B2 Chapter 169: Commute, Finale

Crossing open fields that were gradually shifting into light woods, Kaius walked with his team. His eyes roved over the various clusters of trees that dominated the flat horizon, searching their depths for any sign of beasts that might challenge them.

While there were plenty of them about, it seemed there weren’t all that many of a large enough size to truly want to tussle with their group. Something that would no doubt change as they grew in strength. Beast bloodlines were odd things, and as more variants appeared, he had no doubt that even a common crow could become a threat.

While he would normally travel mounted for the speed advantage, with Ianmus there was really no point, and it felt more than a little rude to subject Porkchop to his weight for no reason.

Still, as the day had passed them, Kaius had been unable to get the conversation he and Ianmus had the previous night out of his head. There was so little that he knew of the glyphs that he had received from his class, and with all the excitement he’d yet to take the opportunity to really study them.

While he no longer possessed a true knowledge skill, Tonal Weaving did increase his comprehension of the glyphs and hymns granted to him by the system. With the addition of his Bladerite, he finally had another point of comparison.

With how quiet this leg of their trip was being, his curiosity gnawed at him. It settled on his mind like an itch, sucking at his focus. Every few moments he caught himself staring at nothing, thinking on the structure of his glyphs.

He sighed. Until he gave in and actually checked how much he was able to glean from comparing his two skills, he would be a useless scout. As it was, he was liable to miss something right in front of his face.

“Mind if I hop on? I want to meditate on my glyphs a little.” he asked, tapping Porkchop on the shoulder to grab his attention.

“Finally.” his brother snorted. “You really don’t need to put that much pressure on yourself to keep watch. I’m here too, you know, and it’s not like you’ll be insensate if you’re just sitting there with your eyes closed.”

Rolling his eyes at his brother’s jab, Kaius grabbed one of the leather straps on Porkchop’s barding and leapt into his saddle. Leaning forwards, he ruffled his brother’s fur before settling back and getting comfortable. Honestly, with the impact absorption of the stone charger leather, it cradled him better than almost anything else he’d sat on.

Closing his eyes, Kaius brought his glyphs to the forefront of his mind’s eye, tuning out the idle chatter that had started between Porkchop and Ianmus.

Mustering his will, he drew on everything he had learned—all of the sacred geometry and runic mystery of Drakthar, Stormlash, and Bladerite coming to mind at once. A dull ache throbbed at the back of his skull; the task a precarious thing that was only possible thanks to the Vesryn formations having been burnt into his mind by the will of the system.

At first, it was almost impossible to keep them all in focus. His mind would drift, focusing on one working to sharpen its edges, only for the others to become hazy and unfocused. Forcing himself to relax, Kaius took a slow breath and allowed himself to let go of the desire to clutch any single aspect of the workings, filling in the details piece by piece.

His effort was not in vain. Minute by minute, all three workings grew increasingly clear in his mind.

**Ding! True Sight has reached level 36!**

**Ding! Tonal Weaving has reached level 30!**

…

**Ding! Tonal Weaving has reached level 31!**

Eventually all of them burned in his mind, as crisp as if he had spent hours lavishly rendering them on parchment. Now the true work could begin.

Mentally distancing himself from the workings, he rotated them in his mind, viewing them from every angle. That was the true problem with the inscrutable Vesryn magic; they were three dimensional. He couldn’t just write them down. Honestly, without the skill and power to render them in the real with raw manipulation abilities, or mundane carving, he truly had no idea how someone would even go about learning the damn things.

Thank the gods he could visualise them.

Watching them closely, Kaius started to compare, attempting to find any sources of similarity. On a superficial level, there were none. At least, that’s what he thought at first. The runes that made up each one were different in nature, though there were commonalities.

He suspected that rather than being wrought from the same runic language, Vesryn might have been made up of a small collection. Though, far different from his original glyph, they seemed to share the same base level principles. It was the little things, the same symmetry in sacred geometry, and extremely similar cadences to the lines of runes.

He had no idea what any of it did, but he could spot the similarities. A common root. It was most stark with Stormlash and Drakthar, which made sense considering that one relied on the other to function. They both had the same aggressive bent—exaggerated flicks, acute angles, and slashing lines. Yet neither were utterly alien when compared to the Bladerite, all of them seemed to follow a similar grammar structure, and he could even spy a couple of common characters shared between all of them, though more were present in his spell glyph and hymn.

Kaius hummed, a small frown of surprise crossing his mouth. That was…unexpected, and utterly unlike any other runic language he knew of. Sure, all runes had similar principles, but each language was its own thing, and he had never heard of runes being shared across different scripts. It flew completely in the face of what he knew of sacred geometry. Each rune affected mana in a specific way, combining with others to make an effect. If, at the end of the day, they were interoperable, wouldn’t that make them all part of the same language after all?

But why the extreme stylistic disparity? If it was a language, it was one with far more depth and nuance than he was used to.

What’s more, he could see other similarities between Drakthar and his Bladerite that weren’t shared with Stormlash. Comparable clusters and arrays of unknown function, but with a broadly similar shape and placement within the overall working.

…Strange, but curious. Regardless, it was far too complex for him to work through now, not with how few examples he had. Hopefully there would be more glyphs in the future, and as Tonal Weaving grew he would be far better positioned to tease out their secrets.

Releasing the images with a sigh, Kaius felt the throb at the back of his head dissipate as he stopped pulling his mind in three different directions.

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Rather than open his eyes, he decided to take the opportunity to think more on aspects. After all, Ekum the Pale had said it would take combat and meditation, and who was he to ignore the advice of a god?

They were related to personal truths; that much had been made clear by both Ekum and the system itself. Yet…he knew little of what sort of truth they might be.

What did he know about himself, truly and deeply?

Pausing, Kaius thought back on the life he had lived, and the path of hardship he had walked. Comfort and predictable security went right out the door, they were pleasant things, but not something he held overly dear. Hells, every time he’d come close to them, he’d started to get itchy within days.

No, he much preferred the excitement of the unknown, and the guttural rush that came from pushing up against external pressure and challenges. It was the struggle that he truly loved, the clawing fight to work his way just another hair closer to his goals. That exhilarating thrill to race to the finish, besting all who would contest him.

Victory, and satisfaction.

Something deep within him thrummed. Just. Barely even a quiver really, but he felt it all the same.

His heart thumped, kicking like a mule in his chest as he dived into his soulspace, the rising pillars of his aspects before him in an instant. They were…still. Unmoving. Irritation welled, frustrated energy bucking against his calm focus.