Chapter 160

Unknowingly, meditation had become his entire life; Luge no longer felt excessive surprise at a newly mastered rune, merely maintaining his unchanged smile as he began mastering the next rune, as if his heart had already fallen into the same rhythm as the runes' birth and death.

Boom! Boom!

Luge's eyes snapped open.

Green, sitting on the outer side beside him, shrank further inward.

"Why! Why is this happening——" the bald Old Wizard shrieked from afar.

Boom!

Another heart-shaking impact.

Taking advantage of the lull in the noise, Luge and Green looked out, only to see that emaciated bald Old Wizard ramming his head against that very spot on the Cave Wall he had pointed out earlier; at this moment the Old Wizard's whole body was emitting a strange, constantly shifting light, which was just turning from a nearly extinguished white toward a murky gray as they watched.

"It can't be wrong! Why? Why!"

Boom! The bald Old Wizard slammed his head into the Cave Wall, sending large amounts of Rubble flying.

The gaunt old man alternated between shouting loudly and muttering softly, as if he could think through problems while furiously ramming the wall.

The two of them shrank back into their cover, both involuntarily protecting their heads and shuffling further inside.

Whether this tall, thin old man was truly mad or feigning madness, Luge had noticed in that brief glance that the old man's impacts all struck that place he had spoken of, shattering the newly born blood-red Stone Eaters.

From the other end of the distant Passage, brief miserable cries could still be heard; perhaps people coming to collect Stone Eaters had been struck in vulnerable spots by flying Rubble.

Boom! Boom!

For a time the impact sounds were incessant.

The bald Old Wizard kept muttering incessantly.

Luge curled up, pricking his ears, searching for the old man's murmurs amid the rumbling impacts and the clatter of flying Rubble; he caught fragmented, intermittent snatches — some names, and various indistinct doubts; the Old Wizard seemed to be questioning and answering himself, truly thinking through problems while venting through impact.

After a long commotion, the area around the Big Cave finally fell quiet.

The two of them quietly poked their heads out.

The bald Old Wizard glanced toward their hiding spot, his gaze seeming to only just recall them; the tall, thin old man wore tattered robes, yet gave the impression of a ferocious wild beast, but he merely glanced and paid them no further heed, as if already certain they would not master that Spell in so short a time.

Luge could sense that when the old man's gaze swept over them subconsciously, Green's body gave a tremor; that ferocious aura assailed them.

"Adult, I have some doubts about the Spell……" Green said, rushing out.

Behind him, Luge silently gave a thumbs-up, while also pricking his ears to listen.

He soon discovered, however, that what he could understand was limited; after all, he had not yet begun learning this Spell.

Luge simply returned to meditation; the spot where he lay had already piled up quite a few Red Pebbles Green had collected, and they had been taking turns eating these with their reserve food — this was already a rare change in their life here.

He took out the Black Book and leafed through it; unknowingly, only four runes remained; his Spiritual Power, long since meeting the Fourth-Rank Wizard Apprentice standard, had become even more refined under the tempering of both Potion brewing and meditation, so constructing the Fourth Magic Mark should not be as difficult as originally anticipated.

Luge stroked the Black Book's cover, feeling its Worm Shell-like texture; it had been a long time since he had slept pillowed on the Black Book, and he no longer used it as a dining tray and shield, or as a talisman and such.

He smiled, put it away, and continued meditating.

The Magic Mark Meditation Method is the only Meditation Method, precisely because of this Black Book.

The object Kalu and Ba'angte contended for; the Half-Man spoke through Kalu's mouth, and that flame man of extraordinary culinary skill also said, this Black Book is the same as those books born from the Mystery City — generated from sacrifices blended with things leaked from the Knowledge World, a product of timing and coincidence, therefore a unique thing in the world.

These final four runes of this phase, following the previous tradition, grew gradually more complex.

But they could not stymie a clever Kobold who had nothing to do but meditate.

When he was down to the last rune, the bald Old Wizard's madness returned once more, and then Green once again mustered his courage and charged up to question him after the Old Wizard's fit; Green seemed to have already fallen into a bitter struggle.

Luge noticed that this Apprentice Seeker, who had always worn a faint smile, seemed to have become somewhat haggard.

Whereas he, his hair remained glossy.

"Perhaps I really should consider doing some bodily Reform." Green, blasted back by the Old Wizard, said from the side.

"How is it?" Luge said with a smile.

"Soon, should be in these Two Days……" Green's thoughts were pulled back on track, his eyes shining as he looked at the book in his hand.

Luge smiled; this made him feel more assured.

After all, having someone nearby who can succeed is a good thing; it shows this is not an impossible task.

Both were somewhat tired; each took out some food and fine wine, gathered together behind this protruding cover, and began to enjoy themselves, both deciding to sleep deeply after the feast, to face the final sprint in better condition.

Long habit made Luge enter a meditative state subconsciously as he lay down.

He simply postponed the planned deep sleep until after mastering the rune; at that time he would construct the Magic Mark in even better condition.

Time passed unnoticed; the final rune, through repeated tracing and observation, kept perfecting itself in his Spiritual Power Space, and just when it was a hair's breadth away, a short cry of surprise pulled him out of the meditation space.

Luge opened his eyes, not annoyed, but looking at Green beside him with pleasant surprise.

"Succeeded?" Luge said.

Green looked even more haggard; clearly this guy also had no intention of sleeping deeply, perhaps only dozing briefly when he could endure no longer.

Green nodded excitedly, the corners of his mouth curving higher than his usual smile.

"Truly a peculiar Spell, the Divine Object Technique, Lord Luge, you will certainly like it." Green said, eyes shining bright.

Finished speaking, Green stumbled to his feet and ran toward the old man sitting in the Big Cave; this was a pre-agreed permissible disturbance.

Luge glanced at the two who had begun conversing, then returned to his own meditation.

When he opened his eyes again, the rune that had been a hair's breadth away was already thoroughly mastered.

Luge thought for a moment, feeling an impulse to begin constructing the Magic Mark right now; he took out the Potion the bald Old Wizard had given earlier — Green had long since drunk his bottle dry; Luge felt he fundamentally had not kept it to save his life, or rather, each time he learned this Spell he went all out, exhausting himself completely. The Old Wizard had said to drink a sip when Spiritual Power consumption felt excessive and he was near death; this guy was clearly fighting desperately the whole time.

From the old man's hesitant toss of another vial at the time, this stuff was clearly not easy to come by.

Luge first meditated to restore his Spiritual Power, took a deep breath, then drank a large mouthful, and began attempting to construct the Magic Mark.

Twenty-four newly mastered runes, plus twenty-four previously known runes, forty-eight in total, took shape one by one under Luge's stable, condensed Spiritual Power tracing; every bit of consumption, every point of Spiritual Power allocation he handled with practiced ease; the Potion he had drunk in a large gulp beforehand also revealed its effect — an increase in the natural recovery speed of Spiritual Power, allowing him to maneuver with even greater ease.

The focused Luge felt neither surprise nor melancholy, only sensing the runes' flow with his Spiritual Power, while the runes simultaneously revealed a corner of the world to him. Though very small, revealing little, he had long felt that if runes were likened to a kind of writing, they are what the world unintentionally writes; at the same time runes have ranks, different angles, and countless layers, all manner of existences.

The writing metaphor came to him after seeing the ripple traces left by the Blood Fortress Ancestor in the Black Prison; those are traces left when life reaches a certain height; then runes are the traces left by this ceaselessly operating World.

In the instant the Fourth Magic Mark was successfully constructed, the Spiritual Power Space trembled slightly, as if becoming even more stable.

Luge fell silent in the Spiritual Power Space, admiring the beautiful sight of the four Magic Marks stretching across the sky, and following the previous plan, performed Empowerment on the Spiritual Boiling Spell Model, storing the projection inside the Fourth Magic Mark.

(Chapter End)