Chapter 1080 – Rune Study

Although Barlett was old, his character was very straightforward. His stature was tall and strong. If he didn’t have his Mage Robe, then people might think that he was a Warrior.

The other Mages agreed with Barlett’s proposal. When they were in the lower realms, they were figures at the top of countless people. And ever since they ascended, they were very depressed. Now that the negative feeling has been eliminated, its time for them to go out and explore the other luxuries of the academy.

Zhao Hai smiled and said, “Good, I also want to go outside and take a look. But I think there’s no need for everybody to take your gold coins out since I have a lot more than you. How about I treat you all ?”

When the old Mages heard Zhao Hai, they couldn’t help but stare. Dins turned to Zhao Hai and said, “Little Hai, it looks like you aren’t bluffing. Just how much gold coins did you bring? Don’t you use bank cards or something like that?”

These old Mages were naturally rich people back in the lower realm. But they use bank cards, causing them to only bring a small amount of gold coins. Most of their wealth were in bank cards or things that were similar.

Zhao Hai smiled and said, “Of course we also have banks. But I’m used to carrying a lot of gold coins with me. Naturally, this also includes silver and copper coins. I’m not only a Mage, I’m also a Merchant.”

Upon hearing Zhao Hai, the Old Mages laughed. Then Dins said, “I didn’t expect this youngster to be rich and powerful. Good, good. Then today is your treat. When the time comes, you better not ask us to contribute for the bill.”

Zhao Hai laughed as well as he said, “Rest assured, I’ll take care of it. I’ll go to the classroom first. After class, we’ll share a meal together.”

Dins and the others nodded. Then the group stood up and proceeded to their own classrooms. Since it was Zhao Hai’s first day, he would be going to a special room where an instructor would personally meet him.

Zhao Hai had Tinkle guide him to his classroom. There was no need to take care of their eating utensils, the cafeteria’s robots would deal with them.

Unlike its title, Zhao Hai’s classroom wasn’t anything special. It only had an electronic sign saying Room 2. But Zhao Hai didn’t care. In any case, with Tinkle with him, he would not worry about which classroom to go every day.

Upon entering Room 2, Zhao Hai saw that the inside was very spacious. Too spacious in fact that there wasn’t anything inside, even furniture.

Zhao Hai gawked. He saw the other classrooms yesterday, and all of them had furniture inside.

At this time, Tinkle suddenly said, “One set of furniture!” Just as his voice fell, a set of furniture emerged from the floor.

Zhao Hai stared, he didn’t expect it to be like this. He smiled faintly and said, “Alright, that’s convenient.” Then he proceeded to sit on the chair.

Not long after Zhao Hai took a seat, footsteps were heard from outside. Before long, the classroom’s door opened as a female Mage entered.

The female Mage looked young and had blonde hair. Although she looked old-fashioned, her black Mage robe was unable to hide her slender body.

Zhao Hai stared at the woman. He didn’t expect the teacher to be a beautiful woman, moreover she was a Dark Mage!

Zhao Hai hastily stood up. The beautiful woman sized Zhao Hai up before saying, “You are Zhao Hai?”

Zhao Hai bowed his head and said, “I am, are you my instructor?”

The female Mage nodded and said, “My name is Margaret, a Dark Mage. I will be your instructor for the rest of the year. You can look for me at any time.”

Zhao Hai stared, then he said, “Instructor Margaret, didn’t they say that the instructor would only be available for one month?”

Margaret looked at Zhao Hai and said, “No, I’m your instructor for the entire year. However, I will only teach you personally the first month. After that, robots will take over. But I’m still your instructor. If you have any difficulties, you can ask me directly.”

Zhao Hai nodded, “So that’s how it is. I’m sorry for troubling you.”

Margaret shook her head and said, “There’s no need to be polite. What I’m going to teach you aren’t things like the differences between the lower realm and the machine field. Those things can be found by asking the robots or using the computer. You can learn those at your leisure, so there’s no need to waste time on it. What I’ll be teaching you is the magic of the machine field. Our magic isn’t the same as the lower realms. Although the magic of the lower realms is formidable, they still fall short compared to the magic we use here. In the machine field, our magic is built upon the research of our seniors. After years of study, our magic formations, summoning magic, alchemy, and other disciplines have been fused together in order to form a new system of magic. If you want to survive here, then you need to learn our magic.”

Zhao Hai nodded, “Alright.” Zhao Hai thought that he would be guided about how to live life in the machine field. Who would’ve thought that he would be instructed in magic?

What Zhao Hai didn’t know was the fact that Margaret wasn’t a common instructor. Moreover, Dins and the others didn’t have an instructor as special as her. It was only because Zhao Hai had potential that the academy specifically assigned a good instructor to train him.

In fact, in the academy, most instructors work part-time. There were only a few instructors present here due to the academy having very few students.

Margaret was one of these part-time instructors. However, she wasn’t just any other part-timer. She was from the Ashley Clan, sent by the Bone Symbol Camp in order to examine Zhao Hai ahead of time. And in addition, she was also here in order to tell people that the Bone Symbol Camp already had Zhao Hai in their sights. If anyone wanted to get in touch with Zhao Hai, then they would have to go through the camp.

Dins and the others didn’t have the same treatment. Their teachers were common part-timers. After teaching them for one month, these instructors would leave and would no longer manage them. And if other powers contact them, the Bone Symbol Camp wouldn’t get in the way.

The Bone Symbol Camp controlling an ascension point didn’t mean that they would recruit every ascender. This just meant that the Bone Symbol Camp had priority in choosing the ascenders they want. After they get their pick, the others would be free to choose their own.

Naturally, their pick could also be poached. If the other party was influential, then they could rob the ascender. After poaching a candidate, these people would then have their picking rights revoked.

Margaret looked at Zhao Hai, then she nodded and continued, “Lower realm magic generally involves incantations and hand gestures in order to cast the spell. If they want to make their spells more powerful, then Mages might use wands or staffs to do so. But this type of magic is limited. This is because they largely depend on the user’s spiritual force. How much spiritual qi can you use by only replying on your spiritual force? Only a small amount. Because of this, the might of the spells is small. This situation might be great in the lower realms since the energy present there is small.”

“However, this wouldn’t do well in the Machine Field. The density of spiritual qi here is at least a hundred times more than the lower realms. If you use the same method here, then that would be like using a small bowl in order to take water from a river. You’re wasting time as well as your source of water.”

“Because of this, seniors from the Machine Field studied through the years in order to invent the present magic system of the Machine Field, Magic Theory. It’s a system that unites magic and magic formations. Its might is very formidable.’

Margaret looked at Zhao Hai and saw that his expression was quite pensive. She couldn’t help but stare for a moment. Most people would be confused upon hearing such a theory. However, Zhao Hai seems to understand. This gave Margaret a surprise.

Margaret said, “Can you understand what I just said?”

Zhao Hai nodded and said, “I can understand some of it. Back in the Atlanta Plane, learning magic is basically cultivating spiritual force. Then we would use incantations and gestures in order to concentrate our spiritual force and communicate with the world’s energy. Then we use this energy in order to cast our spells. However, I’ve always thought that this method isn’t very convenient. A person’s mental strength is limited while there is a lot of energy available for use. Using your own spiritual force to come in contact with this vast amount of energy is very inefficient. I thought that maybe we can use magic formations in order to strengthen our spiritual force so that we can control more energy. It’s just that I haven’t grasped how to do it yet.”

Margaret’s eyes shone as he heard Zhao Hai. Then she said, “Correct, very good. The method you are thinking about is very hard to grasp. Because of this, our seniors studied for several hundred years. Their research slowly lead us to the creation of Magic Theory. It uses magic formations and spiritual force in order to communicate with spiritual qi, allowing our spells to gain more power.”

Zhao Hai gave a nod. Then Margaret added, “In order to study Magic Theory, you need to first learn about magic formations. Zhao Hai, have you studied magic formations before?”

Zhao Ha nodded, “I’ve dabbled in it. However, I didn’t give it priority. Because of that, I’m only able to learn simple formations.”

Margaret nodded, “After many years of development, the Machine Field already formed sets of theories regarding magic formations. It might look difficult at first, but it’s actually very simple. If you want to learn magic formations, then you would need to learn its basic framework as well as the runes. As long as you become familiar with these two, you can learn magic formations in a short time.”

Zhao Hai gawked for a moment before his eyes shone as he said, “Instructor, so you mean that you already broke down magic formations into frameworks and runes? Do you know what each rune signify?”

Margaret nodded, “Right. After years of study, the Machine Field managed to slowly break down every rune that can be used. In fact, the uses of these runes are fixed. The only thing that differentiates them are in where they are used. Putting it in an analogy, if a rune is a stroke, then magic formations are characters composed of these strokes. Although the strokes are fixed, using them in different characters meant that they had different meanings. This is the core of magic formation study.”

Zhao Hai’s eyes remained sparkling. He wasn’t able to think about this point. Magic formations play a huge role inside the Space.

Margaret looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Making magic formations using runes is only a fundamental skill in our magic system. Later on, you would need to make sets of magic formations in order to form a huge formation net. This net will produce more powerful results than individual magic formations. If magic formations are characters, then formation nets are words. As for what these words mean, then it would depend on the characters used to make them.”

Zhao Hai kept nodding. Looking at Zhao Hai’s reaction, Margaret couldn’t help but give a gentle nod. Then she knocked on the wall opposite Zhao Hai. The wall quickly turned into a screen. The screen was all white with nothing else on it.

Margaret’s hand swiped at the wall, making a row of runes appeared. Zhao Hai wasn’t ignorant about these symbols. This was because he saw them in magic formations. They were the most common symbols he had seen.

Margaret turned back to Zhao Hai and said, “One of the most difficult parts of magic formation study are runes. Currently, there have been as many as a hundred thousand symbols found. Moreover, as studies go further, more and more symbols would emerge. It would be impossible for a single person to remember more than 100 thousand runes. Because of this, most Mages would specialize on which department they would study runes in.”

Zhao Hai interjected, “Runes are also divided into different departments?”

Margaret nodded, then she said, “Correct. They are divided into nine types, metal, wood, water, fire, earth, light, dark, wind, and space. These nine departments comprised runes in our current system.”

Zhao Hai stared, he didn’t expect runes to be divided into nine departments. Moreover, the first departments refer to the five elements. Are runes somewhat related to the five elements?[1]

As he thought about this, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but frown as he said, “Instructor, is there metal element magic here? Why does the metal element have runes?”