Jack had gone to bed early, hoping to get ten to twelve hours of sleep to recover from the field trip, however throughout the night he was tormented by nightmares. In one he came home after class to a mess beyond description, food and other less easily identifiably debris coated the kitchen. As he tried to clean it it seemed to only get worse, the more he cleaned the further it expanded. He began furiously throwing bits and pieces of food and junk out of the kitchen but as he finally began to clear the topmost layer he began to sink... He tried to crawl back out of the kitchen, but turning around he saw there was no exit, only more trash. Franticly attempting to claw his way out of the filth he only slipped deeper. As he sank up to his chest it became hard to breath his breath being crushed out of him by a sudden and immense weight. He sank continuously at a slow and steady rate, the trash quickly reaching his neck. Just as he thought 'I'm done for' he was startled awake by an ear-splitting yowl.
Being startled awake in such a manner his body automatically drew in a large breath, flooding his brain with oxygen and bringing him to full alertness in a split second. As a part of that action his body quite naturally tried to sit up, to be able to respond to whatever situation was occurring. It was at this point Jack discovered the trouble. He couldn't sit up. In fact he had trouble moving at all. He was quite effectively pinned in place by a massive gray rabbit.
Seeing this Jack let out a small sigh before dropping his head back onto his pillow. He was quite used to cleaning up messes, sudden loud noises at all hours, and being compressed under the immense weight of an animal. Having a nightmare from two of those things and being startled awake from the third was somewhat shameful. Only a few weeks away and already unfamiliar with his everyday life of the past four years... it was like an ill omen, and brought his mind back to the problem he and these wild animals would be facing shortly.
Thinking about his pets Lynxette and Ears naturally drew his attention to and oddity. Ordinarily he would be woken up in the morning by either the grumpy-when-hungry screaming of Lynxette or the insistent nibbling and snuffling of Ears. Today while he had woken to Lynxette's yelling, she was nowhere to be seen. Lynxette's habit was to scream at anyone nearby until she was fed, and so her screaming and her not being present naturally pointed to the presence of someone else in his dorm. As he came to such a conclusion a knock came from his half open bedroom door.
"Jack, you alive, you indecent?" Rust's voice drifted on the wind to him.
'She really is proficient with the whisper rune, almost like it was designed specifically for her' Jack thought before responding.
"Help, call the Remnant Guard. I'm being mauled by a giant rabbit!"
Hearing Jack's pitiful joke Rust poked her head in to assess the situation, seeing him pinned down by one of his pets her lips curled into a faint smile.
"Don't just stand there laughing at my daily misfortune, help me get this overgrown cotton ball off." Jack scolded in mock irritation.
Getting Ears to move wasn't a terribly difficult mission, all one really had to do was promise it food. Even still it was slightly more complicated when being used as a bed. After a few minutes of cajoling they finally got the rabbit to move and Jack could finally get out of bed. Finally up Jack fed both his pets before going back to his room and changing.
The real work of designing an outline for one of their parties cultivation routes would begin in a few hours, so before then Jack was determined to get his kitchen and living room back into a presentable condition. It took a full hour to clean up the various messes in and around the kitchen and living room, and afterwards it took a further half hour of sorting books before Jack and Rust were ready to begin. Unfortunately despite they themselves being ready the time to meet up hadn't been discussed and was thusly left to Iris, their guest today.
"Well at the very least while we wait, we can input the current status of our team." Jack suggested.
Rust nodded in agreement. Cultivation was the source of all of the Remnant's combat power. As such they spared no expense on pushing it as far forward as possible. As a part of that effort they had made a program specifically for 3d modeling runes. The program had an immense list of basic runes, premade runic combinations, and even functions to overlay runes onto a 3d body and save it. They had also over the years, tried to program it to be able to judge the compatibility of runic combinations and to give suggestions on cultivation paths. So far it had been rather unsuccessful, no one who wholly relied on the program had managed to reach Rank-4, the program simply couldn't correctly predict and suggest how a number of runes could be combined together into a single working system. Over the years of failure they realized that it wasn't simply the complexity of the runes and their effects that was the problem. There was an issue of compatibility, the same rune on different people would show slightly different effects and those differences magnified the further along one cultivated. There was no one-size-fits-all solution, every person had to have a custom design if they were to succeed. Learning this the predictive functions had been downgraded, they would only give suggestions for the first three tiers of human cultivation, which were respectively,
Rank-1 which requires one basic rune
Rank-2 requiring three
Rank-3 requiring one advanced rune.
While they waited for Iris to show up they quickly created models of the party, although they had to take extra time to add the custom runes used by Iris and Amber into the program. While they waited for Iris to arrive or at least contact them they decided to quickly have lunch. They made some sandwiches and ate some chips before going back to the living room to continue planning, even if Iris wasn't there they could still plan their own paths. They both had a general outline for themselves up to Rank-4, so they input it in stages into the program just to have it readily available. As they sat down to do that a message arrived from Iris, reading simply 'I have arrived'. Jack went to greet her.
"So what runes should I engrave next?" Iris immediately got straight down to business when she entered the living room.
"Yes, good afternoon Iris. Before we jump straight into that there are a few other things we need to discuss first." Jack countered.
"Like what?"
"First and foremost should be what exactly was the rune on your lips supposed to be, and what does it actually do. Then of course we need to do a few basic tests of your essence control to determine what runes you could successfully engrave." Jack dictated that afternoon's plans.
Hearing this Iris hesitated and though for a few moments before responding.
"Originally I wanted to make a rune that would break down a variety of toxins, making various inedible things edible. But it failed in some fashion, I don't honestly know what it does. The only real changes I felt after engraving it and becoming Rank-1 is that I'm hungry most of the time." she revealed.
Hearing this Jack and Rust both became concerned, to reach Rank-10 the pinnacle of human cultivation, one had to engrave a runic system across the majority of one's body. Naturally as with the rest of a bodies systems the torso and head were critical. With a failed rune in such an important location it was nigh impossible to reach that peak. Even reaching Rank-9 might be impossible as 9 was the point at which one engraves a runic system onto their head. Naturally even getting to Rank-5 was an impressive feat that not even half of the Academy's graduates would manage, but it was still the goal of every single one of them to reach the peak. Pushing aside the thoughts of future issues Jack continued.
"Alright well, we can try to figure that out later. Now we need to test essence control. As I'm sure you are aware in between basic and advanced runes is a large collection of intermediate and improved runes. Normally the first three runes engraved are of the most basic variety, however this is a wasteful and lazy practice. 'Basic' runes were created so that the general public, those with less control over essence, could still cultivate up to a certain base; so that no person is totally weak and helpless. As soon to be graduates of Conquest Academy our control should be such that even the first rune we engrave can be an intermediate rune." Jack began to lecture.
"We just need to check if you can use all of the intermediate variations of runes, if not you'll need to do a bit of practice until you can." Rust interrupted. "To reach Rank-2 you need another two runes, we suggest either to engrave one on each leg or on each arm to avoid the possibility of favoring any one limb to much."
They gave Iris time to ponder as they gave her a practice scroll to engrave. Iris quickly finished the scroll. While her rune theory and creative abilities were rather questionable, her essence control was undeniably swift and precise. This was likely the reason that even while her first rune had failed that she was not injured by it.
"Well, there are no problems here then. I suggest for a dagger specialist like yourself either dexterity enhancement or swiftness runes for your hands or feet." Jack concluded. "The first few Ranks don't require incredibly in depth planning, the runes are fairly simple too."
"Alright, thanks." Iris began to excuse herself, "I'll head out now then. I need to get back before dusk."
As Jack saw Iris off Rust also began to clean up. She gave a short explanation to Jack on the way out.
"I have to head home this evening, so I might be late tomorrow."
"Ahh, well try not to kill any of your relatives. We have to take a test in a week and if you're in jail we automatically fail." Jack tried to lighten the mood some.
Rust gave a half smile as she left. Jack looked at the sky for a moment before heading back into the dorm. The skies were clear and the forecast said it wouldn't rain for a few days. The moon was currently waning and would be new sometime next week.