21 The scribe of Mirmir, the chronicler of the earth 2

You are now my disciple and from now on you should answer only to me .Here are some books about basic runic encryption and basic meaning behind the runes . Do you know what are the runes?And what do the runes represent?

"The runes are the written letters that were used by the Northern provinces of Great wolf empire and other peoples that follow Asgard s rule before the adoption of the current manuscript in the later eons after the Age of heroes . Unlike the current manuscript , which is an essentially utilitarian script(that means that every letter represents sound made from mouth), the runes are symbols of some of the most powerful forces in the cosmos. In fact, the word "rune" and its cognates across past and present Northern dialects means both "letter" and "secret/mystery." The letters called "runes" allow one to access, interact with, and influence the world-shaping forces they symbolize. Thus, when Odin sought the runes, he wasn't merely attempting to acquire a set of arbitrary representations of human vocal sounds. Rather, he was uncovering an extraordinarily potent system of magic.His mastery was so strong that he commanded the wind , used mighty chants to heal any wounds and bind his enemy .He could even bind night wolf Fenrir with the power of the letters .We humans have shallow knowledge of the runes because many of ancient tomes from The Age of heroes are gone.We even lost the ability of rune chanting and went from mighty sorceress to puny scribes. Still we have some profound heritage and some simple wind chanting" and than he murmured on the strange language .

Wind came and made petals form the one of the flowers dance in the cyclic manner.

"As you can see this kind of chanting is useless on the battlefield so we are bound to draw runes on the hard surface for them to have some effect. As you probably noticed already the benefit of this rune work is that it does not have any requirements in cultivation to be used.So even a good for nothing cripple could use runic work for their bidding.Runes are basically tools to communicate with grand dao . They do not represent grand dao but they represent the insights of the rune maker ! "

"Check this out !"- he than took two runic charms from his desk ."In your opinion witch of these two are better Ice rune and why ?"

Ivar finally could use his Mead power .He looked at both runic charms ! The first one had many revolutions and many small inscriptions on it and looked profound! Second was just stone with one symbol :"Ice " on it.

"I choose the second rune with just Ice symbol on it because i can clearly see that even with all profoundness of the first ice rune rune maker did not actually understand ice .On the other hand the second rune was drawn by someone that practiced ice qi circulation arts ." Ivar responded.

"That is the right answer " Halfdan said "But how did you know it if you did not practice the rune work?"

"Teacher i have ability to see the core of things " Ivar again replied .

"Core of things ? Can you explain it in the simple words? " old teacher Halfdan asked with bit of interest.

"Well for example : I dont know you but i know that you got your second ring in rune works 150 years ago on December 21st .Also i know that you second ring was added by your master to your chain 3 months later after you draw your first wind repelling rune.Than for another example the robe that you are wearing is made from dragon sheep silk .That means that your clan is one of the richest clans in the Imperial province .Also you have small fire mark on the lower side of the robe.....

"Thats so magical .Are there any requirements and problems with it?" Halfdan now impressed, asked.

"Well probably there are . For example i could understand great dragon language and even speak it but i did not understand your rune chanting .Also i can not see the cultivation of persons that are much stronger than me ..And one time but just once i managed to read persons mind ."

" Good Boy you are perfect for this job ! With your intelligence and this power you will surely be a great master in the ancient art. But from now on for your own protection i forbid it to mention this power of yours . People are often jealous and it can become your doom .I will now show you basic runic combinations for fire , water and air.You can practice them in your house and tomorrow the real thing starts .I will make you runic master out of you!! "

He than wrote down 3 simple letters that symbolized fire , air and water.These three were basic runes that were practiced by scribe initiates of the temple.Everyone would get in touch with these three elements and had some basic understanding of them . Air represented freedom,water- life and fire would be destruction and power.

Also one of the more magical properties of the runes was that if you wrote it down in the reversed manner it would be used to repel and to return magical attacks to attacker.

After that Ivar tried to recreate the whole process.Due to his qi circulation he got water right from the first time.It was weak, so week that it would not create one spoon of fresh water but it was still a rune that worked.Fire and air on the other hand were totally different story.Ivar did get some familiarity with fire when queen gave him her blood but it was still buried deep down.

Air rune was the surprise here.He got the drawing right and he managed to channel qi into the rune but it the end the rune-work broke down and simple air rune puffed and disintegrated into the nothingness .

Halfdan noticed Ivars puzzled look and than explained ."Boy , you still have blood of your clan , and your clan main arts all are in air.So aside from your ice qi circulation manual you have air qi in your bones and blood.You ,with your blood are simply closer to the air due the constant practice and arts of your ancestors and for your first water rune i think is passable.You just need to draw lot of them from now on. I guess fire would be problem for you so these two weeks our class will mainly address dao of the elements and by dao i mean the simplest dao .You should be able to form these three runes in a week and from than on its just book reading , my dao teachings regarding the runes and your own insights of the elements.I can help you with the simplest truths of the water and fire but from simplest levels up to the concepts you need to work and gain your own insights . Do you know what concepts are?"

Ivar responded with : "My teacher i did hear about the word " concept" and i heard that word many times when warriors had spoken about the elements .It should be something about elements?"

"Well you are right" Halfdan said" but your explanation is bit shallow .People try to get closer to the nature and try to imitate laws.In their pursuit of cultivation and immortality they tend get closer to the truth and from simplest truth create great dao ! From Nascent soul realm (one after core formation) many people have one or two concepts.On higher lvls they even need insights in the dao of the elements to advance.For example from Martial king to Martial emperor one would need at least 3 advanced lvl concepts to advance . And i have only two water and wind on the first advanced lvl in the moment."

"Now Ivar finally knew what were the obstacles in cultivation!Maybe he could go the warriors way and study the arts of the warrior but its still to early to decide ! Maybe he will try to do both warrior and soul path."

There were two basic branches of cultivation .Cultivation of soul witch meant that one should embrace the elements and cultivation of the body witch meant continual increase of strength and was focused on dao of the weapons. So it was something like this:

Dao of the soul :qi circulation-qi formation gathering - core formation-Nascent soul-elements reflection-Martial lord-...

Dao of the body cultivation :spirit realm-origin realm -profound realm -heaven realm-blood reflection-Martial lord-...

Ivar was at qi circulation peak but was not sure for his body cultivation.Two branches supported each other .So many of the stronger warriors would have both dao of the body and dao of the soul at higher cultivation lvls .So even strong soul cultivator like Halfdan was at least at profound realm of the body cultivation art.

Basic sword arts that Ivar had were special just because they combined two paths: paths of the body and soul. But now Ivar was still far away from that so he decided to try his best and cultivate both paths together.That was one of the reasons he needed money, and why he went strait to Mirmir temple.He wanted to draw small runes and sell them to common folk.Of course he wanted to learn first but his true objective is to gain money for his plans!

After the lecture ended Ivar hurried back to his home.On the way he noticed many beggar children in the streets and what surprised him most was the fact that none cared .He in his past life as Ivar did give lot of money to the orphanages around the city but it seemed as the corrupt officials took most of it.Ivar was a bit mad because of it but than since he had time on the road back to home thought of a plan : "What if i take them in ? Just small amount at beginning of course but I can give them home and they can work for me.I need to consult old sentry on this matter .He has more experience and he is the only one that has money in our household right now "and he rushed the dirty streets of commoners area because he finally had a good plan.