The cost was also very beautiful—the kind that, even with his wealth, still created a large dent in his wallet.
Still, he gritted his teeth and decisively pressed [Build]!
...
Syl, at this time, was coaching the little ones about their magic. "Don’t focus on the power, focus on control," she told them. "This way, you can create more effect with less wastage of power."
"Yes, auntie!" Athie said, nodding adorably, with Lily bobbing her cute, round head as well, though how much she actually understood was unknown.
Athie’s attack showed qualitative improvement, making Lily a little envious. The baby then summoned a bit of that unusual energy again and created a condensed version of it. Sadly, like a bubble, it dissipated into nothingness.
She pouted, and Syl’s eyes softened. She patted her pink hair and gently guided her.
After about half an hour of failure, the baby did not give up (mostly because Athie kept showing off at the side). Soon, she finally created a stable form of energy that allowed Syl to study its composition, though not for long because the baby threw it to the nearest monster.
When the attack landed on the monster, it created a mini explosion that splattered the beast’s forearm. Taking advantage, Athie also summoned his spikes, finally finishing it off.
The baby giggled and celebrated, and then toddled to Athie to get more praise.
Syl couldn’t help but stare at Lily’s back as she disappeared from view. She couldn’t shake off the feeling that the girl’s magic’s signature was very familiar with something , but she could not place it—and the unknown was making her worry a little.
"What’s the matter?"
Her reverie was cut when a familiar, soothing voice sounded right next to her ear. This was followed by strong arms wrapping around her stomach, pulling her into a warm embrace.
She smiled gently, but shook her head while she rested against him. "I’ll tell you when I figure it out."
Finn nodded. He was there to call her for the Runes Workshop but decided to wait until the kids’ training was done.
The two kids finished off another monster about five minutes later, turning to see Finn there, too. The little pink-haired girl sparkled, toddling to them.
"Bwatha!" she exclaimed, raising her little arms and making the two adults smile.
Finn chuckled as he stretched one of his arms, effortlessly catching the little girl to carry her up. "Well, aren’t you a cutie?"
"Did you have fun?"
The little girl bobbed her head in glee. "Yash! Monsters go boom! Splat!"
"..." Sometimes he did wonder if he was doing theright thing raising her like this.
Anyway, he brought them to the kitchen for a light snack, and then the two kids toddled to go play someplace else—very likely to go around again to continue their training, possibly to assist some adults in exchange for cores.
Finally left alone, Finn grinned at Syl as he grabbed her hand. "I have something to show you."
...
The Rune Workshop was placed on the same street as the other two for zoning purposes.
However, he decided to hide this one from public access, so he did not place a sign, for now. Runes were too good, and there were too many outside. He did not want them in the wrong hands. Further, Syl was busy leveling up, so they doubted she’d make any surplus.
The building was reminiscent of the other two workshops. When they entered, he then activated the [Runemaster] inheritance. Since the workshop wasn’t built, only the basics were transferred onto her consciousness.
Now that it was up, everything flowed in, free to be read and studied by his girlfriend.
Syl’s eyebrows rose as she realized this, whipping her head to look at him. He found her slightly gaping look adorable.
After giving her a kiss, he gestured for her to explore the place and maybe put the skill to use. She certainly had the raw materials—gems and certain stones—in her space.
For now, Syl said she could create three runes, though she could study it more, on top of what she had already read beforehand, to create more variety in the future.
One was the Protection Rune, which could block a certain amount of energy, completely shielding a person. The number of hits before it expired naturally depended on the strength and the level of the attacker.
Another was the Agility Rune, which would temporarily boost the agility of the user, like agility potions, except it was reusable. The effect was also a bit less, with just about a 10-20% increase for some minutes.
And the other was the Obscurity Rune, which was designed to make one less obvious in the eyes of humans and monsters alike. It was not an invisibility rune, but it would be like a minor haze of sorts.
As Finn already knew, these runes could have long-term use as long as they were charged with essence, usually at the expense of toughened and fortified level cores each use. Like what he saw in Lotus Town, it needed a converter to convert the essence from the core to be usable by the runes.
Interestingly, this workshop had that exact converter! As for the cost, Finn could set it up for others.
For customers, he set it as twice the energy placed. For example, if one needed to charge it one toughened core worth of energy, then they’d have to pay two. The rest of that energy would go to powering up his utilities, so he wouldn’t have to think about ’bills’ every so often.
It might be a bit costly, but the rune functions were usually worth it.
He watched as Syl went to a workshop, touching the marble table with those pretty hands of hers. Her eyes were fixed on it, and to others, it didn’t seem like she was feeling much.
She wasn’t the type to vocalize her feelings, but Finn knew her well enough that she was very excited. This alone made the workshop super worth it.