Thunk!

  A towering stalk of bamboo fell. One strike. Just one strike was enough to fell it. A closer look revealed a few jagged cuts and some splinters off to the side.

  "Best one yet!"

  I started to pull the bamboo down from the canopy, cutting off the branches and shoots to make transporting it easier.

  The same principle of hammering at things once to achieve the effect of multiple was finally applied properly to something other than a hammer.

  Bcksmithing. Something I thought I'd never pick up. Or at least since I've unlocked my powers. After all, why bother with metal tools when stone tools work just fine?

  Master Doran demonstrated a saying from Ionia, 'All rivers converges to the sea'. With his hammer, he weaves clothes, chisels decorations, and makes jewelry. Don't know why he included jewelry when it's clearly something bcksmiths do.

  Dragging the log of bamboo, furrows tracked after me. The bamboo leaves on the ground were still green, while conical shoots shot up in patches.

  Before cutting any bamboo down, I had to make sure there wasn't a nest or something up there. The debris left from trimming helps the birds make nests. It was spring, and even down in the vilge love was in the air.

  "Hurry up!"

  Jogging, the log behind jumped as well. Dropping it down with a hollow pluk, I sat near the workbench. Master Doran gently pced down a cured piece of bamboo he just finished trimming.

  "Look."

  I looked. Just long straight grains running along the bamboo.

  I looked harder. It twisted subtlety, but nothing else. I would need to feel it to know more.

  "When I, tap here, and here. What do you see now? Or rather, what does this make you feel?"

  I tentatively replied.

  "Looks like fire?"

  "Yes, fire. Now what does it look like?"

  Now it looked like water, and after another few taps, it was wind. What does it even have to do with bamboo?

  "It seems like you don't understand. Everything under the sun has its own patterns. The condensation of those patterns are called runes."

  A chuckle left him as he tapped unconsciously.

  "Sadly, I am ill learned of them. But. Run when you see a world rune. You'll know when you see it. Okay okay, practice these decorations for now."

  "In Piltover they use runes. I think."

  "Then go there to learn."

  Master Doran blew on the bamboo sheet, revealing simple decorations, each with a version in a decorative form. A sharp corner can be repeated in a line twice, forming an angur wave... which looked like some of the decorative patterns I've seen in Shuriman tombs. It seems that all of the complicated stuff was just simple things repeated over and over, mixing and matching.

  "You understand?"

  "Complicated things are lots of simple."

  "Good, but not fully correct. If everything can be a lot of dots, why would we look at it from afar? You need to have a rger picture in your mind."

  He tapped my brows, before quickly chiseling out another shape. A frog. And another?

  "Bnks makes the other fill it in. Now make one row each of these simple shapes, and carve an animal. Not a frog. Eheum."

  Time passed quickly as the dew on me evaporated. Simple lines of different shapes lined up in front of me. The first ones were really crooked, with the others straightening out. Using a file, I sanded the weirdly shaped ones into shape.

  A realization hit me. Can I decorate my tools with these?! If only I can get my hands on some runes as well...

  Wait, I think I have a gadget that uses hextech. I started to pull out the things from my bag. Chisel, blue rock, rock, mallet, yellow rock, water filter. It was taking too much time one by one.

  The items cttered on the ground as I unceremoniously dumped the contents of my bag.

  The compass was rolling, so I picked it up first. Eight directions were marked on it in Piltovan, with a blue pointer inside the gss cover. If there's going to be runes, it gotta be in the back.

  Using a sharp knife, I pried the back cover off. Nothing. I sat dumbfounded, before springing back to action, putting the now loose cover back on the back. One quick application of stone fixed it. The convenience is great.

  Sigh*

  Nothing else. It's not like runes are that common right? But what do they do anyways? If I'm looking for something I can use, it's shapes that make things sound better. Can I make a-

  "Where's the simplified animal shape?"

  "What shape?"

  Somehow, sometime, Master Doran stood behind me. It was like he was a tree, naturally there. Three knocks were given to my head.

  "Oho? You made this bird on the ground just now? Looks a little ugly. Now go down the mountain and talk to the others."

  Just as I turned and opened my mouth to speak, he interrupted me.

  "Kids these days need to have friends! Go now."

  The stairs were still precocious, with no handrail or guardrail protecting it. So I pulled out part of the wall as I went down, making a gritty uneven handrail. Now, it’ll be easier to walk up or down.

  "Outsider! What are you doing!"

  A shrill voice came from a child half my height as he pointed accusingly at the handrail I've made on the way down.

  "It's easier to climb with it"

  "Weakling! Weakling! The outsider is a weakling!"

  The brat scampered off, passing the news that I was a weakling around. It's just a kid, what's there to be annoyed about? I spoke out loud while looking off to the side.

  "Come out. I feel where you're standing."

  "Haha, I'm caught."

  lirvothethird