[Etherealized-Attack rune has been learned.]
The messages came in to reward his tired self. As Arthur looked at the time, he found that he had only three hours to sleep before he had to attend his classes.
From 5 PM to 4 AM, Arthur didn't do anything but study in the library. He found the materials he needed to learn the rune he faced a bottleneck at for the past weeks.
He closed the hologram screen in front of him and stood up to stretch. The fact that his stamina was high meant that he wasn't easily tired. So, even though he pulled an all-nighter, he didn't feel particularly tired.
Before his classes, Arthur headed to the west wing to train. Today, he had a martial arts class that would enable him to choose an Art to train. As he entered the training facility, Arthur heard loud slams from somewhere.
He looked around and found that one of the training rooms has been occupied. Arthur clicked his tongue and marveled at how dedicated these people were.
He went over toward the training rooms but a bright flash of light caught his attention from the occupied room. However, Arthur couldn't see what was inside because the glass has been blocked by the occupant.
'Should I sneak a peek?' Arthur questioned whether it was a good option to pry on others, but he mocked himself when he remembered that was the reason he was here.
His hand glowed dark as a shadow appeared in front of him, slipping into his shadow. Arthur looked around and entered the training room to find an arena with a command panel beside it. He closed his eyes as he shared the vision with his shadow.
The shadow slipped through the darkness and entered the room easily. Its eyes transmitted what it saw to Arthur, and that was of a girl training against a puppet.
Her white scarf enveloped her like a cloak as it shone brightly. Through the shadow's eyes, Arthur saw the scarf turn into armor with wings.
Rae stood there like a celestial fairy as she glared at the puppet in front of her. With a commanding tone, she issued an order.
"Rei-ranker, average."
The puppet's eyes glowed as the mana it released grew more violent. With a step forward, the puppet took its stance as white fumes appeared from its mouth.
Arthur watched with wide eyes as Rae disappeared from her spot and clashed with the puppet. The battle was brutal, making Rae look like a crazed beast. Her eyes kept glowing red as if she was a being from the underworld.
The two clashed as punches were thrown. By the end of it, Rae was bruised all over her body and her scarf needed time to regenerate. Yet, she looked at the puppet as she yelled a single word.
"Again!"
Arthur watched on for a while before canceling his shadow. He stood in the empty training room and sighed. He had no idea why she was pushing herself that hard, maybe it was due to her loss to him.
Either way, he had nothing to do with it. He took off his jacket and threw it on the floor as he walked toward the arena. After tweaking a few settings, a plate slide from the arena for the puppet to rise.
"Rei-ranker, peak. Dagger." Arthur pulled out his golden dagger from his subspace. The puppet materialized a dagger of its own as it launched itself toward Arthur.
The two collided in the middle and Arthur felt his wrist ache. He loosened his hold on the dagger allowing the puppet's attack to slide off as he kept going for its neck.
The dagger was inches away from the puppet's neck before another dagger appeared to block it. The puppet now had two daggers and used one of them to block Arthur's attack.
It then attacked with its other dagger but Arthur dodged in the nick of time. As he pulled back, the puppet was already on to him.
The rest of it was a high-speed fight, but Arthur kept being at a disadvantage because of the two daggers instead of one. It was time to use his new rune.
As he used the rune Etherealized-Attack, a copy of his dagger appeared beside it as Arthur was able to replicate his weapon. The weapon followed Arthur's will as it slashed toward the puppet, who blocked again with its sword.
Suddenly, Arthur had an epiphany about his fighting style. He was a runes wordsmith, someone who used runes instead of fighting. If he wanted to fight, it should be in a manner that gave him the ability to fight.
"Cancel!"
The puppet stopped and returned to the beginning. Arthur breathed in as he used a different rune on his dagger. The dagger then floated in the air and circled him. It then began spinning, just like Arthur had asked it to.
"This is my style now." Arthur grinned as he used the Telekinesis rune. With another wave of his hand, the Ethereal version of the dagger appeared as well. With another wave, the dagger was in flames. "This is how I'll be fighting."
Arthur felt like a weight was lifted off his chest when he finally decided on a way to fight. With this, he'll be able to establish a proper training routine for himself.
Further training wasn't necessary, he needed arts. As many of them as he can and can apply. He also needed to further evolve his telekinesis rune, evolve it to a degree that it's a second arm to him.
He left the training wing and headed toward his room. As soon as he opened it, he found that someone was inside.
"Your boy is called Jaran Casella, and has left his dorm half an hour ago," Reece said as his tail swung. "I think he's heading toward the forest."
"Why haven't you called me?"
"Oh! I forgot that my paw has a dialing function. Beep, beep, beep." Reece shook his paw in anger. "Go after him now! He seems suspicious as if he was preparing for something."
"There are two hours before the class starts."
"Then use your ability from before." Reece was referring to teleoperations. "You can't teleport into Jerano, but most of its internal transportations are through teleportation."
"Alright," Arthur nodded. "Why do you think he's heading toward the forest?"
"He was asking about how to get there. I think he grabbed a task from the tamer's department to go there." Reece paused and added. "He spent most of his points on several herbal stores, which was odd."
Without saying anything, Arthur disappeared from the room. When he appeared again, he was atop a shop's roof. He kept using his ability to travel to the forest and made it after three usages.
Once he was standing inside the forest, he used his detection rune. He supplied it with the mana it needed to cover a large area around the periphery of the forest.
"Intruder!" The Fear Crow cried above his head as Arthur used his dispel rune. He then used his stealth and camouflage but the crow was on him.
'How did he escape the crow's attention?' Arthur wondered before he connected the dots. 'The herbal stores… he must have a recipe that either repels the crow or hide his presence.'
This fact made Arthur even more suspicious. Luckily, he found Jaran before the crow called for the forest watchers. Arthur teleported again and appeared above a tree near Jaran's location.
Arthur looked down quietly as he hid his presence. He saw Jaran take out a poach and dip his finger inside of it. He then walked to a tree and drew with his fingers symbols that Arthur couldn't understand.
They weren't runes, but something more bizarre. The symbols carried magic energy within them and Arthur noticed that their locations had a pattern.
'What is he…'
It was then that beastly roar shook the forest making the leaves rain down, shaking the trees to the core. Arthur had to grab into the trunk as he looked with confusion toward the center of the forest.
He used his detection rune and it revealed a giant anomaly in the middle of the forest, the direction that the roar came from. However, Arthur was too far away to know what it was.
After the roar disappeared, the forest grew restless. A thousand rumbling sounds came over as Arthur realized what was going on. It was a monsters' horde traveling their way.
Arthur spread his detection rune and noticed that there were a few people at the edge of the forest. People who made a living from hunting or simply gathering herbs.
He looked down back at the spearman, but he was gone. He used his detection but he couldn't find him. He must have used a teleportation runic card.
'I need to warn the wall, but how?' Arthur wondered to himself. 'Did this person cause this monster horde? But how?' Looking upward, Arthur saw the crow flying at the periphery of the forest.
He conjured a fire arrow and launched it at the crow, making it cry in anger. It gave another shrill cry that sent chills down his spine. After that cry, the alarm rang throughout the city.