In order to spend your Runes you will first need to get to the Maiden. To do this, you need to head to this Site of Grace here on the map.
When you sit at that fire she should come to you and offer you an accord. From there when you sit at a Site of Grace you can level up be selecting that. If she doesn’t pop up then you need to visit more Sites of Grace. In the network test it was four, but I figured that was just for the test.
She will also give you Torrent which is your horse that you can ride. Equip the horse whistle to your inventory or to your pouch to summon it. You can’t use it everywhere, but getting around the giant world is much easier with Torrent. Also fighting bosses on horseback is always kind of cool.
