Chapter 140

The light in the rune workshop remained constant, making one completely unable to feel the passage of time.

Gao De wrote four times in succession; after failing the first time, the other three were all successful.

Looking at the basic rune "Magic Gathering" with complex lines that he had drawn on the magic paper, Gao De's eyes lit up slightly.

Light flowed within these complex lines, gathering the magic power wandering in heaven and earth at a steady but slow rate.

Gao De watched this scene, full of admiration.

He felt an indescribable sense of beauty: just some cold lines, under the deconstruction and combination of runology's knowledge system, could turn into such an inexplicable magical power.

The last time he felt this kind of beauty was in mathematics: some cold numbers and symbols, after combination, could turn into a harmonious and elegantly formed formula, expressing extremely complex concepts and rules.

It was this sense of beauty that made Gao De fall in love with mathematics.

Gao De had originally thought that there would not be a second discipline in the world as "beautiful" as mathematics.

Now, in another different world, Gao De had finally encountered the second "mathematics" he had thought did not exist.

After feeling the beauty and shock from the runes, Gao De fell into surprise again.

He found joy in the hunt.

In Gao De's eyes, this rigid level zero basic rune "Magic Gathering" on the magic paper was so vivid, as if it would come alive at any moment.

Gao De put the four pieces of magic paper aside and opened the "Introduction to Runes" material again.

The second level zero basic rune recorded on it was called "Limit," and its function was that the system would only operate if and only if magic power passed through all "Limit" runes in the system (which could be a composite rune or a magic array).

If any "Limit" rune malfunctioned or no magic power passed through, this system could not operate.

The third level zero basic rune was called "Allow"; if there were multiple "Allow" runes in a system, as long as one "Allow" rune had magic power passing through it, the system could operate normally.

The fifth level zero basic rune was called "Connection," and its function was to act as a bridge to connect those basic runes that were difficult and should have been incompatible, thereby forming a composite rune.

The last level zero basic rune was "Diffusion," and its function was to diffuse the effect of a certain basic rune into other systems.

When the last "Diffusion" rune was successfully drawn on the magic paper, Gao De rubbed his somewhat sore eyes with a sense of relief.

He discovered that not only were his eyes sore, but his wrists were also trembling slightly.

Only then did Gao De suddenly come back to his senses and realize that he was famished.

The mana in his body, which was not very abundant to begin with, was nearly exhausted during the process of drawing the runes.

He was startled and hurriedly took out his pocket watch; looking at the time, it was already four in the afternoon.

That is to say, he had stood there for nearly eight hours, without a single moment of pause or rest during that time.

Gao De opened his mouth, feeling somewhat helpless.

This had always been his "problem": as long as he entered the state of solving problems, he would completely forget himself, unable to feel the flow of things around him, or even the passage of time, entering a state of "obsession."

If there was no external force to wake him up, he would not "recover" his clarity from this state until all the problems in his hand were solved.

In the eyes of others, this was called focus.

But being too focused sometimes brought trouble.

For example, when he first encountered math olympiad problems in elementary school, he was stumped by the final grand finale problem, thinking hard, even breaking into a cold sweat from anxiety.

It was just like his mother, who couldn't wait for him to come home from school, searched the streets for two or three hours, and finally found Gao De, who was still immersed in the grand finale problem, in a dim classroom.

Looking at his mother, who had also broken into a cold sweat, Gao De realized for the first time that sometimes one also had to learn to control and suppress one's own focus.

But if a problem could really be overcome so easily, it couldn't be called a problem.

Problems are stubborn.

For example, now, just by being careless, he had fallen into this state of "forgetting both self and objects" again.

"Damn it!"

Gao De's personality destined him not to be discouraged by the dry memorization and copying process of runology, and he basically wouldn't use foul language.

It was just that he wiped the sweat that had seeped out from his forehead at some point, and still couldn't help but mutter a rare swear word to himself.

Of course, it wasn't to curse anyone; it was just that at this moment, only a swear word could most concisely and powerfully express the emotions in his heart.

No wonder it was said that runology had the highest threshold; just a single "assignment" had consumed so much of his time, physical strength, and energy to barely complete.

Thinking that all runemasters had gone through this, Gao De felt a sense of awe in his heart.

He developed a sense of looking up to the group of runemasters, and at the same time, a sense of frustration he had never felt before.

However, Gao De did not wallow in self-pity, but silently accepted the fact that his aptitude for rune learning was not too outstanding. Although in his life before coming to this world, Gao De had been praised as a genius more than once.

At least in his student days, he had a sense of ease and mastery in learning all subjects.

Learning had always been a very simple thing for him.

Very occasionally, he would also feel that he was a genius.

For example, when he discovered the math formulas he had occasionally thought of while daydreaming during breaks years ago, and then saw them in the current classroom.

But Gao De would not arrogantly think that this learning talent possessed in a world with a technological system could also be universal in a world with a supernatural system.

People have their own strengths; since he was strong in "mathematics," he would not necessarily be as good in other fields.

However, this did not affect Gao De's decision to continue learning "Runology."

Because he really liked the beauty of runes.

Gao De braced himself against hunger and fatigue, seriously organized his "homework," and stacked it neatly next to the materials.

This was left for the potential inspection of his instructor, He Xi.

After doing all this, he silently turned around, ready to leave.

Before walking out of the rune workshop, he glanced again at the small internal room where He Xi Okenli was.

That door was still tightly closed.

Could it be that it had been opened, but he hadn't noticed because he was immersed in his homework at the time?

This was not important.

What was important was that he was already very hungry and had to go eat quickly!

Gao De left, and the workshop remained quiet.

After another period of time, He Xi, whose face was slightly pale and tired, opened the door to his "laboratory" and walked out.

For him, who was already a third-circle magic user, even if he was old, his energy and physical strength were far more abundant than ordinary people.

It was just that the work he did was really too energy-consuming.

Therefore, fatigue was inevitable.

It was just that, amidst the fatigue, there was also a trace of satisfaction.

This kind of satisfaction was hard to describe in ordinary language; only by using an ancient saying from Gao De's past life could it be accurately summarized: "Morning hearing of the Dao."

He habitually walked to the workbench and habitually organized it.

Then, he suddenly remembered that today he had brought some introductory materials he had compiled for that student named "Gao De."

"I wonder how he's doing with the reading..." The old man's muttering stopped abruptly.

He saw a small stack of magic paper with basic runes drawn on it, neatly placed on the workbench.

Compared to yesterday, this time He Xi's pupils did not expand, but shrank sharply.

He picked up Gao De's "homework" and flipped through it carefully, one by one.

For a high-rank runemaster who had been immersed in runology for hundreds of years, these simple basic runes should have had nothing worth looking at.

But at this moment, He Xi's eyes were full of admiration, as if he were appreciating some work of art.

"Damn it."

The old man looked like he rarely used foul language.

So even when saying the words "damn it," his tone was serious, his pitch was steady, and his pronunciation was crisp and clear.

It didn't sound like he was swearing at all.

And indeed, he wasn't swearing.

The old man just needed these three words to express the emotions in his heart.

After finishing the "homework" Gao De left behind, his spirit seemed to have become a bit more excited.

He Xi put down the stack of magic paper in his hand and whispered after "damn it": "This really is a genius."

(End of chapter)