Chapter 27: Rune Formulas

Ace’s mental power was limited, making it impossible to combine two Soul Runes into a Spell Model. It seemed he would be unable to attempt a two-dimensional Spell Model composed of Soul Runes in the short term.

However, he could not give up on Soul Runes. He decided to try them one by one to find a more advanced Mana Rune. Mana Runes have the effect of increasing mental power, and a more advanced one would surely be more effective. A few days later, he successfully found the Soul Mana Rune.

The internal structure of the Soul Mana Rune was far more complex than the Mana Rune obtained from the jackal, but the patterns were very similar. It looked as if the Mana Rune was a degraded version of the Soul Mana Rune.

Perhaps it is more appropriate to call the visually tangible runes Lesser Runes or Degraded Runes, Ace thought.

The Mana Meditation effect of the Soul Mana Rune was good, but it only lasted for a few seconds, which was useless at this stage.

Because of his limited mental power for the other Soul Runes, Ace decided to suspend his research on Soul Runes and concentrate on the parts of the three-dimensional rune structure that could be replicated into the Rune Book.

The reason they couldn’t be replicated into the Rune Book might be that the Corrosion Jackal’s body material was insufficient to support the Soul Runes. Materials similar to the Eye of Illusion were needed, but this eyeball was crucial to Ace at the moment, and he could not risk experimenting on it and damaging it.

The visually invisible three-dimensional rune structure conceals the secret to becoming stronger. He had a premonition that if he could fully understand this rune structure, he would achieve a qualitative leap.

About a month later, in the scorching summer, Ace finally finished replicating the visually tangible runes inside the Eye of Illusion and experimented to find their expressed meanings.

There were 14 Lesser Runes in total. The Lesser Mana Rune overlapped with the one discovered before, but the angles, lengths, and proportions of the lines traced were different.

After careful comparison, Ace confirmed that the new Lesser Mana Rune had a stronger effect. He was thus certain that runes themselves are not immutable; they can be modified. He would need to collect more runes of the same type in the future to explore the optimal expression for that type.

Ace discovered four runes that served as Lesser Foundation Auxiliary Runes, which produced four different effects: Reinforced Siphon, Mana Order, Mana Consumption Reduction, and Mental Consumption Reduction. Ace named this type of rune an Auxiliary Foundation Rune.

Reinforced Siphon can greatly enhance the rhythm caused by the Mana Rune, thereby siphoning more Mana from nature.

Mana Order can arrange Mana according to a certain pattern, transforming Mana from a disorganized peasant army into a well-trained regular army. This is a transformation from quantity to quality, and the overall effect of Mana is greatly enhanced.

The effects of Mana Consumption Reduction and Mental Consumption Reduction are straightforward: reducing Mana and mental power consumption.

In addition to the Lesser Foundation Auxiliary Runes, Ace also discovered two runes that served as Lesser Tool Auxiliary Runes, named Auxiliary Tool Runes. These were Potency and Weakening.

They can enhance and weaken the spell effect, respectively.

The remaining Lesser Runes were illusion-based: Fear Rune, Affection Rune, Aversion Rune, Illusion Rune, Suggestion Rune, Calm Rune, and Mental Shock Rune.

He changed the cover of his Rune Book, which now read “Lesser Runes.” He also added different title pages for the content: Foundation Runes, Auxiliary Foundation Runes, Tool Runes, and Auxiliary Tool Runes.

For runes of the same type, such as the Mana Rune, he recorded them using the format Mana #1, Mana #2, and so on.

He combined hundreds of different Spell Models and discovered that the auxiliary runes within a Spell Model can be stacked, but the effect would be marginally diminishing. Also, the effect deduction varied according to the compatibility of the rune combinations.

Foundation Runes and Tool Runes cannot be stacked. Forcing them to stack would cause the rune structure to collapse.

After repeated experimentation, Ace filtered out all defective and functionally repetitive combinations, keeping only a few Lesser Spell Models with the best rune combination effects. He named this combination a Rune Formula.

To achieve the best effect, besides the Rune Formula, the Spell Model design also needs to be sound. The Rune Formula and the design form together determine the effect of a planar Spell Model.

The Formula for the Potent Lesser Meditation Spell Model = Mana #2 + Calm + Reinforced Siphon x 3 + Mana Order x 2 + Mana Consumption Reduction + Mental Consumption Reduction. The design form has Mana #2 at the exact center, the Calm Rune directly below it, and the auxiliary runes surrounding them in a fixed structure, jointly forming a complex planar Spell Model named Potent Lesser Meditation Spell.

The effect of this Meditation Spell Model was significant. The mental power enhancement effect was nearly three times greater than the original meditation method, the duration was extended from half an hour to two hours, and the increase in mental perception was noticeable (it was too low to be compared before).

A new effect also appeared: Ace found that the Mana siphoned during meditation was in excess. After mental saturation, there was still some Mana remaining. The body was passively ‘contaminated’ by the excess Mana, promoting the strengthening of the entire body.

Ace speculated that if this strengthening effect continued, his bodily functions might slowly become similar to those of the Divine Descendants, far exceeding mortal limits.

He added several Potency runes to the Lesser Acid Splash, reinforcing both the acid and projection effects, and added four Auxiliary Foundation Runes. The overall structure was much more complex, and the effect was extremely powerful. The corrosive effect greatly increased, and the splash distance changed from 7-8 meters to nearly 20 meters.

Using the Projection Rune as the core, he developed the Lesser Arrow Shot Spell, which can simultaneously cast a spell on multiple arrows, producing an effect similar to archery. The effective attack range reached 70-80 meters. If the spell was cast on a single arrow only, the effective attack range could reach around 200 meters.

He also developed seven illusion-based spells: Stun, Loss of Gaze, Panic Gaze, Charm Creature, Illusion Gaze, Calm, and Aversion, all of which are Lesser Spells.

Thus, the total number of Potent Lesser Spell Magic Cards in Ace’s Spell Book reached 10: one Potent Meditation Card, two Potent Ranged Spells, and seven Potent Illusion Spells. His overall strength greatly increased.

In particular, the Lesser Spell Charm Creature can be said to be the most practical spell at this stage.

When casting on humans, it can make the target believe that the caster is their closest friend, directing them to do things that they are not extremely opposed to. If the caster wants the target to do something they are strongly opposed to, the caster’s mental power must be stronger than the target’s. It can also charm any creature, with the effect depending on the creature’s intelligence and mental power.

Ordinary people are virtually unable to resist. The effect on ordinary Nobles and Heroes is unknown, as he has not experimented. Starting with this spell, Ace possessed abilities that completely transcended mortals. If he were evil, he could almost wantonly manipulate mortals.

Ace recorded and summarized his experiment on the Eye of Illusion in his Magic Notebook, concluding: “Heroes are powerful because of their bloodline, but a Spellcaster will be powerful because of knowledge. I will use the spirit of objective and neutral research to ignite the torch of Magic. The long night is dark, and I am the only light.”