Chương 112: Rune Weaver

I stared at the vine, which was making itself at home in my inner world, and tried to come up with a name that was fitting. There were some things that were unique to us, after all. And considering everything we'd been through together, it needed something special. Something that captured how protective it had been toward me. After a lot of thought, I said, "Yggdrasil." I liked the way the name fit and sounded.

"The World Tree from Norse mythology - connecting all worlds, and supporting the fabric of existence itself." I smiled as I could sense excitement flowing through our bond.

"We can call you Yggy for short." A ripple of approval ran through the bond, which meant that my buddy liked its new name. Before all of this isekai business, I hadn't only read cultivation novels; I had been somewhat of a fan of mythology. Maybe it was because they were more interesting than the mundane world I'd lived in. With the intelligence that it had shown so far, perhaps with a name like Yggdrasil, the vine could one day be something more...

"I think, Master," Azure replied, "that the name fits well with your World Tree Sutra cultivation technique." I nodded.

"That's one reason I picked it. In the old tales, Yggdrasil wasn't just a passive connection between worlds, it was a guardian, protecting the structure of reality itself." At this point, I could see Yggy's energy expand with pride at being described as such.

"Also, it sounds fun when you say it. Yggdrasil. But I doubt anyone thought it would be used to name a semi-sentient vine created by a mad genius." Speaking of mad geniuses... The next morning I headed off to Elder Molric's Laboratory to see what other chaos was waiting for me. If nothing else, the last loop had certainly established a high bar for strange experiments. Somehow, I sensed that no matter what I did or where I went, Elder Molric would find ways to surprise me. I wasn't disappointed.

When I entered the lab, I saw Elder Molric engaging in a rather intense staring contest with... was that a potted cactus? An angry potted cactus, by the look of its bristles.

"You're here early!" Elder Molric shouted over his shoulder without breaking eye contact with the cactus.

"Give me a few minutes, I just need to get through this critical stage of this experiment." Suddenly, the cactus produced more branches, each one sporting small fists, and started punching the air in perfect syncopation.

"Excellent form! Excellent form!" Elder Molric exclaimed while taking notes with one hand.

"Remember what we talked about targeting?" The cactus turned slightly, noticed me, and immediately launched one of its segments like a spiky projectile. I barely dodged it, the thorned missile hit the wall behind me hard enough to split the stone.

"Perfect accuracy!" Elder Molric shouted in triumph while finally breaking his gaze from the cactus to admire his handiwork.

"Although, maybe we should focus on impulse control...". The cactus had already grown back the segment it had lost and was celebrating its victory by doing a little dance, waving its many branches around.

"The elder seems to have actually combined standard enhancement runes with some kind of awakening technique," Azure noted.

"That plant is showing clear signs of having increased combat capabilities and a highly developed personality."

"Well, let's hope it doesn't decide to develop a grudge against me," I mumbled out while keeping a very wary eye on the dancing cactus. Elder Molric finally seemed to remember I was even in his lab.

"Ah yes of course, the lesson!" He spun around to look at me with this expectant look on his face.

"I am assuming you went ahead and read up on the material?" I gave a nod and made sure my face looked serious.

"Yes, Master I did. All the texts explain how the Fundamental Rune lets us absorb the red sun's energy and refine it, but we actually need specialized runes if we want to convert that raw energy into elemental forms. The conversion rune is the most basic one and it acts exactly like a bridge connecting the pure energy directly to an elemental manifestation."

"Very good!" He looked really pleased about my answer.

"And have you bothered to give any thought about which conversion rune would suit you the best?"

"The Worldroot Conduit," I answered him without even hesitating for a second.

"The whole design aligns perfectly with the tree motif of my Fundamental Rune, and it should give me some really excellent energy conversion efficiency whenever I use wood element techniques."

"That is an excellent choice!" I went ahead and grabbed all the materials I was going to need. While I started drawing out the Worldroot Conduit pattern I made sure all my movements were precise so the interwoven roots made a perfect endless knot where every single line flowed naturally right into the next one. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Perfect on your very first attempt!" Elder Molric nodded aggressively to himself.

"Do you see this? This is exactly what happens when a good instructor nurtures natural talent instead of forcing rigid conformity on people! All the academy's stupid standardized teaching methods fail to..." I somehow managed to stop myself from smiling while he kept praising his own amazing teaching abilities and completely ignored the fact that he hadn't taught me a single piece of this stuff yet.

The cactus didn't have any of my restraint though since it was doing these suspicious eye-rolling motions using its upper segments. While he kept going on his huge rant, I prepared for the physical inscription. Once the pattern was transferred to my chest and activated, I felt the familiar sensation of roots spreading through my being.

"Master," I spoke up when he finally started to calm down from his rant, "I've been reading a lot about alternative methods for runic inscription." I took a quick pause to check how he was going to react to this.

"I was reading about weaving runes straight out of pure energy." The elder's eyebrows shot all the way up to his hairline.

"Oh really? That is a quite advanced topic to be looking at. Most normal practitioners don't even try to attempt energy weaving until they are at least Rank 3." He stood there studying me with a thoughtful look.

"Very few people are ever successful doing it at Rank 2, although I suppose considering your natural talent..."

"I understand how difficult it is," I pressed on anyway, "but the advantages of it seem like they are worth all the effort. If I could create runes at will, it would give me way more flexibility in a fight." He stayed silent for a long moment before he suddenly broke out into this massive grin.

"Well why not try it? It is refreshing to see a student show some initiative for once!" He shot a quick glance over at his cactus which had finally settled down on the table to watch us.

"Although we probably should move over to a different part of the lab for this. Some of my other experiments tend to be sensitive whenever there are big energy fluctuations." The cactus waved one of its little arms at us doing what might have been a nice goodbye gesture. Or it could have possibly been a rude gesture instead, it was honestly really hard to tell when you were dealing with a plant.

As soon as we reached a much clearer area in the lab, Elder Molric grabbed a bunch of different scrolls and this strange thing that looked suspiciously like a tiny animal cage covered up with a cloth.

"We are going to start off with something relatively simple, the Vine Whip rune. You need to watch me very carefully." He raised his hand up and crimson energy started flowing straight out of his fingers. It moved around like it was liquid light while forming these precise patterns floating in the air.

"The real key to this," he explained to me, "is that you have to maintain a consistent energy density while you shape out the patterns. If you use way too much power the rune becomes highly unstable. But if you use too little power then it won't hold its form at all." The glowing energy kept weaving itself into familiar shapes, creating all the flowing lines that formed the entire structure of the Vine Whip rune.

"Every single segment has to be balanced," he kept explaining.

"You need to think of it like you are trying to write in water. The medium naturally wants to disperse everywhere, so you have to keep it cohesive using your sheer force of will." To give me a real demonstration, he pulled the cloth off the cage to reveal this tiny little potted plant inside it. He did another quick hand gesture and pressed the floating rune directly against the stem of the plant. The glowing pattern held on there for a few seconds shining really bright...

and then the plant just withered up and crumbled into a pile of dust.

"Do not worry about that," he added quickly when he saw the horrified look on my face.

"The human body is far more resilient than that. These patterns are specifically designed so they integrate with living flesh instead of simple vegetation." I gave him a tiny nod and raised up my own hand so I could attempt the technique myself. And I pretty much immediately discovered why most practitioners waited for years before trying to do this, trying to control energy outside of your own body was exponentially harder than channeling it through runes.

My first attempt just dispersed almost instantly with all the crimson energy scattering everywhere exactly like smoke blowing in the wind. The second try lasted a tiny bit longer, but it still lost all its coherence before I could manage to form the most basic outline of it. Elder Molric stood there watching my failed attempts with surprisingly patient interest.

"You are doing significantly better than most people on their first attempts," he commented.

"Most initiates can't even maintain the form of the energy for more than a fraction of a second." After I failed a few more times, he held up his hand to stop me.

"I think that's enough for today. You should make a note of all the other elemental runes you are interested in and then go practice your energy weaving on your own time. You can return here when you have either mastered it or if you decide you want to try the physical inscription method instead." The next six weeks passed by in a massive blur of practice and frustration. I ended up spending countless hours sitting in my room desperately trying to master the incredibly delicate art of weaving energy.

Azure provided me with suggestions for making adjustments, while Yggy offered up its own unique perspective through our bond, its natural understanding of energy helped me visualize how the energy was supposed to flow. Very slowly and painfully, I began to make some progress with it. The energy started staying coherent for a lot longer and began to take on more complex shapes for me.

All my failures became a lot less spectacular over time, although I still managed to singe off both my eyebrows at least twice doing it.

"The real key to this," Azure noted during one of my particularly frustrating practice sessions, "seems to be treating the raw energy less like a simple tool and a lot more like an actual living thing. Have you noticed how it responds better when you try to guide it instead of trying to forcefully push it?" Throughout my entire time cultivating, whether I was using normal qi or the red sun energy, they all seemed to respond better to being gently guided instead of being forced into place.

This time instead of trying to force the energy into a shape directly, I went ahead and created something that was like a trellis made out of my own energy, so it had something to grow along. The red sun's power responded to it immediately and flowed along my guidelines exactly like an eager vine.

"That is excellent thinking, Master!" Azure encouraged me.

"By providing a proper framework instead of forcing a rigid shape onto it, you are allowing the energy to maintain all its natural properties while still achieving the exact form you desire."