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

**Ding! Corporus Aspect Founded - The Struggler’s Madness**

Still overwhelmed by the process of igniting a fundamental Truth of his inner self, Kaius fled from his soulspace to return to the world outside.

Greeted by the curious faces of his friends, and flickering sconces that burned in a pale imitation of the spires in his soul, Kaius was absorbed by a fervent need to know more.

Feeling the glimmering chime of a waiting notification, he all but ripped open the description of his latest Aspect with quaking fingers.

The Struggler’s Madness:

Pillar Corporus - Seed Stage

Come weal and woe, all falter. Inevitably they fail and collapse under the burden of a reality that cares not for their wishes and dreams. Most will never rise again, or if they do, it is a halting movement of fear and burden. Some, a rare few, Struggle. Whether it is madness, rage, joy, or stalwart honour that drives them onwards, the uncompromising weight of failure and unachievable goals creates no barrier. The pressure forges them anew, making their commitments and oaths burn all the brighter.

Each step is worse than the last. Growing more agonising, and more strenuous, they are used by Strugglers to refine themselves—whether in brute strength, technique, luck, or all three.

Every Struggler is different, both in the burdens of failure that seek to crush them, and the undeniable fixations that drive them forward. Under the light of a burning ring of black, they push on regardless. One thing unites them; a defiance of possibility. An unrelenting psychosis of self assurance. A certainty, that the climb will leave them unrecognisable to the decrepit creature that took the first step.

As an Aspect of Corporus, The Struggler’s Madness reforges the body with the malleability and capacity to improve. Failure and pain are acceptable, if only as additional fuel for the fire.

Corporeal Reinforcement: TItan’s Marrow

The Pillar Corporus reinforces the marrow, purifying the body with the might of Titans. Improves ability to withstand and survive grievous wounds and reduces fatigue.

Seed: Forged in Endless Strife

The hardest metals require the hottest fires.

Boosts the rate of improvement of technique, bodily control, force application, proprioception, and mind-body connection up to the point of the theoretical absolute limits of your current capabilities. This effect is greatly bolstered during times of significant struggle, effort, and danger.

He read the description once, twice, then thrice, a growing grin spilling wider on his face.

It was perfect.

There was a narrow part of him that felt he should be a little concerned that even the system thought he was a mite unhinged for his persistent refusal to abide by normal standards of limits and achievable goals.

The thought was merely a piece of flotsam that was swept away in his joy at what he received, and the pure satisfaction at having another core part of himself revealed.

Much like The Struggler’s Madness suggested, he knew his demands on himself were unreasonable. That no sane man would sincerely set perfection as their goal—and yet, if not perfection, then what? Why settle for half measures? Simple fear of failure?

It was ridiculous to him. Failure and struggle were what gave meaning to the climb, and were kindly offered tools that showed you what could still be found lacking.

His Aspect had reflected that, and had given him what he needed to climb as best he could. So much of what he struggled with was control, mastery, of what he already had—a problem that would only grow worse as his strength grew faster than he could learn to leverage it.

Forged In Endless Strife was exactly what he needed to handle that.

“I assume by the fact you are staring into space and grinning like a lunatic that you got something good?” Ianmus suddenly asked, breaking his focus.

Kaius blinked, shifting towards his friend as a sudden rush of mild chagrin washed over him.

“Yeah, yeah I did.” he replied, shaking his head with a rueful grin. Turning his attention back to the description of his Aspect, he shared what he had gained—though he did skip the continual and many descriptions of the systems judgement of his sanity that lay within.

Finishing, he looked up to find his companions deep in thought.

“It tracks. I think it suits you, and your skittish fighting style.” Porkchop said lamely, giving him a conspicuous wink.

Kaius rolled his eyes. Just because he could—and did!—take and survive grievous wounds, did not mean he had to.

“Not my fault you’re too fat to dodge.” he shot back, smirking.

“Hey!”

“Regardless of your antics,” Ianmus interjected, chuckling. “It does seem to promise to be a fantastic improvement to your capabilities. Even if it is not as immediately impactful as Porkchop’s own seed, I can see it remaining a consistent force multiplier.”

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Kaius nodded in agreement. While it might not be flashy, anything that helped him grow would pay dividends for the rest of his life. Even if it only promised to improve his mortal control over his body and movements, the effectiveness of that could not be understated. Skills, much like everything else in the system, improved what was already there.

Every facet of his base that he could improve would universally have an effect on any skill or stat that made use of it—his bladework, dodging, general agility and strength included.

Not only that, he deeply suspected that it would have a subtle effect on his ability to grow his Skills—they weren’t improved only through repetition and use against dangerous foes; actually attempting to improve his capabilities was a large, if not the largest chunk of their development.

His eyes flicked over to Kenva, still standing there silently—a pensive expression on her face.

Kaius’s heart thumped. She’d definitely seen something.

“So, did you catch it?” he asked.

The aen gave a slight nod. “I…did. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was unlike anything I have seen before.”

Everyone else drew silent, focusing on her intently.

Pausing for a moment, she took a breath and pushed a strand of her auburn hair out of her face. “As I mentioned, I can’t peek into soul spaces, but I can see the fire of people’s souls, and glean much from what I see. That energy definitely came from within your soul, not from the system or some other outside force.”

“How do you know?” Ianmus all but demanded, sitting forwards to place his hands on his knees as he watched the ranger closely.

“Class formation,” Kenva replied. “I’ve seen what it looks like when the system injects its own unknown energy—which is different to this one mind—and it’s extremely obvious that it is an external influence. That energy moved from the outside in, and only brushed up against the exterior of the soul. This one is being generated at the very core of the fire.”

Kaius mulled over her words. They were generating the energy? By the gods’ grace, that had him stumped. It wasn’t like he could actually feel the energy, nor did it seem to actually do anything fundamental—unless it played some role in the formation of Aspects themselves?

“It’s not familiar at all?” he questioned.

“No, not even in the records of my clan—the vagaries of Farseer are something all Zhdan scions have to learn, and there is nothing even as close as strange as this inside of them.”

A grunt slipped from his mouth. He’d hoped she would know something, but it seemed they had another mystery on their hands—one that only two of them could see, and he doubted there would be a plethora of people lining up to allow them to witness such a personal event.

“How bright was it?” Ianmus asked, scratching his chin in thought. “Was it a pinprick like Kaius saw?”

Kenva’s eyebrows shot up. “No, actually. Now that you mention it, it was a fair bit larger, and quite unmissable.”

“So it’s growing larger, then.” Porkchop growled excitedly.

“Perhaps,” Ianmus replied with a shrug. “We won’t know until Kaius can watch one of us go through our second ignition. It’s entirely possible that Kenva is just getting a more complete picture with her Skill.”

Kaius wasn’t sure about that. As incomplete as their understanding of Aspects were, he was almost certain they were building up to something big—a metamorphosis, much like the effects of his completed legacy had bolstered the intensity of his soul.

His mind drifted to the god, Ekum the Pale, and his words that had shook his mind so thoroughly. Aspect Refinement—it had been mentioned in their information packet as well, the reason they needed to complete all three Aspects before they reached the second tier.

That, and the system had called them the next steps on the ‘Path’.

No, he suspected that the strange light had an important role in something, and would only grow more important as they delved deeper into the system’s new powers, and progressed the integration further.

Regardless, it wasn’t like they could learn more now. They’d just have to wait and see what happened when one of them completed their Aspect Triumvirate.

Kaius ran his hands through his hair and pushed himself to his feet.

With their advancements out of the way, they needed to rest.

He best set up the tent.

…

Groaning as he hauled himself out of the mire that was his brother’s warmth, Kaius sat up on the fur covered mattress that lined the far wall of his tent. Porkchop looked up for a moment, but returned to lazing silently when he felt that there was no need for him to get up.

After setting up their abode in the corner of the stone entry room they’d done nothing but lie silently for the last two hours—him, Porkchop and Kenva at least, Ianmus had lasted all of half an hour before he’d started muttering something about the carvings on the wall and left.

Feeling a little bit more recharged, Kaius felt curious about what the mage could have found that had held him so enraptured. That, and he wanted to ask what the mage had found in the pile of artifacts that he’d been sorting through.

Considering they would be making their move in the morning, any advantage they could secure before then would be vital.

He himself had spent half of his time laying down taking a more detailed look through the alchemical supplies in one of his rings.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of them seemed to be intoxicants of one kind or another—the kind of alchemical that turned men into hungry wraiths with all vigour and joy drained from them.

The next largest chunk had been poisons. A few of those would be useful—primarily in gaining new resistances, though he suspected that with his growing Vitality and Constitution, few of them would have enough of an effect to create enough of a reaction in Rapid Adaptation for his needs. That could be worked around if he had enough quantities of any given poison, but there was a lack of that too.

None of the tonics seemed to be particularly valuable—at least in terms of their rarity, with most being either Uncommon or Rare, he had no doubt that the poisons and intoxicants more than made up for that on the black market.

Thankfully, there still were some that would be useful in niche scenarios. A variety of resistance potions, and a half dozen tonics that would let them go without breathing for a full ten minutes—things of that nature—as well as a plethora of restoratives that he would be able to split between them for the delve. Nothing fancy, or game changing, but undoubtedly useful nonetheless.

The artifacts promised to be a much more helpful cache of supplies—if they were lucky enough to find much that was usable by their odd team composition.

Sighing, he pushed himself to his feet.

Time to see what their wayward mage had been up to.