Rebirth System: Blood and Ash

The prince glanced at the arrow gripped firmly in his hand. It was fast—so fast that the only reason he was able to stop it before it reached him was the use of the Muscle Burst skill. Even then, it was a close call.

Aric turned from the arrow towards the direction it had been shot from. There, standing with a face full of dread and regret, was Alan, and around his hand was a device of sorts.

The young guard immediately dropped to one knee, bowing his head.

"I have made a grave mistake, Your Highness. I will accept whatever punishment you deem fit," the guard exclaimed, his voice slightly trembling.

Aric, still confused about what was going on, turned to Lerai, who stood not too far from Alan.

"Deeply sorry, Your Highness. It’s not his fault. He was probably a little startled when you walked in, which led to the misfire," Lerai explained.

"I have no excuse, my prince," the guard continued apologizing.

"Get up, it’s fine... I’m quite curious, however—what was that?" Aric asked, his gaze shifting to Alan’s hand.

Lerai, a smile brimming on his face, stepped forward. He reached for Alan’s hand, pulling him up from the ground.

"This is the improved version of the crossbow I showed you. That was just a demo of how something like this could work," Lerai said, pulling Alan closer to Aric so he could see the device on his hand.

Aric leaned in to observe it. The device was like a glove on the guard’s hand, sleek and metallic, with a dark silver finish and glowing lines etched across its surface. Just above his knuckles was a small compartment where tiny arrows were loaded—almost too small to be real. A crystal embedded in the wrist pulsed with light, like it was alive.

"This…isn’t a crossbow," Aric muttered in shock.

"No, it’s the: Arrow Compress and Release upon Expand Arrow Arcane Shooter, version 3.44."

Aric looked up from the glove to Lerai with a deadpan expression. "That’s the worst name I’ve ever heard."

"Fine, fine, I’ll work on it," Lerai laughed, raising his hands in mock surrender.

"How does it work?" the prince asked, still examining Alan’s hand closely.

"Glad you asked," Lerai said, turning to the guard. "Please provide His Highness with a demo."

Aric stepped back, giving the young guard space. Alan raised his right hand, which was clad in the device, and aimed it at the far wall. The crystal gave off a glow, and a streak of red shot from the guard’s hand, thrusting into the wall.

"Oh," Aric muttered, intrigued.

He walked over to the wall to inspect what had happened. Upon reaching it, he noticed the arrow had driven deep into the stone, leaving only its tail exposed. The arrow was also of normal size, which puzzled Aric, as he was certain it wouldn’t have fit in the glove that Alan wore.

"How?" Aric examined the arrow further before turning to Lerai. "How does that come out from there?"

Lerai walked over to the large table in the center of the room, which was cluttered with wooden objects—likely prototypes—and large sheets filled with multiple drawings. He opened a journal, revealing pages filled with words, maybe spells. Whatever they were, Aric was certain he couldn’t understand them.

"These are Arcanic Code," Lerai said proudly.

"I’m not a mage; I don’t know what that is," Aric replied.

"Even if you were a mage, you wouldn’t know what this is because only I do. I invented it."

Aric’s mind flashed to a memory. He remembered now, in his last life, the one thing Lerai Castro had created that changed the arcane world forever.

"They’re like instructions, created from a complex embedding of mana. Each stroke of ink holds a command," Lerai explained further.

Aric stared blankly at Lerai, barely understanding the explanation. This prompted Lerai to elaborate.

"It’s a highly complex arcane language that embeds magical instructions into physical or metaphysical objects. It allows a person to predefine specific outcomes, behaviors, or transformations of an object by inscribing or embedding coded sequences of arcane runes, sigils, and formulas."

Lerai flipped through more pages as he spoke.

"Each piece of Arcanic Code is a complex set of instructions that communicates directly with the inherent magic of an object or system, guiding it to perform tasks autonomously without the need for active spellcasting."

"That’s… revolutionary," Aric muttered, genuinely impressed.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

"So that’s how the arrow can shrink to be stored and expand back while shooting at such high speed," Aric said, gesturing to the wall.

"Yes. The device is embedded with Arcanic Code that runs commands for four spells. The ’Shrinking’ spell keeps the arrow tiny, allowing more to be loaded. The ’Thrust’ spell launches the arrows. The ’Observe’ spell detects when the user is tense and ready to shoot. Finally, the ’Leech’ spell is the glyph that draws mana from the mana crystal."

Arcanic Code is written in runes and sigils, each representing a different function or behavior. Control Runes define how the object or spell interacts with the world for example: "project," "consume," "store," "repel".

Action Sigils represent actions and processes. They define how a task is performed, such as "fire," "move," "shield," "heal." These are like verbs in the code, instructing what needs to be done. While Mana Glyphs control the flow of mana and regulate how much energy is used for any given task. These are crucial for energy efficiency, making sure the code doesn’t drain all available power at once.

Aric was left both shocked and impressed. Although he had assumed it would take Lerai time to become the great mage he had been in Aric’s previous life, the young mage was progressing faster than expected.

"Of course, it’s not perfect," Lerai continued. "It would be far stronger with better mana crystals, and I still need to perfect the launch mechanism to avoid misfires like the one that just happened."

"It’s still incredible progress," Aric commended. "Is Arcanic Code also how the rune stones we gave the bandits work?"

Lerai shook his head. "No, that’s different. Rune stones use a different mechanism."

"I see," Aric nodded. "Speaking of which, I came because I need to speak with them."

"Oh, should I connect to the stone right now?" Lerai asked.

Aric nodded. "Yes. It’s time we begin taking Byzeth’s main trade route."