Again it seemed as though their savoiur was unaware of a lot but the girl held her brother's hand tightly and began explaining.
"The wood elves, like my brother and me, goblins, fae, witches, nymphs, demon-kin, Erinyes, giants, the Adlet, centaurs, the Undead, the..." the girl wanted to continue but Valerian raised his hand to stop her. He felt like this was insane.
'How many races had popped up since I have been asleep?'
Valerian knew that things would change but this greatly went against the natural order he had become accustomed to.
'Can you make a guess as to what happened here, Enoch?'
[Enoch: I cannot. The gods may have created new races or as the forces of the world stabilised, the threats grew fewer and the weaker organisms evolved or perhaps even when the continents were split other races developed. There are too many factors. I am more interested in the Undead. New magic systems could have developed while you were indisposed."
Valerian rubbed his chin. To the children it looked as though he was deep in thought but, in reality, he and Enoch were drawing their own conclusions. Finally, he looked at the children, his golden eyes soley focused on them.
"My final question is which direction is the Saras Kingdom?" He asked.
"It is north-west of where we are now, my lord but no one goes through the Black Forest to get there. It is much safer to retreat and go through the Rayon Kingdom and the Castellon Empire into Saras." The elven girl cautiously offered her opinion.
She knew the being in front of her was strong but there were terrors deep in the forest that got more dangerous the further in one went.
There were entities that even ranked closely to [SSS] and the only reason they did not leave the Black Forest was because they lacked interest in anything beyond the forest's borders or, at least, that was the speculation.
No one could really go and ask them why they did not leave.
The races that were forced to make the forest their home, had to stay on the near outskirts of the forest to avoid being preyed on by the monsters that lived here as well but that also made them valnureble to the hunters, adventures and nobles that were in the neighbouring kingdoms.
The girl's fear was that if Valerian, who seemed utterly ignorant of the area, were to come across a monster that he found difficult to beat, he would find her and her village then destroy them in retribution for almost getting him killed.
Valerian smiled slightly and looked at the two children, "I will be fine. I do, however, wish to thank you for the information you have given me."
Valerian walked closer to the children and opened his dimensional storage. He took out a thin silver wand with deep engravings and sigils that this world had not seen in Ages. "Both of you, extend your hands toward me. Palms down."
The girl's little brother who had been quiet the whole time looked to his older sister. She looked at the man that had saved them and bit her lower lip.
Would he be offended if she refused? Yet she had no reason to. She steeled her resolve.
She began to use a form of sign language that only she and her brother understood. The boy looked at Valerian then moved his hands forward along with his sister.
Valerian looked at the boy and offered another, gentler smile. Valerian made hand gestures that made the boy's eyes, momentarily, go wide then he smiled back.
He had told the boy not to worry and that everything was going to be okay.
Valerian was only able to use the language because a few moments ago he had received a notification.
[You have learned the language of the Order of Secret Keepers.]
This had slightly shocked Valerian but he would investigate it later. He had learned the language by seeing the girl use it. This in itself was not what surprised him, he could learn almost anything by seeing it enough times or hearing it, depending on the difficulty.
Languanges especially, since when the first languages were spoken he was there.
The surprising fact was that the language belonged to an order that probably existed long after he was asleep.
The girl who had seen, Valerian use the language was shocked as well. It was something her grandparents had taught her but she had never met anyone else who knew it. She dared not ask questions though.
Valerian began to use the wand and gently tracing lines on their arms. Where the wand touched, arcane runes began to form, glowing a deep shade of crimson and making the children feel as though their strength was ebbing away.
When Az'Talon was still the only city Idris had ever known and the Crimson Empire was not yet established, to kill time, Valerian began to further his experiments in the arts of magic and vampire bloodlines. The results of his experiments was Rune magic and, their uniqe offshoot, Blood runes.
These runes were words that contained the very basic principles of Valerian's magic system. They could offer great gifts and curses if the Rune master was skilled enough.
Valerian began to explain as he drew that when the runes were inactive, they would charge using the natural flow of mana their host's body and could be actively charged if mana was directed toward them intentionally.
The greatest benefit was when both the runes and the host were at full mana capacity.
The rune user could use the runes first without touching their own mana in battle and only when the mana in the runes was depleted would they need to use on their own magical abilities.
But not all runes were for combat. Some would be passively active and needed the least amount of mana to operate.
Rune magic was quite difficult though even for vampires who were naturally gifted in magic thanks to the power within their blood and identities, much like dragons.
Those that rose high in the art of runecraft and earned the titles of Rune Lords were ten in the Crimson Empire's whole history and there was only one Rune King to have ever exist, the Lord of Az'Talon and creator of Rune Magic.
The deceased pureblood vampires of the dead empire would vomit their own precious blood if they could see the great boon these two ignorant children were receiving from the Rune King himself. This was because after teaching the art to the Elderborns who in turn taught it to others, there were no more records of the Rune King using rune magc.
[You have received mythical blood rune: Healing.]
[You have received mythical blood rune: Purify.]
[You have received mythical magic rune: Stealth.]
[You have received mythical magic rune: Protection.]
[You have received mythical magic rune: Speed.]
[You have received mythical blood rune: Wisdom.]
[You have received mythical magic rune: Strength.]
[You have received mythical magic rune: Flora.]
[You have received mythical magic rune: Fauna.]
[You have received mythical blood rune: Beauty.]
[You have received mythical blood rune: Endurance.]
The notifications poured into the children's minds as they could fully not understand what was happening but with Valerian's minimal explanations they understood that their lives would improve.
However their bodies would have reached their limitations a long time ago if Valerian had not used some of his own energy to keep the children from collapsing.
Valerian could almost hear the despair of the long dead vampires. These children had received, not just common runes, they were mythical!
Runes, like artefacts, were classed as common, rare, legendary, mythical, divine and Stellar. By common sense these children should have exploded the moment the first rune was being drawn.
The Rune King stopped there. When Valerian stopped drawing, the runes stopped glowing and disappeared.
That was as much as they could handle even with his help. It took thirty minutes to draw the runes on both of them and by then, Valerian had gained enough mana to travel the, so called, Haze continent without exhausting himself.
"I will let you both live. I am rarely in the habit of killing children but I have given you both gifts. They are rune magic. Your skills will be enhanced and your blood will be purified. It is a great boon and it is soley because you gave me information I did not have as well as helped me find my way but my generosity ends here.
"Now we part ways. I give you my blessing to use the gifts in whatever way you choose. You will not be chastised by me for whatever path you choose, be it good or bad for the mortal races, I do not care but if you somehow manage to be an annoyence to me, I will end both of you and your families."
Valerian left the stunned children and speed off in a new direction, deeper into the black forest. The children were shocked by his speed but four new notifications made their knees tremble.
[You have received the blessing of the First Immortal.]
[You have recieved the blessing of the Dark Radiant Star.]
[You have earned the title, "Ones Who Helped A Numen."]
[ERROR: Demon Lord associated blessings are restricted.]
The children had no idea what they were seeing and Valerian had no idea what he had done.