Chapter 376 - Making Runes

The rune base began to glow dark gold, but at that moment Abel noticed something wrong. The rune he had just drawn began to melt, and the dark gold crystal core rune base was too powerful for the blue rune ink to handle.

Abel’s face soured. He failed. In a flick of a hand, the dark gold rune base vanished.

Abel did not give up; failure was expected. If not, he would not have prepared 3 types of rune ink for the experiment. Without a single break, Abel snatched the second dark gold crystal core rune base and unleashed his power of will onto the Akara pen on his right hand. In a split second, all the remaining blue rune ink inside was expelled.

Afterward, he dipped it into the gold rune ink and started drawing carefully again. His previous failure did not deter him. The rune he drew was just as perfect and did not need the Akara Pen to correct him.

But after 30 seconds, the rune on the base also began to shake viciously. The dark gold crystal core and the gold rune ink were exchanging energy, but it continued to intensify until the energy almost lost control.

Just as he had expected, a dark gold beam of light suddenly emerged from the rune base and it slowly scattered to the floor like little stars. Afterward, it too had vanished.

Abel did not give up. He still had one last hope, the dark gold rune ink. In no time, he drew another perfect rune. Now he just needed to wait for 30 seconds.

But after he waited for 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 1 minute, even 10 minutes, nothing had happened to the rune base. Abel could clearly sense with his power of will that they were exchanging energy, but every time the dark gold crystal core made a move, it was held down by the dark gold rune ink.

Although it didn’t explode, the rune was basically useless. The strokes just wouldn’t line up with the energy of the crystal core rune base, so the power couldn’t be ignited.

He failed again! Disappointment raced up within Abel. Abel was almost always successful, whether it be from making magic weapons, rune signs, or even Potions. He had not failed in a long time, so this really hit him hard.

However, Abel did gain some knowledge after failing. Suddenly, he looked confident again. He pushed upon his Snake Ego belt and cleared out a ‘Soul Potion’.

All of a sudden, an alchemy bench appeared in his mind. Everything was the exactly same, other than the fact that he had unlimited resources to do unlimited experience in his mind.

Since his mind was basically a computer, his thoughts were quick and countless inspirations popped up as he started his experiment again.

Back in reality, Abel remained still in front of his actual alchemy bench. An hour had passed just like that. Suddenly, his eyes popped open, purple flashing within them. His mind was still operating like a computer, the effect of the ‘Soul Potion’ still hadn’t worn off.

In a flick of a hand, a cloak appeared on Abel’s body. It was the invisible cloak he took from Assassin Arvid. However, Abel was only using the power of the will expansion crown on top of the cloak. He didn’t really want to disappear.

Although Abel’s body had slowly disappeared as he put this cloak on, his power of the will had almost doubled. Everything in the world had become much clearer to him.

Afterward, Abel picked up the last crystal core rune base. In a dark gold color flash, all the rune ink was expelled from the Akara pen on his right hand, and its tip had turned pure white once again.

Abel gently dipped the Akara pen on the gold rune ink. He paused for a little before the pen made contact with the crystal core, but then the Akara pen began to move at an immense speed. It was almost like it had turned into a shadow.

There was no way Abel could draw a rune this fast without the ‘Soul Potion’ and the mysterious crown to enhance his power of the will. Since every stroke of the rune needed to be the exact thickness, he would have to start all over again from even a slight mistake.

Normally it would take Abel a few minutes to draw a rune, but this time it had only taken him 20 seconds. Before the crystal core base even got the chance to merge with the rune ink, Abel flashed his Akara Pen and all the gold rune ink was expelled.

He immediately dipped it in the dark gold rune ink and started drawing it again. The crystal core rune base had already started changing, but it was then quickly covered up by the new layer of dark gold intermediate rune ink. Anything could happen by this point.

After another 20 seconds, Abel stopped his. He was clear-headed from the effects of the ‘Soul Potion’, and he stared at the rune in his hand with yearning.

The rune base continued to fuse from beginning to the end of the rune, but then it was held back by the dark gold rune ink again.

After around 30 seconds, a layer of dark golden glow wrapped around the rune. Just when he thought he failed, the glow disappeared. The rune did not scatter, but instead, it remained intact on his hand.

Abel focused with his power of will. Although it looked very peaceful, there was massive amounts of energy roaring inside, just like that 3#tir rune. He had succeeded.

Abel was very satisfied. He understood why he had failed so many times. By this point, he had not even met the basic power of the will and grasping that was required.

If he was going to make another actual rune, he still wouldn’t be able to do it without talking about ‘Soul Potion’.

A rune needed to be drawn under 20 seconds. That was quite a dramatic shift since it would normally take Abel a few minutes to draw one. This alone just showed how dramatically different the rune knowledge of the Dark World and the Holy Continent was. Abel was always proud of his rune drawing skills, but he still had a long way to go.

Since he knew his weakness now, he could improve it. As his wizard rank continued to increase, his power of will would too. As long as he kept drinking the ‘Soul Potion,’ one day, he would reach the level required. As for his speed, his intuition told him he would only achieve it once he became a head commander.

Speed was always the Achilles’ heel of knights. Since their speed relied on their mounts. They only needed to focus on developing their strength and defense. That was the case for Abel as well.

Abel shoved his successfully made 8#al rune in his Horadric cube to examine it.

Through the Horadric Cube, Abel could tell if this rune was accepted by the Dark World. He then focused his power of will on to the Horadric Cube and some stats appeared:

Rune: Al

Can be placed on weapons with socket

Weapon: increase 5-30 fire damage

Armour: Fire resistance 30%

Helmet: Fire resistance 30%

Shield: Fire resistance 30%

This rune that Abel personally created with his own hands had been accepted by the Horadric Cube. This meant that Abel had the ability to make the most powerful weapons in the Dark World, Rune Words.