--- Gremory Point of View ---
'That oracle knew what she was doing, I need to find her soon, and I think I know exactly who would be able to find her.' Gremory thought while he connected to his flow of mana and followed it into the abyss again.
After studying the dimensions in his book of Runes Tiers 2, Gremory learned that there are several dimensions, spacial dimensions as the axis of movement and temporal dimensions as time. Although humans are only able to interact with these four dimensions, mana can interact with all, by following it, Gremory disconnects from his physical body and enters an alternative reality that does not follow the same temporal flow. So the time around Gremory stops at that moment as he enters the depths of the sea of blood located in the abyss until he finds darkness again.
"It is good to see you again, my son." The darkness said to Gremory with her calm voice.
Gremory, who was already getting used to the attitude of darkness, did not care to the reception and went straight to the point. "I need information, do you know Foribus Oraculi?" He asked while he placed his finger on the rune line on his face on which her name was written.
"Oh, it looks like she has already made contact. If you want to know about her why don't you just summon her here?"
"How?"
"Just say her name and the rune will activate, I thought I left it well described when I created these instructions in the inscriptions...
"Wait, you created these runes? They look so different from the runes I'm studying, is this above Tier 4?"
"I don't know what a rune would be but that's just the language of nature, she created these inscriptions to express herself through you. I just thought it would be easier to explain how it works since you still don't know how to speak the language of nature."
'Hmmm.... The more answers she gives me, the more doubts I have. I am going to skip the enigmatic part and just summon the oracle already.'
"Foribus Oraculi." Gremory spoke and the rune on his face was activated briefly until the light on it went out.
Gremory waited for something to happen, but only silence came.
"huh, she doesn't seem to have made a submission connection with you and just denied your summon." The darkness spoke.
"What??? How is this possible?"
"The dark creatures that still roam the Earth have lost their connection to the abyss a long time ago, she must have used you to re-establish that connection and now she is probably regaining her power. But don't worry, she is loyal to the abyss, but she is a strategist who usually goes over orders to follow through on her plans and false prophecies. When you find a dark creature again, remember to subjugate it because they have been wandering around for so long that they must have already forgotten their purpose."
'She used me? Well, it doesn't matter... thanks to her, I also managed to get a stock of food, it would be hard to find so many creatures every week with the amount of hunger I am getting.'
"It was all I needed to know." Gremory spoke while using his control over his astral plane to forcefully leave the abyss.
"Until next time, my son." The darkness spoke while Gremory disappeared from the abyss.
----
As soon as Gremory left the abyss, time began to run normally in the reality where his physical body was and he went towards his room to continue devouring his book.
Upon arriving with his book under his arm, Vendryt was waiting outside the room while holding the key to the door.
"What the Grand Master wanted with someone like you, that was so important to take so long?" He asked while he swung the key between his fingers.
"I only had a few questions related to rune knowledge." Gremory lied.
"I may not be a rune blacksmith, but I dominate runes up to Tier 2. If that's not enough I can find a blacksmith willing to have an apprentice. However, you must remember that questions as irrelevant as this shouldn't go up to the big chain of command in the house Viridian, understood?"
"Understood, it won't happen again. But would I have time to be a runic blacksmith's apprentice while I do your training?"
"Don't pretend to be a fool, your power is already much greater than any of them. I won't stop you as long as you don't fall behind the rest of the group in anything!"
"Then I accept this offer."
"Great, so I just have one last question for you. Your element is not fire, right?" Vendryt asked while he opened the door to Gremory's room.
"I don't know how many times I'm going to have to answer this question, but the answer will always be no."
"I see. It was all I wanted to know, now get inside, your routine will be busier starting tomorrow."
---
The next morning Gremory was woken up earlier than the others and went straight to the castle forge, Vendryt had spoken personally to a blacksmith named Nogand, who promptly denied it until he heard that he was the rookie selected by the Grand Master himself.
Nogand was one of the castle's worst blacksmiths, but he was able to forge Tier 4 runes without much mastery. The smell of alcohol coming from him was great and his fat belly showed that he did not exercise anything except the work of the forge.
Vendryt said he was the only blacksmith who agreed to train me, but for me, it was enough.
He was sleeping on the forge while holding the drink in one hand when we arrived. It was obvious that he started drinking there during the night and ended up being unable to return home.
"Good luck." Vendryt spoke while he patted my back and left.
********Please read the author's notes at the end********