"Bang!"
Accompanied by a muffled sound, a cloud of white dust rose inside the small treehouse.
In the midst of the spreading dust, Ronan walked out expressionlessly and patted the stone and dirt off his robe.
It seemed that this was not the first time such a situation had occurred.
"Failed again!"
Waiting for the dust in the cabin to settle, Ronan walked in and looked at the three remaining blank rune stones on the makeshift workbench, his eyes twitching slightly.
By now, nearly a month had passed since he began studying rune engraving.
Three days ago, he had started properly attempting to engrave the "Clean" rune on the blank rune stones, but he ended up ruining seventeen stones without success.
"It was so close..."
Ronan recalled the experience of his recent failure, he had almost completed ninety-seven percent of the entire rune engraving process, and the "Clean" rune was nearly fully inscribed on the stone but faltered at the last few cuts.. falling short at the finishing line.
Even due to a rampage of uncontrolled energy particles, the whole rune stone exploded.
"Ultimately, it's a lack of strength, towards the end, it feels like neither my spiritual power nor physical strength can keep up..."
Ronan took a towel, dampened it with water, patted it on his face, wiped the fatigue between his eyebrows, and analyzed the reasons for failure.
Rune engraving is an extremely energy-consuming task, as it requires continuous guidance of spiritual power throughout the process. One must be fully focused and complete it in one go without any pause.
Currently, as a Level 2 Wizard Apprentice, Ronan's spiritual power, when engraving the "Clean" rune, was completely depleted towards the end, causing deterioration in his condition and leaving him powerless to continue.
"Actually, my progress is already considered fast; most wizards probably wouldn't even have mastered it by hand at this point..."
Ronan was ultimately not let down by his abilities on the panel; the entire process of studying runes was rather smooth.
Whether it was copying practice or engraving practice, his progress was exceptionally fast. Once he formally started on rune stones, every failure brought a wealth of new insights and experience.
In the first seventeen attempts, his progress was visibly accelerating.
Each failure pushed his progress significantly further the next time.
On the sixteenth attempt, Ronan reached ninety-five percent, thinking he would successfully complete it this time, but it still fell short.
"A little short of success or a lot, it makes no real difference to me because I only have so much material left. If I fail after using up these last three blank rune stones, I will have to consider borrowing money or even selling my belongings..."
Ronan sighed lightly and pulled up his character panel.
[Name: Ronan Damien]
[Age: 16]
[Talent: No Attribute Affinity]
[Strength: Level 2 Wizard Apprentice (13%)]
[Skills: Basic Meditation Technique (Proficiency 156/200)
Energy Missile (Mastery 334/400)
Charging Weapon (Entry-level 68/100)]
In one month, all capabilities had grown.
His spiritual power had not increased much, with only a ten percent progression as a Level 2 Wizard Apprentice.
At this rate, it would take nine more months before Ronan could advance to Level 3 Wizard Apprentice.
Of course, the time might shorten since his "Basic Meditation Technique" proficiency kept improving, making each meditation session increasingly effective.
"Energy Missile" has been mastered by Ronan to the level of mastery, speeding up the casting process again.
Now, Ronan only needs to recite a few syllables of a spell and perform a simple gesture to successfully cast it, compressing the total casting time to within three seconds, and the power of "Energy Missile" has also increased slightly.
To enrich his attacking methods, Ronan also learned "Charging Weapon" from the five Zero Rank Magic spells.
The function of this spell is to add a temporary enchantment effect to the weapon, which is actually a thin layer of energy particles. After "charging", every collision between the weapon and an object consumes the attached energy particles, causing an explosion-like damage effect.
Ronan is not good at close combat, and he is not very dedicated to this skill; he practiced casually and is now only at the entry-level stage.
"Clap!"
He casually threw the wet towel into the basin, splashing a cluster of water, and Ronan stood up, "Let's go out for a walk."
Staying inside studying rune engraving was quite tiring; mental fatigue was one aspect, and the small, humid, and hot tree house made Ronan's butt hurt from sitting too long, which was also bad for his body.
Descending along the vine, Ronan coughed forcefully twice, feeling a faint pain in his left chest.
Long-term, high-frequency meditation activities were increasingly eroding his lungs, and Ronan could already feel the effects.
"Knight's Training Method... Knight's Training Method... If it really comes down to it, write a letter back and ask the people from the Earl's Domain to send a few over, though it might take a year or two."
Thinking so, Ronan, dressed in hunting attire, walked into the forest in front of him.
The quiet forest was dimly lit, and it seemed like a thin layer of faint mist always lingered among the trees.
Bizarre-shaped trees grew wildly everywhere, and underneath was a thick layer of rotting leaves and moss.
"Rustle!"
A slight noise came from nearby; Ronan's concentrated spiritual power in his mind quickly expanded, locking onto the direction of the sound and uttering rapid, short notes.
"Ooh! Ru! Ba!"
He casually pointed his finger, and the air in front of him rapidly distorted.
A fist-sized, dark blue Light Ball quickly condensed and then shot out.
"Boom!"
A bush more than ten meters in front of Ronan exploded in response, with dirt and leaves flying everywhere, and a thick oak tree slowly fell down.
Ronan walked over leisurely, finding a bloody, unrecognizable trace in a large mud pit.
Judging from the few scraps of fur remaining on the edge of the pit, the source of the noise just now seemed to be an unlucky wolf.
"Wizards really are extraordinary, the power of spells is just too great..."
Ronan looked at his own "masterpiece" and exclaimed.
In the mundane world, ordinary people would need to reach a high proficiency in the Knight's Path to cause this kind of destruction, and yet this is merely the effect of a Low Zero Rank Level Magic.
The exceptional nature of wizards in this group is evident.
Now, Ronan felt much more composed and confident in this area of the forest than before, especially after reaching mastery in "Energy Missile," he felt even qualified to compete with a Level 3 Apprentice.
His casting speed was much faster than typical low-level apprentice wizards, and the power of the mastered "Energy Missile" was probably two or three times greater than at the entry-level.
Of course, all these thoughts about combat ability were just Ronan's one-sided speculations; he had never actually fought with another wizard and had no idea what wizard combat was really like.
With the existence of Magic Tools, there were just too many uncertainties in a battle.
Ronan continued along the route he usually ran during morning training, with the fresh air and tranquil, beautiful environment gradually soothing his weary soul.
Reaching a Tree Spring, Ronan knelt down to wash his hands and face, feeling much refreshed.
....
Thanks to the Alliance Hierarch, 5 Cent Pudding~~