10 Ancient Runes
"Sir, why are you calling me? Did I make a mistake?" Char asked the older man.
He was afraid that the Man would find something strange about his sudden increase in ability, even though he did not use the skeleton's third ability. The first and the second ability were already different from their initial state.
Char already prepared some elaborate lies to tell the teacher to cover the truth. He wanted to keep all the advantages he had since he would need every advantage if he wanted to surpass the other.
"You don't need to be nervous, I don't plan to extract information from you, I know you are talented and smart. I have heard about how you told your skeleton to train repeatedly. You did well in using the undead's trait to your advantage," The muscled man praised him.
The news of a skeleton that kept jumping down from a tree already spread all over the academy.
"It's nothing, Sir. I just think it would be a waste to let it rest when it doesn't need any. I was surprised too when it actually improved so much from the training." he replied.
"Hahaha, of course, it will improve, normal creatures will get tired and die if they keep using magic without rest, that's why they need a long time to master their magic. Different from them, your skeleton can cast the magic repeatedly, it must have used it a hundred if not a thousand times," the man laughed.
"But this only works because the magic is simple, to train complex magic, it will need more than just repetition, it will need to learn from mistakes and innovate new applications of the magic to increase the magic's mastery." The man added as he became serious.
Char was waiting for him to tell him what he wanted since the man must have another reason to call him other than giving him some praises.
"Have you noticed why you could not beat Bob in a duel even though you have a better technique?" the man asked.
"Yes, Sir. My magic ability was focused on defense and regeneration, it did not give me enough edge to win a duel," He answered.
"Then what do you think you need to do?" the man asked him.
"I will need to train my swordsmanship more so I can beat him even without magic ability, or I need to modify one of my magic so I have an offensive ability," Char told him his thought
The man nodded in satisfaction, "That's right, you are on the right path. But you can actually do both. I know someone who was just like you. He summoned a skeleton and he could beat people who summoned an ogre with just his sword skill and simple magic," Mr. Brown told him.
"Why are you telling me this, Sir?" Char asked the older man.
"I want to teach you this simple magic. That friend of mine told me to pass it to someone if I find someone worthy of it," he said seriously.
"What kind of magic is that? Why would your friend want to pass it?" He asked the man.
The muscled man smiled as he remembered the past, "We were young when he died protecting me, He always told me that he wanted to be a teacher so he could help people like him who were looked down upon because of their summoned creature, so I believe he would like for me to pass his dream to you," He said.
"Was he strong, Sir?" Char asked because, for him, all that matters were if the magic could help him get stronger, he would not care about the deceased man's legacy if it could not get him stronger.
"He was very strong, He could fight a Baronet tier creature even though he was only on Knight tier, sadly he died young, I believe he could surpass Baronet tier and become the first Baron skeleton summoner in history if he was still alive," the man told him.
"He is that strong? What kind of magic did he use?" Char asked in curiosity.
"Well, it's not pure offensive magic, it's more of supporting offensive magic. Do you know the skeleton's physical resistance, magic? He modifies that so it would not be resistance magic, I know you might think that as stupid just like everyone else since a skeleton would be too fragile without it, but in exchange, he replaced the resistance rune with an increased rune. It increased the damage he could do."
Char was listening carefully; he did not refute the radical modification, since the man could beat someone a tier higher that means the magic must have worked.
"When I asked him why he replaced the resistance magic, he just told me that the Regeneration magic was enough. What he needed was a way to beat his opponent, not a way to delay his losses," The man said in remembrance.
Hearing his word, Char agreed with it wholeheartedly. He had felt the frustration of being a turtle, he could not beat his opponent while his opponent could not beat him either. He also felt how it felt to fight weaker opponents, but unable to win because of the lack of a deciding move.
"My swordsmanship also matters. It would be useless to have a stronger attack if I can't hit my opponent," he thought as he remembered his fight with Anne.
"So, will you learn this Magic? I know you might be skeptical about this, but I believe if it's you then you will be able to use it better than my old friend," Mr. Brown asked.
The teacher had tried to teach the magic to other students before but it ended in disaster as they could not use it to their advantage; they became weaker instead of stronger when they chose offense instead of defense since they are not skilled enough in combat ability.
Char knew the risk in modifying his ability, he would waste precious level it did not work out for him and he needed to return it to default resistance ability, but to him the risk was nonexistent, he could just top up the Skeleton's mana with the absorption ability.
"I will! I believe in you, Mr. Brown," He agreed to learn the magic since it has no drawback to him.
After seeing the magic circle, Char understands why Mr. Brown always calls it a simple ability, The magic was indeed simple; It enhanced physical attack and only that.
"Will this magic really allow me to fight a baronet while being a knight?" He wondered.
"Probably not, since the original inventor must be a sword genius, he must have exceptional skill on top of this magic," He concluded.
"Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Brown. If there is nothing else, then I will excuse myself," Char said goodbye before leaving the room.
He had planned to learn about his extra magical ability. The unknown rune is so mysterious that he was wondering if he could use it as anything other than to gather mana.
"I can't brag about knowing all runes there is, but I'm quite sure I never saw this rune before, even though I have read a lot of books on runes," he thought.
It did not take long for him to reach the Library; the library was the only place he could access to learn about the runes.
All other places were not accessible to someone in the lowest class like him, only those in the elite class can access the best learning facility at will.
"Just a week ago, I could go to all those places to learn. Now I can only go to the library," Char lamented.
Reaching the library, he suddenly remembered about his last encounter with Aya, she was learning in the library instead of the places for elites to learn.
"Hm... I wonder why she needs to hide that she was hardworking. Is the image of a genius that doesn't need to study that important to her?" he wondered as he entered the library.
"Now that I think about it, I usually take books from other facilities here to read because there are fewer people here, I don't really know where to find the book I need," he thought.
After an hour of searching for books, he found a dozen books about runes, all of them were old since the library rarely gets new books.
"The 3 classification of rune? This is the first time I heard about such a thing. Maybe This book has what I need," He opened the book to find a new thing, not even the book in a better facility has such information.
"Runes was classified into three categories; Basic rune, runes that could be used and find almost every creature's magic circle; Advance rune, runes that could only be used by baron tier creature or higher; Ancient rune, runes that are so rare that people tried to monopolize them for themselves!"
At first, Char thought the rune was in the second category, but after reading the book, he got the feeling that it might be in the third category.
