Karl followed Lord Nacht out of the office, and did his best not to laugh at the expression on the Dragon’s face.
“You know something that I don’t about the skill book, don’t you?” Karl asked quietly as they walked through the silent halls of the Cathedral at night.
Nacht smirked at him. “At my age, I know more about nearly everything. But what you mean is that I know that the old man already has Alchemy as a trade skill, and the System won’t let you take another.”
“So, I’m a Runecrafter by trade? I wasn’t expecting that.” Karl replied.
“It seems so. I would assume that it was a quest reward of some sort, but Runecrafting is a particularly fine lost art. Which discipline have you chosen?”
“Discipline?”
Nacht shrugged. “Gnomish Engineers, Dwarven Runemasters, Onmyoji Demon Slayers, Ward crafters, Rune Mages and a few others I have long since forgotten all rely on the Runecrafter trade skill for their art. Normally, you would choose one of the disciplines, but it appears that you simply got the Rune library without having to make a choice.
So, eventually, you will have to choose a specialty if you’re going to truly master the craft. No matter how many Runes you know, only tireless practice will make you an actual master at using them.”
“I was thinking of using them to make useful charms, but not as a trade, just as a parlour trick to make life easier. But I’ve been to an ancient Dwarven city near the Frost Giant border, as well as that trial that we both entered. They had runes on every wall, and when they were active, they could do so much. Remi, my Naga partner, recorded the Runes in the forges.” Karl began.
Nacht nodded in agreement. “That is part of the Runecrafter’s art. You could rebuild that sort of magical forge, and even the weapons that they turned out from it.
The Cyclops Forge Masters used a variation of the same art. They’re much more like the Dwarves in their crafting skills than either species would be willing to admit. They both have their own style, but they both craft rare items with incredible powers and beautiful details.”
Karl sighed. “Why does it feel like all the progress we made with technology is quickly becoming irrelevant?”
The Ancient Dragon laughed. “Not all of it. Many things in life are easier with technology, but it will never compete with magic for raw power and versatility. It’s not impossible to mix the two, there are some nations who raise Technomages. But the interaction is limited. They have the most wonderful magical guns. And it only took them a century to recover all the ones that were stolen from them during the civil war. Now they self-destruct if anyone other than the intended user tries to activate them.”
That made sense. It was the same thing with any powerful magical artifact. A magical bow that could do massive damage from a long distance was a prime target for theft. Especially if the user could be discretely killed.
“I take it that they don’t bond?” Karl asked.
“They’re incompatible with the System. I’ve seen the ancient records, and there were Technomage armies then. But they were seen as being at a disadvantage because they could be disarmed by theft or magic and couldn’t call the weapons back to themselves.
Disarming them to capture the soldiers became the standard method of dealing with the tactic. Well, that or casting a spell to amplify fire magic and making all their guns misfire.”
Karl nodded in understanding. “The Hill Giants plug artillery barrels with Earth Magic if they get close enough.”
Nacht smiled. “The giants surrounding your nation make life much easier than you know. They’re a nuisance, but if the old man had to fight off a dozen nations of humans and the hundreds of sub-factions, the Church would have never managed to unify the nation.
You come from the mines, don’t you? You’ve got the look. That whole southern region between the capital and the Beastkin Nation used to be part of the Wilds, a no man’s land that competed with monsters for survival.
Without strong magic or the blessings of the World Dragon, the whole of the Golden Dragon Nation would have been the same way if the Giants didn’t keep competition out.”
Karl frowned. “It’s strange to hear it that way. Is that perhaps the perspective of your god?”
Nacht shrugged. “The God of Death doesn’t care about species all that much. But Black Dragon Clerics are sensitive to the balance of life and death in the same way that the Nature Clerics are, only we focus more on the higher beings than the plant life.
I think that learning to make something of your Runecrafting could be exceedingly valuable, not only to you but to your partners. Take your friend Remi as an example. As a shaman, she would benefit greatly from runic jewellery. It would improve her elemental magic, you could boost her mana regeneration and casting speed as well.
Or make armour for the Cerro, perhaps a muzzle for the Void Badger.”
Karl laughed. “I don’t think that she would go for that one. There are still too many species to taste test.”
Nacht laughed. “Of all the species that you could have picked, why that one? Where did you even find one? It’s not like there are a lot of them.”
“I had a quest to find what the System called ‘the perfect companion’. I was headed across the Neia continent, towards somewhere far to the east of my location, then suddenly, that quest target disappeared, and the quest retargeted Cara. The System said that she was the best companion, and bonding her completed the quest, so that is what I did.” Karl explained.
“That makes more sense than you probably realize. The system’s idea of perfect does not usually mean most powerful, fastest growing, or the current meta skill. Instead, it almost always means most a little bit of each of those, but also the most entertaining for the gods to watch. And it’s hard to argue that anything but a Void Badger would be quite as entertaining at the Monarch Rank.”
“She’s not quite there yet.” Karl reminded him.
“Give her a few more days. With three of the five already advanced, plus yourself, it won’t be long before the others either advance or hit a bottleneck. But a Naga Queen and a Void Badger shouldn’t have any issues.
Now, you should sleep, there will be blue dragons coming to see you in the morning, I can almost guarantee it.”