Runemaster Prodigy

Under the stern eyes of Merling, Samuel could only comply. Burying his head in the books given to him. Well sort of, whenever he was feeling tired or bored, he would enter the time sphere for either a rest or for a quick energy boost. However, slowly but surely as the hours went by, Samuel became engrossed in the study of runes, and the thinking of the runemasters of years passed. The rest now turned into a quick energy boost, and the quick energy boost was now reflecting on and comprehending what he had just read. Turns out, not only was his energy being boosted in the time sphere, but so was his comprehension and brain effectivity. What would have taken him hours to process outside, took mere minutes in there. That combined with the time distortion turned Samuel into some sort of primordial beast of learning.

Hour after hour went by. It was only after finishing all the reading material given to him that he looked up from the books, only to encounter the shocked gaze of his great teacher Merling. In a voice that definitely, 100% wasn't trembling, he uttered "did you really finish reading all the material already? And you didn't seem to have any problems with it either. Are you some sort of heavenly runemaster prodigy, or are you trying to play cool again?"

'Again? When have I ever played cool before?'

Samuel was unaware that Merling had seen through his 'plot' of loudly talking to himself as he was about to cultivate for the first time. As such he remained clueless regarding what he was talking about.

"Teacher Merling, to be honest my talent is related to comprehension, so it's not weird for me to be amazingly superior to others in that regard. However, I do have a question. In the 'Limitations Of The Great Rune Dao', it's said that runes cannot be engraved onto a person's body, but offer no explanation why it is so. Can you explain why?"

Samuel's whole reason for wanting to learn how to draw runes was to learn how to engrave a rune upon his own body. Although he was hooked now, he would still find it a waste of effort if it turned out to be worthless. 

"Sigh. How I wish I was able to engrave runes upon my body. My reason for starting to study runes was because of a rumor I heard as a wee boy. Supposedly one of the founders of the Overlord Sect had a mysterious talent that, when turned into a physique, engraved his body with runes. Allowing him to wield the power of both man and Heaven. He was essentially a walking formation. This fascinated me greatly, but unfortunately either his talent was of a grade so superior it has never appeared again, or the legends are false. Every talented or powerful runemaster, including myself, have for the past 100,000 years attempted to replicate this phenomenon, but to no success. Runes belong to the Heavens, while the body, although accepted by it, stands against it. Cultivation is going against the Heavens, everyone knows this. But as you go against the Heavens, the further you go on the path of power, the more you will be recognized by it. A common consensus is that only an individual surpassing the limits of this world, like the transcendence experts great Rio was talking about, would have the ability to engrave runes upon their bodies. If I were to engrave one upon myself right now, it would have no effect because of my individual spiritual qi, making it redundant"

Samuel, when he heard that Merling was finished speaking, quickly entered the time sphere to ponder and reflect upon what he just said.

"Merling said that you can't have runes engraved upon your body because of the interference of your spiritual qi, but my talent is in the form of a rune. Even if my talent is superior to others, it seems illogical to think that others talents wouldn't be. If so, doesn't that indicate that everyone already has runes engraved in their bodies. If they can have one, they can have many. There should only be one difference, that being who drew the runes, you or the world itself" 

As Samuels thoughts reached till here, he uttered 'gowla' and reapered in front of Merling.

"I have an idea!"