Runology

In Eversong Woods, trees stood proud and tall, their golden leaves swaying in the wind. Wondrous mana wyrms-Arcane creatures-floated on the breeze, some appearing and disappearing among the golden leaves. Arcane particles permeated the air. The Arcane energy radiating from the Sunwell could be absorbed at will, but that feeling of fullness could intoxicate an Arcanist and make them lose themselves.

After the Sunwell was corrupted, the Blood Elves faced dwindling energy supplies and nearly reached the brink of extinction. Unless the elves found another source of magical energy, they had to suppress their craving with other energies, such as the Holy Light corrupted by Arcane energy, struggle to restrain their hunger for magic, or simply become Wretched.

The library, Cabrolon family Mage Tower

Patrick enjoyed the conveniences his family provided. Every day, after finishing his duties, he would go to the library in his father's Mage Tower to study on his own. Advancing as a mage was not a matter of spending all day thinking about how to use magic, nor was it like completing quests and killing monsters to level up in a game. A mage's advancement required reading magical texts and conducting magical experiments, and those experiments demanded considerable quantities of both magical materials and magical knowledge.

"Identity scan. Patrick Kabolon. Identity confirmed. Entry permitted," said the Arcane Guardian at the entrance to the Mage Tower.

Patrick walked into the reading room. A desk stood in the center, furnished with magical paper for transcribing Arcane magic and runes. The magically controlled lighting was neither too bright nor too dim. A Thermal Regulation Spell and a Noise Reduction Spell had also been cast on the reading room to ensure a suitable environment for a mage to study.

"Retrieve Intermediate Runology and The Relationship Between Magical Script and the Flow of Arcane Energy from section B-12 of the Arcane collection," Patrick ordered the Arcane arm.

Knowledge was power. Knowledge could enrich people's thinking and make them smarter. By acquiring knowledge and thinking it through, we could solve many problems we had previously known nothing about. In such cases, knowledge was a form of power.

Ort Runes, general-purpose Runes

Sol Runes, general-purpose Runes

Patrick found an ordinary piece of equipment, a plain helmet with no special properties. Mana surged in his hands, and magical patterns appeared on the equipment. Patrick carefully maintained the mana engraving beam, but while carving the third Arcane circuit, he made a slight error, and the circuit strayed from its proper course.

This was a very good experiment. Runes composed of mana circuits and mana pathways could enhance equipment; the issue was that he had not yet fully mastered them.

Patrick thought, It was perfectly normal for my first attempt to fail. A few more practice attempts should do it.

After a month of hard work, Patrick finally completed his first creation, the "Engraved: Knowledge Novice Mage's Hat." It used the Ort and Sol runes, smoothly combining them through 21 Arcane nodes and 252 mana circuits to enhance intellect and spell effects.

The Ort Runes and Sol Runes themselves were not particularly difficult. Patrick was very grateful for the geometry and trigonometry he had studied since childhood. Drawing the magical lines and patterns was not as difficult as he had imagined. The difficulty lay in controlling the engraving beam with Spiritual Power. It required extremely precise control over mana, as well as constant adjustments to its size and thickness. With Patrick's current mana reserves, exhausting all his mana would only let him produce a single rune.

A mage's mana reserves were a direct measure of their level, a direct reflection of a spellcaster's mana output.

It seemed he needed to intensify his Spiritual Power training.

The Spiritual Power model began attempting to simulate his own movements, holding up The Relationship Between Magical Script and the Flow of Arcane Energy and mimicking the act of turning pages by hand. Threads of Spiritual Power guided a magical pen to begin transcribing onto paper. Mana flowed out like a gentle stream, while his Spiritual Power peeled away strand by strand. Patrick felt increasingly tired. Mental fatigue differed from physical fatigue; he simply felt that he needed to rest, to sleep.

The mana within him continued flowing out, and as it dwindled,

His craving to absorb magic grew stronger and stronger. Patrick did not dare absorb the Sunwell's energy at will. The lesson of the Blood Elves in the years to come was too devastating, and the Wretched wandering the ruins of Silvermoon City remained vivid in his mind. Patrick did not dare casually experience the pleasure of being filled with Arcane energy. Time seemed to have passed rather quickly. It was already somewhat late when he left the reading room. At this time yesterday, the family had already begun having dinner together in the dining room, discussing the day's accomplishments and their plans for the next day.

They tasted a dazzling array of dishes: charcoal-grilled meat bites with rosemary sauce, hazelnut caramel cake, traditional thick beef soup with rye bread, and Arathi silverhead salmon with vegetable salad. The family enjoyed one another's company amid cheerful talk and laughter. If not for the Scourge invasion to come, the elves' lives would presumably have remained this prosperous and comfortable.

"Sorry, everyone! I'm a little late." Patrick's expression was somewhat stiff. Dinner was a family gathering. After a busy day, they would meet in the dining room in the evening to discuss what they had accomplished. This was the first time Patrick had been late in all these years.

"Take your seat," said Phil Cabrolon. "Patterson told me you've been studying Spiritual Power and Runes lately. Are you planning to ascend to the halls of High Arcane?" His father's voice was somewhat deep.

In all these years, the Cabrolon family had never produced a master. They had remained a middling clan, unable to enter the Silvermoon Council's inner circle of power. They were merely responsible for military equipment, logistics, and supplies, and had never truly entered Quel'Thalas's high society.

"Over the past month, I combined the Ort and Sol runes and successfully engraved a Rune of Knowledge onto an apprentice's hat," Patrick said, rubbing his cheek. "It was only an experiment. The Arcane circuitry and energy flow are still highly unstable."

Phil Cabrolon nodded without saying anything more. One of the most important parameters in the study of Arcane constructs was stability. Only when their safety was assured was there any point in researching and using them. After all, no one wanted to carry a time bomb that might explode at any moment.

As for beginning his study of magic, Patrick had been researching this wondrous supernatural power all along. Having come from a world where everything was grounded in science to such a magical world, his understanding of magic remained limited to the small portion he had encountered.

When classified by source, magic could broadly be divided into two categories: "Divine magic" and "Arcane magic." The professions representing divine magic were Druids, Shamans, Priests, and Paladins. Those representing Arcane magic were mages, Warlocks, and Death Knights.

Arcane magic was the foundation of Quel'Thalas and the lifeblood of the High Elf kingdom. Whether it was Runes, magical dynamics, Arcane research, magical engraving, enchanting, mage training, or any of the many other disciplines, none could do without Arcane magic, the most fundamental of foundations. Everything, without exception, was converted from Arcane energy.