Chapter 1985: Runic Empowerment

Inside Chris' training cave, Jack was still working on fusing with the Runestone of the Devil King. He spent his effort all day long and every day just for the runestone. Outside the cave where Jack was hiding, Spark and Therras stopped the monsters from disturbing him. They followed his instructions and did not kill the monsters too fast. This way, the monster's spawning rate didn't increase.

Like the other runestones, there was a time limit to the fusion trial. In the other runestones, one passed the tribulation if they could endure the time limit without pressing the quit button. In the case of Runestone of the Devil King, if one failed to connect all the lights within the time limit, one was sent out of the tribulation space, and the fusion was considered a failure. One had to start from the beginning again.

The time limit for the Runestone of the Devil King was two hours. This was very short, considering he had to connect hundreds of the lights around him while using a letter of power with over one hundred variations.

Fortunately, the letters of power used to connect the lights weren't randomized between the tribulations. This meant if he learned what letter of power connected the first and the second light, he could use the same letter of power when he restarted the tribulation. All he had to do was memorize the letters of power he had successfully guessed in his last tribulation. Thanks to his high intelligence stat, he had no problem memorizing them.

Even though he had a working method, the process still took an unbearably long time. By the second day inside the training cave, which was one day outside, he only connected around fifty lights. When he compared these connected lights with the rest, he estimated he only covered around one-tenth of the total lights.

At this rate, he would need around eighteen more days to pass the tribulation or nine days if measuring normal time. He couldn't afford the time. They might need to move already in a day or two. He didn't want others to wait for him just so he could fuse with this runestone.

Yet, his chance was not that bleak. As he made repeated guesses and got burned for every failure, his affinity with these letters of power increased.

Through repeated trials, he learned that the sense when he drew a correct line, and an incorrect line, gave a different feeling. The feeling was stronger when he almost touched the target light. Probably after doing it so many times, his mana sense had developed some sort of a sixth sense. He could feel the danger when he was about to make a mistake and get burned.

After testing this danger sense multiple times, he was sure he could trust it. He would stop connecting the line when he felt the danger. He went back and tried another letter of power.

This helped him not get burned from a mistake, but the process remained long.

He got accustomed to this danger sense with more practice. He learned that his mana sense could detect a minute change as he drew the line to connect the lights. He could feel the danger sense earlier.

By the third day, he could detect the danger much earlier. Some letters of power had the same starting line, but they always varied at least after one-fifth of the line. He could already detect the danger once this variation started. He could save much more time by ending it there and changing the line to a different letter of power.

Due to the picking up of speed, he memorized almost eighty percent of the letters of power connecting the lights by the start of the fourth day. Before the end of the fourth day, he connected the last light.

When that happens, all the lights and lines flared brightly. When the brightness softened, he found himself at the center of a huge constellation filled with runic symbols. This constellation revolved around him. He sensed its power as it revolved.

Without warning, this constellation shrunk rapidly and slapped into his body. A stinging pain coursed through him. He was taken aback by this sudden incident. The constellation burned into his skin. He felt like he was being burned alive. The pain was much worse than when he was roasted by the flames when he made a mistake.

The same as the flame burst during a mistake, the pain caused by this constellation was gone as abruptly as it appeared. Jack looked at his body after the pain was gone. There were burning tattoos in the shapes of runic symbols all over his body. These burning tattoos dimmed before disappearing altogether, but he could still sense them on his body.

He suddenly found himself outside the tribulation space. He was back in the hidden cave. He could hear the battle between Spark and Therras against the monsters outside. Peniel was out there helping the two. She left them and came to Jack when she sensed Jack had completed the fusion process.

"Congratulations!" She said as she flew over.

"Thank you," Jack said. He observed the Runestone of the Devil King floating beside him. It exuded a crimson aura.

"You know how to use it?" Peniel asked.

Jack nodded. Once the fusion was completed, the information went into his mind.

"Let's give it a try," Jack said. He rose before getting into a squatting position. As he did, runic symbols adorned his legs. The ground exploded as he pushed himself forward. With one leap, he shot out of the cave.

"Woohhh...!!!" Jack exclaimed. He felt the rush when the power of the runic symbols coursed through him. That just now was a normal jump, not a skill.

While in the air, he swung his sword and used the Sword of Light. Following his swing was a ring filled with runic symbols. A crescent light shot out from this ring. It left a trail while cruising through the air. The surface of this crescent light and its trail had runic symbols adorning them.

This crescent light hit one of the goblin knights below. It sliced the goblin knight's arm clean off.

Sword of Light didn't normally possess the ability to wound. This feat was due to the runic empowerment provided by the Runestone of the Devil King. The damage it caused was also much higher. Jack had seen a few powerful natives use this offensive runic technique. Now, he could also use this technique thanks to his new runestone.

Furthermore, the natives who used these techniques only performed them on a limited number of skills. They couldn't use it on every skill. Peniel explained that it was because using the technique on even one skill required a long training. The Runestone of the Devil King provided a shortcut that granted Jack the same expertise without needing to train.

After testing the technique's offensive capability, Jack landed amid the goblin knight swarm. The monsters were surprised by the audacity of their enemy. They didn't waste time to

pounce at him.

Jack let their attacks hit him. Before their weapons arrived, a layer of runic suit covered his body. It was similar to the runic suit Satan used. Even without activating a defensive skill, the damage he received from the goblin knights was greatly reduced.

"Awesome," Jack uttered. With his Hundred Synchronous Thoughts, he had no problem focusing on multiple things at once. He could focus his willpower on both the Runestone of the Devil King and the Runestone of Spellcasting while not getting distracted to fight

effectively.

Jack used Whirlwind Slash. Runic symbols accompanied the radial slash. A few goblin knights received instant death due to decapitation. Jack followed up his assault using Ice Ring. The radial ice energy was filled with runic symbols. As it passed through the surrounding goblin knights, all those monsters were frozen without exception. The runic empowerment greatly augmented the skill's ability to cause status affliction.

Jack continued to experiment with his new power. He felt both excited and mighty. Combining this runic empowerment with mana manipulation, his power output increased to

another level.

"Hey, you got a message!" Peniel said.

"Oh... It's from John," Jack said. He had been so absorbed by the fight he wasn't aware of the message. "He asked everyone to gather. Maybe Will has reached level 90, and it's time to set

out?"

"Maybe," Peniel shrugged.

Jack ended the training and exited the training cave. Although Therras and Spark didn't kill the goblin knights too fast, it still granted enough exp points to increase Jack's and Therras' levels by one. Therras was now level 94. Jack's Beast Monarch increased to 91, but he again used the level-down pill to decrease it back to 90.

Coming out of the training cave, Jack headed to the lakeside pavilion. He heard a commotion even before he arrived. When he arrived, he saw almost everyone had gathered there.

"Let go of me! I'm going to kill him...!!!"

Jack saw the source of the commotion. It was Mihos. Chris had set it up so they could summon their companions here to use his training cave. It was counter-productive if their main objective was to level up quickly since the exp points were shared with their companions. But Paytowin was already level 99, so he didn't mind helping Mihos level up. That's why Mihos

was here.

Little did Paytowin know, his decision to summon Mihos here had saved Mihos from sharing the fate of his faction brethren.