Master Crevian knew that his disciple didn't like humans very much. She had not heard many good stories about them because the majority of tales were focused on the heroic acts of the Elves in which they defeated humans.
Master Crevian was aware that most tales were exaggerated, or created by the mastermind of Elves, who loved to try out their wildest imaginations to words and describe themselves in the most glamorous way possible.
He had lived through many wars and knew that the Elven race had not always been great. They had lived through many dark times, lost many lives and in the end, some even left their own race…
Different Elven sub-races were born and war against their own brethren was waged. Master Crevian's heart ached even now whenever he thought about all the wars and the death their enmity had caused.
Being considered a race that was loved by mana and nature would usually create the misconception that the Elves wouldn't dare to kill. What most didn't know was that some Elves were considered Grim reapers and there was a strong reason for it.
"Let's go and take a look. Maybe he hasn't started yet," He said after shaking his head. Meryl was still pretty sure that it was a waste of time to take a look at the so-called Savior's talent. She could already tell that he wouldn't be able to become a great Runicier even though she had never seen him before.
"Maybe you are right, master…" Meryl said, accepting her Master's orders without trying to keep complaining.
They stepped inside the two-story family house and were greeted with a searing hot heatwave that splashed into their face the moment they opened the doors.
"Hello…I'm sorry for intruding but is Nial here?" Master Crevian asked as he carefully entered the house. He didn't want to interrupt anyone in the engraving process of runic constellations, which was why he remained quiet.
Nobody approached them even after they had entered the house, whether it was to welcome them or to throw them out.
Meryl looked at the other Elves with a conflicted expression that was impossible to comprehend. The other Elves were not even sure why they had to follow Master Crevian and his dear disciple. They may be considered one of the best rookie Runiciers but they had started to learn about runic constellations not too long ago.
It was their fortune to encounter Master Crevian's Runicier classes in the Forest of Life and gain the opportunity to build some contact with him due to their thirst for knowledge.
If being a Runicier was considered a rarity amongst humans, it was a renowned and one of the most respected lifestyle occupations Elves could learn.
The Elves around Meryl might have matured by now, and their ability to learn quickly had deteriorated a bit but Elves lived a long life. As long as they had a master to teach them, it was only a matter of time and practice before they would become high-ranked Runiciers.
But it was not as if a human could teach them anything, they didn't believe that! This was near-impossible because humans had found out about the existence of Runiciers less than a year ago!
It would already be a wonder if they taught themselves how to create proper ungraded runic armaments with the help of a few books and runic armaments which they had found in some low-ranked dungeon.
"Are you sure that we are correct here?" Meryl suddenly asked, tugging at her master's robe. She could only see a single human leaning over a weapon cast. The weapon didn't feel or look anything special to him. The mana veins inside the metal that was used to create the weapon were barely alive and there were only traces of mana left inside the weapon.
Meryl felt disgusted at the sight of such a crude weapon but it was even worse when she understood that this weapon was turned into an ungraded runic weapon.
"He is really using such trashy materials to create runic weapons? Master…you cannot be serious by telling us that we can learn something here, right?" Meryl was the only one, who dared to give a voice to everyone's doubts.
The other Elves wouldn't dare to mess with Master Crevian, not after they received the opportunity to become Runiciers themselves. Despite staying silent, their opinion was the same as Meryl's.
Master Crevian ignored their complaints as he approached Mathias quietly. He could tell that Mathias was practicing how to engrave the Basic runic constellation [Sharpness] and [Endurance] on the longsword that lay in front of him.
The material Mathias used to create the ungraded runic weapon might be bad but that was not really something he was concerned about.
"For a race without many resources, it is very useful to create the strongest possible weapons made out of the cheapest materials. You guys may not know about this because the written history of the Elven race before Ygdras awoke its planetary core is not widely known but I was able to read some of it," Master Crevian spoke quietly so as to not disturb Mathias from his fully-focused state.
He turned to Meryl and the other Elves revealing a faint smile as he continued to speak,
"Before Ygdras awoke, we had faced the infiltration of a few Gods as well. They had manifested dungeons just like the ones on Jundra. The scale at which they did this was much less than that on Jundra but the situation can be compared… Either way, what I wanted to explain is that we, Elves, had to fight desperately in order to become stronger, advance and gain the necessary knowledge and power to hold our fort.
The first runic armaments which we created were made of stones and woods which we found inside the dungeons. In comparison to the runic weapon Mathias can create, our first runic armaments were a joke. So don't underestimate them…" Master Crevian knew that it was hard for the young Elves to understand this but they had to realize that the starting point for Elves had been no different than what the humans on Jundra were currently facing.
Master Crevian was confident that the humans had it even worse because too many races, Divine existences, and all kinds of other beings were interested in Jundra.
Once Jundra awoke trouble would be unleashed upon the human race and the Elves, who were supposed to prepare themselves for the worse. The sudden attack of the Dryx destroyed all preparations and it made things hundreds of times more difficult.
Master Crevian knew that this increased difficulty to face future events was one of the reasons why they chose to enter an Alliance with the human race.
Another one was the fact that Nial was far too interesting and dangerous to be let loose. The Elves could tell that Nial would either become their friend and one of the strongest allies to fight by their side in a battle against the other races, or he would become their most formidable enemy.
The former was much better than the latter, which was also a reason for him to investigate Nial's talent as a Runicier.
"This is interesting…" Meryl muttered. She might be stubborn and sometimes a bit dense but she was pretty intelligent and understood what her master had explained.
That was also why her interest in the runic weapon she had found grotesque had increased.
"I wonder how much he practices to reach a perfection grade of 77% for the Basic [Sharpness] runic constellation.." She mumbled, clearly understanding that there was a big difference between being self-taught and receiving proper tutelage.
When she was young she had tried to learn more about Runiciers all by herself. In the end, it didn't work out as she had failed miserably.
It was only when she received the first lesson about Runiciers that her talent had begun to bloom. Her arrogant expression had disappeared as she looked at the slow and deliberate movements Mathias did to engrave the [Endurance] runic constellation.
"You should maintain the same thickness when you engrave the circle….The circle is supposed to create a perfect balance in the runic constellation. Your perfection grade decreased by more than 5% because you made a mistake with the thickness of your circle at the end!" Meryl examined and pointed at the area of the circle that was too thick.
"Thanks, Nial…" Mathias acknowledged before he noticed that something was off.
'Since when does Nial sound like a woman?' He wondered before he stopped in his tracks.
"Oi, oi, oi!! Why are you stopping the engraving process? You're wasting your entire runic weapon!!" Meryl suddenly shouted in frustration but Mathias couldn't care about that.
His head turned slowly in Meryl's direction and his eyes widened in horror.
Six Elves were standing behind him all of a sudden and he hadn't noticed anything, at all.
"Arggh!!" A scream of shock escaped Mathias' mouth before he jumped up from the wooden chair he had been seated on for hours. His legs gave in due to the shock and he landed on the ground.
Mathias' eyes were still fixated on the Elves, while Meryl could only look at the failed product of the runic weapon with a deep sigh.
"You damaged the entire weapon…what a waste," She lamented while feeling a bit guilty. Meryl's entire opinion of Mathias and the runic weapon on which he had engraved the runic constellations had changed.
It was a remarkable task to teach oneself how to create runic armaments, even more so if one didn't have much knowledge, or experience, let alone the right resources to do so.
Meryl hadn't been inside the Forest of Life for a long time but the scarcity of resources was already bothering her. She came to Jundra because her Master had left her behind to fulfill the mission he had been given by the Empress. Never in her wildest imaginations would she have expected to find out that the Elves' situation on Jundra was that bothersome.
It took her a while to accept everything, including the fact that her lessons would go on for much longer without the necessary resources.
But all of this was only something she comprehended at the sight of the two-story family house, the runic weapon in front of Mathias, and the young man himself.
She looked all over the runic weapon once again, only to notice something that attracted her interest.
Master Crevian looked at three pieces of paper that were lying right next to the runic weapon Mathias had been working on before he got interrupted.
"Did you engrave them, Mathias?" Master Crevian asked sharply while his gaze never left the pieces of paper.
"I didn't engrave them…but why are you here Crev—...I mean Master Crevian?" Mathias noticed the hostile gazes of the four older Elves when he had a slip of tongue and missed addressing the older Elf properly. That was why he was forced to change his way of speaking before anything worse could happen.
"But…who are you?" Mathias knew who Master Crevian was, but he had never seen the young Elf who was standing next to Master Crevian.
"I'm Meryl Chiran, Master Crevian's newest and best disciple and I'm the youngest Tier-1 Runicier of the entire Elven race!"
Meryl flicked her hair with pride which made Mathias feel like vomiting.
'If I thought that Nial was already a show off…what the hell is this woman then?!' He thought while shaking his head just for Master Crevian to jump into their conversation once again.
"If you didn't engrave these runic constellations, who was it then? They weren't engraved long ago!" Master Crevian sounded excited as he perceived the finest details about the three runic constellations.
There were only minor flaws in them, and they weren't actually difficult to fix if one had received some basic tutelage. Master Crevian was sure that the Runicier of the three runic constellations didn't have a rich experience with engraving runes. But what he could tell was that the runic constellations had been engraved with eerie precision and near-perfection despite being carved by a fairly inexperienced hand.
"I engraved these runic constellations. Is there a problem with them, Master Crevian?"
A voice from further away reached them. Nial appeared seemingly out of nowhere, his face smudged with soot and dirt because of all the smoke released in the reduction process.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om