Soul Secret Treasury

Within the mysterious extradimensional space, Ace once again felt as though he was everywhere and could do anything. He quietly immersed himself in the sensation.

Gradually, Ace sensed that this extradimensional space lay deep within his soul, a projection of the mind. Carefully, he poured part of his spiritual power into it, and the space absorbed it with ease.

He felt no discomfort. Instead, warmth spread through him, and he could not help increasing the amount he invested. Once he had poured most of his spiritual power into the extradimensional space, he felt a distinct change.

The extradimensional space deep within his soul no longer remained hidden and began to reveal itself. It rested at the very center of his brain, existing and yet not existing.

Like the existence of Soul Runes, it could only be perceived by spiritual power and could not be seen with the naked eye. Even if someone split open his skull, they would find nothing.

Once the extradimensional space stabilized at the center of his brain, Ace's consciousness could enter and leave it freely. He named this extradimensional space that had emerged from the depths of his soul the Soul Secret Treasury—a hidden realm concealed within the soul, a space that reflected the mind.

Ace discovered that the Soul Secret Treasury was remarkably wondrous. If the Soul Runes replicated in midair had magic essence structures that were imitated closely enough, those replicated Soul Runes could be absorbed into the Soul Secret Treasury.

And once inside the Soul Secret Treasury, the Soul Runes would transform from metastable structures into superstable structures. In other words, they could exist forever.

After many attempts, he found that the runes within the treasury could also be broken down in reverse. This collapse would cause the Soul Secret Treasury Space to tremble, and no new runes could be absorbed for three days afterward. For the time being, he had discovered no other adverse consequences.

Imitation of Soul Runes could be made increasingly precise. After about three weeks, Ace finally forced himself to understand how the magic essence within the Will Rune and Compassion Rune was formed. He identified and confirmed twenty-one distinct types of magic essence and one hundred and fifty-six effective combination formulas.

This method was an empirical summary, memorizing the composition of magic essence through constant trial and error. During his experiments, Ace discovered the importance of mathematics.

Magic essence—or at least magic essence at his current level—required extensive use of elementary mathematical knowledge during analysis and replication: coordinate systems, vectors, the basic axioms of plane geometry, square roots among real numbers, pi, and more.

Mathematics from his previous life had unexpectedly played an enormous role in analyzing the structural composition of magic essence and replicating it with greater precision. Without any mathematical foundation, merely replicating magic essence would have taken Ace knows not how many years.

If Ace had truly been a Native, pi alone might have plagued him for a lifetime. Perhaps it would take dozens or even hundreds of generations to develop magic step by step. Coupled with the blows dealt by the extraordinary powers of this world, the odds of such development succeeding were infinitesimal.

Once again, Ace felt that the objective and impartial spirit of research, logical thinking, and mathematical methods from his previous life were the weapons with which he explored extraordinary truths.

The wondrous items in Ace's possession that contained Soul Runes were the Hallucinatory Eye, the Ring of Protection, and the Burning Short Sword. He decided to analyze the Soul Runes in these three items first.

The sublimation of his soul's essence granted Ace far stronger perception. This time, he could clearly sense the interior of the Burning Short Sword and also understood why his spiritual power had been scorched and unable to perceive it.

The Soul Rune itself carried a powerful burning effect. Only sufficiently strong spiritual power could endure the scorching and perceive its structure.

With his prior foundation in analyzing magic essence and the incompletely induced patterns he had derived, Ace's efficiency increased dramatically. In less than two weeks, he had analyzed all the remaining Soul Runes and replicated them into the Secret Treasury Space.

The Soul Runes Ace currently possessed were as follows.

Basic Runes: Magic Power, Magic Crystal

Auxiliary Runes: Strengthened Absorption, Ordered Magic, Reduced Mana Consumption, Reduced Spirit Consumption; Enhancement, Weakening

Elemental Runes: Fire Element

Tool Runes: Fear, Favorability, Aversion, Hallucination, Inducement, Calming, Spiritual Shock, Protection, Damage Reduction, Scorching, Radiance (Variable Rune), Explosion, Will (Variable Rune), Compassion

There were twenty-one Soul Runes in total, along with seven lesser runes. Ace did not possess the Soul Runes corresponding to those runes, but he already had an idea.

Soul Runes could be degraded into lesser runes by disregarding the magic essence structure and simplifying the rune's internal structure. Then could he not make reverse conjectures and deductions to derive the Soul Runes of lesser runes?

Ace felt it was worth trying, so he added the plan to the experimental schedule in his magic diary.

Now, the most important matter was to combine brand-new Soul Spell Models. After his advancement, his spiritual power and perception had greatly increased—he now possessed roughly 121 units of spiritual power—but his combat ability had not undergone a qualitative leap.

Ace needed to combine new spell models within the Secret Treasury Space to achieve an all-around sublimation of his combat strength. Through research, he discovered that runes within the Secret Treasury Space could be replicated directly. This replication did not require restructuring magic essence, greatly increasing efficiency.

He divided the runes in the Secret Treasury Space into upper and lower sections. The upper level was the spell model zone, while the lower level was the rune zone. Newly combined spell models floated above, all formed by replicating and combining the individual runes below.

Ace combined the Magic Power #2 Rune and the Magic Crystal Rune with four auxiliary basic runes, adding the Calming Rune and Will Rune, to form the Meditation Method Spell Model with the best effect.

Using the newly acquired Will and Compassion Runes, he improved the rune structure within the Hallucinatory Eye and derived a new spell model.

At present, Ace had only combined planar spell models. He attempted to use planar spell models to form the three-dimensional spell model within the Hallucinatory Eye.

The planar spell models drew closer bit by bit, producing immense repulsive force against one another. Ace's spiritual power was nearly exhausted, yet the three-dimensional spell model still failed to form.

"One necessary condition for combining a three-dimensional spell model is higher spiritual power. The sufficient conditions are unknown," Ace recorded.

He temporarily gave up on combining a three-dimensional spell model and instead turned to seriously studying planar spell models.

He discovered that new spells needed to consume both spiritual power and his own magic power, while the amount of magic power they could draw upon and affect also increased greatly.

So-called inherent magic power referred to the magic power carried by one's body and soul after being "contaminated" by magic power and fully magicalized. It was also called innate magic power.

Expressed as a formula: innate magic power = spiritual power * 4; affected magic power = spiritual power * 3 + innate magic power * 3 = spiritual power * 15. Ace recorded 100 units of spiritual power as 1 scale of spiritual power. One scale of spiritual power could affect 15 scales of affected magic power.

After conversion, Ace now possessed 1.2 scales of spiritual power and 18 scales of affected magic power. Since the magic power consumed by spells was all affected magic power, the magic power generally referred to was affected magic power.

He had once called himself a wizard apprentice. After advancing and making comparisons, Ace believed himself to be equivalent to Hero-class. His new spells were less powerful than the Hero Authority he had witnessed in the Dream Theater.

He believed that only the formal wizards of his imagination could rival heroes, so he called himself an advanced wizard apprentice.

Ace's new spells were: Advanced Apprentice Meditation Method, Hand of Magic, Controllable Light Orb, Burning Hand, Illusion Barrier, Powerful Stun, Hammer of Oblivion, Eye of Emotion, Charm Human, Charm Demonic Beast, and Magic Crystal Protective Film—a total of eleven Soul Spells. He opened his magic diary and recorded the details of the spells.

Advanced Apprentice Meditation Method:

Consumes 1 scale of magic power. Meditation time: 4 hours. At present, each meditation increases the maximum spiritual power by 0.05 scales and magic power by 0.75 scales. Willpower and physical strength also improve somewhat.

Hand of Magic:

Consumes 1 scale of magic power and an additional 0.1 scales of spiritual power, forming a highly flexible Hand of Magic composed of Magic Crystals. It possesses a degree of autonomy and can grow larger or smaller.

Its operational range is a sphere centered on the caster with a radius of 80 to 100 meters. It lasts for 1 hour, flies at moderate speed, and can carry out simple commands. It possesses considerable offensive power, defensive power, and toughness.

Controllable Light Orb:

Consumes 1.2 scales of magic power and an additional 0.1 scales of spiritual power, forming a sphere of light anywhere within 150 meters of the casting range.

This orb could emit and absorb all levels of brightness within the visible spectrum, producing effects such as illumination, dazzling blindness, and darkness. Its maximum area of effect was a radius of 300 meters around the orb.

Burning Hand:

Consumed 2 units of magic power and an additional 0.1 units of mental power to form a fire-aspected Hand of Magic within a casting range of 100 meters. It possessed extreme heat, powerful burning and piercing force, and unstable explosive properties.

Maximum duration: 0.5 hours. Flew at medium speed and could carry out simple commands.

Illusion Barrier:

Consumed 2 units of magic power and an additional 0.2 units of mental power to form an Illusion Barrier within a 300-meter radius centered on the caster. Duration: 1 hour.

Creatures entering the barrier's range would have their will forcibly weakened slightly and be forced to undergo a will check once every 30 seconds. Those who failed the check would fall completely into the illusion, their five senses manipulated and their emotions and thoughts heavily guided.

Powerful Stun:

Consumed 1 unit of magic power to create a powerful mental shockwave within a casting range of 200 meters. Its area of effect had a radius of 10 meters, with the impact strongest at the center and diminishing outward in turn.

Hammer of Oblivion:

Consumed 1 unit of magic power. Casting range: 10 meters. By using mental shockwaves of different frequencies in tandem with suggestion and hallucination effects, it randomly replaced the target's memories from within the past minute. The replacement memories were generated by the target's subconscious and could not be controlled.

Eye of Emotion:

Consumed 1.1 units of magic power and an additional 0.1 units of mental power to project a spell model into the caster's eyes. Duration: 1 hour. Those gazed upon would have their will forcibly weakened slightly and fall into continuous will checks. Those who failed the checks would have their emotions easily manipulated.

Charm Human/Charm Demonic Beast:

Consumed 1 unit of magic power and an additional 0.1 units of mental power. Casting range: 100 meters. Affected multiple extraordinary targets. Targets would receive a suggestion lasting 1 minute. If the charm succeeded, a Soul Rune structure would appear on the back of their heads; if it failed, their will would be briefly enhanced and they would be enraged. While enraged, they became more aggressive and incapable of calm thought.

Magic Crystal Protective Film:

Consumed 1.5 units of magic power to form an eggshell-shaped protective film with no blind spots in any direction. Maximum duration: 1 hour. The protective film distributed force evenly; an attack on any point would be spread across the entire film.

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