Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

Wrik gasped, finding out what he has to achieve from the scribing of Dairyl. So the drawing is all about the flow of mana—he did not know how hard it would be to master this. 

"Can you show me again?" He asked.

Dairyl nodded, but did not start inscribing immediately. "Designing is divided into two categories," she said. "One is carving—the process of scribing the rune, and the other is Breaking—the process of destroying the design in the easiest way."

Wrik swallowed a little after hearing that. He did know anything about it before, so what she said was an eye-opener for him.

"Some are good at carving, while some are good at breaking, but to be a respectable enough designer you have to learn both." She paused for a moment. "Your first task is to master all the Elneo characters."

Saying that, she continued to show the way to write each of the characters.

"Wait a second," Wrik said as he closed his eyes. The moment he opened again, there was a faint silver glow in them. "You can continue."

Dairyl noticed the silver glow, but asked nothing. They all have secrets.

"For the Elneo script that is known as the carving script, the flow should be continuous and revolving throughout the characters. That way it would not lose any mana at all."

Wrik analysed the mana flow with his [Eye of Insights]. As Dairyl had said, there was no overflow, but that did not mean the mana was unmoving. It was flowing slowly in a uniform way, and he saw almost no waste in it, which indicated if it was not purposefully broken, the character would last over two hours against the natural decay.

Wrik's eyes were on the way Dairyl was drawing the runic characters. She drew all the 72 characters slowly so he could see them properly.

"Try it now," she said, giving back the designer disc back.

Wrik nodded as he tried to imitate the flow of the very first character. With the help from [Eye of Insights], it was not much of a problem to imprint the flow in his mind, but imitating just the same was a little difficult. 

The character he drew was identical to the one she had drawn, but the flow was not the same. As far as he was concerned, it would last a quarter of an hour to half an hour—which was a far better improvement from his first try.

"Much better," Dairy replied, hiding her astonishment. She had not thought Wrik would grasp it so easily with her showing just once. 

Wrik acknowledged back, but he took no pride in it. He felt like he was cheating with the [Eye of Insights]. Yet he was not stupid enough to waste time learning without the ability. With [Eye of Insights}, he could understand in a few minutes, but if tried without it; it may take hours. He continued to draw the runes as Dairy inspected them in real-time.

"You get it rather quickly,'' She commented. "All you need now is practising."

Wrik hesitated for a moment to open his lips. "What about the Elnin script? What's their deal?" he asked, as he still felt there was much more to learn about the Elnin scripts.

"Elnin script is a little harder for you now. You need more knowledge and experience before you can try."

"But isn't it just the Elneo scripts drawn in reverse?" he asked. Even though he did not learn the Elnin script entirely yet, he had grasped all the 66 characters in it, and most of them looked like the same Elneo script in reversal.

"Is it?" Dairyl questioned back. "They may look like the twisted version of Elneo, but they are a lot different. For instance, there is a lot of freedom in the flow compared to the Elneo—that you have to scribe in that the only way."

Wrik tilted his head, not understanding. "Why is that?"

"Elnin can be said to be the reverse of Elneo, but it is not the 'just reverse' you mentioned. It is the script for discharging the mana and it could not work alone without the Elneo scripts."

"But the freedom in describing them, why does not make it easier?" Tanya asked in his place. She was listening and examining all things from the beginning, as she had an interest in learning them.

Dairyl was not annoyed or anything in her question as Tanya had not disrupted her teaching any way. "That's a good question," she said. "Why is it harder to scribe even though you get more freedom? The answer is, if you know nothing, how would you use your freedom? For example, let say, you have to go to a market, and you know the proper way there. You can get there easily, right? But what if you did not know the way? Then you have to try of different path for reaching the market. 

"That's where we need the knowledge and experience to draw the scripts in the most appropriate flow."

Tanya nodded with Wrik. What Dairyl said does make sense.

"You three can practise or talk now. I'll see how Lora is doing alone now." Saying that, she moved in front of the tomboy, who was dozing off while meditating.

Wrik was imitating the 72 characters when Tanya moved near him. Behind her was Byul.

"Teach me," Tanya said at the very moment. 

Wrik's mouth was hung open hearing that. He even did not know the proper way yet how he could teach others.

"You said you would," she said again.

Wrik recalled he did promise her to teach her, but that was when he mastered it himself.

She pointed at the scribing of Dairyl before saying again. "Just start with how each of these characters was pronounced?"

It appeared Tanya was headstrong about learning it. Maybe she was bored these days, as she was the only one left with an injury.

Wrik nodded as he looked at the short-haired girl. "What about you?" he asked. 

Byul shook her head. "I don't think I can learn these confusing things in my life."

"Well," Wrik started, pointing at the very first letter on the stone. "The first one is known as 'Gae' and pronounced as 'G', 'J', or 'Z' most of the time.. . ."

Wrik continued to throw the knowledge he knew about the characters to Tanya while Byul was already yawning. 

"Alright, no more for today," Tanya stopped Wrik from continuing further. "18 is already overwhelming for me to memorise in a day. Leave the rest for another day. 

"As you wish," Wrik smiled. Even as brilliant as Tanya could not learn all the characters in a day while he could even converse a little after barely a day of learning. Though all he could talk about was almost bullshit, this showed how amazing [Eye of Insights] is, even though it was still Ranked-B.

Wrik continued to practise the scribing for about an hour when Lily came into the stone room. 

"Everyone is here," she said, looking at everyone in the room. After a while conversing with Dairyl, she came before Wrik and asked. "Pretty brother, how's your health?" 

Black lines appeared hearing the name 'Pretty brother', but he could convince this wild lady to stop calling him that. "I'm good," he said. In the four days of rest, he came back to the state when he took the test. "Is it the time?"

Lily nodded. "Though we have time, delaying will only make our situation disadvantageous," she said. "We need a flag the sooner it is possible."

Wrik nodded. Tanya and Byul were also listening to the conversation, though they were silent. 

"What do you propose?" he asked. 

"Well, let's start with scouting first," Lily said. "How about we spy the fortress for its weakness and strength before challenging it?" 

Wrik agreed. Knowing your enemy is the basis of warfare. Though it was not proper to call it a war, it was still the Little War. "When do we start?"

"Tomorrow, dawn," Lily answered, clearly satisfied with his response.

Wrik nodded. "So, the two of us will be enough." 

Lily was just about to nod when Byul sounded out. 

"I would like to go."

Wrik looked at the short-haired girl. There was no need for anyone extra just for scouting, yet the resolution on her eyes showed she would not take no as an answer.

"Alright," he said, sighing. He looked at Tanya, she was about to say the same thing as well, but Wrik disagreed, shaking his head even before she could voice it out.

"Why?" Tanya protested. "Even though, I have not fully recovered, I can handle myself." 

"I know you can, but it's just scouting. There is no need to tire yourself with it. You just need to recover." 

Tanya looked annoyed, but did not protest further.

"Alright, Pretty brother, rest well for today. And the two misses too."

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Next Chapter: Assault again?

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