Gralith sat in silence as Sylas closed the tome, the latter’s face marred with sweat and fatigue. By the time they got to the tenth or so page, Sylas had a hard time even breathing properly. It was so terrible that he found himself only vaguely looking at the pages for the longest time, and rather than observing along with Gralith, it became a competition of trying to hold himself up until the end.
And he just barely made it.
After a long while, Gralith’s gaze flickered upward to find Sylas staring down at the table, heaving for breath in a mock sort of silence.
’Truly arrogant,’ Gralith chuckled to himself.
"It is unfortunate," Gralith finally spoke, though Sylas didn’t seem to realize that it wasn’t that it took him so long to gather his thoughts, but rather that he was allowing Sylas the time to gather himself.
Several times, it looked as though Sylas would pass out entirely, but he was able to gather himself at the last moment and force himself to stay awake.
This happened at least three times over the course of the last 20 minutes. Gralith wasn’t sure why Sylas was so obsessed with remaining conscious and could only seem to wave it off as another matter of ill-trust between master and disciple.
But that didn’t cause him to hold back on his next words in the slightest.
When Sylas looked up to meet his gaze, he continued his words.
"I have no fate with this sort of tome, even though I really wish that I did." This time, the insignificant quirk of Gralith’s lip was just a tad bit more prominent. "The secret to this, well, Ancient Secret, is in the description that you’ve already read."—
[Rune Enlightenment Fundamentals (—) (Ancient Secret)]
[An echo of the past to form the strokes of the future]
—
Sylas suddenly frowned. "You mean… literally."
Gralith had to hold back from his smile becoming wider.
"You may be the first student I’ve had that’s actually smarter than I am. Indeed, I mean literally. This Ancient Secret is, from what I can speculate, a Rune Inheritance. It doesn’t just teach you Rune Mastery in the normal, vague, and curriculum-based way but focuses instead on a very particular, very Arcane Path.
"In this case, as you might have guessed, this Rune Lineage relies on having a time-based Will Ability."
Sylas’ gaze sharpened. He had never considered this possibility at all, but deeper than that, he was thinking about something else.
When he was receiving his Secret Realm rewards, he had gained the distinct feeling that all of the rewards were perfectly tailored for him, as though the system—or Ancient System, rather—had read his mind, and his body and soul for that matter, to craft the best possible rewards for him.
But the thing was… he didn’t have a time-based Will Ability back then—or, rather, Progenitor Flame Ability.
He still wasn’t sure if a Will Ability and Progenitor Flame Ability were the same things, but he chose not to ask. He had chosen to take certain risks, but something told him that the weight of Progenitor held a completely different sort of mass to it.
This was all to say that the Ancient System hadn’t just read his body and Path to decide what he needed, but it had likely calculated that the likelihood of him needing this sort of time-based Rune Lineage was exceptionally high.
Sylas… wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
But he pressed it to the back of his mind, feeling that what was here was more important to him.
What exactly did it mean to use echoes of the past to form the strokes of the future? And why was it that stroke wasn’t capitalized like it usually was?
Could that mean that the strokes referred to in this line weren’t the same Strokes one used in Rune crafting? In that case, what did it refer to? Just a vague summary of what he would be able to do?
Maybe if he had a better Scouting Skill, it would change the description of what he saw into something more concrete?
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"What do I need to do to master as much of it as I can in as short a time as I can?" Sylas asked.
Gralith looked at him deeply, sitting there in silence for a long while. Then, he nodded.
"Alright, I will help you. Though, it’s a bit embarrassing as a master to need to help guide your disciple through another’s Inheritance, I can let it slide this one time."
Sylas seemed to feel that this was Gralith’s attempt at a joke, but his gaze was so focused and intent that he breezed right by it.
His Will was very much still fatigued, but that fire he had had ever since his first time with Cassarae hadn’t faded in the slightest.
In fact, it looked as though he was ready to crush steel in his bare hands, to wrangle clouds from the skies, and to pluck out the center of the Earth with a pair of fingers.
Under the passive effects of [Maddened Enlightenment], he was only recovering faster.
Gralith didn’t seem to mind Sylas’ lack of a response in the slightest, moving on as though nothing had happened.
"As with all Inheritances, it starts from the beginning. But this quickly deviates into something else. It wants you to gain a feel not just for looking at Runes in real time, but also Runes how they had been just moments before, and Runes how they will be just moments after.
"As you’ve seen with your Will Ability, slowing down Runes in your perception has allowed you a great boost in comprehending them. This is why you’ve improved so fast.
"This Lineage essentially wants you to be capable of grasping that ability without your Will Ability, and even further, being able to project what will happen, and also what must have happened in order to trigger the changes you’re observing now."
Gralith paused, having summarized the crux of things as succinctly as he could.
Right across from him, though… Sylas’ gaze was already glowing white-hot.
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