"There," Skullius said with a cheery smile.
The only thing missing from his current image; the dirt on his hands and knees, the pleased look on his face and the glow of the sun behind him, was a few drops of sweat and a straw hat. If only those two elements were added into the fold, one would think he was a farmer who had just finished planting seedlings for a fruitful year.
What he had dug into the earth though, wasn't a plant, but in a sense a seed.
Three hundred and forty meters deep, and close to the wall was the glass box containing a vibrant mana core. As company within the dirt, two slender swords were at its sides, and around them in turn was a collection of runes with a bright purple glow.
Protection runes.
In addition, another different assortment of the empowered symbols were mixed in, with their function different from the main four Skullius was currently capable of utilising. These runes connected the mana core to all the runes on the wall, supplying them, with the same degree of quality and quantity Skullius intended, replenishment at all times – this was a basic function, unlike with the gleaming purple Protection runes Skullius had put in place with the obvious intent to protect the core and estocs.
The Hybrid Luman desired a constant supply of mana to all runes without any fluctuations, regardless of whatever mishaps occurred, and with that in mind, he predicted that the Reinforcement Runes on the wall would last for five to six months.
That was good.
Before the next month ended, Skullius was supposed to go and deal with his biggest headache, a potential literal one, in Doom Factor 2, which promised to drive him mad if he did not attain the other half of his soul.
Regardless of how long that took, whoever he wanted to protect would have a great degree of protection, though not from the walls alone, as there was something else he wanted to add. Something that would probably last for a similar length of time as the Reinforcement Runes, but with many fold a better level of defence. He hoped the expenditure would be friendly though.
Patting the inconspicuously covered ground where he had buried the mana core, Skullius rose and walked outside the Estate and travelled well beyond the gates.
He then stopped and reached in deep into his mind and drew a collection of memories from Hobbu Gogo's mind.
What he needed next was complex.
Just thinking about how it worked made him thank the few specks of good that trailed around his life and granted him the Omniscient Thought Cracker. Without it, it would taken at least a few hours in the day to sift through how exactly the elderly goblin had created such a powerful barrier around her private tower.
"All right, first, I need a huge amount of mana. How shocking," Skullius said with a deadpan face.
He extended his hands before him and concentrated a vicious outpour of mana into them.
Straining heavily, he activated [Lesser Gravel Rune Mastery], and the other rune related skill he had taken from Hobbu Gogo, [Rune Assimilation].
The combination of these two lesser versions of the Cluster General's original powers allowed him to bridge the gap between him and the hag in terms of power, efficiency and skill, but just barely. At most, he was able to create a barrier with similar functions, but with only up to 30% of the same effects.
Skullius had thought to wait until the night and use [Epiphany] which was in his arsenal as the Vehement Bone Nullmancer, but changed his mind. While the relatively unchanged skill had the effect of allowing the user to use any skill at an excess of 90% efficiency, the Paired Interregnum could double the efficiency of the result.
Normally, one would think to get the best of both worlds; using [Epiphany] to boost the efficiency of [Lesser Gravel Rune Mastery] and [Rune Assimilation] and then use the Paired Interregnum, but the former didn't have any guarantees.
In Skullius' previous evolution list which was bolstered by the STUPENDOUSLY DESIRABLE LUCK from the Chubby Remnant Child of Polarity, he had come across an evolutionary specie of Penetrator that focused on runes.
The Elder Sage of Penetration.
This particular species abandoned the use of skills and adopted the utilisation of runes for all combat and auxiliary purpose.
This had got Skullius thinking when he deep dived into the Rune skills he acquired.
'Is there that much of a difference between runes and skills? [Lesser Gravel Rune Mastery] allows me to DRAW individual runes of different types, but each caste of runes doesn't appear on the guidance field as skills... Curious. Does this mean skills like [Epiphany] can't give me much of a benefit with things like this? Other than making me a professional painter maybe?' he had thought.
Even for [Rune Assimilation], the sentiment was pretty much the same, as the skill allowed him to appreciate runes to a more profound degree, allowing him to bring the most out of each of them. Empowering the skill wouldn't help by much, since [Rune Assimilation]'s limit relied on [Lesser Gravel Rune Mastery]'s limit.
All this was to say, even if he waited until the night and used [Epiphany], there wasn't much benefit to look forward to.
And thus...
Skullius drew on the air.
The barrier he wanted to create incorporated Protection, Sealing, Reinforcement and Conjuring. Since he didn't have the Conjuring Runes yet, another degree of security was going to be lost, but it was alright for now. Perhaps he would add that in time.
The tips of Skullius' fingers livid with mana that was rapidly fashioned into thick, restless swaths of purple, red and blue, created a myriad of crooked, erect, hooked, looped and loop-hooked cursive hieroglyphics that rose into the air as soon as they were fully forged.
As Skullius drew, his mind was inflated with focus.
Something within him, like a large, warm balloon pressed against his senses, and made him feel an even amount of relaxation that also came with an astonishing level of attention. The pair was so potent that slowly, he began to hear whispers.
Whispers from the symbols he drew.
The guards behind him watched in awe as hundreds of colourful symbols scaled the air, first as fist sized markings, and then as bloated lumps that were saturated with as much mana as they could hold.
They couldn't understand it.
Skullius' figure whipped to the left and then to right and then left-right... no wait, there and there, to and fro...
Blurry after-images threatened to make every single one of the guards cross-eyed, but they remained glued to the scene all the same.
Time wasn't impressed however.
Even if it watched the dancing fool scribbling on its cousin's – space – canvas, it did not stop moving to its infinite yet singular destination.
A long stretch later, the sky was dyed with all manner of runes closely knit together in a massive, meshed page that covered hundreds of meters across the open air.
Skullius looked at this with a round 'O' shape on his lips, his head shaking in self-admiration. He had done his absolute best to create this thing, and it was nothing short of magnificent, like a tapestry from a colourful heaven.
But sadly, he wasn't done yet.
This was merely the halfway mark.
While maintaining [Lesser Rune Mastery], Skullius made a grasping gesture at the cascade of hues, and a thunderous boom crashed from everywhere as the large, mana-stuffed runes bashed against each other.
As they did, wilful sparks gushing from the joints, a semi-transparent, solid silver curtain was formed from the bottom of the colorful sheet going upwards. It bellowed as if flirted with by the wind and kept manifesting, replacing the tangling runes all the way to its top. When it fully emerged, with a scaly texture upon closer inspection, Skullius spread his arms wide and expended another vast quantity of mana to spread it all right round the Bryne Estate in a large, spherical shape.
Indeed, even the underground wasn't spared, all the way down to the pulsing mana core – battery.
Above ground, the barrier was like a still dome, its visual intensity reduced, but its potency still defined.
Skullius nodded and whispered to himself, "Flesh Yeah."
With a direct translation from the Hau Kaka goblin dialect, this barrier was called the Chieftain Screen. Skullius was too lazy to change the name so as he passed by the stunned guards on the way back into the Estate, he told them it was called as such.
He explained what it and the other runes were in detail before leaving the guards looking at his back with shining eyes and burning vigour.
Skullius looked up at the dome and examined it thoroughly with his senses.
He couldn't see it, but he could feel the perfect balance in its energies. He had yet to configure whose authority it should allow to command it, asides from his of course, but it was already functional.
Unwanted guests who reached within four meters of its proximity would be clamped down by a vicious seal. The Chieftain Screen had an upper limit of roughly two hundred targets at full restrictive capacity, which was already incredible despite it being a lesser variant.
Asides from this, it could pretty much tank both magical and physical attacks of considerable degree, likely standard high level Master Stage level attacks with Auras included.
Additionally, it was incredibly restrictive. It resisted forceful entry even if the restrictive seal refused to work for whatever reason. That was what most of the firepower of the barrier was concentrated towards.
"All good, I guess, though I might have severely underestimated how much this thing sucks up mana. I might need a few more cores," the Hybrid Luman said thoughtfully. "Anyway, time to double down!"
With a thought, he assigned the Chieftain Screen as a target for the Paired Interregnum and the mana core.
The skills [Paired Grace] and [Duality] were used on it, and shockingly, a second, smaller Chieftain Screen appeared within the Estate, starting from the column of trees.
The skill [Paired Grace] gave it a twofold increase in efficiency, which doubled the efficacy of all its functions – indeed an increase in quality, and an increase in efficiency had different effects.
Skullius watched with a smile as it appeared.
It didn't look like a barrier.
He thought it would be in poor taste if it was actually as rigid as the one outside. Thus, he made it look like a hemispheric veil to a new world. It blurred the view of the Estate from the outside to a silvery Gaussian blur which would look extra gorgeous at night with the bokeh of artificial lights from the mansions.
"Perfect," said Skullius with a smile. "I'm sure Theurien would love to have his signature on this. Not a bad welcome back present, if I do say so myself."
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