Chapter 649: Runic Technique
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
After sending the messengers from the two countries away, Benjamin forced the Queen to write a certificate of appointment, temporarily handing the authority to govern Icor over to the Guild Master. With the Queen’s warrant in hand, they could at least let the administrative system of Icor return to normal.
Guild Master had his hands full because of this, and Benjamin could not be bothered to read the tiny and cramped words on the documents. He had no understanding at all about Icor’s administrative details, and many local officials felt animosity towards him, even. He was clear about that.
—Since he had so many feuds going on, it was very hard for him to be lord over this country.
He could only wait for the Guild Master to take action.
After this series of events, Benjamin had more trust towards this old mage. He was like him in that he had no desire for power, and had more of a sense of responsibility towards the other mages, chasing after a better environment for magic.
They will do their best in keeping a hand on Icor’s situation, progressing in a direction that benefited mages the most.
And so, while living in the guest room of the palace temporarily, Benjamin opened up a book.
"Interesting. The mages have done so much research and come up with so many hypotheses on runes, and has even come up with a book with the results." The System evaluated the book, saying.
Without a question, the gigantic barrier that had protected the academy was all the work of runes. Benjamin was also very interested in that. But because time had been short, Benjamin had no time to listen to the mages’ reports, and could only keep the book, which had been compiled at the time and entitled "A Preliminary Study of Runes", with him when he had rushed to Icor with the Queen.
And now, with matters concerning Icor being handed over to the Guild Master, he could spare some time to look at the research done on the runes by the mages and see what new development there was.
Flipping the pages of the book open, Benjamin discovered that the content inside was rather disorganized. This was not a theoretical book written in a rigid format, but was more like a compilation of research drafts. Benjamin had no choice but to peruse it speedily, and find the more valuable content inside.
"...Using special materials, and imprinting the runes according to some sort of law, activated through spiritual energy, can achieve double the results."
Seeing this, Benjamin perked up.
This should be the source of the barrier that had blocked the battalion of Icor.
With regards to this matter, the discourse in the book was not complicated. They did not seem to have come to a conclusion as to what laws, but had discovered a few special combinations of the runes, so there could be more inferences to be made.
Like the barrier at that time, the research group had named it as "Runic Technique- Defense."
Using a special liquid made by mixing bitter wisteria and the blood of cloud bats, and drawing out runes that represented instructional runes such as defense, affinity and still, grouping them in the shape of a hexagram, an extremely powerful and continuous defense barrier could be created.
—This was a compilation of their experiences in Potions Studies and the Study of Magical Instruments, a result of countless experiments.
The area of the the defense barrier was very wide; as long as it was reorganized following a certain set of law, an area as big as the academy could also be completely laid out inside. When the academy mages and the Icor army had battled in the small town, the students had helped to draft this technique in the academy, and had finally managed to protect the academy this way.
Reading up until here, Benjamin could not help but nod his head.
Runic technique, huh...
Originally, he had thought that the developmental direction of the research on runes would be more towards the personal, inward exploration of the mages. He had not expected that these people would put their sights on a more practical level.
This was a discovery that could change the world. The book stated that, as long as this technique was drawn out, it could last for at least a month, and the materials were not expensive, given that the effect was excellent. More importantly, as long as this thing was drawn out, spiritual energy from only ten mages was enough to maintain its activation.
They had not tested the limits of the runic technique, but, was it not scary enough that it could block the continuous explosions caused by high-level magic?
It was difficult to imagine how big an effect it would have on this world, if this thing were to be made common.
Furthermore, the book even stated, "‘Runic Technique- Defense’ should only be the most basic technique. Other than this, there should be other runic techniques that are even more powerful, waiting to be discovered."
If it really came to that, what would the world turn into?
Benjamin could not help but take a deep breath.
Whatever it was, this thing... They must keep it a secret. It cannot be leaked to the Church. The Church might also be researching runes; if they knew about this, things would definitely become very troublesome.
Other than the Runic Technique- Defense, they had even discovered a few rune combinations. Basically, these were techniques involving the detention of living things and the gathering of elements. The effect of usage should also be pretty good, but it was awaiting experimentation, and the practicality of it would definitely not be as good as the defense technique, so Benjamin did not read about it in detail.
In addition to all these, what was left in the book were the various guesses and thoughts of the mages towards runes.
"This thing... Not reasonable, cross it out, so that they don’t waste time on it. This one... You can have them do some research. And this... What the hell? Cross it out..."
Using its instinct, the System evaluated the hypotheses of the mages. Finally, most of the hypotheses in the book were marked by it as wrong, and Benjamin also put a cross at the back; at least, he would be ready to pass the book back to those mages, and there would be less trials and errors.
Tens of crosses were marked down; this being that came from the Pure Blue World, had saved them at least a few hundreds of years’ time.
Benjamin felt very pleased.
In the end, at the back of the book, the mages gave their opinion on the correlations between the runes, magic and incantations.
"We think that all the magic being used nowadays is very likely an incomplete version. Incantations are human beings using our narrow and finite understanding to create a product out of the one sided aspect of runes: the sound of the runes. Real magic belongs to the runes. This is the direction that one of our important researches will be taking."
Seeing this, Benjamin could not help but felt moved in his heart.
The incomplete version of magic, real magic belonged to runes... Thinking as such, he suddenly felt that the biggest difference between his method of meditation and those of the other mages, was that they practiced an incomplete version, and the one that he trained in was the complete version.
Therefore, if they continued the research, would everyone be able to use a meditation method similar to his, one day? Then the average standards of mages would increase by who knew how many levels...
But if this was really the case, his uniqueness would seem to be obliterated.
However, regarding this, Benjamin was still delighted. If that day really came, a day that would come who knew how many years after this, at least now, he could use this advantage to stay a few hundred of years ahead . That was enough.
As for the research on runes, it would definitely be a weapon that they could use against the Church!
Having finished reading the book, Benjamin closed it up, satisfied. He walked out the room, ready to look at the situation inside the palace. Unexpectedly, he bumped into someone that was looking for him.
"Honorable Benjamin, there is a guest outside, he says he wants to see you!" A servant stopped in his tracks and hurriedly bowed towards him, saying thus.