The Ruined Death Knight

Currently, in the stone base that Velkir has created, sitting with his back on the wall in a room that had many other weapons laying around, Danzel was holding a whittled spear and pressing his finger towards the tip of the spear.

Removing the mana on his finger, Danzel deactivated his talent [Rune Vision] and sighted in relief.

"After all this work...I finally managed to bring the [Rune of Harvest] to the [Average] rating." Danzel said while looking at the runes of the wittled spear.

They were only a rune to be seen and that was on the tip of the spear, which was none other than the [Rune of Harvest].

But if one were to look carefully, they were three runes in total, whereas the two other ones were behind the many opening of the spear.

Although doing so proved to be much more difficult than he expected, it came out fine.

It was a mere attempt to naturally hide the runes for other eyes. Though the [Rune of Harvest] couldn´t be hidden as it was one the tip of the wittled spear, one could artistically see the carving.

The carving resembled several lines that formed like a vortex or a black hole of some kind, in those lines were extremely small rune letters that made out the lines. And in the middle of a said black hole was a mouth, or rather the teeth.

It looked as if something was sucking everything, which wasn´t wrong if one considered the two other runes that he managed to carve.

One of them being the upgraded version of his original rune, which he decided to call, [Rune of Thirst]. It was a successful combination with an aspect of another [common] and the previous rune of his.

The common rune was called [Rune of Trist], which upon the usage of mana could gather wind around the user in a large area.

The aspect he used to combine his original rune is the large area part.

Since he got to the point, where reaching the [Well-done] to [Perfect] rate with [Common] runes, it wasn´t particularly hard to mix in another component in his original rune.

What he aimed was to increase the range of the blood-sucking part, which when successful, made the [Rune of Thirst] be born.

He would be lying to say that he wasn´t proud of his creation.

[Rune of Thirst]: A rune made by a particularly strong weight. A vicious rune that allows one object to naturally draw blood and to some extent to control the movements of drawn blood. Upon minimal usage of mana, the range of the rune's blood drawing ability is greatly extended. The range is increased the more mana is spent by the users. As the name suggests, the object with this rune will thirst for blood.

`Though I was unable to make the effect completely passive since it was easier by putting mana cost, it shouldn´t be impossible to fix in the future.´ Danzel thought while looking at the third rune.

That rune was a plain [Common] rune, called [Rune of Peain], the rune did nothing else than enchanting the mana attacks to inflict more pain on one target.

Mana attacks generally being his [Gale Mana Blade] or [Cursed Blade].

The rune by itself wasn´t that great as it would spend a large amount of space where other runes could be carved in the weapon which would be more useful.

The sole reason why Danzel carve this rune at all was mainly for the theme of the spear and the combination with his [Rune of Thirst].

Since one could increase the range of the rune by putting one's mana in, it was considered a mana attack, which in turn made the [Rune of Peain] activate constantly.

A vicious combination if he had to say the truth.

And as the spear would be used by Azrael who was a blood mage, he thought the rune was suitable.

"Hmm, my sword does have some remaining space for a rune, but to put the [Rune of Thirst], I would have to remove my previous one by using the skill [Rune Erasure]. Maybe if I increase its level, the damaging part will disappear, but that also requires XP..." Danzel mumbled as he put the spear in his storage ring.

Leaving his room, Danzel went out towards Velkir´s room as they planned to have a lecture again.

He decided to hand the wittled spear after taking the lecture.

`Though Azrael wouldn´t let me hear the end of it if he knew that I finished it. Receiving a few hours later should be fine.´ Danzel thought with a faint grin under his helmet.

Walking down the stairs, Danzel arrived in Velkir's room with two other people beside Velkir waiting there.

Those two were none other than Shiro and the overprotective Agares.

"I see you finally came," Velkir said in his cold voice.

Reaching out his head Velkir put one wooden box on the table.

"Here."

Nodding my head, I reached out and put the wooden box in the storage ring.

'I will have to see its effect later.' Danzel thought while ignoring the intense gaze of the small girl behind Agares.

He couldn't really see her face with the hood and his height difference, but he could tell that she was jealous.

"Since we are pressed against time, today we will be discussing one mana aptitude." Velkir declared as brought out two of the same books from what Danzel guessed was his storage ring.

"Those books consider the basics and how to build one's aptitude and other information which you might find useful. After we are done with our lecture, you should read it."

Nodding their head, Agares picked up the book for Shiro's case while Danzel put it in his storage ring.

"Then let's start, with one of you having already an aptitude it will be easier to explain." Velkir said while turning his head towards Danzel.

"Danzel, could you please release your mana for everyone to see?"

Nodding my head, I released my dark green mana from my hand.

"Shiro, can you tell me what color the natural mana has and what defines the color change of mana." Velkir said towards the little girl.

"Mhm, natural mana has a blue color." She said while raising her pale white arms to show her own mana.

"Depending on the element that the mana holds, the different color it turns!" She said while transforming the mana in her hands into all kinds of colors.

The fire element showed as a bright red.

The water element is light blue.

Earth is brown.

Darkness as black.

And many others.

Motioning to stop, Velkir said.

"Correct, the color of mana tells the element that resides on our spells. Of course, such color can be tempered with but among the arts I mana, there are some exceptions."

"And those are one's Mana Aptitude." Velkir said while looking at his disciples who waited for him to continue.

"Simple put, it's the mana that is the most efficient for thematic caster body to use. Everyone has one, but wherever one awakens it to use for his own unique magic is a whole other case." Velkir said while pointing his staff towards Danzel's dark green mana.

"The usual requirement to awaken your aptitude is to become a magic caster of the 4th-tier, with some rare cases of 3rd-tier casters managing to awake it."

"But there is an exception to this rule, this being that one is being " born" with his mana aptitude right of the start. "

Understanding what Velkir, Shiro raised her hand to receive Velkir attention.

"Teacher, does Shiro have a mana aptitude." She asked with a glow of expectations in her eyes, but the answer she received was like pouring cold water on top of her.

"You do have one, but sadly you will have to awaken yours." Velkir said as he turned towards Danzel.

"You in turn Danzel have already awaken yours, and as far as I can tell, it holds the attributes of death and life."

Hearing that, Danzel finally understood what the Lich meant with mana aptitude.

'He means my [Soul Affinity]?' Danzel though and his interest in the topic spiked.

"What does having an aptitude for death and life mean."

"Imagine it like combining two elements to turn into one. For example, the fire element with the earth elemental mixing together would result in the use of magic with molten earth much easier."

"But the same combination doesn't mean the same result. Azrael as much as I hold an aptitude of death and life, our final mana aptitude is fundamentally different."

"The blood magic is the result of Azrael's unique mana, as for yours, I ain't too sure about it. I have never seen such mana as yours, Danzel." Velkir said as he shook his head.

"Finding how to use your unique mana is your job, but do not let yourself be lost on such a narrow way of magic. Studying magic that you are only good at isn't the way of a magic caster. Though specializing yourself with spells of your mana aptitude is strong, most of the time, there would be weaknesses."

"Learning the correcting spells and knowledge to fight off such weaknesses is the deciding point of a good magic caster and a bad one." Velkir said with his cold voice.