But anyways, he did bring me something nice, it looks like a sloth. Two claws, puppy eyes, a stupid smile on its face and a fur full of little bugs and algae.
I think I know what rune I'll make on this guy first, cause damn he's filthy to look at like this.
Active:
- When – Not Subject – Touch – Skin – Hair
- Uses – Internal Energy
- Slow – Rising – Heat – To – Not Subject
I write this rule on his skin and I see all the bugs stirring, after that they run off and after that the algae start turning brown, to black and then the wind takes it away. I like this rune pretty much.
And so my first rune magic on a living creature became a cleaning rune.
I think that if I can change his nature away from being a sloth I can change Black Eyes into a truly loyal subordinate too. And seeing an active sloth would be kind of fun too.
"Hello mister, I won't cause you harm. I just need to try something and it will make you more powerful."
"Hello,"
He just stops after hello?
"I'm"
This is going to take a while.
"Not"
And it went on like this. It'd sum up to that she's not a mister but a woman, and that she doesn't really care as she can't change anything about it and that she's grateful for taking away the itchy things.
She can even thank me in this situation, it really is a sloth with a pure heart.
I focus on her soul and there's a sloth shaped soul, it's completely green. If I focus more little strings of runes start to appear and I start to read those. It's still really hard like this, the progress does feel slower compared to when I use the system, but I don't really want to use that until I can isolate the system from all other parts the Morrigan wrote on me.
Without the influence of the seal my mind feels freed, and I don't want to throw it away due to some quick results. So I start reading, and it takes about 2 days to get the general idea of the sloth. It's the idea of the species and not of the individual, that's way harder.
It's the difference between understanding a principle of an idea, and understanding the most fine details of an idea.
And it even helps that the sloth is a really easy creature, if it was a more complicated creature I'd be stuck. The sloth wants to use the littlest possible energy and just wants to eat the least amount so I it'll have just enough. These are the most basic principles.
That's probably why she didn't struggle and why she thanked me, for taking away the itch, now she doesn't need to scratch anymore.
So, if I'd take her of energy conservation mode she'd grow more active right, and start to eat more to still keep the needed amount.
But that's not enough, I need to make her hyperactive to really do something. And so I start trying, using her own blood to write on her soul, when using rune magic the ink will turn into energy, that's why it can write on anything.
What I noticed is that if the tune is fundamentally wrong it won't accept, so it'll change back to sloth mode. But after 2 days it worked.
She jumped up, it's the fastest I've seen her move so far, and falls back down because she isn't used to moving fast.
"How do you feel?"
"I feel great, I feel like I can do anything. I never had so much energy before, but I am hungry. Let's get something to eat. No just wait, I'll get it myself. Do you want something?"
Before I could think of an answer she's off. She runs, stumbles, runs some more into the forest.
"Black, let's follow her."
We follow her and we see her running and jumping, she reminds me of a ninja with her arms dangling behind her with 15cm long sharp claws attached to them. She falls less and less and snags leafs all around her to eat.
I feel that we're being stalked, I snatch it from the ground with blood chains and it is a snake. It's weak compared to me, but strong compared to the slothful sloth. But I wonder who's stronger now.
"Attack that sloth or I kill you now."
It nods, it can see that I'm way out of its league and way stronger than the sloth.
I let it go and it shoots towards the sloth, as the sloth falls it closes in on her. It strikes to bite, but the sloth sees the snake and her arm strikes out.
The head of the snake is separated from the body and flies on. The sloth has some doubt in its eyes and eats the snakes body. It's a gruesome sight, blood all over its fur, but the blood soon turn brown, to black and falls off. The heat rune is really useful indeed.
The sloth shines and evolves. When it stops shining it's a lush green all over, even its claws. Her claws grew to 20cm and are barbed on the back side. Is she venomous now?
She starts running back to where we were so black and I also return.
"Welcome back sloth, I didn't think you'd still return."
"Of course I'd return, you took away my itch, made me able to do way many more fun things and you fed me. You're my tiny hero. And I evolved, see, see?"
"I see, and what did the evolution bring you?"
Her puppy eyes and silly smile looked a bit more sharp for a moment and the grass around her started to grow on a visible rate. There even started to come little flowers, and something that looks like a strawberry.
"I make plants grow hihi, isn't it pretty? Look at this."
A single flower started to grow bigger and bigger until it was bigger than black. The sloth started to start dancing around it, she looked so happy next to the big red flower. And then she ate it.
She's a gluttonous sloth. But I think she'll be useful.
"Sloth, from today on you'll follow me, Red Wings, and you'll be known as Green Claws. You'll be the head of the Green clan."
"Hihi okay, I'll stay with you Tiny Hero Red, but you need to make sure that you'll give me good food."
"I will, we will become the greatest and have all the power and food we could wish for.
Today we will rest and train our new skills, tomorrow I'll be weaker, but we will go to the dungeon and become stronger. When I overcome my weak stage I'll become stronger than ever, but I'll have to rely on you guys till then."
"We'll be ready for you master." Is what they said.
As we rested I studied Greens soul again. There were many subtle changes, and even my changed turned green like the rest of her soul, fully integrated into what she is.
But I noticed something strange, there was a very small red marking. Upon closer inspection it looked like me, and I felt that I just learned the rune for myself.
This line of rune said something about loyalty, a reasonable loyalty. And I needed to try it, I changed it to great loyalty. And the code accepted it.
After this I went and searched in Blacks soul, and I found my line. And it came down to loyal as long as I'm useful. This is what I expected and what I was afraid of, maybe I can just copy the line from Green.
It failed, it got rejected. It couldn't have been that easy. I tried many things, but it didn't change. I even tried adding a line that I'd always be useful, but that didn't work either.
So I'll need to grow quickly in the runes, I can't let him think that I'm not useful. Otherwise I'll die, especially since Green is a bad match-up against Black.
It slowly becomes night, it's time.
I select my evolution and I feel weak again, as if I just came out of my egg again.
My wings and legs are blood red, my body turns a dark red that's almost black, I still have 4 wings and I'm still tiny. I'm just more red, I lost the venom influence, and I'm terribly weak. This might have been a bad choice.