Dan stepped in front of the room’s mirror, an oval of polished silver contained within a gilt frame. Slowly, he removed his shirt and stared into the mirror while planning the runescript in his mind. Two years of constant exercise had done wonders for him. No one would be mistaking him for a professional athlete, but he finally had abs and noticeable muscle definition. Maybe, when he got back to Earth, he could update his profile on dating apps to something other than a formless winter jacket.
“Quit eyefucking yourself, Daniel,” Daeson helpfully interjected. “There’ll be plenty of time to take a gander at the goods once you finish the inscriptions. Or, you’ll die and leave me with the final indignity of cleaning you off the laboratory’s walls. Either or.”
Dan chuckled nervously as he removed several small ingots of gold and monster blood before placing them next to a mortar and pestle. Daeson hovered over his shoulder the entire time, his keen elven vision taking in every one of Dan’s movements. As Dan reached to pick up the pestle, Daeson put his hand on Dan’s wrist to stop him.
“Mr. Thrush,” the elf began, “crafting the initial runescript on yourself is a matter of utmost importance, so I’ve opened my stores fully to you. Still, before you waste materials that took me a century to gather, I would like you to go over your lessons with regard to runescripting flesh. We wouldn’t want you to forget a step in the excitement of the moment and melt yourself along with a pile of valuable reagents now, would we?”
“The first and most important runes are the mana accumulation runes,” Dan recited, his voice taking on an almost sing-song quality. “Usually drawn over the chest or the source of a being’s mana, the accumulation runes allow the individual to control the amount and type of mana that flows into their script.
“Next after the accumulation runes are the regulation runes. Usually wreathing the accumulation runes, these runes serve the twofold purpose of balancing the accumulation runes while also giving the user an outlet for their mana. The regulation runes contain the connections on which other runes are inscribed, as well as the activation mechanism for those runes. Any mistake in the accumulation and regulation runes is almost certainly fatal. Later runes can be added or modified, but a failure there usually only results in severe injury and can be rectified with later scripting.”
“Well it’s good to know that you paid attention to my lessons, Daniel,” Daeson handed him the pestle. “Now tell me, how is the quality of an inscription judged?”
“By the quality of the accumulation and regulation runes,” Dan replied, beginning to powder the gold with the ichor from some deep sea beast to make the foundation for his crafting ink. “Notably, by the amount and types of mana that the accumulation rune can safely process as well as the number of open slots on the regulation rune where new runes can be added on.”
“Good enough for me.” Daeson shrugged, stepping back. “Remember, the scripting only needs to be good enough to handle a rank or two worth of mana and feed a strength and coordination rune. That’s what you’ll need to survive the night. but beyond that, it’s not like you will be fighting. You are only a proof of concept and genetics; there’s no need for you to risk yourself on something terribly complicated only to have it flare up and destroy you. Just keep it simple. Every extra pen stroke is another risk.”
Dan didn’t reply, the System already overlaying the predesigned runes onto his torso in the mirror. He might not be the world’s first choice as an action hero or a magician, but he hadn’t spent those years getting a master’s degree in electrical engineering completely in vain, no matter what his mother might say. Individual runes were difficult and complicated to inscribe, but their true beauty was when they were scripted into chains. Runes that sensed the condition of the user’s body could be conjoined via logic gates with other runes, allowing the inscription to tailor itself to the user. Without some sort of feedback, the user would end up solely enhancing one muscle beyond the tolerance of their bones and tendons, causing their body to rip apart.
The runes weren’t quite assembly code, but they were near enough for Dan to feel fairly comfortable with them. Of course, the System helped immeasurably. It allowed him to summon a model of himself and sketch the various runes on it. After the first month of practice, it even upgraded its understanding of the runes to the point that he could use the System to simulate the usage of the runes themselves.
Even the most complex runescripting Daeson had shown him paled in comparison to simple computer programs. For all of the Tellask Empire’s splendor and glory, apparently no one had bothered to clue them in object-oriented programming. It took a little bit of doing, as the runes weren’t exactly designed to run iterative loops or have a goto function, but between the System and Dan, he had managed to create what was theoretically an accumulation rune that could handle seventeen ranks worth of mana of any type he had trained with, as well as a regulation rune that could safely supply twelve subsidiary runes. In theory.
Of course, it helped that he wouldn’t have to repeat large chunks of the runescripting ad nauseum. So much of traditional Elven runescripting was devoted to inefficient and drawn-out runes without much by way of safety mechanisms. Dan still couldn’t figure out why the elves refused to use either a fuse or some sort of vent that would let off excess mana that would otherwise cause his runes to burn out and melt through his torso, but he decided to include both. It just seemed prudent.
Finally, the ink ground and mixed, Dan dipped his pen into it. Instantly, the first stroke of the runes superimposed on his reflection glowed green with a small orange mark above it notating the depth and width of the stroke. He touched the blade of the pen to his skin and hissed. The cut itself stung, but the mixture of monster blood, ichor, and powdered gold burned. He made the next incision. Somehow, the burning in both strokes increased infinitesimally. He made a third mark. Each time he completed a stroke, another glowed green in his vision.
Minute-by-minute for an hour, he kept marking his chest. By the time he was a quarter of the way done with the accumulation scripting, he realized he was in trouble. His eyes were bleary from their constant focus, his breath coming in short gasps, and his chest an incomprehensible mess of blood and ink. Still, he continued. The burning grew worse with each painstaking stroke, but he didn’t dare stop. Each series of scripted runes must be completed as part of one continuous project. Stopping now would lead to the rune activating uncompleted and instantly killing him.
Gritting his teeth, Dan kept carving into his flesh. He was able to maintain his focus for another hour, but then he made his first mistake. Luckily, it was minor, a stroke slightly too shallow to accept the full load of mana that the rune was designed for. Without alteration, the rune would be limited to rank six or lower mana only. An ordinary runecrafter probably wouldn’t have even noticed until years later when the user destroyed themselves by channeling too much mana. Dan, on the other hand, had the System. Instantly, the stroke he had completed flashed red and a series of yellow follow up strokes appeared in his vision. Each added another ten to twenty minutes onto the completion of the final runes, but they would allow the scripting to avoid the weakened rune and still operate at full capacity without overloading.
Over the next three hours, he screwed up two more times, the System saving him and recommending solutions on the fly each time. Finally, after five hours of crafting, he stopped for a break. His entire chest was a mess of blood and sweat that Dan was loath to clean lest he accidentally remove some of the ink from his runescripting. After a brief snack and a fair amount of hydration to replenish his lost blood, Dan began work on the regulation runes.
He was still in a mind-numbing amount of pain, something Daeson warned him would continue until he ran mana through his runes to activate them. Unfortunately, Daeson had forgotten to mention this little tidbit until Dan was almost crushed beneath the burning and itching pain of the runes. Maybe then, Dan would have thought to make the accumulation runes stable on their own without relying on the regulation runes, but as things stood, he would need to finish both in one sitting.
A sense of urgency settled over Dan as he made the first incision of the regulation inscription. He wasn’t sure if he was more lightheaded from the loss of blood or the continuous pain, but it was definitely beginning to impede his focus, a major problem while engaging in such intricate work. For a second, he debated having the System shut off his pain receptors before rejecting the option as too risky. Really, his only option on that front would be to stop all tactile sensations, which would make judging the depth and the width of his strokes almost impossible. Holy hell did it burn, though. His entire body felt like it was buried in a pit of scorching sand. Every one of his motions was slow, weighed down by the weight of the scalding pain.
Quickly, he sank into a haze. His surroundings faded into a pain-wracked mist as the laboratory and Daeson’s idle, caustic comments simply slipped from his attention. Each moment became nothing more than focusing on the glowing incision in the reflection. Dan became so consumed by his work that, before long, he lost all sense of self. His entire being was nothing but a glowing green light followed by a brief spike of pain as he cut through his flesh.
Then, abruptly, there was no more green light. Dan stared dumbly at the pen in his hand, covered in his own dried blood. The System blinked some notification or another at him, but he couldn’t focus on anything but the burn. Daeson was saying something. Dan really didn’t care. More than anything, he needed to run mana through runes to end the pain. It took him almost a full second to gather together enough of his consciousness to activate one of the balls of mana in his chest.
His body was doused in cool water as the pain stopped. Suddenly, his chest started glowing as the mana ran through each inscription, one-by-one. Concentric circles of tiny, intricately-crafted eldritch symbols burned with pink fire that quickly evaporated the blood from his skin.
Dan dropped to his knees, his mind white with pain. He could feel all of it. Every loop, swirl, cross, and curl of a rune. So long as mana ran through it, he could feel it. That fire wasn’t a trick of the light or some sort of mystical illusion. Mana produced heat as a byproduct. A lot of heat. From somewhere, he could smell burning flesh as it seared his body. Dan knew that the runes could handle it, but it wasn’t much comfort as he clenched his fists until his fingernails bit through the skin of his palms.
Then, the pain faded. It still echoed as Dan forced himself back to his feet and inspected his reflection once again. This time, he had a clear view of the tattoos as they glowed faintly pink. In response to his thoughts, the lattice of inscriptions that he had prepared for this day superimposed themselves on his body and glowed green with a few sporadic spots of warning amber.
“Let me take a look at you.” Daeson woke Dan out of his stupor by turning him about by his shoulder. “Very good, Mr. Thrush. I knew you had some talent in runecrafting, but this seems to be on another level. Almost a master’s work. I’m very excited to see what enhancements you can add on to this. It seems robust enough to handle some fairly powerful modifications. With a little luck, you might be able to survive the night, after all.”
