chapter 10: AGAIN!
Days worth of failed runes had pilled up in the man's underground library, again and again, the man would draw the same phallic-looking cat almost consistently.
It had happened so often that one could wonder if it was intentional.
The man had to begin to question the possibility of him being cursed by some sort of phallic cat voodoo, from the horrid books that he had been reading this entire time.
Surely, even that degenerate of a being was above such trickery.
But slowly, his tortured carved cat had started to resemble a somewhat convincing flame. the cat morphed into a tepee tent-style fire.
His runes had advanced, though he wasn't quite sure of what he was carving just yet.
The man continues to practice the artistry of carving even through the night, not that he had been getting much sleep regularly, thanks to a certain wizard, but we digress.
Slowly, he had been improving. This is evidenced by the fact that his runes were no longer exploding or resembled a member.
Well, it is more fitting to say they now didn't instantly explode every time he embedded mana into his runes. Rather, they were more duds than explosives.
The man had spent his current early morning finishing off his most carefully crafted runt to date. Even better, it looked like it was supposed to.
The man grinned, exchanging glances between the book's reference and his new finest rune.
That had used the last of his old armour's forearm guards.
The natural resources used in rune carving made these runes expensive. They required two novelty items that no mundane person would never be able to get their hands on.
Mana cores and magic.
Alabaster finally understood why the wizard's work in Runes was so revolutionary.
This was no easy task, and the fire rune was the most simple rune of the lot.
Not to mention the expenses! How many of his cores from hunting had he used?
WAY too many to count.
The man's permanently dented wealth aside. It was time he tried enchanting his most promising rune yet.
The man was light with his movements as he slowly melted the metallic core, delicately pouring the liquified cores into the meticulously carved crevices of his newest rune.
The rune looked simple, but it was layered with pathways and intricate incantations that controlled the qualities of the mana poured into its many fine chambers.
When the rune had finished setting, he took a deep breath, This was his final attempt. This was the last of his armour, He hovered his hand over the rune, saturating it with his crimson mana.
He held his breath. The tension was suffocating.
Slowly, the rune began to glow a familiar neon orange, illuminating more as it grew brighter and brighter.
Soon, sparks started to fly from the rune, and the man got ready to brace for impact.
The rune busted into intense scorching orange flames.
Then he acted quickly to...
Nothing.
It hadn't exploded. But rather an orange flame roared blistering flame burned from its origin.
He has done it! "Yes, finally! see, I did it, boy." Alabaster joyfully exclaimed.
Alabaster had been in hysterics, jumping like a lunatic. He was truly happy. he was overwelled with joy, his painstaking days off the grind paid off.
The sunny boy ignored this and continued his shady business in the corner of Alabaster's room.
An unusual reaction, to say the least.
Alabaster stopped his hyper celebration to further inspect what the boy had been doing since he started carving.
He looked over to see, that the boy was so desperately fixated on a small shining orb.
The man had seen such an orb before...
It was elemental magic, LIGHT elemental magic.
Had he copied it from the wizard's mana, or was his mana already synthesised with light?
No, besides that, the boy had learnt to cast it by himself!
The boy was growing, it was clear that the man couldn't treat him as a regular child. he needed more and faster.
He had teeth and could cast magic! he could hold conversations and understand complex instructions.
He was more developed than a two-year-old!
"Dear, following his old routine won't do no more.
He's already well beyond a baby in maturity. He even has teeth! following the laws of common sense. Shouldn't he be eating solid food now?
But, he can't drink normal milk, what's to say he doesn't also eat special meals..."
Alabaster had begun to contract his daily dose of chronic headache. This boy was a walking riddle.
Every time he felt he knew what he was doing, another mystery would come to ruin any odds of peace.
His exceptional luck appeared to have ghosted him.
He then lifted the boy onto his shoulders. snapping him out of his trance.
Well, future problems for future me. Thought the man as he walked over to his rune that was still burning. The mana was so potent it was as though the fire would never burn out.
...
Now, what was he to do with this rune? He can't use his old forearm guard anymore, and he had a new armour from Wolf Hide anyway.
The man then looked to his orange translucent fireplace before ruthlessly smacking his rune engraved gaurd into it as fast as he could, avoiding searing his hands in the process.
The guard had served its original purpose well and had now been repurposed as a magical fireplace, which was more convenient to the man.
Since he would no longer need firewood and could ignite a flame with his boundless mana.
Not to mention, he can finally repair the gaping hole in his living room wall.
The rune would burn until the mana he enchanted it with ran out. Just as one can pour their mana into a rune.
A rune can also be input on a source of mana like a core, and this way of making runes was just suitable for the man's barrier formation.
Now, he was adept enough to start learning the runes for his barrier. It was ambitious, but what other choice did he have?
The man decided to take a break to play with the sunny boy outside.
He felt as though keeping the sunny boy couped up in his small cottage home was a bit cruel, and the library was in no state to house a child. There was too much weaponry, exposed blades, cursed items, and many other lethal baby-killing objects.
As a result, the man made the wiser decision to go outside. Of course, the storm season was coming to an end, and a month had nearly passed since the boy bombarded the man's life with added responsibilities.
Therefore, the storm started to subside over the passing week.
The man dressed the boy in his puffy fur coat, Alabaster had made the sunny boy numerous coats and pants more suited for cold climates since all the boy's clothes were thin, regal, and impeccably impractical. Not to mention he outgrew his only winter wear.
His new winter clothes were so thick the boy looked no different than a walking fur ball.
Though to be on the safe side, the man cast a thin red barrier around the boy to protect him from the cold.
The boy was fascinated by the thin layer of invisible mana that encapsulated him it was warm, soft, and light.
The man had greatly improved his mana control whilst practising runes.
He could now control its qualities with an almost perfect outcome.
Almost because no matter how hard he tried, the deep crimson colour didn't shift he would just change its opacity to camouflage it.
His aura was no longer wild or beastly but silent, yet it appeared deathly.
His magic ability excelled far, surpassing his expectations. The wizard was... lets not finish that thought.
Alabaster had brought the boy outside, lifting him in the air so high he levitated.
the man caught him and spun him around.
he played with the boy for hours, laughing with him in a subtle childish manner.
The man sat him down, showing him how to make a snowball.
Alabaster, then lighting rolled it to him and joyfully exclaimed, "I got you!"
The boy laughed, his wide, bright smile flashed his sharp set of teeth.
The man looked over and started to increase the size of his snowball.
He was making a snowman!
As he rolled the ball, it increased in volume bigger and bigger till it was almost as tall as him. The giant bolder of snow weighed a ton, literally!
The man was greatly pleased by his towering behemoth of a snowman he then proudly presented his masterpiece to the sunny boy, to be met with
A flying snowball?
The man caught the cylindrical pack of ice with his hand seconds before it could plummet into his face!
The snow was way too compact. At that point, it was no different than a solid projectile.
But who threw it?
The man looked at the sunny boy who had a singular levitating ball of ice in front of him, then two, then three, then four, then ten, twenty....
Just how many was he going to make?
the boy had exceptional mana control, as he flung the multitudes of iced projectiles at the man.
the man swiftly hastened and in a blink of an eye. All suspended spheres were grounded,
What happened? simple, the man simply hit them to the ground so fast that it couldn't be perceived by the beholder.
The man then looked at the boy with a straight face woven with a hint of disappointment.
jovially, the boy remarked, "Goch chu!!!"
He laughed, squinting his sapphire eyes, The man wasn't as amused.
Alabaster then proceeded to pick up the child, placing it in front of his impressively large snowman.
The man kept his eye on the child as he finished off his goliath of a snowman.
After completing it, the snowman...
Was less of a snowman and more of a sculpture.
It appears as though learning how to carve inherently improved his affinity with sculpting.
The sculpture in question was a fully armoured knight that resembled a hero from one of the Sunny Boy's fables.
The man then looked down to the sunny boy to find he was.
Gone.
"DAMN IT, AGAIN!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"
chapter 10 fin.