Above the mage

Chapter 139 Outside the Door and Inside the Door

Dark Night Moon, 24th.

It's still yesterday's time.

Gao De once again arrived at the rune workshop on the third floor of Gavin Building.

Just like yesterday, his mentor, Hosie O'Kenley, was not seen.

This time, however, Gaode didn't need to actively create any noise; the old and calm voice could already be heard coming from the small, closed room inside the workshop.

It didn't seem as calm as yesterday. Gao De sensed that the old man's voice in the small room today seemed to have an uncontrollable "excitement" about it.

It might just be my imagination.

"Look at the documents on the table first, and then you can leave."

It's the same thing I said yesterday.

Not a single word has changed.

If this were in a literary work, there would even be reason to suspect that the author was being lazy and simply copied and pasted the previous text.

But Gaode doesn't think that much about it.

For him, it was just another "instruction".

He listened in silence, his feet already moving to the worktable in the center of the rune workshop.

The workbench, which was a bit messy yesterday, has been tidied up and is now much neater.

The information that He west wanted him to see was now prominently displayed in the center.

No longer do we need to rely on Gaode Maps to find the information we need, as we did yesterday.

Introduction to Runes.

The name is simple and easy to understand; you can tell at a glance that it's about runes.

Although Gao De felt that this was the material he should have been shown yesterday—at least he should have learned about runes before learning about the basic rules of runes.

But it doesn't really matter, since the "six basic rules of runes" are quite "simple," so there's not much difference between learning them a day earlier or a day later.

Therefore, the "reversal" of the order is understandable.

The materials were still handwritten, exactly the same as yesterday's "Introduction to Symbol Literature Theory".

When Gaode opened the data, the first thing he saw was not the word "rune":

Everything in the world has its own trajectory.

The wind has its own path, the water has its own path, the earth has its own path, and even the magic that is everywhere in the world has its own path.

These trajectories are unpredictable and irregular.

However, when the wind blows along a certain trajectory one day, it can turn into a devastating tornado.

Water flowing along a specific trajectory can create enormous, turbulent waves.

When the earth cracks along a specific trajectory, it brings about earth-shattering changes.

We call these changes the forces of nature.

The power of nature is immense, but we cannot obtain it except through magic.

Without a doubt, if magic flows along a specific trajectory, it will only bring about even greater power.

The question is, how do we control this powerful magic?

The initial answer was magic.

The mage transforms magical energy into mana within their body, and then controls the flow of mana through spell models to release spells with different effects.

But this is not the only solution.

A mage's magical power is always limited, and this limited magical power determines that the natural forces a mage can control are also limited.

But the power of nature is limitless.

Is there a way to harness this infinite power of nature?

Very simple.

Build a bridge, using knowledge and wisdom to build a bridge between humanity and nature.

In the era when people ate raw meat and drank blood, our ancestors used their wisdom and knowledge to gradually harness the power of nature.

This wisdom and knowledge is what we now commonly refer to as runes.

"Different design methods and different bridge-building materials result in bridges with different load-bearing capacities."

"Rune masters are the bridge designers."

After an extremely long build-up, the word "rune" finally appeared in Gaode's field of vision for the first time.

He remained silent and continued reading.

"The magic of heaven and earth flows without rules."

Runes are the bridge between rune masters and the magic of heaven and earth. Once the rune master builds the bridge and lets it pass, the magic can make the wind rise, the water move, the stars shift, and the constellations move.

Runes are essentially about fixing the flow of magic, making it follow a predetermined path.

Multiple basic runes can be combined to form a composite rune, and multiple composite runes can be combined to form a magic circle.

The magic circle is the final form of runes, a complete system.

"Basic runes are the cornerstone of magic circles and the beginning of runic writing."

"The total number of basic runes in the world has exceeded 8, and new basic runes are constantly being created."

"However, most of these basic runes are obscure runes, and there are only about 3700 commonly used basic runes."

"A qualified runemaster only needs to master 1000-2000 basic runes."

"Because 1000 basic runes, when combined, can cover 90% of the needs, and 2000 basic runes, when combined, can cover 99% of the needs."

This introduction gave Gaode a strong sense of déjà vu.

He stopped, thought about it seriously, and finally realized:

Isn't this exactly the same as the Chinese characters he used in his previous life?

The number of Chinese characters has now exceeded 10, but only about 3000 are commonly used.

1000 commonly used Chinese characters can cover more than 90% of the expression needs, and 2000 commonly used Chinese characters can cover 99% of the expression needs.

With the continuous emergence of new things, these two thousand commonly used Chinese characters that have existed for a long time can also be perfectly expressed through arrangement and combination.

For example, the Chinese characters "电" (diàn, electricity) and "脑" (nǎo, brain) existed thousands of years ago. After a thousand years, they can be combined to express the newly born thing "computer".

The same concept applies to basic runes.

With this connection, Gao De instantly grasped the importance of "basic runes".

Without a doubt, to get started with Runeology, just like you need to recognize words to write an article, you need to master commonly used basic runes.

Looking further down, it was indeed the case, though there was a slight difference:

"Basic runes are divided into eight levels, from level zero basic runes to level seven runes."

"The first step to becoming a runemaster: Mastering 651 commonly used level 0 basic runes."

This concludes the "Foreword" section of "Introduction to Runes".

The following information contains sample diagrams and deconstruction explanations for commonly used level zero basic runes.

However, the data does not list all 651 level 0 basic runes, but only 10.

Gao De instantly understood: these 10 level zero basic runes were his "homework for the day".

Just like the "homework exercises" in yesterday's materials.

In addition, next to the documents was a stack of blank basic magic paper, a basic rune pen, and a bottle of basic magic ink.

This is the "stationery" that He west prepared for Gaode.

The first level zero basic rune introduced in the information is called "Gathering Magic (Level Zero)," and its function is very simple: to gather the magic power between heaven and earth.

But it is precisely this simple function that makes the "Gathering Magic (Level 0)" rune an indispensable basic rune for almost all magic circles.

Moreover, the rune diagram for "Gathering Magic (Level 0)" is not simple either.

Even though it's just a so-called level zero basic rune, it's still quite complex.

And there are no shortcuts.

Only by repeatedly copying and memorizing, and then integrating and mastering the techniques, can one achieve true understanding.

Gaode didn't even spend a second on "fear" of the difficulty of the upcoming learning process.

His mind immediately focused on the rune diagram and deconstruction of "Gathering Mana (Level 0)" in "Introduction to Runes," and nothing else.

"The First Enlightenment of Runes" is a handwritten document, clearly written by Hosie O'Kenley.

The academy's chief rune instructor undoubtedly possessed an exceptionally solid grasp of rune knowledge, resulting in a very concise yet clear and easy-to-understand deconstruction of the entire rune diagram.

Gao De read it carefully, and soon finished the first reading.

Then, he closed the document and began to ponder and recall.

After about thirty seconds, Gaode opened the data again and reread the parts that were unclear or incomprehensible during his review and contemplation.

This time, he used less time than the first time.

Then, I closed the document again and pondered and recalled.

Twenty seconds later, I opened the document again and started reading again.

After repeating this process seven or eight times, Gaode closed the data again and reviewed it. The process was now completely smooth, without any further delays or glitches.

Rune diagrams also use this method.

In the quiet rune workshop, the only sound was the rustling of Gao De flipping through the data pages from time to time.

When he closed "The First Enlightenment of Runes" for the last time, he never opened it again.

Gao De took a deep breath, picked up the rune pen, and after filling it with magic ink, unfolded a piece of magic paper and began to write.

Gao De, attempting to imitate runes for the first time, held his breath, his eyes focused and serious.

At the same time, the magic power within his body was transmitted from his palm to the rune pen in his hand, and then, through the pen tip, mixed with magical ink, fell evenly and steadily onto the magic paper.

When Gaode first started writing, he was a little cautious, worried about failure.

But as soon as he put pen to paper, all the distracting thoughts in his mind vanished instantly, leaving only the rune diagrams and their corresponding deconstructions in his mind.

Gao De has fully devoted himself to drawing the basic rune "Gathering Magic (Level 0)".

There is a widely circulated saying among mages: "Magic is a private realm open only to geniuses."

But in the field of rune literature, genius is just an entry ticket.

It requires not only exceptional talent, but also outstanding control, remarkable creativity, strong willpower, excellent memory, and sufficient focus and patience.

And a touch of purity.

Gaode has always had a very pure approach to "learning".

Meanwhile, in the room just a door away...

He west, a mentor whom Gao De had never met, put down his rune pen and magic paper.

On the magic paper, a rune diagram that looks like an cryptic book to the untrained eye, a rune diagram that is far more complex than the "Gathering Magic (Level 0)" rune diagram, is displayed like a work of art.

The old man stared at the complex rune diagram before him, lost in deep thought.

This rune diagram is not a conventional magic circle attempt, but a test rune diagram he conducted with the aim of deriving the "interference constant".

These include robustness tests accurate to four decimal places, regular energy increments, and a series of complex rune logarithmic and disturbance logarithmic variations.

These things are not easy to deal with.

It requires an extremely large amount of computation, an extremely solid foundation in runic literature, and an extremely large number of experiments.

Even Hosie O'Kenley, who was deeply immersed in the field of runic literature and had single-handedly developed six, or more accurately, five and a half, fundamental rules of runic literature, initially found it a headache.

Just thinking about the massive number of experiments that need to be conducted makes him feel at a loss.

He even doubted whether he would be able to complete these experiments and derive the "interference constant" in the final days of his life.

But he understood that this "interference constant" affected whether the six basic rules of runic literature were valid, and hid the most essential secret of rune arrangement.

So, after calming himself down, He west picked up the ordinary paper and pen that were placed aside again and began to record the data.

This journey has only just begun.

Whether we can reach the finish line is another matter.

Just keep moving forward.

His attitude towards "runes" has always been very pure.

……

One is an old man, an expert who has been immersed in the field of talisman literature for hundreds of years.

One was a teenager, a complete novice who had only been exposed to the field of talisman literature for a day.

Two people, vastly different in age, status, and education, are now "sharing a room" and striving for the same goal.

The distance is just a door away.

(End of this chapter)