41 Rune Forging 1

Li Tian had taken the time to burn multiple incense to get back to the dormitory. When he got to his room, he went straight to sleep, exhausted from his interaction with Elder Phoenix.

In the morning, Wang Li Tian headed to the dining area for breakfast with the other direct disciples. The food made by his Senior sister was delicious as per usual. He finished up the food cleanly and left for his teacher's dwelling. To train Li Tian, Xin Shu Yi asked the boy to lead the way to Elder Long's place. As expected, there were a few times that Xin Shu Yi had to redirect the boy in the right direction, but nothing serious like mixing up his ups and downs.

Long Tang Yun sat by his front yard stone table, his attention was currently focused on a piece of paper. He stared intently on the center of the paper before finally raising his ink brush. With a skilful intent, Long Tang Yun inscribed a symbol. It resembled an S shape. The black symbol soon blinked softly with a white hue. The surrounding spiritual energy could be seen being absorbed into the symbol and the white hue slowly became a brighter light. In the end, the symbol eventually crumbled down and the paper combusted in the air spontaneously.

Long Tang Yun shook his head dismissively. He was disappointed in the outcome of his inscription. He muttered to himself. "Maybe it has to do with the environment…"

"Teacher! We are here!" The voice of Xin Shu Yi drifted into Long Tang Yun's ear. The Prime Elder who was focused on his problem looked up and found his two disciples entering his courtyard. Long Tang Yun had a serene expression as if there was no problems in his research. In front of his disciples, Prime Elder Long would never show his source of difficulty.

"Good morning, Teacher Long." Li Tian greeted too.

"Good morning."

"What do we plan to do today?" Xin Shu Yi asked with her hands behind her back.

"Mmm. I shall first brief Little Li Tian on how I go about my teachings." Thinking about it, Long Tang Yun gave Xin Shu Yi something to do, "Why not you go ahead and carry on with the Snare Scroll that I assigned you to do?"

"Alright." Xin Shu Yi gave a beautiful smile before leaving into the Prime Elder's house.

"Now… Little Li Tian, Let me introduce you to what goes on in the School Of Artificing." Long Tang Yun turned back to look at Li Tian.

"Since you joined the School of Artificing, I will have to give you a brief introduction into the general structure of our school discipline. You probably will not remember everything I say, so only remember the things I tell you to focus on." From yesterdays interaction, Long Tang knew that he needed to cater to his disciple's traits. Li Tian nodded to his teacher's words.

"The School of Artificing has a total of three Prime Elders under one Great Elder. We, Prime Elders each focus on a different specialisation as an artificer. The three specialisations are Scrolls, Forging and lastly, Arrays. For you, since you are studying under me, you will be learning the creation and analysis of Runic Scroll."

"Normally, to get my disciples started on the journey of Artificing, I would get them to read this book." With a swish of his hand a large old book appeared in Elder Long's hand. It read 'Beginners Guide to Rune Forging'. When Li Tian saw it, his face formed a deep frown. "But, that is for 'normal' circumstances. For you, I shall dive you right into rune forging."

Wang Li Tian's frown immediately disappeared after hearing what Long Tang Yun said. Elder Long gestured for the young disciple to follow him into a secluded room. There was a long and narrow low table and a cushion on the floor. Besides that, there were a few rice paper windows that allowed some light to come into the room. The floor is kept dust-free and the walls were made out of hardwood.

"Take a seat, Little Li Tian." Wang Li Tian obeyed and sat down on the cushion. Long Tang Yun placed down a huge stack of paper on Li Tian's left. The ink-set was placed in the center, leaving the right of Li Tian empty.

"The first step in training you to be a competent Artificer is one that many struggle often. It constitutes as the basis of any of the three specialisations, Scrolls, Forging and Arrays. That step is Rune Forging. Anything that artificers create will have to use runes. It is the runes that allow the channelling of Spiritual Energy." With that, Long Tang Yun took a seat in front of Li Tian. "Take a look."

Raising the ink brush, Long Tang Yun drew an S-shape line before drawing vertically upwards through the 'S'. He then finished up with a circle that surrounded the 'S'. All this was done in one fell swoop. "This here is a runic symbol. There are three types of runes, Wards, Glyphs and Observers. A Ward is a protective rune. A Glyph is an offensive rune. And lastly, an Observer is an inspection rune. The runic symbol I just drew is categorised under Wards. Do you understand till this part?"

Wang Li Tian nodded. The boy explained back to Long Tang Yun that there are basically three types of runes, attack, defence and utility. The names were secondary to the boy and the prime elder. Long Tang Yun could finally breathe out the breath of air that he held in him. He was scared that the boy would become lost in the starting stages. That would not be good at all.