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It was hours into his self imposed grind that he finally ran out of stones, on a pile on the bed were a dozen or so stones with blue glowing inscriptions on them.
These were the fruits of his labour, hours of monotonous carving as he channeled mana into each stone.
He had successfully created 23 warding stones. If his knowledge of them was right then these stones would allow whoever is holding them to tank one attack within reasonable levels by enacting a barrier of mana around the holder.
These were in no way warding rune stones though, the only rune matrix that he had obtained through his dice roll.
No this was something much more simpler which he had derived through the only words he obtained through the Ward Rune.
You see, Rune Matrixes were created through multiple rune words interlaced and connected to each other.
These words were what made the entirety of the rune matrix work.
And through the Ward Matrix that he learned he was able to obtain a few rune words that he managed to play with.
Protection, Barrier, Keep, Out, Siphon, Magic, Lock.
The warding rune on the Argent residence was made out of these rune words.
Not in that very order but from these words.
He had tried to mimick it and create his own warding rune but had failed miserably.
The stone he had tried carving the warding rune had exploded right on his face, the second one did the same and then the third before he discovered that the stones were not meant to hold so many rune words.
So he limited himself after finding out that one stone could at most allow three runes to be etched on itself.
So with that knowledge he had etched the rune of Magic, Barrier and Protection.
At first the stone activated on itself creating a metre wide barrier around him with no trigger, but after running out of magic it fizzled out and he began again.
Through trial and error and allowing his [Genius Comprehension] to lead him he rapidly understood what he had been doing wrong.
Runes worked more on intent than he had realised, while etching runes one must envision and push that vision with intent into the rune in order to shape how the end result comes out.
So with his epiphany he had managed to create a rune matrix that only activated at when the user wanted it to, enacting a barrier of magic or mana that would tank through an attack.
He didn't yet know how to make the rune automatic since he was limited in the runic language as he only knew a few words from it.
To further his Runic studies he'd need to find a book containing the entire rune language.
But aside from that though he had managed to level up a couple of skills.
Runic Script Magic being at the forefront, with each level up he found that inscribing runes became easier and even the rune matrix became more stable and powerful.
But at the end of his grind these were the skills that had leveled up.
[State Of Matter Magic[C-] — State Of Matter Magic[C+]]
This was due to when he would liquify the rocks and shape them into smoother versions to make it easier to carve.
[Mana Control[D-] — Mana Control[C+]]
Just from how much he used mana and how he channeled it through his rune-pen into the rocks grooves.
[Rune-Script Magic[F-] — Rune-Script Magic[D+]]
A large improvement if you asked him, he had gained the much needed experience with runes and even learnt new things alongside the added mastery granted to him through his system.
[Craft[F+] — Craft[C-]]
This one had surprised him, though the more he thought about it the more he realised that he had used this skill a lot in the past few hours.
From shaping rocks, fixing his rune-pen when it bent and even the act of carving was seen as crafting so the jump in ranks was understandable.
So smiling to himself as he stretched, he quickly grabbed the Barrier Stones and threw them into a plastic bag before hiding them on his wardrobe.
After that he cleaned his room from the multiple rock pebbles that had fallen to the floor before settling down once more.
His grind wasn't done afterall, he still needed to increase his magic skills ranks too.
Though it would seem that he would need to wait for a bit for that one.
[—HP - 100% | 100%
—MP - 19% | 100%]
He was really low on mana.
So with nothing else to do but wait for his mana to regenerate, he stood up and walked downstairs.
There he found his mother on the lounge sitting and watching TV.
He walked up to her before pausing.
His mother was wearing nothing but panties and an oversized t-shirt.
Her legs were left bare as she sat almost lazily there.
" Uh— Mom?" He began, seeing as she hadn't noted his presence.
" Huh? Oh! Marky!" She exclaimed, having had her mind probably elsewhere from the movie on the screen.
" You seem tired, do you want me to take you to bed?" He asked a bit worried, seeing the darkening around her eyes.
" Oh no, I'm just a bit tired from yesterday's night shift that's all." She said before her eyes glazed over." We had a bunch of a weird animal attack victims rushed in yesterday."
' Animal attacks?' He wondered before realisation hit him.
He knew that this was probably an attack from something supernatural meaning that the plot was advancing much sooner than he expected.
" Oh I see." He said before shifting down to sit next to her." Have you eaten?"
" I had some breakfast but I should probably cook." She muttered more to herself than to him, she was out of it today he realised with a sigh.
" No, don't worry I'll handle it." He said holding her down by her exposed shoulder.
He felt her quickly shiver, her breathing quickening before her eyes glazed over as she looked at him.
'.....' Seeing this he paused as his perception picked up the slight rustling of her Tshirt.
His senses sharpened before he picked up on her nipples hardening at the telltale signs of arousal from the scent under her underwear.
" Mark, you really don't have to." She said staring at his eyes with a glazed smile.
" No, Mom, I insist." He added while noting how she seemed to get more aroused the more he touched her.
Pulling any untowards thoughts he had for his mother for now he quickly stood and walked to the kitchen.
He'd worry about whatever that was later...yeah, he was definitely not running away and whoever said he is was a liar.