the soul ever.

But even if he couldn't find out much about his three top runes, he still had plenty of knowledge about ordinary runes.

“I'll just upgrade the rune cores within my soul region.” Upgrading a rune core wasn't difficult at all. With Akata's skill in runes he could upgrade a regular rune core within a few breaths of time. In fact, there was no need to upgrade his rune cores because he was entirely capable of making just about any rune he wanted in a few seconds or less. But with rune cores it will still be instantaneous for him to cast runes. Plus, he felt that if he had better rune cores within his soul region it would prove beneficial in the future.

Akata soon set to work upgrading his rune cores and adding new ones to his soul region. The process was quick but there were many rune cores to upgrade and many more that he wanted to add.