The first thing Verity did was open his status window.

Status Window

Name: Verity

Age: 22

Level: 21

Inventory: [Final Embers], [Health potion x2], [Mana Potion x3]

Alias: N/A

Class: [Fool Lv. 23]

Traits : Unemployed, Favored, Goblin Slayer, Martyr, History's First I

Skills: [Lesson Learned Lv.3], [Not me! Lv.4], [Accumulate Lv.2], [Never Again Lv.8], [Intermediate Aura Circulation Lv.1], [Appraisal Lv.16], [Conceal Lv.4], [Runic Eye Lv.2]

Sponsor: [-Error-]

Stats

Unallocated stats points : 0

Strength : 33 (+4) (+12)

Stamina : 46 (+4) (+86)

Speed : 29 (+2)

Intelligence : 27 (+3)

Dexterity : 32 (+2)

Arcane : 17 (+1)

Agility : 24 (+2) (+10)

Foolishness : 30 (+2)

His Foolishness stat had risen again. He tried not to take it personally.

Additionally, it irked him that he still possessed the 'Unemployed' trait, but he decided to put all of it aside for now, and he ultimately sighed with satisfaction. He had worked hard over the last seven months. His main level had climbed from 18 to 21, and his class level had shot from 14 to 23.

While that may have not seemed like a large increase, Verity was quite content as he had reached level 21 recently. In fact, it seemed that the experience requirement for levels beyond 20 were astronomical, making growth in that regard rather difficult.

Perhaps this was why most people in this world did not seek out endless slaughter to raise their levels. It was simply inefficient. Instead, it was much smarter to gather skills, increase their proficiency and focus on increasing class level which did not require slaying others.

Speaking of skills, nearly all of Verity's skills had increased in levels as well, and he had even gotten a few additional ones. [Appraisal] and [Conceal] were the first skills he had purchased at the guild, and although [Conceal] may have sounded misleading, Verity purchased it to hide his status window, not himself.

Even his growth skill, [Never Again!] had gained a new sub-skill.

Skill : [Never Again]

Rank : A

Level : 8

Rarity : Unique

Type : Passive

Description : Fool me once? Jokes on me. Fool me twice? That won't happen.

Effect: Gain resistances or immunities once a challenge has been surmounted. Immunities are absolute, but the potency of the resistance is dependent on yours and the skill's level.

Current Effects

[Indomitable Will IV] - Grants greater resistance to all fear and intimidation-based skills.

[Intermediate Poison Tolerance] - Grants a moderate resistance to all substances with debilitating properties.

[Painkiller III] - Grants greater resistance to physical pain.

[Fireproof] - Grants resistance to all fire based attacks

Verity nodded in satisfaction again and closed the window.

Then, his eyes turned to his most recent skill, [Runic Eye], one he had gotten only one month ago. As he thought of it, the system window appeared before him.

Skill : [Runic Eye]

Rank : C

Level : 2

Rarity : Rare

Type : Active

Description : How can you run if you cannot walk? How can you write if you cannot read? The eyes of a runic sorcerer are just as important as his pen.

Effect: When active, this skill allows the user to understand and interpret runic script in a language of their choosing. The higher the proficiency of the skill, the more complex the runes and runic systems the user is able to understand.

Verity's gaze dropped to his chest, where a rune was inscribed onto his skin under his thick plate of armor, and he let out a dry laugh.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

How he had gotten to this point was almost comical.

In the time that had elapsed, Evangelina had taught Verity the basics of the remaining stances of the Nine Hells Style.

She had shown him how to use Gluttony, a stance that built power as it was maintained.

Lust, a stance that deliberately created openings to draw the opponent in, and also a stance that Verity was especially terrible at performing.

Heresy, a… spearless spear technique, which was really to mean a last resort hand-to-hand combat technique in case he was disarmed.

And Anger, a stance that she had only been able to give him a sense of since he could not yet use External Aura yet.

Of course, there was still Treachery remaining, but Evangelina had not mentioned it at all in these past months, and Verity had given up on asking after seeing the look on her face the one time he had asked.

In any case, what mattered was what Verity did in every moment he was not practicing the spear, that being runic sorcery.

In the first month, Verity had spent countless hours drawing the rune for 'Glow', the simplest of the bunch, into the floors and walls of his training room.

Once he believed he had gotten the calligraphy of it down to a science, he had tried to activate it, but nothing had happened. It was only after three more days of attempting this that Verity had realized that he had no idea how to activate runes.

From what he remembered of Hoshino, he had imagined there was a need to infuse mana into the rune, but how exactly was he supposed to do that? He could move his Aura, but he had no idea how to move his mana. He had tried asking his Master, but she had also shrugged, offering no solution.

According to her, she could use very simple magic, but she was far from good enough to teach another how to use their mana to do the same.

Disappointed, Verity had decided to head to the Guild, in hopes of finding a mage to help him. Unfortunately for him, however, every single mage he had asked either laughed in his face or demanded an exorbitant sum of money for their service.

Do you know how much magic tutors cost these days? Do you think I'll just teach you for free?

Haha! You want to use magic? Just focus on that spear of yours. Magic isn't for meatheads like you.

Well, if it's just moving your innate mana, it isn't exactly hard… but why should I help you?

He clicked his tongue just remembering it.

Since he had not found someone who could help, Verity had decided to help himself. If he could not move his mana willingly, nor understand how to move it, he would force it to move until he understood how it occurred.

To do that, the method was simple. He had to use a skill that required mana, and the only one he possessed was [Appraisal]. Hence, Verity had used appraisal, which could surprisingly be used on the same object multiple times, hundreds of times per day.

For some time, Verity advanced in runic sorcery by both doing this unconventional training and by diligently practicing his calligraphy, and at last, on the last day of the fourth month since he had started practicing runic sorcery, Verity had succeeded in his endeavor.

It had been unpleasant, almost nauseous, but if Verity poured every once of his focus into it, he could distinctly prevent, or hasten the flow of mana when using [Appraisal].

Then, it had taken him another month to be able to move the mana without using the activation of [Appraisal] as a crutch.

By that point, Verity had been ready to attempt to activate 'Glow' once more. To that end, he had etched the rune into one of the walls of the training room, and after pressing his palm against it, he had made mana flow from the hypothetical mana core in his chest, to the edge of his palm.

And the wall, as well as a small square around it, had glowed a soft viridescent hue.

Verity smirked as he remembered his celebration.

YESSS!! I F*CKING DID IT!!! I'M A GENIUS!!! I'M A GENIUS RUNIC SORCERER! HELL YEAH!

But, now what?

Five months for a small section of the wall to glow, and Verity had felt incredibly tired after this small feat. He had been dizzy, and forced to slump unto the ground after only activating one rune.

The mana cost had been ridiculous.

While recuperating, Verity had opened the book again, and had flipped it to the page where nine un-translated runes were written. Once again, his eyes had focused onto the second one, something he had done almost ritualistically every single night in the five months that had elapsed.

He had felt inexplicably attracted to it, and that time, perhaps feeling confident because of his recent success, he had slammed his book shut with conviction.

Should I try this one? In any case, the book says that powerful runes require more mana and a suitable medium, so if it's a rune like that, it generally won't even activate. In some way, that's an advantage with this type of magic.

Verity had set his mind on activating this rune, though there was no real line of reasoning for it. For some reason, he had just wanted to do so.

And so, he had spent another month practicing the calligraphy for it. The new, unknown rune, had been somewhat more complex, but not overly so.

Without much trouble until that point, Verity had steadied himself to activate the rune. He had transcribed into an open space in the training room, and had wasted no time to infuse mana into it.

But nothing had happened. It wasn't that the rune had refused his mana, failing to activate. No, it had definitely activated, or at least Verity had believed that it had, but simply put, nothing had followed its activation.

Verity had scratched the back of his neck.

It doesn't help that I don't know what it's supposed to do… Oh well, maybe it's better like this.

He had turned away, but before truly abandoning the idea, he had frozen on the spot.

A truly idiotic idea had crossed his mind.

What if the issue with the rune was that his chosen medium had been inappropriate?

I mean, if it stands for something like 'sadness', then the wall surely won't be able to do much with that…

So then, what if he used himself as the medium for the rune instead? No matter what it stood for, that should allow him to at least feel a distinct effect.

Verity had flipped through the pages of the book. As he had remembered, it had mentioned nothing on using one's own body as a medium for runic sorcery.

Then that probably means it's not that crazy, right?

A foolish line of thought.

Following his flawed logic, Verity had drawn the rune on his own chest, the location where he had believed it looked the coolest.

As soon as I finish this stroke, I just need to infuse mana into it and–

When Verity had drawn his final stroke, he had felt a searing heat in his chest, and his head had instantly began throbbing.

W-What the, what's all this–

Quickly, that throbbing had grown and grown to the point that the pain had been intolerable. Verity had foamed and the mouth, and he had fallen unconscious.

No, to an external observer, it would have been more accurate to say that his head had exploded, and that he had died.

This would have been Verity's one hundredth and sixth death, if not for Vera's ring. The ring's effect was absolute, as expected of a mythical item, and so it had brought him back from the dead and restored both his mind and body.

What it hadn't done, however, was remove the rune that had been burned into Verity's chest. Once restored, Verity had stood up, holding his head and breathing heavily.

G-Goodness, I-I'm alive…!

[Your Sponsor shakes her head while stifling a laugh. 'This has to be the most idiotic way to waste a mythical item, and a personal gift from me at that…'.]

Then, the system had spoken in Verity's mind.

[Significant achievement!

Vessel of a Primordial rune

Description - You are the first recorded entity to use their own flesh as medium for a Primordial Rune and live to tell the tale!]

[Your reward is being calculated.]

[Reward granted - Your name has been recorded in the Eternal Registry and you have received the Rare Skill -Runic Eye-!]

All of the information had been processed into Verity's mind all at once, and more than the shock he had just had from dying, more than Vera's mocking words, he had wanted to know just what he had put on himself.

He had flipped through the pages of his book, and without even needing to read the skill's description, he had activated [Runic Eye] mere seconds after receiving it.

With that, the runes had finally been legible, all nine of them, or almost all nine of them.

Fate

Truth

Flow

Form

Death

Origin

Communion

Sacrifice

???

So, according to the system, these are… primordial runes?

Even with the skill, Verity could not read the last of the nine, and he had felt that all other eight of the runes could have many more interpretations than the one provided by the skill. It had felt as though the skill had just made it 'easy to understand' or something of the sort.

Regardless, Verity frowned when his attention lingered on the second rune, the one now etched into his body.

Truth.

Thankfully, it wasn't as ominous as Sacrifice or Death, but that somehow did not make it any less daunting. Especially because it had caused his head to explode just moments prior.

Truth, huh. How ironic.

Verity had slumped to the ground back then and he had let out a hollow laugh, his heart still racing. That time, truly, he had found himself to be quite a fool.

[Verity? Are you there? We're all waiting for you here.]

Hoshino spoke into a bracelet she had gotten in front of the tutorial shop recently. [Indeed! To tell you the truth, my Knight of Iron has been getting quite impatient I must say.]

Marco rolled his eyes. [Yeah right, I can hear your stomach growling from here.]

Hoshino wagged her finger. [Non, my Knight! That is the roar of my soul that wishes to punish evil!]

Felicia sighed. [Haha… In any case, just get here as fast as you can.]

Verity shook his head and stopped reminiscing. [Yeah, I'm on my way. I'm right about to cross the main gates.]

With a sigh, he closed all of his status windows and stepped forward.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.