Hal had only managed to leap away in time and felt had he been later, he would have been turned to ash,

"Roxy. Are you insane? I was sent by..." Before he could complete his words, he realized he had landed on yet another circle and this one was crackling with Electricity.

Clearly, there were multiple traps in the shop, and jumping somewhere else would just be the same as staying here.

Especially since he had no idea where the rune circles were drawn.

With little choice, Hal leaped up, cast multiple runes and converged it all into a circle in a matter of seconds, and sent it to the Rune Circle on the ground to create a safe landing for himself.

"Impressive Rune casting. You must be some sort of Runemastering genius. But that will not be enough to survive my traps, intruder" a voice said out of the darkness, and as Hal tried to pinpoint where it had come from, the crackling of the electricity in the Rune circle below his own got even stronger and then,

*KrakaBoom!*

It blew apart Hal's rune circle and sent him rocketing him into the ceiling only to fall hard on the ground.

However, what really caused Hal's shock was that following the powering up of the rune circle, he could determine their rank and they were all at the sixth rank.

When he had stepped on the first, the Astral energy it had been giving off was of Rank 5 quality, and even though Hal was still a Rank 4 runemaster he felt he could at least still evade and use compound rune circles to defend against them.

He could afford to do so only because he had Astral energy in his body but even this was not going to help him overcome the Runes and it was only to give himself time to talk some sense into the bastard that was attacking him with said Runes.

But now...

"What are you falling into a daze for? Given up already?" Roxy asked.

"Idiot! I was sent by the princess!" Hal yelled.

"I don't believe you" Roxy said as more Rune circles shone on the walls and soon a compounding of flames, ice and lighting were gathering to strike him.

Hal gritted his teeth and gave up hope on countering the Runes. He also did not bother to attempt to use Cosmic energy to defend himself as that would be useless and weak against Rank 6 runes.

He could of course simply target the man himself with his cosmic energy by pinpointing his location with either risky Astral perception or just plain old guessing but he doubted that would be enough against a Rank 6 Runemaster.

So instead he used his defensive Runes on himself and compounded them so much that he looked like a rune orb.

Roxy watching this display from the shadows was shocked,

"They sent a special one this time" he said just as the attacks hit... And broke through all of Hal's defenses in seconds.

*Bang!*

The blast sent him smacking into the locked door but his Rune defenses had paid off and he only sustained minor injuries. But knowing another attack like that could very well end him unless he decided to make use of his bloodline, Hal pulled the Jade seal he had gotten from the princess out of his inventory and presented it to Roxy in the shadows,

"There, you idiot. The Princess really sent me" he yelled and there was a pause.

"It would seem so. Well, why didn't you say that earlier?" Roxy said just as the rune lamps sparked to life and cast a bright glow in the shop.

Roxy was a man in a faded brown hat with a stubble and an unkempt appearance even though he looked to be in his thirties.

What little of his brown hair Hal could see with his hat on was streaked with grey and his black eyes were wild with thirst.

An ingenious thirst.

Hal was angry beyond belief,

"I did!"

"You did? I honestly don't remember you saying anything" Roxy said.

Hal frowned deeply and rose to his first while {Regeneration} healed all of his minor injuries,

"How could you not remember. You said you did not believe me"

"Doesn't ring a bell" Roxy denied shamelessly before he continued,

"It's a good thing you said something quickly though cause I was about to get serious" he said.

Hal looked into his eyes and from the manic glint, he knew the Runemaster was not bluffing and what he had just experienced was a teaser compared to the full capabilities of a Rank 6 runemaster and that was to be expected as a Runemaster of that level was sure to have gained an incredible level of control and understanding of Astral energy that was sure to prove troublesome should they go all out.

"Alright now that we have cleared up that misunderstanding, let us adjourn to the basement where we can better discuss matters. Besides... We don't know who could be listening" he said with a smile and suspicious eyes.

"Huh?" Hal was confused,

"Well, there are spies all around us. Can't you see them? Look over there" Roxy said and pointed and Hal looked over at what the Runemaster was pointing to,

"That's a lamp" Hal said.

Roxy nodded and then frowned,

"It looks like a lamp but it could very well be a listening device" he said and right after that, he sent a blast of Cosmic energy at the lamp and destroyed it.

"There. One down, nine hundred and ninety-nine unknown ones to go.

You see, I received intel from a very sure source that a lot of equipment in my shop, not the basement mind you, I mean the main shop which we are in right now has been bugged with spying equipment." Roxy said with the manic glow in his eyes shining ever brighter.

"Then why not just get rid of everything in the shop and buy new ones?" Hal asked.

Roxy looked at Hal as though he had just said or done something sacrilegious,

"They all have so much value to me. There is nothing in this store that does not have sentimental value," he said.

"What about the Lamp you just destroyed?" Hal pointed out.

"Alas, that was a sacrifice needed to make a point" he said.

"You're crazy" Hal realized.

"Crazy is just another word for genius" Roxy said and led the way to his basement,

"No, crazy is another word for crazy. You crazy bastard." Hal said and followed after him.

Soon they were inside the basement and it was quite an elaborate structure.

Anywhere Hal looked, there were signs of experimentation and the constant pursuit of success and ingenuity. This proved to him even more than all that Roxy had said upstairs was nonsense. If there was any place that would have sentimental value to the crazy bastard then it was this basement.

This was Roxy's true workshop. He had really let his creativity run wild in here and everywhere Hal looked, he could sense vestiges of the Runemaster's experiments.

In fact, he found feel subtle distortions in space that were bound to be synonymous with working with Teleportation.

"Welcome to my abode" Roxy announced with enthusiasm,

"You live here?" Hal asked.

"Of course not, I just sleep here seven nights a week" Roxy said and then pushed his face up close to Hal's,

"Anyway, I've been meaning to ask, Boy, are you a Doxon?"