"Adding a control field can't make our enchantments more powerful, since the cap is always determined by the amount of mana that I can handle, but these runes can make my Forgemastering much more versatile.
"For people with a weak core like Kamila, such items would be a priceless treasure." Lith said.
"She can activate the Skinwalker armor's boosted state only a couple of times, but if I had engraved these runes, she could selectively boost a single part of the armor, without the precision and focus that doing such a thing now requires."
"It's nice of you to think about her first, but we still have a problem." Solus said.
"Those runes are visible just like those we learned in Huryole, but unlike them, the books at our disposal don't contain any of the ancient Odi runes, so we can't convert them into modern ones.
"Moreover, we have yet to discover how modern Runesmiths make their runes invisible. If we apply that enchantment as it is, we would be immediately discovered.
"Until we don't understand if this is another Royal Forgemaster technique, or even worse, something that only the Odi were capable of, we must tread with caution."
Lith nodded and then ran to his forge, to craft a new magic holding ring bearing the regulator runes. His plan was to use it to hold a healing spell that he could activate in battle little by little, enhancing his own life fusion and lessening the strain that light spells exerted on his body.
Since he bought rings in bulk, he took one of them, engraved the rune pattern, and skipped the Bonding step before performing the actual enchantment. Green or not, mana crystals were expensive.
Lith also wanted to check if modern Forgemastering methods could work properly with the ancient power words. Everything went without a hitch and the tier three charged spell was easily stored within the ring.
Yet when Lith tried to activate the spell, the runes started to flicker. He could feel the light element slowly seeping into his body, but since he was healthy, only his metabolism was enhanced, making him hungry.
In a matter of seconds, the runes were unable to fuel themselves properly and started to siphon the energy from the pseudo core until it crumbled.
"You cheapskate." Solus grumbled. "Are you happy now? The runes are gone and the ring is nothing but scrap metal."
"Actually, I am." Lith replied while studying his latest failure. The edges of the runes were now charred in the metal and the healing spell stored in the ring was being released in the form of pure light.
"First, I understood why the Odi ring needs a mana crystal. It's not because the enchantment is powerful, but because the regulating runes work akin to a dam. Once they are opened, it takes a lot of energy to prevent them from crumbling under the pressure of the mana that wants to be released at once.
"Second, don't ask me how, but after the pseudo core collapsed, the light element was separated from the darkness element, generating a destructive power similar to those off spell employed by the last two Abominations we faced."
Lith showed the black marks on the ring to Solus, who was flabbergasted noticing how the more the light element seeped out of the failed item, releasing a feeling of peace and tranquillity, the more the Chaos energy ate at the ring, turning it into nothingness.
"Please, tell me that you don't want to research that kind of magic." Solus was now extremely worried. "Yes, you have part of an Abomination's life force, but I don't like the idea of strengthening that side of you.
"No offense, but you're already fucked up as you are."
"None taken." Lith replied. "Also, no. I don't plan on researching Abomination magic. At this point, it would do me more harm than good. A single failed experiment could kill both of us at the same time.
"Sure, the black energy is fast and lethal, but so are many of my spells. I already risked losing my hand for a mere cantrip, I'm not so eager to die."
Lith showed her his right hand, where his middle finger was hanging by a thread, and part of his skin was blackened out.
"Good gods! If you were a normal human, the corruption would have probably spread up to your elbow." Solus said.
"Whatever this is, before making more experiments we need to learn more. Power without control is madness." Lith nodded and used healing magic to regenerate his hand.
Lith then Forgemastered a new magic holding ring, this time with both the runes and a mana crystal, plus another ring with a single set of the runes he had learned from Huryole's sword.
The Odi runes this time worked like a charm, but they stuck out like a sore thumb. Not only using the ring in public was idiotic, but Lith also discovered that the difficulty in regulating the mana output of the enchantments wasn't due to their pseudo core but because of the runes.
They were too rough and inefficient to allow the fine-tuning that Lith could already achieve from true magic, but at least it was a start. The Huryole runes, instead, were a complete bust.
He had applied the amplifying runes, to see if he could use them to turn a tier-three spell holding ring into at least a tier four. Yet the moment Lith tried to release the harmless tier-three wind spell, the rune pattern flared up and the mana they held went haywire.
Lith had to throw it inside the safe room to avoid healing his hand another time.
"Dammit. Either the runes for rings are different from those for swords or the proportions were wrong." He said.
"I think both your hypotheses are right." Solus said. "To engrave the runes on the ring, we had to scale them down and we don't know if the size of the runes matters. On top of that, no matter how careful we are, the spacing between runes on a sword and a ring is completely different."
Lith and Solus spent the days before the double date at Protector's house working to understand how runes worked and translating the Odi book about body-swapping. Lith hoped that by complementing the device with a pseudo phylactery, he might be able to even retain his own mana core, or at least preserve his muscle memory.
The only problem with that particular side project was that finding a body with a red core was damn easy, finding one that could withstand even his now blue Awakened mana core was nigh impossible, at least based on Solus's recent discoveries about impurities.
Lith buried himself in work, to not think about how badly Kamila could react to his revelation. When the day finally arrived, he would have rather got another round with Jiira. At least he would have known what to expect.
"Why are you so tense?" Kamila asked. "Protector is your friend and even though I never met an Emperor Beast before, I'm sure we'll get along. The only thing I don't understand is why we're going to his place rather than having him come to your home.
"A forest is not a nice place at night, whereas your house has all the space and food the three of us need to have a pleasant meal together."
"It's not just the three of us. I told you we'll meet his family as well." Lith swallowed a lump of saliva. "Please, don't ask me anything. You'll understand when you know them."
