Finally!

Oh My God guys...Chapters 51 and 52 are soooo effing dope. I can't believe I'm the one who wrote them. for the price of 1 dollar or even lower check out my Pat.reon for the advanced chapters. Pat.reon.com/Saintbarbido.

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Chapter 43 Finally!

(Jin's P.O.V)

"The first thing you need to understand about runes…draw them correctly and you get the desired effect. Mess up even a little and you end up with less fingers."

I listened intently to Zoren. We had finally begun my rune lessons and I was eager for more. I had so many ideas running through my mind and to finally! Get the chance to implement them was a large step towards my progress to power. 

"Truthfully speaking…there's not much I have to say about them."

Zoren had a certain look on his face that I couldn't quite read. I was very puzzled by his words.

"I don't understand Grand Master. We just started. Surely there's much more you can advise me on the subject of runes."

"That's just it. There's nothing I can teach you that you don't already know. For instance, you've read and memorized all the antlantean runic characters right? You also know about the synergy effect right? You've practiced channeling natural magic through yourself and achieved an almost precise control of your body right?"

I nodded at every question and at the end of it, I looked my hands in a little wonder.

"The only thing left…"

He trailed off.

"Is to draw."

I finished his sentence.

"That's right. Though I must caution you…take it slow. Runes can be quite volatile. Even with your prodigious talent in them."

I nodded and ran my thoughts about what I'd learned in my mind. Atlantean runes needed a flat surface to draw them on. This meant that I couldn't construct a rune on the floor and stretch it out to the wall. The bare minimum needed the layout to at least be flat-like. For example, the ground. Drawing runes on the ground however tended to not be cost effective because the earth would mostly suck some of the magic once the runic formation activates. 

It wasn't a big disadvantage to me however because all I had to do to counter that would be to continuously channel more magic to the rune if it didn't exceed my current construction limit. Yes I had a limit on the quality of runes I could draw. 

"Mmmh?"

Zoren's voice pulled me out if my thoughts. A huge dome instantly covered us as a frown appeared on his face.

"What's going on Grand Master?"

"Someone just caused a temporal anomaly."

"A time anomaly… goddamit Barry."

I got up from the floor. Things were finally getting interesting. But if what Zoren actually felt was Barry time traveling, what could be the reason? Was it the same as in canon? 

"You know who's responsible?"

I nodded at Zoren's grave question. Messing with time was a big no-no. Otherwise Zoren would have spared no expense or effort to go back and change the outcome of his civilization's demise. So it was akin to a personal front to him. 

I touched the bubble and ripples spread from my contact.

"What's this?"

"It's a spell to isolate us from the anomaly. We'd still have the memories of the timeline changed if the change had affected us directly."

I hummed as my frown deepened.

"You want to go and find out what is going on on the surface, don't you?"

It was less of a question and more of a statement and I didn't know what to say to him. Normally if it had been something else I wouldn't care but time traveling was a huge red flag that things weren't going well back in Central city. I was worried about Caitlin and the responsibility I'd heaped upon her.

"I… even if I… I'm yet to complete my runic studies…"

I didn't know who I was trying to convince. Me or Zoren. 

He sighed and turned to walk away.

"Follow me."

I did as said and we left the garden and ended deeper into the premises towards a section of the conservatory I'd never been in before. 

We finally came to a stop Infront of 2 huge doors that had a pair of stone statues at the sides.

"The keepers of the vaults. Enchanted to be resistant to magic and have herculean strength."

Zoren answered as he placed a hand on the double doors. There was a whine of machinery as the doors opened and I gasped. 

The vault was huge. Spanning over 5 football stadiums. In the middle of the huge space was a mountain of gold and jewelry. On the sides in cases were magical artefacts like wands, staffs and horns to name a few, weapons, music instruments, scientific machineries that I had no idea what they were and armors of every size, class and build. 

"What in the…hell?"

"Yes quite impressive."

He didn't seem all that impressed however. He looked like he had already gotten used to this. Which was pretty obvious why with him being the Grand Master and everything. I breathed in and entered my runic form quite easily. The magic in this room was immense! 

Zoren snapped a finger and the gold and jewelry lying around haphazardly was gathered into neat stacks. The jewelry poured into treasure chests and trunks, clearing the immediate space Infront of us. 

"Jin could you summon the huge hall table here?"

He told me and I breathed in. I channelled the magic into my fingers and they lit up brightly.

A beam of orange light shot out and onto the floor before us. High level rune sorcerers could cut down the characters to one or two by using their intent to shoulder the burden of the missing characters. They just had to have a lot of experience and memorize the characters clearly. Its like how an experienced motorist can do awesome stunts on a motorbike while someone who just learned how to drive can't.

The antlantean characters for [Summon Table] briefly flashed before a the huge dinner table appeared Infront of us. The characters died out soon, after I cut off the magic used to sustain them.

"Good."

I heard a touch of pride in Zoren's voice and smiled. One might wonder why it had been so easy to do that. The truth was that it hadn't been. 

If it wasn't because of my precise magic control, the runes would have destabilized and died out or exploded. I also had to keep a steady hand. Seems like my training had finally paid off. All I had to do was accumulate experience and I would soon reduce the time I used to draw the runes.

I closed my fingers into a fist and smiled. Zoren gestured and a case from the wall detached to fly towards us. He telekinetically placed it on the table and the mirror display opened. Inside was an Atlantean armor. It was very similar to Aquaman's armor from the DC extended universe's justice league. The difference was that it had a brighter sheen and was a bit thinner. The shape was reminiscent of Aquaman's armor from his movie, Aquaman. 

"Activate your runic form and look."

I did as he told me and almost shut my eyes in pain. The whole armor was covered by runic formations.

"This armor will protect you from any temporal or spatial attacks up to a certain limit. It's experimental but should suffice if you come across the time traveller."

I shut off the runic form when the light got too much. 

I swallowed as I advanced to touch it. A tap from Zoren and I pulled my hand back in question.

"It's. Experimental. Don't just touch it."

He wove his hands in an intricate manner along the armor and after looking at it again in my runic form, most of the light had died down. 

"I've disabled the binding spells from it's creator. Draw your blood and infuse it on the armor."

I did as instructed and a drop of my blood fell on a piece of it. 

Red lines sprang out from where the drop landed and covered the armor in a web like formation before disappearing. The armor started disintegrating before flowing to me and covering my body. After it was done I looked down on myself in wonder. 

"Apart from blocking any temporal or spatial energy from affecting the wearer, it also comes equiped with the standard and non-standard specs of an Atlantean armor. For instance, it increases the wearer's physical parameters by 500%, is form fitting, can levitate, allow the user to ride the water and of course like any armor block attacks. There is another hidden effect that I'll leave for you to find out."

Creating my own armor was still a must but the one I had on was amazing. I hadn't felt this powerful before. Apart from increasing my strength and speed, it also seemed to make channelling magic easier. I wondered who had made such a powerful artefact and if there even more powerful ones. 

I looked over at Zoren and saw he had an indecisive look on his face…

"Is something wrong Grand Master?"

He looked at me.

"I'm wondering if I should give you a weapon or not."

I shook my head.

"I haven't personally trained with one yet. I can use a sword but…I think I'll be fine without a weapon."

It would seem stupid not using Percy's sword skills but those moves were his. Tailor made for his body and understanding. If I was gonna use a weapon then it'd be a weapon and skills I had worked hard for. Plus I had The Flow.

"Agreed."

He said and patted me in the shoulder. 

"I'm proud of you and from this day forward, you're not an Acolyte anymore, instead you're a Magic Practitioner."

I wished Yuki was awake to hear this. It hadn't been easy but I had finally achieved the next stage.

"Go. See if your loved ones are okay."

I bowed low.

"Thank you Grand Master Zoren for everything you have taught me. I'll be back after sorting things out."

A portal opened up infront of me and I could see the open ocean and a coastline far off into the distance. 

"Go. The armor will lead you back here to continue with your studies after you're done."

I nodded and stepped out. I instantly froze the water to stand on it but I shouldn't have even bothered as the armor enabled me to do so automatically. I had two thoughts in my head as the portal shimmered and disappeared. 

The first one was, how the hell did Zoren create a portal that could bypass the armor's resistance to spatial magic? 

The second one was, why did my leaving seem so final? I felt like I wouldn't  see Zoren again.

I shook off my morbid thoughts and turned my eyesight back to look at the coastline. Hello, Central city.