Andrew awoke to a peal of table slamming laughter echoing up from dining hall downstairs. Thin rays of sunlight cut through the rough wooden shutters over the window, filling the austere bedroom with soft morning sun. Andrew stretched and rolled over, propping himself up as he opened his status screen and looked over his catalyst options.

Runic Pioneer and Runic Destroyer are there again. I think it's better to keep the pioneer title for now though, it was already becoming difficult to naturally gain attribute points, and I'm not sure how much harder that’s going to get when I do spend the title. I want to make the best of it while I can. I'm also a little curious to see what I can spend it on later. I want to take a catalyst that will synergize with my profession and rune inscription. Mana Battery expands my mana pool and allows me to transfer it to other people or inscribed circles. It would be a powerful addition to a mana hungry team, but significantly less helpful without one. Mana Bomber has incredible destructive potential, but that’s it. I want to create more than just explosions, as fun as they are. Apprentice Elementalist has nothing to do with runes, but has very strong synergy options. I can use runes to create large pools of dense elemental mana to use Elementalist skills on, and it would be a flexible catalyst even without those to rely on. The other option is Rune Mage, the catalyst that sounds the closest to what I want, but I understand the least. It sounds somehow capable of constructing runes directly out of mana, which means quick, temporary runic circles. I think.

Andrew rolled off the bed and crossed the room to the wardrobe, picking through the oversized clothing without really looking, still lost in thought.

Ritualist and Elementalist, could be a potent combination, lots of prep time. Fabricator and Mana bomber, just churn out enough grenades to overwhelm anything that comes near. Artisan and Mage, focused on creativity and flexibility almost to a fault, there's no clear path to power but it seems capable of replicating all the others to some degree. Runic Artisan is my first pick for profession, maybe it would work better combined with Elementalist?

He found something that could work, and got to the task of rolling and tying the oversized shirt up into something usable before pulling on and tying up a pair of oversized rough cloth trousers. His muscles were stiff and he could still feel his ribs if he took a deep breath, but the rest of his injuries felt mostly healed as he stretched again and tested the tie of his trousers.

Runic Artisan is the Profession pick, that’s certain. Elementalist or Mage, or Bomber? Not bomber. Too destructive. Elementalist has direct attack power at least. I need that. The Mage has, whatever runes can do, which is a lot so far, but it isn't direct attack power.

Andrew paused mid stretch and hurried out of the room, down the stairs and through a busy breakfast in the dining hall. He grabbed a glass of water and a couple slices of seared boar steak on his way out, waving greetings to the small crowd inside as he went. He ate as he walked, crossing the camp to their wagon before setting down his food and climbing in to dig through the contents until he found the small wooden chest. He opened it and removed the journal inside before sitting down on the back of the wagon and wolfing down his food.

It's been a while since I checked this thing, and my Rune Inscription and Modification skills were a lot lower back then. I should be able to get through a few more pages.

When he was finished with his meal, Andrew picked the book up once again, steeled himself and flipped it open. He flipped through the first few pages without issue, it was only when he reached the Bridge and Delay runepairs that the headache began. He flipped to the next page, leaving Minor Translation off for the moment and just taking a close look at the diagrams.

There was a sequence of runes in a straight line across the top third of the first page. It started with a modified bridge connector rune, solid parallel lines configured to pass as much mana as possible at once but with a small dotted section in the center. The first base rune had a dot in the center and so many sides it appeared circular at first. Andrew squinted and tried to count, but the ink was smudged and the lines so small that it would be impossible to be certain. The next connecting rune was modified to add a slight transfer delay and it joined smoothly up to the second base rune, which was a simple triangle with a dot in the center and another just inside the upper tip. The sequence ended in another modified connector rune. This one had three parallel lines ending in an empty circle.

Just below the first sequence of runes was another base rune, a simple circle with a dot in the center with the same ending connector. The rest of this page and the next was absolutely filled with text. Andrew pulsed mana into the book and activated Minor Translation. His headache suddenly intensified and it took him a moment to acclimate to the distant impressions of the author that seeped through as the skill worked to translate the contents of the page. These runes were designed to expel and direct mana. The first modified connector rune acted as a trigger, opening a connection to the mana stored in the rest of the runes with a pulse of pure mana. The next rune pulls in a very large amount of mana and directs it straight up from the rune, the connector adds a slight delay, and the rune after pulls a very small amount of mana from the first rune's supply and sends it forward, in the direction the triangle is pointing. Andrew ignored the building headache to pour over the page.

The number of points on the rune determines how much mana is pulled into it. The placement of the dot determines direction, and multiple dots will split the mana into multiple directions depending on the depth of each dot relative to the others. The most extreme change in direction a single rune can manage is about ninety degrees in any direction. Range seems to be limited by the total mana available. Okay, this is good. I need to test this.

Andrew's headache was building, but it was far from unbearable so he braced himself and flipped the page. The next set of pages had a familiar format, the first page contained a new and significantly more complicated rune circle. The base rune was a tilted square made up of wavy lines. The corners of the box were disconnected, and the corner of the square pointing into the center of the circle was elongated into more of a half diamond. The connecting runes were cornerless overlapping diamonds made up of wavy lines. Minor Translation conveyed that it was a metallic mana accumulation circle, which made a lot of sense because it looked like someone mashed the earth and fire accumulation circles together. His headache was only a bit worse and this kind of rune was familiar to him so he flipped on to the next.

His headache intensified significantly as he looked over this page, examining the new circle and quickly recognizing what it was meant to be. The base rune was a triangle made up of wavy lines curving inward towards the center with connected points, and the connector was three parallel wavy lines, also connected to the base rune. It looked like a mash up of the Air and Fire accumulation circles, but the with connected lines. Minor Translation described it as a Light mana accumulation circle, and cautioned that mistakes with inscribing this rune often result in explosive failure. Andrew's head was absolutely pounding now, he deactivated Minor Translation and flipped the page. The next circle was comparably complex. It looked like a mixture of earth and air accumulation circles, but as he leaned over to examine the circle closer a drop of blood fell from his nose and nearly stained the page. He suddenly became aware of a faint ringing in his ears as blood continued to drip from his nose and he decided to close the journal for now, setting it aside and leaning back in the cart with a sigh, pressing the hem of his sleeve to his nose to stem the steady drip.

[Minor Translation lvl 1 -> 3]

Okay, Runic Artisan and Rune mage it is. These expulsion runes open up a lot of options and are relatively simple. If I can create new runes on the fly with Rune Mage skills, I could precisely aim any mana weapon by altering the expulsion rune, and eventually create entire rune circles on the spot. Elementalist is more intuitive, I think, but the amount of power a rune can channel has only been limited by the material it's inscribed on so far. I think it's more likely to punch above its level though and that's most of our fights. Okay.

[Profession Chosen: Runic Artisan]

[Choose one profession skill. One additional skill will be available every ten levels]

[Each level you will gain + 1 Dexterity and + 2 Wisdom. You will also be awarded 4 Attribute points to distribute as you see fit]

Available Skills:

[Sense Affinity: Expand your senses to gain detailed information on the affinities of a material, item, or creature.

Mend: Use mana to join torn cloth or mend scratches, is capable of filling in most inscription marks.

Body Infusion, Eyes: Infuse your eyes with mana, allowing you to magnify your vision to observe fine details or distant targets.]

[Catalyst Chosen: Rune Mage]

[Choose one catalyst skill. One additional skill will be available every ten levels]

[Each level you will gain + 2 Intelligence and + 2 Wisdom]

Available Skills:

[Mana Projection: Project and control pure mana a short distance from your hand and crystalize it into physical form for a short time. The distance, duration and precision of your mana crystallization will increase with your mana projection and mana control skills.

Auto Mana Inscription: Use concentrated mana to quickly carve a single memorized rune on a material you are touching. Your Rune Inscription skill level determines how many runes you can memorize at one time. Your Rune Modification skill determines how much you can alter a memorized rune while carving it. This skill replaces Mana Inscription.

Mana Surge: Send a huge pulse of mana into a rune all at once. Some mana will be used to reinforce the rune, allowing more mana to pass through it than usual, but it may lose integrity afterwards. The power and duration of this skill will increase with your mana surge and mana control skills]

The stat gains are pretty good for each, better than what Kalan got if I'm remembering correctly. No elemental affinity gain though. One skill from each huh, Sense Mana has been very informative so far, I imagine Sense Affinity would be similarly enlightening. Eye infusion seems like a useful tool, but one I don’t need yet. I haven't managed to inscribe anything in such fine detail I had trouble seeing it. Mend however, is a game changer. The ability to fill in and fix mistakes will save me countless hours.

[Mend Skill lvl 1 acquired]

Mana projection looks pretty interesting and I'd quite like to experiment with it, but auto inscription is another way to significantly increase my work speed and I want to try and reverse engineer it. If I can figure out how to carve using mana control alone I might be able to inscribe significantly more compact circles.

[Mana Inscription lvl 10 -> Auto Mana Inscription lvl 3]

Andrew stood up off the wagon and looked around the courtyard again. The tailoring team was already hard at work, and his own group of fledgling smiths and inscriptionists were shuffling their way from the main hall to the workbench and three mana furnaces clustered in a corner of the courtyard. Andrew hopped down off the wagon and joined the team.