The Last Alchemist

"The name seems a bit interesting in Advanced Rune Literature."

Rosen looked at this thin book and was interested in flipping through it, but halfway through, he stopped again.

"Tall buildings rise from the ground. A majestic building must have a solid foundation. The foundation of rune science is the 21 basic runes provided by Lilith. The foundation is not yet stable, let me see what all these fancy things are doing at the back. The more you look at it, the easier it is to think about it!”

‘Pa~’

He closed the page again and looked at the basic runes on Lilith's manuscript again.

If he can determine the correct form of the 21 basic runes and ensure that these runes can take effect stably, then on this basis, he can build a reliable rune literature building, a building that belongs to him alone!

When he thought of the various strange properties displayed by runes, Rosen's curiosity grew rapidly like bamboo shoots in spring. In the past, Rosen had experienced curiosity of this intensity only when he first came into contact with Einstein's theory of relativity.

Driven by this curiosity, he left everything behind. The Cult of Fire, Nerogard Academy, Bishop Amran, and even the Prancing Pony Mansion, he temporarily put them aside. All focused on basic runes.

In this state of concentration, Rosen completely forgot himself. He followed the method he came up with the night before and began to proofread the basic runes one after another.

It took Rosen nearly a day and a night to completely correct the form of the simplest rune. Now there were 20 of them, and the form was more complex, so he spent even more time.

When proofreading, Rosen could not feel the passage of time at all, and he would not take the initiative to stop. Every pause was either because he was too hungry or too sleepy to bear it. Once his body regained its energy, his mind would immediately return to the basic runes.

As the days passed, nobles were still being killed from time to time in Nirogard City, and terrifying legends of monsters were still circulating in the city. However, more than half of the cold winter had passed, and the annual Festival of the Gods was approaching.

According to the tradition of the Northern Alliance, the god will bless the world on the festival day. He will drive away the cold demon and bring sunshine and endless vitality back to the world.

Of course, this is what myths and legends say. According to Rosen, the Festival of Gods is equivalent to the beginning of spring on earth. After the beginning of spring, this winter is over.

The festival is approaching, and the residents in the city are busy preparing for the festival. Every day that passes, the festive atmosphere in the city becomes stronger, but this noise and enthusiasm has nothing to do with Rosen.

He was immersed in endless experiments and couldn't extricate himself.

Up to now, he is still calibrating the basic runes, but compared with his initial enthusiasm, he now only feels that this thing is extremely boring, and every experiment is a physical and mental torture.

No matter how strong the curiosity, no matter how fierce the impulse, after experiencing more than 100,000 mechanical experiments, they have been exhausted.

Now, the only thing that keeps Rosen moving forward is the obsession in his heart, a work habit that must get things done no matter what.

With such endurance and persistence that far exceeds that of ordinary people, time moves forward slowly.

On this day, heavy snow fell outside the window of the Secret Garden Hotel, but the weather was surprisingly warm, as if the earth had revived and started to spray warmth into the sky.

Rosen was sitting by the window as usual, with his head buried at his desk. He was activating magic power, adjusting rune forms, and writing experimental data on paper.

Just like this, he revised it bit by bit. When night fell and the lights turned on outside the window, Rosen suddenly took a long breath and wrote the last equation on the paper with a quill lightly and smoothly.

After writing the last letter, Rosen gently put down the pen, curled up on the chair, put his cold hands to his mouth, and gently heated up.

21 basic runes that randomly take effect based on spirituality, after more than 600,000 experiments, finally became 21 nearly 100% reliable magic runes.

Of the 21 basic runes, every stroke, stroke, and even the specific shape of the strokes embodies Rosen's hard work.

After taking a short rest, Rosen organized the manuscript into a volume, then picked up a quill pen and wrote the four words "Standard Runes" on the cover.

"When~~~~when~~~~when~~~~"

Just as Rosen wrote the last word, a loud bell suddenly sounded outside the window. Immediately afterwards, Nerogard City, which had been very quiet just now, suddenly became very noisy, with cheers, songs, and various musical instruments almost ringing out at the same time.

At midnight, when God gives blessings, people put aside their prejudices, calm their desires, and put aside their hatreds to celebrate this most solemn annual festival together.

Rosen stood up and walked to the window alone.

He saw that in the square not far from the window, a large bonfire was lit at some point. Countless people gathered around the bonfire, singing and dancing, and everyone's face was filled with laughter from the heart.

Infected by this joyful atmosphere, a smile appeared on Rosen's face unconsciously, and his mood became lighter than ever before, and all the negative emotions caused by the boring work were wiped away.

After watching alone for a while, he turned back to the table and carefully put away the manuscript containing the 21 correct runes. Then he took out the "Compendium of Advanced Runes" given to him by the red-haired old man.

The foundation of rune literature has been laid down by him, and it’s time to start adding bricks and mortar.

Opening the first page of the book, the title is: Incredible Frost Magic.

He was moved, interested, and continued to read the text.

‘As we all know, any magic that uses magic power will consume the magician’s energy. When the magic takes effect, it will inevitably cause the environment to become hotter. Before the emergence of runes, this was almost never a surprise. Rays, fireballs, lightning, and even illusions were all like this. This seems to reveal a universal law of nature: everything has a price. But the frost rune unexpectedly circumvented this universal law. It is so powerful, but it almost doesn’t cost anything, so much that people suspect it is the illegitimate child of the gods.’

After a series of emotional descriptions, Rosen saw the rune structure of two frost rune magics at the end of the article.

The first magic: ice ring.

In a specific order and spatial structure, activating the 1st, 7th, 13th, 14th, 17th, and 21st basic runes can summon ice ring magic.

When the ice ring appears, it will radiate frost power 10 meters away from the caster's body. Under the influence of this power, the temperature drops sharply to a terrifying level. In the ice ring, ordinary people will be frozen to death if they persist for 5 seconds. Although monsters will not die, their movements will be greatly affected and they will be unable to move.

The second magic: ice spear.

In a specific order and spatial structure. Activate the 1st, 7th, 13th, 14th, 17th, and 20th basic runes, and it is possible to summon a 1-meter-long ice spear.

The ice spear is born out of thin air, suspended around the body of the caster, ready to be launched at any time. Once the caster selects the target to attack, he only needs to silently recite in his heart, and the ice spear will fly out at a terrifying speed, pierce the opponent's body, and inject a large amount of frost magic into the target's body, causing terrible damage to the target's body.

"Ice ring, ice spear, these names are really not very good. Looking at the rune structure, it seems not difficult. I'll give it a try."

This is a hotel. The range of ice ring magic exceeds 10 meters, which is easy to cause accidental injuries, so Rosen first tried ice spear.

According to the instructions in the magic book, Rosen arranged the basic runes in the air one by one.

At this time, the effect of Rosen's work during this period was reflected. Every time he used magic to construct a basic rune, a rune light and shadow emitting a faint glow would immediately appear in the air, which shows that each rune is effective.

When the five runes were completed, Rosen's heart was slightly shaken, and a strange feeling emerged. Almost at the same time, Rosen felt a slight light in the air beside him, and then he felt a slight coolness in the air around him.

He immediately turned his head and saw that a spear made of ice crystals appeared in the air around him at some point. The spear floated quietly on the right side of his body, and a faint cold white mist was floating around. When people saw it, they would have a feeling that the temperature of this thing must be very low.

What's even more amazing is that Rosen found that when the ice spear appeared, there was a vague connection between his mind and the ice spear. This feeling was as if he suddenly had an extra arm.

He immediately tried to control it.

As a result, the ice spear immediately moved according to his thoughts. Rosen wanted it to go left, it went left, up, it went up. Down, it went down. It immediately turned at high speed.

All the movements of the ice spear were extremely light, giving Rosen a sense of control at will.

This thing is even better than a real arm.

"Tsk tsk, what a wonderful magic. I just don't know how destructive it is."

About this, you will know if you try it.

Rosen turned his head and looked, and finally chose a solid wood chair in the room as the target of attack.

"Go ahead."

"Hiss~~"

The ice spear made a shrill whistle in the air, and a white light flashed like lightning, and then Rosen heard the sound of "crack~crack~".

He looked at the chair and saw an amazing scene.

The ice spear had disappeared, and the solid wood chair had also disappeared. In the place of the solid wood chair, there was only a pile of wood slag and a thick cold mist. Even the floor of the hotel room was attacked by the power of frost, and a large crack appeared. The cracks continued to appear, and at the same time, there were bursts of wailing.

Rosen was shocked: "It actually froze the wood into slag in an instant. If this hits a monster, wouldn't it freeze the monster into a piece of meat? '

After being surprised, Rosen couldn't help but cover his head with his hands, with a look of collapse on his face: "Oh~ It's really incredible frost magic."

This completely subverts the laws of thermodynamics!

If all magic has to pay a price, then what is the price of frost magic? Is it really just a simple arrangement of a few runes? Isn't this too illusory and too light?

While stunned, Rosen became more interested in rune magic.

He immediately returned to the table, picked up the "Rune Advanced Outline", and read it carefully.

Just as he was reading it, suddenly, a wild roar came from the window.

This roar was very violent. Judging from the intensity of the sound, it must be a creature with a huge body and a huge lung capacity. When the sound wave reached, even the window glass of the hotel shook violently, and dust fell from the cracks in the wall.

The only thing that can make such a roar is a monster!

Rosen had sharp ears. After the roar, he immediately heard many small screams. From the sound quality, it seemed to be the screams of women and children, and there were more than one.

"What happened?" Rosen was shocked and immediately stood up and ran to the window.

Just when he was halfway, another wild roar appeared. What was shocking was that this roar appeared in another location in Nirogard City.

Rosen's heart jumped: "Huh? Is there more than one monster!"

A terrible idea came to his mind: "The God Festival, when the gods bless, should be a time for the whole city to revel. At this time, monsters attack the city, and many people will definitely die. As the actual controller of Nirogard City, no matter how hard the academy tries, the result is that its reputation will be ruined in the end!"

"This is really vicious. I don't know if Bishop Amlan planned it."