Chapter 2: Mystical World Of Runes
Moments later, the young man calmed down his exasperating thoughts and stopped pacing around the room. He then raised his head and turned to face the direction of the realistic mannequin and said: "Nini, you were the acting vessel of this simulation's test subject, so I want you to elucidate this puzzling and frustrating situation for me. Do you know why or how this keeps happening?"
Nini hesitated for a brief moment and said in a nervous tone: [Master, Nini doesn't know if she should tell you this or not—]
"Just give it to me straight! And don't cut corners or mince your words for my sake! I can take it as long as it can help me achieve my goal! I am not someone who would disregard a piece of relevant advice simply because of my ego, so just say it!" The young man interrupted with his voice raised slightly, his tone sounding very austere and impatient.
[...Understood.]
After hearing the stubborn and demanding words from her Master, Nini no longer hesitated and proceeded to inform him of the issue: [According to Nini's observation, the most logical and feasible solution to the current problem would be for Master to tone down maximizing every aspect of the Runic Constructs, even if it is a basic construct…]
When the young man heard her 'logical and feasible solution,' he immediately scowled with a clear look of disagreement. He wanted to say something, but in the end, he didn't say anything. Instead, he calmly urged: "Go ahead, I'm listening."
Nini continued: [Instead of maximizing their effects, taking Master's Soul Force Limit into consideration, Master should minimize the effects of the Runic Constructs for better simulation results. That is just Nini's observation after having acted as a vessel for the test subject. There could be other factors and constraints at play that led to the simulation's failure, but this method is more practical.]
[Additionally, Master could also reduce the runes—]
"Stop right there! Do not finish that sentence! What a truly unacceptable and impossible solution! Even if it is from you, Nini, I cannot accept such a solution! Such a solution is nothing but a pointless and preposterous attempt proposed and used by those incompetent fools! I am not like them! Everything I create or invent must and needs to be maximized, regardless of its relevance!" The young man immediately shouted in anger after hearing her response. He initially wanted to allow her to finish, but he couldn't take it anymore.
[But—]
"End of this discussion! I don't want to hear it! Your advice is nothing more than a cowardly attempt to achieve quick success! And that would be a waste of all my efforts until now!"
[Master, that is not what—]
"I said that I don't want to hear it!!"
'How can someone like me, with so much expertise in this field, minimize the effects of my inventions and creations when I could clearly see their true potential with my own eyes? As long as I am not blind, I refuse to commit something like that. Not to mention that the final product would decide my future path. I am Maximus, for god's sake! That act of desecration is against my maxim!'
Up until now, in everything he had undertaken to invent or create, he would always put in his maximum effort to ensure maximum and desirable results without wasting resources. And now he was being told to create Runic Constructs by minimizing their effects? Outrageous! He would rather remain inept than attempt such a clear desecration of the principles of conduct that he has lived by until now.
This world was a mystical world of runes and abstract manifestations. These abstract manifestations are reified with the profound power of runes. Everyone in this world has had the chance to study Runology or acquired some basic knowledge about runes. This was possible through any and all the institutions that one could attend as it was already common knowledge.
Ever since the discovery of the Ethereal Runic Mystic Arts, a mysterious and profound ancient secret scripture, the whole world has changed rapidly, and eventually progressed into the current path of technology and the supernatural, otherwise known as the Technological-Runic Era.
A mysterious power source known as Ethereal Runic Force was also discovered with the help of the knowledge acquired from the Ethereal Runic Mystic Arts. This power source could be harnessed and stored within runes and then used to unleash many supernatural feats.
Once one had a Runic Path engraved and imprinted on their Soul Vessel through the Runic Pathway that forms the channel that links the body and soul, which would be engraved on their body beforehand by a rune expert, they would be able to activate the imprinted Runic Path and harness Ethereal Runic Force into their Soul Vessel.
This would not only increase the Runic Path's complexity, depth, and one's profundity towards each of the Runic Constructs that made up the Runic Path on their Soul Vessel but it would also boost their physical attributes, such as strength and stamina from the feedback resulted from empowering the runes of the Runic Path on their Soul Vessel.
That was because the Soul Vessel's rank or status would increase proportionally to the amount of Ethereal Runic Force absorbed into the Runic Path.
This outcome was also immensely beneficial to supernatural power wielders because as the rank of the Soul Vessel increases, the Soul Force Limit would correspondingly advance in tandem. With the increase in Soul Force Limit, the number of times they could activate their Runic Paths to use their respective powers would also increase.
The imprinted Runic Constructs or Runic Path could only be activated and deployed by the Soul Force within the Soul Vessel. Hence, the power source known as Soul Force was extremely vital to those who had a Runic Path imprinted on their Soul Vessel.
With all that came the birth of the occupation— Runic Reification, otherwise known as Runic Manifestation. Those who deploy Runic Paths to reify or manifest their supernatural powers were known collectively as Runic Combatants.
Runic Combatants had extensive knowledge regarding general rune applications and rune deployments. They could achieve Runic Reification and wield extraordinary superpowers within their imagination or far beyond their imagination. These groups of people were the only ones who could wield supernatural powers by harnessing the power of runes using Runic Constructs that formed their Runic Paths.
By deploying their Runic Paths with their Soul Force, they could execute the art of reification or manifestation of the superpower of their chosen Runic Path.
A Runic Path was essentially the directional growth or power path of a Runic Combatant. Examples of such paths are Elemental-Based Runic Path, Weapon-Based Runic Path, Enhancement-Based Runic Path, Technological-Based Runic Path, and so on.
There was also a unique path known as the Medium-Based Runic Path, which was slightly different from the ones mentioned above but close to the Technological-Based Runic Path, as it uses mediums to channel or exert a Runic Combatant's superpower or combat prowess.
The Runic Combatants are always the ones at the top of the world's upper echelon as they are all top geniuses in their own right.
And the young man who had just failed his 999th experiment— Maximus was a genius in Runology. He had a deep understanding of all types of runes and their application. One could even say that he knew more about runes than anyone in the world, but that wasn't the only thing he was skilled at.
Having been born with an exceptionally high Intelligence Quotient, he had practically skipped grades and acquired all knowledge about all fields of science, enough to receive a Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) degree.
The majors that he learned from sheer boredom include Programming, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Biological Engineering, Astrophysics, and so on and so forth.
When it came to pure knowledge, he was practically a menace. All the genius students of various majors all considered him an eyesore, as they were unable to maintain their statuses as geniuses of their majors because of him.
Despite all that, he didn't manage to graduate from University because he decided to quit out of boredom and frustration since it was a waste of his precious time.
With his achievements, he could have simply graduated early, but there were some hindrances that prevented him from doing so. As a result, he didn't graduate from his University and decided to quit instead.
Leaving that aside, he was currently attempting to create his own Runic Path without any success after so many attempts that numbered close to a thousand.
As compared to professional scientists and researchers, who did countless experiments, it might seem as though the number of times he attempted and failed his experiments wasn't that high since it hadn't even reached a thousand times. However, considering that it took him several days, sometimes even weeks to finish a single Runic Construct, that was quite a lot of failures.
Aside from that, it was important to note that he mostly worked by himself. True professional scientists and researchers that work and collaborate with many like-minded colleagues. As a result, whenever difficult problems arise during their experiments, they exchange ideas with one another to find a solution. Maximus, on the other hand, had to do everything by himself, including finding solutions to his problems during experiments and tests.
Runic Constructs, the embodiment of a Runic Path, were the determining factor of Runic Reification. By creating Runic Constructs, one could establish a Runic Path. On the other hand, by acquiring a Runic Path, one could have a chance to manifest any supernatural power of their own choosing.
In other words, one's supernatural power would be based on the selected Runic Constructs within the Runic Path. Thus, one had to choose carefully when deciding on their path.
There are some people who are naturally endowed and do not necessarily have to construct or employ a Runic Path to use their supernatural powers. Even so, some of them still chose to employ Runic Paths for their own convenience.
Simply put, those who employ Runic Paths alongside their natural endowment would have an extra advantage with additional supernatural power. Since there was a clear benefit, those people chose to have a Runic Path engraved and imprinted on their Soul Vessels.
In retrospect, those people who did, usually end up becoming one of the strongest people in their nation or even the entire world.
With that being said, creating a single Runic Construct was a very complicated process and needed an insane amount of effort, concentration, and dedication to finally complete. Not to mention the time needed, which could take weeks to months on end. Even then, there was no guarantee that there wouldn't be flaws arising during the inscribing process.
Sometimes, there might even be some unnoticeable faults in interpretation during the encoding process if one was not diligent and careful enough.
On the other hand, a Runic Path was made up of several Runic Constructs with varying functions that constituted and eventually created the final product. Therefore, one could only imagine the work put in to create a single Runic Path.
However, the rudimentary methods and procedures like inscribing and bestowing functions through encoding were already practiced for hundreds of years and had been perfected to the point where ordinary people with the right amount of talent in comprehension and a bit of Soul Force could have their own Runic Path.
The only problem was the engraving and imprinting process of Runic Paths, which needed the assistance of rune experts in the field of rune application and deployment.
If that was the case, then why was Maximus, an indisputable genius in Runology incapable of creating his own Runic Path?
Ignoring the part where he would need an expert in Runic Construct creation, and someone to help or assist during the engraving and imprinting process, Maximus was only lacking in only one critical aspect, and that was his Soul Force Limit.
Every living being in this world was born with a Soul Force already in their Soul Vessel; this was an intrinsic power and principle belonging to all living beings, and Maximus was no exception to this natural order.
Furthermore, the amount of Soul Force one was born with doesn't naturally increase unless one finds a direct way to boost it.
Just like how Soul Force could be depleted or used up to activate a Runic Path on the Soul Vessel, there was also a method to replenish or directly increase the Soul Force Limit.
Weekly Power Status
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