(Path of the Dragon Mage: Exiled) 43. Intermediate (Patreon)

The next thing Corvus knew, his back and shoulders had hit the stone-hard ground. His legs flipped up over his head and he rolled end over end until he lay face up, gaze at the pure blue sky.

He seemed to have forgotten how to breathe — like his lungs lost the rhythm of exhaling and inhaling. His half-gasp turned into a wheeze and then a series of sharp coughs as he rolled over on his side.

"Ow." 

He'd thought 'Getting the wind knocked out of you' was an expression. He was wrong.

What happened?

Gingerly, he sat up. No immediate pain, though his back was scraped from the fall. His health had been knocked back thirty entire points.

You were caught at the edge of a concussive blast for 20 HP.

You have fallen for 10 HP.

The place where he had thrown the needle-knife was a shallow crater. The only remains of the small bush were twigs scattered here and there.

Corvus's eyes widened. Standing, he again activated his notifications. There, right before his damage alerts was a third message he'd missed the first time.

You have activated: (Fuse linked runes) Explosive Mana Release.

In an instant, he forgot about his minor aches and pains. He ran to the hole and scuffed around in the loose dirt in search of what remained of the needle-knife.

He found it right in the middle. And still whole. The knife had once again returned to its darker color metal. In fact, despite being in the middle of an explosion, the knife didn't have a scratch.

How? he thought.

There were two runes — one at the top, one at the bottom. At least these were more visible than the tiny pin-point runes on the other knives.

Gripping the knife, he trotted to the closest clear spot he could see, sank to his knees, and brushed away splinters and bits of leaves leftover from the explosion.

Corvus had always had questions bubbling up inside him — but now they burned hot. Nearly feverish. He felt like he was on the verge of something important.

He drew out the two runes in the soil. The first was incredibly simple: A single circle with a dot in the middle of it.

But simple didn't mean easy. He found that it would not activate unless the dot was in the exact center. He ended up measuring using marks on a broken stick for a basic circumference. Only then would the rune activate.

Ding!

A new rune has been added to your dictionary: Explosive Release.

Not a surprise, but that only told a third of the story.

Corvus spent a few minutes carefully drawing out the second rune on the base of the needle-knife: Rings within rings. Again, it was deceptively simple but difficult to manage even with his ambidextrous skills.

The moment he funneled power he knew the rune scraped in the dirt would not hold nearly the amount of power as the pristine rune on the knife. It was enough to add to his dictionary.

A new rune has been added to your dictionary: Mana Reservoir (Imperfect).

He sat back. He had two runes: One to act as a reservoir, a second to explosively release the energy. He'd just seen the result.

But how were they linked?

Runes on the horseshoe were chained together with a gap in the middle for an ownership stamp. This provided stability, power, and locked out other hedge-witches from recharging runes. 

But he had also seen that a collection of small, low-powered runes could be strung together in messy knots and lines, like for the Wild Garden and Deadly Bouquet.

There were no such lines on this needle-knife. 

He examined the two runes again. The many-ringed Reservoir rune did seem to come to a point in the middle. Because the knife was so straight, he could imagine an imaginary line from the middle of the rune on the base to the one at the tip.

"It's not a knife at all," he realized. "It's a cone. A sharp one, but still..."

He frowned. So far, every rune he'd encountered had been drawn and activated on a flat plane. But if... what if runes could be linked through more than points along a length and width? What if they could be linked through depth?

What if there were an unseen, etched line running through the middle of the needle-knife? The moment the knife impacted upon a surface it would bend, just slightly. The perfect line would be disrupted and—

"The rune activates."

Corvus leapt to his feet. He had to experiment.

He turned and stopped dead in his tracks.

Three uniformed men on horseback stood on the road to the estate, a few hundred feet away.

A shock of fear went up and down his spine, all the way to his toes. But he didn't let it paralyze him.

Corvus turned as if to look at the estate as if for back-up. As he did, he let the side of his boot scruff through the two runes he'd drawn in the dirt. Thank the Path he walked on that he had not tried to link them in any way. The two runes went dim without an accompanying explosion. The soldiers were some ways away and the sun was almost directly overhead. If he was exceedingly lucky, they would assume he'd just been messing in the dirt.

The man in the lead gestured to him. Corvus thought about turning back and running, but… No one with sense would ever refuse the order of a mounted cavalry man.

Corvus walked to him. As he drew close he saw the man in the lead wore sergeant's knots on his arm. The two others were either not ranked or undisciplined enough not to wear their knots.

"You! Boy!" the sergeant called once he was close. "Were you the one responsible for that racket an hour ago?"

It took every ounce of self-control not to look behind himself. Why hadn't he taken a shovel and covered evidence of the explosion? Even from this far away, they'd be able to see the crater.

Corvus ducked his head. "It was an accident, sir."

"You scared every bird from the trees from miles around." The sergeant grinned a lopsided grin. "Playing with black powder, were you?"

For a horrible second, Corvus blanked. He'd heard of black powder — some volatile substance used in the Kingdom's mines. It occasionally went off to disastrous results. Why would Solt have such a thing here?

Mentally crossing his fingers, Corvus leaned on his Deception skill. "Found some in the barn, sir. My master's in town. I... I didn't mean for it to go off."

One of the men laughed. "I did the same when I was your age. Surprised I still have all my fingers still attached."

"Well, you seem to have come out with your eyebrows intact," the sergeant said. "What's your name?"

"Thomas Cartwright."

Using that name had been a mistake. One of the guards leaned in eagerly. "Solt's got himself another Cartwright? Who’s your father?"

Thankfully, the discussion of the various noble family lines was practically a pastime in the Palace. He came up with a name on the fly. "Marion Cartwright, sir. Sent me to Master Solt to train up on the sword."

"Does he feed the kid?" one of the other guards asked, looking down at Corvus. His partner elbowed him.

"And you say Solt's in the village?" the Sergeant asked.

Corvus nodded. "He's to return tonight." 

At least, he assumed so.

This seemed to satisfy the sergeant. "Then give him this." He held out a message scroll sealed with wax and several official ribbons.

Corvus took it, he hoped, with the correct amount of reverence. "I will, Sir."

"Good. Then he doesn’t have to know where his black powder went, does he?" The sergeant winked.

"Thank you, sir."

The sergeant nodded once and made a gesture to his men. As one, they wheeled the horses and turned back down the road.

Watching with dread settling in his chest, Corvus had to admit they did make for a brave picture. 

He slowly turned back to walk to the estate. The moment the soldiers were out of sight, his walk turned into a run.

Bursting through the front door, he slammed it behind him. Not satisfying enough. Spinning, he punched his fist to the wood, too. It hurt, and he shook it out, irritated with himself.

"Damn it!" 

The King's men had arrived in the village even faster than expected. These three had missed Solt, but surely the rest wouldn't. Whatever half-hope Corvus had held out that Solt would miss word of the draft went up in smoke.

And if he decided that Corvus was ready...

Corvus eyed the scroll. What if this were a notice of the draft? What if it was a missive from Aunt Sunli?

If he was cautious, he was certain he could open it without breaking the seal. 

He had to know.

But… 

Corvus felt a curious pulling sensation. It was as if he stood at the fork between two paths — each choice leading him in a different direction.

In one, he could sit here at this table and go through the slow process of opening the scroll without damaging the wax seal. open the scroll. It would take time to do it right. Possibly hours.

On the other, he could follow the line of logic which started when he almost blew himself up.

Corvus grit his teeth, closed his eyes, and forced himself to take one calming breath after the other. 

He knew which Path he would follow.

Leaving the scroll sitting on the table, he exited the house to grab a shovel from the shed. First, he was going to fill in the crater. Then, if luck was with him, he would recreate the explosion.

* * *

Corvus ended up sacrificing one of his precious sheets of parchment to the cause. 

He set himself up in the stables. As long as she had oats to munch on, Merry-Rose was a good listener when he needed to talk his problem's out loud. Non-judgmental.

First, using a rune-sharpened knife, he cut the parchment sheet into two parts. He rolled one half in a tube and sealed it using a bit of candle wax. Then he cut the second piece again, twisting and folding it into the nose for the cone. The last third was cut into the 'base'.

A sharpened piece of charcoal from the fireplace made marks on the paper. He took his time drawing out the rune — not wanting either the waste or the explosion should things go wrong.

Finally, he stretched a bit of charcoal-dusted twine from the middle point of the two runes from the base to the nose. Again, sealed with wax.

The entire construction took him nearly to sunset to complete. It was downright crude, and he would be lucky if it held enough power to throw sparks much less an explosion.

That was fine. All he needed a proof of concept. 

Taking a breath, Corvus channeled his mana into the Reservoir rune.

He knew he had gotten it right when the rune sparked to life—as did the Explosive rune on the nose end, and, most importantly, the taunt bit of twine in the middle.

The twine lit the parchment cone inside like an oil lamp. It was pretty. 

Unfortunately, twine was not a good medium for channeling mana. It snapped a few seconds in, and the entire construct instantly burst into flames. Hours of work, gone in an instant.

Corvus dropped it and stomped it out with his boot. The only reason he hadn't been burned was he had been sure to channel only a very little bit of mana.

It didn't matter. The rune construct had worked. His theory was correct.

Messages flashed across his eyes.

Ding!

You have activated (Fuse linked runes) Explosive Mana Release

Congratulations! Through diligence and experimentation, you have discovered runes can be built in three dimensions. Now that you have traveled beyond the basic understanding of runes, your General Class skill Rune Magic has moved beyond beginner level. 

Ding!

You have increased your Rune Magic

New level: Intermediate 1

Ding!

Alert! For reaching Intermediate level in a class skill for the first time, you have been rewarded. 1500XP and 1 Special General Token.

Ding!

Congratulations! You have gained two levels! 

New Level: 9. XP to next level: 648/1000. Mana has increased by 100. Health has increased by 100. 

You have 6 unassigned skill points.


For a solid minute, Corvus could only stand there, grinning like a fool at his notifications. Incredible. He had just moved up two levels at once. 

Those had been huge rewards. So huge he wondered if it was normal to reach Intermediate at a low level. 1500 experience was a valuable gain to him, but only a moderate reward to someone in their twentieth level.

With a grin still stretching his face, he looked over his available skill points. He now had quite a few to spend. Plus learn whatever this new General Class token was.

But first, did he have time to open the scroll?

He reached the stable door just in time to hear horse tack jingling in the distance. A lone rider was visible in the setting sun riding up the final road.

Solt.

For a moment, Corvus considered dashing into the estate before him, grabbing the scroll and hiding it. He could open it tonight after the man fell asleep.

Tempting, but dishonorable. He had picked his Path and chosen runes over deception. Now, he would see this through. 

Hopefully, he had chosen the correct Path.