Chapter 8: Spell Runes

The arrival of the era of the steampunk industrial revolution.

The most dazzling, characteristic of the times, undoubtedly belonged to supernatural steam alchemy.

A large number of mechanical creations were continuously forged by alchemists.

Among them, the most artistic in killing were 'firearms' and 'cannons'.

When military soldiers were all equipped with ample ammunition and cannon carriages,

the era of cavalry came to an end, replaced by a torrent of steel.

The newly emerging supernatural steam revolution also brought about the flourishing of supernatural powers.

Many new supernatural professionals stepped onto the stage of history.

Similarly, some ancient professionals also shone with unprecedented brilliance on the new stage.

And the caster sequence was one such existence.

Depending on the source of power,

casters were divided into four major sequences.

They were elementalists, contractors, spellcasters, and faith wielders.

The power of elementalists came from natural elements. They could sense and manipulate various natural elements, even drawing on the elemental forces of heaven and earth to form powerful elemental spells.

Speaking of this, some might have already noticed.

Indeed, in very ancient times,

elementalists were roughly equivalent to mages.

Contractors.

Through contracts, necromancy, summoning, and other means, they could summon various powerful otherworldly beings to fight for them.

Spellcasters.

A supernatural profession that mastered various powerful, eerie, and mysterious spells, relying on their own source pool as an energy source to deliver efficient and rapid strikes.

As for the last, faith wielders, aside from the clergy trained by churches, basically few people chose this path.

This model of gaining power bestowed by deities through offering faith,

although it allowed them to obtain extraordinary power, strong recovery abilities, and the powerful strength manifested through the deities in a short time, borrowed power ultimately had many limitations.

Coupled with the crackdown on the faith power system by imperial power and other supernatural forces, this made many people even more avoid the path of faith.

And the path of supernatural power that Gune was about to embark on was the spellcaster within the caster system—the spellcaster.

……

Suge Extraordinary Academy.

Classroom on the sixth floor of Orok Tower.

Compared to the spacious rooms of ordinary circular-domed classrooms, the sixth floor of Orok Tower was noticeably narrower.

There were only fifteen or sixteen students here.

Orok, with graying hair, wearing reading glasses and a gray wizard's hat, was lecturing intently on the unified field theory of "Spellcraft."

"The most important core of a spellcaster is fast and efficient striking."

"And the three basic arguments for achieving fast and efficient striking—Yulai'er, you answer."

Orok's gaze swept over the crowd, and he casually called on Yulai'er.

"Secret Crossing, Acceleration, Repetition."

Yulai'er stood up and answered in one breath.

"Hmm! These are the basics, and at the same time, truths you must engrave upon your souls for a lifetime." Orok nodded, then waved his hand, signaling Yulai'er to sit down.

"Spellcasters need time to chant spells. If you don't want enemies to creep up behind you and slit your throats with daggers while you're chanting, then within your souls, using your soul power, condense enough Secret Crossing runes, enough Acceleration runes, enough Repetition runes—these will all be key to determining your life or death."

Gunie, in the corner, listened while taking notes and pondering inwardly.

"Although everyone knows that the Secret Transit Rune, the Acceleration Rune, and the Reiteration Rune are important, but..."

"The difficulty of condensing these three runes is far from ordinary!"

The spellcaster is a transcendent profession.

To possess extremely powerful and fast spell-casting abilities,

the three runes—Secret Transit, Acceleration, and Reiteration—are indispensable.

Among them, the Secret Transit Rune is the most important and core rune of the three.

The specific function of the Secret Transit Rune is to reduce the chanting of spell syllables.

A standard low-level transcendent spell requires 4 syllables.

Each syllable takes approximately 0.25 seconds to chant.

Therefore, a low-level transcendent spell takes 1 second to chant, guide, and release.

If you have strong mental power and good spell talent, and have condensed a Secret Transit Rune,

then congratulations.

This Secret Transit Rune will reduce your spell chanting by one syllable.

As you silently chant the first three syllables of a four-syllable transcendent spell, the Secret Crossing Runes will naturally follow your will to light up, completing the spell incantation.

At this point, you need only 0.75 seconds to complete the incantation, guidance, and release of the spell.

If you have condensed two Secret Crossing Runes,

according to inference, your casting of a basic transcendent spell will become 0.5 seconds.

If you go further and complete three Secret Crossing Runes,

then the casting process of this basic transcendent spell will become 0.25 seconds.

Completing a basic transcendent spell in 0.25 seconds is already quite fast casting.

And if, on this basis, you go even further,

when you condense four Secret Crossing Runes, what will happen?

The answer is: instant spellcasting!

You don't even need to chant the spell.

With a single thought, you can cast.

Instant casting of basic transcendent spells is something every spellcaster dreams of achieving.

But the problem is,

are Secret Crossing Runes easy to condense?

The answer is that instant casting is the dream of many spellcasters precisely because it is out of reach.

"That fragment of a transcendent spell, because of its damage, constantly tempered my soul during cultivation, turning misfortune into fortune, giving me an exceptionally strong soul, coupled with my fairly good spellcasting talent."

"In these past four months, through arduous cultivation, I have only managed to condense four Secret Crossing Runes."

"In this classroom, aside from Yulai'er and Yanni, who have very high talent and come from wealthy families and have condensed one or two Secret Crossing Runes,"

"the others probably don't even qualify to condense Secret Crossing Runes."

"Those with excellent talent and resources should have condensed one or two Acceleration Runes."

"As for those with less talent and few resources, they can only continue down the dead-end path of Repetition Runes."

Gunie pondered silently in his heart.

Indeed.

Even those wealthy offspring and nobles, with ample resource supply,

still find condensing Secret Crossing Runes extremely difficult.

Moreover, the difficulty increases with each step.

One or two still hold hope; three or four are basically despair-inducing.

Secret Crossing Runes have great utility, that is true.

But the difficulty of condensing them is extremely high.

Compared to the extremely difficult Secret Crossing Runes,

Acceleration Runes and Repetition Runes are somewhat easier.

Acceleration Runes,

as the name suggests, are runes that accelerate spellcasting.

Each Acceleration Rune can provide a certain percentage of acceleration.

More specifically, one Acceleration Rune can increase chanting speed by about 10%.

Ten Acceleration Runes can increase casting speed by 100%, effectively halving your spell chanting time.

However, no matter how many Acceleration Runes there are,

they can never achieve instant casting.

The essential nature of Acceleration Runes determines that they cannot compare to Secret Crossing Runes.

But that doesn't mean Acceleration Runes are not useful.

In the entire system of transcendent spellcasters,

the practical role of Acceleration Runes far exceeds that of Secret Crossing Runes.

Because in the system of transcendent spells,

basic spells have 4 to 6 syllables,

intermediate spells have 6 to 10 syllables,

and advanced spells have 10 to 14 syllables.

Clearly, even those high-level spellcasters, or even seventh-order and above spell masters, find it difficult to condense six or seven, or even ten, Secret Crossing Runes.

At this point, if you have condensed a fair number of Acceleration Runes, say ten,

and you also possess four Secret Crossing Runes,

then for a top-tier advanced spell with 14 syllables,

first use the four Secret Crossing Runes to shorten it by four syllables, then use the ten Acceleration Runes to double the casting speed.

Then this top-tier advanced spell can be cast in just 5 syllables and 1.25 seconds, which is also quite good.

Runes are never isolated in their paths; they are used cooperatively.