(Second Book Complete!) Runeblade: A Delving & Skill Merging LitRPG

Heavily spiced meat cut into thick strips sizzled as Kaius dropped it into his lard-greased Traveller’s Pan, the heady aroma of cumin filling the air. It was one of the few spices he did know from his stock, and a powerful enough one that it should do plenty to cover the overly gamey taste of the Pack-lord.

Leaving the site of their battle, they crossed the next hill before hunkering down to take a break in the shade of two jutting rock formations, sheltered from the wind and summer sun. While it might have been far too early to call it a day, there was something to be said for a hot meal after a heart pumping battle.

Porkchop lay across from him, hunkered down on all fours, his nose twitching at the smell of their cooking food.

“Smells good.” Porkchop said.”You’re going to ruin raw food for me, I’ll be one of those fire aligned affinity weirdos who cook all their food. Laughing stock of the dens, I tell you.”

Kaius snickered, using a spoon to move the meat around in the pan. “I bet you’d think it’d be worth it.”

“No doubt, spices work surprisingly well, even if they do smell strong.” Porkchop replied, crinkling his nose as a change in the wind blew the cooking fumes in his face.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you. I don’t know all that much about two-legged hunting teams, what should we be looking for in a backline?” Porkchop asked.

Kaius paused, thinking on the question. There were plenty of supportive options they could look for, but considering how hard and fast he and Porkchop tended to fight, it narrowed the selection quite a bit.

“Some kind of supportive caster is a must, preferably one with healing capabilities.” Kaius replied, holding up his left hand to wiggle the stumps of his fingers. “Plus if they have some sort of battlefield control, or supportive enhancements, that would be good too. Something that will aid us without requiring too much intervention on our part.”

Porkchop snorted at his display, drawing a smile from him. It irked him to have lost the fingers, though he knew that to have left the Depths with such a small injury could only be seen as good luck.

It still messed with his swordplay, and he found himself noticing the missing digits with surprising regularity. He hadn’t realised how much fine dexterity and manipulation came from his ring and pinky until he lost them.

Still, it was solvable, albeit expensive and often involving long wait lists. A magi with regeneration capabilities would be a massive boon, and potentially life saving if one of them ever lost something more important than a few fingers.

Other than that…

“I think some sort of scout or hunter would be good. Someone who can provide us with some ranged support, and maybe help us scout terrain. I’m good with my general skills, but if we can find someone even halfway comparable with a dedicated class, they will outstrip me pretty quickly.” Kaius said, thinking about the times that it would have helped to have an archer. The Tomblord, or when he’d had to blow most of his runic hymns on taking down goblin rangers in the dwarven citadel.

“Though, that said, someone with capability to shape the battlefield in our favour would also be very useful. A trapper, affliction specialist, hells - even an alchemist focused on poisons or gasses, something like that.” Kaius continued, wondering on the many ways they could fill out their composition. Regardless of who it was, and what they did, they would need to be inordinately capable and be able to assist them without coming under fire from the strong foes they intended to face.

“What of a rune specialist? What you did with those formations was pretty handy, even if we didn’t use them much.” Porkchop asked him, tilting his head in curiosity.

Kaius winced. “I thought about it, but I think there’s too much risk of them getting far too interested in glyph binding. I do plan on sharing, but not until I’m solidly a few tiers ahead of everyone else, I have no plans on handing any potential advancement Honours away on a silver platter.”

“Fair enough, I hadn’t considered that.” Porkchop grunted.

They lapsed into silence as the rich smell of seared meat filled the air. Kaius salivated, staring at the meal.

A few minutes later and it was done. They devoured their meal in seconds, both of them ignoring the searing heat of the food with their enhanced stats. Finished with the pan, Kaius packed away his tools, and took his seat once more.

They set off, still heading south.

…

As the leagues of rolling grass and proud spires of stone disappeared beneath their feet, the sun began to dip below the horizon.

With their dimensional tent, setting camp was a much less fraught prospect than it had any right being. Pitching it in a shadowed alcove between two boulders, their tent hid itself behind the illusion of a pile of rocks, while providing them with far more comfort than Kaius was used to when camping in the wilds.

Hells, it felt more like the sort of sleeping arrangements some pampered noble would have in a manicured garden of a ‘forest’ on their estate. Between the rich furs, soft bedding, and even temperature, he’d had worse sleeps in bloody Three Fields.

Either way, with its illusionary protection, no beast nor monster of any kind bothered them during their nightly rest.

The following days passed much the same, as dawns turned to dusks with only a minor change in their surroundings. The gentle hills of the frontier would flatten into a plain eventually but until then they were treated to a rather monotonous environment by Kaius’s standards, without the excitement of the roving herds of grazers that lived on the grasslands.

After a life lived in the Arboreal Sea, and all the myriad sights kept within it, there were only so many cool looking big rocks he could stare at before he felt his eyes glazing over. Still, he wasn’t the one walking, so it was his job to keep watch. Which he did, even if it was horrendously boring.

Thankfully, they did have some moments of excitement to break up their journey. They were ‘ambushed’ by small packs of longfang hunters as much as twice a day, though these ones had lacked a Pack-lord at the helm.

Invariably they crushed the instigators, and invariably the beasts fled as soon as they had killed half their number. Often, it ended up being more, just because of how easy it was. Barely enough to work up a sweat and get the blood singing, but it beat staring at yet another grassy knoll.

Even if the Longfang Hunters had a skill, it seemed to just be some kind of Stamina based speed boost. He hadn’t actually seen them use it to do anything other than pursue them, or flee as Kaius and Porkchop tore their packmates asunder.

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Kaius couldn’t complain too much though, it did bring in more levels, even if that meant each fight got even easier than the last. Both of them managed to reach level twelve, they found that the bonus experience for besting something of a higher level stopped when they were within five levels of each other. With most longfangs being below sixteen, their pace had slowed to a crawl.

If they wanted to grow quickly, they would need to actually challenge themselves. If they could find one that is.

His skills had grown too, almost everything had gained a few levels, with the exception of Rapid Adaptation and Lesser Regeneration. Unfortunately those didn’t grow if you didn’t get hurt, and none of the beast attacks had been anywhere near fraught enough for that to happen.

Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus in particular had risen dramatically. Even outside of combat, it felt like it would tick over after the slightest thing. A benefit of their strong connection, he supposed.

As Porkchop made his way down yet another hillside, Kaius brought up his status to conceptualise his gains.

Status:

Name: Kaius

Dynasty: Unterstern

Age: 19

Race: Human (Dynastic, Greater Beastblooded) - +1 Wil, Str, End, and free stats per level

Layer Reached: 2

Class: Runeblade Initiate - +3 Int, +2 End, +2 Str, +2 Dex, +1 Vit, +1 Wil per level

Level: 12

Resources:

Health - 1340/1340 (9.2/min)

Stamina - 1220/1220 (10.7/min)

Mana - 1650/1650 (13.3/min)

Free Mana - 90/90

Reserved Mana - 1560

Stats:

Endurance - 66 + 44 + 22% (134)

Vitality - 32 + 44 + 22% (92)

Strength - 56 + 44 + 22% (122)

Dexterity - 44 + 44 + 22% (107)

Intelligence - 68 + 59 + 30% (165)

Willpower: - 44 + 59 + 30% (133)

Stat Points: 0

Aspects:

Pillar Corporus: N/A

Pillar Mentis: N/A

Pillar Animus: N/A

Class Skills (1/10):

Latent Glyph of Drakthar (Heroic) - 1 > 9

General Skills (10/10):

Rapid Adaptation (Heroic) - 20 > 22

Liturgical Bladeform: Primus Ordo (Heroic) - 20 > 23

Explorers Toolkit (Unusual) - 20 > 30

Tempered by Dissonance (Heroic) - 20 > 22

True Sight (Unique) - 20 > 27

Tonal Weaving (Unique) - 20 > 24

Resonance Amplification (Unique) - 20 > 23

Lesser Regeneration (Unusual) - 20

Uncanny Dodge (Unique) - 20 > 23

Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus (Heroic) - 20 > 36

Hymnbook:

Glyph of Drakthar-

Stormlash (Tier I - 120 mana)

Honours:

Born for Slaughter

Sublime Prodigy - Glyph Binding

Birds of a Blood Soaked Feather

Persistent Survivor (Minor)

Kingslayer (Major)

Ruthless Underdog

Bound Artefacts:

A Father’s Gift - Common Growth Longsword

Growth Conditions-

Gain a class (1/1)

Acquire suitable materials (1/3)

Forge a link (0/1)

Kaius shook his head, gaining his class really had been like getting uncaged. He hadn’t realised how much he had chafed under the restrictions until they were gone.

In only a matter of weeks, he had seen nearly the same level of stat growth that he had after acquiring a full handful of not-seen-in-millenia Honours, one of which had required killing a bloody guardian.

On many levels it gratified him to finally be rewarded for all his hard work, but he couldn’t help but wince as he thought of what level he would be by now if he had had a class before he fell into the Depths. Though, if that had happened he wouldn’t be nearly as strong.

Without a Heroic class, his new racial trait, and his Honours, he would be far worse off. Literally hundreds of stats weaker, even if he had managed to somehow secure an Unusual or Unique class.

Though, even with all that said, he would have preferred a slightly different distribution in his stats. A bit more Dexterity perhaps, or a touch of Willpower. He’d start investing his free points into them soon, but for now he was committed to growing his mana pool as much as possible. With his limitations on glyphic casting, it was vital that he could store as many runic hymns as possible.

He knew Porkchop was doing something similar, splitting them between his Endurance and Vitality to keep them growing in lock step during these early levels.

Just as they reached the base of the hill that they were crossing, and were about to start their ascent on the next, a distant series of clacking chirps startled Kaius from his musings.

Eyes snapping forwards, he growled in frustration as the rise to their front obscured his vision, only for a snapping beam of light to pierce the horizon from off in the distance, fading as it reached a few hundred strides into the air.

Another snap followed a few seconds later, though this time no light beam appeared in the sky. Kaius’s heart quickened.

A skill, it had to be.

Porkchop was already moving, lurching forwards with such rapid acceleration that Kaius’s grip whitened on the leather loop that served as his handhold in the saddle.

Jade claws punched deep into the earth, giving his bond-brother all the traction he needed to race up the delicate earth, despite his weight. More chirps, another crack of light. Whatever it was couldn’t be far, even as close as the far base of the very hill they were summiting.

Porkchop reached the summit, skidding to a halt, and Kaius saw.

Below them, in a flat field between their current vantage point and the next hill, someone was running. Dressed in robes with a light pack on their back, they sprinted for all their life, pursuers close behind.

A pack of beasts, sixteen strong. Kaius had no name for them, his only reference was that they looked like demented chickens. If chickens had the neck of a goose, long legs, were the size of a man, and their beak was built like an axe head.

The figure nearly stumbled, though Kaius had no idea why, it was an open plain. Even if they were dressed poorly for the wilds.

A moment later they turned, a cracking beam of light searing straight into the chest of one of the chasing birds. Their hood dropped, revealing a lithe and pale man with piercing blue eyes.

The beast lurched, a hole burnt through its ribs, before it let loose a squark of rage, and raced forwards to join its companions.

With a start Kaius realised the man was outnumbered and out armed. With no backup, the mage would die as soon as the beasts caught him.

The moment hung, horror dawning upon him.

No. He refused.

“Go!” he screamed, ripping his blade from his sheath as Porkchop charged.