Chapter 26: The Eye of Illusion

Ace looked at the light, and in a momentary lapse of concentration, he entered the illusion again. He immediately traced the Mana Rune, easily breaking free from the illusion.

This time, he was more cautious. He placed the eyeball on his desk with the pupil facing away from him. He released his mental power but did not make contact with the eyeball. Instead, he used his mental power’s ambient perception to sense the eyeball.

He divided his mental power into multiple feelers. With his eyes closed, he carefully sensed the blood-red eyeball. Gradually, in his black-and-white world of perception, the surface of the eyeball peeled away, and an extremely complex, three-dimensional rune structure quietly floated in its pupil.

Ace gently turned the blood-red eyeball around, retracted his mental power, and opened his eyes to stare at the pupil. There were only some simple rune structures, and the complex, three-dimensional structure was invisible.

He tried again to divide his mental power into multiple feelers to sense the pupil of the blood-red eyeball. The complex, three-dimensional rune structure appeared again.

After several attempts, Ace recorded in his Magic Diary: Blood-Red Eyeball Experiment.

“When mental power contacts this eyeball, it is absorbed, processed by the complex, three-dimensional rune structure inside the pupil, and releases a special spell, pulling the person into an illusion. Based on its nature, this eyeball is named the Eye of Illusion.

The different amounts of absorbed mental power lead to different numbers of internal runes being activated in the three-dimensional rune structure, different durations, and different strengths of the created illusion. Because the illusion is somewhat dangerous, there is no need to activate it with full power to avoid playing oneself to death.

The three-dimensional rune structure can only be observed through mental power perception and cannot be seen with the naked eye. This is a form of rune existence that is different from the low-level Monster Corrosion Jackal’s runes.

It is speculated that this eyeball must originate from a more powerful Monster, quite possibly a mid-level Monster whose strength is equivalent to a Hero.

This form of existence, which can only be observed through mental power perception, may be related to the soul.

Because Deities and souls definitely exist in this world, mental power may be an extension of the soul. More advanced rune structures may exist in a form similar to the soul. (Note: This is only a hypothesis, pending verification.)

According to the mental power perception results, the three-dimensional rune structure should be composed of multiple planar rune structures. The hierarchy of these planar rune structures may be similar to Spell Models like Acid Splash.

We can start by analyzing the planar rune structures that make up the three-dimensional rune, separating the single runes and experimenting with the meaning represented by each rune.

It can be inferred that Spell Models composed of runes exist in at least two forms: planar models and three-dimensional models, or two-dimensional models and three-dimensional models.”

After finishing the experiment record, Ace put the blood-red eyeball away. Being very fatigued, he quickly fell asleep.

For the next two days, Ace fully immersed himself in researching the components of the three-dimensional rune. Of course, to others, it appeared he was shaken and did not want to leave the house for a few days.

Today he had to go out. The city-state Inspector had arrived. Marun had rushed to the city-state that day without stopping, but unfortunately, he was one step late, and the city gates were already closed.

He had to stay outside the city overnight and report the incident the next morning. The Grand Inspector took the matter of the suspected barbarian Shaman seriously and immediately sent someone to investigate.

The Inspector was wearing a white robe with a purple ribbon. With a conspicuous aquiline nose, he was none other than the young Noble captain from the Royal Palace banquet.

“I am Dikens Rona, a current city-state Mid-Level Inspector.” The young Noble extended his hand and shook hands with Ace seriously.

“Respected Divine Blood Descendant of the Frost God, hello. I saw you at the Royal Palace banquet, and your bravery is admirable. You are very welcome to my estate. Please come inside the residence for a short rest.”

“I know you too, Ace, the author of Logic Book (Volume One). To my knowledge, you are not a Citizen yet. Please first explain why this estate has slaves.”

“Sir Dikens, this batch of slaves was purchased by my teacher, Peter. I signed an agreement with him to lease this batch of slaves to me for three years. I paid him 5% of the total price of the slaves in Gold Thales.”

“This explanation complies with city-state law. Now, take me to the place where the Shaman last appeared.”

“You must be tired from your journey. Why don’t you rest at my residence first?”

“No. Lead the way.”

It seems he has a resolute personality, Ace thought. “Then, this way, please.”

They arrived at the spot where the others had fallen unconscious that day. Dikens searched carefully but found no useful clues. He returned to the estate, interviewed the slaves who were familiar with Goll, and took Goll’s woman with him.

“This woman spent day and night with Goll. I must take her in for a thorough investigation. Here are 2 Gold Thales. Consider this slave sold to me. Please help me deliver the money to your teacher.”

Ace took the 2 Gold Thales tossed to him and looked at the barbarian woman being led away by Dikens. She was crying in fear. Ace looked at her with crocodile-like pity, turned, and walked back to the residence, whispering, “I’m sorry, I am not a good person.”

The matter of the barbarian Shaman was basically concluded on Ace’s estate.

Ace had successfully guarded his secret. He had discovered the path for mortals to the supernatural and was the world’s first systematic researcher of Magic—a self-defined Spellcaster.

The Divine Descendants, as vested interests, would probably show him no mercy. He could only harden his heart. Perhaps he needed to step over piles of white bones and blood to ascend the throne of the supernatural.

Ace continued to analyze the rune structure inside the Eye of Illusion, putting the New Medicine aside. He was completely immersed in the world of runes.

Within a week, he had already replicated seven runes in the Rune Book. Through his many experiments, he found that only the runes within the Eye of Illusion’s visibly tangible structure could be replicated onto the Rune Book.

The more internal, visually invisible rune structures could only be traced with mental power but could not be replicated onto the Rune Book with living blood ink.

Ace named these visually invisible runes Soul Runes. The Eye of Illusion must possess some condition that allows the Soul Runes to exist, but he had not yet discovered it.

Ace casually recorded his experimental data and ideas in his Magic Diary.

He used his mental power to trace a Soul Rune in the air. After several failures, he finally succeeded. The moment it was completed, the rune absorbed most of his mental power, flickered in the air for a few seconds, and then dissolved.

Ace had to stop and meditate to recover his mental power. He attempted to combine the visibly tangible Mana Rune with this Soul Rune but found it impossible.

The Soul Rune, like an arrogant Noble lady, cleverly avoided the Mana Rune. They could not form a Spell Model, and thus he could not activate the supposed meaning expressed by the Soul Rune.

It seems the Soul Rune cannot be directly combined with lower-level runes. It should be combined with a Mana Rune of the same level.