Luck had nothing to do with it. The topics Lith usually talked about with Yondra were too boring for Professors and too difficult for assistants, so after a while, they would always be alone.
Lith had waited until only those on guard duty were awake before showing her the sword.
"Why the fuss? The Kingdom allows Rangers to keep everything they find inside the lost city of Huryole."
"That's because aside from the Warden, Forgemaster, and Alchemical lab there's nothing worth the trouble of entering that damn place. You hit the jackpot and if you had told anyone else, they would have taken it away from you." Yondra explained.
"So I'm right. Huryole is an academy." Since Yondra seemed more worried about his safety rather than his discovery, Lith decided to strike the iron while it was hot.
"Hush, young idiot, and yes, it was an academy. That's why now choosing a Headmaster is such a big deal and because only they can interact with the power core of an academy.
"The Kingdom allows you to raid Huryole because that way you are more likely to kill the creatures trapped inside its forest and in case someone founds something valuable, it gets snatched the moment they start researching its nature."
"Dragons and undead in an academy's forest? Who was the madman who devised such a dangerous environment?" Lith asked, pretending to be flabbergasted.
"Does the name Arthan ring any bells?"
"The Mad King! But why?"
"Because he hoped that at least one of them held the secret of immortality. Clearly, he was right, but something went terribly wrong and instead of subjugating them, the power core gained sentience and unleashed its prisoners against the academy staff. According to the chronicles, we lost several geniuses that day."
"Please, let's talk about this another time. I'm getting a headache."
'Rather I have no interest in history lessons. I must avoid changing the topic.' Lith thought.
"I still don't understand. The Undead Courts use runes and so did the Odi. Why is the sword I found such a big deal?"
"Dammit. Since you decided to trust me, I can tell you at least this much. Do you remember how hard enchanting the Orichalcum was?" Yondra asked.
"Yes. It took me countless attempts and a lot of effort. Why?"
"Back when Forgemastering didn't exist, the ancient runes were used to imbue a spell inside anything they were carved onto, but they were delicate and expensive. After Silverwing's legacy became available, it was discovered that they could still be used in the preparatory phase of Forgemastering to lower its requirements."
"It makes sense." Lith said. "The enchantment of the blade is too strong for the mana crystals that were used to craft it and such a cheap metal is supposed to be unable to withstand powerful magical energies."
"Then you already have half the answer, what you lack is the other half. Runes allow weak metals to hold powerful spells, but when applied to powerful metals, like Adamant, they are the only way to unlock their full potential.
"Without runes, once you use the Bonding spell to embed purple crystals on Adamant, its mana flow becomes so strong that it becomes impossible to Forgemaster it. Do you understand now why it's such a big deal?" Yondra's eyes were dead serious. She kept looking around, to be sure that no one was overhearing them.
"Yes, thank you." Lith replied.
'Thanks to Bohr we didn't use the Adamant Forge for the Skinwalker armor!' Lith thought. 'We've dodged more than one bullet there.'
'By my maker! Now sure it makes sense why Runesmithing is a secret. This way, only Royal Forgemasters can use Davross and Adamant to create the ultimate artifacts, giving the Royal Family the monopoly over them.' Solus replied.
'Even better, we now know that Runesmithing is part of the preparatory phase, so it has to be performed either after or before Bonding. That's an invaluable information that will save us countless failures.' Lith pointed out.
"That's enough for tonight. Please, don't ask me anymore about runes unless you accept becoming my disciple. If anyone discovers what I told you, I might be charged with High Treason, and my whole family would be wiped out." Yondra tried to stand up but Lith stopped her.
"I can't make you any promises about the apprenticeship, I like going solo. Yet we have yet to finish your treatment. Your life force has recovered enough to allow me to further rejuvenate your body."
Yondra didn't miss how the timing of her treatment 'casually' matched that of her lesson about runes and she didn't care. She remained silent the whole time, admiring Lith's focus and the subtle changes in her own physique at the same time.
'Shameless kid. I bet that runes are the price he was hinting at when I asked him to rejuvenate me. Either I'm too paranoid, or this whole conversation was staged from the beginning. I must make him my disciple.' Yondra thought.
'Crafty bastards achieve greatness whereas goody two-shoes die early because they're too stupid. That's how Mogar spins. I must be careful to feed Lith enough information about runes to keep him hooked, but not so much that he can work the rest out by himself.'
By the time they were done, Yondra's body once again had the prowess of its thirties, even though she still looked like a sixty years old woman. She was also exhausted from the treatment and fell asleep the moment her head touched her pillow.
Two days later, while planting patches of moss inside Kulah, Lith left Solus inside the military compound. With her mana sense, she could easily dodge the Odi's traps as well as the other members of the expedition and find the perfect place to assume her tower form.
'I'm honestly conflicted about this Phloria thing.' Solus thought while dodging and copying the Odi's arrays at the same time. 'On one hand, I'm happy he is finally opening of his own will with someone. Sadly, Protector and I do not count.
'On the other hand, I'm jealous. I would like to be able to spend some time with another man, just to see how Lith takes it. I'm feeling a bit neglected recently.'
To be fair, Lith would always talk with her and ask her opinion about everything. Even in that moment, he was working hard to fuel her with mana despite their distance, to make sure that Solus wasn't forced to spend an ounce of her own life force.
When she finally found a spot with no arrays and hidden behind a building tall enough to completely eclipse the tower, she made her attempt.
'What the heck?' She thought. 'The mana geyser is almost completely spent, but this doesn't make sense. It doesn't take that much energy to fuel these many buildings and their arrays.
'Even when we perform our experiments, my tower consumes barely a fraction of the geyser's energy flow. For so little world energy to reach the surface, there must be something below that is siphoning it near its source.
'That's why the Odi used the cables! It's not a design flaw so much as a way to divert the minimum amount of energy necessary from whatever they are doing. I must inform Lith.'
