20 Exploring Rune Magic

There was a dangerous glint in his eyes, oh this rat is evil. I kind of love having this guy with me, he's smarter than he acts and he has a scheming and evil mind which helps in surviving. But I really need to ensure his loyalty to me, and I feel like I can, but I'm not sure how yet.

"Sure, what kind of creature do you want?"

He's going to get it for me, such good service.

"Bring me something dumb, I think that'd be a good place to start."

And like that he disappeared, or at least ran off really fast. And so I didn't have anything to do.

I focused on the soul control again, looking for flames within my dome. And then I pointed my senses inward, and saw myself. I didn't have a mosquito shaped soul, but I had a human shaped soul. It was mostly gray like I saw with the Morrigan, but now I can see my face too. There were wings as eyes, but there were four, 2 on the normal places and 2 in an angle above them. There was a needle shaped stripe on my nose and 6 legs besides it. It looked simple but it gave of an ancient feeling, a feeling that it wants to devour.

As I looked at the back of my soul I saw 2 more things. On the back of my neck there were 2 triangles, they were the same size but the top corner of one touched the bottom right corner of the one above it.

The one on the top is white gold in color, the one on the right bottom is red gold in color. The asymmetry kind of bugged me.

On my back there was a huge black tattoo in the shape of a crow, there were millions of delicate drawings that made me think of runes. They kind of make sense with the new information from the blood rune magic, but there's a lot I don't understand. Still, I can feel my understanding about runes increase as I keep trying to decode it.

After a few moments I understand a little more, it's a seal with 3 main parts. It's the body of the crow and 2 wings. The main body represents a seal, the left wing represents the activation conditions, and the right wing represents the activation effect.

Other than that there are many small changes. But as I keep looking around I find something that catches my attention. It's the rune that represents 'active' in the eye of the crow, and as I follow what this active represents I get surprised. It represents the entire seal.

The knowledge in my mind says that I can deactivate the seal by just changing this one rune into 'inactive' which is done with a single dot. Like that I can keep studying this seal without it leaving my body, and like that I can study it until I understand every single part of it.

But how can it be so simple? How can a god just leave a vulnerability in a seal like this, can she be this careless? Something happens with the seal and I feel anger boiling up and clouding my mind. So this is the red cloud.

I try and see if I can change the rune to inactive by using a little of my own blood, and it works. My anger starts to settle and I feel my understanding of runes deepen. Probably a level up.

"System, did Blood Rune magic level up?"

…

"System?"

…

Will the system be in this seal too? I have no other idea honestly, maybe I should reactivate the seal.

As I did that the anger I felt a moment ago was gone, there probably wasn't a activation condition active right now.

"System, are you active now?"

[Yes I am, why do you ask?]

So the system doesn't know, that's convenient.

"System, in rune magic, is it normal to have a reasonably obvious on/off rune?"

[As long as the other presumes that the seal can't be seen there will be 1 on/off rune for convenience sake.]

So the Morrigan just presumed that I'd be ignorant, I hope she hates herself now. I see the seal activate again, I turn it off.

Why did the Morrigan program hate for herself in the seal? Just to spice things up?

No, it has to be something else. In anger people make wrong decisions, it has to be that. It's like her own safety switch to control my emotions should I see her again. This is a truly smart thing, maybe I can use this on Black Eyes to make sure he won't betray me. But with something else instead of anger, maybe something like worship.

But I'll need to perform some experiments first. Especially since I don't know too many words yet. I can only make some simple rune rules by using a simple activation condition and a direct source of energy like internal energy.

But I do know the word for flame, so if I make rune rule on a rock like

{Active:

When – Added – Internal energy

Uses – Internal energy – Added

Flame}

It should become an enchanted rock that can make fire, right?

I try it and it works, but the efficiency and the temperature are a bit disappointing. Maybe because the activation condition and the energy source are the same?

So, I change the activation condition line to 'When – Blood – Inside O', the inside sign has a circle of which I can change the size. And I take away the 'Added' in the energy suply.

I drip a bit of lizard blood on it and the rock catches flame, and my own energy depletes. The efficiency is better than what it was before and even the flame is hotter.

When the rock was still burning Black Eyes returned with my lab rat.

"Master, did you gain a dragon's breath from the big lizard?"

Our telepathy changed with the soul powers, it's like when we really want to say something the other will get it. It's way less taxing like this.

"No, a mosquito with a dragon's breath would be awesome though. But look at this."

I stop the flame by setting the rune on inactive, I change flame to frost, I take the blood out of the circle and toss the rock to Black Eyes.

"Put a drop of lizard blood inside the circle and see what happens."

He does as I tell him and the rock lights up in a light blue color. The air around it turns cold, and the bloody swamp floor freezes solid.

"So, you can make burning and freezing rocks? I'd have preferred a dragon's breath."

Maybe he isn't that smart.

"What would happen if I made someone's insides burn when he drank water without him knowing why his own energy starts burning him, or a way to stop himself? It might not be as cool looking as a dragon's breath but I do believe that this is better and more versatile."

"If you put it like that... I'd still prefer a dragon's breath."

Ugh this rat.