Quiet Cultivation, Living Steel
Ronan tried it out, and in this environment, combined with the "Speerbit's Myriad Treasure Orb," he comprehended several spells of the Extraordinary Magic Domain. His Master Level proficiency increased at a rate that was about three to five times faster than normal.
Once the Master Level proficiency reaches 500 points, further improvement becomes increasingly difficult. Ronan has also mastered many spell domains, making the average improvement even slower when applied to each spell.
Efficiency can be increased three to five times, saving a lot of time.
"The power of spells cast here is greater than that cast outside, and the speed of training [Ascetic Body Forging] can also be increased significantly."
Ronan's ability to survive the battle against the remnants of the "Ancient Frost Hydra Hecalto" was entirely due to his powerful will, which far surpassed that of other wizards of his level.
If it were an ordinary person, they probably wouldn't have lasted long enough to ask Bennigo for help before being consumed by the erosion.
This willpower was forged by Ronan through countless painful trials and tribulations, surpassing even steel and iron. However, it is far from enough to contend with the overlord's consciousness from ancient times. [Ascetic Body Forging] remains the top priority for Ronan's future training.
After the battle at the Goblin Plain Ancient Wizard Revival Society, Ronan felt that his efficiency in increasing his mental power through meditation seemed to have improved a little.
This improvement is so small that it's almost imperceptible without careful observation, but it is indeed an improvement.
"It must have been the constant clashes of spells and the collision of magical domains that removed some of the impurities from my soul."
Ronan speculated.
As it turns out, the path of the Ancient Battle Method Wizard is indeed effective. Wizards with ordinary aptitude like him should actively seek competition and temper themselves in constant battles in order to have a chance to reach the same level as or even surpass other wizard geniuses.
Stepping out of the ice-themed heritage space, I returned to my cozy and tranquil little room.
A delicious aroma of food wafted into Ronan's nostrils. He looked up and saw that there was a plate of food on the long table in the center of the room.
—A few pies, half a golden roast goose, and a bowl of thick soup made with cabbage leaves, mushrooms, and chopped onions, with other sauces added, and a faint aroma of egg yolk.
Someone came to the room when he entered the Inheritance Imprint Space? Ronan's eyes flickered. Next to the food, he saw a black writing board about the size of two palms, with delicate handwriting that read, "If you have any needs in life, write them on the board, and someone will take care of them."
"It seems they really don't plan to let me out anytime soon."
Ronan sat down at the long table, calmly picked up the silver cutlery on the table, and tasted each piece of food one by one. Then, he silently wrote down his evaluation of the food and the recipe he expected for the next meal on the black writing board.
He slowly tore at the crispy, juicy roasted goose leg, his gaze sweeping across the surrounding bookshelves. A blue-covered book, about half a finger thick, automatically detached from the shelf and flew to him, its pages turning with a "whoosh" as it opened.
This book, which has no cover, contains only a spell rune and nothing else.
Ronan flipped through the books one by one and discovered that most of the books on the shelves were talisman books.
This surprised him, making him wonder if this was the place where the core knowledge of the Arcane Circle was passed down.
Runes are the condensation of a wizard's talent and the crystallization of his wisdom. Any rune that survives is a treasure. If Ronan wants to make a name for himself on the path of wizardry in the future, he will inevitably have to take the step of creating his own runes.
This step requires a sufficient amount of knowledge about runes.
How many runes has he come into contact with and collected along his cultivation journey? Quite a few.
Is that many? Actually, not many. It's still far from meeting the minimum standard for creating your own runes.
The [Mirrorlight] seal is merely a stripping away of the core runes from the "Myriad Treasure Orb" and the second-tier Mirror Magical Item; it is far from being "self-created."
Of course, it's really too far-fetched for a mere level two wizard to be thinking about creating his own runes and establishing a new school of magic.
To put it simply, Ronan currently possesses several high-level rare runes: the core rune of the Myriad Treasure Orb, the core rune of the Dawn Artifact Space Stasis Scepter, the core runes of the Mirror Dagger and Silver Comb artifacts, and the [Icy Soul] rune. Ronan has never stopped researching these runes, but progress has always been very slow, ultimately because his knowledge of runes is too limited.
To use an imperfect analogy, it's like an elementary school student finding a university textbook. Even if you study the textbook every day for several years, you might not figure out anything of value.
Ronan had seen and studied too few runes, and his limited knowledge of general runes accumulated as Rune Inscriptionist was simply insufficient to analyze high-level rare runes.
The runic knowledge displayed on the bookshelves in this room is a rare opportunity for him to fill in the gaps in his foundation.
"Even if the Inheritance Imprint Space isn't open to me, being able to freely browse these runes is still an extremely rare opportunity."
Ronan's eyes gleamed with a strange light as he slowly flipped through the rune books on the bookshelf while eating.
The Arcane Circle advantages. The pursuit of "versatility" has led to the storage of a large number of runes of various elemental types within the Arcane Circle, as well as corresponding general spells.
Ronan doesn't necessarily need to learn everything from scratch; he simply reads and understands, and his knowledge of magic is rapidly increasing.
Kosti once said that after Third Level Wizard, he would officially begin to learn the core heritage of the Arcane Circle. At that time, he would need to weigh and consider several schools of magic and which schools of magic he would study. Knowing these things now is a kind of foresight, allowing him to make preliminary plans for his future magic system.
As Ronan was watching, he suddenly heard the sound of wings flapping overhead.
He looked up and saw a loud voice rapidly descending from the darkness.
"Hey, Damien."
A brightly Colorful Conch Parrot circled gracefully, swiftly landing on the long table. It then winked at him and asked, "Are you settling in well here?"
Porby.
Ronan was slightly surprised by the arrival of the illusion parrot Porby.
Why are you here?
I came to see you.
Porby preened the feathers on his wings with his huge, spiral-shaped beak and replied to Ronan with a playful rolled "r," "I'll bring you something too."
As he spoke, Porby raised his paw, and a Space Ring on his paw flashed. Immediately, more than a dozen bottles and jars appeared on the table between him and Ronan.
Porby spat out a small Rune Stone and pushed it in front of Ronan. "These are all potions that can help level two wizards improve their mental power, and there are a few for Third Level Wizard... Here are the instructions for using them. Use these first, and I'll get you new ones when you run out."
Ronan's eyes flickered, and he reached out and grabbed a semi-transparent white crystal bottle from the table in front of him. Dozens of strange black worms could be seen writhing inside.
These worms are covered with strange patterns that, upon closer inspection, resemble human faces with expressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.
"Meditation Worm larvae. So many?"
The Meditation Worm is a very rare Magic Potion Material. Even a Meditation Worm the size of a fingernail possesses intelligence comparable to that of a normal human. This magical worm is very beneficial for wizards to enhance their mental power. Ronan once read about the Meditation Worm in a Magic Potion Studies book and even used his Sixth Ring privileges to collect such resources, but to no avail.
I never expected that Porby would bring him so much all at once.
"Did Lord Ring send you?"
Ronan looked up at Porby, Porby smiled and said, "Of course, who else but Kosti would care about you so much?"
Porby pounced over to Ronan, glanced at the plate in front of him, and then scribbled a bunch of strange dish names on the black writing board next to him with its paw.
"You absolutely must try these dishes in the meditation room, Damien!"
"These are all delicacies you absolutely cannot get outside. Hmm, if they haven't changed chefs in the last two hundred years, you shouldn't regret it."
Okay, Damien, see you next time, have a good day!
Porby let out a long whistle, then waved to Ronan, flapped his wings and flew upwards, disappearing into the darkness overhead in the blink of an eye.
Is that the exit?
Ronan narrowed his eyes slightly Porby had left.
He quickly and calmly checked everything that Porby left behind. Finally, he picked up the bottle containing the Meditation Worm, carefully poured out a black worm, hesitated for a moment, and then slowly put it into his mouth.
After chewing, Ronan seemed to hear a woman's sharp cry, and then his mouth was filled with an extreme feeling of disgust and greasiness.
As described in the book, the taste of eating the Meditation Worm directly is terrible; it is best to eat it with nectar.
But this is also the most effective way to use it.
As Ronan chewed, he could feel the Meditation Worm exerting its magical effects, and the second Spiritual Power Crystal in his mind was growing rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Click—"
When this feeling of rapid growth came to an abrupt end, Ronan opened his Character Panel and saw that his progress as a level 2 wizard under the [Strength] section had increased from 40% to 42%.
Just one Meditation Worm increased his mental power progress by a full 2%, and he still had at least twenty more! "No wonder it's an extremely precious Magic Potion Material even for Third Level Wizard. These twenty-odd Meditation Worm larvae are probably Kosti's private collection."
Ronan felt a slight stirring in his heart.
Before entering this "ascetic chamber," Kosti repeatedly expressed his pessimism about Costi's chances of advancing to Third Level Wizard in three years and qualifying for the Southern Wizard Genius Gathering to compete for the "Helamus Genius Seat."
As a result, he immediately received a large sum of valuable resources from Porby to help him reach level three.
This woman is as hypocritical as ever.
Ronan sighed a few times, put away the materials on the table, took out his own tea set, brewed himself a cup of black tea, and continued to browse the rune books on the surrounding bookshelves.
He felt he was starting to like life here.
He didn't need to worry about anything; food and resources were delivered on time. All he had to do was cultivate and acquire knowledge step by step.
For most wizards who crave stability, this place is simply paradise.
After drinking two cups of black tea, Ronan put down the rune book in his hand, got up, and went to the small gray door that represented the space of the Metal Element Inheritance Imprint Space. He pushed the door open and went inside.
In the ascetic chamber where there is no distinction between day and night, time slips away silently like transparent sand through unseen fingers.
At first, Ronan tried to keep track of time every day using an hourglass and a pocket watch, but he forgot to check on some days and eventually stopped paying attention to it altogether.
His life consisted of only a few things—
Ronan enjoyed the tranquility of meditation, practicing spells in the Inheritance Imprint Space, cultivating his body, and then studying runes.
In fact, he hadn't experienced such a peaceful and fulfilling life in a long time.
This kind of daily routine accompanied him for a long time during his apprenticeship. However, after he was promoted to First Level Wizard, he was constantly on the go and rarely had a time to truly settle down.
"Clap—"
Under a sky thick with leaden clouds, Ronan stood atop a massive, dark red rock, his right hand outstretched.
Clumps of black metal shot out from between his fingers, landing on the ground and running around as if they were alive. Some even grew wings and soared like birds.
These living, metallic substances instantly spread around Ronan, and in a split second, Ronan flipped his hand.
All the moving metal immediately converged in one place, transforming into a strange humanoid figure over five meters tall with three heads and six arms.
This strange humanoid had no facial features; its three heads had only two black, hole-like eyes. Ronan raised his head and silently met its gaze.
A faint consciousness was transmitted, and soon, the strange humanoid began to run swiftly along the vast metallic land. As it ran, the shape of its body constantly changed, and many weapon-shaped spikes grew from its body. The spikes shot out and exploded violently on the ground, creating one large crater after another. Ronan stared at the moving humanoid, a slight glint in his eyes.
In an instant, the running figure suddenly froze, as if instantly solidified, and the entire person rapidly transformed into a brilliant silver from top to bottom.
[Silver Transformation] The seal is activated.
The strange humanoid figure, now silvery, seemed to possess an aura of mystery and profundity. It continued to walk, but this time its form mysteriously vanished from the spot and then abruptly reappeared dozens of meters away.
After doing this several times, Ronan raised his hand. "Bang!"
The entire strange humanoid figure exploded with a bang, transforming into a stream of silver metal that flew swiftly toward Ronan's palm.
"Incredible"
Ronan watched as the silver metal flowed between his fingers like mercury, its intense energy fluctuations belonging to the Metal Element yet mixed with traces of the mysterious aura of the spatial element. He couldn't help but murmur to himself.
[Animated Metal - Living Steel (Master 60/1600)]! After Ronan used this Tier 1 Metal Element spell, [Animated Metal] for so long, he finally pushed it to the Master Level of proficiency.
The resulting Extraordinary Magic Domain has a unique effect: it can further "deeply activate" detached metal, even achieving an effect similar to Metal Puppet —lacking self-awareness but capable of executing some simple combat commands issued by Ronan, and also able to perform reconnaissance and detection tasks like a living being.
Overall, the effects of the [Living Steel] Extraordinary Magic Domain are not particularly outstanding, but it greatly enriches Ronan's combat methods. The effects after possession are also quite good, giving a wonderful feeling of wearing living armor.
But what truly surprised Ronan was the optimization and modification of the [Silverization] rune by the spatial energy seed in his mind.
After being nourished by spatial energy, the [Silver Transformation] rune underwent some miraculous transformations. When he activated [Silver Transformation], the Metal Element spells he cast sometimes exhibited a magical effect that was somewhat similar to spatial spells.
"This is not a simple seed of spatial energy; it should also contain some inherited knowledge of the Ancient Mirror Garden's spatial magic. However, I lack the corresponding means to actively receive and interpret it."
Ronan examined the spatial energy seed in his mind and once again felt its extraordinary nature. Clearly, the gift left to him by the Dawn Rank Silver Staff artifact was far beyond his imagination.
If he were truly a legitimate Mirror Garden wizard, he might have already comprehended some remarkable spatial magic from this seed.
Unfortunately, he wasn't, so the gift was transferred to his few Soul Rune in the most superficial and crude form.
Whether it's the transformation of [Mirrorlight] into [Multiple Mirror Lights], or the wondrous changes that have appeared in the [Silverization] rune, they may only be a tiny, insignificant scratch to the true value of this gift.
Ronan felt regretful, but there was nothing he could do to change anything. He could only watch helplessly as a huge treasure slipped away before his eyes, second by second.
"I still have the core rune of the Dawn Rank artifact, the Silver Staff. Let's see if we can uncover the true value of this spatial energy seed by combining this rune with the core rune."
Even if we don't inherit any Space Magic, making the [Mirrorlight] and [Silver Transformation] runes as powerful as possible can at least mitigate the damage to some extent.
As Ronan's mastery of ice magic deepens, Metal Element magic becomes increasingly useless to him. However, if he can combine it with the mysteries of spatial magic, it might be transformed into a new trump card in Ronan's hands.
Ronan thought to himself as he slowly withdrew from the space containing the Metal Element Inheritance Imprint Space.
However, as soon as he stepped out of the small gray door, he was surprised to find that there was another person in his meditation room, which had always been empty except for him.
With a handsome and dazzling face, short golden hair like flowing gold threads, and deep, tranquil silver-white eyes like a lake, he sat quietly at the long table, flipping through a book of runes in his hands, exuding the powerful spiritual energy of Third Level Wizard.
The moment Ronan appeared, he happened to be looking at him.
Orian.
Four-Colored Metal Orian.
Ronan's expression shifted slightly, and he froze, standing silently in front of the small gray door, staring at Orian.
After a moment, his gaze returned to calm, and he walked naturally to the long table, finally pulling out a chair and sitting down in the seat directly opposite Orian.
As Kosti said, many people in the Arcane Circle have high hopes for Orian.
Currently, this meditation room contains eight Inheritance Imprint Space, and the right to use them has always belonged to Orian alone.
Ronan was a latecomer, an "intruder".
However, Orian did not seem to show any dissatisfaction or hostility about his "territory being invaded." He was quite friendly to Ronan and even nodded and greeted Ronan.
"Long time no see, Ronan Damien."
Orian tapped the table lightly, and several winged, transparent figures, like wisps of smoke, quickly emerged from the seemingly smooth, seamless peach wood table.
They scurried up Orian's fingers, looking at him with fawning and affectionate expressions.
Orian gently tossed the little figures with his fingers, then calmly asked Ronan, "Would you like something to drink?"