Chapter 301: Are Incantations Necessary?
Thankfully, Jason had the system with him, so he didn’t have to go through the trouble of learning the entire Aruna language from scratch. The moment Azrael said a few words of the language to him, the system kicked in, and Jason learned everything in a few seconds!
Jason also learned that Runes could be used for literally anything that Magic could do. There were Runes for causing explosions, Runes for freezing, wind Runes, Earthquake Runes, flight Runes, decay Runes, darkness Runes, and more and more and more. It was impossible to know just how many feats you could perform with Runes since there were no limits to what you could do. The only thing a Rune caster needed to do was to learn the best way to create and apply a Rune, and they could expand and innovate their knowledge to do anything they wanted.
But due to the difficulty of learning Runes, most Rune crafters are known to only specialize in one or two branches of Rune Crafting for their entire lives. For example, Azrael only focused on Decay Runes and Runes that could interact with life force and Necrosis since those were the areas he specialized in. He could also create small elemental Runes for attacks, but those Runes would never be as good as the Elemental Runes created by a crafter that specialized in the Elemental field.
Now that Jason knew the basics and fundamentals of Rune Crafting and he was also capable of speaking the Aruna language, Azrael told Jason that he was qualified to take on the title of Red Class Rune Crafter – the lowest class! Jason didn’t really care about the title since he knew that it wasn’t going to help him in any situation during a battle, but he felt a sense of accomplishment from gaining another form of power that he could use in the future.
"So what’s going to happen when you’re done with the ritual? You’ll be able to draw out the sword’s true potential?"
Gina ate some pancake as she asked this, and Jason nodded. Jason already tried putting mana into the sword, and he even used Appraisal on it, but none of them worked, so he knew that there was no way he could use it without performing the ritual. Thankfully, Azrael said that the ritual wouldn’t take too long, and Jason had already learned the incantation that he would have to say for the binding process, so once Azrael was done drawing the Runes, Jason would take over.
Azrael drew a large circular Rune in the center of Jason’s back before stretching lines out from six tangents around the circle. He then drew twisted symbols that curved around the circle and traveled from the center of Jason’s back towards Jason’s shoulder blade and down to his lower back. A series of small symbols were painted over Jason’s spine, and another long line circled Jason’s stomach like a band. Azrael hummed as he looked over his work, and he asked Gina to please excuse him since he needed to draw on Jason’s chest as well.
Gina carried the plate of pancakes away while taking another pancake to eat, and Jason spoke up with a small smile.
"Didn’t you bring those for me?"
Gina blushed in slight embarrassment, and she swallowed before promising that she’d keep some for him! Jason chuckled, and he shook his head as he watched Azrael drawing on his chest. Jason followed the brush strokes that Azrael was performing, and he slowly scanned through the knowledge he absorbed from Azrael’s journals to interpret what Azrael was doing. According to the journal, there were three main things that were required when creating a Rune. The first thing was a Foundation. This was the part of the Rune that would contain the Magical Spell that you want to perform. Jason thought of it as code that you could run on your computer to accomplish a task! This Foundation was the largest part of the Rune and also the most important because a single mistake in the Foundation could change everything about a Rune! If someone missed even a single stroke while drawing a Rune Foundation, then they could change a Rune that increases your strength, to a Rune that tears your body to pieces!
The second part of the Rune was the Rune Key. This was the part of the Rune where the Rune Caster would focus all of their mana in order to activate a Rune. Runes were very powerful because they required far less mana than an actual spell! A Rune that would be able to create an SS Rank attack might only require the same amount of mana that an A Rank spell would take and the only difference would be the complexity of the foundation and Key! This ability to use very little mana for creating great feats was something that every Rune Caster felt proud of, and there were even entire branches of Rune Crafting that focused entirely on reducing the amount of mana needed to activate a Rune. Jason only needed to send mana into the Rune Key in order to make the Foundation begin to work, but Jason wouldn’t even be able to send his mana into the Rune Key without the third part of the Rune: the incantation.
Incantations were something that Jason still didn’t fully understand. The Journals explained it as a necessary component for Runes, and Azrael also told Jason that there was no way a Rune would work without using the incantation. The incantation was like a guide that would allow you to properly transport your mana into the Rune Key and activate the Foundation. But Jason didn’t know why he had a feeling that incantations were not really necessary. Incantations took time, and if Jason was going to use Runes in battles, then he wouldn’t have time to read incantations. If he could find the Rune Key without an incantation, then did he really need to use one at all? Jason decided that he would try to find a way to bypass the incantation altogether. If it works, then Jason would have shortened his Rune activation by a large margin, and if it doesn’t work, then Jason would accept that incantations were necessary.
"You look so sexy."
Jason suddenly turned to the side, and he saw Gina lying on her stomach and nibbling on a pancake while staring at him with a hungry gaze. Gina was looking at the marks that Azrael had drawn all around Jason’s body, and Jason couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face when he realized that she liked the way they looked on him.
"Didn’t you just say this was some sort of devil ritual?"
Jason joked playfully, but Gina shrugged, and she bit her lips as her smile grew.
"What can I say? You’d make a sexy demon."
Jason laughed at Gina’s words, and Gina chuckled along with him before she finally asked.
"So, you said Runes could do anything, right? Can they make us stronger? Like increasing our physical strength and mana capacity?"
Jason nodded calmly as he recalled a part of the journal that had spoken about the uses of Runes, and he answered.
"Yeah, we can use it to increase our strength, but it’ll be a little difficult to use it to increase our mana. Runes have very strict rules, and you can’t use them to do something that complex without facing some repercussions. Besides, I don’t think it’s a good idea to depend on Runes for things like increasing strength or mana. Depending on them too much will make it harder for us to grow normally. We can get some Runes for emergencies, but we should focus on growing our own power instead."