"You are late!" Nogand spoke to Gremory when he arrived at the forge.
Nogand's forge was always the least busy among the dozens of forges there, yet the organization in that forge has improved a lot in the last few months.
"I know, I got stuck in a surprise test." Gremory replied while he put on his forge equipment and went to light the fire in the forge.
"Wait, today is your last day here, right? We are going to do a final test here today and if you finish, I will give you this. After all, you need to prepare for Derlvit." Nogand said while he took a book written "Runes Tier 3", the titles are usually only descriptive and intuitive since it was the compilation of information acquired by hundreds of Runic Blacksmiths. But this book was peculiar, its size made the predecessor book look like a little pocketbook.
Gremory was notoriously a prodigy in the rune field, but he was just an apprentice when it came to forging, since forging weapons and armor with refined material was extremely difficult and did not depend on magical knowledge, only on handicrafts that he developed over months.
"The test is simple, I want to increase the speed of this sword in some way. The method is up to you to decide." Nogand spoke while picking up a sword that Gremory had previously made using refined iron, yet it was easy to see that Nogand had improved it into a usable weapon.
'If I create a mechanism to convert this energy into kinetic and then release that energy at the back of the sword with each swing, I can have an increase in that momentum thus increasing the speed... After all, it is a simple energy conversion mechanism. '
Gremory took the sword and started creating the basic inscriptions for the movement of mana over the sword, and connected them on all sides so that energy could be released to all sides. Moving on to the next circle he created it by connecting to the center of the previous circle and the connections coming out of the sword to serve as a method of converting mana into kinetic energy.
The entire process took two hours, but the work was majestic despite being a weapon that used only Tier 2 runes. Since his inscriptions extended across all over the sword.
"What incredible work." Nogand spoke while he took the finished sword and swung it in the air, a blue light was left in the path the sword went through due to dispersion of mana. "Impressive, with only Tier 2 runes you increased the momentum by 40%."
"How do you know that so accurately?" Gremory asked since Nogand gave a description so accurate that not even Gremory was able to perceive.
"A rune blacksmith always knows the effects of a weapon, so you'll know them too one day. With that done, I think you deserve it." Nogand said as he handed the book Runes Tier 3 to Gremory.
Gremory almost collapsed under the weight and then took a small Cloth Bag from his pocket.
"I think I better store this for now." Gremory spoke as he activated the bag, making the book disappear from his hands. That was also a bag made with Tier 2 runes but which used a simpler concept, just a dimensional mechanism and the basic mechanism needed in all runes to move mana.
The dimensional bag did not prevent degradation of the items inside, but it did offer a way to store various items without worrying about weight or space.
While Gremory observes the work he had just created, the Grand Master Kluster appeared in Nogand's forge.
"Grand Master, what an honor to receive you in my humble forge." Nogand spoke while he knelt.
The Grand Master replied with just a wave and went straight to talk to Gremory.
"You came from Lathrium so you must know the surroundings of that border between the Empire and the non-humans, right?" He asked.
"Yes, I spent my entire life there so I know it very well." Gremory lied.
"Great, an army of Orcs has been spotted not far from the edge and appears to be coming in the direction of Lathirium. Marquis Joseph has requested your presence in the defense and I accepted this request."
"Do you want me to defeat an entire army?"
"No, we are very busy on another battlefront at the moment, so what we need is to delay his advance until our troops arrive. I officially promote you to the post of "Mage", you will be our representative who will coordinate attacks in conjunction with local guilds to at least reduce their numbers before they reach Lathrium." The Grand Master spoke and handed over a gold brooch representing Gremory current position.
'Without much training for Derlvit then ...'
"Understood, when I will be leaving?"
"We don't have time to lose, you will go right now."
Kluster started walking at a quick pace and Gremory followed after quickly saying goodbye to Nogand.
The time to reach Lathirium was very long, but there was a shortcut. Most of the major houses and cities had teleportation, a rune technology created by the founders that have been preserved until today. It consisted of transporting a person between two teleporters. This technology was a secret and was hardly ever used to maintain that discretion, but Gremory had already deduced that something like this existed because of how every week people were able to gather at the Viridian house for the Blood Sacrifice.
"So will I finally see runes responsible for teleportation?" Gremory asked while they walked between the paths in the castle that looked more like mazes.
"I figured it would be obvious to you that it existed so I didn't bother to mention it, but yes, you will."
Until we finally arrived in an area that looked more abandoned, there were no guards or anything like that and it also looked like no one had bothered to clean that place for the past century.
But inside there was the most precious thing Gremory had ever seen in his life.
A real Tier 10 rune. The details on it were simply very difficult to distinguish from simple scrawls, but it was clear that each connection between each mechanism was made with a purpose that was hard to decipher.
The Grand Master began to speak the words that Gremory would never forget "Caaal Iur Val Alethor Vul Lanuae" and the rune in front of him activated while the surrounding environment began to shake.
Gremory positioned himself in the center of it and the moment he blinked the light around him disappeared, when he opened his eyes again he was in a room very similar to the one he left. But in front of him now was the Marquis Joseph Ranseur.