After the carving knife was injected with magic, the operation became more and more difficult. If one was not careful and injected too much magic, or if one used too much force, the carving knife would have to be re-carved.
Even with the experience card's speed-of-mind mode, Ivan had to go through two failures before he was able to inscribe the runes onto the yew the third time.
After carving it, Ivan tried to inject magic into it, and the runes immediately reacted, emitting a faint black aura.
Ivan turned to Alicia and asked, "Is this a success?"
Acacia nodded reflexively, staring at the magical runes on the yew wood. It was too fast!
She remembered the first time she had inscribed a complete rune on a yew and activated it. How long had it taken?
Two months … three months?
To think that she thought that she was talented and even felt smug about it…
The thought discouraged her, but she maintained an expressionless face out of the modesty of a teacher.
"Writing runes is just the basics. The really hard part is learning how to arrange them."
Ivan nodded solemnly and prepared to return to his GPA and begin his arduous studies…
A few days passed in the blink of an eye, and Isia, who was explaining to Ivan how to arrange the runes, began to doubt her life.
This was because, after she briefly explained the meaning of the deciphered runes, as well as the various permutations, Ivan began to urge her to talk about other things rather than repeat the consolidation lessons.
"Are you sure you understand?" asked Isiah in disbelief.
"Of course, if one were to create a corrosive magical object, for example, one would be able to arrange them in the formula 11367.
Rune One represents corrosion, which is the core of the formula, and Number Three is used to channel magic. Number Six controls the activation of the magical object, and Number Seven is used to protect the outer shell from the magical force."
Ivan spoke solemnly, then lowered his head and began inscribing on a well-made ring. A few minutes later, a new magical object was created.
[Ding! You have created a new magical item. Please name it!]
The Ring of Corrosion… Ivan thought to himself as he checked the contents of the ring.
[Magical Instrument: Ring of Corrosion
Magic: Low
Effect: Instant Cast of Corrosive Dark Magic
Description: A magical tool created by a novice using the most common of magical materials. Its only advantage is that the inscriptions are extremely beautiful. You'd better not expect it to be of too much help in battle.]
Ivan's mouth twitched as he read the description of the item in the system column. This was the first real magical item he had ever made, so he wondered if he should give it a good review.
Yvonne tried to activate the ring, aiming it at the worktable, which began to age and rot as a black light flashed across it.
The effect was not bad, but the corrosion rate was too slow. No wonder it was said to be of limited use in battle. Wizards' bodies were protected by magic, and this degree of corrosive magic was indeed weak.
Ivan sighed and tossed the ring aside in disgust, planning to get a better one later.
"Mom… so can we start learning the more difficult formulas?" Yvonne asked eagerly.
"Here's the book, learn it yourself!" said Alicia, throwing a copy of Advanced Magical Studies on the table.
She remembered what she had been planning to teach these days.
Is Ivan supposed to engrave one or two basic runes on a board?
Now that Ivan had learned most of the things she had worked so hard on over the years, she had to sort out the things that were truly hidden away. Otherwise, she did not know how else to teach.
After Acacia left the work area with a strange expression on her face, Ivan began to seriously study his newly-acquired Advanced Explanations of Magic. For a moment, all kinds of strange ideas came to him, and he even wondered if he could crack some simple magic sequences on his own.
However, just as he was about to act, Ivan suddenly felt that his various ideas had been forcibly interrupted. He was stunned for a moment.
"What was I trying to do?"
[Ding, experience card mode has expired. Do you want to renew it?]
"No, get out!" Ivan said, his heart aching.
The reason why he was able to memorize the meaning and arrangement of the various runes in just a few days was entirely because he had used the experience card model on and off for seven hours, which cost him most of his GPA.
Of course, even this did not mean that his studies over the past few days were comparable to what Alicia had accumulated over the years.
After all, it took a lot of time and effort to decipher a formula, but learning one was much easier.
On top of that, Alicia had taught him everything she knew without holding anything back. If he couldn't learn it quickly, he would have wasted his GPA.
After exiting the Accelerated Learning state, Ivan picked up the carving knife again and began to practice carving.
The carving was slow this time, and the runes were nowhere near the standard, but Ivan was not surprised; he had known this before.
Just because he was able to do it in experience card mode didn't mean he could do it in normal times.
In any case, he still retained the knowledge he had obtained and the feeling of carving. All he had to do was to consolidate it through a lot of practice.
Ivan spent the rest of his time learning more advanced magical languages, and never once did he stop practicing.
His current GPA could only be increased by increasing his spell level, and the increase was very slow, so his usual hard work was especially important.
Occasionally, Ivan would discuss new spell-arrangements with Alicia.
Preparations were made for the creation of defensive magical objects based on the principles of the hats developed by the Weasley brothers in the original book.
Since George and Fred were able to do it on their own, Ivan thought he and Alicia would be able to do it with some effort.
It was only when she actually got started that Ivan realised how difficult it was to work out how to arrange a whole new set of runes.
In addition to time and effort, it required a large amount of Galleon.
This was because the runes had to be engraved on highly conductive magical materials in order to be activated, and the unknown formula was very risky. The destruction of the tool used to hold the runes was considered a good result, and it was possible to play oneself to death if one was not careful.
Otherwise, only a third of the hundred or so ancient runes on the slab would have detailed annotations.