With a thrust of my aura, I launched into the air, kinetic force rushing out from the levitation boots to propel me further. A cluster of snow scattered as I overtook Priam, who had been surging ahead throughout the race. Usually, he had no chance of winning against the levitation boots at their full acceleration, but since he had achieved Noble Class, his gift boosted his speed further, practically matching the third acceleration.

And it did not help that Priam wore a pair of levitation boots of his own. Yes, it did not double his Celerity, but it certainly helped.

"You aren't getting ahead today," Priam snorted, activating more thrusters on his suit to shoot past me.

I had made both pairs of fabricators and given them essentially similar specifications. Needless to say, they were identical in performance. The difference was that Priam had more kinetic thrusters on his Stormguard set, and his gift actively assisted in accelerating his speed.

Well, if it were merely a race into the sky, his Celerity would not have been of much help. But we had settled on a stipulation that we must cover at least half of the distance on foot. After all, both skills were necessary for fighting demons. Of course, the other reason I agreed to the condition was to practise Rune Imprint.

I kept close behind Priam, saving it all for the last moment. Despite practising constantly with the suit whenever his sister was not using it, Priam still had ways to go in flight. So when he had to shut down the acceleration on a rugged turn and employ Celerity to make his way, I could simply twist by releasing kinetic force from my arms, or by shaping wind according to my needs.

Fortunately, there were too many twists and turns in the mountain terrain, helping me compete neck and neck with a speedster.

Clumps of snow went flying wherever we stepped, the propelling force carrying them tens of metres behind us. Even the brittle ice on Kireon cracked as we crossed the river. Our pace was still not quite enough to walk on water, yet, but we managed it by jumping from one block of ice to another, which finally brought us to the final section of the race.

"Watch where you go!" barked a legionary officer as we back-flipped over his cohort.

"Blighted kids!"

"Sorry," my voice barely carried over to them, as I did not even spare them a second glance, eyes locked on the terrain that led to the institution.

Priam still had a hundred metres on me and was in no mood to slow down. It was time to release my trump card. The Rune Imprints I had prepared in my Prime Seed awoke to life in a lustre of emerald runes of Haste on my limbs. Most of them were hidden beneath my trousers, but the sudden surge in pace could not be mistaken. At once, I made up a dozen metres of distance, and the gap only decreased as I activated Haste on my boots.

The runes burned away within the blink of an eye, as identical ones replaced them, keeping me in a constant state of heightened Haste. Meanwhile, Priam was no slouch either. He knew all my tricks and had saved up enough juice if it came to that.

As I closed the distance, his pace rose to the very limit, gaining a few metres on me.

The edifice of the Institution was in view. The last stretch seemed to become a contest between Celerity and Haste.

Unfortunately, if the runes were ever to be as efficient as a gift, I certainly had not achieved it in a couple of weeks of practice.

Diana's blonde hair was billowing white in the sun, whipping about as we crossed her. We finally stopped in the middle of the field, passing her by a hundred metres.

I sprawled on the ground at the end, heaving deeply. The race hardly cost a third of my essence, but the toll it took on my body, especially those Haste runes, was something I was barely getting used to.

"Who won?" Priam asked the blonde girl scurrying towards us with a pendant watch in her palm.

"I'm not sure," Diana said. "You two were too fast for me to track, but..." she eyed the hands of the watch. "You're at least seven seconds faster than last time."

Seven seconds? That was a steep improvement, I suppose.

But Priam clicked his tongue, dissatisfied with getting no result. "I'll call Aleya next time we race."

"No need," I said, jumping to my feet. "You won."

Priam craned his neck towards me, a smile creeping to his lips, but soon his gaze narrowed. "You telling the truth, or are you doing the thing you do with Eran?"

I arched my eyebrow inquisitively.

"Don't count me a fool," Priam snorted. "I know you lie to make Eran happy after you defeat him."

"What?" I cast him an incredulous look. "I do not lie!"

"You do," Priam was adamant. "And you also go easy on him whenever you spar."

"Obviously, Eran's still common class." I shook my head. "If that's your concern, you have nothing to worry about. You won. Fairly. Well, only by a stride. I guess there's something to worry about."

"You wish," Priam jeered.

I smiled at him. A couple of weeks had passed since I awakened Rune Imprint, and it really felt right having a Gift. Fractal Sight was good and all, but I had possessed it all my life and could not tell how much difference it made. But Rune Imprint, I could practically become twice as strong for a few minutes by just invoking a few Empower runes, which barely took me more than a couple of minutes.

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Still, it was only a fortnight, and despite having many opportunities to train the gift, I had merely tested out two kinds of runes. The elementary Empower was a given, with how easy it was to employ. Then there was Haste, which was far more complex than an elementary rune. Essentially, it was a compound of a variation of Empower and Acceleration.

I could obviously practise more runes, but Mum said it was better to have my physique adapt to these two before trying out the more unconventional ones. Her own gift, Construct, and even her Soul Ward, allowed her a similar effect with runes. Similar—as in, although she could enchant her physique with various runes, she could not save them in her essence seed. Still, she knew more about rune imprinting than I did.

According to her, imprinting runes into the body was akin to treating myself as an object to enchant—I did not want to push it in too many directions from the beginning. And most times, having a solid foundation was more important than becoming proficient at invoking the runes.

Empower boosted my physical force, which essentially prepared me for Haste. Oddly enough, the former cost more essence but was easier to reproduce, whilst the latter burned less essence and evaporated within an instance.

A series of nine Empower scripts could double my carrying capacity for minutes, and although Haste could achieve a similar result with my pace, it was only achievable for a fraction of the time. Yes, there might be an issue with how efficiently I enforced the runes, though it had more to do with the rune itself. Haste was not a rune made for a constant dashing pace, but an instantaneous travel of short distances.

It was arguably faster than Celerity if I had to cover a mere ten metres. However, once the distance increased, Celerity had Haste beaten by a landslide.

The trick was to cast Haste instantly. I could not manage instant casting after a mere few days of practice, but what I could do was stack up a series of Haste runes in my Prime Seed.

A week of constant practice, and I still had not found the limit of how many runes I could stack up. The possibilities might not be limitless like enchanting an item, but they were close.

Once again, I concentrated on my Will and crafted each of the runes I had burned away in the race. It was odd at first, engraving runes not only without the help of an engraver, but also within my essence seed; but in time, I found it was no stranger than essence unification or any of the other weavings. It was rather like having a weave ready, only missing a last piece, which would transform the soothing energy into the scorching flame. In a sense, the runes were less volatile than shaping.

A nudge woke me from my musings, as I found Diana beside me. "Ready to go home?"

Priam was missing from where he had stood, but that was nothing new.

Nodding, I asked, "Where did he go?"

"He shot off," Diana said, "saying something about his father would kill him if he was late again."

Before we headed on our way back, I gave the surroundings a thorough look. The Institution was in better shape than the rest of the town. Like new leaves growing on withered trees, new pupils streamed into the institution's grounds. Their awakening ceremony had been delayed by the demon incursion and the blizzard that followed, but this year, the institution had received a total of fifty-one awakened, more than filling the gap we would leave.

With the rifts and demon incursion holding their utmost attention, the legionaries had not had the opportunity to conscript fresh levies yet. They would certainly have need for them. Karmel alone had lost a fourth of its awakened warriors in the incursion.

Rounding the foothills, we came upon the local guildhall, buzzing with crowds all the time these days compared to its usual serenity. Another addition to it was the twelve-foot statue of the former master Rowin Matius Gallius standing loftily before the hall. The wizened face of the comely man had not quite taken shape yet. They had appointed a regular sculptor, although well-known, instead of a vaunted Stoneshaper for the work.

Yet I looked up at the warm face and felt that it was just and fitting that someone would spend hours of their hard work to craft his monument, ensuring that it was perfect to the last minute detail, instead of a Stoneshaper erecting it in a minute.

"I hear they will be rebuilding the guildhall, making it more grand whilst they are at it," Diana said, nudging my attention from the sculptor to the ravaged edifice. It was identical in build to the main Institution building, though now more than one side of the wall had been through some proper repair to house the legionaries and guildsmen.

"Seems only right," I muttered, facing the way home.

"You're not going to ask where I heard it?" Diana asked, chasing after me.

I turned to her, cocking an eyebrow, unsure how it was important. "They are planning to expand the guild in Karmel?"

"And recruiting whoever they can," she said, sounding unusually haughty.

"They approached you?" I asked, surprised.

Diana sucked in a deep breath. "What, surprised that someone even wants to recruit me?"

"No, I mean..." I rubbed my forehead, feeling the trace of sweat. "Aren't guilds prohibited from recruiting anyone below noble class?"

"They are. I don't know the details, but there are workarounds. They offered me a patronage that will cover all my higher studies, even when I reach Noble Class, as well as a monthly stipend of four gold Leaves."

"That sounds huge! Congratulations!"

That was actually quite generous. Although I did not have a good idea of how extensive the perks a guild could offer a recruit or someone they were grooming might be, the sum and offer felt more than generous for someone with no track record. For comparison, her mother's inn hardly ever earned half of the monthly stipend, even during festive seasons. Four gold Leafs was an even higher sum than what a fresh noble class augmenter received.

Diana not only had the red essence, she could artifice too. Once she had a proper handle on her engraving, which I deemed would be in a couple of years, she would outearn most people in Karmel.

"Mama was thrilled, hearing that I won't be conscripted if we accept the patronage, you know."

I was sure more mothers would agree if their child received a similar offer, huge stipend aside.

However, Diana looked up at me expectantly, as though waiting for a specific kind of reply, as if her decision would vary greatly depending on my opinion.

Unfortunately, I had no answer for her. I did not even know what to think of it if I were in her shoes.

"It's always better to have more paths open, even if you don't take them," I said, having no experience in the matter. "I think you should talk to my mum about it."

Diana was her apprentice, after all. If Mum desired, she could even recommend her to even better guilds, I was sure. The issue was deciding if that would be right for the girl.

For the rest of the distance, we walked in silence. It usually took around a quarter of an hour of casual walking when our legs were shorter. It was outright ecstatic how much I had grown in the year, though the deeper voice that emerged from my throat still felt a little foreign.

Our silent stride finally came to a halt, not because I had reached home, but because I spotted four men in lavish militant attire sauntering in the path. The familiar face of Magnus Daenerys caught my attention, but soon my gaze was drawn towards the frontman with bronze hair, a silver laurel embroidered on his clothes.

"Who are they?" Diana squeaked. "They seem..."

Strong. They all exuded a powerful aura of Fabled class, but the man with the silver Laurel was a step beyond them.

There were no more than twenty such men in the empire, eight of them in charge of a legion, while the rest famous by thier own epics. It should have made it easier for me to put a name on him. And I probably could have worked it out, if they had not headed straight for our house.

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