Russell understood for the first time what talent truly meant.
That Archmage, who was probably Johnston, tried his best to hide his surprise, but every time he corrected Russell's mistaken impression of a Rune, a hint of it still showed through.
Russell's mistakes were not actually serious.
Runes were inherently rather individualistic things. In the eyes of most Mages, as long as one could smoothly form a Rune chain within the Mental Sea, it was considered standard enough.
After all, only standard Runes could resonate with other Runes.
But the Archmage before him simply could not understand why Russell's Runes were always slightly slanted.
Yes, not even warped.
Just a tiny bit crooked.
Russell himself had not noticed at all, but after only two glances, the Archmage had frowned. Then he directly took out a Rune chart and a sheet of transparent paper... and told Russell to keep tracing over it.
Only one Rune appeared at a time. It would disappear and be replaced by the next only after Russell could write the Rune on the paper without referring to the one beneath it and still meet the requirement.
Russell had initially thought this would be easy, but reality told him that crooked was crooked. Not being able to see it did not mean it was not crooked.
Although none of his previous education had demanded such precision in Runes, Russell knew very well that he had never encountered a true Archmage before... When someone else had reached a certain height while he had clearly not, it could never hurt to respect authority.
Knowledge was endless. Only what one learned truly belonged to oneself. As for freedom, innovation... could someone who had not even laid a proper foundation hope to build a Mage Tower?
After painstakingly enduring another three days,