Chương 115: Skybound Cultivation System Restrictions

Instead of showing me more runes, the elder snapped the book closed so hard it actually made Constantine jump. The muscular little plant recovered quickly though and flexed its spiky biceps to prove that it wasn't startled at all.

"Tell me," Elder Molric said, staring at me with one of his more penetrating stares, "how many runes were you planning on adding?"

"As many as I can manage," I shrugged.

"Having more options in combat is always better, right?" The elder's laugh started out as this low chuckle before it built straight up into a full-bodied cackle that always meant he either had a brilliant insight or something catastrophic was about to happen. It was sometimes both.

"Oh, my naive disciple," Elder Molric wiped away a tear from his eye, "you clearly haven't done enough reading."

"What do you mean by that?" I frowned.

"What I mean," he said while his face shifted into something that looked pretty close to seriousness (although with Elder Molric you could never tell for sure), "is that there are some very good reasons why Skybound practitioners have specific limits on the number of runes they can safely inscribe on themselves." He started pacing back and forth while waving his hands around.

"When you are at Rank 1, you are strictly limited to three physical enhancement runes. You cannot have any elemental runes at all because your Fundamental Rune simply cannot handle that kind of energy conversion yet." Besides the restriction he mentioned, the rest of it didn't surprise me because we had already discussed that back in the previous iteration.

"Once you reach Rank 2, you get to add your elemental core rune, which is like your Worldroot Conduit, and that allows you to start manipulating elemental energy. It also increases your overall capacity, so you can have up to three supporting elemental runes and five physical enhancement runes."

"Why is the system limited like that?" I asked. Back during the previous loop, I was so focused on mastering the Fundamental Rune and Elemental Rune that I never bothered to look any deeper into these restrictions.

"Master," Azure's voice came through with a tiny hint of embarrassment in it, "this information was mentioned in one of the hundred books the elder gave you to study before. I should have brought it to your attention sooner..."

"It's fine," I thought back.

"It didn't matter back then since I never hit that limit." While we were talking, Elder Molric launched into lecture mode.

"You have to understand that these are not arbitrary restrictions. Whole generations of Skybound practitioners had to learn about these limits the hard way." His eyes got that familiar gleam in them again.

"When you push past what your Fundamental Rune can handle, all your runes begin to fail, and then..." He made an explosive gesture with both of his hands.

"Although," the elder added with a thoughtful look, "these are not strict rules for everyone. There are some initiates who can handle having one or two more runes than their current rank would normally suggest. But then there are others who struggle to maintain the average number." He started stroking his chin.

"You are quite an interesting case though. Even though you have a relatively small capacity for holding red sun energy, your control and efficiency are much more in line with a Rank 2 practitioner. If I had to guess, I would estimate your personal limit is probably sitting at three elemental runes, and maybe four or five physical enhancement runes." I didn't have any intention of blowing myself up, but maybe I could run some experiments in my inner world just to see if that actually was my limit.

"So," Elder Molric kept going, "you can safely add maybe two more physical enhancement runes and two more elemental runes to your setup. You need to choose them very carefully." I nodded while mentally cataloging all the stuff I already had. The elder had no idea about the Flight Rune because I only inscribed that one inside my inner world. And speaking of the inner world...

"Master," Azure spoke up, "there might be a way for us to get around these limitations. The runes you have inside your inner world are separate from the ones inscribed on your physical body. Theoretically speaking, you could maintain double the normal limit as long as the runes in your inner world are different from your physical ones." That... was an interesting thought.

On my original body, I already went ahead and inscribed most of the physical enhancement and elemental runes except for the Flight Rune and the Aegis Mark. The Flight Rune was going to be redundant the second I returned anyway, since I could rely entirely on the orbit of the two suns in my inner world whenever I needed to fly.

As for the Aegis Mark, it made way more sense to keep that one in my inner world because trying to inscribe a rune on my own back even with energy weaving would be unnecessarily complicated to do. So, this all meant that I could replace those inner world runes with brand new ones. I could have three physical enhancement runes on my cultivator body, and then have four physical enhancement runes plus three elemental runes safely stored in my inner world...

"That is true," Azure agreed, "but you must remember that you only have one single energy source powering all of these and that is the miniature red sun sitting in your inner world. Having more runes than anyone else at your stage might give you more options but you will have to be economical with how you use them." If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. That was a very fair point. Which reminded me of something else I had been wondering about.

"Master, I have a question about my low capacity for red sun energy... is there any way to increase it besides just direct absorption? Like maybe using some kind of storage rune?" The elder shook his head.

"Storage is already one of the primary functions of your Fundamental Rune. Every single time, someone has tried to artificially increase their capacity, the best-case scenario is their progress unravels and they lose everything they worked so hard towards. But what happens more often..." He did that explosion gesture again but this time he added some whistling sound effects to it. I was starting to sense a major theme when it came to Skybound cultivation.

It seemed like everything ended in either huge explosions or crystallization, and I couldn't decide which one of those fates was worse.

"What about trying to combine runes together?" I asked him, trying to come at it from a different angle.

"Like to enhance their overall effects?"

"Ah!" The elder's face lit up.

"That is exactly what Rank 3 is about, chaining multiple runes together to create compound effects." He waved his hand dismissively.

"But you really shouldn't worry about any of that right now. You are not even officially Rank 2 yet, so Rank 3 is still a long way off for you." I let out a sigh but made sure to make a mental note about it. At least there was an established way for combining runes, so I wouldn't have to try and figure it out myself through some potentially explosive trial and error process. Elder Molric opened his giant book back up.

"Alright, now what kind of rune were you looking for specifically?"

"Well," I said carefully, "I was wondering if there are any runes that can hide the red sun energy?" The elder shot me a strange look right before his face split open into a knowing smile.

"Ah, I see! So, you are one of those."

"One of what?" I raised my eyebrows up because I had absolutely no idea what he meant by that but it didn't sound good.

"I'm not passing any judgment here!" he held both of his hands up in a placating gesture.

"Some of our Skybound practitioners really enjoy pretending to be mortals so they can reveal their real power later for dramatic effect. It is quite a common thing really." His grin got even wider.

"Although, they usually wait until they reach Rank 2 before starting up their little performances..." I couldn't help but let a smile out when I thought about Elder Chen Yong back at the sect and his weird habit of playing a crippled shopkeeper.

"It isn't about trying to show off," I protested.

"Sometimes it is just more convenient to be able to walk around town without frightening all the locals." The elder gave me this exaggerated wink that made it clear he didn't believe me for a second. Before I had a chance to defend myself further, he started flipping through his book with this renewed enthusiasm.

"Let's see here... concealment concealment... ah! Here we go, it is the Shroud Rune!" He turned the massive book around so I could get a good look at the pattern. It looked deceptively simple, just a series of interwoven curves that somehow seemed to pull your eyes away from the center of it.

"This is one of our more... practical enhancement runes for people in the lower ranks. It creates a field that masks the presence of any red sun energy, and it makes the user appear as an ordinary mortal to most forms of detection." I leaned in closer so I could study the pattern properly.

"Most forms?"

"Well," he hedged a little bit, "it won't fool any of the higher ranked practitioners, those who are at Rank 5 and above can see right through it if they are paying attention. But for general purposes..." He gave a shrug.

"It is quite effective at letting you avoid any unwanted attention."

"Does it work against the Lightweavers at all?"

"It is more effective against those blue sun worshippers than it is against other Skybound practitioners. Unless you happen to be dealing with a Rank 7 or above Lightweaver, you will remain undetected." Elder Molric gestured vaguely over toward the academy's outer walls.

"It is how most of our lower ranked practitioners manage to move around safely in the outside world without getting hunted down." His expression darkened a little bit.

"Although the ones that do end up getting killed... well they usually just gave themselves away. Typically, it happens when they end up killing someone in a massive fit of rage. We see a lot of that happen even with all the strict punishments we have in place." I gave a nod since it wasn't exactly surprising information. It seemed like a completely logical outcome considering the madness inducing effects the red sun had on people.

"Does it have any other drawbacks?" I asked him, trying to steer the conversation back to the actual rune itself.

"Ah," the elder raised one of his fingers making it clear he wasn't done explaining things yet.

"Before we get into the drawbacks, you should know that the Shroud Rune has another function. Whenever it is activated, it can shroud the user's face in shadows and mask their identity. It even alters your voice and gives it this delightfully ominous echo." He grinned, showing that he was incredibly pleased with that particular feature for some reason.

"Most practitioners usually have it applied to their robes, although doing that is quite pricey..." I knew exactly what he was referring to since a similar rune was applied to Vayara's robes which was why I didn't even realize she was a woman until she finally removed her hood. I also ended up using that exact same feature to scare Zoren off before. Normally, I would be interested in getting one of those robes for myself, but having material possessions wasn't my priority right now.

Since I could store the rune safely in my inner world, I could use its effects anywhere and anytime I wanted without having to rely on physical items.

"Alright, now in terms of the drawbacks," the elder kept going, "besides having a constant energy drain, it also interferes with your other runes and reduces their effectiveness by about twenty percent while it is active. It is nothing too severe, but it is something you need to keep in mind if you ever end up in combat while using it."

Having a twenty percent reduction wasn't ideal but it might be worth it just for the advantages of going undetected, especially at the beginning of the loop if I wanted to avoid Vayara.

"So, this would count as a physical enhancement rune?"

"Anything that isn't elemental gets lumped into the physical enhancement category." The elder took a pause and stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"Let's call them elemental and non-elemental runes to prevent any more confusion. Calling them physical enhancement is misleading since runes like the Shroud Rune do not enhance anything physical." I gave a nod and mentally cataloged the Shroud Rune down as my first non-elemental rune. Now all I had to do was pick out my second one. Even though the explosive force of the Impact Rune sounded impressive, I wasn't in any rush to learn it right now.

Since the Titan's Crest already gave me enhanced strength, overlapping two similar effects seemed wasteful when I had strict limitations on the number of runes I could safely maintain. The Hawk's Eye Rune was still a strong contender though, since having enhanced perception and the ability to read micro expressions could be invaluable during combat. But those severe drawbacks it had made me pause.

Having only thirty seconds of enhanced perception followed immediately by debilitating headaches or potential temporary blindness was a ridiculously steep price to pay. Still, I figured I would keep it in mind unless something more suitable turned up for me.

"What other non-elemental runes would you recommend then?" I asked him, hoping to see some options that would complement my existing abilities instead of just duplicating them.