Two-Ring Wizard

"Two rings... hard, hard, hard..."

Inside the meditation chamber, Robert Kava wore a grave expression as he slowly unfurled a scroll of parchment.

He dipped a vintage quill into red ink and began drawing a rune pattern upon the parchment.

Before long, a basic zero-ring Mental Rune leapt onto the page, then a second, a third...

The runes continuously shifted. Ten zero-ring Mental Power Runes linked together to form a one-ring Mental Power Rune.

"Rustle..."

Robert Kava did not have time to rest even for a moment.

He spread open a second parchment scroll and drew a second one-ring rune.

In the end, the ten parchment sheets bearing runes rolled into the air and combusted without wind.

The ashes scattered like black snow. The red-ink rune lines fell to the ground and pieced together into a two-ring Mental Power Rune, complex and cumbersome to the extreme.

"That's right. It's genuine. This is the Giant Spirit Meditation Method's Two-Ring Mental Power Source Rune."

Robert Kava was beside himself with joy. At last, he had completed the final link of the meditation method.

Ten one-ring Mental Power Runes connected end to end without any joining seams. Only when their positions and orientations were accurate down to the finest fraction could they form a continuous energy circuit and merge into a two-ring Mental Power Source Rune.

Runes were divided into two kinds: Source Runes and Derivative Runes.

As long as a spell rune contained multiple basic runes whose energy circuits were incompatible, a new energy circuit could only be constructed to link them together. Runes with two or more energy circuits were called Derivative Runes.

Conversely, runes with only one energy circuit were called Source Runes, True Runes.

Mental Power Runes and True Name Runes were the most unusual. Though clearly pieced together from countless basic runes, they required only a single energy circuit to connect them.

"This is a two-ring Source Rune. The design of its energy circuit is exquisitely profound. Every Mental Power Rune undergoes varying degrees of deformation to merge together, yet it miraculously does not affect the rune's function."

"The Nameless Inscription Rune could actually open such a wondrous place? A complete meditation method capable of breaking through to two rings was simply laid out in the open, there for the taking?"

Robert Kava swallowed.

His many years of life experience had taught him that there was no such thing as a free lunch.

The more benefits one received for free in the early stages, the greater the price one would have to pay later. Anyone willing to cast such heavy bait into the water was absolutely looking to hook a big fish.

But he could no longer concern himself with so much. He had jumped into the pit anyway! If he did not break through and become a Two-Ring Wizard now, his lifespan would reach its end!

"..."

The next day, Robert Kava walked out of the meditation chamber.

The entire underground city felt the mental pressure belonging to a Two-Ring Wizard.

Like mountains, like towering peaks—majestic and weighty. The image of a mountain floating in midair, borne aloft by clouds, was imprinted upon everyone's minds and could not be dispelled.

With a thump.

Countless mortal craftsmen in the underground city dropped to their knees, worshipping in Robert Kava's direction.

After a brief period of confusion, their eyes turned incomparably devout. Mental contamination would cause the image of Colossus Peak to appear in their dreams for months to come.

"A Two-Ring Wizard! Chairman Robert has broken through!"

"Though scholars do not make their living through strength, having a Two-Ring Wizard in residence is ultimately a good thing." Inside the scholars' Ember Building, several of Robert Kava's students wore delighted smiles.

"The Flame-Burners Association has gained another Two-Ring Wizard. Breaking through before his lifespan ran out is cause for celebration!" On the highest floor of the Flameburner Building, an old man gathered light to ignite a candle. Though he spoke words of congratulations, his face remained calm, neither joyous nor sorrowful.

"The knowledge accumulated in a scholar's mind over hundreds of years is itself an invaluable treasure. You finally broke through to become a Two-Ring Wizard. The Primordial Inscription I gifted you was not wasted." A gray-robed wizard smiled meaningfully in Robert Kava's direction.

The one-ring and two-ring wizards of the Flame-Burners Association all went to offer congratulations.

No Wizard Apprentice dared join in the excitement.

Robert Kava had only just broken through to two rings and could not restrain his aura. The closer one got, the stronger the contamination they would suffer.

Warlocks emitted biological radiation, which caused bodily mutations and aberrations. Wizards, on the other hand, twisted the mind. Contaminated Wizard Apprentices would be unable to enter a meditative state.

"..."

"He broke through! Robert Kava was serious?"

The mental pressure of a Two-Ring Wizard swept over him like a tide. Yin Ming, who was watering and fertilizing his plants, trembled, spilling fertilizer mixed with Magic Beast blood.

A Crimsonblood Vine's countless blood-colored roots wriggled and plunged into the fertilizer, crazily drawing in nutrients.

The vine swelled at a speed visible to the naked eye, then rapidly yellowed and withered. Seven or eight vine leaves drifted down, leaving behind only a section of shriveled vine, yellow as a wilted eggplant.

"You dared fight over undiluted potent stuff? You found your own road to death."

Robert Kava's breakthrough to two rings had pushed Yin Ming's curiosity about the inscription runes beyond all restraint.

Expressionless, he pulled out the dead Crimsonblood Vine, diluted fertilizer in different proportions for the other Crimsonblood Vines, and returned to the meditation chamber without recording the magical plants' growth data.

"In the month before going into seclusion, Robert Kava used up two Wizard Apprentices and one living one-ring extraordinary Magic Beast. He was clearly researching the inscription runes."

"He suddenly broke through to become a Two-Ring Wizard. If anyone said it had nothing to do with the inscription runes, even a fool wouldn't believe it."

To analyze an unknown rune, one first needed abundant knowledge: find runes with the same spell structure, then reasonably analyze the unknown rune based on the functions of those runes.

Second, use active Magic Beast blood to draw the rune. Mental power and magic power only needed to activate the rune, which was equivalent to adding another layer of insurance.

Then came the most important point: let other wizards step on the landmine first, then decide whether to continue the experiment based on the survival rate.

"Robert Kava has already done every experiment he should have done! And he personally took the field as well, so its safety is guaranteed to some extent."

Yin Ming took out an Element Crystal and held it in his hand to restore his magic power, while his mental power began tracing the inscription rune.

With every stroke, it felt as though he were walking through mercury, as laborious as drawing a Mental Power Rune.

The eighteen spell-structure runes required seven or eight points of mental power and magic power merely to construct their spell-structure energy circuits.

"Crack... Failed!"

His mental power drained rapidly, and his consciousness went hazy for an instant.

The half-drawn rune shattered in an instant. Aside from the necessary mental power expenditure, his mental power limit also fell by 0.1 points. Mental power not permanently fixed by Mental Power Runes still had room to decline.

His former cultivation as a Corpse-Liberation Immortal had given him extremely precise control over mental power, making rune-drawing as easy as turning his hand. This was the first time he had failed to draw a rune.

"Again. No matter how complicated it is, it's still only an apprentice-level rune."

Yin Ming was slightly taken aback. He took out the gourd and sent his brain into a high-frequency state.

His mental power instantly spread like ink staining raw Xuan paper, successfully tracing the Nameless Inscription Rune.

As magic power flowed into it, the Nameless Inscription Rune suddenly vanished into thin air, and then... nothing happened.

"Damn..."

Suddenly.

Yin Ming discovered that the vanished rune had appeared between his brows, emitting a faint azure glow.

As the rune took effect, his consciousness sank into chaos.

Thanks to reader 161-followed-by-a-string-of-numbers for the 100 Qidian Coins donation!!!