Chapter 173: Spell Scrolls

Chapter 173: Spell Scrolls

It was early in the morning and Gerald was hard at work. He finally had some time to himself and could focus on making a few potions for himself.

He had quite a bit of the God's Blood left, and with the Demon Mushrooms he gathered during the Minecrawler-slaying expedition, he could finish making the Mana Elixirs he so deeply desired.

There was also another thing he wanted to try out. It was the Bone-Reforming Medicine.

It was a special kind of potion that was used in ancient times to heal and strengthen the skeleton of warriors.

The ingredients were quite obscure, but Gerald luckily managed to find them after comparing the records and characteristics with modern-day plants.

It came as no surprise that they weren't widely known or gathered since they had many irritating poisonous properties. The worst of them all came from the Bone-Biting Grass, which made you feel like your bones were being gnawed at by ants for an entire week. It was painful and itchy.

"Sigh It seems this effect is the main way of the potion doing its work. Fuck me, no wonder this potion is considered to be only used by masochists! These High Elves were some twisted people, that's for sure!"

After finishing the Mana Elixirs, he started working on the Bone-Reforming Medicine. Needless to say that he failed a few times at first since he was a little bit negligent. He wasted a few hours because of it.

"It's done! But I should not use it just yet" This medicine was not made for a normal human body. In the book, it clearly stated that it should be used only after advancing the first stage of body-refinement.

It specifically mentioned to only use it after 'Attaining the body of Silver'.

Gerald had no clue when that might happen, but his guess was that it probably meant after reaching Silver Rank. Those that reached it definitely weren't normal humans anymore.

He tossed another Essence Core in his mouth and sat down to absorb it. He felt himself slowly growing stronger day by day and even his body started showing signs of growth.

His muscles became denser and bigger and his appetite almost doubled. The flesh of the Minecrawler Queen was the best food he could get his hands on and normal meat couldn't satisfy him anymore.

He wasn't sure, but he thought his sight and hearing also improved a tiny bit, although it could already be considered top-notch.

"Ah This is some good stuff!" He stood up and cracked his joints. He was itching to do some running or fighting to stretch his muscles.

Just as he exited his room, the butler Sebas came to him. "Young Master, a messenger came from the Auction House They have requested a meeting with you!"

Gerald quietly sighed, "Fine, fine I'll go see what they want. It's probably something concerning my potions..."

After arriving at the Auction House, a servant led him to Arthur's office. There were three people who were waiting for him: Arthur, Emily, and alchemist Ashbrew.

But who could compete with a human printer? Gerald didn't even have to lift his hand to make the most perfect runes possible appear on the paper.

He tested it out with normal ink a few times just to get the hang of it, before trying to do the real thing.

He took a vial of beast blood and a Core belonging to the same species. He ground it down with a pestle and mortar, before mixing it together.

Steam rose from this biological ink when the two substances combined. Gerald took the viscous liquid and placed it in a beautiful and expensive crystal vial.

He got a stack of the best quality paper he could get his hands on and got ready to start.

He first made a copy of a few spells like the examples in the book. It was a Stone Spike spell, one of the most basic and easy to cast spells.

It was the first thing every mage had to learn in school, if he had the Earth Element, of course.

It was quite simple, really. He connected different structures, and shape runes together, and fuse them and the energy-gathering runes in the paper. Mana was in every drop of ink, but it had to be controlled and guided to work properly.

A few runes were added to stabilize the spell, and lastly, a trigger was added.

The user could then active it simply by breaking the trigger. It could be either done by infusing a tiny bit of Mana into it, or by simply tearing that rune apart. It was located in a corner so the spell would still active if that happened.

'Seems simple enough' Gerald mused.

But it was not simple at all! It might look like it because he simply followed the instructions, but creating a spell that worked on paper was much harder than simply making it on your own.

After a spell scroll was made, you had no control over the flow of Mana inside it. If there was a rune missing, damaged, incorrectly drawn It could all make the spell collapse.

The effects could vary. From the most simple puff of smoke after the paper burned, to a violent explosion capable of tearing your hands apart. It all depended on the strength of the spell scroll in question.

That's why the spell scroll masters were respected and revered. They had years, even decades of expertise in making safe and reliable spell scrolls.

But even they couldn't just create a new spell on a whim. They had to slowly, by trial and error, shape the proper form and function of the spell.

Personal discoveries and advancements were often hidden and obscured from the outside world, even going as far as to mask the spell scroll in unnecessary writing, runes, and colors, all in an attempt to make the spell scroll as difficult to copy as possible.

Only the bare basics, like the book Gerald received, could be sold in public. And even those were locked behind a certain layer of influence.