Chapter 17: Making the first D ranked rune

 After eating the Galtea stew, Darius went back to his room. He decided that, now that he felt like his blood was bubbling under his skin, he needed to get rid of as much of it as he could.

 With that in mind, he took the D ranked notebook, and listed through the runes. Sure, Alek, the shopkeeper of the rune shop, had told him he wanted B and up ranked runes. 

But that didn't mean that Darius couldn't get his own stand for the lesser runes. Perhaps someone in Orc's eye would need a blood removal rune? He would sell it for fifty silvers. Now, what did he need for it? He flipped the page to the rune's description, and began to read. 

Blood removal runes are tricky. You have to make them in ink. There are at least a thousand varieties, most of which are for different types of blood. This rune is the one that is most commonly used, although it will not remove Basilisk or Demon blood.

Darius nodded. Well, he could always see what he could do about demon blood removal. As for Basilisk, he didn't know. After all, he had never seen a Basilisk. In Beth's stories, the Basilisk was a giant snake, that could turn people into stone by just gazing at them. If it screeched at you, it will turn you deaf. So, Darius was in no rush to find a Basilisk so soon after beginning his training. 

He saw the rune, and began to study it. 

There is the rune for life on the top, and a water rune under it. 

After Darius realized that, he wondered why the rune for life didn't include demons. Flipping to the description for the rune of life in the beginning F ranked notebook, he got his answer. 

The cycle of life includes all the beings that are born, and then age and die. All the immortal beings, such as Demons, Vampires, Necromancers, and the like are outside the cycle. They can reproduce, but must be killed by a violent means. For they will not die any other way. 

"I am outside the cycle of life?" Darius murmured, and then became saddened. That didn't sound like something he would enjoy. If he was outside the cycle of life, was he outside the cycle of rebirth as well? Would he just vanish in thin air, after dying? The notebook didn't hold the answer to that. There were no rebirth runes. Although, there was a passage on a necromantic rune. 

The skeleton rune is the only one that non-born necromancer can use. Many attempts have been made, some even by me, to create more such runes. The thing is, necromancer don't use runes. They use a meditative state, which is dangerous during battle. That is why necromancer pre-make their legions.

"Skeletons would prove useful," Darius said, and placed a bookmark on the page with the skeleton rune. It was ranked A, so way out of his reach. Still, he could dream. 

He searched for the rune for demon, and finally found it. It was a pentagram in a triangle. The triangle was in a rectangle. Darius copied the rune, and then the one for the blood removal next to it. He eyed the two runes side by side. The rune for life was a never-ending line. It had to start from one end of the paper, and continue onto the next. 

Darius nodded to himself, and then made the line again, this time with a pen. Below the line, but closely to it, he drew the line for demon. Then, the rune for water, making sure that all the lines of the drawing were touching. Then, he decided to make something like a medium between his own mana resonance, and Andiel's. 

When he got the beat of mana the way he liked it, he cut his hand, and let all the excess blood flow down to the sheet of paper, as he poured mana inside. The paper glowed, which made him happy. Had it not glowed, then the spell wouldn't have held. With a bounce to his step, Darius took the rune off his desk, and rushed to Andiel. 

"Dad, I did it. My first D ranked rune," Darius called from the doorway. He approached his father, who placed the pestle down. 

"Let me see your hand," Andiel said, and then, when Darius let him see the cut, he poured mana inside it and closed it. "I need to teach you how to do that." 

"That would be great," Darius said. If he learned how-to close-up wounds, he could make more runes per day. 

"What is the rune about?" The elf asked, and Darius puffed up his little chest. 

"It is about blood removal. I made it work with demon blood too, I think," Darius was not very sure if he had succeeded. One thing he was certain of, that it would remove normal blood. 

"Let us try it, then," Andiel said, and then took out a dirty clinic scrub from the washing hamper. Darius saw that it was sprinkled with red.

"Did you operate again?" Darius asked, curious. 

"Yes, heart transplant. One day, you will be able to do that too," Andiel had not given up on making a healer out of Darius, even if the demon boy was going to be a bounty hunter, for the most part. 

"I will be just as good of a healer as you, dad," Darius murmured, and Andiel poured some mana in the blood removal rune, and placed the scrubs on top of it. The red sprinkles disappeared after a minute. Darius wiped his still blood smeared hand on the scrubs, and watched as the blood from it too disappeared. 

"Well, I think you did great, son," Andiel spoke, a proud smile on his lips. 

"Do you think I can sell this?" Darius asked, nodding to the rune. 

"Maybe leave me one? It will come in dead useful, if I don't have to scrub my scrubs until my hands are raw," Andiel suggested, and Darius nodded. 

"For the price of a hug, this rune is yours, good sir," Darius gave his father a cheeky smile. 

"Well, I better give up the best hug, then?" Andiel scooped up his son, and didn't let go until Darius let go of him first.