During these 3 weeks, Atticus had constantly been engraving runes and recovering his will, repeating this cycle over and over again.
And today, Atticus could feel it; he had finally passed the milestone!
Atticus had initially wondered how exactly he would become a grade 2 rune master. And from his research, he learned that it wasn't that, while passing the milestone, one would experience or undergo any obvious changes.
On the contrary, it would be as though nothing happened at all.
The only change Atticus would feel was only in the way he engraved runes.
Anytime Atticus wanted to engrave runes, he was always careful with his intent, always making sure to think simple things.
But this didn't mean he hadn't tried to add his own variations to them or even make more complex runes. Actually, Atticus had tried multiple times in the past, but he had always failed every time.
Anytime he tried, it was as though his body was instinctively letting him know that he didn't have enough will to support what he wanted to do. It was a surreal feeling, as if his intent was being blocked by some unseen force.
But now, looking at the slate in front of him, Atticus felt no such restriction.
Atticus channeled his mana into his space ring, bringing out a vial of the will renewal potion.
This was the first time he was going to try to engrave a grade 2 rune, and this was just barely after passing the milestone. Atticus had every intention of being careful.
He put the vial in his mouth, so he would be ready to gulp the contents at a moment's notice.
Atticus took in a deep breath, clearing his head of any thoughts. He focused his whole attention on what he was about to do.
He had just finished mediating not so long ago, so his will was in full power.
After calming and clearing his mind for a few seconds, Atticus's eyes suddenly snapped open, focusing on his intent, the tip of the engraver in his right hand suddenly let out a deep red glow.
Atticus swiftly brought down the engraver on the slate, instantly engraving the words "impenetrable shield" on it with extremely beautiful penmanship.
But just as the tip of Atticus's engraver left the surface of the slate, he immediately felt a huge drain as his will instantly plummeted to staggering levels.
There was no delay; it happened instantly as Atticus lost his motivation to do anything.
But luckily, Atticus had already anticipated this outcome.
Atticus struggled to fight the effects of the demotivation as he quickly gulped down the will renewal potion.
Atticus allowed his back to fall on the bed as he started taking in deep breaths, focusing and trying to let the potion do its job.
After a few moments, Atticus finally felt his grip on himself returning. Atticus exhaled deeply, 'Thank God I put the vial in my mouth,' Atticus thought, very glad he had thought and planned ahead.
'But damn, this one was even more terrible than normal.'
It was as if the intensity of the demotivation increased twofold, which was completely unlike anything he had ever felt.
If he hadn't planned ahead by putting the vial in his mouth, Atticus would have already been in dreamland by now.
After feeling like he had calmed down enough, Atticus sat upright and turned his gaze toward the slate letting out a blinding red light in front of him.
Atticus picked it up, 'Hmm, I can't feel any difference,' Atticus pondered while examining the slate.
The weight didn't change, even the density of the mana coalescing around it was the same as the grade 1 rune he had been making.
But then, Atticus turned his gaze toward the letters engraved on the slate. They were all currently letting out a red glow, but that wasn't what Atticus was focused on.
What his attention was on was the power radiating out of the letters.
It wasn't that the mana increased; no, it was as though the words on the slate held a huge weight.
'I need to test this,' Atticus decided to test out the effect of the grade 2 rune himself.
He meditated for about 20 minutes, and when he felt his will had recovered enough, he stood up from his bed and left his room.
Walking down the hallway of the barracks, Atticus noticed that it was completely empty and devoid of people.
On getting outside, he saw that no youth was walking around the camp, but he was able to find out why as he heard the clattering sounds of metal and different youths shouting from the direction of the training grounds.
Atticus brought up his device to check the time, seeing that it was just after noon, he closed it and turned toward the north and started running towards the wall.
Atticus didn't need to use the gate as it was just a waste of time; on getting to the wall, Atticus simply, like a recoiled spring, jumped up, scaling over the 12ft fence effortlessly.
His passive strength as an expert rank was more than enough for such a small task without him needing to channel his mana.
Atticus started running into the distance away from the camp. After getting to a considerable distance, about 1.5km away, Atticus finally stopped.
He swiftly channeled his mana into his space ring, bringing out the newly engraved grade 2 rune.
Just as he was about to channel his mana into the slate, Atticus paused.
Channeling his mana into his space ring once again, Atticus brought out an ordinary grade one rune with "shield" engraved on it.
He swiftly channeled mana into the slate, emitting a red glow, and instead of throwing it up in front of him, he threw it at a considerable distance away from him.
The red glow intensified in the air as the slate crumbled, forming an ethereal bright red shield.
Atticus raised his hand, focusing on the fire element, 'Intermediate-rank,' Atticus decided.
He controlled the power of the fire, reducing it to intermediate-power output.
Atticus swiftly shot the fire out towards the shield, resulting in an immediate explosion upon impact. The force dispersed debris, cloaking the vicinity in a shroud of dust.
Atticus controlled the air to clear away the haze. In the aftermath, different cracks were all over the shield, with its initial bright red light already flickering as though it would disappear in any second.