Rune Arts

Rune Arts

Ivette's fleeting glimpse had clearly not been an illusion. Over the following years, not only had she grown more girlish in appearance, but her height had also risen from under one and a half meters to around one and sixty-five meters—a full ten-odd centimeters.

With her perfectly proportioned figure, flawless white skin, gorgeous silver hair, and magnificent face, anyone who saw her would have to sigh, "What an unparalleled beauty."

However, that trend did not continue.

Four years later—her eleventh year after transmigrating—her development stopped. Over the next twenty or thirty years, even though her lifestyle did not change in the slightest, she retained the appearance of a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old girl, showing no signs of aging at all.

She could not understand why this was happening. It made her feel like a biological machine implanted with a corresponding program: whatever functions it had, whatever limit it reached, everything had been clearly written into the code, beyond her control.

Could someone have performed Rune Compilation on her at the genetic level?

Had both her survival ability, so similar to that of the Magic Light Vine, and her beauty that "froze" at a certain age been preset?

Was it some concealed technology Black Tower Pharmaceuticals had yet to reveal?

Thinking of this, along with the sealed metal door beneath Level Negative Ten that led to an even more central area, she could not help making some connections.

If she could open that door someday, perhaps every question would be answered.

Lead-gray clouds blanketed the sky. Sparse raindrops drifted down beneath the thick cloud cover, rippling the lake within the volcanic crater.

It was the fifty-third year since her transmigration. Ivette, whose Mana Points had already surpassed eighty, sat at a desk in the study on Level Negative One, dipping her pen in Magic Light Vine sap as she lowered her head to write notes. Dried vines burned in a fire in the corner of the room. It was cold and damp outside, but warm within.

"Ice Rune Arts C-9, provisional name: 'Frost Bullet.' I feel like I've reached my limit. There doesn't seem to be any room left to improve the runes..."

"Fire Rune Arts B-5, provisional name: 'Flame Dance.' Experiments prove that more logic symbols and operators can still be added for continued iteration..."

"Wind Rune Arts A-7, provisional name: 'Wind Walk.' The experience is terrible. My footing feels as unsteady as hopping around on the moon. It still needs optimization."

This was her personal cultivation notebook, recording the rune arrangements she had derived through her own understanding of magic.

In truth, she could only use these three spells proficiently.

It was not that she could not obtain the magical spell formulas left behind by the Origin Civilization. Rather, without exception, all of those spells required a Magic Guide Terminal to assist in casting them. Otherwise, she could not even memorize the tens of thousands of runes involved, much less use them.

After giving it much thought, she could only draw inspiration and ideas from those rune sets, imitating them to create magic she currently needed.

That was how she ended up with Frost Bullet, Flame Dance, and Wind Walk—three spell formulas that were half copied and half original.

I think I can try my hand against the Fish Monsters in the lake now.

As she made that judgment, her gaze swept over a pile of things in the Level Negative One hall that looked rather like surfboards.

They were Magic Guide equipment called Flying Boards. As the name implied, they were miniature vehicles that allowed people to float through the air at heights of around twenty meters.

At the moment, all of those Flying Boards were out of energy. Her magical "pressure" was not enough to charge them, and she did not know whether they were broken, but they still gave her a glimmer of hope that she might escape her cage.

She then left the tunnel and arrived at the Water Platform. As the cool wind and rain greeted her, Ivette noticed a massive black shadow slowly gliding beneath the distant lake surface.

This aberration is a little smaller. I'll go with this one...

As the thought crossed her mind, Ivette raised her right hand and formed a finger-gun gesture, aiming her index finger beneath the water and lightly pulling the thumb "trigger."

The next second, along with the loss of two points of mana, a translucent streak of light shot from her fingertip, plunged into the water dozens of meters away, and exploded into a gorgeous bloom of ice!

—Frost Bullet, a spell formula she had iterated upon for more than a decade, was simple yet powerful. With only two points of mana, it could deliver three to four times the single-target damage of the similar spell Ice Spike Technique. Its mana-to-damage ratio was utterly crushing!

Of course, as introductory magical knowledge from the Origin Civilization, Ice Spike Technique was not a particularly practical spell. It was mainly simple and easy to remember, with only twenty runes in total. Frost Bullet, on the other hand, had more than three hundred runes. Other than Ivette, no normal person could be bothered to memorize them; they would only copy and paste them into a Magic Guide Terminal.

However, for a spellcaster with limited resources, casting magic did not require reciting the entire rune set in their head.

As long as they met two conditions—"completely memorizing the rune sequence" and "practicing in vast amounts until cross-memory formed between the body, spirit body, and memory body"—they could turn it into a special kind of "feeling."

Then, by linking their thoughts to that feeling, they could cast the spell instantly, as though it were an instinct engraved into their genes.

Compared to the monster that had terrified her out of her wits when she first arrived fifty-three years ago, this aberration was much smaller, only two meters long.

After Ivette enraged it, it immediately approached. Before it had even climbed ashore, its head impatiently split into four petals, exposing the chrysanthemum-like mouthpart in its center. It was obvious that it could hardly wait for this hunt.

Ivette retreated as she curled and released her thumb, feeding more Frost Bullets into the creature's malformed mouthpart.

Her aim was a little off, though. Most of the Frost Bullets failed to hit the center of the target and struck strange places instead.

Aim practice needs to go on the schedule too... she silently noted.

Very soon, amid its roars, the savage Fish Monster rushed onto the metal platform in mere seconds. It wriggled toward Ivette like a deranged seal.

Seeing this, Ivette cast Wind Walk on herself. With a light step backward, she instantly opened a distance of more than ten meters.

Then she immediately used her third spell formula: Flame Dance.

In an instant, a magic circle bearing classical patterns appeared on the ground around twenty meters in front of her. Scorching flames surged from it in the form of a tornado, sweeping up the Fish Monster as it crawled directly overhead!

The Fish Monster's agonized shrieks filled the air, followed closely by the smell of burning flesh. Although the towering fire tornado did not kill it outright, the burning effect still inflicted tremendous damage.

Seeing this, Ivette did not press her advantage. Instead, she retreated directly through the door at the tunnel entrance and skillfully locked it behind her.

—More than twenty Frost Bullets, two points of mana each. Add the twenty points for one Flame Dance and six for one Wind Walk, and her mana bar of over eighty had already fallen below one quarter, crossing the danger threshold.

Meanwhile, many bizarre aquatic aberrations across the surrounding lake had been drawn in by the battle and the scent of flesh, accelerating toward her. From every angle, there was no need for her to keep fighting.

She had already received the practical feedback that mattered and gained her first combat experience. She would have plenty of time to hunt in the future, so there was no need to rush now.