Hallucinatory Eye

Ace watched the light, and in a moment of distraction, he entered the illusion once more. He immediately traced a Mana Rune and easily broke free of the illusion.

This time, he was even more cautious. He turned the eyeball so that its pupil faced away from his home and placed it on the desk. He released his spiritual power, but did not touch the eyeball. Instead, he used his spiritual power's perception of the surrounding area to sense the eyeball.

He divided his spiritual power into several tentacles, closed his eyes, and carefully sensed the blood-red eyeball. Gradually, within the black-and-white world of his perception, the eyeball's surface peeled away, revealing an extraordinarily complex, three-dimensional rune structure floating silently within its pupil.

Ace gently turned the blood-red eyeball around, withdrew his spiritual power, and opened his eyes to stare at the pupil. There were only a few simple rune structures inside; the complex three-dimensional rune structure was nowhere to be seen.

He tried once more, splitting his spiritual power into several tentacles to sense the blood-red eyeball's pupil. The complex three-dimensional rune structure appeared again.

After several attempts, Ace recorded the Blood-Eye Experiment in his magic diary.

"Once spiritual power activates this eyeball, it is absorbed. After being processed by the complex three-dimensional rune structure within the pupil, it releases a special spell that drags people into an illusion. Based on its nature, this eyeball shall be named the Hallucinatory Eye.

"The amount of spiritual power absorbed affects the number of internal runes activated by the three-dimensional rune structure, as well as its duration and the strength of the illusion created. Since the illusion carries a certain degree of danger, there is no need to activate it at full power. Avoid playing myself to death.

"The three-dimensional rune structure can only be observed through spiritual perception and cannot be seen with the naked eye. This is a form of rune existence different from that of the Low-level Demonic Beast, the Corrosive Jackal.

"It is conjectured that this eyeball came from a more powerful Demonic Beast, very likely an intermediate Demonic Beast with strength equivalent to a hero.

"This kind of existence that can only be observed through spiritual perception may be connected to the soul.

"Since gods and souls truly exist in this world, spiritual power may be an extended manifestation of the soul. Higher-level rune structures may exist in a form similar to the soul. Note: this is merely a hypothesis, pending verification.

"Based on the results of spiritual perception, the three-dimensional rune structure should be composed of multiple planar rune structures. The level of these planar rune structures may be similar to a spell model such as Acid Splash.

"One may first analyze the planar rune structures that make up the three-dimensional rune, isolate the individual runes, and test the meaning represented by each rune.

"It can be inferred that rune-based spell models contain at least two types: planar models and three-dimensional models—or, in other words, two-dimensional and three-dimensional models."

After finishing his experimental records, Ace put away the blood-red eyeball. Exhausted, he soon fell asleep.

Over the next two days, Ace threw himself entirely into researching the components of the three-dimensional runes. Of course, to everyone else, he simply looked like he had been frightened and did not want to leave the house for several days.

Today, however, he had no choice but to go out. The city-state's Inspectors had arrived. Maren had galloped nonstop toward the city-state that very day, only to arrive a step too late—the city gates had already been shut.

He could only spend the night outside the city and wait until dawn to report the matter. The Grand Inspector took the suspected barbarian shaman very seriously and immediately sent people to investigate.

The Inspector wore white robes with a purple sash, and his prominent hooked nose was unmistakable. He was the young noble captain from the previous royal palace banquet.

"I am Dickens Rona, the current intermediate Inspector of the city-state." The young noble extended his hand and shook Ace's solemnly.

"Greetings, honored descendant of the Frost God. I saw you at the royal palace banquet; your bravery was admirable. You are most welcome at my manor. Please come inside and rest for a while."

"I know you as well—Ace, author of Logic. As far as I know, you are not yet a citizen. First explain why this manor has slaves."

"Lord Dickens, this group of slaves was purchased by my teacher, Peter. I signed an agreement with him to lease these slaves for three years, and I pay him Gold Talers equal to five percent of the total price."

"That explanation does comply with city-state law. Then take me to the place where the shaman was last seen."

"You have traveled a long way. Why not rest at my residence for a while first?"

"No. Lead the way."

He seemed to be the decisive sort, Ace thought. "Then this way, please."

The group arrived at the place where everyone had fallen unconscious that day. Dickens carefully searched the area once, but found nothing useful. He returned to the manor, questioned the slaves familiar with Gaul, and took away Gaul's woman.

"This woman spent day and night with Gaul. I must take her away for a thorough investigation. Here are two Gold Talers. Consider it payment for buying this slave from you. Please give the money to your teacher."

Ace caught the two Gold Talers Dickens tossed to him and watched the barbarian woman being led away. She was crying in terror. With the pity of a crocodile in his gaze, Ace turned and returned to the residence, whispering, "I'm sorry. I'm not a good person."

As far as Ace's Manor was concerned, the matter of the barbarian shaman had basically come to an end.

Ace had also successfully protected his secret. He had discovered the path for mortals to reach the extraordinary. He was the first person in the world to systematically study magic—a self-defined spellcaster.

As those with vested interests, the divine descendants would likely show him no mercy. He could only harden his heart. Perhaps he would have to tread upon heaps of bones and blood before he could ascend the throne of the extraordinary.

Ace continued analyzing the rune structure within the Hallucinatory Eye. He set New Medicine aside entirely, already completely immersed in the world of runes.

In a week's time, he had replicated seven runes in the Rune Tome. After repeated experiments, he discovered that only the runes within the Hallucinatory Eye's rune structures visible to the naked eye could be replicated into the Rune Tome.

The deeper rune structures, invisible to the naked eye, could only be traced with spiritual power. They could not be replicated into the Rune Tome using ink made from fresh blood.

Ace named these invisible runes Soul Runes. The Hallucinatory Eye must possess some condition that allowed Soul Runes to exist, though he had yet to discover it.

Ace casually recorded his experimental data and thoughts in his magic diary.

He used spiritual power to trace a Soul Rune in the air. After several failures, he finally succeeded. The instant it was completed, the rune absorbed nearly all of his spiritual power. It flickered in the air for several seconds before dispersing.

Ace had no choice but to stop and meditate. Once he had recovered his spiritual power, he tried combining a Mana Rune visible to the naked eye with this Soul Rune, only to find that they could not be combined.

The Soul Rune was like a proud Noble Lady, nimbly avoiding the Mana Rune. They could not form a spell model, and thus he could not activate it to test the meaning expressed by the Soul Rune.

It seemed Soul Runes could not directly combine with lower-level runes. They should be combined with Mana Runes of the same level.

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