Top Gamer Reincarnated as an Archmage-Chapter 38: Art of Runes (1)

"I would never have expected you to take this class!" She chuckled as the smoke had already cleared out of the room completely, finally making his eyes work properly.

"Well, it seems like we have full attendance!" As soon as Ravenna said that, Klaus turned and looked at the two other students as everyone was seated already.

One of them was a girl who was playing with her short auburn hair. The glasses which were covering her sharp green eyes were slowly slipping off, so she kept adjusting it with her hand.

’Okay...’

The other was a pale vampire-looking boy, his long black hair was tied in a ponytail, and his purple hazy eyes seemed to be slowly closing as he nearly drifted off to sleep, his under-eye bags betrayed him completely.

’Seems like he took this class to have an easy pass...will this be easy though..?’ Klaus turned back towards Ravenna, who was holding some kind of a stick in her hand whilst pointing at the three of them.

’Looks like a wand...’ It really did look like one, it even had a pointy dark ending to it.

"So let’s begin!" She lifted the stick up then down onto a parchment as she began drawing weird symbols.

’Runes?’ Klaus leaned closer, however, he had no clue what exactly was being drawn.

"A smoke ring rune!" The girl from behind him chimed in, instantly recognising the rune, the other boy had already seemed to be in a cosy dream as he slightly drooled whilst leaning back.

"Correct, Rhea!" Varenna screamed out so loudly that the other boy had woken up from his slumber and nearly jumped out of his chair.

’Smoke ring?’ Klaus looked closer, however, he had no clue how she was able to tell...

’All I see is a bunch of different lines being interlinked,’ He looked at Varenna, who seemed to be smiling, clearly proud of her creation.

"So," She put the parchment down and swung the stick around, "who can tell me what runes are for?"

"..." Klaus was silent, and the other boy was already drifting off to sleep again.

"Traps, protection, attacks, runes are a form of art technically, they can be used for nearly anything from common daily things to killing someone!" Rhea kept going on and on whilst Varenna was nodding each time she said something correct, and all of it was correct.

’Protection makes sense,’ Klaus saw it in multiple places of the academy, in the classroom, on the hallway walls, on the outside walls before he even entered.

"So how do people use these...runes?" As soon as he asked the question, Ravenna’s ruby eyes lit up like a volcano had erupted.

"Great question!" Mana seemed to channel into the parchment she was holding, and then without any warning, she threw the parchment.

"Huh—" Before Klaus could even say anything, the parchment, or to be more precise, the rune itself exploded, smoke filling the room again, covering his vision completely.

"Fuck..." The other boy seemed to wake up instantly as well, as all three of the students started coughing from the smoke going into their lungs.

"Let me just.." Klaus couldn’t see what Ravenna was doing, however, he heard her, she definitely did something since the smoke instantly cleared out of the room, but Klaus couldn’t tell what she did.

’Fuck, was that necessary?’

"You probably can tell how they work now, but just in case, let me explain," she pulled out another parchment from her desk.

"The person creating the rune uses something called Runequill to create runes," she held the stick in her hands and put it down onto the paper, "This runequill allows the mage to embed their mana into it, which further allows the mage to inscribe runes, which are basically similar to something like a...mana embedded text!"

’Uhuh...’ Klaus looked at her dumbfounded, it sounded easy yet the scribbles themselves made no sense.

"As for the art for different runes.." She kept using the runequill, drawing a different-shaped rune this time, "you have to memorise each rune if you want to use them!"

"..." The three students looked at each other without a word then back at her.

"So I will hand this out," she reached into her desk and pulled out three books. They were simple, not even similar remotely to the ones Klaus had seen when picking his grimoires.

’Seems simple enough,’ after that she handed everyone a book. It was a thick leather book with a thick leather spine. It had no cover or writing on it whatsoever. However, as Klaus opened it, he saw that the book was filled with different kinds of runes and descriptions on how to create them.

"If you want to use a rune, memorise it," she seemed unsure of what to say as all the students were staring at the contents of the book.

"However, unless you want to become a runesmith, I don’t think you need to memorise more than some of them...even then," she looked down at her hands. Her expression, for some reason, turned to sadness. "Most of the runes aren’t meant for destruction like mages use spells."

She finished drawing and threw the parchment against the wall.

’Woah..’ Klaus couldn’t help but gasp in awe as roses started running out of the parchment, climbing up the wall.

"Being a runesmith is art," she seemed proud, proud of being able to use runes themselves.

"Ma’am Ravenna... how does someone go about being a runesmith?" Rhea asked, her face flushing red as both Klaus and the other boy turned to face her.

"Great question!" Her earlier depressing tone vanished completely as she grasped Rhea’s hands.

’I’m assuming she has some sad background...’ Klaus couldn’t help but lean against his table as Ravenna started discussing the details with Rhea.

"First, you must be able to channel your mana into the runequill," she said as she pointed at the object named. "Then you must learn runes!"

"Is the quill necessary?" the sleepy boy asked the question whilst covering his mouth as he yawned.

"Well," she scratched the back of her head. "There are only a dozen runesmiths that can use runes without a parchment or a runequill..."

’Without either?’ Klaus’s eyes sparkled.

’If I can do that, then I’ll be way stronger.’