The din of battle faded around him as he sank into the metaphysical world of his runes and his core. Taking a turn into the darkness within that he had never seen before, he summoned his runes to life before him, like small planets floating in the void. Two were far larger than the others, his Rune of Vengeance and his Rune of Attraction. The former looked like a loop of barbed wire, jagged on all sides, ready to hurt anyone who touched it. Veils of crimson energy surrounded it, promising a quick end to those who acted against it.
In contrast, the Rune of Attraction looked like a cloud, in the vague shape of a magnet. It was soft and golden, and strangely pleasing to look upon. Despite that, it had a sense of weight to it, of being the center of the world, that all things inevitably reached.
His other two, lesser, runes orbited them at a distance. The Rune of Consumption appeared to be a black hole, in a limited, paltry sense. A whorl of darkness, with a core of pitch black, it tugged at the world around it, and at Jonathan’s eyes. Finally, the Rune of Parsimony was thin and angular, more like a stick figure than anything else. It stretched out, covering as much space as it could with its meager form.
Looking at this gave Jonathan a greater insight into his runes and their nature, and for the first time, he tried tweaking their conceptual natures. His mental avatar drifted closer to the runes, and he started to work, using the knowledge acquired from months of advancement to his benefit.
Starting with his two lesser runes, Jonathan approached the Rune of Consumption. Out of all of his runes, it was the most suited to his element, and the one that would empower his skills the most. His Void's Grasp projectile attack was predicated on the existence of the Rune of Consumption. If he could improve upon it, the benefits would be immense.
There was a slight hiss from the outside world as an undead raced into the barrier of the Void, turning itself to ash in the process. Jonathan mostly ignored it, and instead focused on his craft. In his tenure as a Void elementalist, he had learned much about the nature of the element, and in the case of this rune, that would help him advance it.
The current form of his Rune of Consumption was quite basic, a mindless, finite urge to consume that was limited heavily by his mana and energy reserves. It was not the infinite hunger of the Void that he cultivated. No, it was a far smaller and imperfect thing. As he had learned, the Void had many aspects, of which he knew only two.
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Rather than try to weave in the concept of Negation, which would completely change the nature of his rune, Jonathan instead focused on imparting his deeper mastery of the Void. The Rune had been made all the way back in the Ash Heaps, before he had made any sort of serious foray into the world of his element. Now, though, he was a completely different person.
Jonathan drew upon his memories of battle, finding points of resonance with the consuming aspect of the Void. Dozens of examples of consumption instantly came to mind, from his destruction of men and beasts alike with the raw power of the Void. It was almost child’s play to infuse his Rune, long since outgrown, with such insights. In fact, it turned out to be all he needed to do for an upgrade.
The rune warped and twisted as he worked with it, the darkness within deepening, and a slight purple hue overtaking its edges. A grin rose to Jonathan’s face as he felt a howling gale enter his corespace, hurtling in towards the core of the rune. His eyes opened in the real world, and the new Rune blazed on the palm of his hand, shining as bright as a star.
You have upgraded a rune!
Rune of Consumption>Rune of Hunger(Second Tier)
Consumption is the province of the blind and the mindless, of creatures who eat without eating, drink without drinking. It is the base urge to swallow, to devour, without any heed paid to that which is being devoured. In contrast, Hunger is an all too human concept. A starving man can commit atrocities to assuage his hunger, but can also achieve great things, if it is pointed towards the right goal. Which will you be?
You have reached Expert 2 with Runecrafting!
Jonathan rose to his feet, banishing the Void surrounding him. He raised one hand, and summoned Void's Grasp, replacing the Rune of Consumption with his new Rune of Hunger. The black hole howled as it was dragged into existence, but this time, it contained a weight that had not been present before. It no longer existed to simply destroy. Now, it desired growth over all else.
Jonathan loosed the orb of coruscating darkness towards a far corner of the battlefield, miles away from his allies. The projectile hissed through the air, leaving a trail of vacuum behind. Instead of maintaining its original size, it slowly grew, sucking in great quantities of the atmosphere. As it grew, the ground beneath started to buckle, drawn up into the Maw of the-Right, I already have a skill called that.
