Chapter 19

"You can sit next to me there is an open spot."James said.

Alex followed him to a seat. A second later a young man entered. He was wearing glasses and a uniform, it looked like it was tailored specifically for this club.

Alex could see multiple runes inscribe into it.

'That looks like it would be costly to keep them running.'

"Good morning Mr. David." He greeted the instructor.

"How many times do I have to tell you, just call me David. I'm not a teacher I have no obligation for formality."

The man looked around before his gaze set on them. "I see you have invited a new student, I hope he fairs better than the last one you invited."

"That wasn't my fault Paul, your the one who scared her away with all your technical talk." James retorted.

"And why do you continue to not wear your uniform, you are a captain you know." Paul continued on as if he didn't hear him.

"It would be broken within a day. You know how much I train, combine that with the hunting club and it would need constant repairs." James countered.

"Just use the beast cores and power the repair rune, you dummy."

"No, they I only keep 3 out of every 10 I collect. If I were to use one every day, that leaves me with 2. I'm already having tough times."

"Oh please, you've been saving up for years, I've heard that your saved up thousands."

They continued on arguing for a while while the rest of the students piled in. Many of them watched smiling and laughing, at the two adults arguing like two year olds. The instructor eventually had to stop them.

"Alright that is enough you two, everyone else you can go back to where you were. Paul I want you to test Alex's aptitude with rune-making."

"Alright Mr. David." Paul said.

David simply turned his attention to students who needed help, rather than bothering with correcting him.

"Alright Alex is it?" Paul asked, Alex nodding in response.

"Wait here while I get everything necessary." He went off and opened some drawers pulling out many different materials and tools."

"Alright I'm going to show you a simple reinforcement rune, after I explain the process and create it myself, I want you to do your best to create it yourself."

"Ok." Alex replied.

"This is what the rune looks like."

"This is magical paper, at first it was quite rare, but after some research it was soon mass produced. It's made from the excess fibers of magical plants. It holds magic very well, so it's very good for writing runes." He put the sheet down, and moved a small machine forward.

"This machine can turn any type of mana into pure mana. It uses a rare rune, that I don't even know. Just put your energy into it and it'll do the work. He looked at Alex's badge, you'll have to put less into it with your darkness and wind than everyone else, or it'll overflow the machine."

Alex looked at the machine and realized runes were invisible to the naked eye. He looked at it with his energy, and he saw the rune and it did exactly what Paul said it would.

"Here is a the writing device, its made with a metal that blocks mana flow, so that when filled up no leakage occurs. It's basically a pen."

"These are a bunch of other materials for writing runes on, in case you successfully create the first rune."

Alex found a material that was the same that held the rune on the machine. Little did Alex know that David was watching Alex.

Alex had been looking straight at invisible runes ever since he came in. David was gifted he had a rare ability that let him excel in his field. He had mana eyes, he could see the mana in the air. That included the runes that were written with pure mana.

Alex had surprised him. He knew he was a freshman but his body was filled with a large concentration of mana. This meant his control was high, he was easily further along then most second year students. And that was just his wind affinity. David couldn't see mana from darkness until it was summoned, he knew that it wasn't stored.

He had many students with mana eyes. They were only slightly rarer than light or darkness, but this is the first one in a while and in such a small town, and with two more rare aspects.

He was happy, out here the control over rune distribution was low. He could personally teach Alex as an apprentice if trouble ever came.

Alex watched as Paul wrote the rune. His hand was incredibly calm while it moved. Alex could tell he had practiced a lot.

Alex watched as he took particular routes that fit his way of writing, but he knew he couldn't just copy him. Alex wrote with his left hand, it wasn't common in this kingdom. Mostly because of a craze a millennia ago, had ended with a majority of them being hunted down.

He remembered elementary school. His teachers would constantly remove the pencil from his left hand and into his right while mocking his handwriting. He had practiced with his right hand, but the efficiency between the two was too vaste.

He planned a path that mirrored Paul's as he would find it easier. Paul finished drawing the rune, and it glowed brightly in David's eyes for a moment before disappearing into the paper. 'Good he is getting better.' David thought while watching.

Even if Alex trusted himself he trusted his control over the spacial element much more, as his body could twitch randomly if he didn't didn't get enough nutrients, or just shut down.

He was gonna guide his hand with the spacial element while also making sure it was perfect. Alex guided some dark mana as it made its way into the machine, he watched as it expanded and changed form.

'Looks like it's getting watered down.'

Taking the pen in his left hand he dipped it into the empty looking bowl and pressed a button. After a few seconds it beeped, indicating that it was full.

Alex spread his spacial element on the paper. He brought up the image of the rune, imprinting an invisible image of it on the paper to use like a stencil. The paper glowed with a full spectrum of color in David's sight. Alex was unaware of what he had done and continued on.

David who was watching had only thought. 'Teach him! Yeah right, he already knows how to imprint a rune directly with his mana, much less that it was already perfected. He must already have been taught by someone.'

Alex drew the mirrored path that Paul had used and quickly finished. The the rune becoming visible before fading.

Paul picked up the paper, and was surprised unlike his paper that ripped like clothing, Alex's didn't almost like it was made of nylon, or silk.

Paul's attitude towards Alex quickly changed. "Wow, this is very good. You've definitely dabbled in rune-making before haven't you?"

But Alex was busy double checking his work, when he had noticed there wasn't just one rune. The spacial energy stencil he had created had still yet to dissipate. He could see two runes layered on top of each other, one perfect and one that had a few discrepancies.

"Hey." Paul said grabbing Alex's attention before repeating his question.

"Uh no, this is my first time. Why?" Alex responded confused.

"First time? Your first rune was better than mine after 4 years of practice." Paul said not wanting to believe what he said.

David came in to mediate, and prevent the young man from losing his mind.

"Calm down Paul, it seems that Alex may have accidentally done something that advanced rune makers are capable of. He imprinted a rune directly into the paper with his mana."

"I believe he may have the same ability I have, but even still the amount of control necessary to imprint is not something to be scoffed at."

Paul took in what he said, and looked into Alex's eyes. "I don't get it, they look no different from regular eyes."

"Not everyone has eyes as different as mine Paul." David said removing his glasses. His eyes were exactly you the same however they glowed a few shades brighter. Alex looked at the glasses, they were normal glasses however they somehow were able to dull David's eyes.

"Cool right, I made them myself." David said noticing Alex checking out the glasses.

"Yeah very cool." Alex replied.

"Does that mean you can see the runes too?" Alex questioned.

"Oh more than just the runes, I can see mana. Of course it's all looks the same, but I can see that you are filled to the brim with mana."

Alex was surprised, he felt as if he were naked. Alex hadn't tried, but so far regular mana, was the only one he could sense with spacial energy.

He was completely blind and saw through contact with spacial energy, he could feel the wind, he could feel any change, but he was limited to that.

'Eyes that can see mana wow.'

But Alex new his sight was far better. 360 degree vision, it was limited in range, but he would work to increase the range as much as possible. He also had plans to be able to recognize all elements by their molecules. 'Still far away from that.'

Thinking of his range, he had noticed something strange. It had grown larger since he had learned about space and time being connected. He knew it had increased by 25 feet from meditating, but the other 15 feet must've came from his other affinity. Meaning he had finally found a way to increase his spacial elements range. By experimenting and drawing conclusions.

He sighed internally. 'It was by luck, it was basically the equivalent of someone discovering something amazing while taking a shower absentmindedly.' ' it is going to be slow to train.'

"Can you see only the runes or do you see what I see?" David asked curiosity brimming.

"I can only see the runes, and my own mana." Alex said somewhat truthfully.

'Hmm this is unique, but is also the bare minimum needed to imprint without years of training.'

"So you're have spent a lot of time training your control huh?" Paul asked.

"Yeah, it's the only thing I can do for my wind mana" Alex replied, he felt bad for lying so much but he was sure the world would soon know anyway. He just hoped they wouldn't hate him for hiding the whole truth.

"Oh yeah, I can attest for that this man knocked Tom over after he tried and failed to knock him over." James chipped in, Paul only nodding in response.

"Well, it looks like you will get yourself a teammate who can keep up with you this year Paul." David said cheerfully. "Have him work with you on your project Paul. He still has a lot to learn."

Thinking of this Paul got excited, the rewards for getting first place were nothing to ignore. Last year their group had gotten third place. Beaten by a group who had a students who had trained since childhood, and were able to imprint runes. The runes weren't that good but they had created a more complicated device in half the time. Alex could make better runes in a fraction of the time.

"Very good, do you have a spare key David?" Paul asked.

"Hahaha yes I do Mr.Paul." David replied heading over to his desk. "Here you go, good luck you guys."

"Come on Jim, Dan." Paul said.

Two students who were sitting working on a what looked like a miniature suit of armor sticking tiny notes with runes onto it in different positions, got up and followed them as they left the room.