Chapter 42 Magic Runes

Azi's last destination before heading home was at the village barracks. There, he went to look for Touma to discuss some pointers on magic and runes. Touma was considered an advanced thaumaturge who originally lived in the capital of the Empire known as Yamato.

He got fed up with the toxic and bitter rivalry in Yamato and requested to be reassigned to Great General Ozen's army. Each Great General had their own personal armies and Ozen's mostly consisted of spearmen and very few thaumaturges, so when Touma came knocking Ozen agreed heartly.

From then on Touma, for the past couple years, has been teaching apprentices to become thaumaturges in Ozen's army so he was an impressive teacher. His craft was evident in the talisman Touma gave him when Azi wanted to talk with him again.

Using the talisman Touma previously gave him, Azi poured his magical energy into the piece of paper and suddenly an arrow appeared on the paper's surface that pointed in a certain direction. This was an advanced tier of detection magic that allowed for pinpoint locating of a target's magic energy.

It had limited range but came in handy for his apprentices to find him when they needed him during his busy schedule.

Turning his body in the direction the arrow was pointing, Azi began walking with the now rotating arrow as his guide until he found who he was looking for.

Sitting with a group of people with staves at their side. Azi called out.

"Hey Touma, you got time to talk!?"

Noticing the familiar voice, Touma's attention was drawn to the approaching Azi. He then smiled and outstretched his hand in an inviting gesture.

Accepting the offered handshake from Touma, Azi greeted him.

"Good to see that you are back from your expedition. Did anything unusual occur?"

"Not much, but we did encounter more monsters than expected. It seems we still haven't exterminated all the powerful monsters in the area, it's evident by the increasing number of gengiri that keep attacking the village."

"It's foreboding to hear that, but I am glad you made it back ok."

"Thanks Azi, by the way what did you want to talk about today, is it about runes or engraving?"

"Right now, since I am short on time, could you please give me a basic run down about runes today?"

"Sure, go ahead and shot me your questions."

"The runes on your staff, what do they do?" Asked Azi as he pointed at Touma's staff.

While Azi had not noticed the first time they met, in the past few days Azi had noticed the strange symbols carved onto Touma's staff during their talks and informal lessons on thaumaturgy.

Touma nonchalantly explained.

"The runes on my staff are of an advance nature. They help amplify and gather external magical energies through a specific pattern of runes.

I previously gave you a book with simple runes and their meanings. If you draw these patterns with magic ink or engrave the runes with a catalyst material from monster materials. With them you can invoke the effects of the runes by carving them into items. Granted, you can only use the ones you have an understanding of and have an affinity with."

Nodding his head in attention, Azi's charcoal pencil was moving quickly across the pages of his brown notebook as he took notes on what Touma was telling him.

Touma continued.

"The runes on my staff mean fire, earth, amplification, control, and absorption. The intended effect is to increase the potency of magic, increase casting speed, increase absorption to magic energy, and affinities for fire and earth magic spells."

"Are you limited on how many you can use?" Asked Azi.

"Yes. I could add more, but it would make my staff less efficient and more susceptible to breaking.

The dangers of using runes is that when they are added to an object, the said object's internal structure changes to invoke the effects of the rune. This involves the internal structure having magical channels created from the runes.

There have been cases where if you put too many runes on a staff, it would collapse on itself and crumble to dust. This was mainly due to how the runes had eroded so much of the staff's material to create an internal structure that was a result of the runes' nature.

Too many runes on an object means that it could no longer hold itself together."

"Additionally." Added Touma in an exasperated tone. "Due to how expensive staves can be, I prefer to not risk adding more runes to my own. While the power and effects of the runes are exponentially increased with every additional rune there is a pitfall if done incorrectly."

"Just how much does your staff cost Touma?"

"I don't really know but of the staves that could be sold in the Capital of Yamato go for about 10 silver plates or about 1,000,000 Minos."

Azi was slacked jawed by the value of a staff. He mentally noted to be more careful when handling the staffs of others in the future as he did not want that kind of debt on his head and shoulders.

Wondering how Touma got his staff, Azi asked with curious look.

"So how did you afford your staff Touma? A soldier does not get paid that much so how were you able to obtain such a valued weapon?"

With his chin head up high, Touma pridefully announced.

"I was a graduate from the academy of thaumaturgy. When I was certified to be thaumaturge in the army, they provided me with a staff as a symbol of my achievement. I have customized it for the last few years and here we are."

Touma looked at his staff in nostalgia, as if reminded of the past. Azi's attention was also drawn to Touma's staff. It had a large clear crystal on its head, metal ringlets that acted as decorations to the sides of the staff, and its entire body was lacquered to have an incredibly smooth wooden sheen.

Breaking from his brief examination of the staff, Azi then asked Touma.

"So would gengiri carapaces and beowolves claws be of use as a suitable catalyst."

"Yes." Answered Touma. "Those materials should work but be careful. Those are considered as low-quality catalysts. So the runes that they can be used for are limited. You have to be mindful of what you choose to put on before just adding them randomly. You might end up with runes that don't work or backfire"

"I understand." Affirmed Azi. "I have one last request, if possible, could you demonstrate how you engrave a rune?"

Touma nodded in agreement and took out a blank metal plate and a beowolf fang from his bag. Azi in turn, pulled down his goggles and channeled magic energy into its lenses.

Touma then slowly drew the rune meaning fire onto the metal plate. Through his goggles, he could see that Touma was channeling his magic energy into the tip of the beowolf fang.

When the beowolf claw made its mark on the metal plate, some of the fang would flake off and would be bonded to the metal by the magical energies absorbed from Touma.

After finishing his engraving of the rune, Touma compressed the magic energy to seal it into the metal plate to prevent the energy from dissipating. After a small red flash emitted from the metal plate, he then proceeded to demonstrate the rune's power. With a colorless glow that came from Touma's palm that was holding the metal plate.

A fireball was formed above the metal plate.

"With the completion of the rune's engraving onto this metal plate, this can now be considered as a kind of staff. It can be used to call upon fire when magic energy is absorbed and is useful during camping trips but has no combat uses and is too fragile." Explained Touma as he then motioned to bend the metal plate.

To Azi's surprise, the metal bent, then cracked, and finally shattered to bits of metal dust when Touma had bent it to a 90 degree angle.

"Does this suffice as a demonstration Azi?"

"I believe so, is there anything I can do for you Touma?"

"For now, could you possibly put in a word with Shizu to give me a couple days of vacation." Winked Touma.

Smiling wryly, Azi gave the best answer he could.

"I'll see what I can do, but there are no promises. I still have to try out what you taught me today. But you can expect an update on your "vacation" in the future hahaha."

Sighing, Touma looked dejected as he sat onto a nearby chair to catch his breath. The expedition Touma had to recently endure was brutal and left him and his group dangerously low on stamina and magical energy.

Azi felt bad that he had bothered Touma at a bad time and felt that he should try to help them in the future if he can. Remembering what he had in his two satchel bags, he riffled through them as Touma told him.

"Well, if that's all then you can get going. Me and my group are going to get to bed early, we need to replenish our energies sooner. We have more work at first light tomorrow. See ya!"

Before Touma walked away with his group, Azi tossed over a small bag from his large apothecary bag to Touma.

"Hey Touma, have you and your friends drink a few of these when you need it. You guys have a good night."

He then turned around to begin his walk home and left quick enough so that Touma was unable to deny his gift.

Peering into the bag he caught, Touma smiled wryly and thanked Azi in his mind.

'Thank you Azi, this will help a lot.'

In the bag were numerous stamina boosting potions that Azi obtained from Elder Sung. The number Azi received was more than enough, so deciding to pay Elder Sung's kindness forward, Azi gave what he could spare to the exhausted thaumaturges.

Noticing what was in the bag, a fellow thaumaturge commented about Azi.

"What a nice young boy. You seem to be close to him Touma, who is he?"

The thaumaturge that spoke up was the newest member of the barracks, so Touma had to explain.

"That would be Azi, and no he is not young. He is in fact 27 years old and an apprentice to Lady Shizu and Blacksmith Kajima."

Shocked by this information, the thaumaturge could not believe what she was hearing. She had heard the rumors of Shizu the Man Killer and her suspected aversion to men.

She also knew of the less well-known Blacksmith Kajima who was known for his close friendship with Ozen the current king of Kujyuri.

Before the new thaumaturge of the group became too flustered Touma had to explain a few things about Azi. For the next couple of hours, Touma was able to placate the confused thaumaturge until she felt no longer shocked by the sudden revelations.

After handing out some stamina potions, everyone went to bed while thanking Azi in their minds.