I sat down at my computer-less desk, and bitterly shredded the more obnoxious of my unpaid bills.


    Once my desk was completely cleared off, I turned it into a Rune Master’s workbench. I had my Mana-Infused Knife, a stack of Reinforced Granite Tiles, and vials of Ayoxa Sap.


    <There are three core components to this ward scheme,> Samantha explained, as she guided me through the first steps of the Proximity Ward.


    <The first part is the activation condition—someone approaches. The second is the effect—you will be alerted. The third part is the power source—where do you want the mana to come from? Now that you have the Mana Sensing skill, you will be able to tell that there is mana in the air around us. Fortunately, there are ways to collect this mana. One component of your Proximity Ward is the Mana Collection rune, which will allow the Reinforced Granite Tile to passively collect small amounts of mana.>


    <Normally, you would want to tie your wards to Mana Beads or Mana Shards, which function as batteries. However, this Proximity Ward is efficient enough that a battery isn’t necessary.>


    That’s great and all, I muttered back, But can you just shut up while I focus on these patterns?


    Creating runes was extremely taxing, I was quickly realizing.


    Sending out my mana to form rune patterns might sound easy, but it was an incredibly delicate process. It was like when you paint, making sure each brush stroke looked exactly the same. I had to send out exactly the right amount of mana through my Mana-infused Knife, which functioned as my focus.


    More advanced Rune Masters would be capable of making their mana stay in one place until each rune was finished, at which point the mana would be magically locked into place. This would require a higher level of Mana Control, which I did not have yet.


    This was why Samantha had me buy the Ayoxa Sap. Before I started forming the symbols with my mana, I covered the granite tile with Ayoxa Sap, which had the ability to glue mana in place.


    Now, I could take as long as I wanted to form each rune for the Proximity Ward.


    The whole time, I had to keep my Mana Sensing skill active, or I wouldn’t be able to see any of the mana that comprised the rune patterns I was making.


    With Mana Sensing active, I could see floating white specks in the air—ambient mana, according to Samantha. And whenever I sent out my own mana through my knife, I saw a bright white strand of mana leaving my knife, like a glowing thread.


    The greater the density of the mana, the brighter it shone.


    I worked painstakingly for a half hour. It gave me a headache, staring at such a bright light for so long.


    Instead of a translucent outline of myself, Samantha was superimposing what the completed version of my rune pattern should look like on the tile.


    It was impressive, because no matter what angle I looked at the tile from, I could see slightly glowing lines that indicated what my next line should look like.


    I thought I was doing well, until Samantha cut in, <No—you can’t cross those two lines. We’ll have to start over.>


    “What?” I half-shouted. “Can’t we just remove the mana or something and try again?”


    <Nope,> Samantha said, popping the p-sound for emphasis. <You’ll have to be more careful next time. Now that you have some appreciation for how hard this should be, it’s time to cheat a bit. I want you to raise your Dexterity—let’s put 14 Mana per minute into raising your Dexterity. Also, you should switch back into your magician’s robes, since those stat boosts will help you more.>


    “Why didn’t we do that in the first place then,” I muttered.


    <It’s good for you to get a feeling for how hard this should be before we use our cheat-like abilities,> Samantha said, smugly. <And you also shouldn’t rely on me so much. Why didn’t you suggest this? What, did you think Dexterity was a useless stat? Dexterity is similar to fine motor skills—precision and finesse. High Dexterity is required of almost any profession. Potions making, blacksmithing, you name it.>


    I let out a low whistle. It seems I hadn’t fully appreciated yet, how OP my class was. I could develop a profession, without ever having to sink a point into Dexterity…


    After I put on my Magician’s Robes, my Mana Regeneration reached 23 mana per minute.


    During the tutorial, I had grown increasingly comfortable using Samantha’s technique of creating “floating points”—holding the mana that my body created outside of my mana center in 30 second intervals, and then expending that mana every 30 seconds. As a result, I could continually spend mana using Mana Regeneration, without ever touching my Mana Pool.


    By putting 7 mana towards Dexterity every thirty seconds, I was raising my Dexterity up to 17. With 17 Dexterity, I completed the Proximity Ward in about ten minutes.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    The whole tile—about four inches by four inches, front and back—was completely covered by intricate lines of mana. I couldn’t help but feel slightly appreciative of Samantha. With her descriptions as I worked, the patterns seemed to make more sense. The original activation condition—someone approaching within a 10 yard radius—really functioned by sensing changes in the surrounding mana. In virtually every creature, mana was more densely concentrated than a normal environment.


    As Samantha explained how the Mana Collection rune also doubled as core of the Mana Sensing Rune Cluster, I started to suspect that she had actually chosen the Proximity Ward because it lent itself so easily to Rune lessons. Ward patterns, she explained, were made up of multiple Rune Clusters, which were made up of various runes linked together. More efficient Rune Patterns would have the same runes that are used in multiple Rune Clusters.


    Samantha also had me practice modifying the Proximity Ward. I created a Proximity Ward that would sense intruders in an 11-foot radius. The predictable catch was that increasing the surveillance area also increased the mana cost. This deceptively small increase in the radius actually increased the mana cost per minute by 20%, which meant the ward would not last as long before needing to be recharged.


    The most confusing part of the Proximity Ward was how exactly the ward notified the owner. The Proximity Ward could interface with the Schema’s blue notifications, which, to the best of my understanding, Samantha explained away as “Soul magic mumbo jumbo.”


    After practicing the Proximity Ward, I moved on to the Durability Rune Pattern Blueprint. For the Durability Rune Pattern, Samantha and I had purchased several inexpensive helmets, each with a Mana Bead socketed to the forehead. The Mana Bead was a white, perfectly spherical crystal that was just smaller than a pea.


    <The Durability Rune Pattern is a classic example of the trade-offs that Rune Masters make on a regular basis,> Samantha started, and I immediately realized I was in for another lesson.


    <The Durability Rune Pattern is relatively simple. It has four core rune clusters. The first one is based around the Mana Collection Rune. The second is the Mana Storage. The Mana Storage rune cluster is centered around the Mana Bead, which is what you will be using as the battery. The third is the cluster that utilizes the existing mana to strengthen an object, and the fourth is something of a valve which siphons off a set amount of mana at a continual rate towards your soul, increasing your Physical Defense on your Status Window. Why did you stop? Start tracing the helmet again…>


    I resumed tracing the sap-covered helmet with the Durability Rune Pattern that Samantha was overlaying in my vision. Working on a helmet just served to remind me how easy the tile had been. All the runes were slightly contorted due to the curvature of the helmet. With Samantha’s guidance, it felt like someone was telling me exactly how to complete a 3-d puzzle, step by step.


    <If you’re making something you want to last for a long time, you need to make sure you balance the effects of each one of these clusters. If you tell the cluster to collect and store more mana than the material can naturally hold, then the material will have a natural rate of decay—its durability will decrease over time. One solution is to make sure the rate of collection perfectly balances the rate of consumption—that way, the item will consistently be stronger than it would be otherwise, at no cost to itself. The only cost is to the environment—the Mana Collection Rune drains mana from the environment.>


    Samantha continued, <The downside to this, though, is that the bonus is very small. Taking a large amount of damage just once can be more useful than being able to resist slightly more pressure than you would have otherwise. This is where the storage rune cluster comes in. Ideally, the stored mana would be transferred to an attached Mana Bead or Mana Shard—>


    “Samantha,” I said, cutting her off, “I think I’m losing it. Can you just give me like a minute to myself? I feel like you’ve been talking to me nonstop, and I’m still not over the fact that you might have killed my friends in the tutorial.”


    <Alright, Jarek. Let me know when you’d like to learn more. I would like to let you know, though, that the things that I am explaining will be essential for you to understand if you ever want to move beyond an E-rank profession.>


    “Are you serious?” I asked, feeling a wave of exasperation rush over me. “Advancing past an E-rank profession is the last thing on my mind right now. I just want to find my family. I thought our plan was to make something valuable to sell for a bunch of coins so that we could pay a town mayor to open a Teleportation Circle. I didn’t think I was going to get a lesson in how to make useless variations of rune patterns.”


    <They are not useless variations,> Samantha huffed. <But I suppose we can jump ahead to the Interdimensional Pouch after you finish your current Durability Rune Pattern.>


    <hr>


    It took me what was left of the day, and into the night, with several scrapped attempts, to make my first Interdimensional Pouch. I had thought that the Proximity Ward and Durability Rune Pattern were complicated, but I was woefully mistaken.


    The first problem was that this was a relatively small pouch—certainly smaller than the helmet. There was only so much space for an extremely elaborate rune pattern, which meant I had to make each rune extremely small. Even with extra Dexterity, it was incredibly difficult.


    The second problem was that Samantha was pissed and snippy the whole time because I’d cut her lessons short earlier.


    The biggest surprise about the pouch was how much mana it required to function.


    <Interdimensional Pouches are mana hogs,> Samantha had said. <Even if we covered the whole surface with mana collection runes, it wouldn’t collect enough mana fast enough to power the thing. So the solution is to set aside a portion of the interior of the pouch for the power source that keeps it running. This is where your Mana Beads come in. It will take about a Mana Bead a day to keep an E-rank pouch working. Since you bought your pouch from the Schema, it came with a Mana Shard, which will keep it powered for about a hundred days.>


    I fastened a Mana Bead to the inside of the Interdimensional Pouch, and then after making sure the runes were all connected properly, I activated the pouch.


    I glanced around my apartment, looking for things to put in.


    I grabbed a couple cereal boxes from the kitchen, touching them against the pouch and willing them inside the pouch.


    Interdimensional Pouches had high-level magic that was capable of discerning intent. I could put in Froot Loops and Lucky Charms cereal, and then picture the cereal box I wanted to take out, and somehow the pouch knew.


    On an unrelated note, the silver lining of working into the night was the confirmation that my 20 Perception essentially gave me night vision. I couldn’t see much color once it was truly dark, but I had a gut feeling that night vision would be extremely useful in the future-especially in a world without electricity.


    I wasn’t sure how long it had been since I last slept—my sense of time in the tutorial had been incredibly skewed—but I knew I was exhausted, so I crawled back into my bed and fell asleep quickly.