Warlocks

"Well, this isn't a story or a fantasy game world, everything has a deeper meaning. I shouldn't accept things as they are but question them deeper…"

Elios read on and saw the author explaining the functions of these three open string spots. Basically, one string is directed towards the "inner", one to the "outer" and one to the "side".

The "inner" is the foundation for how rune circles form rings. That is, when three strings in total come together, they form a small knot in the centre of them. The "side" string connects to one other circle, and finally, the "outer" is the spell slot.

Each side string can be connected to one spell platform, this is the last step to engraving a spell.

The Trinity Balance Meditation Rune has a total of three spell slots per rune ring.

Right as Elios was curious about how to get more spell slots, the topic went back to Laos of the Nine Rings.

"Laos, the creator of the Meditation Rune gained his title 'of the Nine Rings' because he took a path no one else had taken before.

With the find of the meditation rune, he was able to form more rings, just like us modern wizards.

In every stage, a wizard can form up to nine rings. In the past, this reason was unexplored, but now we have theories that point towards the ceiling at nine rings.

Regardless, the nine rings of Laos are the nine rings of the first stage –

With every ring, you improve your power by 10%. Based on different rune rings and wizards, the field of improvement is different, but the basic improvement is 10%.

Advancing to the second stage improves one's power by a 100%, meaning a second ring wizard has double the strength of a first ring wizard.

A wizard who has nine rings in the first stage is able to compete with new second stage wizards – a genius first stage can compete with most normal second stage wizards.

This has been proven many times. This can also be seen with the second stage when comparing with the third stage.

After that, there is a sublimation and the addition of strength varies greatly, but the minimum is generally three times the previous stage.

From then on, every advancement of stage improves power from three times to five time the previous stage.

It can be seen from this that this path is not focused on improving power.

Instead, it has another major effect: it can enhance the foundation and awaken a higher power!

After many years, we have found three phases of powers:

Those who advance with three rings will awaken an affinity for a certain faction. The most renown affinities are those of the elemental faction.

Those who advance with six rings will awaken a real power of their faction. Many famous one's include the mechanic's natural energy core, the potion master's magic fire, and so on.

Lastly, those who advance with nine rings will awaken a unique power. This power is unknown and only a few are recorded, very few categories have been created.

The most renown are the Runeologists, who, in their path, when they reach nine rings, famously earn a special "Rune Tool" in the first sublimation stage, and a "Rune Artifact" in the second sublimation stage.

It's even said that there might be a higher "Rune Relic" above in the third sublimation – in the many years of wizard inheritance, it was written down that the first wizard came to be because he met a natural rune construct.

These are nowadays all on the level of Rune Relic, which is why the Runeologists pursue this goal as their ultimate truths.

Regardless, it's been proven that the more rings one has, the higher the power awakened… but, dear special students, you should be aware of one thing.

To geniuses, these things are actually just a small improvement. Even in the past, those wizard geniuses who created the wizarding world as we know it, all made do without these things.

Power isn't everything, foundation isn't everything, talent isn't everything.

For wizards, only one true ability matters – Wisdom!

The wiser one is, the higher their feats will be. Even if one falls, one's inheritance will be continued through the wizard civilisation!

Warlocks didn't become the first wizard faction because they were the only ones – no, there were other, many even, every wizard of that time founded their own faction.

Warlocks instead focused on another matter. They didn't want to fight, they didn't even focus on fighting, they simply happened to also research fighting abilities.

But, the versatility of warlocks comes from their numerous research fields!

The Ancient Warlock is the fundamental form of a wizard. That is why, even though we have two new paths with many extremely important paths, no path has yet been named after a faction!"

Elios read the last line slowly, knowing the last part was mainly a joke.

After all, just as the author said, true geniuses aren't restricted by anything, they will succeed as long as they survive.

This meant that, the warlock path wasn't necessarily the only path that integrated many other factions. It was still because the warlock faction had many talented people and absorbed talents from other factions.

And, even though the book made the title of Warlock sound so great, in fact, it was the compensation for the heavy responsibility they bear.

After all, looking at factions such as alchemy and potion making, which of these didn't bring many new things? Which of these lacked behind in contribution to the wizard alliance compared to the ancient warlocks?

Ancient things are ancient things, it wouldn't affect the current situation.

Factually, the other factions all agreed to the warlock's reputation as a compensation for their sacrifice for the alliance.

Every great warlock will be praised and even have deeper power, simply because their existence ensures the safety of the alliance.

That isn't to say the firepower of others is less, no, every faction, after leaving their initial weakness, becomes strong at one point.

But how could these factions who have focused on research suddenly end all their research, patrol the wizard alliance, conquer realms and do all the small work? 

In the end, the sacrifice of warlocks below the fourth stage ensures the prosperity of all other paths.

Of course warlocks aren't losing out on things… just the fact that they have priority over every resource owned by the wizard alliance says it all.

'In the end, everything is balanced, isn't it? It sounds like a happy end, but it doesn't change the fact that the deathrate of warlocks is probably at least double as high as those of other paths.

Then again, the chance that a warlock reaches higher heights is greater too. Although many speakers have fancy names from different factions, making it seem they come from them, but in fact, they are still warlocks.

The speakers just didn't reveal this information directly, to ensure all paths continue and no one thinks the warlock path is the only true way.

Anyways, this information… those who look it up will understand it. Geniuses have their own fields and won't easily change things.

This is actually more like a matter for the untalented.

It seems even though I'm qualified to get the special version, I'm not qualified to get the real one just yet, haha.'

Just as Elios was about to close the book, he saw a small remark at the end, in a small corner:

"The life stages of wizards were named after Laos of the Nine Ring's naming sense - he named wizards of the first stage with one ring 'First Ring', of the first sage with two rings 'Second Ring', and so on. 

Although this naming sense is confusing, it has long been the norm to use rings and life stages interchangeably. To commorate ancient wizards, such small matters should be accepted!"