Rune Quest |Merge|

Phase 1/20: A Name

From the beginning, most of the development of humanity’s understanding of runes has been driven by the scrolls that sometimes appear upon the death of the alternate- and pocket-universe invaders. As they got stronger, so too did humanity, but the strengthened boundaries at the end of the last major war have since prevented the strongest of those enemies from crossing over.

It appears that some knowledge we prevented from crossing over in the process– at least one type of rune whose scrolls, knowledge, and effects are entirely missing from the Runecrafters’ Catalog.

Like Minor Runes, Runes of this class do not directly cause magical effects. Like Major Runes, they have unique areas of influence, and overlapping an area of influence with another Rune of this class will have unpredictable and detrimental effects. Runes of this class are not affected by Minor Runes or Major Runes. Runes of this class have an effect on Major Runes.

|Merge| combines the effects of at least two Major runes, allowing them to contain each other without sharing the effects of Minor Runes between them or reacting unpredictably. More information will be unlocked at later stages and with discovery.

Name the rune class. (Note: this name will only be universally applied upon the completion of a Rune Quest series of a Rune of this class.)

Enter Name: _

The window that followed her acceptance caught her by enough surprise that Deyana make a coughing sound before managing to read past the second line.

A twenty phase Quest?

Well, she hadn’t been signing up for something easy.

Once she read through it, part of her rebelled at the text box there. She didn’t even know everything the new rune could do, nor what other runes in this supposed class did, but she was supposed to be naming it?

Although that did make sense, given the current conventions of Major and Minor. They were obviously intended to work together without any additions. And it looked like the reason for that was that it was all the people naming them had known.

She was tempted to give them a stupid name out of spite, but her better judgement kicked in too quickly for her to go through with it.

“I’m… being asked to name a new rune class.”

“Something ridiculous? No, that’s no good. What kind of class?” Geria responded.

“Has an effect radius, effects Major runes, doesn’t touch Minors, same-class interaction like the current Majors.”

“Supermajor? Super, Change…” She made a strange tilting back and forth motion with her head, neither shaking it no nor nodding. Runes of the same class do not directly cause magical effects, instead “I don’t really know. Haven’t ever thought about it.”

Deyana had to agree with that. It made sense, but it wasn’t anything she would have really thought up on her own. “Director? Because we don’t really know if there are more undiscovered types out there.”

Geria looked struck for a second. “Obviously, yes. Don’t know how I missed that. Director sounds good, I wouldn’t mind saying it.”

“‘Director’ it is. Now to hope nobody calling them ‘Large Dicks’ beats us through the quest.”

Geria smiled wanly as Deyana typed the name into the box, then confirmed her choice.

The old text disappeared, replaced by new information.

Rune Quest |Merge|

Phase 2/20: The Best Way to Learn

|Merge| has been temporarily added to your useable Runes. (Uses: 1. Replenish when extant copy is destroyed.)

Reading about information is useful, but when it comes to knowing how something reacts in the unpredictable environment of reality, the best way to get good information is to test it.

Create a new Runewritten item using the |Merge| Rune exactly one time. Get a feel for how it combines the two Runes by using it or watching it be used in combat.

Deyana breathed out a sigh of relief. She’d heard horror stories of these Rune Quests, but so far, neither of its requests had been too difficult.

The only issue with this one was, well…

She didn’t have much in the way of Runes, so she’d be limited on what she could make.

It must have shown on her face somewhat, because she could see Geria tense. “What is it? I thought that was a good sigh.”

“It was, just… I’m supposed to use the rune in an item, which, since we’re trying to do this fast, is just a little bit of a disappointment.”

“Wait, you get to use the rune already? I thought Rune quests were five to ten phases and super messy.”

Deyana didn’t catch the sharp laugh before it left her mouth, but she quickly raised placating hands. “Sorry, not laughing at you. I can only use it once, as part of the quest. And this one is twenty phases, so… I hope you’re not looking to dump me quickly.”

“I wasn’t,” Geria said, in such a matter-of-fact tone that it set her off-balance again. “Could you answer my question about why it is disappointing? Getting to use it this early seems like a good thing.”

“It is! Just… I made a new character, so I’m… limited in the number of Runes I have.”

“Oh, is that all?” Geria asked, then opened a trading window. When she accepted the request on reflex, Deyana could only stare as scroll after scroll appeared, finally stopping a bit after she started needing to scroll the window.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Deyana said, declining the trade. “You’ve already agreed to help me, you don’t need to suddenly start giving me runes, too!”

Geria tilted her head. “There’s nothing in there past the three greens.”

“Three greens, she says!” Deyana replied, incredulous. “Never mind that that’s enough for a fairly good set of leveling fifty to one-twenty-five armor, there’s nothing in there beyond three greens! You know that I’m in the reds and oranges, right?”

Geria actually looked a little hurt, which surprised her. Another trade request appeared, though this time she didn’t instantly accept it.

“I know, but I’m trying to pay you back, not the other way around.”

“The purple is already more than I could possibly afford to pay you back for.”

“I said that was yours already. Now I’m paying you back for the mess.”

“I didn’t have it, so was it really mine?”

“It was supposed to be.”

“But it wasn’t.”

“Ugh! Just take the stupid runes! I can’t go back to get Callie or Jennet to make something for me, and I need to get something new, preferably from someone the guild won’t recognize the work of!”

Geria’s outburst, annoyed as it was, brought her up short, staring. Several trains of thought collided, completely derailing her proposed objections.

She probably should have responded quickly, but instead she worked on the new issues that came to her attention.

Was her brain still in date mode from earlier, with Don?

Probably not. She didn’t even really think of that as much more than a friend-date, no matter what she might’ve said to him in response.

It also didn’t seem to be the sort of thing she’d expect from rebound feelings, even given the recency of her breakup. None of the loneliness that would have been there, and none of the spite or wanting to rush things, either.

Which only left the worst of all worlds– she actually had a thing for this girl.

Well, that was a disaster waiting to happen. Geria looked a bit younger than her, probably eighteen or nineteen? And the Alliance had been a force around a year ago, so if she was under twenty at that time she wouldn’t have been able to make much in the way of changes to her character model from her real body, especially because it would have been at least six months before that that she would have started playing. She could have diverged from the character model in that time by growing differently, but the ages…

She was getting off track.

It was time to deny anything if asked and move the conversation along.

“Okay.”

“You’d better not try– okay?”

“Yeah, okay. You’re probably right about finding someone new, and you’re not exactly going to be able to pick up some new top-level rune-writer or -crafter off the street. Not that I’ll be that, and you’re gonna have to deal with a lot of rookie mistakes. But if you’re willing…”

She at least seemed to consider that for more than a second, though the following answer didn’t fill her with confidence. “I think you’ll be good at it. And I’m definitely willing.”

“You realize that I’m going to owe you free stuff from now until the end of time, right?” Deyana tried to joke, the words coming out more seriously than intended.

Geria performatively placed her hands next to her ears, leaving a small gap there. “I can’t hear you. But it’s okay, materials plus ten percent sounds fine to me.”

Deyana glared. “You’re incorrigible.”

Geria grinned in return, her hands going back down. “I like to believe it’s my best trait.”

The eye-roll following that wasn’t received with any more demurrer than the accusation had been, a trade window appearing in its place, so she just sighed. “You might be right about that, actually.”

While Geria was filling that out again, she sent a friend request on the side, which was accepted without so much as a pause in the rhythm of scroll selection.

Would you like to accept this trade?

You’re offering: Nothing.

Geria is offering: 15 Common {Minor} Rune Scrolls

4 Common [Major] Rune Scrolls

11 Uncommon {Minor} Rune Scrolls

7 Uncommon [Major] Rune Scrolls

2 Rare {Minor} Rune Scrolls

1 Rare [Major] Rune Scroll

Warning! This trade is significantly unbalanced!

Accept?

No

Yes

“I’m still not a hundred percent comfortable with this.” Deyana said, clicking Yes for the first time. She knew what was coming next.

Warning: Are you sure? This trade is unbalanced!

No

Yes

More Information

Geria nodded. “That’s okay. We both know that this is the easy part.”

That was true, at least. When she accepted again, the window closed instantly.

The other girl had beat her through those menus, then. Not surprising on its own, per se, even if she would have had a much more comprehensive set of warnings, but significantly more trusting than she was used to.

“We should probably head to the Runewriters’ Guild.” Deyana said, not getting up. “Or at least I should.”

“That is probably what we should do, if you want to get started on that crafting today. How much time do you have left?” She didn’t move either.

“Any more than three hours if going to be coming out of my sleep.”

“That’s about when I need to be going, too.”

They each watched the other for a few more seconds before Deyana lost her nerve and stood. “Okay! Okay. We’ll go to the Runewriters’ for a couple hours, but I do need to do some levelling…”

“I’d offer to help with power-levelling, but…”

“But?”

“If I’m fighting, it’s going to be extremely recognizable.”

“Why’s that?”

Geria bit the inside of her lip, glancing away. “I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging.”

“Noted.”

“The stuff I use, marked rocks with Minor Power Link and Minor Received Mental Direction Link opposite Major Runes? It’s an experimental setup by Callie, um. Castien, is how you’d recognize her. And it’s pretty difficult and really mana-expensive to use. Really powerful, especially when you add more minors to link up multiple stones to make bigger effects, but… getting distracted tends to make them kinda explode uselessly. Nobody else in the guild could do it reliably, and it didn’t spread.”

That made things more complicated. She hadn’t been planning to ask, but it was important.

“How recognizable are you? And how did you throw off the people after you?”

Geria bit her lip again. “Not really recognizable unless I need to use the weapons, then extremely so. This is nothing like what I used to wear. Um. As for throwing them off. So. I just uh. Set a trap, and killed them all.”

Deyana blinked at that. “Wait, you were being chased by a bunch of Alliance members, and you just knocked them all out faster than LJay could get away from them?”

“I said my weapons are powerful. And uh. At the time… I was… pretending to be, um. A lot more panicked than I was, so they didn’t really… notice that we went through the same dark warehouse twice before. To be fair to them, it was about five minutes apart, each time.”

Deyana giggled in earnest. That could definitely work, especially on inexperienced PvPers. “Okay. So you can’t be a safety for me. That’s fine, especially because I’ll be meeting up with a party member tomorrow.”

Geria’s eyes went wide. “Oh! I didn’t see one with you.”

“He wasn’t with me when I met up with you. And… I like him, but I’m not sure I trust him yet. So I don’t want you two to meet yet, because I’m trusting you a whole lot.”

Geria nodded cutely. “I understand.”

“Good. We really should go to the Runewriters’.”

“Mhmm.”