Three Techniques of Runology

“So, now you should be able to create a runic weapon?”

Freya was apparently excited. But Leng San shook his head.

“I can’t, for now. Adamantite is needed for the creation of a long-lasting runic weapon.

If we were to use normal steel ores, after one shichen, the rune will stop working and the weapon will be destroyed, which means that we have lost the beast core forever, in exchange for one shichen of power.”

“Damn!! So, you can’t make it even if you have the green beast core.”

“Who told you that we don’t have the adamantite?” Leng San grinned.

“You have the ore?”

“The ore is this Heaven Shattering Axe!!” Leng San said, raising the axe.

“But this is already a runic weapon.”

“It is already a runic weapon, but with its high-level blue qi, I feel that it is still somewhat weak. I will turn it into a low-level green runic weapon with this beast core.”

Leng San pulled out one beast core from the dimensional ring and circulated qi to slit his palm to draw out some blood. The boy held his blood and the beast core and slowly rotated them in the air with his qi.

Soon after, the beast core gradually fused with the blood. The product was viscous blood, dimly shining with green light.

With the tip of his finger, Leng San touched the green solution and started drawing the exact same rune on top of the blue rune. After a while, the blue rune had been completely overwritten by the green rune. The boy grinned in delight as he raised the Heaven Shattering Axe that was shining with green light.

“Oh my god!! This looks so easy. But the energy from the axe had apparently become stronger,” Freya was utterly thrilled.

“Of course, the axe had been upgraded to the green stage. It would be a problem if it became weaker.”

“Tsk!! What an arrogant kid.”

“Alright, tonight I will use the Dragon Meridian technique to increase my qi to level three of the blue stage. Then we’re going to enter the third level of the valley.”

“You’re going to enter the third level!?”

“Of course, I want to gather more herbs and higher-level beast cores. I am sure they will be useful in the future.”

“You didn’t forget that there’s a magical beast with yellow qi on the third level, right?”

“There’s only one of them. I am certain that I could somehow escape.”

“Hmph!! Who told you that there’s only one?”

“!!!!!!” Leng San’s eyes almost popped out.

“There are two of them according to my senses. One of them has high-level yellow qi and full strength. It will probably reach the orange stage within a couple of years. The other is pretty weak. I could barely sense its power. Usually, the stronger one would kill the weaker one, but for this case, the stronger one is acting like it’s protecting the weaker one.”

Leng San stroked his chin, thinking about what Freya said.

“They might be a couple. That’s why the weaker one is being protected by the stronger one. Now it makes me even more curious about their secrets!!”

Leng San expected that it would take him three days and two nights to cultivate qi to the third level of the blue stage, using his Dragon Meridian technique. After that, he would enter the third level of the Valley of the Ten-Thousand Trees.

“From now on, you must be extremely vigilant. The magical beasts with yellow qi will have terrific senses. They might notice our presence immediately once we’ve entered the third level.”

Freya warned Leng San as they were entering the third level of the valley.

Along the way, Leng San had been focusing on finding rare herbs that weren’t found in the first two levels and slaying incoming magical beasts with blue qi and green qi to gather beast cores, storing them in his dimensional ring.

Thirteen days had passed. Leng San finally reached the deepest part of the Valley of the Ten-Thousand Trees. At the end of the path lay a tall cliff, more than thousands of meters high. Next to it was the ocean that seemed to continue endlessly.

“Freya, where are the magical beasts with yellow qi? We’ve already reached the deepest part of the valley already, but there were no signs of them.”

“Hmm… I think they are hiding within the cliff on the side that’s connected to the ocean, in a large cave. As they could live in such a place, they could probably fly. You’re very lucky that the weak one is alone in the cave. I think that the stronger one is out hunting for food. Are you going to climb down?”

“It’s too late to turn back now. But I worry that there will not be an escape route for me once I climb down to the cave. So, I must think of an escape route first before climbing down.”

Leng San connected several vines together, extending more than hundreds of meters. He then tied the vines to a giant boulder on the cliff and searched a crevasse that he could hide inside. After that, he pulled out one green beast core and fused it with his blood to write a rune onto the crevasse.

“What are you doing?” Freya asked.

“I’m creating a runic field. This rune that I just drew has the power to distort dimensions. If I hid myself within the crease, my presence would be completely erased. Even if this beast had ten pairs of eyes and twenty noses combined, I would still be undetected. However, the effect only lasts one shichen.”

After that, Leng San pulled out five blue beast cores and fused them with his blood to write down runes on his arms, legs, and body. As the boy had lost too much blood from using runology, he popped a blood-enhancing pill into his mouth.

“Freya, do you know why I chose to keep the runic body technique to myself, unlike the other two techniques?”

“I don’t know.”

“It’s because this technique is too powerful and dangerous at the same time. For the other two, if there’s a mistake, only the beast core will be destroyed. But for the runic body, a mistake would mean death. But of course, the reward is high along with the risk!!”

“And what can the runes that you’ve written do?”

“On my arms and legs, I’ve written a rune that fortifies my strength. For my body, I’ve written a rune that reduces my weight to only ten percent of the real weight. Coupled with the Dragon’s Muscle, I am a hundredfold superior to normal humans!! But the effect lasts only one shichen, so I have to hurry now.”

Leng San grabbed onto the vine and jumped down to the cliff. He slowly slipped down the vine to prevent himself from falling down too fast. Once he came down about five hundred meters, he could see the entrance to a large cave.

The boy concealed his senses and qi as he descended into the entrance. There was a huge magical beast within the cave. Its scarlet body spanned over a hundred meters. The creature’s wings, more than a hundred meters wide if extended, had been folded behind its back.

The creature was comfortably sleeping, but extremely weak as its breath was labored. But what captured Leng San’s attention was the object behind the creature...

‘Adamantite mine!!’

Countless adamantite ores were on the cave’s wall!!