[i][b](dndragons)[/b][/i]

Yuno took a brief moment to glance around and take a few steps across their location for a period of time after their group teleportation. Familiarizing herself with whatever could be determined about what may be around them before glancing towards the rune stone itself. As Raiya pointed out the slab to everyone and began to comment on the nature of it Yuno at least was impressed enough that she could read the runes accurately enough to have not touched it and killed herself on the spot, but her momentary period of being happy that Raiya was cautious enough was overshadowed by the fact she had turned to Yuno to ask for her help in such a cocky and rude manner. While Nemo usually had been more active in rubbing Yuno the wrong way especially with his poor jokes to Raiya’s comments now Yuno had to be annoyed at the fact her other leader in this came was determined to cause friction with the young white haired student. Gritting her teeth slightly she took a moment to calm down her response by commenting. [color=6ecff6]“Some of us might actually be prepared to handle a mission in the first place.”[/color] Finally speaking out her annoyance in some way towards someone as she moved to approach the runes and get a further examination.

Looking to it she opened up the small bag she had bought that wasn’t her pouch of gems to pull out a pencil and a scrap of paper, finding such things useful for possibly mapping the catacombs if it turned to be a complex maze of corridors and now using it to map the runes clearly on paper instead of dealing with the stone itself. Five runes, No, Tamper, Organ, Transmute, and Liquid all clearly laid out in order before her. Hardly a puzzle to be fair at first, more like a security system that they would need to break through. Reading it at least was easy enough for someone coming from the Academy and putting the time to actually use rune magic on more than a basic level, but the hard part about this was figuring out how to simply get around the runes. She couldn’t simply carve a rune that makes the five runes a negative in which touching does NOT turn them into piles of mush. At the time passed with her scribbling rune ideas into her notebook Jessie and Nemo were quiet easily able to get their conversation going, which while distracting showed how stumped Yuno was at first as she crossed off ideas one by one. Their placement on the slab as well also was partial to the difficulty in simple dispelling them.

Frustration came to her face as she muttered something about how she got stuck doing this and if it was worth it as she tossed a piece of paper aside and started writing out some more. Having found herself sitting cross-legged on the ground at this point to continue. It was something she was supposed to be good at, so why was she letting it get her so easily? Of course, she never was in the realm of disarming runes other than her own, and it’s not as if the Academy would have something placed on a catacomb so important that she would have learned to disarm it from class.

[i][b](ShiningSector)[/b][/i]

n a flash of white, everyone around Yuno had phased through a passage of surging light created by her teleportation circle. An instant later, the brightness dissipated as they materialized back into reality and joined once more with Raiya and Jessie. Raiya "greeted" them as they arrived and immediately explained the current situation she had encountered upon her arrival. Gesturing to a large slab embedded flat into the earth with grass surrounding the stone-like structure, she explained the runes imprinted into the slab were invoking a horrific transmutation curse on anyone who dared to tamper with it. Travis had to admit he was expecting something more cryptic or mystical about the dialect rather than a simple "touch or die" warning.

While narrowing his eyes in displeasure upon Raiya mocking him and Yuno, his white-haired Academia counterpart fired back before taking the stage and examining the runes. While Travis could interpret the the jab at the reckless Raiya, he however could sense the hint of Yuno's own vexation with the overall leadership of the team that seemed to also address Nemo's lack of organization. However they felt about their team-leads, the fact of the matter was tied to the current problem of disarming the runes engraved into the large slab before them without drowning in one's own ichor.

After a while, Travis could see Yuno's frustration getting to her. She had re-positioned her posture in order to help concentrate in the examination and has already tossed away a few crumpled up pages of ideas and plans they were deemed unusable. As their other party members decided to chat it up or scope out the area, it was clear that at current place, they would be here for quite some time. Travis eventually decided to intervene and assist Yuno, at first silently. She didn't appear to take too much notice, if not at all as he approached from behind and gazed upon the runes himself.

Five runes where organized in a hexagonic manner with conjoined scripting around them. The first rune translated to simply “No” which correlated to its partner “Tampering”. Those two had a separate set of scripting dialect surrounding them as if to form not only the bases of the warning, but also as the activation of the curse itself. The other three runes surrounded by another script, “Organ”, “Transmute”, and “Liquid”, formed the spell that would activate upon triggering the first scripted sequence. The structure was surprisingly simpler than Travis had imagined but the choice of the give pattern nonetheless made the overall slab difficult to handle. But that didn’t mean it was impossible…

“This is certainly a nasty piece of work,” Travis commented aloud as he looked over the runic slab, “However I think I know how we can get away with modifying this monstrosity without being turned into jelly.”

Invoking a light projection spell, he quickly copied the frame work of the runes and displayed the layout in the air. Travis then pointed to a portion of the script surrounding the runes, “What we’re looking at is a rather advanced form of rune dialect that governs how the runes are activated. However, this scripting is pretty dated and more componentized than some of the more linear scripts today.”

Waving his hand with his spell still active, he made a quick gesture with the glowing tips of his middle and index finger and made an incision within the scripting, “Regardless of what we do, this slab will activate. But, we can however delay the process just long enough to defuse it. If we simply erase this segment here…this cuts the mana circuits from trigging the second sequence of the spell; the one that horrifically kills us. This won’t last forever so we’ll need to operate quickly.

Travis then brushed his hand over the rune that made up the word “Organ” and wiped it from existence, “It’s that rune that designates where the curse will cast to on whoever messes with this sequence. By removing that portion there, that should effectively disarm the entire sequence. Of course, if you wanted to make it still look complete, we could always add some rubbish rune in and still screw the entire sequence too.”

After proposing his lectured thoughts, the finally turned to face Yuno with an eager friendly smile on his face, “Sound like a marvelously insane idea?”

[i][b](dndragons)[/b][/i]

Yuno had continued to work as she took the rune as a puzzle of some sort. Aiming to find an answer, a rune to place or a symbol to change which would give someone with the ‘key’ or ’password’ a way in incase they had ever needed it, yet the container seemed more so sealed in a way to where no one was supposed to get in, even those who had created the defense measure in the first place, something which Travis was able to seemingly identify as he walked up behind her. Turning around at his voice the annoyance in her face more so was clear as she scrapped one more piece of paper with a large written X. Yet, as he stated he found a solution she only shot out. [color=6ecff6]“What?”[/color] as the boy projected the runes before him. She was talented, even gifted, so she had been told, and rune magic being one of the areas she studied most the fact that she had seemingly missed the point here was depressing to say the least a realization hit her face. Travis was a scholar, trained to think things over in unique ways as he explained the difference between scripting of the old rune and the new. Sure, she could read the rune but he was more meticulous on the functions even if she could cast modern runes like no other at least in her class. Yet Travis simply took a more common sense approach than her, why look for a key when you could simply break the lock?

From her sitting position she examined the way in which he desired to change the rune, and thankfully it all made sense to her why it would work even if he had been the one to determine the method in which to disarm it, the only portion she had trouble with was leaving ‘Organ' there as she began to speak up. [color=6ecff6]“The run likely will try and activate as you said… so leaving the organ portion there would be a bad idea. However, if I change the script the moment you cut it we should be safe. I know a rune similar to organ that I can replace one of the lines with in a flash. Knowing our luck just erasing the circuit line will trigger a simple failsafe, the safest method is to change."[/color] After which looking away slightly for having let her nerve seemingly get the best of her and taking his idea. Bringing out a small piece of rune chalk to add the line or two required for her edit she added. [color=6ecff6]“I knew you worked with runes but I guess I didn’t think to ask.”[/color] Obviously she was referencing the rune that had blown him up before that he revealed the night of Felix’s recruitment that she had originally helped improve.

Standing to the side of the rune and looking back she seemed prepared with her chalk and looking back to Travis and the others. [color=6ecff6]“Well, stand back in case we do this wrong okay?”[/color] Even though she had been excited before, the fact that if the creator of the rune had done more to protect it they may very well be out of luck. Swallowing once she looked to Travis and nodded once to signal him to start, heart pounding its way into her throat as her stomach felt the wings of butterflies fluttering inside.

[i][b](ShiningSector)[/b][/i]

"No worries. We'll be fine," Travis confidently replied.

The weariness that emanated from Yuno was logical in a sense. While she was able to quickly accept Travis' stratagem as the only course of action, even see knew the risks they were about to undertake. A simple slip-up would not be tolerated by the runic late and the punishment for failure was a theoretically slow death. Though Travis nonetheless seem calm and determined to see this through, he too felt uneasy about committing not only himself to the dangerous feat, but someone else's well being too. If he didn't make the cut right, both of them, if not everyone, would end up as a splat on the ground.

After Yuno had advised everyone to stand clear of their mad surgical procedure, Travis took the opportunity to identifying the runic scripting he would cut and temporally delay the curse from firing. With the help of his projection spell he was able to relocate the point he would eventually slice through. But even with the help, the many sections of the rune were engraved into the stone slab, only slightly complicating matters regarding the method he would use the alter the scripting. If anything though, he would simply need to etch in the cut.

"Get ready. It'll react the moment I cut the circuit," he warned to Yuno has as he summoned up his spell and pointed his conjoined fingers above the given sections, mana collecting and glowing at the tips.

Noticeably, the runes themselves began to slowly respond to the very close-by source of magic. While not activating, the dialect and shapes of the runes and scripting radiated a faint dark redish hue as if it was preparing to respond to Travis' vandelization of the runic slab. With a deep breath began the count down, "...okay, three. Two...one."

It only took a slight jerk of his hand and the casting of his matter modification spell to cut the mana circuits of the runes's scripting. In an instant, a raging surge of deep red light projected outward from the mystical engraved design, lighting up each portion of the scripting faster than Travis had originally predicted until the beams fell short upon the incision in the fuse-like scripting. The radiant aurora-like light gave a startling inhuman growl as it frantically tried to push past the blockage. Even though Yuno was quickly fulfilling her part, Travis could feel the mana seeping past the incision despite his best efforts. The was perhaps the fail-safe Yuno had surmised; the runes were repairing the damage he had dealt. Travis's heart began to beat faster, quickly realizing that their scheme was falling apart and time quickly running out. All he could do was to delay the runic spell as long as he can.

Just before the he was overtaken, did Travis then learn of Yuno's task having been completed and her modification now in place. With their goals now accomplished, Travis hesitantly removed his hand from the cut and observed how blindingly fast the runes were able to reverse his cutting of the mana circuits. It was then that the rest of the rune scripting aggressively lit up, snarling as the aura spewed upward until the entire spell was then completed. Travis watched in worried dread to see if their plan worked. Suddenly, the blood-red hue from before faltered puled in a blueish hue, and then to green and back to red. What seemed like static electricity erupted from the runes as if lashing out in anger. The aura that was projecting upwards the entire time now reversed momentum, quickly evaporating into the cracks that had now formed as a result to the slab's apparent confusion of the altered dialect. The howling noise that came before also revered into an exhausted moan as the entire sequence destabilized and in a quick flash of light that must have briefly filled the area in white, soon imploded, shattering the slab with a loud crack, sending up a plume of expended mana and stone particles into the air.

Travis was nearly sent to his rear as the even repulsed him away from the site. After the runic slate's apparent destruction, he pulled himself back up cautiously approached the still-dusty scene, weary of any other fail-safe that may have been set is a possible last-ditch effort to neutralize any violators. But luckily, there were no back-up curses present as the cloudy particles faded away did he soon find a stair case leading downward behind the debris of the former slab.

"Well...that went well." stuttered Travis in sheepish yet notable enthusiasm towards Yuno until signaling everyone to gather around him, "We're in."

Giving a brief sigh of relief, Travis momentarily withdrew himself from the entrance before facing Yuno with a once more positive expression on his face, "Great job there! You've successfully dispelled a professionally-made killer rune and..."

Travis then looked around him to see if any of his teammates were listening in before leaning forward and whispered into Yuno's ear, "...saved everyone in the process."

Before casually leaning back, then then noticed a portion of the slab beneath his feet. Picking up and examining the disarmed port of a rune still etched in, he then turned his attention back yo Yuno, "Actually, if you don't mind me asking; what part did you change in the rune?"