Dwargon

[Apollymi]

Miki gave her answer to Kou's question and then pointed out the toothpaste on his chin. And honestly all she could say, is that his reaction was rather strange. He seemed rather suddenly down about something and she couldn't pinpoint any reason for him to feel that way. If he was worried about how long it would take for them to raise the necessary funding, that wasn't something that needed to happen immediately. Beyond this she couldn't have any idea what could have been bothering the lad. 'Ano... did I say something wrong?' the girl was left to wonder. Her interactions with people weren't strange normally, usually any problems she had with communication were due to the way she looked at people, but she was certain they'd already moved past that point as a friend group. 'Hm, I don't really get it...' she thought more but it seemed to be a bit of a headache. "Hai hai." the girl managed though she still seemed a bit confused she followed out of the room they'd shared for the night in the hopes of beginning the other part of their journey.

As they made their way to the Throne Room, they were confronted by the sight of the pair of Dwarves they'd asked to see, the Lancer Class Dwarf with ashen hair who was likely the man Miki had asked for. And beside him, a younger Dwarven female. She wore her hair in giant pigtails which were rusty red in color but pink on the tips. Beyond this she seemed to wear bits of leather armor sewn together with a pair of goggles around her neck. She would be considered the most masterful jeweler the Dwarves had to offer. "Osu! Someone wanted to learn how to make stuff? I'm the person for that... best there is~ I'm Ambra." this woman exuded confidence and had the same kind of boisterous personality that had been seen in several Dwarves the night before.

[Bloodedge]

"The best for trinkets, maybe," spoke the Runemaster in response to his female companion. "I have the greatest knowledge of Runes this kingdom has to offer. My name is Endros," he said further, stepping forward to discover which of these Adventurers would be his charge. Kou stepped up afterwards to face the woman named Ambra. He bowed before her to acknowledge her as his mentor. "My name's Kou. I'm looking to learn as much as I can about Jewelcrafting while we're here. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu." With that said, Kou rose from his bow and patiently awaited guidance to wherever he would be learning, and then whatever he would learn.

[Apollymi]

"Oi, no one asked you, Endie~" the girl quipped in quick reply. True enough she made what most Dwarves considered to be trinkets, but she had a knack for it, which meant she'd get a good teacher. As Kou stepped up and introduced himself, Ambra looked him over and nodded. "Oh, it's you huh? Aww, I was hoping to hang out with a girl for once... oh well. I won't hold it against ya'.... come on. I can show you all the basics in my shop..." she mentioned as she began to walk off, her hands tucked in behind her head, seemingly without a care in the world. "You don't have to be so stern all the time ya' know... see ya' later, Endie~" she chimed walking off and making the assumption that Kou would follow. If he did they would eventually find themselves in an offshoot of the castle, it was a small room with dozens of little tools around and lots of trinkets as well as tables with magnifying glasses over them, covered in scrap parts and all of it a bit tinged with magical influence.

Meanwhile, Miki managed to look at the man who introduced himself as Endros with the same general stare she gave most things. She also gave a brief bow in full acknowledgement of the man's position as her teacher. "I wanted to learn about runes, I'm Miki, yoroshiku..." Miki said addressing this man before rising from her bow. She thought about Kou in this moment and wondered if he'd be leaving for a long while or not. She knew she'd intended to learn this part of her skill set even so... she hadn't spent any time away from this lad since they'd found each other in this world. 'I didn't know I'd feel like this again...' the girl mused inwardly while steeling herself for some hard studying.

[Bloodedge]

"I asked me!" Endros replied in a snarky way. Noting that the young male was clearly to be Ambra's ward, he took an additional step forward, leading him to Miki instead. Meanwhile, Kou had his acknowledgement returned by Ambra. "Uhh... right. I'll do my best," he said, brushing off Ambra's alleged preference for a female apprentice. Since she was still keen to teach him, he followed behind her as she led the way to her shop. 'She's pretty young for a trade teacher. I'd say we're somewhere around the same age, at least,' he thought while trailing behind.

Endros bore a furrowed brow as he looked upon Miki. "Well, Miki... you're going to learn a lot of Runes. We'll do it right here, right now. Tell me what you already know first," he demanded. This man boasted a threatening aura, not like that of King Gowther, but certainly that of a man who felled many, many powerful foes in his time. He had done exactly that over the years, and Runes were the cause of it all. Now that he had someone to call an apprentice, he would ensure she would reach the same level of ability in due time.

[Apollymi]

'Sou ka... I guess they are friends,' this was the conclusion Miki came to given the snarky reply of the man known as Endros to the young woman known as Ambra. As Ambra led Kou off into the distance, Miki glanced his way only once more before the presence of her would be master became something rather present in her mind. He walked up to her and she felt a rather intimidating aura. It wasn't like the assault of a PVP player that she'd been given by King Gowther, instead it was more like the weight of a battle hardened warrior as such she could appreciate it. At face value this man could indeed provide her the kind of information she needed, so she steeled herself not backing down and meeting his gaze. "Hai. I'm ready to learn..." she said with a general amount of confidence normally unseen in her as she was quite used to not being forward with her knowledge. "To be honest, I remember some of the names of runes, but none of what they do. It's really weird... but it's been that way since I started travelling. Like, I know that Ansuz and Ihwaz are really useful, but I can't think of what they look like nor really grasp what they do..." she said. This explanation was likely one to be considered strange, but Miki had been doing a lot of adjusting since she came to this world. Most of her easier things were interface related to her in the game, but Rune Magic was one of the few things she couldn't force nor immediately find a way to use when in combat. It wasn't something she had access to as easily as her other skills, and thus she sought guidance.

[Bloodedge]

Miki claimed she was ready to learn. When she shared her own knowledge with Endros, she revealed that she had just about zero experience using Runes, and knew only the names of some, as well as having a general idea of a few that were useful. "Sou ka. It may be good that you have the natural ability to use Rune Magic, or it may be bad. Some find it easier to learn Runes without having the ability to inscribe them, as they avoid ruining the inscription. Others will have an easier time inscribing as they learn. We'll see what sort you are now," he said. Without further ado, Endros took a knee and drew a single symbol on the floor in a way that looked almost magical, but was in fact quite different. "The first principle is most important," he said as he started the character, drawing a line from the bottom up with his left forefinger. "When we inscribe a Rune, we commune with the world itself. In a way, Runes are the oldest form of Magic, from when the world began," he continued. Once he reached the highest point of the line he drew, his finger connected another line moving down and to the right from his original stopping point. "We accept the laws of nature into ourselves, and we write them to turn them in our favor for a single purpose." With the second line complete, Endros began a new from just under the midway point of the vertical line. Another diagonal would begin at a less sharp angle, yet following a similar path to its predecessor. "Unlike Magic, which came afterwards, Runes do not create; they use the preexisting notions the world itself has given us. It is by altering these principles that we rise above."

Just as he finished speaking, Endros also finished the rune. It glowed crimson into an absolute existence as his finger left the floor. "Find your ears before you search for words. It is from this principle that we gain Ansuz, the breath of life itself. We use it to breathe life into what exists. Flames become inferno, droplets become torrents, gusts become storms. Take this knowledge into yourself, and return it to the world as you see fit."

[Apollymi]

Miki was ever the apt student, as this man began speaking, she did nothing but listen and watch. Her face shifted, into one of her usual seriousness... but she wasn't at all upset. She aimed to retain the lessons presented to her, while experiencing a somewhat nostalgic feeling from his explanation. Endros words in general gave an explanation of runes as a type of magic and allowed Miki to process and understand what she'd been missing from her earlier knowledge. As he wrote the rune on the ground before her, he explained that the magic of runes came in accepting the laws of nature. By doing so she'd be able to use those laws of nature as she saw fit. 'Ano...' she thought looking down at the now crimson glowing rune. 'He sounds like the speaker for the Greybeards...' she concluded, and with that bit of nostalgia in mind she couldn't wait to share that information with Kou. She figured being the sort of lad he was, he'd appreciate it... maybe.

Whatever the case, she had a task to concentrate on, and as such she pushed all other things to the back of her mind. 'Find my ears...' her mind took in a lesson about active listening, about aiming to have the proper tools before trying for true comprehension. As she stared, and accepted the words spoken she felt something akin to the power of the word itself. It was like his explanation, combined with the sight of the rune glowing in magical red made it clear to her. It was in this moment that she understood it fully, and she knew why she hadn't been able to use the runes before. 'Sou ka, here... I need to see, to feel, and understand... runes are like nature and I am a part of that nature now... I can use it, like its my own, because it is...' she thought. Though her expression was still generally terse, she felt confident enough to give this a try. She stood to the left of the original rune and began to draw her own. Her finger moving with great purpose as she aimed to draw the very rune she'd mentioned first, Ansuz. And after she drew it, it came into the world, glowing a gentle sage green. A color which teetered upon the boarder between the vibrancy of life and the hollowness of death. Having accomplished this she looked up at Endros... "I think I'll be able to learn as I go. But just to make sure... another one Sensei." Her request for knowledge making her wish to know more and to fully understand all the concepts she'd been missing before. In understanding her first rune, she finally felt as if she was part of this world truly.

[Bloodedge]

Endros gave the general teachings he thought Miki would benefit from, and offered the first Rune to her. She followed shortly afterwards by inscribing the Rune herself, and hers took on a glow that he hadn't seen in a very, very long time. 'One of them being able to master the old ways of Runeforging...' he thought absently. The smallest hint of a grin appeared on the Dwarf's face as Miki wrote her Rune into existence, showing proper understanding of his teachings, and the world, by this act alone. "Hmph." Stepping up once more, he cleared the Rune of his own design and began anew. This time, he also started with a vertical line from the bottom up. "You were right in your knowledge of useful Runes in combat. As a wielder of a lance, you have a weakness in combat against those who master the sword, like your friend there. Should you have to turn against one another, or even if you have another opponent you cannot best in melee combat without aide... this will prove very useful." The first line was complete, and he once again repeated his diagonal secondary line. This one, however, stopped halfway to the length of what he used in the previous Rune, then mirrored itself. "The mind will trust the body... the body will trust the mind." These words marked the completion of the final line, another vertical one giving the Rune a shape similar to an 'M'. The glow returned to it, and Endros offered its name. "The Rune of hardening: Ehwaz. With this, we take into ourselves the laws of nature that govern solidity in all things. A grain of sand can be strong enough to penetrate steel, if we wish it so."

[Apollymi]

Endros had something similar to a smile upon his face after Miki succeeded in making her rune. She was certain now she had a reasonable understanding of how such things worked, but she wished to learn a few more things before she left this Master of hers. He cleared his own rune and began teaching another one, one he thought she would be able to benefit from using in combat, particularly in match ups which were placed against her. 'Sou ka... something I could have gotten some use out of earlier...' her mind wandered only briefly before she returned her attention to the task at hand. While Miki could honestly say she didn't have any intentions of fighting Kou if it could be avoided, not having to switch targets every time they had a disadvantage would be good for both of them overall. A glowing 'M' was drawn by Endros who explained that by virtue of what it was, it hardened what it came into contact with, a rune for solidification.

'Ehwaz...huh,' Miki thought while standing over the crimson 'M'. Several things were apparent to her in this moment, the first was, that there was obviously some personalization in the color of runes. The other thing she noted was that it was possible to remove ones own runes and probably those of others in understanding how they worked. She took a few moments to fully understand solidification, and then, she moved to erase her previously used rune. She then began work on Ehwaz. "Trust between mind and body equally shared..." she murmured softly. With this rune a glowing sage green M appeared as she finished. It's realization let her know many things, it was like with every rune she learned she learned about the world, and about nature. Not only that, but about the balance it dictated in life... somehow learning this felt much more important that what she'd initially thought of this as... her trade skill. "I take it, it isn't always this easy to gain such knowledge. Is this going to be one of those things where I should temper knowledge with skill or can I learn everything at once?" she asked of her Master with a great deal of earnestness in her expression.

[Bloodedge]

"Equally shared, freely offered," Endros added to the clause repeated by Miki. The lass seemed to quickly get a solid grasp on this Rune as well. One could say Endros felt something akin to pride in the apprentice he'd only been given today, but he would never show such a thing... at least, intentionally. With the success of Miki's second attempt, he was content to believe she would be a master of Runes in no time at all. "It is no easy task to master Runes, but I believe you may do... well enough under my tutelage. Knowledge is everything, but skill leads to execution. But don't worry. I'll give you all the knowledge you need today."

[Apollymi]

"Equally shared and freely offered..." Miki repeated this statement and something about the clause settled in her mind. Perhaps it didn't just apply to this rune, but to many things in the universe, or perhaps she was just lost in her own thoughts. Whatever the case, in these two moments of teaching she got a reasonable feel for the man known as Endros. He was stern, but fair and seemed to be free with his knowledge of runes, but not quite so much with compliments as his statements about the girl's learning, fell a tad shy of that in particular. 'Soft tsun... so so soft its tsu...' her mind wandered over this point as a small smirk remained on her face. At the very least her efforts were appreciated and this was something she'd always wanted. "Hai hai... I'm ready for the next one..." the girl said, more than willing to commit to memory everything the man had to say and follow along with his teachings. If he thought she could do reasonably well with his direction, she'd aim to overwhelm with her abilities in due time. But first she needed knowledge so she settled in for the long haul.

While Miki got into the meat of her lessons the young female Dwarf known as Ambra settled into her workshop. It was a place, well lit with tools and materials lining the shelves. Instead of books various scrolls and diagrams could be found plastered to walls and flat surfaces. It had the look of a workshop with a few unfinished pieces strewn about. Beyond that there were several raw materials, sitting around as she took a seat atop a stool she looked over the materials strewn across the first of the tables and found one she liked in particular. After looking at it for a few moments she sat it down in front of her would be apprentice. "Alright... where would you start?" she asked the lad in a manner most open-ended. It was as if she had no idea what she was doing and her warm nature and confidence hid something else entirely.

[Bloodedge]

"Good. We're starting regardless," Endros said. He would go on to begin his teachings in a more in-depth manner, making use of the time he had with Miki to the best of his ability, all for the sake of bringing her as close to a Runemaster as he could.

In the meantime, Kou was standing before his own instructor, who herself had taken a seat. After inspecting one of many materials she had strewn about the shop, she spoke at last. Her choice of words led her to ask Kou what he would start with. Kou had actually made use of this skill quite a bit during his time playing Age of Eternity, so he at least understood what the necessary starting points were... as long as there didn't happen to be any additional steps in this world. "Hmm... crafting with minerals, right? If I remember, it's better to start there than with monster parts that have their own energies."

[Apollymi]

While Miki was being turned into a Runemaster, Ambra aimed to make the lad known as Kou into a Craftsman of equal quality. In order to do this properly she needed to understand where his mind was, so she asked him an open-ended question to see what he would choose. His choice was the right one, but such a thing was really shocking, it wasn't at all abnormal for people to want to try and start with more advanced things. The simplicity of starting with mineral ores and doing it correctly would lead to the ability to work with more complicated materials. The lass couldn't hide her excitement in this moment and a huge smile broke out over her face. "That's right... I thought this might be boring. People normally act really dumb and don't understand the necessity of starting with the basics," she commented. "Ores come in various grades, the higher grade the better enchantments your pieces will be able to take. You can use your mana to increase the grade of Ore you're working with... but first you have to be able to look at it, either magically or physically and identify it for what it is. That is both the type and quality of the ore... if you upgrade it with your mana, it will be partly dependent upon luck how high it will go, but it will give you a good base to start with..." the lass said. She as she pulled several other pieces of ore from beneath her table and spread them out across the top. One was Magic Crystal, One Iron, One Silver, One Gold, and One was an ore studded with various precious gems. She placed these in order before the lad and gave a curt nod. "Tell me what you think of these and which ones you would upgrade," she said this was his first lesson. Learning what his abilities were like was an important thing to Ambra. She needed to know if he could identify already good materials in their raw form from materials that needed more work. And beyond this it would be a good chance to get the lad used to using whatever abilities he would have to create.

[Bloodedge]

Apparently, Ambra had been expecting boredom in this training session for Kou, but was pleasantly surprised by his answer to her first question. Next, she explained the finer details to working with ores as a Jewelsmith, feeding one's own Mana to the ores to empower them, but also keeping in mind the quality of the ore itself before making use of it. Ambra laid out multiple ores of different types and qualities, and asked which of them he would aim to upgrade if he were to do so. "Eto..." he murmured. There were two clear choices on opposite ends of the spectrum. One could view the strangest of the ores and believe upgrading it further would increase its value and quality, or one could view the Magic Crystal and believe it needed to be tempered further before use. However, both of these options seemed far too simple. It was likely that any attempt to upgrade the final ore, at Kou's level, would result in wasted energy and potentially wasted material as well. The same could be said of the Magic Ore, considering how much Magic Energy it took for them to grow over long periods of time. "If I had to pick one, I'd pick... that," he said, pointing specifically to the iron ore.

[Apollymi]

Another smile came from Kou's instructor, as after a few moments of consideration the lad came to the proper conclusion without any additional prompting. At his choice she flicked the piece of iron ore towards the lad while moving the rest of them off to the side. "Iron is a good choice... I consider it to always be a good base material. It can be combined with anything, strengthened, it can be polished to an unimaginable shine, and because of its nature... it can easily take on the enchantment of just about anything..." she mentioned. "Besides all that, it is an easy ore to work with at earlier levels, and relatively cheap or easy to come by so you don't have to waste coin trying to gather it as a material," she explained this part of jewel crafting as it was essential. More essential than even working with the metals initially. "Being able to find and identify it is important... how you do it is up to you... Dwarves have Keen eyes, and can identify potentially various different materials without much thought, especially if we've worked with them before. Some mage types know how different ores interact with their mana, allowing them to identify them at range... something like Magic Crystal, gives off its own magical aura, while something like iron has none of its own, but other metals, like silver and gold radiate somewhere in the middle. Keep that in mind... if it is something that interests you," she explained all while having a piece of iron ore for herself to make a demonstration happen.

"I think I should explain now, that iron starts at the lowest possible point, it's almost always low grade unless you personally upgrade it. Given that, you have to put a bit of yourself in making it... some of your soul..." she said calmly. "Well that is what old Dwarves would say, ya' know the ones who don't use mana~" she mused knowing it probably sounded a bit serious at least for a second. "A bit of magic will allow you to upgrade your metals, make them better for general purposes," she explained as she held that small piece of ore between her closed hands and when she opened them after exposing the metal to her mana, she she opened her fingers to show, a shiner more upgraded version of the metal. Not enough to change it from iron to some other metal, but enough that properties of it were obviously more advanced. "How much you put into changing it, is up to you, but you don't want to expend so much you can't concentrate. This is the first step in enchanting, as upgrading a metal makes it more conductive to mana. It gives it an individual property... The same can be said of gems when they're cut and monster bones when they are shaped... you should consider yourself, your soul, your mana a source of change for all things when it comes to creating pieces... it's a staple of creation. When you are ready give it a try."