Chapter 163: The Direction of Rune Modification in the Spellbook
Morning.
“Uh… Is it this time already?”
I got up and checked the time; it seems my biological clock didn’t wake me up like usual, and I got up a bit later than normal. It looks like yesterday’s events have consumed too many of my brain cells.
After a quick wash and getting dressed in new clothes… right, I need to prepare a few sets of spare clothes; otherwise, if something tears, I’ll have no place to change.
Once I arrived at the arena, I found a spot to sit down. Before today’s matches started, I still had some things to do.
For instance… I wanted to study my Wind Blade Spell a bit.
I don’t expect to use the Wind Blade Spell as terrifyingly as the Fireball Spell in such a short time, but at the very least, I should modify it to be usable for me.
The wind element is already lively; it can’t be like the Fireball Spell, which becomes a mass in a fixed location, and the Wind Blade does not have a fixed shape either.
So when I modified the Wind Blade Spell to not launch immediately, it turned into a Wind Blade that just rotates in place, and then… the Wind Blade really became a spinning wind ball.
This seemingly constant movement is quite interesting…
“Ah? What spell is this? So amazing, is it a wind vortex?”
“Um? Oh, it’s just the Wind Blade Spell.” I looked up at the newcomer, and it was Erica, the class leader from Class 13; according to the seating order, she was right next to me.
I didn’t expect so many people to arrive so early. Playing with spells here would be a bit rude, just like playing with grenades in public, right?
That’s not good.
“The Wind Blade Spell? Huh? The Wind Blade Spell doesn’t look like that, right?”
“There are so many different spellbooks for the Wind Blade Spell in the world, and some must look like this, don’t worry,” I reassured her; my neighbor, the class leader, certainly had a strong curiosity.
But looking at her, she should have advanced; I didn’t see her yesterday afternoon, and I hope I don’t run into her today.
“What kind of nonsense is that!”
At this moment, I was actually putting too much thought into considering the other person’s feelings.
Because I found myself in a bit of a dilemma.
That is, I hadn’t paid much attention before, but now I noticed that the rune applications inside the spellbook were a bit too advanced, to the point that I didn’t even know what they were for.
Take the Fireball Spell, which I’m most familiar with, as an example.
I understood the entire spellbook inside out, from its internal structure, how to guide magical power into the spellbook, transforming it into the corresponding element, to the rituals and structural compositions that condense into a fireball.
Every part and every aspect seemed remarkably perfect, and there didn’t seem to be too much involvement from the rune rituals. The most important part was still the “ritual formation,” so… what purpose do all these countless runes serve within the spellbook?
It seems they exist everywhere, but every operation seems could be carried out without them.
The same seems to apply to the Wind Blade Spell. The runes visible in the spell ceremony are actually composite runes, but these runes only account for a tiny fraction of the total runes.
More runes even required me to use Spirit Vision to see them on “another level.”
They operated like intricate gears, interlocking and stacking, incomprehensible yet still able to feel their complex beauty.
I couldn’t even understand what these were made of.
Normal runes are quite simple; they can be made with mental power and extraordinary energy, and successful formation will make the rune take effect directly; broken formation means the rune shatters, extraordinary energy dissipates, and mental power receives weak backlash.
But what are the runes inside the spellbook made of?
Energy? Mental power?
Where does mental power come from? Where does the energy come from?
Whose mental power? What energy?
I didn’t know; I only vaguely felt this was the composition of the entire spellbook.
I had been deliberately avoiding a question all along: what is the spellbook made of?
Is it energy? No, it’s just a protective energy shell. What about the inside? Is it just these runes?
So the complex information feedback from the spellbook I saw with Spirit Vision at the beginning was just the runes?
Now I had a deeper understanding of the runes; the feedback from Spirit Vision didn’t impact me too much; it was just so densely packed that it gave me a headache. So what really impacted me was still the unknown.
How much of the unknown had I ignored?
The “Floating World” level of Spirit Vision surely couldn’t just achieve this level. From childhood to now, I had been forcing myself to ignore those unknowns, and now I couldn’t even tell how much I had overlooked.
Looking back, I was essentially giving up the effects brought by Spirit Vision because I couldn’t handle that ability at that time; the best solution was to let it go.
The things I had let go of for so many years, wanting to pick them back up again is not that easy.
Unless I break my own subconscious and gain control.
The two surprises with Tan Han before had improved my ability to control Spirit Vision quite a bit, which allowed me to test the limits of my abilities.
In the end, my Spirit Vision is essentially at the “Floating World” level, but the extent I can utilize now probably doesn’t reach the true Floating World level.
Maybe it’s under the “Threshold of Madness”? Yet I could do what even a teacher of an Extraordinary Witch couldn’t do.
In short, this matter was a bit complicated; I’d better just let it be.
“Hey, Xiao Han, time to prepare!”
“Ah? Oh.”
Suddenly, Erica gave me a pat, and I realized what was going on.
I had been so absorbed in studying the Wind Blade Spell and rune structure that I had lost track of time. I glanced at my phone; a lot of time had passed, and I felt like I hadn’t done much at all.
Looking up at the arena, it was already bustling with people; every seat was filled, and the large arena had been divided into many fields again.
The light screens above were continuously showing the exciting live broadcast images from below, and some screens were displaying the matchups for the next round.
“Is the allocation complete?”
“Yeah, I saw you in a daze earlier; what were you doing?” Erica asked curiously. “If I didn’t see your eyes open, I’d think you were meditating. Do you meditate with your eyes open? Is that the way geniuses train?”
“How could that be! Just thinking about some things. By the way, which arena am I in and who am I fighting?” I asked curiously.
“I didn’t pay too much attention, just check it yourself; isn’t there something on the light screen? The next batch seems to be you; look, everyone else is already standing up to prepare.”
“Oh, thanks for the reminder.”
I quickly stood up and walked toward the preparation area. As I passed by, my eyes caught sight of the competition chart overhead.
I was at Arena No. 12, and my opponent was No. 223, named Chen Yu. From the image, she looked like a tall and lively girl; I was unsure of her combat ability.
But regardless, I could use her to test my Wind Blade Spell.
I naturally wouldn’t touch the runes whose function I didn’t know, but I could experiment with the runes in the ritual; worst case, I could damage a spellbook.
At this stage, I certainly had plenty of spellbooks, but I would still feel sorry if I really ruined one.
After all, even small spellbooks without rituals are quite expensive.
Selling one could sustain me for a long time without worrying about money.
“Hello~ I’m Chen Yu from Class 223. Um, please go easy on me when the time comes~”
Once onto the arena, Chen Yu greeted me first, her attitude very sincere.
Even though she knew my strength, she didn’t admit defeat directly but instead asked me to take it easy. Well, after all, if someone just concedes without a fight in this kind of competition, they might be looked down upon, right?
“Um, you too, good luck~”
I smiled and tried to keep my expression gentle, but after all, this was the arena, and when it was time to be serious, I wouldn’t hold back.
“Are both sides ready?” The referee asked us.
“Ready!”
“Okay.” I nodded along.
“Then, the match begins!”
After the referee announced, Chen Yu dashed toward me in one swift move.
I could clearly see her spellbook’s ritual lighting up; it should be her transformation spell.
Sure enough, facing a regular contestant changed my mindset; I didn’t feel too nervous and could even directly analyze the various situations on the other side.
And I could use this to respond, first simply casting an energy shield for myself, then initiating the Wind Blade Spell to create some disruption for her.
This is the advantage brought by casting speed. It looked like she was dodging somewhat clumsily; she probably didn’t have any alchemical items as support, and I could also see what kind of transformation spell she was using.
It should be a cat-type transformation.
Her current beast form was even more impressive than my cat-person transformation, and after transforming, flames surrounded her; it was similar to a flame cat. Her transformation had completely deviated from human aesthetics; she was just short of walking on all fours.
But this brought with it terrifying explosive power and fire control.
In an instant, she accelerated and charged directly in front of me.
I hadn’t deliberately created distance, so the first moment of contact was already close combat.
There were really a lot of people using transformation spells, and I didn’t know any martial arts; that was my final inward complaint.
Her paw had transformed into clawed pads and was heading straight for my face, but this hit clearly landed on the energy shield.
The sharp claws and flames left cracks on my energy shield, but all the flames were blocked.
However, she clearly didn’t just have that one attack; it was as if being blocked triggered a combo and shifted her attack direction.
But I clearly wouldn’t give her that opportunity. After stacking a few layers of shields, I found my chance.
“Here?”
My right hand extended the slender magic wand; a wind blade shot out from the end of the wand, the speed of the wind blade was even more terrifying than the fireball spell, especially released at such close range.
Unfortunately, the Wind Blade Spell doesn’t function like a bomb.
This hit directly struck her transformation spell ritual, but transformation spells mainly rely on being tough, so an ordinary Wind Blade Spell wouldn’t directly break her.
But at the moment of impact, the effects granted by the spell would make her lose part of her spell’s effect, just like having her energy severed, and without the power of her transformation spell, she was instead blown away by the Wind Blade.
And at such close range, the Wind Blade had no loss and was fully absorbed by her.
The damage wasn’t high, but she took the full force.
Falling back, Chen Yu’s posture was a bit awkward; her transformation spell was struggling to hold, and the beastly signs on her body were degrading.
But she knew very well that if her transformation spell was broken like this, she would surely suffer from mental backlash; then, there would be no chance for her to counterattack.
So even in this situation, she quickly flipped over to adjust her pose; at the very least, she couldn’t fall down in front of her opponent.
The effects of the transformation spell had her instinctively stabilize herself on all fours, but at this moment, she realized that her right hand’s beastly form had faded, turning back into her original hand.
However, her gaze soon met mine, but her heart was very complicated.
Is this the person who can stand toe-to-toe with that freak Tan Han? One hit had put her in such a humiliating situation, and the other side clearly held back!
She hadn’t even used that terrifying Fireball Spell, and now the opponent hadn’t finished her off.
Thinking about it, that Tan Han had a transformation spell, and she did too, but was broken by the opponent in one hit… this isn’t the explosive witch; this is the transformation spell’s nemesis!
No matter what Chen Yu thought at this moment, I was simply trying to test out the Wind Blade Spell; eliminating her quickly wasn’t helpful at all. If each battle didn’t teach me anything or gain something, then that battle would be a failure.
Did I learn anything now?
No, I didn’t even use my modified Wind Blade Spell.
“Attack! I don’t need you to go easy on me!”
“Wait, I’m experimenting.” I ignored her request for a quick defeat; sorry, but before gathering enough information, please don’t die just yet.
Let’s try this; if I change the runes for the part of energy conversion into the style of those used in the Fireball Spell, what will happen?
“Experimenting?” Chen Yu quickly adjusted her state; she had no idea what I was experimenting with. Initially, she thought she would be gloriously defeated and exit, but clearly, I wasn’t giving that chance.
So she couldn’t just wait to be eliminated.
That would be laughable.
Now, if I released the transformation spell, it could alleviate the damage from mental backlash, but the transformation spell would enter a cooldown period; after all, spellbooks need to rest too, and the internal energies still had a lot of residue. If the remnants of the last use weren’t dissociated completely, using spells again would have a high chance of failure. Failure meant falling victim to mental backlash.
But aside from the transformation spell, all she had were some fire spells; those spells were all means to complement her blaze cat transformation spell…
Shouldn’t she just admit defeat directly?
“It should… be okay like this…”
Clearly, after changing a few runes, this spellbook was complete. I had no idea what the final effect would be; would the Wind Blade Spell turn into a Fire Blade Spell?
After all, I modified the runes related to energy conversion, still referencing the runes of the Fireball Spell.
I hope it doesn’t explode; the wind element and fire element shouldn’t explode like the ice element, right?
Shouldn’t…
In short, the spellbook began to draw magical power for conversion.
Quickly, the Wind Blade appeared, but it didn’t seem to become the Fire Blade that I hoped to see.
The wind blade spiraled around in my hand, resembling a wind vortex resting on my hand.
But the more I observed, the more I felt something was wrong; this wind was a bit too heated.
The wind element seemed to suppress the fire element; while the fire element did exist, it wasn’t expressed outwardly as flames. However, the constantly rising temperature still told me that the fire element was indeed inside.
Doesn’t this mean this is a spell combining two types of elements?
I looked at the modified spellbook and quickly found the issue; this kind of modification resulted in excessive consumption, and the magical conversion rate was extremely low!
This meant that my momentary brainstorm wasn’t perfect enough; I needed to continue researching, but it also provided me with an entirely new direction to attempt.
Fortunately, the moving runes weren’t those underlying runes in the spellbook; otherwise, I’d genuinely be afraid of breaking the spellbook.
“My patience also has its limits! What do you mean by ignoring me like this!”
“Sorry, I forgot to handle you; let me try this.”
I watched as she charged at me again; at this point, her transformation spell had already been released, but it was evident that her spell was a melee spell paired with the transformation.
Little sister, don’t you learn any ranged spells?
I threw the wind vortex in my hand; the shooting wind blade transformed into a half-moon arc in that moment, and the extreme heat twisted the air as it passed through. The wind blade’s tail emitted transparent flames, mixed with high temperatures as it charged toward Chen Yu’s fiery cat claw. I didn’t know the name of that spell, but it looked like this should be correct.
“Another wind blade?”
The wind blade was incredibly fast, and Chen Yu had no way to dodge, especially since she hadn’t anticipated this sneak attack after her last charge.
She was taking advantage but lacked martial ethics!
However, for the wind blade… she felt it should be able to catch it; after all, the wind blade wouldn’t explode like the fireball spell. It was purely about incredible speed and the sharp slicing power of the wind system; she understood this common sense.
But when she raised her fiery claws to block the wind blade, the wind blade sliced more fiercely than she expected, nearly feeling an explosive sensation akin to fire.
A stream of searing wind carrying flames rushed toward her body.
This was definitely not her own spell’s flame!
The fiery claw spell was only for show to prevent burning the caster, and all the fire elements were condensed to enhance the slicing ability of the claw.
At this moment, she felt as if her clothes were about to catch fire, and her long hair was curling and deforming due to the high temperature.
“I… I’m on fire!”
At this time, the live commentary on Arena 12 also erupted in excitement; the commentators didn’t know how to narrate.
“The 223rd contestant in Arena 12 used a fire spell and got ignited by the wind-based spell from the 14th contestant, resulting in yet another memorable scene…”
“Very well, the 223rd contestant has chosen to concede; the referee quickly checked on the state of the 223rd contestant, and let’s congratulate the 14th contestant for achieving ultimate victory.”
