"The Elmoon Ash, five grams of it." Arthur read the first item on the tablet. "What is this used for?"
"Uh, night illusions." Erik scratched his head. "Most of these items are for high-tier runes."
"Do you mean that high-tier runes require different materials?" Arthur asked with intrigue. "Every single one of them?"
"Basic knowledge, uh…"
"Alexie."
"Yes, Alexie. If you want to get out of the logistic team, you should do a better job at studying. Start with the library, it has many useful books. Now, get to work." Erik pointed at the boxes. Arthur turned to them and saw that they were labeled with the words Elmoon Ash.
As he packed a few orders, Arthur thought about the current situation. He knew that he did well in his exam, so it was a misunderstanding.
However, it wasn't a necessarily bad misunderstanding. Did he need to work in a research team to learn runes? No, his situation was different. Arthur didn't need to understand the details about a rune to get better at other runes, he simply needed to learn as many runes as he can.
Researching a single rune would stagger his growth. That's why the logistic team sounded like a perfect place for him. Although he would need to get work done as a logistic member, he would have the rest of the day alone.
No professors, no one to watch him. It was perfect for him. Rather than graduate from the logistic team, Arthur began fearing that they might take it away from him.
'Maybe I needed to fake my test score,' Arthur sighed as he carried the boxes toward the portal. The first delivery was for the fifth floor, a total of five deliveries.
"Fifth floor," Arthur said and walked into the portal. When he walked out, he was in a glass-made hallway. He was able to see every room on the floor and the people working inside. Some rooms were dark as if the glass was painted.
'Lab 39,' Arthur read his order and started looking for it. '35, 36… 39.' Arthur stood in front of the black painted glass door and knocked. After a few moments, the door turned transparent.
"Logistic?" The woman blinked from behind the door. "Come in," She opened the door and Arthur stood there blankly. This woman was beautiful, but that's wasn't it. He was shocked because he met her before.
The youngest genius runes master, Julia Vinera. They had met during his exam in Kera city, and she didn't leave the best impression on him by siding with that guy.
"Uh, yes. Elmoon Ash?" Arthur regained his senses and walked inside, placing the box on the table he found.
"Oh, we meet again." A voice came from behind him, making him turn to see who it was. It was the gentleman from earlier, who looked as fascinated by the runes as Arthur. "Are you new?"
"Yes, as it is obvious." Arthur laughed politely. "It is said here that you need Elmoon Ash?"
"Yes, leave it on that table." The man pointed toward a table in the middle where a single disk lied. From the disk came out a holographic runic line. It was a 3D runic structure, one that consisted of layers.
"Is it your first time seeing a high-tier rune?" Julia came from behind him and stood beside Arthur. "Well, it might be uncommon to hear about this before you get admitted to Jerano, but high-tier runes consist of several other runes."
"For example," The man walked over. "This rune is about night illusions. It consists of several underlying runes that control wind, darkness, light, and temperature."
"How is it an illusion of it is consistent with real things?" Arthur asked as he remembered his encounter with Dimon.
"Well, the closer an illusion is to reality, the more complex it becomes. If it only affects the mind, then it's easily broken."
"Isn't this more like a barrier than an illusion?"
"It's an illusive barrier, one that would be used in large-scale army tactics." The man smiled. Julia, however, seemed annoyed by Arthur's questions.
"Sir, you can't reveal the details of our work like that." She insisted.
"Relax, the logistic teams are crucial to us. We need to offer some reward somehow, right?" The man winked at Arthur, making him smile. Leaving a polite nod, Arthur left the room.
He hadn't expected to run into a familiar person here, but he couldn't say that it was that surprising. Julia was the youngest runes master; she'd have a place in Jerano's research department. The only thing that bothered him is that… Julia was kind of snobby.
This brought him to the question of whether she was truly the youngest runes' master based on her skills or connection. However, that didn't concern him at the moment. After all, he was a simple delivery guy.
***
When it was finally Five O'clock, the runes research department started growing emptier as the researchers went back to their rooms. Some of them went out with their colleague for dinner or other activities, but Arthur was different.
"I'll be showing you around today, the next few days you'll be on your own," Eric said as they walked out of the logistic department. "We have three facilities. The runic library, the virtual realm, and the lab. You can use all three to study and test out before you go ahead and inscribe runes."
"What would the virtual realm do?"
"It's a floor with virtual capsules to see the effects that runes produce. The capsules also have access to the online community, so you can play a few games in your free time."
"Games?" Arthur was confused. "I didn't think Jerano would support this."
"They do, a lot." Eric laughed. "In the rei-rank, Arts become more and more important. That's why games are essential to training people. You must have heard about the latest plans to integrates virtual gaming into the educational system."
Arthur nodded his head, Si mentioned something similar the first time that they met. The fact that virtual reality has made several breakthroughs, so he was recruiting people from there.
Well, it turned out to be a lie in the end. He was after because of Master's Ronin prophecies. However, Arthur was still grateful for the fact that Sier told him to lie to the union.
After he had seen the ruling class, he realized how a genius would be thrown into politics and be exploited. As for revealing that he can control runes? He would be eaten alive.
"I think you should start with the library."
"Okay, but what if I want to see a real-life demonstration of the rune?"
"That would require that you borrow an actual artifact for studying, it depends on whether it was genuine or artificial artifacts. It would take a day to get the former, a week for the latter."
"Thank you, Senior Eric," Arthur said gratefully.
"Don't mention it, now go and graduate from this shit hole."
'Hehe, no way.' Arthur laughed inwardly as he started walking away. He stood in front of the portal and said the library before walking in.
He found himself inside a giant hill that was at least a hundred meters tall and couldn't see the end. It was filled with books from bottom to top as they dyed a myriad of beautiful colors.
"Alexie?" A voice called out to him. When he turned, he found Emma standing there with a smile. "What are you doing here so late?"
"I'm a part of the logistic department, so." Arthur shrugged. "I'm sorry about this morning, I didn't mean to…"
"It's okay, I think I overreacted for a personal reason." Emma waved her hand away. "How is the logistic department? Do you need any help studying?"
Her sincerity touched him, but Arthur shook his head. He had decided to keep his distance from her, lest he reveals his disguise. As he was about to say something, a man walked from between the shelves and wrapped his hand around Emma's waist.
"Oh, are you done?" Prince Caleb asked with a smile. Arthur stood there staring at the two, making Prince Caleb turn to him as well. "You are… I'm sorry, I don't remember."
"Alexie Linan, your highness. I eliminated your first ranker today." Arthur said with a smile as he glanced at Caleb's arm. "What brings you to the runes department?"
"I'm accompanying my sister and fiancé. Are you with someone too, or are you alone?"
"I'm alone," Arthur said, his mouth making a straight line.
"Figured." Prince Caleb smiled and pulled on Emma. "Let's go, we'll be late for the evening party."
"That is…" Emma looked troubled as she glanced at Alexie. "Goodbye, Sir Linan." She said before the two left together.
'He's her fiancé.' Arthur reminded himself as the two walked away. 'But why does it bother me so much that he's close to her?' He wondered. 'No,' He shook his head. 'It's simply because I can't trust him to take care of her.' Arthur cleared his thoughts as he began studying his ether rune.
