B3 Chapter 405: Destiny Redux, pt. 6

Walking through the familiar hall where he had trained with Porkchop and Ianmus — and where Rieker had forced him to confront the recklessness of his initial approach to delving — Kaius only had eyes for the two blackboards that sat at the far end. Both contained veiled glyphs, swirling and shifting with every passing moment.

As he hurried behind his guide, the hardened leather of Kaius’s boot heels clattered loudly on the reinforced floor. They slowed, stopping just before his choices.

“Only two,” Kaius said.

“Hmm?” His guide glanced over his shoulder. “Oh, yes. Drakthar is something of a centerpiece to this class, as you may have surmised from its focus on direct battle. That has somewhat limited the options — progression is more direct, the variants narrower. It favors violence.”

Kaius looked down at his hands: at the jagged and swirling form of the glyph that lay there. It made sense, he supposed.

“I imagine the fact the skill was already at Heroic contributed as well?” Kaius asked.

“It did. Jumping off from Heroic leaves less room for divergence. Variants will exist, but they remain thematically linked to the direct applications of glyphic power.”

“So I might have gotten more options if I’d picked the Vizier or the Wayfinder?” he guessed.

His guide nodded. “Somewhat. They are both still Vesryn classes, though, and the initial glyph plays a significant role in that order as their main method of offensive casting. You would have seen fine-tuning towards their domains, but nothing as drastic as if you had chosen the Gilded Despot. In that case, the glyph would likely have bent more dramatically, and you may even have been offered the chance to replace it outright.”

Kaius cocked his head. “How does that work with glyphs like mine, that grant spells? I assume my current ones only work with Drakthar.”

His guide shrugged, before turning back to the blackboards. One finger traced the curves of a glyph, before he switched to the next. It hurt Kaius’s head to watch. Based on their movements and expression, they were tracing similarities; yet the glyphs seemed to twist around his guide’s finger.

It made it look like his guide’s very touch warped the world around them.

“It depends. If the evolution diverges so far that your current spells no longer fit, you will pick new ones. If the path is direct, they remain, though they are often empowered and broadened if there is an increase in Skill rarity. For variants, the spells may shift to better fit the new focus.”

Kaius looked back to the swirling, indistinct forms on the blackboards. There was little he could make out beyond the jagged aggression mirrored on the backs of his hands. Both images called to him — a deep, compelling urge.

It didn’t feel controlling: they didn’t tug on his Authority, nor contest his sense of self. No, it was more primordial than that; an instinct that what lay before him was an expansion of what he could do. Another step closer to mastering glyph-binding; another step on the Path.

Kaius gave in to the tug, leaning forward as two system descriptions flickered into being.

Infused Glyph of Varkos:

Level 201:

Class Skill – Tier II

Affinity: Arcane, Martial

Type: Glyph-binding, Runic, Spellcasting

Selection Available!

Heroic

The ‘Glyph of Devastation,’ Varkos is etched to meet the need for widespread destruction. An Infused Variant of Drakthar, Varkos is specialised towards bombardment: spells whose widespread devastation is matched only by their cost. Like its progenitor, it is a brutal and hungry beast; its nodes are inscribed on the hands and forearms where it may be better leashed and directed.

Tier I:

This skill allows the user to inscribe wide-area Vesryn evocation spell-hymns to be activated at will, limited only by the availability of mana to reserve into the working, and sufficient space on the body. Creates a hymnbook on the user’s status if one is not already present. Multiples of the same glyph can cast hymns inscribed on their counterpart.

Tier II:

A linked node added to the forearms, capable of supporting second tier spells.

Each level moderately increases the power, range, and area of effect of spell-hymns cast through the glyph.

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Each level slightly decreases the physical size of inscribed spell-hymns.

Every 100 levels the user may learn another runic hymn of the relevant tier to add to their hymnbook.

Spell-hymns Known:

Tier I:

???

???

Tier II:

Selection Available!

….

Infused Glyph of Drakthar:

Level: 201