Frostbound
Chapter 324

Chris

Hudson Bay

'Runes are meaning made into structure.'

That was the line I kept repeating in my head. It was said many times in the books, and I was still trying to wrap my head around it all. I knew all this magic and mana was mind-blowing, but meaning made into something tangible didn't make any sense.

Mana, sure, I could get that over time. I could influence it. Feel it. Almost touch it, but with a different sense. Magic was an expression of that mana. Given a will, and that will gave it purpose.

But pure meaning?

It was probably the hardest part to wrap my head around. The logic just didn't logic.

Even after experiencing it -engraving as many Runes as I had- and seeing how they worked, the larger picture was still out of reach.

Take a Basic Frost Rune, for example. It was a collection of specific flourishes, lines and loops, connections and knots, curves and bends. In all intents and purposes, writing them down shouldn't do anything except create pretty art.

Why, then, did they make the air cold around them? Cause ice to start coalescing even on a summer day?

It didn't even take any outside force, either. The structure itself was enough to influence the world around it in ways that were just too foreign to my thinking. Looking back on it now, that rigidness was probably why it took me so long to engrave my first Rune.

Then, to take it a step further, why did changing certain lines, altering certain curves, and moving certain knots turn into something entirely different? Why did Frost become Ice? Why did Fire become Flame?

Over the weeks of prepping the area and setting everything up for the Formation I would put down, I had a lot of time to think about the nature of Runes. Not that I hadn't before, but I had a lot more to chew on now that I'd picked through every last detail in the library.

So much that had been guess work, assumptions, and bits that I didn't understand and couldn't understand, were laid out precisely. Not concisely, as some of the authors sure liked to hear themselves talk, or write in this instance, but definitely precisely.

Now I was struggling with internalizing it. Putting it into my own words.

Any physics class would tell you that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, but what did that really mean? We're then told that if you push on a wall, the wall pushes back.

Tell a child that, and they'll ask how a wall can push.

The situation was similar now, and I was once again the child. I was being told a meaning could cause change in the physical word and I was asking how meaning alone could do anything tangible.

I could see it happen, even caused it to happen many times over the years, but so could a child push on a wall without pushing through it.

Only this time it was worse. There were no equations to explain it. No exacting math that made it make sense.

It was just a given that certain Runes meant certain things for reasons that were beyond me. Reasons that would likely stay beyond me until I evolved further and could peer deeper into the inner workings of the Universe. Another aspect that didn't make sense, but that was for another time.

The jump to Tier 2 Runes had tripped me up for months. I'd had access to Lesser Runes for over a year now, yet I hadn't been able to successfully engrave them at all.

Every attempt, and I'd made plenty of attempts, ended in failure. Most wouldn't react at all, becoming simple lines on metal. No more runic than children's scrawling.

Some hinted at something runic, even flashed with power, but quickly fizzled out. The closest I'd gotten was a quick flash of cold before the whole thing went up in smoke, burning the material out.

After every failure, I'd throw myself back into the books. I'd check and double-check that I got the shape right, comb over every line and curve to ensure I had done it right, yet nothing worked.

It felt like I was beating my head against the wall with no end in sight.

It had taken me over a week to successfully engrave a Basic Tier 1 Rune. It had been going on months to make the jump to Tier 2. Not that I'd spent every waking moment dedicated to it, but still. It was becoming more than frustrating. Only having access to books was another low point, but it wasn't like any teachers were lying around I could call on.

This time's going to be different.

Those weren't just idle words I was telling myself to psych myself up. No, to ensure I was successful, I had stacked the deck in my favor as much as I could.

If it is meaning it wants, meaning is what it will get.

My idea was simple, and something I had done a few times before. I'd turned our old tutorial pylon into my own winter wonderland with Runes. I'd also set myself inside a wintery dome to ignite my mana heart.

Here, I was doing it in order to create a Formation.

My idea was to saturate the area so heavily with mana of ice and snow that it would then make it easier to impart that meaning into structure.

Out of context, it sounded like a waste of both time and resources just to engrave a few Runes, but that wasn't all it was doing. If I proved successful here, I might be able to grasp how to do it without the crutch.

The time and resources involved also played double duty. It wasn't like they would go to waste after I was done. They were perfect for nourishing the seed and was the whole point.

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Austin had described it in the simplest terms. He was making fun of my idea at the time, but he wasn't that far off.

"So you're creating a Formation to fuel and contain a winter environment, in order to create a better Formation to fuel and contain a winter environment."

It didn't have to sound smart. It just had to work.

It was also what I had spent so long doing. Hal had interrupted it, but it wasn't like he caused any problems. The news he brought threw me for a moment, but I was able to refocus on the task at hand.

Eventually.

When he or someone else didn't come rushing back, I was able to put it aside for later.

The first thing I did was set down the Containment Formation. After that, any mana I poured into the area would stay in the area. Otherwise, much of it would go to waste.

After that, it was just a matter of laying down the same Runes I had before. This wasn't the first iteration, and it was a long way from the first giant Frost Rune I had put down in the tutorial.

The entire time, I bled my own mana into the area. [Permafrost] was active nearly permanently while I siphoned my extra mana into the area. It was weak, as I was using it at a level I could sustain, but it was over a long period of time.

Before the first Formation was even finished and working, the skill had already done a lot. While I didn't have a lot of mana regen, I had enough.

Using this method didn't increase the mana density in the area, as I didn't create mana from nothing, but it certainly turned it Cold. In a way, I was working as a portable air conditioner, but for mana.

After finishing the first formation, it truly became a touch of winter. My little iceberg grew to encapsulate the entire containment zone and only got larger as time went on.

The moisture in the air fell down as snow nearly constantly, as the Bay was rife with water. The crystals I had brought along had also made the mana noticeably denser, but that was a side effect rather than the intended goal.

The Formation is complete. The area is as good as it's going to get. If this works, not only will it be my first time creating a Tier 2 Rune, but it will also net me my last level.

Formations didn't technically have to be created in a certain way, but it was easier to start at the beginning. It was how my mind thought of it, which was how I liked to create them.

Here goes nothing.

I took my engraving tool and knelt down so it hovered just above the smooth layer of ice. I had smoothed out the top layer of my iceberg just for this purpose.

It was with a combination of both my engraving tools and [Ice Manipulation] that I got to work. I wasn't actively using any Profession Skills, which didn't bar me from Class ones.

The ice itself wasn't enough to hold the enchantment, but it wouldn't be until after I was finished that I filled it with the Frost Argent I had brought along with me.

A perfect metal for the job, and it would act as infill perfectly.

The first portion of the Formation was the easiest. Basic Gathering and Siphoning Runes were all that was required. They didn't require Tier 2 versions, as what it lacked in power could be made up for in number.

The Runes were familiar and went down quickly. The Gathering Runes would attract mana in the area, while the Siphoning Runes would provide supplementary mana from any crystals we used to fuel them.

The power of the Formation would vary depending on two things. How much mana could be gathered from the area, and how many crystals we supplemented it with.

The next portion was the hard part. Converting it.

A Tier 1 Frost Rune would have worked, and had worked before, but they had a limit to how much mana they could convert and how pure it was. Its Tier 2 variant could convert more, at a faster pace, and with a higher purity.

It was the main reason I was pushing so hard to make them. The power and purity of the mana they converted would directly translate to how well the Seed grew.

If it were just the one Tier 2 Rune, things would have ended there, and I would feel much more confident in my success, but it wasn't just the one.

Frost wasn't the only thing a Glacier needed. To grow it properly, it needed more than just one aspect of the Cold.

Other Runes from the Cold Tree were needed.

Runes were meanings made into structure.

It would hardly nurture a glacier if only the meaning of frost was present.

Ice, as that was most of what a glacier was. Freezing, as how would it become one if it did not freeze water first. Expand, both in total size and how water expanded during the freezing process.

My hands were focused and precise as I carved into the Ice. Ice wrought from my own mana and bent to my will through [Ice Manipulation]. The sky darkened and lightened again while I worked, but I paid it no heed.

What was the meaning of Ice? What was the meaning of Frost? It wasn't just the lines I carved; it was deeper than that. That deeper meaning was what I had been missing.

It wasn't like a Law. It didn't need to be realized. It needed to be expressed. Expressed through structure.

I wouldn't know if I did it right until I powered it, but I had a feeling. An inkling.

The entire area was so saturated in my mana, in my aura I had let out, I could feel it. It felt like it was almost a part of me.

My Law resonated with it. An off tone chime that made their differences clear, but enough to know something happening.

The top of the iceberg was carved up in a nonstop flurry of work for two days straight before I moved on to the sides. After the sides come the bottom, which was a hassle itself.

Swimming and a steady hand did not go hand in hand. If Tier 2 Runes were required here, I would have failed instantly, but that wasn't the case.

Ice was water first, and that water had to come from somewhere, and what better place than the Bay itself? The Water Runes carved into the iceberg's bottom would help fuel it to freeze and expand. I'd had enough practice with the Tier 1 Basic Runes to do so while positioning myself underwater. I'd put the Runes on too much equipment to not be familiar with them. It was the affinity of many I knew well.

The Runes on the bottom of the iceberg acted as a funnel that supplied the Water mana to the rest of the Formation.

The entire iceberg I had spent the better part of a month and a generous amount of my own mana creating was covered in carved lines. Nearly every inch had been carved up and was ready for infill.

I could have rested once I was done. Could have taken a short break to refresh and realign, but I didn't. I went straight to filling it with the frosty silver metal I had spent so much on.

Vulwin had asked a high price to bring it here, but I paid it gladly.

I could not melt it to fill the grooves, as that would ruin the connection it had to the frost. Instead, I had to draw it out manually. Stretch and pull it into the shape I desired.

My mind needed rest. My hands burned from the strain, but I continued. I wouldn't stop now. Not when I was so close. I'd fought thousands of Orcs for hours on end; this was nothing.

There was a thrill to it. Not a battle thrill that came from standing atop a defeated enemy, but a thrill from defeating my task. From creating.

The iceberg sparkled in the morning sun on the 15th day when I finally finished. The silver gleamed while the ice sparkled in a beautiful display. It was fitting that I would know if I succeeded now, or if the entire thing would blow up.

It would at least give me something nice to remember before my entire work went up in smoke.

I could have called for everyone to witness it. The Formation was carved, and the infill was laid; there was nothing else to do apart from activating it. I could have had them here with me, but I didn't.

I didn't want to wait.

My mana flared, it flowed out of me and into the frosty silver that greedily drank it up. It raced up and down the lines, the curves lighting up with power while more and more mana filled the metal.

I braced myself for the explosion. The inevitable burnout from a failed engraving, but it never came. Instead, it got colder and colder. Snow fell more heavily, and the ice creaked and groaned as it expanded.

As soon as the Formation reached the critical point, a giant flash of light bloomed, blinding me for a brief moment before I could blink through the white spots.

A chime played in my head while I struggled to see again. A chime I hadn't heard often as of late.

I didn't even need to open my eyes to know I had done it. The mana was enough to tell me, and even little Anna would have felt it.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

Skills Available

Profession evolution available.