It felt like something had yanked him out of a dream.
Marcus looked up with an unsteady breath and found Logan staring down at him. The man's expression was a blend of disbelief, and something close to fear.
Did I do something wrong? Marcus blinked. He glanced down at the book, half-expecting to see a torn page or scorch marks.
"Did… mess something up?" he asked cautiously. "Sir?"
"How did you do that?" Logan's voice was sharp and low.
"Do what, 'sir.'"
"Drop the sir." Logan's tone darkened. "Tell me how you materialized Irregular Runes."
"Irregular Runes? I don't know what that is." He shut the book and tried to rise, only to wobble as his Legs had gone numb from hours in the same spot.
"You don't even know what you did?" Logan stared at him, trying to figure out if he was lying or just genuinely clueless.
Soon he found out that it was the latter. Calming himself down Logan chose to find out another way.
"Tell me what you have learnt from the book."
Marcus began explaining the things he had learned, which were basically him repeating the words from the book. Logan stopped him there and asked him to only mention his inflections and interpretation of the Alphonic Primes.
"My interpretations? Should I have interpretations different from the meanings of the Prime's markings?"
"Not necessarily," Logan said slowly. "But every Rune Master forms their own understanding. A Prime that means 'singular' might mean moral autonomy to one. To another, it's a fragment of the infinite. The word is just the surface. The concept behind it is what matters."
As Logan spoke, something clicked.
I see. I have been thinking of them as fixed words… not living concepts. I saw the surface, not the root—the origin, but not its branches.
Logan didn't need to hear the thought. He saw the shift in Marcus's eyes—the subtle change in his posture, his breath. Even the air around him seemed to settle.
Has his mental stats increased?
Tempted to inspect his status, Logan held himself back. He had done it once because he was curious. But doing it again would be rude.
"Before now, what was your understanding of the Alphonic Primes?" He questioned in a quieter tone.
"That they are just like alphabets. Symbols, together they could form a word or phrase that… well according to the book, calls upon the world."
"And how many of the Alphonic Primes have you mastered?"
Marcus finally felt the numbness leave his legs. He took a deep breath before answering. "I won't say that I have mastered any, but I have more or less committed thirty of them to memory. Their markings and meanings. As best as I could grasp them."
His answer shocked Logan once again. "Thirty?"
Is this kid lying to me? Should I forcefully… stopping his thoughts right there, Logan discontinued the thought of doing anything forceful to Marcus. He was now one of their members, and there were strict rules about crossing boundaries between each other that Nexus had put in place.
The reason why Logan was shocked was because of the difficulty of what Marcus did. Normally, it was easy for one to read the texts, the difficulty came in learning and remembering the meanings, pronunciations, and markings.
Even people with very high mental stats wouldn't be able to learn this much so fast.
"Marcus… before today, have you tried learning anything about runes?"
"No. I didn't know of their existence until you spoke of them. Is anything the matter?"
Yes! Everything is the matter. Are you trying to say that I have no talent in this path?
"No… It's just that, you seem to have no notable talents for runes. Just 30, when I started down this path, I had already memorized 36 Alphonic Primes in a day, and I started inscribing them a day later."
"Oh," Marcus exclaimed, a bit annoyed that Logan didn't miss a chance to tell him that he was lacking. It was as though he was being called weak again.
"I might have no talent here, but I'm enjoying it. I'd like to continue learning it."
I guess there's no need to ask him if my mental stats are meant to increase just from opening the book. He might use it as another chance to tell me that I'm lacking.
As Marcus thought of that, he checked his status once again and was left speechless. Though he tried not to show the shock on his face, his attempt couldn't delude Logan.
Name: Marcus Black
Age: 24
Race: Human (F)
Level: 0
Nature: Predator (A)
Attribute: [Blood Bane] [Berserker] [Deep Thought].
Skill: [True Double] [Mind's Eye]
Realm: Mortal
Comprehension: [Unfettered (1%)]
Strength: 10
Stamina: 15
Speed: 10
Mental: 34
Will: 15
Wilder Force: —
He had gone up twenty-three points in his mental stats just from the little he had read. Though it only felt a little to him because he knew that he had a lot more to cover.
Logan wasn't playing when he said the Rune Mastery would help increase one's mental stats. I've only gone so far and I have progressed this much. At this point, I should continue and see how far learning runes would take me.
"Then why did you stop at only learning thirty Alphonic primes?"
"I tried learning more, but it seemed impossible. They kept on vanishing from my memory."
At least the world still has eyes. How can it let you do as you please? Still, thirty Primes in a few hours is crazy!
Logan secretly rejoiced. But he still hadn't forgotten about the Irregular Runes that Marcus manifested.
"After learning those thirty Primes, what is it that you were trying to do?"
"Visualize them."
Logan resisted the urge to let his mouth fall. To him, what Marcus said, was like a crippled person trying to climb an oily wall with nothing but his tongue.
To visualize Alphonic Primes is to see the world as it is. It was something that he took many years to step into, and many more to adapt to. And yet, here was a beginner, speaking of his obstacles like they were nothing.
"I failed every attempt in visualization, and when I tried to figure out why I kept on failing, I realized that my mistakes were from my points of inscription in my visualization," Marcus added.
"Meaning what?" Logan was a bit thrown off by his explanation.
"Meaning that the beginning of the Alphonic Primes' markings aren't fixed. One can start from the middle, deriving the beginning and arriving at the same endpoint."
Once again, Marcus had Logan wondering if his accumulated knowledge all the years was for naught. He knew very well that these weren't speculation or unverified concepts, because he had seen the boy materialize two Irregular Alphonic Primes.