Chapter 8 Potions and Runes

Azi's last destination before heading home was at the village barracks. There, he went to look for Touma to discuss some pointers on magic and runes. Touma was considered an advanced thaumaturge who originally lived in the capital of the Empire known as Yamato.

The reason for his relocation was due to how he got fed up with the toxic and bitter rivalry between the competing factions in Yamato and requested to be reassigned to Great General Ozen's army. Each Great General had their own personal armies and Ozen's mostly consisted of spearmen and very few thaumaturges, so when Touma came knocking Ozen agreed heartly.

Since his reassignment, for the past couple years, Touma has been teaching apprentices to become thaumaturges in Ozen's army. This gave him enough experience to become a somewhat decent teacher but he was still more of a researcher.

Using the talisman Touma previously gave him, Azi poured his magical energy into the piece of paper and suddenly an arrow appeared on the paper's surface that pointed in a certain direction. This was an advanced tier of detection magic that allowed for pinpoint locating of a target's magic energy.

It had limited range but came in handy for finding Touma as he seemed to always be on the move with his work.

Turning his body in the direction the arrow was pointing, Azi began walking with the now rotating arrow as his guide until he found who he was looking for.

Sitting with a group of people with staves at their side. Azi called out to the familiar figure.

"Hey Touma, you got time to talk!?"

Noticing who was calling, Touma's attention was drawn to Azi and he gave him a smile. Reaching out with an outstretched hand in an inviting gesture, Touma beckoned Azi over who accepted the proffered handshake.

"Good to see that you are back from your expedition, Touma. Did anything unusual occur?"

"Not much, but we did encounter more monsters than expected. It seems we still haven't exterminated all the powerful monsters in the area, it's evident by the increasing number of gengiri that keep attacking the village."

"It's foreboding to hear that, but I am glad you made it back ok."

"Thanks Azi, by the way what did you want to talk about today, is it about runes or engraving?"

"Right now, since I am short on time, could you please give me a basic run down about runes today?"

"Sure, go ahead and shot me your questions."

"The runes on your staff, what do they do?"

While Azi had not noticed it the first time they met, in the past few days Azi had taken note of the strange symbols carved onto Touma's staff during their talks and informal lessons on thaumaturgy.

Moving to staff so that Azi could get a better look, Touma then nonchalantly explained.

"The runes on my staff are of an advance nature. They help amplify and gather external magical energies through a specific pattern of runes. I previously gave you a book with simple runes and their meanings. If you draw these patterns with magic ink or engrave the runes with a catalyst material, then you can invoke the effects of the runes using your magic energy. Granted, you can only use the ones you have an understanding of and have an affinity with."

Nodding his head in apt attention, Azi's charcoal pencil was moving quickly across the pages of his brown notebook as he took notes on what Touma was telling him.

"The runes on my staff mean fire, earth, amplification, control, and absorption. The intended effect is to increase the potency of magic, increase casting speed, increase absorption to magic energy, and increase affinities for fire and earth magic."

"Are you limited on how many you can use?"

"Yes. I could add more, but it would make my staff less efficient and more susceptible to breaking. The dangers of using runes is that when they are added to an object, the said object's internal structure changes to invoke the effects of the rune. This involves the internal structure having magical channels created from the runes. There have been cases where if you put too many runes on a staff it would collapse on itself and crumble to dust. This was mainly due to how the runes had eroded so much of the staff's material to create an internal structure that was a result of the runes' nature. In short, more runes on an object means it will become physically weaker."

"Additionally." Added Touma in an exasperated tone. "Due to how expensive staves can be, I prefer to not risk adding more runes to my own. While the power and effects of the runes are exponentially increased with every additional rune, there is a pitfall if done incorrectly."

"Just how much does your staff cost Touma?"

"I don't really know but of the staves that could be sold in the Capital of Yamato go for about 10 silver plates or about 1,000,000 Minos."

Azi was slacked jawed by the value of a staff. He mentally noted to be more careful when handling the staffs of others in the future as he did not want that kind of debt on his head.

Wondering how Touma got his staff, Azi asked with curious look.

"So how did you afford your staff Touma? A soldier does not get paid that much so how were you able to obtain such a valued weapon?"

With his chin head up high, Touma proudly told him.

"I was a graduate from the academy of thaumaturgy in Yamato. When I was certified to be thaumaturge in the army they provided me with a basic staff as a symbol of my achievement. I have customized it for the last few years and here we are."

Touma looked at his staff in nostalgia as if reminded of the past battles he went through. Azi's attention was also drawn to Touma's staff as it had a large clear crystal on its head, metal ringlets that acted as decorations to the sides of the staff, and its handle was lacquered to have an incredibly smooth wooden sheen.

Breaking from his brief examination of the staff, Azi then proposed an idea.

"So would gengiri carapaces and beowolves claws be of use as a suitable catalyst."

"Yes, while those materials should work you are going to have to be careful. Those are considered as low-quality catalysts so the runes that they can be used for are limited. You'll have to be mindful of what you choose to put on before just adding them randomly. You might end up with runes that don't work, backfire, or overload from error."

"I understand. I have one last request, if possible, could you demonstrate how you engrave a rune?"

Not minding in giving a demonstration Touma proceeded to take out a blank metal plate and a beowolf fang from his bag. Azi in turn, pulled down his goggles and channeled magic energy into its lenses.

Touma then slowly drew the rune meaning fire onto the metal plate. Through his goggles, Azi could see that Touma was channeling his magic energy into the tip of the beowolf fang.

When the beowolf claw made its mark on the metal plate, some of the fang would flake off and would be bonded to the metal by the magical energies absorbed from Touma.

After finishing his engraving of the rune, Touma compressed the magic energy to seal it into the metal plate to prevent the energy from dissipating. After a small red flash emitted from the metal plate, he then proceeded to demonstrate the rune's power. With a colorless glow that came from his palm that was holding the metal plate, a fireball was formed above the plate.

"With the completion of the rune's engraving onto this piece of metal, this can now be considered as a kind of staff. It can be used to call upon fire when magic energy is absorbed and is useful during camping trips but has no combat uses and is too fragile." To further his demonstration and explanation, Touma motioned to bend the metal plate.

To Azi's surprise the metal bent very easily as it looked like Touma didn't put any force into his motions. It then cracked and finally shattered to bits of metal dust when Touma had bent it to a 90 degree angle.

"Does this suffice?"

"I believe so, but is there anything I can do for you Touma? I know you've been busy these days so I was hoping to pay you back for all the impromptu lessons you give me."

"For now, could you possibly put in a word with Shizu to give me a couple days of vacation." Touma proceeded to give Azi a wink but all Azi could do was smile wryly as he gave the best answer he could.

"I'll see what I can do, but there are no promises. You can expect an update on your "vacation" in the future hahaha."

Sighing in disappointment, Touma looked dejected as he sat onto a nearby chair to catch his breath. The expedition Touma had to recently endure was brutal and left him and his group dangerously low on stamina and magical energy.

Azi felt bad that he had bothered Touma at a bad time and felt that he should try to help them in the future if he can. Remembering what he had in his two bags, he riffled through them as Touma started to leave.

"Well, if that's all then you can get going. My group and I are going to get to bed early. We need to replenish our energies soon since we have more work at first light tomorrow. See ya!"

Before Touma walked away with his group, Azi got his attention as he tossed over a small bag to Touma.

"Hey Touma. Have you and your friends drink a few of these when you need it. You guys have a good night."

He then turned around to begin his walk home and left quick enough so that Touma was unable to deny the proffered gift.

Peering into the bag he caught, Touma smiled wryly and thanked Azi in his mind.

'This will come in handy. Thanks Azi.'

In the bag were numerous stamina boosting potions that Azi obtained from Elder Sung. The number Azi received was more than enough, so deciding to pay Elder Sung's kindness forward, he gave what he could spare to the exhausted group of soldiers.

Noticing what was in the bag, a fellow thaumaturge commented about Azi.

"What a nice young boy. You seem to be close to him Touma, who is he?"

The thaumaturge that spoke up was the newest member of the barracks, so Touma had to bring his comrade up to speed.

"That would be Azi, and no he is not young. He is in fact 27 years old and an apprentice to Lady Shizu and Blacksmith Kajima."

Shocked by this information, the thaumaturge could not believe what she was hearing. She had heard the rumors of Shizu the Man Killer and her suspected aversion to men.

She also knew of the less well-known Blacksmith Kajima who was known for his close friendship with Ozen the current king of Kujyuri.

Before the new thaumaturge of the group became too flustered Touma had to explain a few things about Azi. For the next couple of hours, Touma was able to placate the confused thaumaturge until she felt no longer shocked by the sudden revelations.

After handing out some stamina potions, everyone went to bed while thanking Azi in their minds.

(I wanted to added Magic and Runes into the story but not used them for all solutions. Magic in this story will have some structure to understand that I hope to manipulate for better storytelling.)

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