094 Immense Benefit (4400)

“Teacher, I’ll choose the inheritance crystal.”

In just a few seconds, Xiunan had made up his mind.

“……”

Omega was silent for a moment before raising his left hand.

In his palm, the initial badge gleamed with a tempting luster, as though constantly drawing Xiunan’s gaze.

“Are you sure you don’t want to think about it a little more? The initial badge would benefit you enormously as well. Right now, your Thornflower rune has only just begun. If you used the initial badge and sensed the aura of the primordial Thornflower rune within it, your progress in that area would surely advance by leaps and bounds...”

“No, Teacher. Compared with improving the Thornflower rune, I’m more interested in the knowledge of the Milor Dalen School. Besides, when the Thornflower rune improves doesn’t really matter. I prefer to take things step by step, with my feet firmly on the ground...”

Xiunan began to spout nonsense with a straight face. In any case, he only needed an excuse; a little grandstanding did no harm.

“All right.”

Omega shook his head, then suddenly flung his right hand toward Xiunan. “Hold onto it.”

The inheritance crystal traced an arc through the air.

Xiunan caught it with one hand, only to feel a chill in his palm, as if he were holding a lump of ice. Looking at it up close, he could see tiny glimmers like brilliant stars flickering inside the transparent crystal sphere.

It was mesmerizing, suffused with a mysterious unknown quality.

Something that made one long to uncover its secrets.

“Use it now. There’s a seat over there. I’ll stay beside you in case anything goes wrong...”

Omega said this as he put the initial badge back into his robes.

“Thank you, Teacher.”

Xiunan thanked him, then walked over to a black chair and sat down.

“The inheritance crystal isn’t dangerous. You only need to focus on it for a while to receive the inheritance. Your mind can only carry away part of the knowledge, and once it reaches a certain limit, it will automatically pull you out...”

Omega gave a brief explanation of the inheritance crystal.

“I understand.”

Xiunan nodded.

He lifted the inheritance crystal in his hand, and his attention began to sink gradually. Before he knew it, his vision started to blur. Everything beyond the inheritance crystal before him—tables, chairs, floorboards—all turned into a haze of gray mist in the corner of his sight.

As the other things grew more and more indistinct, the inheritance crystal at the center of his vision became brighter and brighter.

Then Xiunan suddenly felt his entire being plunge downward, like a fish falling into water. His first sensation was warmth, a warmth that spread through his whole body.

Next, from some unknown place, a current seized him and began dragging him forward. The torrent was fierce, and his resistance had almost no effect.

He could only speed onward, or drift left and right.

No one knew how long passed before Xiunan, floating in the water, saw a patch of light ahead—like fireflies dancing over summer fields. In just an instant, one luminous cluster after another filled his vision.

They were countless tiny orbs of light, densely scattered through the surface layer of the water. One glance was enough to make them seem as dazzling as the stars in the sky.

Almost instinctively, a desire rose in Xiunan’s heart—a desire to swallow all of those light orbs whole. It was a kind of primal urge.

The current was extraordinarily swift, and in the blink of an eye he drew near that sea of light. At last, Xiunan’s body brushed against the first orb, and he let out a groan.

“Ah...”

An unbelievable rush of pleasure, like biting into an ice pop in the height of summer, like parched earth suddenly receiving a life-giving rain.

Xiunan felt himself being filled, completed.

A body of knowledge he had never before touched surged into his mind in an instant, as if he had read it a thousand times. It was a guide to operating a distillation apparatus.

His body was crying out: I need more light orbs!!

Xiunan looked at the sea of light around him, and a greedy hunger rose from the depths of his heart. He began to control his body, swaying constantly left and right.

At the same time, he stretched his limbs out as far as he could, taking the shape of a starfish to ensure that he touched as many light orbs as possible.

Thus, Xiunan hurtled toward that sea of light at breakneck speed, moving left and right in a rapid zigzag.

Like a greedy snake that could never grow any longer.

One light orb after another was taken into his grasp.

Elementary Gas Stabilizer Operation Guide +1

Elementary Side Drafting Essentials +1

Common Pitfalls in Elementary Three-Dimensional Carving +1

Elementary Model Construction and the Use of the Rune Workshop +1

Elementary Identification and Processing of Extraordinary Materials +1

Elementary Pairing of Combat Support Circuits +1

...

There were many, many more like these, and Xiunan swallowed them down as though eating beans. This was not half-chewed recklessness; every one of them was truly and firmly memorized.

The only thing he lacked was practical experience and training. He would still need to keep testing the knowledge in his head before he could fully master it.

Even so, it saved Xiunan a vast amount of time and spared him from having to read in misery.

That left him more precious time to devote to accumulating rune-construction experience and exploring feasible paths for mutated runes.

Ding ding ding ding...

Several more light orbs struck Xiunan’s sturdy chest, instantly turning into a sky full of radiance as they merged into his body.

Rustle, rustle...

It sounded as if the tide were receding in his ears.

He suddenly felt himself rising, and the dark current that had been pushing him forward now changed direction, surging upward and firing Xiunan out like a cannonball.

Whoosh! A figure burst through the surface of the water and shot into the sky.

After a brief daze, Xiunan came back to himself.

He looked around and realized that he seemed to have already come out of the inheritance crystal. Lowering his head to glance at the glass sphere in his hand, he felt the light within it had dimmed somewhat.

“You’re out? How do you feel?”

Not far away, Omega, who had been writing at his desk, set down his pen and turned to look at Xiunan.

“Very good. Very full. I even feel like staying in there forever...” Xiunan’s mind was still somewhat fogged.

“That’s normal. It means you received too much new knowledge in a short time and your mind can’t react to it right away. Usually, a day or two of rest is enough...”

Omega stood and walked over. Xiunan handed him the inheritance crystal, rubbing his temple with his fingers.

“Take this. It’s a perfume I made myself. Just a little drop on the forehead will help refresh the mind.”

Omega tossed him a thumb-sized round bottle. The walls were translucent, and pale green liquid could be seen inside.

Xiunan did as he was told and placed a drop on his forehead. Smelling the faint fragrance, he indeed felt much better.

“It’s yours now. Keep it. Tomorrow I’m leaving the school, so go and call your senior brother over now...”

Omega waved a hand, indicating that Xiunan could go.

The door closed softly, and a figure quickly departed, walking along the lofty corridor toward the depths of the complex.

Two days later, in the B-2 Laboratory of the core district.

The mountain breeze carried a touch of the sun’s warmth, while bronze wind chimes hanging at the corner made crisp ringing sounds.

From above, one could see a ribbonlike river winding across the green plains. It twisted and turned through a sea of brilliantly colored flowers, circled at the foot of the mountain, and then rushed into the lush green forest.

A slender figure stood quietly watching. He was at the edge, with a sheer rock wall directly beneath his feet. The cliff was nearly vertical, offering no stairs or path at all.

From first to last, the B-2 Laboratory had only one route of access: the rune elevator. There were no steps leading from the mountainside to the summit. The laboratory itself had been built upon a suspended stone platform, living year-round in the company of mountain wind and pines.

Its one advantage was silence.

But now, that silence had been broken.

Boom!

An explosion suddenly rang out from the second floor.

Immediately afterward, a choking gray plume billowed outward. The thick smoke seemed toxic as well. A hardy longhorn grass growing on the cliff face was brushed by it, and within moments it wilted limp and drooping.

Clatter, clatter, clang...

More frantic crashing sounds came from inside, as though some equipment had been smashed.

Whoosh!

A window in one of the second-floor labs suddenly shattered, and a surging blaze erupted from within.

Like a ferocious tiger baring its fangs and claws, the flame shot more than ten meters into the air, radiating searing heat.

“Cough, cough, cough...”

A head, blackened by the smoke, poked out from the window. He caught sight of the slender figure at the edge of the stone platform at once; that person was still facing away from the building.

“Senior Brother! It looks like the gas stabilizer exploded again! I’m at a critical stage of the experiment and can’t stop now! Senior Brother, could you help me bring another one up from the basement, if there’s still any left in storage!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the steadfast back at the edge of the platform gave a violent twitch, and Floating Ice slowly turned around in a daze.

He stiffly lifted his head, and what met his eyes was Xiunan’s blackened face, along with a grinning mouth of white teeth standing in stark contrast to that soot-darkened skin.

“...”

Floating Ice was genuinely furious.

“Tell me yourself: in these past three days, how many of my experimental tools have you ruined? Three gas stabilizers, one rune workshop, two transmission devices, fourteen dissection tools, a whole pile of engraving pen modifier spheres... Last night you even nearly blew up my second lab...”

As he spoke, Floating Ice grew more and more irate. He still did not know what Xiunan had gained from the teacher. Ever since Xiunan passed the assessment three days ago, his foundational rune knowledge had improved by leaps and bounds, and he could answer most of the basic operating steps for all kinds of laboratory apparatus as long as someone asked.

This was a good thing, and Floating Ice was certainly happy for his little junior brother. But Xiunan had also begun conducting experiments on his own, and that was nothing short of a disaster!

In three days, he had ruined a mountain of equipment. He had produced toxic smoke twice, runaway flames three times, innumerable small explosions, and two major explosions in total.

Xiunan’s practical skills had advanced by leaps and bounds, but the price he paid was an almost complete set of experimental equipment.

One had to know that as the senior brother of the Milor Dalen School, Floating Ice’s B-2 Laboratory was naturally a high-grade one, and all the equipment inside was quite expensive.

After being subjected to so much abuse by Xiunan, Floating Ice felt as though his heart were bleeding every moment of the day. It was truly painful.

The reason he had continued tolerating it was that Xiunan had developed a tremendous interest in mutated runes. Having finally found a kindred spirit with a similar standing, Floating Ice, who was usually rather withdrawn, naturally treasured him very much.

So long as Xiunan did not blow up the entire B-2 Laboratory, Floating Ice felt he could still endure it.

Besides, one had to admit that his little junior brother was genuinely diligent, experimenting day and night without pause.

Last night, even while he was sleeping, explosions had continued one after another on the second floor. Xiunan seemed not to need rest at all, burying his head in hard work. Of course, as a result, Floating Ice had been forced to sleep in the cellar for two consecutive nights.

Enough complaining. In the end, Floating Ice still indulged Xiunan’s wishes and carried another gas stabilizer up from the basement with his apparently slender frame.

“Thank you, Senior Brother!”

Xiunan immediately reinstalled the stabilizer, then hurried back without delay to the rune workshop.

He picked up the engraving pen and completed the last stroke on the blood-red model floating within the grid coordinates. Pressing his palm against the control area, he rapidly switched through dozens of auxiliary circuits, and the rune workshop entered side drafting mode.

After a quick inspection revealed no flaws, he changed modes once more.

The model was divided into more than a dozen plane slices of equal thickness, and Xiunan repeated his confirmation through the cross-sections.

No problems. Then came another round of checks.

Once everything was intact, he carried out compression and ignition.

The round badge that had already been processed was now soaking in a pale violet solution. Xiunan took it out with tweezers, then branded the rune onto its surface.

On the badge, a pale red line-drawn wolf paw emblem gradually took shape, its pattern faintly flickering with light.

Xiunan placed the badge into the recess and quickly ran to the gas stabilizer, flipped the switch, and adjusted the spiral.

From the third outlet, a pale red airflow emerged. Passing through a Ferris-wheel-like gas transmission and processing device, it was finally sent into a sealed box.

Beneath the suspended sealed box, a transparent glass hood dropped down and fit neatly into the groove of the platform below. The wolf paw badge sat perfectly at the center of the hood.

Then a pale red stream of air billowed out.

In an instant it reacted with the badge, hissing and crackling.

A moment later, the airflow dispersed, and the wolf paw rune on the badge seemed to have become more vibrant, its color deepening.

This was another kind of auxiliary gas, with an effect opposite to Moonblue gas. Its main purpose was to stimulate the rune’s active potential.

For ordinary rune artisans, even if they did not require all sorts of gas and liquid assistance, they could still complete a rune. But the Milor Dalen School pursued perfection. Rune formation had to go through at least three gas processes and two liquid processes, which would raise the rune’s overall potential.

Ten minutes later, Xiunan finally completed his third rune: Flame Paw Wolf. One-ring. Balanced in every respect, with combat power in the middle range among one-ring runes.

The other two runes were Ice Feather Bird and Flash Beast. For a beginner just starting out, stumbling along was perfectly normal.

And that was not all. Over these past few days, Xiunan had also been burning through evolution points at a frantic pace, testing the mutated paths developed by Senior Brother Floating Ice. In total, he had verified fifteen paths and successfully mastered one mutated rune.

Blanket Beast. One-ring. Its mutation trait was a special invisibility ability, allowing it to be draped over a person to assist them in becoming invisible.

Its effect was stronger when still, weaker while moving.

Aside from that, Xiunan had also discovered that if he possessed a clear mutation path, the evolution points required for verification would drop substantially. The more complete and clear the mutation path, the fewer evolution points it would consume.

So mooching off Senior Brother Floating Ice had been a highly correct decision, after all. He truly was a master of mutated runes.

Three minutes later, the morning’s experiments came to a temporary end.

The two of them rode the rune elevator to the core district cafeteria for lunch, and Xiunan, with his disheveled hair and soot-streaked face, drew plenty of attention.

But Xiunan was immersed in his own world and paid no heed to the fingers pointing his way. He was thoroughly enjoying the feeling of realizing, step by step, the ideas in his mind. It could be said that Xiunan was now entering his stride.

In the afternoon, Floating Ice conducted experiments while Xiunan watched.

At night, Xiunan made explosions while Floating Ice slept.

Another day passed.

In a room on the second floor, Xiunan poured the last of his evolution points into the experiment. He stood up, stretched, and picked up a cup of multicolored liquid beside him.

Gulp, gulp, gulp...

“I never expected the poison water I mixed myself to taste this good. Burp... I’m full.”

Xiunan set the cup back down.

Then he collapsed on the spot and died after bleeding from all seven orifices.

His twisting body writhed like a maggot in a dung heap.