84 Methods II

She hopped onto the side of the building, scaling it in seconds, and vanished onto the roof. Noah and his students stared at her retreating back, then silently glanced at each other.

"She's… interesting," Isabel hedged.

"Crazy," Todd finished. "I think I'm more flexible, though. I can almost touch my shins now."

"That's pretty pathetic," Isabel said with a laugh. "You really should practice more. Professor, are we going to be doing anything else today?"

"No. I'm going to be working on getting my hands on a new Greater Rune. The two of you should just work on sparring since you don't have any other good ways to strengthen your Runes safely right now. No going into the forest without me."

"That's not true. We can still just strengthen them normally," Todd said. "It's not really fast, but it's all we ever did before you decided to change things up. That's what pretty much everyone our age does, you know."

"It's just slow because we don't have access to any of the resources to speed it up that noble families do," Isabel said, a bitter edge to her words. "It's not easy to distill a bunch of monster parts down into some super soup that makes your Runes absorb energy faster."

Runes absorb energy from the environment passively? Moxie did mention something about that, but I thought it was something you had to do on purpose. I suppose it doesn't change anything about my strategy, but that's interesting to know.

Maybe I could augment their training by trying to get some of these monster parts? I definitely kill enough of them. I'll have to look into it without coming off as too clueless to Isabel and Todd. I'd also imagine you need stronger monsters for that to be effective.

"Hey, if it works and you think it's worth your time, then do it." Noah shrugged. He paused for a moment. "But, while you're at it, could you keep your ears to the ground? Let me know if those rumors are getting too out of hand."

Isabel gave Noah a grim nod. "I'll pay attention. I don't want to find Magus Allen waiting at my door one morning. That would probably go very poorly for me."

"He's a professor," Noah said, sounding more confident than he felt. "I'm sure he wouldn't resort to anything that vile. Maybe leave something on the handle when you sleep just in case, though. A little caution never hurt anyone."

Isabel snorted. "I'm used to sleeping with one eye open. I'll be fine. It's Todd you should be worried about."

"Hey, I'm not the one that crushed Edward in the exam. That was you."

The two of them devolved into an argument with surprising speed. Noah watched them for a few moments, a small smile on his face, then headed off to find Tim. It was time to get back to hunting Fluffants – his Greater Wind Rune was waiting for him.

***

Just like that, two weeks passed. The rumors never did amount to anything more than just that, but Noah never saw Magus Allen or Edward again in that time. Amy also swung by to deliver his pay of ten gold for the month, which Noah stashed away. His time was all spent split between classes with Lee and hunting Fluffants in the Windscorned Plateau.

The pipe continued to give him trouble – though he continued to practice trying to light the strands of grass aflame every day. But, instead of wasting time until the pipe was working, Noah dropped by the Scorched Acres to collect a large bag of ash. He took to carrying it around while fighting the Fluffants, and put it to enormous use against the monsters, cutting them down with little difficulty.

He did avoid using Sunder again, as even though he could now handle it for a few moments, the damage it tended to do was usually just as much against him as it was against his opponent. For the time being, he was satisfied to know he was getting closer to being able to truly use it.

When he wasn't fighting Fluffants or in class, Noah finally forced himself back to the library to both return the previous books he'd taken and check some new ones out. He finally confirmed that there were far more ways to grow the strength of his Runes than he'd initially thought, though killing monsters was still by far the most efficient way.

The method that Todd and Isabel had spoken of was barely even a method in the way that they used it. Runes, like muscles, grew stronger with usage by drawing energy from the body. It was at such a low rate that it was nearly unnoticeable for Greater Runes, but when augmented by parts from dead monsters, users could improve at significant rates without ever putting themselves at risk.

There were also a variety of other strengthening methods that involved intentionally drawing energy from the environment while meditating, copying down Runes, contemplating the benefits of one's Runes – the list went on. Nobody seemed able to agree on how many variations of improvement there were, but none of them matched up to absorbing energy from other Runes directly.

Unfortunately, the only way to properly absorb the energy from another Rune was to take it from the owner. It wasn't like the monsters could understand Noah even if he asked politely for their runes, though.

Noah also checked out the dossier on the Windscorched Plateau. It identified the Fluffants as Flower Sappers – information that he promptly wiped from his mind. His name was far superior.

He'd gotten fairly good at fighting the Fluffants in the past two weeks, but he couldn't help but notice that they had far more variation in how they fought than the monkeys did. Some were aggressive, and others would try to rip clods of dirt up and throw them at him, to essentially zero effect beyond maybe the slight satisfaction of pelting someone in the face.

Almost no two of the monsters fought exactly the same, though. When Noah checked the dossier, one of his earlier theories was confirmed as well. There wasn't any record of a Master Rune wielding monster in the area, which explained why the Fluffants seemed more unique. They weren't part of a hivemind.

Noah filed the information away. His methods would be far less effective if he brought Isabel and Todd to the Windscorned Plateau. It was best to continue in the forest or find another location governed by a monster wielding a Master Rune when the time came.

To his delight, Noah managed to fill several of the papers during his hunts in the Windscorned Plateau. Three, to be precise. But, less fortunately, they were all Lesser Runes. But, as Noah stood back and watched the last of the group of Fluffants he'd just killed that day fall to the ground, the papers in his pocket trembled.

That felt like a lot of energy.

Noah pulled the papers out. Three Lesser Wind runes stared up at him, but he leafed past them. Swirling blue lines greeted him on the paper and a huge grin stretched across his lips.

"Greater Rune. About damn time!" Noah crowed, laughing in delight. "Your days are up, Hellreaver Ape. Once I learn this, I'm coming for you. My days of torture are about to end."