Chapter 162: Massive and Complex Rune Rituals
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 162: Massive and Complex Rune Rituals
"Are you guys... really that bored?" I asked, looking at the group huddled in the living room of the villa.
"We can't help it~ Classes are suspended during the Freshman Competition. Since there’s no school, we might as well watch the matches~" Hong Chenyi immediately made a path for me, welcoming me in with over-the-top enthusiasm. "We couldn't snag any tickets, so we had no choice but to cheer for you from the TV!"
"Anyway, congrats on advancing, Sister Xiao Han! Woo-hoo!"
"Congratulations, Xiao Han," Yu Yuetian added, standing up to offer her well-wishes.
"Everyone's here, I see." I did a quick scan. Including me, all five of us were present. "Don't you have your own things to do? I thought some of you would go wander around the Arena. There are a lot of good things there—they even sell spellbooks."
"Eh? They sell spellbooks? For real? I haven't even touched a spellbook yet. What are they like?"
"Well, naturally. Did you guys really not go join the fun? Dongli Yiren, what about you?" I flopped onto the sofa and looked at the two who hadn't spoken yet.
"Me?" Startled by the sudden mention, Dongli Yiren froze for a moment before speaking with a hint of guilt. "No. It’s packed with people. I wouldn't go somewhere that crowded."
"Fair enough. I saw someone today who looked a lot like you, wearing the exact same outfit. Quite the fashion clash," I said, watching her. Dongli Yiren had been wary of upperclassmen ever since that senior sister dropped her off.
It made sense that she wouldn't want to go join the crowd.
The TV was still playing highlights of the matches. The live broadcast had ended right after my fight.
Fortunately, the screen wasn't showing my battle, but rather the morning's elimination rounds. If I had to rewatch my own performance right now, I’d probably cringe hard enough to dig out a three-bedroom apartment with my toes.
The others, however, had lost interest in the TV. With someone like Hong Chenyi around, the conversation naturally shifted back to me.
None of them were Class Monitors, which meant their progress was essentially at zero. They were still in the theoretical stage and lacked the channels to acquire resources.
After talking for a bit, I realized they didn't even own a single spellbook. No wonder they got so excited at the mention of them being for sale.
But once the price came up... the mood turned sour. I could see the disappointment written all over their faces.
There was a reason they said even a hero could be humbled by the lack of a single penny.
Once I had satisfied their curiosity, I headed back to my bedroom. I couldn't keep wasting time; I had returned early specifically to study runes.
"If there's nothing else, I'm heading upstairs, okay?"
"Sure, Sister Xiao Han. You have your own work to do; we won't disturb you." Hong Chenyi could clearly tell what I was thinking. After years of playing the devoted follower, her ability to read the room was razor-sharp.
After a brief goodbye, I walked toward my room.
The group downstairs watched me leave, and a silence seemed to fall over them.
Finally, Yu Yuetian spoke.
"Xiao Han has completely left us in the dust."
"Xiao Yu, don't look at it like that. Sister Xiao Han is so far ahead of us, and what does that mean? It means we have an inside track! We can avoid so many detours in the future. The strong help the rest of us catch up, right, Yiren?"
"What does that have to do with me?"
"It has everything to do with you! Don't you want to ride her coattails? Sister Xiao Han is basically on par with Tan Han, the top student of this year! Do you realize how much that's worth?"
"I don't, and I don't care to. Tan Han is just a lucky girl stacked with resources. Don't you see? So-called transcendent power is essentially just two things: energy and the means to use it. In the end, it's all about resources."
"Tsk, Yiren, you're so cynical. What are you trying to say? You have to fight for resources too. If our Class Monitor weren't Sister Xiao Han, I’d be fighting for the spot myself. At this stage, only the Class Monitor has the right to be at the forefront. That level of resource tilting is truly enviable."
"And since I can't beat Sister Xiao Han right now, I’ll just have to wait for her to look out for me."
"Oh, right, Xiao Yu. Sister Xiao Han said joining a club gives you a chance to get Mana Sources and spellbooks. What if we joined one? Should we ask her which club she's in and see if we can tag along?"
"No need. I've already joined a club," Yu Yuetian said, shaking her head.
"Huh? What? You joined a club behind our backs? Which one? I want in too! How's the pay?" Hong Chenyi practically jumped up, looking as if she’d been betrayed.
"I'm afraid it won't work for you. If you want to join, you can, but the club I joined is the Holy Light Club. It's a gathering of believers who follow the Holy Light Angels. The requirement for entry is to become an Ascetic," Yu Yuetian explained.
"What? The Witch Academy allows a club like that to exist? Isn't that just helping the... well, you know what I mean."
"The Witch Academy is an inclusive place. At least, everything I've seen with my eyes and heard with my ears tells me so."
"Forget it then, forget it... Sigh... So, did you get any benefits? A spellbook or a Mana Source?" Hong Chenyi asked, still unwilling to give up.
"No. I didn't join for the benefits. I joined to walk alongside like-minded people so I wouldn't feel lonely."
"I'll never understand you Ascetics." Hong Chenyi looked at her with a speechless expression. "Right, Sister Xiao Han said they sell spellbooks at the Arena. Should we pool our money and go check it out? Yiren, won't you come? Oh, wait, didn't you go out this morning? Didn't you see them for sale?"
"I wasn't paying attention to that."
"Hehe, we'll help you keep it a secret from Sister Xiao Han that you went out, but shouldn't you show some appreciation? What were you doing this morning anyway?"
"Nothing! None of your business! I'm going to my room too." Pushed to her limit, Dongli Yiren stood up and prepared to retreat.
"Eh? I was just joking, don't go~ Eh? Fine, fine... Then... Qiuling~ do you have any money?"
"I don't have money, but I already have a spellbook. I don't need to go for now, thank you," Guan Qiuling, who had been acting like a ghost the whole time, spoke up weakly.
"What! You have a spellbook and didn't say a word! Quick, let me see! What does it do!"
"No."
"Be a good girl, Qiuling~ let me see~"
"Don't do this..." Faced with Hong Chenyi's relentless pestering, even Guan Qiuling reached her breaking point and took action.
"Eh?"
Hong Chenyi stared at the glow of energy rising from Guan Qiuling's hand, stunned. But very quickly, she learned exactly what the spell did.
A rope suddenly manifested around Hong Chenyi's limbs, binding her with incredible speed. Before she could react, she tumbled onto the sofa.
"Eh? What is this!"
"This... this is the spell you wanted to see. It can only be cast on people, so... please stay quiet here for a while." Though Guan Qiuling's voice was weak, her words were cold.
"Eh? Wait! Untie me!" Hong Chenyi cried out as she saw Guan Qiuling leaving as well.
"Um... Xiao Yu, Yu Yuetian, can you help me out?" Seeing that Guan Qiuling wasn't coming back, she turned to Yu Yuetian for help.
"I'm sorry. This is a spell effect. Control spells aren't that easy to break. I'm afraid I'm powerless to help."
Yu Yuetian glanced at Hong Chenyi but made no move to assist.
"Yu Yuetian! You're an Ascetic! How can you just watch someone suffer!"
"You're not exactly dying, are you? Good luck. If you struggle, you should be able to wear down the spell's duration."
Before leaving, Yu Yuetian thoughtfully turned off the TV. Since no one was watching, there was no point in wasting energy.
In the end, Hong Chenyi was left there, hung out to dry.
* * *
Back in my room, I opened the book Teacher Ji Niang had given me.
After a quick flip through the pages, I had the strange illusion that I was back in primary school learning the alphabet.
The only difference was that every one of these runes represented a different meaning.
And there were three hundred of them in this book! And those were just the "common" ones.
The preface stated that there was no upper limit to the number of runes; new ones were being discovered constantly. Theoretically, the field was infinite.
If one had to define a rune, a rune was a "ritual." Every single rune was a ritual in itself!
I had learned about rituals before—Chant Rituals, Formation Rituals, and so on. Those were common elements in spellbooks.
But what kind of ritual was a rune?
It was a "Rune Ritual," classified as an entire series of rituals on its own!
One could only imagine how terrifyingly complex this system was, especially since it was so structured.
Many rituals, like Formation Rituals, were actually composite rituals made up of Rune Rituals.
Furthermore, Rune Rituals permeated almost every other category. Even Chant Rituals had traces of them; some Chant Rituals assigned pronunciations to runes, combining them through speech to meet the criteria of a ritual.
In fact, many runes were originally stripped away from these various other rituals.
This alone showed the importance of Rune Rituals.
However, memorizing all these runes was a monumental task. There seemed to be no discernible pattern between them, and their functions varied wildly.
And that didn't even touch upon the effects of combining runes. The book explicitly stated that runes could be combined, but it didn't mention what those combined effects were.
I had a feeling that Runology was going to be a bottomless pit...
My time today was limited, so I couldn't read everything. But I didn't have to start from scratch, either.
I recognized several familiar runes in the book—ones I had seen in the Fireball Spell and Energy Shield spellbooks.
While I didn't know if this would help me understand the spellbooks better, starting with what was familiar was never a bad idea.
I also thought about the rune for the Illusion Clone. I hadn't seen that rune among the 300 common ones, which meant it was either rare or... it was a composite rune, a collective entity made of multiple runes.
At that moment, I only needed to take one look to understand the situation with that spell's rune.
"Finished looking? This rune is a composite rune. You didn't even need to look; you should have known just by thinking about it, right?"
A teasing voice came from beside me. Needless to say, I had fallen under the effect of my own Illusion Clone again. This spell was great, except for the fact that I often tricked myself, and the clone had quite the personality.
"Since you're so free, why don't you come over and help me understand these runes?" I asked, looking toward the clone.
"What's the point of me understanding them? You still won't get it. I'll just give you my full mental support~"
"Then just die!"
I didn't waste any more words. I dispersed the clone, interrupted the spell, and exited the illusion.
The clone was right about one thing: she was just voicing my inner thoughts. That rune was indeed a composite; I had even spotted some familiar runes within it.
But I didn't understand what it meant.
It didn't matter. I would probably figure it out by following the book. This kind of thing could only be accumulated slowly.
If only there were a spell to help me memorize things faster!
This was a transcendent world, after all. There had to be some ability to boost memory, right?
A speed-reading spell, photographic memory, or even a Wisdom Potion—I wouldn't be picky.
After a while, I was driven nearly insane by those three hundred runes. I really wanted to find a place to vent and blast some things with Fireball Spells!
I had considered trying to memorize them through practical application, like using them in a spellbook.
But reality wasn't that simple. I had no problem modifying the internal structure of a spellbook—I was bold enough for that—but touching the runes themselves... that required careful consideration.
Messing with runes was like editing code. Although I didn't know much about programming, I knew that changing one thing could cause errors or bugs elsewhere, or even a total system crash.
I didn't want to break my own spellbooks in the dorm.
Better to... master the theoretical foundation before getting hands-on. Unless I had a surplus of spellbooks to burn through for experiments, but I clearly didn't have that kind of wealth.
Once I had exhausted my brain cells and my patience, I decided it was time for a shower and bed.
I’d deal with this headache tomorrow.
Speaking of which, I had two more matches tomorrow. I didn't know who I’d be up against.
Since I could cast spells to my heart's content in the arena, my mind started racing. I had quite a few spellbooks now, enough to play around with. Why not pick a "lucky" spell and try modifying its Rune Ritual tomorrow?
I wouldn't feel bad about it anyway. Those low-consumption spells essentially conflicted with my Fireball Spell; they were just Evocation spells with a different skin.
Take the Wind Blade Spell, for example. Couldn't I just condense my Fireball Spell into the shape of a wind blade and fire it off?
Of course I could.
If anyone else heard this thought, they’d probably scream at me for being wasteful. I guess it was just a matter of perspective.
I looked through my spellbooks, searching for the lucky candidate. Finally, I settled on the Wind Blade Spell.
"I choose you! Wind Blade!"
Sacrifice yourself for my rune research. Become the cornerstone for my next great leap forward!
Selection complete. Now, time for some peaceful sleep~