Chapter 17: The Existence Of The Rune

Alfred’s daily activities became repetitive, he would play with Leo in the morning, then go to Elder Ahote to make some pottery, go home, and study the Runes he can make. Of course, there were some instances that changed this daily activity.

Like when every time Alfred saw Aponi, his heart would beat so fast he always thought his heart would explode. there was also a time when he saw Aponi talking to Gunnar happily, he felt some kind of irritation towards Gunnar. He wanted to say hi to Aponi, but every time he tried Gunnar would notice him and glare at him.

Also, the time when Chief Viren announced to the tribesmen the existence of the White Lions, there was a lot of commotion that day, some tribesmen even directly opposed the Elders’ decision of bringing a living monster inside the tribe.

On the day of the announcement, in the largest open area inside the tribe. A bonfire was burning brightly illuminating everything, in front of this fire was a group of people waiting for the person in front of them to say something. Chief Viren signaled to show the White Lions to the crowds.

When the tribesmen saw the White Lions sleeping peacefully in the embrace of Alfred, Aponi, and Shaman Catori, the tribesmen became bewildered, they didn’t understand why would a monster let a human hold them like that without attacking.

A lot of the tribesmen became silent, even Gunnar who was the most opposed to the Elders’ decision shut his mouth. When Gunnar saw the wide smile and loving stare of Aponi toward the White Lion, he couldn’t help himself but stay still, this was the first time he saw Aponi this happy.

Because of this, the displeasure he was feeling toward the Elders’ decision completely vanished and was replaced by complete support. While the tribesmen were silent, Chief Viren saw this as an opportunity to explain why they made this kind of decision.

After chief Viren’s explanation, A lot of tribesmen saw the potential of taming a monster and changed their minds to support the decision of the Elders. There are even some tribesmen who volunteered themselves if the Elders wanted to tame more monsters, but of course, there are a few tribesmen who were still reluctant about the idea of living next to a monster.

After that announcement, Alfred, Aponi, and Shaman Catori take their White Lions wherever they go. In the first few days, a lot of tribesmen avoided the White Lions because of fear, but after seeing the white lions daily, the tribesmen started to open up to them, some tribesmen even started playing with the white lions, and finally accepted them. Other than these instances Alfred’s daily activities repeated for a whole month.

When Elder Ahote and Alfred finally succeeded in making a pot that satisfied both of them, they screamed in celebration while hugging each other. Even though the two were so loud, no tribesmen were stopping to watch them, because this occurrence had become a daily sight in this whole month, the tribesmen became used to Elder Ahote and Alfred’s actions.

The only thing Alfred need to do was to write a Rune to a pot and they are done. In the past month, Alfred discovered that other than the 4 main Elemental Runes, he can also put a basic Augmentation Rune to an item like sharpness, sturdiness, sealing, and more.

He discovered this while experimenting on the mud ball, this Rune Augmentation was like passive magic, once they are activated, the Rune will not absorb any Life Energy, and it will be activated forever unless the Rune will be destroyed. The only downside of Rune Augmentation was the energy it needed to be created, it needed to absorb a large amount of Life Energy from its creator, and the more Life Energy it absorbed, the stronger the effect of the Augmentation.

If he didn’t practice his energy manipulation and improved his Energy capacity, the first time he made the Augmentation Rune would fail. Alfred would think that he couldn’t also Augment an item, and that would become very problematic to him because he needed to seal the monster’s blood so it wouldn’t lose its Life Energy.

Elder Ahote and Alfred became closer with each other in the past month when they are working together. Besides improving their pottery skills, Elder Ahote taught Alfred a lot of things such as making weapons, tools, shelters, and different kinds of crafting techniques.

Alfred also told Elder Ahote about the Augmentation Rune, even though the Rune Alfred can put on the item was very basic. Elder Ahote was still excited about this news, he also suggested calling the item with Runes a Runic Item.

Alfred liked the sound of the name so he agreed to Elder Ahote suggestion. When the pot with a sealing Rune was finally done, Alfred and Elder Ahote decided to call the other two Elders for a meeting to show them the finished product that they had been working on for the last whole month.

When the Elders along with Alfred were finally facing each other, Alfred and Shaman Catori let the two White Lions play with each other. Elder Ahote took out the pot with monster blood inside, he instructed the two Elders to use their Energy Eyes to see what was happening to the Life Energy inside the pot.

The two Elders followed the instruction of Elder Ahote. When Shaman Catori together with chief Viren saw the Life Energy inside the pot was not dissipating, they become overjoyed.

“The Life Energy inside is not dissipating, did you succeed?” Shaman Catori asked.

“That is right when we succeed, we want to let both of you know about this. So, we immediately call for this meeting.” Elder Ahote replied.”

“With this, we can store a lot of blood without worrying it will lose the Life Energy, and young Alfred can now study the Rune more. Speaking of Rune, how much did you discover in the past moon?” Chief Viren asked Alfred.

“I learned that I can only create the 4 main Elements, Fire Rune, Water Rune, Air Rune, and Earth Rune, If I create something complicated like Rain or Lava, the rune will instantly fail. Besides that, I only recently discovered that I can put basic Augmentation to an item using Runes. Elder Ahote and I decided to call this item a Runic Item.” Alfred replied.

“Augment an item? Can you also do this to a weapon?”

“Yes, I believe I can, the problem is, I am not good enough at controlling Life Energy to carve a Rune to a stone or wood.”

“We cannot do something about that, but to be patient. Let us set aside that for now, this item that is made from, I believe you call it clay soil, is a great discovery both of you made, and for that, we need to celebrate. I know our tribe lack food right now, but I believe our tribe needs something that will boost their morale. So tonight, gather the tribesmen we will have a celebration of this joyous day.

When the night came, the tribesmen started a big fire and gathered around it. All of them celebrated by eating meat, dancing, laughing, and telling a different story. Even though they didn’t know why are they celebrating, the tribesmen seem to have a lot of stress accumulated. So, they didn’t care what the reason was.

In the middle of the celebration, Chief Viren yelled to gather the attention of every tribesman. When the celebration halted and became silent, Chief Viren explained the reason why they are celebrating. All the tribesmen screamed in joy when they heard that a new discovery had been developed that will help the tribes advance a lot.

But Chief Viren was not finished, he ordered the tribesmen to be silent again. The Elders and Alfred decided that this celebration was the perfect time to announce the Rune, even though some of the Arrows were not in the tribe, they still think that announcing something good while the tribesmen were in a good mood will boost their morale even more.

Chief Viren announced and explained the existence of the Runes, the tribesmen became confused and started whispering to each other. Chief Viren foresaw this situation. Therefore, he ordered Alfred to demonstrate the Rune.

When Alfred heard Chief Viren’s order, he walked in front of the tribesmen and started making 4 different Runes on the ground. The Runes he was making are fire, water, air, and earth Runes. The tribesmen became even more bewildered by Alfred’s action, but none of them said anything and just keep watching.

When Alfred finally finished making the four Runes, Elder Ahote handed the pot with a sealing Rune to Alfred. Alfred removed the lid of the pot, then started pouring the blood of the monster on the Runes. After Alfred was done, 4 different Elements suddenly appeared floating in thin air, it was fire, water, air, and earth.

All the tribesmen became stunned for a whole minute before someone finally reacted and screamed. The reaction of this one person was like a plague that spread around to every tribesman, and all of them started to react differently, some are scared, fascinated, excited, cautious, or speechless. The only thing common to their face was the question. What is this Rune?