Rune Seeker

“Because the Fool is amazing,” Milly said, that quirk of her eyebrows the other clue that everything Hiral’s sister was about to say was another trap.

Still, despite knowing that, Hiral couldn’t stop his mouth from spitting out more words before his brain caught up. “It’s not! It’s possibly the worst tattoo you could ever get for dungeon running. How did Dad ever let you get that? Can you take it off? Get a new Medium?”

Even as he asked the question, he knew the answer to the last part – having spent an hour listening to Gauto talk about the system for Mediums after he’d met with Seena. Artists and Academics could each bond one in the lower ranks – E through C – then another at B. There was a theory they could get a third at S-Rank, which would not only up their offensive and defensive abilities, but also just give them more physical space to ink tattoos. Each of the spheres was limited in what it could hold because of size, so doubling or even tripling the amount of space was a major upgrade.

The downside was, of course, that once bonded, there was no easy way to unbond. Sure, the sphere could be destroyed – though it wasn’t easy – but the backlash from doing that was not good. Not good at all. In the short term it was utterly crippling, resulting in reduced solar attributes, along with actual penalties to stats, not to mention the loss of all skills. Since there had only been one “test” of this, nobody was even sure how long the backlash lasted.

Gauto estimated as long as a full rotation – one year, as Dr. Benza would say.

There was no way Hiral would knowingly put his sister through that.

“Dad didn’t let me get the tattoo,” Milly said, and Hiral’s eyes widened.

“You didn’t tell him?” he asked, shock running its way from the top of his shiny, bald head down to the tips of his toes.

“He didn’t let me, because he inked the tattoo himself,” Milly said, triumph glowing in her eyes.

“He inked…?” Hiral started, practically at a loss for words. “Was he drunk?”

That last comment seemed to turn Milly’s look of triumph to one of insult. “He did it because I convinced him how good it would be.”

Finally, Hiral’s brain got control of his mouth, and he stopped it before he said anything else. He’d more than once in the last minute reminded himself how smart his younger sisters were – both of them. And, if Milly was standing in front of him telling him the Fool tattoo was actually good, then he needed to stop being a hard-headed big brother and listen to his little sister.

“What do you know that I don’t?” he asked quietly, and the insulted look faded from his sister’s face immediately. She’d gotten him to listen.

“Whoa,” Seena said. “Before you answer that, Milly, can somebody explain to the rest of us why this foolish…”

“Fool,” Hiral corrected without breaking eye contact with Milly.

“Fine, why this Fool tattoo is so divisive?”

“Milly?” Hiral offered his sister the chance to explain, and she practically glowed at being given the opportunity.

“The Fool is one of the five Mark tattoos,” Milly began as she gathered her thoughts. “Unlike the normal tattoos you are probably familiar with – such as the ones Left uses – the Marks are all passive effects, instead of active. In other words, whoever is inked with one of the Marks will always have its ability granted, at a minor but permanent cost to their solar energy capacity. None of them have an activatable effect, which is both their greatest strength and their greatest weakness.”

“Okay, I think we’re with you so far,” Seena said, getting nods from the other two Growers.

“Now,” Milly continued. “Like most of our tattoos, such as Hiral’s Spear of Clouds or Wings of Anella, the Marks are based off an old legend which is where their power comes from. In this case, the legend speaks of a band of heroes roused every hundred years to fight off an ancient evil. Each of the heroes would bear a Mark to fill a specific role and wield a specific power within their group.”

“Which means each Mark has that specific power?” Yanily asked. “What are the other Marks?”

“You are correct,” Milly said, sounding far too much like an academic professor instead of Hiral’s little sister. “As for the other Marks, there are four others, besides the Fool. In general, from the names alone, you can get an idea of what their roles and abilities would be. For example, the Saint tattoo vastly improves all healing done, be it through the magic of other tattoos, or the simple application of knowledge and medicine.”

“If that’s the case, why didn’t you get the Saint tattoo?” Seeyela asked. “You told us that was the role you were looking for.”

“There is another, very limiting connection between the Marks and the old legend,” Milly said. “Only one new tattoo of each Mark can be inked every hundred rotations. All the Marks besides the Fool are still… on cooldown. And, even if they weren’t, there’s a long list of people waiting in line for a chance to get one. For example, I think Ilrolik and Loan are both waiting for either a Champion or Chosen, but they’re both still several rotations away from becoming available again.”

“What happens if somebody tries to get a Mark before the hundred years – rotations – is up?” Seena asked.

“The Mark will consume all of the solar energy and potential of the Maker, along with all of their existing tattoos,” Milly said. “As Hiral would say, it’s a bad time.”

“It really is,” Hiral spoke up. “I met a Shaper through Gauto a few years back who tried to skip the queue. Gauto thought maybe it was connected to why I couldn’t shape, because he was like me in some ways, but very different in others. The Sage tattoo glowed fiercely on his shoulder, but all his other tattoos just looked like scar tissue. And he couldn’t move solar energy at all.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“This is all great to know,” Yanily asked. “Good lore dump and a shameless reference to the legends – Is there a book I can read? – but what does this have to do with right now and Milly’s Fool tattoo.”

“Excellent question,” Milly said. “I’ll skip to the relevant information. Each of the Marks has a boon and a bane, though for most of them, the bane is so small and the boon is so large, it hardly matters. Back to the example of the Saint, while it vastly increases how much healing somebody can do, it also reduces the efficiency of non-healing abilities – they cost a tiny bit more solar energy.”

“Doesn’t seem so bad if it’s only a tiny bit,” Seena said.

“It’s not bad at all,” Milly agreed. “In fact, since only the elite are allowed to get the Marks, normally, they don’t even notice it.”

“And for the Fool?” Yanily prompted.

“The Fool drastically increases learning ability, efficiency, cooldowns, reaction speed, and solar energy costs of anything not related to fighting or combat. On the downside, anything directly involving fighting suffers massive drawbacks, to the point it’s nearly impossible.”

“The Fool,” Hiral interjected, “would be ten times worse than the Disoriented debuff from the Endless Tunnels if Milly tried to punch somebody seriously.”

“That… does sound bad,” Seena said slowly, her face showing she was seriously reconsidering her decision to allow the two sisters to go to the surface with them.

“Except healing doesn’t count as fighting,” Milly said, and there went that eyebrow again.

“Reaaaaaaally?” Hiral asked, thinking about the implications of it. In a way, it made sense, as no Shaper in their right mind would get the Fool tattoo since it would impact their ability to fight in the Amphitheatre of the Sun. And, really, that was where they got all their experience. There were no parties on Fallen Reach. No dungeon runs.

Until now.

“And since there was no queue to get the Fool,” Hiral continued, “Dad got you to the front of the non-existent line.”

“He also proposed it as a test to see if the Mark tattoos would work through Mediums,” Milly said, nodding all the while. “And it does. He’d hoped the downsides wouldn’t transfer, but the Fool works exactly like it would if it was inked on a Shaper. I have the passive effects all the time. Really helped my studying.”

“Have you tested it beyond that?”

“We did,” Milly said. “And I was careful to get abilities that wouldn’t trigger it. Having the Fool tattoo has significantly improved my learning – I’ve been devouring medical textbooks – and improves my reaction time as if I had twice the Dex and Atn when it comes to my healing abilities and buffs. Not to mention the efficiency boosts. I’ll be a party healer and support.”

“And an amazing one at that,” Nat said, speaking up for the first time in a while. “We’ve done some practice together, and when it’s just the two of us, she’s strong. With six people, I can’t even begin to imagine.”

“Why would more people make a difference?” Seena asked, her mind likely going to the same place Hiral’s did – Wule. Healing the whole party had been more difficult for him until he’d gotten special gear, achievements, and abilities for healing the group.

“Because of the tattoos I chose,” Milly said.

“Let’s see what you’ve got,” Hiral said, turning his attention to the sphere. Of course, there was the Fool, but then Hiral’s eyebrows rose as he looked at each subsequent tattoo. “Well, damn. That’s… I wouldn’t have thought of doing it that way. And it works?”

Milly nodded.

“Hey,” Seena snapped her fingers. “There are others here.”

“Sorry,” Hiral said. “Milly here only took one single-target tattoo, the Shield of Kollash. It’s… I guess you could call it like a barrier. A short-lived one at that, to absorb a small amount of damage before expiring. Kind of like your Molten Shield. No explosion at the end though…”

“But, I also took Spiked Shields and Protective Healing,” Milly interrupted. “Makes Shield of Kollash, Dome of Force, Balance of Fate, and Ashes’ Armor inflict damage to attackers based on my Wis and Int.”

“And Chain Heal will leave another shield thanks to Protective Healing,” Hiral mumbled. “Which in turn does more damage from Spiked Shields. Nice synergy.”

“You just said a bunch of names that don’t mean anything to us,” Yanily pointed out.

“Sorry,” Hiral said. “Look, instead of explaining each ability, Milly will basically be able to shield us from most damage. Even if we do get hurt, her Balance of Fate will even out all our health and provide another shield, or Chain Heal will bounce between us to top us off. All while doing damage back to anybody who hits us. Ashes’ Armor has some nice bonuses to it as well.”

“You think it’ll work?” Seena asked Hiral.

“I think we need to test it out,” Hiral admitted. “On paper it looks good.”

“Test it out,” Milly asked hopefully. “Like in a dungeon?”

Before Hiral answered Milly, he turned to Nat. “And what about you? Did you get some crazy Mark too?”

“No way,” she said, though she frowned like it wasn’t quite fair. “Like Milly, I focused a bit more on support than pure offense. The Mediums can already provide basic attacks and defense, so I took crowd control abilities.”

Hiral returned Milly’s sphere to above her shoulder, then took a look at Nat’s, and immediately whistled at the buffs and debuffs he saw there. “You’re going to have to use some of these on me…” he mumbled, then looked at the Growers before one of them could ask. “Most of her tattoos are for disabling enemies. There’s a stun in here, a mesmerize – which should make most enemies just sort of stare off into space unless we damage them – as well as a tattoo that works to slow down reaction speed. Plus a few more.

“Again, in a party situation with others to deal the damage, it’s a very powerful loadout. Not a combination we’d ever see on a Shaper, but with the introduction of parties, it makes sense.”

“Enough sense to run a dungeon with you?” Nat asked a question very similar to Milly.

Hiral gave the tattoos on Nat’s Medium one more look to buy himself the time to think about it. What Seena had said made sense. His sisters were going to run dungeons at some point. Wasn’t it better their first time in danger was when he was around to keep them safe? Their choices of tattoos would be very powerful in a party setting – though he was a bit worried about how effective they’d be in Boss fights – but there was only one way to find out.

“Fine,” Hiral finally said. “Do our parents know what you’re planning?”

“They do,” Milly said.

“Nat?” Hiral asked this other sister, since Milly’s version of the truth could sometimes be a little… subjective.

“They said we could go as long as you agreed to it,” Nat said.

“Oh, so I did have some say in it after all?” Hiral asked, standing a little taller.

“Don’t kid yourself,” Seena immediately knocked him back down a peg.