Runes

"Ah, so this is a Wizard Magical Item."

Ronan stared endlessly at a short sword that spat flames, unable to tear his eyes away from the dazzling firelight flowing across its blade.

This was the legendary equipment exclusive to wizards—Spell Items, or magical items for short.

Different types of magical items enhanced wizards to varying degrees. Some could easily double a wizard's combat power. A wizard with magical items and a wizard fighting bare-handed were practically two different things.

But every magical item was exceedingly precious, far beyond what Ronan could afford at this stage.

If the plan goes smoothly...

Ronan silently made up his mind. I have to buy one when the time comes.

Reluctantly leaving the stall that sold magical items, Ronan continued wandering through the market.

Ronan had his own method for browsing.

Whenever he saw someone bargaining at a stall, he would quietly walk over and stand nearby to listen. Once he had roughly figured out what was being priced and how much it was worth, he would silently move on.

After spending half the day browsing like this, his knowledge had truly risen by several levels.

He was already showing faint signs of transforming from a complete novice in the Wizard World into half a novice.

"Hm?!"

As he wandered, Ronan's gaze suddenly stopped at a stall.

There were few people in front of it. Most wizards merely glanced at it before walking away.

The stall owner was a black-haired middle-aged man in his forties. He showed no interest in attracting customers and mostly lounged lazily in his chair.

The stall mainly sold stones the size of pigeon eggs. Different patterned designs were engraved on each one, and they occasionally flashed with light, carrying a trace of mystery.

Ronan's eyes flickered. Without revealing anything, he walked over, casually picked up a patterned stone from the stall, and asked the owner, "How much is this?"

The owner gave Ronan a sidelong glance and lazily named a price.

Ronan put the stone down, picked up another one, and asked again.

After several rounds of this, the stall owner finally began to look impatient.

"Are you buying or not?"

"I'm buying."

Ronan awkwardly set down the stone in his hand, then changed the subject. "Give me some Universal Powder first."

"Two magic stone fragments per bag. Take however many you want yourself."

The owner grumpily pointed to the side, where fist-sized cloth bags were piled one upon another.

Ronan walked over, picked up a bag and opened it to inspect the contents. After confirming it was correct, he put down four magic stone fragments and took two bags for himself.

After putting them away, he asked the owner, "Do you have blank Rune Stones?"

The owner straightened his half-reclining body a little and looked at Ronan with an amused half-smile. "Yes. Five Magic Stone Grains each. If you buy a lot, I can give you a small discount."

Ronan silently calculated the remaining balance in his purse. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Three each. I want twenty-two."

"Are you crazy?!"

The owner rolled his eyes and said irritably, "You're haggling this hard over a deal worth less than one magic stone? Five each. Buy them or don't."

Ronan tested the waters with two more offers, but the other man showed no sign of budging. In the end, he even turned his face away, too lazy to spare Ronan another glance.

Ronan wanted to look elsewhere, but after remembering that this was the only stall he had encountered selling Rune Stones openly, he gave up on the idea.

"Then give me thirteen."

Ronan sighed softly, nearly emptying his wallet.

Only after taking Ronan's magic stone fragments did the owner's attitude improve slightly. He stood up, went behind the stall, and took out a bag. As he handed it to Ronan, he spoke with a teasing expression. "Kid, are you trying to learn rune engraving and become a Rune Master?"

Ronan grunted. There was no point hiding it. Only rune engraving required Universal Powder and blank Rune Stones.

The stall owner before him was clearly a real Rune Master, so naturally he knew this better than anyone.

"Teaching yourself?"

"Teaching myself."

"Just started?"

"Just started."

The owner looked at the things in Ronan's hands, his expression strange yet faintly intrigued. "You don't seriously think you can teach yourself to become a Rune Master with this little material, do you?"

"Is that impossible?"

Ronan blinked.

"Ha."

The owner laughed, directly grabbing a wizard at the neighboring stall and pointing at Ronan as he said, "Ma Fuli, listen to what this kid is saying! He told me he's planning to become a Rune Master with thirteen blank Rune Stones!"

The stall owner's tone was exaggerated and theatrical, while the wizard he had dragged over looked coldly at Ronan as if he were an idiot.

Ronan felt his pride wounded. Just as he was about to strike back, the stall owner suddenly burst into laughter and slapped two blank Rune Stones into his arms with a smack.

"Kid, I'll give you two more to round it off.

"Go back and practice properly. If you make it, come find me, and I'll give you another bag... no, ten bags of blank Rune Stones!"

"Really?!"

Ronan froze for a moment and instinctively asked for confirmation.

But the stall owner said nothing more, only watching him and laughing loudly without end.

"What the hell are you laughing at? Haven't you heard, don't bully the poor youth?!"

At the town gate, Ronan emerged carrying large and small bags, his expression indignant.

But when he thought about how getting laughed at twice had earned him two extra blank Rune Stones—ten magic stone fragments for free—his mood did not seem quite so bad after all.

Boing—

Ronan tossed the only magic stone fragment he had left into the air like a coin, caught it, looked at it twice, then dropped it into his empty purse.

Seed of wealth.

I hope you'll keep growing from now on...

Ronan sighed as he tucked his money pouch away.

He had originally planned to hunt for a Knight Cultivation Method from the mundane world at the market, but after looking around, he discovered that such things did not seem cheap either, so he could only abandon the idea.

His return journey was much slower than when he came, mainly because he was carrying too many things.

As the sun dipped toward the western hills, Ronan finally returned to his treehouse.

After checking the "markers" he had left behind and confirming that no one had broken in while he was away, Ronan carried his things inside.

After hurriedly dealing with dinner, he caught several dozen fireflies and made a new lamp pouch.

Inside the quiet little treehouse, firefly light flowed like water. Ronan sat before his small oak table and carefully read the wizard inheritance book introducing rune studies.

Runes were an extremely important part of the wizard power system.

Runes had been created in ancient times, first invented by a legendary wizard whose knowledge was as vast as the sea and whose talent was peerless.

The emergence of runes greatly solved the problems of wizards' lengthy casting times and complicated, cumbersome spell preparations. They lowered the threshold for casting countless spells and directly brought about the incomparably glorious era of Wizard Magical Items!

"Every rune is the crystallization of countless measures of wisdom and painstaking effort from the wizard who created it."

"With every sunrise and sunset, in some corner of the world, at least one rune is created, and at least one rune is silently forgotten and buried."

"The rank of a rune determines the rank of the enchanted magical item. A rare high-rank rune can lay the foundation for the inheritance of an entire school. It is a supreme opportunity that countless wizards would go mad and fight over."

Ronan skimmed past the long opening sections about the origins of rune studies. At around one-third of the way through the book, he finally found the key point he wanted to see.