Appreciate your kind words, author. I do intend to 'hang in there' until my incompetent superior cleans his mess up, which, knowing him, will certainly take it's time.

However, let's move back to the point.

After what felt to him like one or two hours of constantly reading new popping green windows, Eugene considered he had the basics of this status system. Once again, he checked each part's function. You can never be too careful.

-Name: It's an ID of sorts. The more unique the name, the more potential for growth.

-Progression: Increases after achieving any feat. When progression level reaches the maximum capacity, one's soul can evolve. The race 'Human' evolves to 'Wise' once conditions are met.

-Race: One's inborn characteristics are given by their race. This includes attributes, titles and vocations. Some races also include inborn blessings. Right now, he had the 'Human' race, from which he only inherited his attributes.

-Title: Titles are won through remarkable feats. Some titles provide extra bonuses to one's status. He had no title at the time

-Blessings: They work as a special bonus of sort. Only God's or other higher authorities had the right to grant blessings. His blessing, Phanes's Bless, was described as 'making staying alive easier', whatever that was supposed to mean. As far as he knew, Phanes was the Greek god of life, among other things, although he was expecting something more... epic, given the god's power.

-Vocations: Vocations grant special abilities. The higher their level, the more powerful and efficient they became. Continued ussage of one's vocation's skills and/or spells increases that vocation's level. One's main vocation will be given since their birth, according to the affinity their souls have with it. The side vocation is more liberal, and it can be obtained through regular studying and practicing. His vocation, Runologist, he hadn't touched it just yet. He would leave experimentation with it for a bit later.

Finally attributes. Each person has a set of four attributes, which combined make it up for that person's general specs.

-Physique: Related to the body's specs, it includes among other things: body strength, speed, dexterity and pain mitigation to some extent; as well as endurance again all physical debuffs.

-Intellect: Related to the mind's specs, intellect shows your over all logic reasoning capacity, information assimilation speed, decision making ability and memory. It also referred to resistance against mind-related debuffs.

-Charisma: Related to one's personality, makes up for social skills, such as negotiation, seduction, persuasion and entertainment. Weirdly enough, a higher Charisma also raised your luck, and increased resistance against luck-based debuffs. Although, 'charisma-based debuffs' didn't sound too good, he reckoned.

-Magic: Doesn't even need an explanation. Includes mana pool depth, mana manipulation efficiency, mana recovery and -yes, mana once again- usage reduction. Also refers to magic-based debuff resistance.

All in all, it was pretty simple, although fairly unique as well. Once again, he opened his status window and checked if anything had changed.

Status Name Eugene Progression 0.00% to reach Progression Race Human Vocations Title (Empty) Runologist: D (0.00%) Blessings Phanes' Bless (None) Attributes

Physique

10

Charisma 20 Intellect

20

Magic

15

As expected, nothing had changed since the last time he checked. There was a slight imbalance on his attributes, at a second glance. Was his physique too low? Or his other stats too high? For the sake of his pride, he hoped it was the later. Although, whichever the truth were, he would find it out in it's due time.

Still not a clue about Phane's Bless's function. Maybe it was a passive skill? Just by looking at it's name, Eugene would say it gave a permanent lucky buff. But, with no way of checking it, he couldn't assume that was it.

"Now then, let's dig in on the main dish!"

Ah, the vocations! From all the Isekai-GameLit themed manganime he knew so far, this was the most important part of the main character. It would be the mains source of his strength, as well as the trait that identified him the most. A certain mus-have in this case, even if he was only dreaming.

He would wait no more. This was it! His time to evolve, to discover his own strength!

"System that rules this wold! I command thee! Show me mine power!!!"

Blurting incoherent words fitting for the weebest of the weebs, and using a tragic tone that an isekai-ed skeletal overlord dark mage wouldn't have used better, Eugene opened up his Runologist window. The notification-like *Cling* he was so used to by now rang unceremoniously, as familiar green window opened up in front of him rather unceremoniously. It seems the system wasn't interested on following this comedy farce.

Vocation - Runologist

Mastery Rank D - C (0.00%) Bonuses Magic +5 / Intellect +5 Spells Runology

"Hmmm. I see..." In other words, being a Runologist gave him a +5 bonus to both Magic and Intellect. Well, given the name, this wasn't an unexpected bonus. However, this was not what he was looking for.

"Now, what is this 'Runology', dear system?" It seemed he wouldn't get out of this complete weeb mode in a while.

Runology

Allows the formation of spells with the combination of multiple runes. Runic spells cost lesser mana and summon faster than normal spells

Acquired Runes (None) Available Runes

1

Max Spell Length

2

"I see, I see."

Lucky me, he reckoned. It was a very useful spell, or at least that was how the description made it look like. Less magic cost and more speed made it sound attractive as well, and it sounded just like the kind of handy power a main character would have in it's early stages. By further investigating, he learned that the Acquired Runes window referred to the runes he had already learned, Available Runes to the runes he could learn, and Max Spell Length to the maximum amount of runes he could use in one spell. Which meant...

"I can learn one new rune, and use a maximum of two runes in the same spell. Neat." Slight slip of him, he had forgotten already his tragic overlord persona. Although this would be the best for me, the author and the readers, if I must say.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? System, I'd like to spend my Available Runes!"

System Notification

All your Available Runes will be used. You will learn 1 new rune. Proceed Postpone

"Why would you even ask? Proceed it is!"

Once again, the green window vanished. Eugene anxiously waited for the window that would supposedly give him one rune to select and learn.

Sadly, fate had other planes for him.

System Notification

1 rune was randomly chosen

(Crystal) - Turns substance into crystal. Doesn't work on living beings. Conversion rate: 2MP/dm³

Proceed

Bummer. The system's mocking laughter could almost be heard, and it was tormenting Eugene's ears. To think that the runes would be chosen at random! Why, for the love of God?

"What am I supposed to do with a crystallization rune?! I can't even use it against foes...!"

Even so, this was his own mistake. Certainly, no one said he got to choose the rune of his preference. In fact, this way it was greatly fairer. After all, if he chose 'omnipotence' or something akin to this, this dream would no longer be fun.

"...But still, to think I'd get this rune... " Moreover, the mana consumption rate was inefficient. Assuming each Magic attribute point meant a +1 on his mana pool, he would be able to turn little more than half cubic meter of substance into crystal before running out of mana. And this was assuming spending all your mana points wouldn't cause any debuff conditions on his body. Although it hadn't happened to him in his other game-themed dreams, he had played several games where spending all your mana points would result in temporal weakness.

He would have to play with this new power for a while before being able to properly use it.

"Well, that's still just theory. Now, let's test it in practice."

Thus, he set off to test his Runology...

There was, however, a small problem. Perhaps not so small, in fact. It was actually a big problem.

"...How am I supossed to use this?" Namely, he had not the slightest hint of how to use Runology. And sure enough, without knowing he wouldn't be able to actually do the magic -quite literally-. That only happens in terrible-quality anime. There was no need to make yet another story like that, as there were plenty enough already.

"System? Any tips...?" However the system seemed to care just as much as... well, nothing. In the end, all he got was an awkward silence and his but aching from being sited in the same uncomfortable place for too long. No trace of a help window or anything like it.

"...Giving me the cold shoulder, are we now?" Casting magic without any knowledge of the actual process would be... difficult, to say the least.

"Let's see... It's a rune so... Runes are a writing system, aren't they? So maybe... Oh, I remember now!" He had obviated it up until now, since he deemed it useless. However, there was a runic symbol next to the (Crystal) rune. Perhaps this was the key to solve this problem?

"Great, I have to draw— eh, write this somewhere... But where exactly?"

Fortunately, there was a stone just the perfect size and sharpness to dig the rune in the nearby. Almost as if it were waiting for him.

"Luck? Actually, luck is a sub-effect of Charisma, so... That's the most likely thing, yeah. Neat... Not that I want to end up with girl's underwear in my hands just because I have a high luck." Yes, nice as that would have been, that would cause him too many problems. Better to let that happen to the guy it was supposed to happen to.

No, actually, he would need a Steal skill to meet those requirements. Seems like he had forgotten in the stir of the moment.

I personally thank the Author for not giving him the Steal rune. Constantly describing these otaku-oriented scenes would chip away the little sanity I have left. And that, not even God has managed to do. At least, not yet.

Once again, back to the point.

"So, I'm supposed to make this—"

Eugene couldn't end the sentence. A deep, pulsing pain in his head... Inside his very brain stopped him from doing so. His senses grew number. Soon after, he couldn't feel his legs or arms. The world seemed to have gone dark...

Inside this darkness, he found something else. He couldn't see it, and yet, he knew it was there. His soul felt it... A golden brush, sparkling with magic power. And then, as if waiting for him to find it, the brush flew towards him.

The second the ethereal brush touched his hands, he knew what he had to do.

Without as much as a hint of hesitation, he lifted it. Brushing it against the black void the world seemed to have turned into, a trail of thousands of threads made out of golden light emerged. Following his will, the gold trail formed the simple, and yet so complicated figure of (Glass), the very same rune he was trying to draw earlier. He saw it, not as a symbol, or as a letter, but as the 'meaning' to something... Something he now knew how to bring to reality.

The black mist vanished, and Eugene regained his senses once again. Now, something deep inside him was telling him exactly how to use the rune.

He raised his hand, concentrating. Not in the rune itself, but in the meaning he had learned in that dark world. As its image grew stronger, the very same golden light that the brush irradiated with, formed in the tip of his finger. Now, all he had to do was...

Of course. Writing the rune. It stood there, floating in midair, waiting for him to cast the spell...

And making it wait would be a rude.

"(Glass)!"

Just as he named the words, he felt a part of his strength leaving him. This must be the mana, he thought. He felt it circulating in the golden rune, fusing with it. An instant later, both of them vanished...

And a shard of whitish crystal fell to the ground.

...

"... Ah..."

He felt puzzled. On one hand, this first rune was... little more than useless. On the other, though, it was the first magic he had used. And to transform something into something else with his own hands... felt even better than winning any game or finishing any manga. It was a feeling he would never forget. Almost too realistic to be a dream...

"Let's check out the thing in question."

The crystal shard, had a pale color. It was, however, stronger than what he had thought, as he realized when he smashed it against the rock. It had taken several hits to break the crystal. This could be useful to form makeshift barriers and weapons, although this would all come when his magic attribute went up. The crystal's reflective properties could be put to a good use later as well.

But, right now, he had to practice more this Runology. He needed a useful skill before setting off, just in case. Which meant...

"Time to grind!"