Starting the second phase

Aiden, bored for his life sat pouting in his sofa after he got scolded from Nahn a few minutes ago.

Esya looked rather diligent, even though she had heard the same story a lot of times before, according to Nahn himself.

And Nahn was there, trying to catch his breath. But one thing they had in common was...

All of their eyes were locked on him. That's one of the few things he never liked. Though he tried to act casually and asked,

"So... have all of you unlocked your rune abilities?"

"Yeah. Out of the forty survivors in this camp only eight managed to unlock their ability. We are specially strong."

"Oh..." his face grimmed.

'That sounds hella concerning!' Oisin shouted, internally.

"Don't worry, I think you have potential."

'My hopes, exactly...'

"Let's go outside. Demonstrating the runes in my beautiful room isn't... safe."

'Then why did we even come here...' he thought.

Then Oisin looked at him with a disappointed stare which startled him.

"Yeah, let's go!" Aiden was the first to stand up. His mood changes every once in a while. Unpredictable, truly.

---

Back at the main hall, the four of them appeared leaving the rune tower behind.

"I have been meaning to ask this for a while. It's literally just a field. Why call it main hall?" Oisin asked.

"The main things happen here." answered Aiden.

"You don't need to answer on my behalf, Aiden... but as comical it may sound, that's it actually."

"Amazing..."

Oisin looked around.

Exactly forty people lived in this camp. There were a few children he saw. And most were over thirty. He saw people carrying buckets containing those edible grass. And some were just gossiping with each other. Although most seemed to be inside their own halls.

And the area wasn't small, so some could be just be out of his sight as well.

"Uh... sorry if I am asking too many questions but those 'bad phantoms', do they never attack here?"

"They came close alot of times. As it seems, they can't cross this boundary." replied Nahn before Aiden could as he was about to answer instead, pointing to the fences of their camp.

'As I expected...'

The phantoms can't enter this camp. Because of the runic energy, perhaps. Does that mean runes repel them?

'... it's not realistic at all.'

Nahn moved further than them. And took a leading pose. "Alright now, I will show you what a rune can do!"

Oisin looked with anticipation, and as it appeared to him, the two looked curious as well, to some degree at least.

Nahn supposedly pushed his runic energy to the right palm and supported it with his left hand as he described a few minutes ago in his room, then picked up a stone swiftly using his legs.

'That's some skill.'

As the stone was floating, he quickly punched it and behold! It exploded.

"This is my basic runic energy, everyone has it. It can enhance your common prowess and perhaps be used as a ranged weapon too, if you learn to control its output well. Aster does that better than me, call him if you want to learn that. And next up... my ability." his face beamed.

Aiden grinned as well, "Shouldn't we show my brother our combo, Cap?"

"Aha, sure. Come on."

Aiden walked forward until he reached close to Nahn. Then closed his eyes, as if meditating he said after a while, "Ah, yea, I'm ready now. Oisin, watch me!"

Grinning still, Nahn took his hands down.

The next moment something strange could be felt. Oisin felt the unnatural surge of something.

'Is that... runic energy?'

He looked, something was forming on the dust near Nahn. Aiden pointed his fingers towards that thing, still keeping his eyes closed.

Curiousity picked up on Oisin, as he saw a black smoke appearing out of thin air in that place.

"Ah... what the heck..."

Esya who was quiet until now, replied to him, "Nahn can create smokes and this brainless can color them."

"Oh. I thought a cat would jump out... after hearing his story."

"That's silly. But don't underestimate his prowess, that smoke can kill you. It's poisonous."

"That's better."

'Didn't the phantom say things completely wrong then...!? Everything is getting so confusing.' Oisin thought and kept the thought to himself.

The black smoke then spread in size. Nahn somehow could control the direction of its float. So the smoke was elevating only.

After a while, the black smoke formed a quiet large... and poisonous... cloud right above them.

"And now..." said Aiden, raising his voice.

All of a sudden, the black smoke turned into colors. And the colors started making a formation until it created a real shape.

To Oisin's surprise, within a few next seconds, he realized that the cloud was reflecting his own face.

"Here goes another of my masterpiece. Like that, Oisin?"

"Haha.." Oisin was stunned, naturally, "how bizarre... incredible really."

Aiden smiled. And Nahn then started to bring the cloud down.

"So, Oisin. Amazing right? The smoke is poisonous by the way, and can kill you within a minute. The colors were added by Aiden, and that can be used for concealing my smoke within the nature. Deadly combo, I say. Despite how stupid he is, Aiden is actually a prodigy. Considering I am one, afterall."

"You aren't a prodigy, Cap..."

"As if you are!"

"You just called me one!"

Oisin laughed. Those two were stupid. But it had been a while since he last laughed. Sometimes he used to laugh at himself, feeling pity for his luck in the hell outside. But this time, after a long time... this was a genuine smile.

"Esya, show your rune ability too. Oisin that witch is crazy, you'll see!" said Oisin, turning from Nahn.

"Is that how you make a request?" said Esya, enraged. "And I can't show my ability just like that, it needs more time unlike you two."

"That's fine. I'll see it sometime else anyway."

'I don't even want to see it, actually at the moment.' he turned.

"So... does my training begin just now?"

"Oh, sure." said Nahn, now the smoke already blended with the void again. "You unlocked a rune core within just a few minutes, I can bet you'll learn quick."

"Uhh... totally."

"Remember what I said Oisin? Imagine an ocean drowning you-"

Nahn didn't let Aiden finish his sentence, "Your analogies don't make sense, you understand right?"

"It does! You silly bunch don't get it. I'm sure my brother will, though." he looked at me. "You got it right?"

'Did I...?'

"I guess... I did, to some extent."

'Drowning from six directions? By energy? Did he refer to the energy that exists independent from my body? He means absorbing that energy for my own purpose? Well, actually. I have no idea.'

Nahn here though, cleared his throat, "So, you like your cohort I hope?"

"They do seem like a fun bunch to stay around." Oisin answered, honestly.

"Right... aha... so shall we begin? Your training? I will just give you the instructions really. Learn everything else on your own. I won't be staying here monitoring you all the time. So if you are going to skip training sometimes, of course while I am not looking, then go watch how other survivors are living here. Alright?"

"Yes." he nodded. 'Isn't that how an ideal teach sound like!?'

Oisin remembered the private tutor he used have before the apocalypse. Loaded him with mindless tons of home works and left everyday. 'Ah... it does seem similar somehow though...'

"Aiden, you will stay with him. Just don't shower him with those weird analogies. Esya go call Aster to my hall. And I... have important things to do."

'I can bet that you don't...' thought Oisin. He had a good grasp over Nahn's personality by then.

Nahn does exactly what he needs to do. Nothing more, nothing less. In all, he has a disciplined laze.

Getting rid of those thoughts, he focused.

"So see! You are about to do is this:" Nahn raised his right hand, illusion or not, Oisin did not know.

The hand started glittering, a little bit.

"This just now, I have gathered rune energy in my right palm. Illuminate your hands like mine. Good luck."

Illuminate your hands.

'Sounds easy.... totally....' Oisin nodded at Nahn's instruction. 'How would I feel if someone gave me tips to make my hands glitter when I was a mundane man...? I would call him autistic.'

And then he sighed.

He had no choice to but to believe that runic powers exist. He has witnessed its powers, learnt how this happened, and now is about to use it himself. How crazy is all that?

On the other side though, Esya looked sad, maybe because of how she was getting absolutely ignored from the beginning of this day. 'It's even funny...' imagined Oisin.

She just sighed and was about to leave.

"Bye, Oisin, nice to meet you." and left as Oisin returned her bye with a little smile. She was in fact, pretty. But not in a way that would make her remarkable.

He quickly looked away though.

Aiden just sat on a stone, watching us. Perhaps waiting for Nahn to leave.

Oisin tried to focus all his runic powers in the right palm. Naturally, there wasn't the littlest hint of glow. He even started to feel a little weak due to this.

"Ah, so what if I fail and lose my stamina?"

"Then go home and take rest. You aren't supposed to be able to do this in one day."

"Oh. Well, alright. I'll keep practising."

"Yeah go on. I'll go back too, just come straight to me if you need anything. Nobody should stop you, most people already know you here, even if you don't. Again, good luck." he smiled at Oisin, and moved past him.

Like that, the two was left all alone.

Oisin actually tried to do that some times more, but failed. Quickly disappointed, he found a stone nearby and sat there. Kind of face to face with Aiden, really.

The main hall was quiet literally the best training field, it seemed. Despite the fact that it was empty, for some reason.

Only four or five people could be seen far away, minding their own business from their own halls.

'Still it does feel like a society...'

Staring at front then, Oisin tried to motivate himself, in trial of acquiring that runic power.

'My two years in hell was far harder than this... I gotta keep up with the reputation I unintentionally earned for that...' he told himself.

That was actually true, since he was one... worst kind of sore-loser.

Aiden, still sitting just watched him through and through without giving an advice or monitoring his training. As if in deep meditation about something.

'Why is Aiden silent? That's unlike him... well not that I know him for more than a half an hour.' thought Oisin, and stood up with a sigh.