Kaus sat in a comfortably overstuffed armchair, his legs splayed out in front of him thanks to its slightly too short height. He had returned to the office as soon as he had woken, rising with the dawn of the crystal sun that hung high above the Depths-created dwarven city. To his luck, he''d been able to slip out of the bedroom without waking Porkchop. By his measure he had at least an hour until his friend woke, giving him plenty of time to merge Runic Lexicon.

    His chest rose and fell with his slow and measured breaths. The steady cadence helping him to empty his mind and prepare him for the battle of wills ahead. Even with his enhanced mental visualisation capabilities thanks to True Sight, he knew that it would require a devoted effort to ignore the calls of his legacy skills as he went through the merging process.

    Thankfully, with each step on his path, the amount of skills that needed to be merged decreased. He doubted that even with his drive and capped Willpower that he would be able to handle the strain of merging more than five.

    He could do this. It was time.

    His inner world spun into existence, sharp and defined. Where previously entering his soul space felt like puppeting a marionette, now he felt in control. More able to visualise and direct his will. His soul burned with a warm orange fire, lighting up the nebulae of his resources. Pulling the crystal shards of his general skills into its orbit.

    A full half of them glimmered with the platinum shine he had come to expect from legacy skills. A testament to his steadily growing foundation, though only one had buttressed up against the imposed cap on growth that the system imposed on the unclassed.

    The other half glimmered, almost overshadowed by the aura of their superior cousins. Each and everyone bled meaning into the void. Their energies twisting and turning into mind bending geometric shapes. His runic mastery skills.

    At this point, spinning out his initial thread of soulfire was simplicity itself. He took a moment to weave it tighter. Visualising it less like a diffuse rope of fire, and more a wire of metallic gold. Condensing it into a strengthened form. The image weighed on his mind, but he knew the bond would be necessary, would help to anchor his soul more securely to his first skill. Help him to ignore the siren song of his legacy skills, already whispering their obsession into his mind.

    He lunged for his first skill, wrapping it in a gilden net of soulstuff. Ykkardian shrieked of truth. Of philosophy. It condensed the world into its core principles. Leaning on layered meanings to hide profound mysteries in a single sentence. It connected to something higher. Acknowledging that interpretation and context was where true insight was formed.

    The weight of the skill settled heavily on his brow, dragging at his willpower. Kaius grit his teeth, staying focused as his legacy skills shrieked. Screaming for his attention. He moved on, feeling sweat starting to bead on his brow.

    Reaching out to his soul once more, Kaius took the time to spin out another metallic wire of soul-stuff that shined with inner light. A finger length at a time he pulled it from its soul. It was agonisingly slow, every added moment giving his legacy skills more space to resonate, demanding that he connect with them. It was worth it, the extra density of the connection remaining steadfast against their covetous desire.

    He touched the next skill. It was exacting. Uncompromising. There was only one truth, one correct way to interpret the union of the physical and magical. To be inaccurate was to give false commands. How could one expect obeisance from mana when one could not even direct it clearly? Complexity was necessary if one wanted to truly describe the myriad complexities of the heavens.

    Holding his mind steady under the buffeting winds of meaning, Kaius watched as the skill pulsed with light. Connecting to his soul. Tension spiked as the call of his legacy skills redoubled, rising into a hellish squeal that tore at his mind like an icepick. He grit his teeth, the physical pain spreading through his jaw keeping him grounded.

    Another wire of soul condensate shot from his soul, moving with speed as he grew used to condensing his inner self into a stable speed. Wrapping around his next skill, he dove into it. Feeling its depths before his other skills could call to him once again.

    Yosh''s Supplementary was relaxed. Understanding of the confusion and difficulty that could arise when concepts struggled to cross barriers in communication. It was such a foreign concept to Kaius. That truth was not universal. That meaning did not have one description. Yosh had known, and as such so did his skill. It was a mediator. One that heard, understood, and passed on. Twisting the message so that it was received correctly, its core preserved untouched. It did not seek to explain, merely translate.

    The skill connected, a shockwave echoing through Kaius''s innermost self. The three skills he had connected to his soul started to resonate. Singing with joy at a coming union. His legacy skills raged, the metaphysical weight of potential whipping them into new heights of furor. Kaius pushed on, his nails digging into his palm.

    Lashed in golden wire, High Lothian spoke to him. It called to the deft mysteries of magic. The immutable secrets of mage craft. Observed. Understood. Transcribed. Magic might have been a higher force, but it was still bound by laws. Shaped by rules. Will and intent might suffice, but true control came from direction and control, not manipulation. Bound by logic and argument, diffuse power could ignite into so much more.

    Unusual

    Embody the unity of knowledge. Transcribe order from chaos, bring harmony to the discordant, and power to the inscribed.

    This skill improves the users ability to create runic formations, and increases the stability of the formations themselves. Formations utilising certain languages have their efficacy slightly increased.

    Each level moderately increases speed and accuracy when inscribing runes.

    Each level moderately increases stability of runes.

    Each level moderately increases memory and learning capacity of runes.

    Each level minutely increases the power of formations utilising the Ykkardian, Vhaxanish, Yosh''s Supplementary, High Lothian, and Simenoan runic scripts.

    Merged from: Rune Mastery - Ykkardian, Rune Mastery - Vhaxanish, Rune Mastery - Yosh''s Supplementary, Rune Mastery - High Lothian, Rune Mastery - Simenoan

    Kaius honed in on the final part of the skills description. He had known that it would provide some kind of boost to the scripts that he had used to create it, but a broad boost in power had been beyond his hopes. It raised questions. If his spell casting formation was bound to his body, would it receive continual boosts as he raised the skills level? Or would the skill only affect formations at the moment of their creation.

    He hesitated to lean one way or the other. For normal formations, he was almost certain that they were only impacted at the moment of inscription. Disconnected from his soul, he doubted that his skill would be able to impact them from a distance. Yet, his spellcasting formation would be bound to his body. Linked to his mana, and by extension his inner self. Something that should provide the skill a pathway to continually impact it.

    He hoped so. One of the main drawbacks for his attempt at casting was a lack of general skills that would improve his spells. All magi had those. It seemed he might too, if his suspicions proved correct.

    Kaius heard a chuff from behind him. Jumping a full stride in the air in shock, Kaius spun to find Porkchop standing patiently just inside the office.

    "Hells, Porkchop!" He yelled, pushing his sweat sodden hair out of his face as he let out a slow breath. "I thought you were sleeping."

    "I was." Porkchop snorted. "Until you started yelling like you were being stabbed."

    Kaius gave his friend an awkward smile. He did vaguely remember making a bit of noise, though he didn''t think it had been that loud.

    "Sorry. Getting towards the end of my legacy. The call of the already completed skills is getting... a lot." He explained.

    "I know. It only gets worse from here." Porkchop said solemnly. "Now c''mon, let''s go eat breakfast. I can thrash your manipulation skills after we are done."

    Kaius grinned. Breakfast sounded good. He wasn''t sure how long he had been working on Runic Lexicon, but it must have been a while - he was starving.