Abe the Wizard

Chapter 23 Rune

"Regarding the materials, I have already prepared them. I have been collecting them for many years and recently found the perfect fire and ice mana stones," Master Bensum said as he opened a box filled with his collection of materials.

"What's this?" Abel found something very familiar among the materials—three rubies and three sapphires. He took out the six gems and examined them carefully. They were indeed the same ones he had sold.

"These are fire mana stones and ice mana stones. It's rare to find such perfect mana stones, but I was lucky to purchase them in Harvest City," Master Bensum said joyfully. Abel, concerned that he might have sold the gems cheaply, refrained from asking about their value, fearing he would be devastated by the answer.

"Your task from now on is to use this pen to draw those runes. The angles, the magnitude of power, and the thickness of the strokes must all be identical," Master Bensum emphasized, pulling out a pen from the box.

"A brush?" Abel was once again astonished, as it was something very familiar to him. This was an authentic brush from the original world—handle, tip, the whole deal.

"Brush, that's a good name. Its proper name is Rune Pen. The handle is made of forbidden magic paulownia wood, and the tip is made from the softest hair behind the ear of a wind wolf. The wind attribute of the wolf helps the Rune Pen conduct runic ink more effortlessly, while the forbidden magic paulownia wood prevents external subtle magical influences from affecting the rune creation process," Master Bensum explained as he handed the Rune Pen to Abel.

"This Rune Pen is very difficult to master. It takes a lot of learning and practice to correctly draw the lines of the runes. You can give it a try," Master Bensum said, taking out a bottle of regular ink, opening the bottle, and placing a piece of parchment on the table, encouraging Abel to begin.

Abel took the Rune Pen and naturally gripped it with his middle and ring fingers, pressing the handle with his thumb. He dipped it into the ink bottle and wiped off the excess ink at the bottle's edge. After glancing at the runes in the book, he effortlessly wrote out the first page of runes.

Master Bensum was stunned as he watched from the side. He had been practicing with the Rune Pen for over twenty years, yet Abel's first attempt showed better control and force than his own. The amount of ink used was also something he had learned through countless failures and retries. Although there might be some minor differences in the runes Abel drew, the smooth lines and proper shapes were on par with Bensum's own work. With a bit more practice, Abel could surpass the master.

A strong sense of jealousy surged within Master Bensum. The gods seemed so biased; not only did Abel possess knightly abilities, but he had also mastered forging techniques in just a month, creating a hundred-practice greatsword. And now, he even possessed the mental strength that Bensum had longed for.

This was Abel's first time practicing runes, yet he was already proficient enough to rival the results of decades of effort of others. Master Bensum waved his hand weakly and said, "You should go back and practice on your own."

After speaking, Master Bensum ushered Abel out of his room and remained alone to soothe his wounded soul.

Abel noticed that something was amiss with Master Bensum and decided to return to his room in the castle with a pile of things. There was no quiet place in the blacksmith's shop where he could practice runes undisturbed.

If Abel knew what Master Bensum was thinking, he would have told him that he was overthinking it. After all, in another world, he had systematically studied and practiced using a brush since elementary school until his professional life. Whenever he had free time, he would practice calligraphy to cultivate his artistic sentiment.

After a week, Abel had completely mastered four runes. Whether writing large or small, he could maintain the proportions perfectly. While practicing the runes, he found the Fire Mana Rune to be very familiar.

It was strikingly similar to the "Ral" rune in Diablo 2. The Fire Mana Rune had more connecting lines than the Ral rune, with some linked to the sword hilt and others to the entire blade, but the overall outline was very similar. The effect of the Ral rune was +5-30 fire damage, which was similar to the effect of the Fire Mana Rune.

Could the runes in this world be connected to the runes in the Diablo world? Legend had it that the runic system in the Diablo world had been lost, and only the runic stones from ancient times could still implement the runic system. This meant that the runes in this world still existed. If he could master more runes in the future, could he also create runewords from Diablo 2?

But it was too early to think about this now. Currently, Abel had only mastered four runes, while there were 33 runes in Diablo 2 that had to be combined to form runewords.

Of the four runes he had mastered, after careful analysis and identification, Abel compared them to their counterparts in Diablo 2 and determined that they were the Fire Mana Rune (Ral), Ice Mana Rune (Tal), Lightning Mana Rune (Ort), and Poison Mana Rune (Eth).

From memory, Abel recalled a runeword. If it hadn't been one of the first runewords listed in the many runewords, he probably wouldn't have remembered its existence, as its capabilities in Diablo 2 were poor, even worse than regular low-level unique items. This runeword was Ancient Oath.

Ancient Oath: Materials Needed: 3-socket Shield Runes Required: Ral + Ort + Eth Attributes After Successful Crafting: +50% Defense +43% Cold Resistance +48% Poison Resistance +48% Fire Resistance +48% Lightning Resistance 10% Damage Converted to Mana

Although the properties of this runeword were mediocre in the game, they would be formidable in reality. Therefore, Abel decided that once he succeeded in crafting a single-rune magical weapon, he would then create this shield.

The next day, Abel packed the Rune Pen and runic ink into a box and went to the blacksmith's shop. He found Master Bensum and said, "Master, I have already mastered four runes. I have decided to start crafting magical weapons today."

Master Bensum was completely immune to Abel mastering runes so quickly. A few days sooner wouldn't have made a difference; he had become accustomed to being struck by Abel so many times. Due to Abel's contribution to redeeming Joshua, Earl Joel had generously redeemed Joshua and sent five servants as well.

Now, the blacksmith shop, worth over tens of thousands of gold coins, was bringing in over 500 gold coins in wealth for Harry Castle every month.

Master Bensum produced a hundred-practice greatsword he had previously forged. All these greatswords were Abel's own property, as Marshal Knight had stipulated that all equipment forged by Abel belonged to him. As the heir to the castle, Abel also had the right to use iron ore resources.

After forging these hundred-practice greatswords, Abel had casually thrown them into this room, designated by Master Bensum as Abel's exclusive workshop. If anyone else saw this, they would surely go insane. The greatswords strewn on the floor outnumbered those in the Harvest City Weapons Shop. Previously, Bensum used to supply a greatsword monthly to those weapon shops, but now with Joel's redemption, the most prosperous weapon shop in Harvest City was worth more than tens of thousands of gold coins. It had been providing over 500 gold coins in wealth to Harry Castle every month.

Master Bensum produced a hundred-practice greatsword he had previously forged. All these greatswords were Abel's own property, as Marshal Knight had stipulated that all equipment forged by Abel belonged to him. As the heir to the castle, Abel also had the right to use iron ore resources.

After forging these hundred-practice greatswords, Abel had casually thrown them into this room, designated by Master Bensum as Abel's exclusive workshop. If anyone else saw this, they would surely go insane. The greatswords strewn on the floor outnumbered those in the Harvest City Weapons Shop. Previously, Bensum used to supply a greatsword monthly to those weapon shops, but now with Joel's redemption, the most prosperous weapon shop in Harvest City was worth more than tens of thousands of gold coins. It had been providing over 500 gold coins in wealth to Harry Castle every month.