--- Gremory Point of View ---
The castle is too big to find my way back, so when I get close to a window I decided to just jump down to the castle floor.
The fall was not long and when I got close enough I used the Mandrake Shield to absorb the impact of the fall.
From there I head back to my room, but the day is still clear, and when I arrive there is nobody there. So I head towards the classroom where Vendryt was teaching us.
The place was a complete zone, with a huge hole in the wall caused by the explosion and marks of fire all over the place. However, the group was calmly meditating inside the rune as if nothing had happened.
'Good, they must not even have noticed that I left.'
Vendryt was on the side of the door taking a nap, but when I entered he jumped off his sit, conjuring a fireball in his hands, but he stopped suddenly after seeing me.
"What? You scared me, boy. I didn't think you were going to be back anytime soon hahaha." He spoke while dispelling the flames in his hand.
"You'll have to do better than that if you want to get rid of me." I reply in a sarcastic tone.
"HAHAHA, I have to admit that you got balls, next time I will not hold myself."
It was a little humiliating, but Vendryt was such a powerful mage that he could easily eliminate me if he wanted to, so I decided to ignore the provocation and go back to meditation.
"Where are you going?" He stopped interrupting me halfway back.
"I was going to continue the training."
"But you have already completed the objective of this training."
"Uh, but I thought you disagree with that."
"No no, I just don't approve of your arrogant tone, boy. If you have concluded then there is no reason for you to waste your time there."
'Am I arrogant?'
"If I am arrogant then how can you be so sure that I can see my mana flow now?"
"A real mage can see his opponent's mana flow as well, and I can say that your control over your mana has improved a lot in this last fight. That was one of the next skills I was going to teach, if you want I can teach you now."
'My body rune Hanzor can do that for me, so there is no need.'
"Thanks but no, if you are willing to teach me something in this free time then why don't you teach me about runes?"
"Ahh, sit down then, we have a lot to talk and these kids are not going to wake up anytime soon."
---
Vendryt was a grumpy old man, and he clearly didn't like me, but he still didn't deny passing on his knowledge and he did it diligently.
Vendryt's description for runes is "inscriptions imbued with mana capable of shaping reality", advanced runes need to be energized with mana at specific points and at specific times like a complex mechanism. This process is made from enchantments that direct mana to specific points of the runic inscriptions activating this enormous mechanism and using the mana of the enchanter in the process.
The more advanced these mechanisms are, the more advanced and powerful the rune is. Being divided into Tier 1 runes with just 1 engine, Tier 2 runes with 2 engines, and so on until the strongest known runes left by the founders, Tier 10 runes. Each engine needs to be connected to a separate circle in the runic inscription. then the greater the number of circles, the greater the number of mechanisms. But the same does not apply to the number of words, as each word and speech of an enchanter can carry different levels of mana according to the intonation and power of the enchanter.
Currently, the greatest known enchanters are the runic blacksmiths, who are mages capable of forging weapons with the power of runes, but there are very few mages with talent for this profession and even less able to create high tier runes, the highest being currently Tier 4.
When I asked Vendryt why there are no runic blacksmiths capable of forging higher Tier runes, he told me that "If knowledge is not understood by the student, then it is only a matter of time before it disappears", and also said that despite this, the castles of the first 3 Major Houses of the Empire are safe thanks to the runes left by the founders, varying from defense systems, espionage and even for training like the ones we used previously. Training arenas capable of bringing people back to life are imbued with a powerful Tier 10 rune capable of reverting objects within her field to the original form at the time it was activated.
Finally, he gave me his notes on Tier 1 runes from the period he was studying to become a rune blacksmith.
---
The sun had already disappeared when the group started waking up one by one, all the lights in the room were destroyed during the fight, so the only light was from the rune that was still shining until everyone got up.
At first, their reaction was the same as mine, they were amazed while watching their bodies as if they had undergone a total transformation. After all, the vision of himself has changed for all of us.
Vendryt, seeing this, went to them with the same stressed face as always.
"The rune was created to stop on its own when everyone reached their limits, for everyone to be able to control their mana flows it will still take a few days. I know it's exhausting but honestly, I don't give a damn, we'll be back every day until all of you can gain full control. " He spoke while he prepared to leave the room.
They were distracted as they watched the new changes until Vendryt caught their attention, and then they started to see that, the room was totally destroyed.
There was little light, but it was still enough to see the hole in the wall, burnt tables, and battle marks all over the place.
"What happened here?" Xander asked what was everyone's doubt.
"Gremory and I had a little disagreement, but everything has been settled." Vendryt spoke without given much importance as he walked towards the exit without waiting for them.
Seeing that Vendryt was moving away and I was still in that dark room, Mary quickly ran towards the exit. Kiel and Luther followed shortly after while Yuno walked calmly and Xander stood looking at me from afar as if I were some kind of prey for him.
I walked towards the exit past him, and despite feeling his eyes on me, nothing happened and we followed Vendryt back to our quarters.