Erik barged into the training room with a happy Eira on his tail. With how little actual progress there had been on her medium since the idea was presented to her, she was now especially d to see him working on it with so much energy.


    Here, Erik quickly noticed Astrid and Alice were both exercising, while there was a single ck dome in the meditation area, likely belonging to Emma.


    He didn''t think Emily would already be out and training again so soon after the way he left her.


    "Teacher!" Alice eximed excitedly while running up to him. "Are you here to train with me?!"


    Unfortunately, Erik could only shake his head regretfully. "Sorry, Alice," he said while crouching down a little to look her in the eyes. "I need to finish this medium for Eira first. Can you train on your own for a little while longer? I promise I will spent an entire week training with you after I''m finished."


    Alice pouted a little and impatience shed across her eyes. For a moment, Erik thought she wouldsh out, but then she nodded. "Fine, but you''d better keep your promise! I— I need help discovering my Runebound skill, and your schedule says I''m not allowed to continue meditating on my rune until I have, so…"


    It wasmon knowledge back on S?l and beyond that even though children at the age of ten would awaken their aetherial storage and first glyph, they didn''t instinctively know how to activate and use the spell associated with that glyph.


    Instinctive knowledge of ones spells would, usually, only starting from the age of sixteen, likely because the brain needed to develop to a certain point before a spell could be interpreted on an instinctive level.


    Luckily, there were ways around that restriction, like good old fashioned hard work. With hard work and usually the help of an experienced parent, a child could find the usage of their first spell before the natural age.


    Another way around it was to simply be extremely talented, but such talent was rare.


    And, as it turned out, it worked the same for Runebound.


    "I know, Alice," Erik said with a warm smile while caressing her head. "And don''t worry, if you haven''t discovered it on your own by next week, I promise we''ll find it together, alright?"


    Between himself and Elora, he was perfectly confident they could help her discover her ability, even if her talent was the lowest of the low, which he doubted.


    Before Alice could respond, however, he frowned and turned serious. "Just don''t be impatient, understood? You know you could endanger your foundation by exploring your glyph without fully understanding your skill. Don''t disappoint me!"


    ''At least, that''s how it works with Arcanists,'' he pondered thoughtfully. ''I can only assume it''s the same here, since Alice is the first Runebound of sixteen or less that I''ve met.''


    Perhaps it was a good thing Erik came here today, as the impatient sh in Alice''s eyes quickly disappeared to be reced with determination and a serious nod. "Yes, teacher!"


    "Good girl," Erik chuckled, and sent her off to continue training, before turning his attention to Astrid, who had been looking at them with amusement.


    "Mind helping me out with something, Astrid?" he asked, while beckoning her towards the door.


    Astrid''s eyebrows raised with a little surprise, but still nodded as she started walking in his direction, "Sure, Erik. What''s up?"


    "Remember what I said about bing my forging assistant?" he asked while smiling slyly.


    —————————————


    A few minutester, he and the beautiful, somewhat muscr, vampire found themselves in the smithing hall.


    At this point, Astrid continued to wear the clothes that Elora had conjured for her back in Frostvik, consisting of a somewhat rugged tunic and pants,plete with a fur cor. Combined with her wild strawberry blond hair, pale vampire skin, and the body of a fighter, she looked like the very personification of an ancient Viking warrior woman.


    Something that Erik could certainly appreciate.


    Being ever a girl of action, Astrid quickly got to the point. "So I guess you want me to do the same thing asst time?" she asked, while scratching her head.


    "Yeah," Erik nodded eagerly while making his way to the forge. "Currently, the ingot inside doesn''t heat up enough with merely the me of this third rank forge, and while you are only in the second rank, your sun affinity is a fourth rank affinity, so it should still burn hotter than the regr first rank fire affinity this forge is using."


    Astrid just nodded along, not really understanding the mechanics of everything Erik was talking about, but perfectly willing to help.


    Erik just chuckled at her clueless expression. "You know, if you''re interested, I''d be happy to actually teach you the art of runesmithing, rather than just have you provide fire for the forge. Perhaps there''s even a sun-focused smithing technique in that massive library."


    Astrid paused, and looked thoughtfully, and curiously at the forge, "I''ve never really thought about it… but maybe?" Then she turned to Erik with shrug, "But we should think about thatter. I think we have plenty of other things to keep us busy for now."


    With that done, they quickly got to why they were there.


    Soon enough, Erik was once again staring curiously at the ingot of a mysterious alloy in the forge''s core. Only now, it was surrounded by a tiny sun that gave of a far stronger heat than before.


    Meanwhile, Astrid seemed perfectlyfortable simply leaning against the forge while circting her sun affinity and looking at Erik work as he asionally took the ingot out of the forge to try molding it different shapes.


    Unfortunately, after another half an hour, Erik sighed. "Alright, Astrid, you can stop now. I don''t think its going to work."


    Astrid stopped what she was doing, and took her hand of the forge. She looked at her own hand, and couldn''t help but feel a little disappointed in her own affinity, causing her to frown. "Is it really that tough?" she asked.


    Seeing her expression, Erik smiled a little. "I know you don''t like to lose, but for all we know this stuff could be ssified as rank six or even higher. In fact, it might not even be possible to ssify it in the standard ranking system at all.


    We know nothing about this stuff, aside from the fact that it can contain aetherium without the need for sigils, is an alloy that someone created, and now, that it apparently has a higher melting point than we can currently produce.


    "Alright, I get it." Astrid sighed with a nod, seemingly still feeling frustrated and annoyed at her inability to melt this thing.


    "Don''t worry," Erik chuckled. "You''ll get another chance, you just need to continue growing in ranks."


    A determined grind appeared on Astrid''s face, "In that case, I better get back to the training room so I can prepare for my rematch with this thing."


    Since Erik didn''t need any more help for now, Astrid returned to her training, while Erik remained behind in the smithing hall.


    "Guess that was a dead end…" Erik mumbled while inspecting the ingot from all sides with a frown.Finally, however, he just shrugged. "Well, no matter. Let''s get back to those ingots."