Mage's Profound Truths

Chapter 36: Spellcasting Tool (Part 2)

Returning to the room, Merlin hurriedly took out the cloth strip from his chest, quickly opened it, and revealed a hard object covered in black soil.

Because it was completely covered in soil, its true form could not be seen clearly, so Merlin gently wiped the surface of the object with clean water in the room.

Soon, after being cleaned once, the treasure gradually revealed its true appearance—it was a pendant, a small pendant in the shape of an inverted triangle, with a red gemstone the size of a soybean in the middle.

The red gemstone shimmered with a brilliant gleam under the faint candlelight.

However, Merlin did not pay attention to what kind of gemstone was inlaid on the pendant; although rubies are precious, they are far less valuable than a spellcasting tool. What Merlin truly cared about was whether this pendant was a spellcasting tool.

So Merlin quickly enveloped the pendant with his mental power.

“Whoosh.”

In the blink of an eye, Merlin felt a terrifying vortex pulling his mental power into the pendant. Feeling pleased, Merlin no longer resisted the pull, and his mental power was drawn directly into the pendant.

In Merlin's mental perception, the interior of the pendant was a completely enclosed space, filled with numerous small compartments—nearly hundreds or even thousands—and each compartment seemed to contain some mysterious rule.

Some of the compartments still contained relatively active wind elements, but due to certain reasons, these compartments were damaged, causing the wind elements to rush out.

Perhaps, this was the reason for the strange winds outside the castle.

“What a powerful spellcasting tool!”

Merlin withdrew his mental power, feeling deeply shocked in his heart.

The small compartments inside the pendant had already gone beyond Merlin's current understanding, but he could roughly guess their function—they were probably used to store spells.

Just like some spell scrolls, powerful spellcasters can, through special methods, inscribe spells into scrolls. Once someone possesses a spell scroll, even if their own power is weak, they can trigger the spell with just a bit of mental power and unleash great power.

Ordinary spell scrolls can only store one spell at most. Once the spell scroll is triggered, the spell inside will be released. Thus, spell scrolls are single-use spellcasting tools.

However, the pendant in Merlin's hand could store far more than just one spell. The numerous compartments in the pendant were the places for spell storage, with each compartment capable of holding one spell.

Merlin carefully counted the small compartments using his mental power—there were a total of 158, meaning this spellcasting tool could store 158 spells.

Such a spellcasting tool is truly terrifying—most spellcasters would be completely incapable of making it.

Merlin turned the pendant over and saw a few words engraved on its back—they were actually written in Morta script.

“Bel.”

The word engraved on the back of the pendant was “Bel”—clearly a name. In the spell notes of Old Man Aita, it was mentioned that according to the ancient customs of spellcasters, whenever a spellcasting tool was made, the maker would engrave their name on it.

Therefore, this “Bel” should be the spellcaster who created the pendant.

“I wonder if this ‘Bel’ is still alive?”

Merlin muttered in a low voice. Judging by the state of the pendant, many of the small compartments had shattered on their own, releasing some of the wind-element spells stored inside, which was what caused the strange wind outside the castle.

Therefore, this pendant must have already been around for several hundred years, or even longer.

Such a long time would definitely mean death for ordinary people, but it's different for spellcasters—especially powerful ones who can live two to three hundred years.

Whether there are spellcasters who can live for several hundred or even a thousand years, Merlin naturally had no idea. Old Etta didn’t know either.

After all, Old Etta was merely an entry-level spellcaster, so how much could he possibly know about the hidden affairs of powerful spellcasters?

Since this pendant was made by “Bair,” Merlin simply called it the Bair Pendant. As for whether “Bair” was still alive, Merlin didn’t really care.

What he cared about was whether this spellcasting tool was still functional.

So, he quickly extended his mental power into the pendant. This time, he carefully examined those small compartments.

There were a total of one hundred and fifty-eight compartments, most of which were already empty and completely damaged.

Some of them were likely damaged because someone had once activated the spells stored within the Bair Pendant,

while others were simply damaged over time.

Merlin counted carefully—there were only eighteen compartments in the Bair Pendant that were completely intact.

This meant that the spellcasting tool might still be able to store eighteen spells.

"Being able to store eighteen spells... that's enough!"

Merlin was secretly pleased. He had originally thought the tool was completely useless, but now it turned out it still had value.

Still, whether it could actually store spells would require testing.

Having made up his mind, Merlin once again extended his mental power into the pendant.

Among the broken compartments, there were still some spells stored at unknown times.

Because so much time had passed, the compartments had decayed, and countless wind elements were slowly leaking out.

At any moment, they could erupt unexpectedly.

Merlin would not allow such uncontrollable circumstances to continue, so he directly used his mental power to trigger the broken compartments inside the Bair Pendant.

“Buzz, buzz, buzz.”

At once, gusts of wind surged through the room. These were the remnants of spells from within the Bair Pendant.

Their destructive power wasn’t great, so they didn’t cause much damage.

Still, the room was left in a total mess.

After destroying all the remaining spells in the Bair Pendant, Merlin began to consider storing spells inside it.

At present, Merlin only had one spell—Fireball.

However, due to special circumstances, he could also cast a Large Fireball Spell with power close to a Level One spell.

If he were to store a spell, it should undoubtedly be the more powerful Large Fireball Spell.

Only by doing so could he fully utilize the Bair Pendant.

But this raised a question: could the Bair Pendant withstand a Large Fireball Spell that was nearly a Level One spell?

At the moment, Merlin couldn’t make an accurate judgment and would have to try it to find out.