Rune Warrior

After Fran discarded her 76th rune practice board, a notification finally appeared on her panel.

[Through your long-term practice, you have grasped some tricks of Runecraft. Runecraft proficiency increased.]

[Runecraft (Novice) (0/100)]

At the same time, a new prompt popped up.

[New class can be formed after detecting that relevant skills meet the conditions.

Class: Rune Warrior (Half-star)

Description: A class that utilizes runes in combat. You can carve runes on the fly during battle to deliver unstoppable attacks to enemies.

Requirements: Breathing Technique (Mastered)

Runecraft (Mastered)

Win ten battles using runes in combat.]

Oh! A new class. Although it didn't seem to be the Enchanter she had in mind, this Rune Warrior was clearly better than an Enchanter.

Not to mention that this was the only class she had seen so far that triggered a class prompt, it was also a combat class.

In fact, the classes she had chosen previously were all support classes. Logically speaking, they didn't have much combat power, and she only took an interest in them because they could increase her stats.

This new class, however, might significantly boost her combat prowess.

After the excitement subsided, she began to think about how to meet the requirements and obtain the Rune Warrior class as soon as possible.

First of all, she had already mastered the Breathing Technique, and for Runecraft, she just needed to grind it out; it would only cost a bit of time.

It was the final requirement—winning ten battles using runes—that she found a bit difficult.

First of all, the phrasing "using runes in combat" was somewhat ambiguous. Did it mean simply using a rune during a fight, or did she have to defeat the opponent with a rune at the end?

Fran leaned toward aiming for the latter, while seeing if the former could be achieved in the process. If it could, she would just do that.

However, actually manifesting a rune in combat wasn't easy. According to the knowledge that flooded her mind when she leveled up, runes could be condensed in the air using mental power, and then released to envelop the target to achieve an effect.

But that was the problem. If she wanted to do it for real right now, it would take at least a second to draw, and the wind-up was simply too long.

So, should she get Runecraft to the Mastered level first, and then figure out how to apply runes in combat?

Fran felt motivated and took another rune practice board, eager to grind up her proficiency.

After Fran used up her 89th rune practice board, she finally couldn't sit still anymore. Damn it, she hadn't gained a single point of proficiency.

She felt like her method might be wrong. Previously, even if she failed to brew a potion, she would still gain a point of proficiency; why was there absolutely nothing now?

Moreover, when her Runecraft proficiency increased earlier, it was only when she successfully drew a rune for the first time.

Therefore, she had to try another method.

"Bring me a few weapons. I want to test them out. I'll pay for the materials."

Hall hesitated for a moment, but he eventually agreed.

The girl before him was the most peculiar person he had ever met. Setting aside the fact that she seemed to have money to burn, she treated this trade—which required slow, meticulous work—like some life-or-death matter.

One had to know that runecraft was all about stability. Everyone else drew a rune slowly to ensure no mistakes were made.

Yet this girl treated the rune practice boards as if they were worthless, drawing on them at lightning speed before moving to the next one, regardless of whether she succeeded or failed.

Hall felt like she was just messing around. Sometimes, when people brought weapons in, you never got a second chance to draw a rune; if the original rune was drawn incorrectly, there was rarely space left for a second one.

And the materials used to erase runes were even more expensive, not something someone in this line of work could easily afford.

But then, something astonishing happened. After an unknown number of attempts, Fran's rune accuracy suddenly became one hundred percent. She stopped making mistakes, and her speed didn't drop either.

Hall brought over a pile of dust-covered weapons, several of which still had patches of rust.

Hall said apologetically:

"This is our stock. I thought since it's for a beginner to practice on, you can just draw on them and see. The quality of the final success might not be great, though."

These were their dedicated practice items, which were actually scrap pieces often scavenged from the market. These items all had more or less defects, but they could still serve as objects for rune carving.

The problem was that after a rune was carved, the weapon might fail for various reasons—the internal structure might be unstable and snap during combat, or the rune might be carved successfully but only have an effect on one side of the blade.

Fran picked up a longsword with a crack, chose a section that was intact, and began to draw on it with her mental power.

This time, she wanted to attempt a "Shock" rune. Its effect was that when striking an enemy's armor in combat, activating this rune would generate a shockwave against the opponent. A good one could make the opponent lose their balance, allowing her to follow up with an attack.

It had to be said, the Novice level of Runecraft seemed somewhat powerful; she succeeded on her first attempt, and the speed was so fast that Hall didn't even react.

That was it? Hall felt an incredible sense of disbelief. He had to know that he only succeeded once after ruining seven weapons. Could this saturation-style practice actually be that effective?

But regardless of what Hall thought, maintaining a good service-industry attitude, Hall stepped forward and revealed his bracer.

"You can try hitting my bracer directly with the sword."

Hearing this, Fran didn't dawdle. She pressed the sword against Hall's bracer and activated the rune.

This time, she didn't use much force, and her movement was very gentle. By all accounts, it shouldn't have had much impact on a man of Hall's sturdy build.

However, under the application of the impact rune, Hall's body pressed downward slightly, his entire force directed toward the point of impact.

"Whew." Hall let out a long breath, then said:

"Not bad. Runes struggle to exert much effect on this kind of metal, so your rune inscription is completely up to standard."

Hall couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy; she had managed to inscribe on a weapon on her very first day, whereas it had taken him a whole month to succeed back then.

Following this, Hall said:

"Try again. We need to test the stability of the rune."

Fran tested it a few more times, but embarrassingly, only the final attempt successfully activated the rune again.

"This is how it goes when a weapon has flaws; you never know what exactly is causing the failure."

Hall explained.

Fran used up the remaining weapons and walked straight to the door.

Hall stepped out to see her off, and for the sake of the sixty-eight silver coins Fran had spent today, he adopted a very professional service attitude:

"When will you be coming back, customer? I'll need to make preparations."

"No need, I've already learned it."