Chapter 386: Runes with Spell Characteristics
After a long dissection by Teacher Ji and me, confirming that this rune had only established a fragile connection with me, it seemed there were no other complications, which made me breathe a sigh of relief.
“It seems to be just a very normal extraordinary-level link, a relationship similar to the connection between spell effects and their targets; it’s quite fragile. Something like purification or dispel spells can interrupt this connection. Don’t you have such spells?”
Teacher Ji, after confirming this relation, was also a bit bewildered, as if it was a comical blunder that left one helpless.
However, Teacher Ji discovered another point that concerned her, which was that this composite rune spontaneously exhibited spell effects even when it was not a complete spell.
This indicated that either this single composite rune already had spell characteristics, or that this rune formed a spell by itself.
A single composite rune possessed most characteristics of a spell concept, meaning it could be termed a self-forming spell. This is a very rare and uncommon occurrence, but it does happen.
Looking across the entire Void, even if the probability is small, it has a massive base, hence creating a very fine categorization within spells, termed as “self-forming spells.”
The reason for this categorization is that a complete “Extraordinary Knowledge” was born within the Void, which itself serves as a spell case.
As long as one acquires this “Extraordinary Knowledge,” a great spell can be directly obtained!
Because of this, cases of great spells cannot be ignored, which is why the concept of self-forming spells occupies a place; however, often self-forming spells aren’t categorized separately.
Teacher Ji briefly explained this concept to me.
Moreover, the concept of “Extraordinary Knowledge” encompasses not only the miracle of self-forming spells, but some “Extraordinary Knowledge” directly embodies “Extraordinary Items,” fulfilling all definitions of extraordinary items, paying a price to generate effects.
“Dispelling spells… it seems I might have some…” I awkwardly scratched my head, not expecting this situation; certainly, among the spellbooks Tan Han gave me, there must be some, but who would think about this?
“So… what does this rune count as? A spell? A spell that can create terrible nightmares for me?”
“Theoretically, it merely has spell characteristics and does not count as a complete spell. It’s somewhat similar to the nightmare spell you created earlier, but the spell completion of this rune is lower than that of your nightmare spell,” Teacher Ji explained.
“So… is this what’s referred to as a spell that might derive during the research of ‘Extraordinary Knowledge’?”
“Um, that’s about the right idea.” Teacher Ji nodded in acknowledgment.
“That’s just too easy, isn’t it?”
“Easy? You’re just a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse, understand? Self-forming spells are quite rare, and even this rune only has partial spell characteristics. Moreover… do you think everyone can just effortlessly print out an entire systematic composite rune of “Extraordinary Knowledge” like you did? Did I ask you to gather material since you gave me this?”
Faced with Teacher Ji’s series of questions, I immediately lowered my head, pretending to be an ostrich.
When Teacher Ji had worn herself out educating me, I hurriedly handed her a cup of water.
“Count yourself a bit compassionate.” Teacher Ji took the disposable cup and started drinking.
Meanwhile, I scrutinized this rune. A single rune… it reminded me of my “Illusionary Clone” spellbook, which also used a “single” rune when casting. However, they are both composite runes, and I wonder if the illusionary clone spell could be what Teacher Ji just introduced to me as a so-called “self-forming spell.”
However, self-forming spells, as described by Teacher Ji, do not significantly differ from regular spells and can sometimes be more cumbersome to use; thinking of my illusionary clone spell… it relies on subconscious control, which indeed makes it quite troublesome.
Who could imagine being teased by a spell effect?
This effect feels a bit too overpowered.
“Well… since this is a misunderstanding, I’ll dispel it,” I tentatively asked.
After all, the connection between spell effects and targets, in an unclear context, who would have thought to directly use a dispel spell to interrupt it?
On closer inspection, it seems that although dispel spells and such require little consumption, they can achieve effects that I cannot, suggesting these spells can indeed serve as good means.
“Are you eager to remove this relationship? Although deriving spells from ‘Extraordinary Knowledge’ isn’t our intention, every spell potentially derived from it should be taken seriously because this spell might represent a concept of a certain part of the ‘Extraordinary Knowledge,’ holding significant guiding functions over the whole.”
“Um… so, I still can’t remove it?” I tentatively asked.
“It can be removed, but aren’t you curious about what this spell is about? Keep in mind, for an entire team researching the great spellbook, composed of dozens or even hundreds of scholars working together, should a spell likely to be derived appear, at least several witches, perhaps even over ten, would join this temporary research.”
“Alright, alright, I get your point…” Listening to Teacher Ji’s strong hints, it was clear she wanted to use this to better understand the characteristics of this “Extraordinary Knowledge.”
“Smart, when the time comes, we can directly compile the process of deriving this rune’s characteristics into a paper to publish, attracting more witches to join our team, even if they’re just temporary scholars.”
“Temporary scholars?”
“Those extraordinary witches who don’t have fixed groups within this laboratory base; they’re only interested in special things and will join a group due to their interests, leaving without hesitation once they feel satisfied with the completion of something intriguing to them.”
“Ah? There are witches like this?” I asked, somewhat incredulously.
“Of course, but you must understand, such temporary scholar witches usually have immense knowledge reserves and experiences; not everyone is qualified for that. Rather than calling it a temporary joining, it’s more of guidance because they have seen so much. For them, many barriers and difficulties that might seem significant to us are trivial. Do you understand this principle?”
“Oh… I get it.” I quickly nodded to indicate my understanding.
According to Teacher Ji’s words, wouldn’t such free scholar witches be something everyone wishes to compete for?
Could these witches indeed be attracted to a spell derived from an “Extraordinary Knowledge”?
Wait… there’s one more question!
“Um, Teacher Ji, I have another question I’d like to ask.”
“What question? Go ahead.”
“Since there are so many groups and teams researching “Extraordinary Knowledge” in this laboratory, shouldn’t the spells they derive be numerous? Wouldn’t that mean the academic sector of the academy is continuously switching?”
“Do you think deriving spells from ‘Extraordinary Knowledge’ is an easy affair? Xiao Han, are you getting ahead of yourself? Have you forgotten what we were doing a few days ago? This monotonous and repetitive process is a necessary ordeal, lasting at least a few years, if not tens or hundreds of years, and only then comes periodic summarizing, during which sparks of derived spells or inspiration could potentially emerge. Moreover… not all teams are outspoken, preferring to compile results into papers or other forms for publication.”
“Oh, oh…” I nodded quickly.
No wonder previously, when I reconstructed spellbook models through spirit vision, the papers organized by Teacher Ji were able to make it onto the academy’s paper board.
Because the output of significant results from the academy is terribly slow, and because of this, those papers generally show minimal signs of padding.
After understanding all this, I also satisfied my curiosity. With the absence of the fear of the unknown, the fatigue of the night was starting to creep back in, but thankfully, after taking a half-afternoon nap, I wasn’t too sleepy.
However, the second half of that nap was restless.
But after refreshing myself a little, I could continue.
Now we faced a problem regarding the “Extraordinary Knowledge” we had previously researched. In the initial stage, there had been a large number of runes disturbing spatial attributes; both Teacher Ji and I speculated it could be related to space. Although Teacher Ji advised not to jump to conclusions before knowing the unknowns, research is about bold hypotheses.
However, now the rune I had developed could affect my dreams and emotions… this indeed greatly impacted our prior judgment and hypotheses.
It’s like the Grand Wisdom Enlightenment Spell produced by the academy head; during its creation, the academy head surely didn’t just derive a “Meditation Technique” spell; there were definitely other spells involved, as the concept of enlightenment requires an immense array of other concepts to be “pieced together.” It might be somewhat unfair to say pieced together, but that’s the gist of it.
As the sky of the Witch Academy gradually brightened, the night silently passed.
In the laboratory, we, who didn’t pay attention to such trivial matters, naturally didn’t notice the passage of time, and just like that, a whole night had gone by.
I only knew that even though this composite rune was not a spellbook, its study made me recall the two days when Teacher Ji and I modified the Memory Shelf spellbook together.
The difficulty was no less than that time.
“Hmm… strange, this has the underlying runes that disturb space, but how does that relate to my nightmare?”
“Maybe you’re not experiencing nightmares?” Teacher Ji said.
“Not having nightmares, then is someone else experiencing nightmares?”
“Perhaps?” Teacher Ji smiled while operating the instrument, subsequently generating a report from the scanned information.
Teacher Ji stood up to pick up this report, and the smile on her face gradually faded, turning into a peculiar expression.
“What’s wrong?” I grew curious at this moment. This instrument is designed to determine spell types since classifying spell types is excessively complex, and with spell development, this detail will continue to extend.
With this, one could know the components and tendencies of an unknown rune or spell, making it easy to conduct targeted operations.
“This is a rune structure… leaning towards summoning spells.”
“Summoning spells?” Hearing this answer, even I found it unbelievable that summoning spells could cause me to have nightmares. “Does the summoning spell bring someone else’s nightmare into my dream?”
“Are you suggesting a dream summoning spell? That’s interesting. Actually, there are similar spells called dream connection, shared dreams, etc., which are far more efficient. However, we shouldn’t rush to conclusions; this rune still has many peculiarities.” Teacher Ji said while destroying the data, as this was merely a reference, and it wasn’t necessary to use it as guidance.
“Why don’t we try to turn it into a complete spell?” I proposed, since nothing is more direct than releasing spell effects.
“Easier said than done, making it a complete spell is not as straightforward as those few rune combinations I asked you to try before. By the way, the way you casually buff spells without systematic learning… is indeed somewhat efficient, but that’s built on foundational runes. Crafting this spell is no easier than using one of your high-consumption spellbooks.”
“High-consumption spellbooks?” This reminded me of the troubles I encountered while modifying the Elemental Energy enhancement spell back then, leaving me wanting to collapse.
But I am not the same person now, and I shouldn’t let past mistakes apply pressure on myself.
“Then doesn’t that create a significant need to try?” I laughed as I spoke.
“Creation is not modification; right now, you don’t even have a model template for comparison. A lot of things require you to explore on your own, do you understand?”
“I understand… um… Teacher Ji… may I ask you for one more thing?” I rubbed my hands, feeling a bit shy as I asked.
“What is it? Hurry up and say it.” Teacher Ji’s expression turned serious; seeing me like this, she clearly suspected mischief. For a moment, Teacher Ji even missed the old Xiao Han, who used to hesitate even to accept a Fireball Spell, but now… this Xiao Han doesn’t seem bad either.
“Could I borrow your permissions for document research, Teacher? May I lead the reformation of this spell? I want to try it myself, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll seek your help, how about that?”
“Ambitious, aren’t you?” A flicker of understanding crossed Teacher Ji’s eyes, as she might be realizing I aimed for her data permissions, feeling that my current authority wasn’t enough.
“Hahaha… my ambition is nowhere near as great as yours, Teacher Ji! You’re still thinking about creating a great spellbook.”
“Good kid, you know the balance of yin and yang? Permissions can only be used here; I’ll share it with you later; don’t take it outside, understand?” Teacher Ji scolded with a smile but still agreed.
“Understood, understood.” I nodded repeatedly to indicate my comprehension.
However, Teacher Ji’s mention of “taking it outside” made me instinctively glance at the time; it was already morning!
“Um… Teacher Ji, could you wait a moment?”
“What’s wrong? Regretting it?”
“No… it’s already morning; I might have switched my alarm to vibrate; I still need to meditate and work out…”
“Go! That’s something to keep at, and I’ll continue to wait for you here.”
“Okay!”
I nodded, tidied up my things, checked the incense for meditation, my workout clothes, etc., and only left once I confirmed everything.
Not long after I left, a loud knocking came at the laboratory door, the sound penetrating through the lab’s isolation spells and barrier, reaching inside. This anomaly suddenly changed Teacher Ji’s expression!
But Teacher Ji quickly composed herself, thinking this was the Witch Academy, nothing too unexpected should happen.
