World of Alvarra: Rise of the Vampire Lord

Chapter 95 Learning more about Runes

After lunch, he spent another hour of exertion then said his goodbyes to Luna, who left happy. After that, he left for Lorenzo's study to continue his studies on runes and their effects on the body. Bringing along Isa as a test subject.

Arriving, he and Lore began talking about what they have learned, asking Isa to show Lore what she showed him. Activating her tattoo, she showed how she could ride the wolf and then somewhat fuse with it to increase her strength and speed.

Lore was impressed since normally he dealt in potions and magic spell circles and told them to wait for a bit while he prepared for a guest to arrive. And in a few minutes, a knock came at the door and in entered a hobgoblin who actually looked like a mage. A rarity for goblins. She then introduced herself as the one who helps inscribe runes on the goblins who ask for it.

After that, Lore asked the hobgoblin to teach them everything she knew about these specific runes that augment the body and can do so much more. The hobgoblin in question happily did so, since, in a way, it was almost like Lore was acknowledging her, and all the years she spent learning her skills.

The next few hours were spent working on inscribing temporary runes on Isa who would then activate them and test them out. Runes to activate a small fireball, runes to make her float for a few seconds, and many more. Van and Lore taking as many notes as possible as the hobgoblin mage did her best to explain the history of these runes and where she learned it from. How it was passed down and refined throughout the generations of goblin kind and how different it used to be compared to now.

"The only problem with it is that we goblins have a very small mana pool. This is because we are constantly eating mana to help run our bodies. For those like goblin mages, they either have to eat a lot of cores or eat a lot of food to compensate." Isa said, taking another mana potion. "Not to mention there is always the problem of whether to choose a rune that increases passively your strength by like two percent or actively increases by twenty for like a few minutes. The effects of the rune and how strong you can make it also depend on the body and how much mana it can absorb as it is placed on it. So there's that too."

"Wait, eat mana cores? I thought that was dangerous to do?" Van asked, a little worried for Isa.

"Normally that would be true," Lore began. "But for monster-kin races like goblins, it's a little different. They actually gain the most from consuming cores, more than just trying to cultivate it or crush it. Though it also comes with its own pros and cons."

Van thought about it and then asked Isa. "How big is your mana pool? And how many points do you get for eating a core? Also, does it go straight to your mana pool? Or do you have a cultivation that it goes to?"

"For us goblins, we can kinda choose where the core's mana goes to. Sometimes directly to increase our natural mana pool or sometimes to our cultivation. As for which is better, I honestly can't say." she said with a shrug. "There are pros and cons to increasing your cultivation over your mana pool, and not just because if you rank up you gain a small increase in your secondary mana pool, but everything else that increases to. Like if you practice mana body cultivation, which I do, it also increases my physical abilities permanently when I rank up."

"But as to the reason why we goblins may want to increase our mana pool over our cultivation, is because we can consume our mana pool to make ourselves grow, so to speak. When a wild monster accumulates enough mana, they can go through a change or evolution. It's how goblins can become greater goblins or high goblins, or if they have a lot of mana and meet the right prerequisites they can become a hobgoblin like me. But that costs a lot of mana, and it's not like the mana we consume goes straight to our mana pool, instead we store it somewhere in our body for later to be used to help us rank up. In a way, that mana is useless and can't be used."