Chapter 138 : Chapter 138

Chapter 138. Invitation

Fulan immediately returned to the temporary residence specially arranged by the Alliance for mages and pushed open the door to her room.

She walked over to a table and placed a longsword on it, one she had just bought from a weapon shop on the way back.

Following the contents of the book exactly, she immediately copied the rune onto the longsword at a one-to-one scale.

She took a deep breath and used a specially made pen to draw the pattern stroke by stroke onto the blade with her Mental Power.

At first, the process went very smoothly, and she hardly felt any resistance at all.

But after she had drawn half of the rune, she suddenly felt a small portion of her Mental Power being consumed.

She did not pay too much attention to that sensation and continued focusing on the rune.

Now, however, every stroke became difficult to complete. Not only did each line she carved consume another portion of her Mental Power, but her concentration also kept scattering, as though trying to prevent her Mental Power from remaining focused on it.

If it had been a seasoned rune-maker, they might already have failed at this point, because they might never before have faced such tremendous pressure while crafting a rune.

But Fulan was different. Her Mental Power had already surpassed that of many First-Tier Mages, and on top of that, her attainments in Runology were beyond what ordinary people could hope to achieve.

So she forcefully withstood the pressure and completed the rune in a single attempt.

After finishing it, Fulan let out a long breath and slumped into her chair, her eyes showing a trace of fatigue.

“It directly consumed a quarter of my Mental Power...” Fulan carefully sensed the state of her mind and could not help clicking her tongue in amazement.

This rune really was difficult to draw. She felt that the fact Raymond had managed to draw even half of it showed that he was genuinely gifted in rune-making.

She turned the longsword over and saw the rune glowing red upon it.

It was a bird soaring through the sky, with immensely broad wings. Behind it, blazing flames surrounded the bird at the center.

Fulan directly poured Mental Power into it and immediately sensed a progress bar just like the one on the shortsword she had taken from that mercenary.

Her vast Mental Power quickly filled it, causing the rune to burst into a dazzling red glow, and that light spread across the entire longsword.

The temperature in the room suddenly rose. The hand gripping the hilt felt a scorching heat, and flames abruptly appeared at the tip of the blade before spreading downward.

The entire sword was soon wrapped in yellow flames, radiating a terrifying heat. Fulan did not bring the weapon too close to the wooden table, yet she could already see small flames beginning to ignite upon its surface.

That made Fulan hastily stop the infusion of Mental Power, allowing the rune on the sword to gradually dim until the scorching heat in the room finally disappeared.

She quickly put out the little flames in the room to prevent a fire from breaking out.

After confirming that there was no longer any risk of the room catching fire, Fulan lay back in her chair and began thinking about the longsword engraved with this “ancient” rune.

Although the effects of these runes were far stronger than the ones Fulan had previously learned, she still was not very satisfied.

“The effect is a little too weak.”

She could already sense the greatest power the rune on it could release. It was far stronger than her Fireball cast at the proficient level without any enhancements, but that was all.

Not to mention that merely drawing this rune had already cost her a quarter of her Mental Power. That alone was enough for her to cast four First-Tier spells, yet the result was only this much.

What was more, her Fireball now had the enhancement of Dragon Flame, so the fireball she released would absolutely be stronger than the rune on this longsword.

Moreover, when she silently checked her panel, there was no change whatsoever. The prompt for that Ancient Rune Warrior was still hanging there.

[You have created a powerful rune. Runology proficiency +100]

“This isn’t an ‘ancient rune’...” Fulan muttered to herself.

Nor was it the kind of ancient rune acknowledged by the panel. Although its effect really was much stronger than that of modern runes, it still was nowhere near strong enough.

Fulan rubbed the corner of her eye and sank into confusion. If this was not an ancient rune, then what exactly was a true ancient rune supposed to be?

“Even if these aren’t, still...” she felt that these runes were already very close to the true ancient runes.

She then suddenly remembered the description of the Ancient Rune Warrior: “its key information has not been erased”...

“Key information... what does that mean?”

She felt that she was already very close to the truth. These runes had most likely had their true key information erased, which was why they had turned out like this.

“But what exactly is the key information?”

At that thought, her head began to ache. There was no other content left in the entire book.

Even though she knew that some key information had likely been erased, she still had no idea what it actually was.

After thinking it over again and again, Fulan decided to start with the rune that seemed to belong to the Elephant of the Mountains.

Truth be told, if this book were seen by believers of the Elephant of the Mountains, they would probably rush over and burn it on the spot.

It was simply too blasphemous. Carving someone else’s god onto a rune—and it might even work.

In any case, Fulan did not dare engrave that rune onto a weapon. If those believers saw it, it would be a matter of life and death.

As for the patterns on the other six runes, Fulan guessed that they were probably gods as well. She remembered that the book introducing the gods had made it very clear.

[The gods we can see in the Material Realm and the Spirit Realm are only a small portion of those in the Astral Realm. Many more gods remain hidden among the stars.]

She believed those six were gods that had never descended into the Material Realm. As for the Spirit Realm, she did not know whether they had appeared there or not. In any case, she had never seen them.

“All of these runes bear the prominent characteristics of those gods...” She began thinking about the traits they shared.

Normally, runes were nowhere near capable of matching the power of spells. If they really could, then why would she bother practicing spells at all? She would just focus entirely on runes instead.

But these runes engraved with divine symbols truly possessed unimaginable power. It could be said that as long as one could activate the rune on the sword in Fulan’s hand, it would be enough to crush a mage on the verge of advancement.

That led Fulan to suspect whether it was the symbols of those gods that were providing the power...

Then a mischievous idea suddenly sprang into her mind. Haven’t I met one of those gods before?

Even now, she still remembered the appearance of the Lord of Radiance when He granted her the class of Radiant Priest—the pure white figure...

What would happen if I drew a rune by imitating that figure?

The more Fulan thought about it, the more promising the idea seemed. She rubbed her hands together eagerly, ready to begin at once.

But at the moment, she did not have any medium left for drawing runes. She had bought only one longsword, just to test things first.

“I’ll go out and buy another one later.” She looked at the sky. The sun had already touched the distant mountains, and it was about time for her to eat. After dinner, she would go and...

Just then, there came a knock at her door. When she opened it, she found a servant standing outside.

“Honored Mage, the administrator of Ged Town has invited the mages staying here to dinner together. Are you available?”