Rune Seeker

Chapter 25: Rain & Darkness

The group stood just off to the side of a pair of large trees that naturally grew close together, and the dome of thick roots built by Seena’s ability. Not far ahead of them, maybe two hundred feet, the storm-wall hammered the ground with torrential water more akin to a waterfall than rain.

Rain that fell straight down.

It was like a literal, solid wall of water, not a single drop daring to fall closer than the collective mass of the others. Still, the wall inched forward, nearer to Hiral and the Growers, lightning flashing through the clouds above, a deep darkness overtaking the land.

“You sure we need to worry about wind?” Hiral asked, practically shouting to be heard over the pounding rain and thunder overhead.

“That’s what we were taught,” Seena shouted back.

“Doesn’t look like there’s any wind,” Nivian said. “Maybe we should skip the shelter and just take our chances heading for the dungeon right now?”

“Even if there’s no wind,” Seeyela shouted, “that much rain is a risk. If we got separated, we’d never find each other. Better to stay under cover until the worst of it has passed.”

“Will the worst even pass? Or will this go on until the island comes back around?” Nivian asked.

“It will pass,” Hiral said. “If it didn’t, wouldn’t the whole world be under water?”

“Is this thing going to be waterproof?” Cal asked. “We’re not going to drown in there with that much rain, are we?”

“I’m going to set up a pair of Gravity Wells to pull the worst of the rain away from the dome, but we’ll still get wet,” Seeyela said.

“Gravity Wells?” Hiral asked Seena.

“Sis specializes in gravity magic. You saw it against that crystal thing,” Seena explained quickly, then pointed inside the dome as the next series of lightning flashes showed the approaching wall of water noticeably closer. “Okay, everybody in. I need to get this sealed up.”

“Left, Right,” Hiral said, holding out his hands to the two doubles. “Best I take you two back in so it’s not too crowded in there.”

The two tattooed versions of Hiral reached out and took his hands without question.

“We’ll be ready when you need us,” Right said.

“Thanks,” Hiral said before pulling on the solar energy stored in their bodies.

Almost instantly, the flesh and muscle of the copies vanished in streams of glowing energy that flowed into Hiral, his double helix disappearing and the Meridian Lines and tattoos again rising to the surface of his skin. A quick glance at his status window showed his solar energy capacity back at ninety-seven percent.

Hrm. A minor loss of energy. For having them out? I’ll have to experiment to see what it costs to maintain them.

“Actually,” Seena interrupted from where she stood. “You should keep them – uh, get them back – out. I’m guessing that rain isn’t going to be toasty warm, which means it’ll get cold in here. More bodies means more body heat.

“Assuming they generate heat…?”

“Only one way to find out,” Hiral said, pushing power into Foundational Split. Solar smoke peeled off of him, his tattoos and Meridian Lines vanishing with it, to form into his doubles at his sides.

“We produce heat, in case you were wondering,” Left said as soon as they formed.

“Want to cuddle?” Right asked Vix, and the other man just rolled his eyes.

“In you two go before you get me in trouble.” Hiral shooed the doubles in with a shake of his own head.

“You seem pretty comfortable with that now,” Yanily said as he passed Hiral into the shelter.

“Feels natural,” Hiral said, ducking into the dome as well.

“That’s how most abilities are,” Yanily said. “You really didn’t have a class before this? And no abilities?”

“Really,” Hiral said, unslinging his sword harness from his shoulders and looping it around his wrist so it didn’t hit the low roof.

“Then, that fight with the Troblins. All that was… what?”

“Training. Years and years of training. You guys must all have base stats similar to mine, right?”

“Hah,” Yanily practically barked, drawing the attention of the other Growers in the shelter as Seeyela stepped inside, a red glow now coming from outside. “Hiral here thinks we have the same base stats.”

“Nivian has, what, an eleven endurance,” Vix said. “My base dexterity is twelve. Does anybody have a thirteen?”

“My strengthis twelve,” Balyo said. “Highest base stat for our party. If you count the bonuses from our PIMs,then we have higher, but base? Nope.”

“Seriously, Hiral, what’s going on with you?” Yanily asked. “Twenty dexterity, and eighteen in everything else?”

“Training nonstop,” Hiral said with a shrug. “Since I didn’t have a PIM, I had to do it all with just my base stats, but the work paid off by increasing them. Most other people don’t bother with it because it’s just faster to level up and get the bonuses from their Meridian Lines. Since I didn’t have that option…”

“Then, your S-Rank solar attributes. What are you?” Yanily said, gently punching Hiral in the shoulder.

“The laughingstock of Fallen Reach?” Hiral said. “I am—was?—basically the weakest person on the island because I couldn’t get a class.”

“If you’re the weakest, I’d hate to meet the strong ones,” Yanily said, giving Hiral another playful punch in the shoulder at the same time Seena entered the dome.

“Ready?” Picoli asked Seena, who nodded. “Okay, I’ll do what I can for light. It won’t be much, though.”

“Anything will be better than standing in the dark,” Seeyela said. “Do what you can.”

“Sure,” Picoli said, and there was a pulse of solar energy as small balls of light materialized. They were kind of like fireflies, except they didn’t flit around, instead settling near the ceiling. “Try not to touch them; they’ll still do their full damage even if they aren’t moving.”

“How long will they last?” Seeyela asked.

“A few minutes, but they don’t cost much energy. I’ll just recast the ability when they fade.”

“These are normally a ranged-attack ability,” Yanily quickly explained to Hiral. “Light Darts or something.”

“Ah, thanks,” Hiral said.

“Stay on that side over there until I’m done,” Seena pointed, and everybody crowded against the wall opposite the opening—Right making another cuddle-comment to Vix at the same time. Then, with a pulse of solar energy and a gesture from her staff, spear-like roots erupted from the ground and filled in the empty space. “Oh… wow…” she said again, her eyes wide but her gaze drifting off into space.

“What’s up, Seena?” Seeyela asked. “You finished? Is there a problem?”

“Oh… no. I got an achievement notification. Let me finish this up first, though.” More minor pulses of solar energy radiated from Seena as dozens of smaller roots grew out of the large spikes to fill in any empty spaces.

It took a few minutes, but soon enough, Seena turned from her work with a sheen of sweat on her skin and a smile on the face. “That’s the best I can do, but it should keep us dry,” she said closer to a normal tone, the sealed shelter somewhat muting the hammering sound of rain.

“How quickly can you tear it down if we have to get out of here in rush?” Lonil asked.

“Instantly,” Seena said. “I can dispel the ability if I need to—otherwise, it will last for ten minutes per level, so three hours.”

“Which means we need to hope the worst of the rain will be past us in three hours, or this whole process will have been a waste of time,” Picoli said.

“If it’s not past us in three hours, that would mean the storm-wall is almost nine miles deep,” Hiral said. “If it’s that big, then we have much larger problems to worry about.”

“Nine miles?” Vix asked as the intensity of the hammering rain outside inched ever closer. “How do you figure that?”

“Fallen Reach moves at around three miles per hour,” Hiral said. “The Towers of the Fallen—we use them to keep track of time up in the city—are exactly three miles apart, and each pulse follows the previous by exactly one hour. The pulses are markers of time during the day, like how fifth pulse is around when a lot of people eat lunch. That kind of thing.”

“Right. We see the pulses under the island,” Seena said. “They make the Great Mist light up for a split second every hour. Do you know why that is?”

“There are a few different theories, such as that being the reason the Great Mist rises up from the EnSath River to Fallen Reach, providing water for us. That one never quite made sense to me, though, because wouldn’t that mean there would only be water every hour? Anyway, back to the original topic… Since the storm-wall follows the city exactly one hundred miles out—always—then that means the storm has to move at the same speed.”

“Well, we don’t know what else is in the rain and dark,” Seeyela said. “So, I don’t want us waiting the full three hours if we don’t have to. The sooner we get to the dungeon, the sooner we’re safe.”

“Assuming the Islander here can open the dungeon like he says he can,” Fitch said.

“Now, now, Fitch—no need for that,” Seena said. “My whole party saw the dungeon interface open up. We’ll figure it out.”

“You better,” Fitch said, leaning against one of the shelter walls and crossing his arms, though his right hand rested on the sword pommel at his waist.

Seeyela held up a hand to Fitch and Seena before either could say another word. Another pat of the air when they both opened their mouths, and they settled for silence.

“Good,” Seeyela said. “Seena, you said something about an achievement?”

“Oh, right!” Seena said, her eyes widening in excitement. “Here, I minimized the notification, but let me share it with you all.” A second later, a green status window appeared in the air.

Achievement Unlocked: Outside the Box

Skill: Spearing Roots has mutated due to unconventional and repeated use.

Please access a Dungeon Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

“Oh, wow,” Wule said. “You got an achievement for building the shelter?”

“Looks that way,” Seena said. “Sis, did you get one for the Gravity Wells?”

“No, but I only created two of them,” Seeyela said, her eyes scrolling through the floating text again. “This is good to know, though. We can find out what it does as soon as we get to the dungeon.”

Seena was already shaking her head. “No, we tried last time. Seems there is another dungeon interface that unlocks when we clear the dungeon or something. The outside interface said we needed the inside one to get achievement rewards.”

“Clear? Whatever that means. Well, we can…” Seeyela stopped as the sound of the rain changed, and she reached out and put the tips of her fingers against the shelter’s wall. “It’s here, the storm-wall,” she said a second later.

The group stilled, only their heads moving as they looked up at the ceiling as one, the noise building in intensity as the line of rain crawled across the shelter’s roof. Thunder thoomed above, so loud, it sounded like the sky itself was cracking, and the ground shuddered beneath their feet.

“I can’t believe the rain is this heavy even with the Gravity Wells,” Cal said.

“It means they’re getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of water already,” Seeyela answered, her eyes—like everybody else’s—scrolling across the ceiling of the shelter.

Thoom, thooooom, THOOOOOOM. The thunder continued, reverberating through the thick roots of the shelter along with the rain pounding on the wood. Those closest to the walls instinctively took a step toward the center of the shelter, and within minutes, the heavy rain beat against the entire dome.

“Is… that… it?” Yanily shouted between echoing peals of thunder.

Then a new sound joined the constant thrumming of rain and titanic thooms of thunder. It started as a whistle, low in pitch at first, but quickly building.

“What’s that?” Vix shouted.

“Do you feel it?” Cal asked, lifting her hands in front of her, palms out. “There’s… a… Yes, there.” She stepped toward the wall and moved her hands in the air until she found whatever it was she was looking for. “A breeze… here…”

That breeze, and the whistle accompanying it, continued to build, the sound of the rain on the surface of the shelter shifting along with it. The consistent and constant sound of a heavy shower gave way to something more like waves crashing against the shore.

The shelter shook in alternation between the booming thunder and the slashing rain and wind hitting it from all sides.

“We’ve got water over here!” Wule had to shout for the others to notice him pointing at a rapid series of drips falling from the roof.

Another few seconds, and that dripping became a steady stream. And it wasn’t the only one. Half a dozen more fell on the ground, shoulders, and heads within seconds.

All around them, the wood grew damp, water running through even the smallest cracks to drip to the ground, the already-damp earth soaking up the moisture in short order. Within minutes, mud was forming around their boots, and the air felt heavy with moisture.

“It’s getting colder,” Balyo said. “You all feel that?”

“Right, don’t even,” Hiral warned.

Nivian put his hand under one of the falling streams of water and nodded. “The rain is colder than I expected, but it’s not ice-cold or anything. Still, I wouldn’t want to stay out in it too long if we don’t have to.”

“We’ll get a fire started as soon as we get to the dungeon,” Seeyela said. “There is plenty of wood outside the entrance… even though it’ll all be soaked.”

“Those Quillback nests should burn pretty well,” Hiral pointed out.

Seeyela nodded but didn’t say anything else, and the group went back to watching the rain seeping through the cracks. They huddled closer together for warmth as the temperature in the shelter continued to drop, and this time, Hiral wasn’t excluded from the circle. Even without moving around much, the mud at their feet quickly churned into a soppy mess.

The party fell into tense silence, listening to cold rain pound against their shelter. Minutes passed, and each heartbeat seemed to stretch on into eternity, letting Hiral’s mind begin to wander.

He eyed the rain leaking through the cracks, watching it pool into the mud below. The faint light of his new runes reflected in those pools, drawing his eyes to the symbols. Now that he had a moment to examine them, he felt both excitement and bitterness.

The excitement came from finally having power to call his own, even if it was different than what he’d hoped for.

The bitterness came from realizing he’d wasted years of his life. People had called him Everfail for not being able to power his tattoos, but how could he? He wasn’t even a Maker! Asking him to summon the Daggers of EnSath was like trying to teach a Troblin to fly with wings it didn’t have.

Where would he be now if he’d known he was a ‘Builder’ ten years ago? How much time would he have had to learn how to use his runes? Would he have been called Everfailat all?

The bitterness threatened to turn into anger, and he shook it off: there were more important things to think about right now—like exploring his new options.

He called up his status window:

Runes:

• Rune of Separation – Primary

• Rune of Rejection – Right forearm

• Rune of Attraction – Left forearm

Hiral didn’t know how long the rain would pound against their shelter—he could only keep track of time by how many instances Picoli recast her Light Dart ability—and if he just sat there thinking about the past, he’d probably drive himself crazy.

Better to test and get a handle on these new abilities before he had to use them in combat.

First was the Rune of Separation, but he already knew what that did. It apparently makes cuddly doubles. That left just Rejectionand Attraction. Were they some kind of weird social runes? No, that didn’t make sense: he’d seen enough bad dates to know you didn’t need an ability to cause rejection… just the title of Everfail.

So, what could those abilities do?

Only one way to find out—testing! Carefully and quietly. Fixing his eyes on the nearest stream of falling water, he subtly raised a hand and poured a touch of solar energy into Rejection.

Almost like a switch flicking, the falling water jerked away from him to splash against the side of the shelter. A quick look around—nobody seemed to have noticed—and he focused more on his solar energy into the rune. Controlling it, carefully, and he had what seemed to be a weak, conical wave of force pushing away from his hand. So, a quick burst from a short charge of solar energy, or a weaker, constant force if I keep streaming energy in. Makes sense. And, just like what the crystal monster did. Maybe…

Next was Attraction, and he started to push energy into it…

“Achoo!” Yanily sneezed nearby, startling Hiral and making him dump solar energy into the rune all at once…

…which immediately splashed him in the face.

“Is someone playing with the water?” Balyo asked from behind him.

Only a series of grunts and a murmured “No” answered her. Hiral—wisely, from the tone of Balyo’s voice—chose to keep his mouth shut as cold water dripped down his chin.

“Well, whoever it was, stop it. We’re going to be soaked enough as it is,” Seeyela said.

“Yeah, Yanily,” Vix said.

“I sneezed!” Yanily countered.

“Just don’t do it again,” Seena said.

“Yes, boss,” the spearman pouted.

Okay, maybe that’s enough experiments for now. Don’t want Balyo using me for spear practice. Anyway, what did I learn from that? Push and pull, just like the crystal monster, which isn’t surprising. It’d be great if these runes were as powerful as the monster’s abilities, but I don’t know if I’ll be that lucky. Still, they should be stronger if I put more solar energy into them. Maybe they could knock back a charging enemy or pull one off balance.

Not directly powerful like a tattoo would be, but they could be very tactically useful.

He would have given a lot to have the Training Room nearby; he could have tested his runes on the force constructs all he wanted. Instead, he was down on the surface in the dark and rain with—as far as he knew—no way for any of his group to restore their solar power.

The only chance he’d have to test his runes for combat would be in actual combat, and he could only hope he’d use them properly. And preferably not Attract something into my own face again. With that reminder, Hiral sat tight, visualizing different ways to use his abilities while counting the times the light went out and shone again inside the shelter.

It wasn’t until after around the tenth time Picoli recast her LightDartability that the sound of the hammering rain seemed to begin letting up. After an eleventh recast, the water falling through the cracks in the shelter had returned to intermittent drips, and the thunder finally sounded like it wasn’t directly overhead.

“I think it’s almost time to move,” Seeyela said. “Picoli, can you keep your darts moving with us?”

“Sure, but they’ll be pretty obvious to anybody—or anything—watching.”

“We’ll have to take that risk. We need to be able to see. That’s… something we’re going to need to figure out if we want to survive down here.” At Seeyela’s words, the Growers all seemed to realize how much they’d taken something simple like sunlight for granted.

Which leads to another question.

“How are we going to restore any solar energy we use?” Hiral asked, and the Growers shared another look.

“One problem at a time,” Seeyela said. “First, let’s get to the dungeon. Seena, can you open a door for us?”

“Sure,” Seena said.

She took a deep breath, then waved her hand in front of the last section of shelter she’d created. The thick roots vanished as if they’d never existed.

Steady rain fell in the small pool of illumination from inside the shelter, the fallen leaves on the ground reflecting with a light sheen.

“So, who’s first?” Yanily asked.