Deyana spun her finger in the air.

“Turn around for a sec, let me get this on.”

When Geria did, she started to pull on the recently runewritten item. While a lot of more modern games allowed for the equipping and unequipping of items from the inventory menu, Rune was somewhat of an exception due to its magic system.

Where, usually, it was a combination of convenience and irrelevance that allowed for that to be used, the way Rune’s systems worked meant that needing to be able to physically put on certain items actually functioned as a limitation on power– or, in the case of some of the back-laced things that were gaining popularity as runewriters applied the knowledge that major runes’ influence zones didn’t carry across physical divides, a way to increase it.

“Okay, I’m good.”

Geria turned back around. “How do you want to test it?”

“Let’s start simple. I’ll turn it on, you punch it. It’s absorb, so it won’t hurt or anything”

“Okay,” Geria said, not moving.

The process of dealing with Geria was becoming more obvious to her, now. Deyana activated the runes, noticing a slight drain on her mana. It was a bit faster than she’d calculated, but that was expected.

“Hit me.”

The change in stance followed by the punch was quick enough that if she hadn’t called for it, Deyana felt that she wouldn’t have been able to react to it.

The draw ticked up noticeably, jumping up and down for a second or two before stabilizing– higher than the passive draw, but still not huge. She turned her arm to face the open part of the room, then mentally ticked the group on the arm on, praying to the electronic masters that it wouldn’t just blow her arm off.

A spike of stone formed above her arm, pulling a fifteen-mana fee, already moving before it even finished forming.

It launched out even faster than the punch Geria had thrown, shattering against the wall across the room.

The giggles that bubbled up were probably inappropriate. In fact, they almost definitely were. That didn’t stop them from working their way out, looking back and forth between her arm and the shattered spike well on the other side of the room.

Quest Progress: 0.5%

You’ll need more complete testing to get real results, but the first step is often the most important.

“Okay. That down. I really want to keep playing with it…” She did. She really did. But she had limited time here, and she’d said she was going to make something for Geria.

Partially so that the other girl could act as a backstop for more difficult challenges, but mostly because she felt like the debt was owed. While a staff of the type Deyana was envisioning wouldn’t actually be that valuable, objectively, it would also represent much more than that.

As things stood, any fighting– in Geria’s case, as someone who didn’t appear to craft any items, any playing the game– would currently bring down the anger of the people after her.

So, even though it would be a mid-level staff, nowhere near the level that its user could effectively handle, it was more about the freedom itself.

Not that she knew that Geria would think about it that way. And that was okay, too.

The pause had gone on a while, but Geria still hadn’t spoken. “But it’s more important to get that staff set up for you. Do you want a point and use or a self-centered one?”

“Point.”

“Got it.”

At least this one was simpler.

First off, it needed to create sand, but that was simple enough. [Create], supported by the para-elemental {Sand}, {Control: Mental Direction} to reduce the mental taxation that came with directing mana specifically, the {Multieffect: Spiral} and any shape. technically any shape, but she decided on the hexagonal prism.

It wasn’t technically any better or worse than a cylinder, given that [Create]’s primary pricing was by volume and material, but using a new rune was more effective than an old one.

Using multieffect was more efficient to make more sand than directly increasing the volume would be, if only just. It was built that way intentionally, she knew, because it wasn’t possible to choose not to use it, and every version of it had situations where it could be negative.

In this case, though, spiraling out from the center would be fine much more often than it wasn’t, so the mana efficiency was worth it, especially because the {Control: Mental Direction} could only change the settings on the major rune.

In [Create]’s case, that meant density and continuity– that was, whether any of the material that left the area would be replaced. Density could neutralize one of the negatives by countering excess, and continuity would just make the spiral even more effective in high-volume scenarios.

That was the upper quarter of the staff, and another simple test convinced her that she’d set it up correctly.

Throwing a small [Wall] rune behind where Geria’s natural grip (based on asking her to hold it) was both kept it out of the range of the [Create] rune and still allowed its own area of influence to overlap the direction and sand.

It wasn’t exactly necessary, but it still made her more comfortable to throw a more hidden, somewhat defensive option on it.

After that, though, was the actual main point of the item.

[Direct]. Direction, force, size multiplier, all set at the center.

{Control: Mental Direction} and {Sand}. No options.

{Shape: Triangular Pyramid}, this time wider and squatter than the one she’d used and pointing “down”, relative to the staff. {Shape: Hemiellipsoid}, set so that it covered the base of the pyramid, even squatter, to make sure that a near miss behind would also be picked up, making it easier to pull any sand that got on the user off.

{Control: Timed Activation}, a common, was a bit stranger, she knew, and it would make the control a lot “slipperier”, for lake of a better word, but by adding a half-second to it, it would allow Geria to apply more force and control the material even when it was slightly beyond the range she defined, at the expense of also not getting an instant response to growing it.

And, finally, a minor {Durability}, making the sand slightly tougher when it made contact with anything.

In the context of reality, that would only be somewhat meaningful, but Deyana knew from experience that in the case of the game, particularly controllers of particulates, it would also make any near-solids formed within the control range tougher.

The only issue was that she couldn’t even begin to test it on her own.

“Done, I think. Hopefully nothing on here works in a way I wasn’t expecting. Give it a spin?”

“Mmm.” Geria took the staff, looking over the way she’d divided the sections. The inspect window would tell her which runes were on there, but without seeing where they were it was still possible to mis-apply mana and get the wrong effects.

Not that it took her long. Less than ten seconds after it was handed over, she created a spiral of sand in the air, letting it drop to the ground.

Pointing the staff at the pile that formed, Geria appeared to concentrate for a second before it started moving.

At first it was a bit strange to watch, as each action she applied seemed to be carried on for just barely too long, sending the sand out of range. Before too long, though, Geria had the main body of it all working around in a circle, only passing through the control area for about half the circumference.

“Weird choice. Depends on being able to guess where you need it in advance.”

“Yeah, a little bit. But..?”

“Useful. I didn’t have the runes for a marked or staged control, so this can work instead.”

“I wish I could give you something better…”

Geria shook her head, starting to move the sand faster and in more complex patterns. “It doesn’t matter. It is better to have than just the ones that will give me away.”

“Right. One more. Should be quick this time.”

It was, at least, fewer runes than either of the previous project, but it would still be eating the remainder of her time.

Probably the thing that stood out most right now was her lack of ranged ability.

There were two ways to fix that that she could see that didn’t involve completely throwing away the sword as her primary weapon, and those were [Bolt], a major common, and [Bomb], a major uncommon.

She would have liked to say that she considered her options, weighed the pros and cons, and came to a decision.

That would have been a lie, as she completely rejected [Bolt] instantly as an extremely versatile, powerful, caster and non-caster alike staple that she wanted absolutely nothing to do with.

[Bomb] had three main settings. As a circle with a second circle overlapping on one side and a tangent line on the other, the central circle controlled the power, costed linearly. The second circle was a little bit strange, controlling the ‘size’– more specifically, the size before the explosion went off. While the main circle would control the explosion itself and was therefore costed directly, this one was instead relative. If it was the same size as the main circle, it would have essentially no cost, but it charged an increasing cost as its size diverged from the main circle’s, in either direction.

Finally, the line controlled how “real” the casing was. Specifically, a larger line would bean that hardened fragments of mana would spray out, where a minimum size one would cause only the explosion to actually damage things.

Like any responsible crafter building something for use near cities, she immediately set that one to the minimum size.

It wasn’t as though she couldn’t create another with more mana if there was a near miss.

{Material: Water Ice} followed next, soon joined by {Control: Mental Direction}. While she didn’t, as a rule, want to change two thirds of the settings that she’d just put down, it was still useful in that it allowed her to change the power. She could have left the other two on their defaults, but by setting the more common state as the written one, she would be saving mana when it came to using it in the field.

She thought for a second. Was there something she’d missed? It felt incomplete.

Better to test with some paper, at least. And {Visualize} instead of {Material: Water Ice}.

Which turned out to be a good idea when, upon pressing her mana into the group, a small ball appeared above it and instantly burst into a flash of purple light.

Deyana blinked twice, sparks in her eyes, before partially suppressing a snort. “Right. Knew it was missing something.”

{Delay} joined the other minor runes, set to three and a half seconds.

This time, when she pressed her mana into the paper, the ball didn’t instantly burst. Deyana grabbed it, hurling it across the room, where it created another flash of light.

Because she wasn’t in it this time, she didn’t even need to blink lights out of her eyes.

It got added to her working set on the glove, which she slipped onto her left hand.

Two quick tests at the minimum power she could muster told her that it was, in fact, working as intended when it glassed over small parts of the ground, sending a few randomly shaped chunks of ice flying in other directions as well.

Deyana wiggled the fingers in the glove.

“Wanna go commit battery against non-sentient computer programs?”