Abe the Wizard (WN)

Chapter 166: Learning To Make Rune Signs

After the electric arc disappeared, what’s left on the ground was just a fully burnt black chuck of beef. Black Wind ran back, he glanced at its burnt food on the ground and gazed at its owner. It looked like it was waiting for an explanation.

After being attacked by Black Wind’s gaze, so Abel had no choice but to honestly do his job as a chef again. If he had enough time, next time, he would definitely tell Ken to process all the meat, so he wouldn’t have to stress about it.

As he was barbecuing the beef, he opened the Horadric cube to take a look at the skill tree again. It gained three new spells, and one by one, Abel began to focus on their icon with his power of the will.

His power of the will focused on the snowflake icon of the ‘Ice bolt,’ and some statistics appeared

Icebolt

Can shoot out one Ice bolt at a time. Damage and slow down the target

Mana consumption: 3

Current skill rank: 0

Ice damage: 2-4

To the next rank: 1/15000

Abel then focused his power of the will on the 2 lightning icon of the ‘charging bolt,’ and some statistics appeared

Charging bolt

Can shoot out multiple strikes at a time. The flickering lighting strike will find its own target to attack.

Mana consumption: 3

Current skill rank: 0

Electric damage: 2-4

Energy: 2

To the next rank: 1/15000

At last, Abel focus his power of the fire crucifix icon of ‘warmth’ and some

Warmth

Increase mana recovery

Passive

Current skill rank: 0

Mana recovery: 18%

To the next rank: 6/15000

When Abel stared at the statistics of the ‘warmth’ spell, he understood why basically no wizards would want to learn this spell. It could only speed up 18% of mana recovery after he had just learned it. However, the weird thing was that this spell was a passive spell. The spell kept speeding up his mana recovery rate in the background as long as his mana storage was not fully filled. That’s why when Abel was using up his mana on testing out his other spells, his experience of this spell had also increased.

If Abel could somehow have a talk with a wizard who practiced the ‘warmth’ spell, he would have realized something about the ‘warmth’ spell which normal wizards learn. Although this spell’s pattern would also emerge in mind, if a normal wizard wanted to unleash its power, what they needed to do was to connect it with their power of the will.

However, Abel could unleash the ‘warmth’ spell differently. The process of unleashing the spell was replaced by the skill tree in his Horadric cube, so as soon as his mana began to decrease, the skill tree would unleash the ‘warmth’ spell automatically to speed up his mana recovery.

Although gaining three new spells was a good thing, when Abel looked at the rank experience under the spells, his brain began to hurt. There were so many spells he needed to rank up. How could he have enough mana to do that?

Besides the ‘warmth’ spell, all the other four spells he had learned needed time and dedication to practice. He had already decided to use the mana recover to automatically practice the ‘frozen armor’ spell in the day time. In regards to these three attacks, he could only practice them in the Rogue encampment.

When Abel thought about the automatic practice of the ‘frozen armor,’ he was reminded of the weak little souls again. He opened the perception of the weak little souls. The grey ball of weak little souls almost didn’t grow at all. Their intelligence only increased by a minute amount, and their power of will control was limited too. They were still a long way until they were intelligent enough to think about some slightly complex ideas. Their power of will control was only 10% that of a normal person.

There was only one use for these weak little souls for now, and that was to set a timer for them to automatically practice spell. Even Abel had drunk up two bottles of ‘soul potions,’ they still had a long way to go.

Abel searched the blacksmith guild, noticing there were not many iron ore left. If he wanted to make more exploding big swords, he would need to bring some more iron ore in. Without the firepower of the exploding big sword, Abel was not confident in killing off all those creatures of hell in Blood Moor. On top of that, there were new spells he needed to practice, so he decided to dedicate his next few days practicing spells.

The next day on the 11th floor of Morton Magic tower, Abel sat respectfully at the bottom chair in front of Wizard Morton, listening to him explain his knowledge on rune signs.

“Although runes were first passed down by the dwarfs, it was the humans who truly spread and pioneered it. In other worlds, it was started by wizards. It was wizards who started etching runes on crystal cores, which successfully solved the downside that runes needed magical gems and weapons to unleash its power.

Abel didn’t really understand, drawing a rune on a weapon and make a magical gem as its source of energy was a great idea. How was that a downside? Abel suspiciously asked, “Teacher, how is magic equipment a downside?”

Wizard Morton took a sip of the special wine Abel had provided, enjoying its taste in detail and proceeded to say, “First, magic equipment needs a blacksmith, and that blacksmith needs an extremely strong power of will. This alone was beyond the ability of most humans; even the dwarfs themselves don’t have many blacksmiths who were able to make magic weapons.

Up to this point, a smile emerged from Wizard Morton’s face looking at Abel and said, “Camille had told me, I could never have guessed that you are one of the few humans who’s able to forge a magic weapon. However, can you make enough magic weapons to support the entire human race?”

Abel shook his head, feeling a little embarrassed. No matter how strong his body was, or how high was his power of will, he could not spend his whole day forging magic weapons. Despite that, he might not even forge enough weapons for the entire human race.

“Your blacksmith Master status was very honorable. You need to make good use of it. You can make contact with many inheritances from the dwarfs, which most wizards could never do,” exclaimed Wizard Morton.

“Teacher, can blacksmith Master go learn from dwarfs?”Abel asked with excitement. A mere ‘magic weapon forging guide’ by the dwarfs allowed him to master the forging techniques of the four types of magic weapons, as well as strengthening his basic knowledge of runes. This allowed him to alter the runes from rune signs, and apply it on to his magic weapons. If he had really had to go and learn from the dwarfs, his forging skills would definitely increase tremendously.

“Yes, however, the dwarfs’ perception of time is different from humans. They live too long, so no one knows when the next time they will invite a blacksmith Master to study from them.

Seeing the disappointed face of Abel, Wizard Morton proceeded to say, “Magic weapons don’t mean much to wizards anyway. Do you want a wizard to go into battle with a magic cane on one of his hands, and a magic weapon on the other?

Up to this point, Wizard Morton couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Due to the damage caused by mana to a Wizard’s body, they could only use drugs to help them sustain their constitutions at a normal human level. A magic weapon would definitely be way too heavy for them.

Even if a blacksmith Master could make an extremely light magic weapon, wizards were still better at making long-distance attacks. How could they rush towards a Knight holding a magic weapon and try to strike it out?

Hearing these words by Wizard Morton, Abel couldn’t help but remember his battle style in the Rogue encampment. However, he couldn’t dare to say it. No matter what, he could not tell anyone about his golden combat qi, it was life and death to him, and he could not explain it clearly anyway. Furthermore, his golden combat qi had to do with the secret of his Horadric cube.

“Most importantly, rune signs could be unleashed and directed through the power of the will, but magic weapons could only unleash its power through striking. That’s why wizards prefer to use rune signs.” Said Wizard Morton.

If Abel was a weak body wizard, he too would choose the rune sign as a way to defend or attack, as he could direct it anywhere with his power of the will, and don’t need to make any physical contact with his enemies. Abel totally agreed with Wizard Morton after he tried to see things from another perspective.

“You already have experience of drawing runes in magic weapons, so etching runes on rune signs should be easy. They are from the same ancient rune system anyway.”

As Wizard Morton was speaking, he took out a carving knife and an already formed squared crystal core from the portal bag on his waist. He then proceeded to say, “Now I will demonstrate how to make a basic fire attack Lar rune sign.”

Abel knew the ability of the Lar rune all too well. The entire rune could probably increase 5 to 30 fire damage, as well as an increase fire defense for 30%.