Elijah stood soundlessly outside of Novius' bedroom on the third floor of the Weltor Estate.
Two days until the semifinals of the tournament, and Elijah still has many tasks to complete. Apart from the long walks around the kingdom he chose to do on his own accord, Elijah had been training with Amaris almost every day, and learning about the fruitless effort of halting the beast raids outside the tunnel gates.
One task is to visit Niko in the south, but also obtaining his invisibility suit Novius completed.
Knock! Knock!
"Elijah, right?"
"Of course!" Elijah affirmed Novius that it was indeed himself. This matter was not something that could be spread.
On the wooden coffee table were six small metal rectangles with durable cloth running through the metallic clamps of each piece. Just from a first glance, Elijah was able to understand the mechanism. Furthermore, he was impressed at Novius' ability for adaptation.
The familiar orange glowing core that Elijah had given to Novius was being placed on top of one of the metal pieces as a conduit for its activation. "Is that what I think it is Novius?"
Instead of speaking, Novius pointed at the table as it disappeared. The rune with the core on top of it had used the mana within, and turned the table completely invisible. The other five runes with cloth attached to them seemed like they were floating in mid air. "As you can see, it is finished."
A few seconds later, the table gradually blinked back into sight.
"How does this even work?" Elijah only misunderstood the mechanics of what the runes could turn invisible. "Does it only turn anything it touches invisible?"
"Well, the reason why there are six is so that they wrap around each limb of the body, including the head and chest. I went this route instead of embedding it into a piece of clothing because it's a lot more functional, and able to be layered underneath clothing. As for what it can turn invisible, it relates to everything it touches within a close radius. The table was the only thing that disappeared because there was nothing else within a foot of the rune. That's the reason why the other five were separated."
"Once again, your knowledge over runes never ceases to surprise me! Does your sword have a rune on it as well?" Elijah noticed Novius' silver and yellow sword laying on the floor with noticeable engraving within it.
"You know Elijah, I am beginning to understand your point of view. This kingdom is amazing in so many ways, but is also limiting at the same time. A great example of this is simply how not a single person has invented magical weapons using runes, but instead solely relied on the magic of the mage…" Novius explained a couple of other examples, one of which being the lack of wanting to expand the kingdom outside the walls. Yes, it would take great sacrifice, but that is with everything. The kingdom would go to war while creating another wall, and in the end, would prosper even further with more space. "…I understand everything now Elijah."
Elijah had not wanted to talk to Novius about their earlier conversation yesterday. The idea of constantly forgetting almost everything notable was torture just thinking about it. "So, you can remember everything? You aren't forgetting anything?"
"Elijah, I feel like a different person. I feel like I can do so much more with my life… I want to get out of this place, Elijah." Novius began increasing the volume of his voice while walking towards Elijah. Novius' hands rested on his shoulders. "I want to explore the world! Let's do it together!!"
While happiness and tears of Joy were on the face of Elijah, part of him felt sad. What were the mental effects of going through such a dramatic change? "Novius, calm down. We need to think about the people we love, and also… the fact that if we leave, we doom everyone to their deaths."
"I know that idiot… The only people that can save this kingdom are us. Since we can't do anything right now but build strength, I'm just going to spend my time creating magitech items for combat, not simply to create a better kingdom. The rune you saw on my sword is a lightning rune I made myself. Completely new, never been done before. Whenever I swipe my sword with mana inside of the rune, a powerful streak of lightning will fly forward at a crazy speed. If you give me your sword, I can do it pretty quickly. I think something happened when I became aware of everything. I have this sixth sense, and can somehow create runes no one has ever thought of before by using my own lightning magic… I first draw them on paper, then imprint the rune rock into a piece of metal to test its effects."
What Novius was saying didn't fully make sense, but gave Elijah an idea of how himself and Amaris can manipulate the environmental mana. Novius seemed to have gained something else, or rather just an effect of having knowledge within the magitech space when becoming "aware". "That would be great, but I am not sure that would be okay for the tournament, at least not yet."
Novius understood the situation, and explained how he would keep his creations a secret. Elijah was quite surprised by his mental stability, but knew it was nothing more than a farce. In between the words Novius spoke were trembles of fear and excitement.
Although all this time, the truth had been slowly revealed to him, and with a simple hug, the universe he saw was flipped right side up.
Novius had explained a few ideas he had for magically enhanced combat equipment that mainly revolved around specific elemental spells being thrown from the sword, but also pre-made spells in the form of small metal squares or balls.
What Elijah had learned about these runic symbols were how they were composed of the same magical power of the user.
What hasn't been tested was if the spell Novius had created on his sword could have the strength of a cyan core mage if a cyan core mage himself used the rune. Maybe these spells transcended the fatal flaw of magic, or maybe they had the same mana of its creator.
Likely the former…
With the light runes in his spatial storage, Elijah walked out of the grand bedroom and straight out the door of the Weltor estate.
A carriage was called to the inner south, to a specific place within a heavily crowded market region of the kingdom. A small breakfast of raw egg yolks and dried beef that he prepared himself was his breakfast along the way.
The carriage was not covered, and many people were staring at Elijah as he wiped the wet egg white off his hands before grabbing a towel he brought along. The egg whites were not wasted, but saved in a metal container that would be given to Niko. A weird gift, but still, a gift.
The wooden stalls that sat in front of the three story stone and wood building were half empty.
Most of what people were selling were physical magic-made items like containers, plates, pots, and even weapons that were not of the same quality as everything was made from metal magic. True weapons were physically made by forging with hard and robust materials that came from the catacombs. Food was no longer something sold, but something that was distributed for free at selected butchers. Unless of course one was lucky enough to have a rooftop garden or chicken pen.
The people here were suffering in silence while they attempted to sell anything they could magically produce.
…
Inside of an alley was a black hair and red-eyed boy standing on a metal and wooden staircase that led to the third floor of a tightly packed building. His elbow was leaning against the metal railing, with his eyes set on the boy hopping out of the carriage.
A few shouts of two people arguing were echoing within the alley beneath the staircase. While crime was not abundant within the kingdom, people were still people. When surrounded with a job they didn't necessarily like, they took their anger out on the people around them.
This was especially true when combined with the terror of confirmed danger on every side of what they called safety.