"Do you want to show me something, you say?" Darthog Irongrar looked at his son with suspicion. 

The young dwarf manipulated his Status Screen with a mischievous grin. 

"Look, dad, what do you see?" Mradok Irongrar said as he shared the holographic message with his father. 

[Runesmithing] - Advanced, level 1 (2%)

"Holy Forge!" the Legendary Dwarven Runesmith couldn't suppress his astonishment. "You are really my son! Did you really get your Runesmithing to Advanced before your fortieth birthday?! Even I didn't advance so fast when I was your age, Dokky!"

Overcame with emotions, the older dwarf hugged the boy tightly. Even if Darthog was only 4'1 - two inches below the 4'3 of his tall by dwarven standards son - his hands had enough power to crush a bear. Of course, he carefully controlled his strength to avoid hurting the boy, who was many Levels below him. The skinship between the father and the child lasted only for a few seconds, but it showed how much the Legendary Runesmith cared about Mardok. 

"Haha," the boy laughed as he stroked his beard, slightly embarrassed. "I have a really good teacher, you know?! Not everyone is lucky enough to be taught by the best Runesmith alive!" 

The older dwarf shook his head with a wry smile. "I'm afraid that you'll steal this title from me before long."

Dok, as his friends and family called him, replied with a grin, "Then you just need to work harder to advance your Runesmithing to the next stage!" 

"It's easier said than done, son..." The older dwarf sighed. "This world hasn't seen a Transcendent Runesmith for thousands of years."

Darthok then added with a wink, "If someone has the chance to become one, then it's you." 

"Don't give up, dad!" Dok reassured his father. "I'm still a century away from your Grandmaster stage, anyway."

"Hmm..." Darthok started to contemplate something with a frown.

"What's wrong, dad?" the boy asked with unhidden curiosity. 

With a determined face, the man replied, "I think it's the time for me to give you the thing I inherited from my teacher."

"From grandfather?" Dok tilted his head. It was the first time he heard something like this. 

Darthok seriously looked at his son as he retrieved a certain item from his Inventory Ring. 

"Take this," the Legendary Runesmith extended to the boy his hand that held a cubic object with each side being five inches in size. 

Slightly confused, Dok took the strange gift. It kind of looked like a multi-colored puzzle cube that dwarven children used to train their minds. 

"W-what is this?" the boy asked nervously. 

"I don't know." The older man shrugged. "It's some sort of Ancient Artifact. Try to Identify it."

Dok used the [Identify] Skill on the cube, but...

"What the Forge?!" the dwarf boy cursed. "It doesn't show anything. It's obviously an Artifact. I can sense traces of Mana from it." 

Darthok nodded in understanding. "Yeah, this is really strange. If it was an item way beyond your capabilities to Identify, the System would tell us in a message. It would be the same if it was a junk item not recognized by it as something worth Identifying. It's really a mystery..."

"Did you try to melt it?" Dok inquired.

"This Artifact was inherited from teacher to disciple for seven generations already," Darthok answered. "It was proven more than once that this thing is pretty much indestructible. The only thing that we can do is trying to solve its puzzle... With each generation, we get closer and closer to a solution, at least I hope so." 

Dok examined the cube more seriously. He could see that it was covered in tiny runes of six types. Thousands of them could be noticed on each of the sides. It seemed that his predecessors progressed a lot, and five of the sides were already solved - they radiated dim light, each of different color. 

"Don't think that this is just a meaningless toy, though," Darthok said. "Those tiny runes hide profound meanings. When I first received it from your grandfather, just solving a couple of them improved my understanding of Runesmithing tremendously. Of course, after some time, it just becomes a boring and tedious routine that barely gives any help." 

"So it's only helpful for a while, huh?" Dok realized. "No wonder that no one solved the entire puzzle for so long. They probably wanted to save up enough runes for the future generations." 

Mradok Ironrar was different from the previous owners of the cube, though. He really hated to leave anything unsolved...

***

One year passed since Dok received the Artifact that he decided to call the Runic Cube. In this time, his Runesmithing had progressed by three whole levels, which was really mindblowing. In the past, it had taken him more than a year to get to the Advanced stage from the Intermediate level 9. 

"This is all thanks to you, my little treasure!" the dwarf said as he stroked the Runic Cube with a content smile. Thankfully, he was the only person in the room, so no one could witness the strange scene. 

"Too bad that in the last two months, I no longer benefit from solving you anymore," he muttered with some sadness. "But in exchange, I'm going to find out your secret! With just a couple of runes left, it won't take me long to complete the final side. I want to see my father's face when I show him your completed state." 

Maybe if he was older, he would still consider stopping using the Cube as soon as he no longer progressed from analyzing the runes. In this case, he would have something to help his future disciple. But being less than forty, just a teenager by dwarven standards, he didn't think too deeply about the long-term planning. 

He carefully looked at one of the remaining runes, narrowing his violet eyes. From one angle, it seemed to be a hexagram, but from another angle, it was closer to a deformed circle formed from intervened loops. 

He activated his Mana and used [Runic Language] Skill to understand a deeper meaning of the symbol. It was really easy, as he had already seen many similar runes before. This was why solving it barely improved his Runesmithing.

He gently guided his Mana to the tiny rune and then started to shape it into the most suitable form. This process required a lot of concentration and some time. After thirty minutes, the new shape was completed, and the rune transformed, revealing its true shape - a three-dimensional object embedded inside the Cube. Dok still didn't understand what those things were, and, honestly, he didn't care that much. 

One hour after another passed as he transformed the tiny runes using his Mana. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and some of them fell on his thick pitch-black beard. 

"Just one more," he muttered to himself before continuing. 

After another half an hour, the last rune transformed, making the last side complete. 

"Hahaha, I did it!" the dwarf exclaimed - tired but in a good mood. 

"Dad, come here!" he shouted loud enough to be heard even through the walls of his room. "I'll show you something really interesting!"

As the Cube started to radiate dim light from each of its sides, Dok heard a clear sound from inside of it.

Ding!

"Hmm?!" the dwarf felt a sudden surge of Mana from inside the Artifact. Fearing that it could explode, he prepared to toss it to the other end of his room. 

Unfortunately, before he could as much as move his finger, bright rainbow-colored light burst from the Cube, completely enveloping the dwarf. 

Just a couple of seconds later, Darthog opened the door.

"Dokky?" he questioned with doubt. His voice echoed through the completely empty room. 

Neither Mardok nor the Cube could be seen anywhere, for they no longer belonged to this world.