The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 672  Reading Comprehension

While most of the clerics were busy looking over the text, one had more in - depth questions for Karl about Runecrafting as an art. Or, at least, what the system had taught him about Runecrafting as an art.

”So, did it teach you all the conjunctions to modify the spell outputs for item creation, or the proper character compounding to make the spell phrase all fit on a single piece of paper to make talismans?” The cleric asked.

”I donʼt know what ones are used for item creation. I do know how to compound the characters, though. In fact, I know how to do that in multiple different ways, depending on the desired meaning of the phrase, and the nature of the item that I am writing it on.” Karl agreed.

The cleric nodded slowly as she considered her next question.

”So, the Runecrafting skill gives you all the knowledge of the language, but in an entirely theoretical way? You know what the word is, but not how it might be used to create an item, or describe a spell on a talisman?” She verified.

Karl nodded. ”Thatʼs about right. I mean, I can guess. But thatʼs what it is, a guess. I donʼt have any clue how those who came before me would have done it, so I can only do my best to try to come up with something workable.”

The cleric made careful notes, but was beginning to look discouraged, so Karl asked follow-up questions of his own.

”What is it that youʼre hoping to uncover? Some sort of lost crafting art?” The middle-aged womanʼs face twisted into a rueful smile. ”Nothing quite so grand, I am afraid. What we were hoping for was some sort of frame of reference so that we could tell how much has been lost from the various crafts that use runes as part of their art.

You see, weʼve lost huge amounts of Smithing knowledge. Weʼve lost almost the entirety of magical weapons creation as an art form, including the majority of the ability to improvise. Though, as Runecrafting spreads, we might be able to help them out with some theory.

But there are vast quantities of items that are recovered from Monster Spawns in damaged conditions, sometimes intact but mostly inoperative.

If we knew more about the craft that made them, we would be able to more easily repair them.

Instead, we need to have a Runecrafter that knows what might be missing explain the problem to a blacksmith who doesnʼt know Runecrafting because we donʼt have System access to the subcategory skills that would combine the two.”

Karl frowned. ”So, what youʼre saying is that recovering the Runecrafting skill actually just made everyone aware of how much they still have to learn, and created more questions than it answered?”

The cleric sighed and nodded in agreement.

”But if we had one of the subset skills but not the entirety of the Runecrafting Library, would we not still be in the same situation?”

That caught the attention of one of the others.

”No, if we had something like Talisman Master, the ancient crafting skill, we would think that it was whole and complete on its own. Nobody would connect that to the missing bits of knowledge that Runecrafting supplies.”

The cleric who had been grilling Karl nodded in agreement. ”There is a distinct pain in knowing that you are missing knowledge that should be available to you. Itʼs like having all the answers at your fingertips, and having someone remind you that youʼre too uneducated to even know what to ask.”

For the blue dragon clerics, that was indeed a particularly painful situation. They were servants of the god of knowledge and teaching. Not knowing something was anathema to their goals in life. The HAD TO know. It wasnʼt an option.

”Alright, I think that I get where youʼre coming from. We could likely recover a bit of the lost knowledge from the old Dwarven Cities, if you sent someone with Runecrafting knowledge there.” Karl suggested.

There were murmurs of agreement with that. But no surprise at all, which suggested that it was an idea the blue dragons had already considered, and had likely acted on, or made plans to act on as soon as they had properly trained researchers available.

Like the green dragon clerics and their penchant for wandering off in the wilderness for indeterminate amounts of time. The Blue Dragon Clerics were known to get so immersed in research problems that they would forget about everything else for days and weeks on end.

Karl could see that these clerics were already well on the way to becoming obsessed with the lost knowledge associated with Runecrafting, even though it didnʼt seem that any of them had actually learned the art yet.

Possibly, only because they had previously become immersed in a project on another trade skill, and now they couldnʼt switch.

If they could figure out how to replicate the Epic Guard skill book and teach it to large groups of Elites, that might change. It was far more interesting as a skill than [Golem] was, and the power level was similarly impressive.

The majority of the group was studying the skill book with increasing intensity, but the amount of work that it would take to replicate it was dampening their enthusiasm considerably.

Spending an entire week on a project, only to have it used by someone else, was enough to put a damper on anyoneʼs day.

Now, if this was a skill that they could use themselves, and then make copies to teach to the ones who needed it, they might be much more amenable to the concept.

At the very least, they would have a cool Guardian to look at.

[Theyʼre all a bit odd. They might take it as the perfect friend, just because itʼs always there and doesnʼt talk to interrupt their concentration.] Remi noted.

Thor seemed to agree with her.

[If nothing else, it would give them someone who doesnʼt run away when they begin to get too excited about their work. The sun isnʼt even properly up, and theyʼre already this excited about work. Not even good work because itʼs for someone elseʼs pack.]

[When have you ever been reluctant to work?]

[But you only ask me to do fun things like pull the wagon.] Thor complained, feeling slighted by the comparison between that and making books for strangers.