Lord of the Sky City

The research notes left by Winsel meticulously recorded various contents about Mana Runes, from the initial research ideas, through the research process, to the methods of drawing runes, and finally the uses of the runes, everything was documented therein.

It was only after reading this notebook that Rocky came to truly understand Mana Runes.

This was indeed a great invention!

As for Winsel, he was a true genius!

Not only had Winsel invented Mana Runes, but he had also perfected the entire system of Mana Runes on his own, and even classified the runes into levels.

According to his classification, Mana Runes were divided into six levels, with the First Level being the lowest and the Sixth Level the highest. As the levels increased, the capacity of the runes also continuously rose.

This classification of levels corresponded exactly to the sizes of Magic Stones, which were similarly divided into micro, small, medium, large, extra-large, and a special category.

According to Winsel’s calculations, a First-Level Rune corresponded to a Micro Magic Stone, but it contained only half the Mana of a Micro Magic Stone, meaning that it took two First-Level Runes to equal one Micro Magic Stone.

Second-Level Runes corresponded to Small Magic Stones, and similarly, it took three Second-Level Runes to equal one Small Magic Stone.

The Third-Level, Fourth-Level, and Fifth-Level Runes all had similar conversion methods.

From this conversion, it was evident that a single rune could not compete in capacity with a Magic Stone of the same level, a point that Winsel also mentioned in his notes.

But he also emphasized in his notes that the advantage of Mana Runes was not in their capacity, but in their size!

The essence of a Magic Stone was after all a stone. This essential nature gifted Magic Stones with a massive flaw, that being their large size.

Even the smallest Micro Magic Stone had to be the size of a bottle cap, which was the smallest size achievable for Magic Stones. Any smaller and they couldn’t contain Mana, becoming just a useless rock.

But what could a Micro Magic Stone do? Sorry, it could only be used in daily life, such as powering Magic Energy Lamps, and beyond that, it was incapable of much else. The Mana contained within a Micro Magic Stone was too little to be used in manufacturing Mana Equipment, let alone embedding it in Void Magic Armor.

To manufacture Mana Equipment, at least a Small Magic Stone was needed, but how big was a Small Magic Stone?

The size of an egg!

Each Small Magic Stone was equivalent to a stone the size of an egg, so imagine, on a piece of equipment, even large items like shields or Plate Armor, how many Small Magic Stones could be embedded?

As for Medium and Large Magic Stones, it goes without saying: they were simply too large to be used in manufacturing equipment. Rocky knew that only a complete set of Void Magic Armor could barely integrate a Medium Magic Stone; no other equipment could accommodate such a large stone.

Therefore, even though Medium and larger Magic Stones contained a large amount of Magic Power, their excessively large size meant they could only be used in Magic Cannons or Skyships.

This was the inherent flaw of Magic Stones: they were too large.

This is where the advantage of Mana Runes came in.

And what is a Rune? It’s just a symbol!

How big are runes? Runes don’t have a volume at all!

As long as there is space on the target, runes can be drawn on it, and any number can be drawn; it can be said that using mana runes has almost no limitations!

This is why Rocky was able to sever a mana sword with a rune sword in the first place.

Although the severed mana sword was also embedded with micro magic stones, due to their large size, only two micro magic stones were embedded in the hilt of the long sword, naturally limiting its power within a certain range.

In contrast, the rune sword left by Winsel had no such limitation. Winsel specifically mentioned that rune sword in his notes and emphasized that all the runes drawn on the rune sword were first-level runes!

It is known that the magic energy of two first-level runes is only equivalent to one micro magic stone, while two micro magic stones were embedded in the mana sword.

Even so, when the amount of first-level runes with such low magic energy content reached a certain number, the power they unleashed already surpassed that of two micro magic stones.

This was exactly Winsel’s initial intention in researching mana runes, using quantitative changes to bring about qualitative changes!

"Phew…"

As Rocky closed the research notebook and organized the content he had seen, he couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

It was through reading the contents of the notebook that he finally understood the greatness and subtlety of mana runes, and he also developed deep respect for Winsel.

Winsel was definitely a master; this was not only evident in his ability but also in his determination to resist demons. His determination even led him to give up the opportunity to flee to Sky City. You should know that a master like him would have certainly been among the first to be sent to Sky City in those days, yet Winsel did not leave.

But it was this stubbornness that led him to invent mana runes. It’s detailed in his notes that he continued his research alone in the institute for ten years after everyone else had fled to Sky City, finally succeeding in his research of mana runes.

That was a whole ten years! What kind of persistence was required for Winsel to endure ten years and finally complete his great invention?

This kind of persistence couldn’t help but impress Rocky.

Now, the mana runes had finally seen the light of day again, and had landed in Rocky’s hands. So, not just for himself, but also for Winsel, Rocky had to promote the use of mana runes.

As for the technique of drawing runes, Winsel also recorded it in detail in the notes. To draw mana runes, one must use magic power, and the higher the level of the rune, the greater the requirement for magic power.

According to the notes, a first-level magic energy rune is very simple; a first-level mage could complete it once they grasped the method. But as the level of the runes reached second-level, the requirement for magic power was relatively high, needing at least a third-level mage to complete it.

As for more capacity-demanding third-level runes, at least a sixth-level mage was needed to successfully draw them.

The strict requirements in terms of magic power did give Rocky a bit of a headache, since he was just a first-level mage.

Fortunately, this thing wasn’t absolute; he was just a first-level mage now but could level up in the future! Even if he couldn’t reach the highest level, he could still hire someone to draw the runes.

So while this was somewhat stressful for him, he wasn’t too worried; after all, he could already learn first-level runes, which was enough for now.

He had to learn first-level runes as quickly as possible!

After reading through the research notes, Rocky now had a clear goal about what he needed to do next—learn first-level magic energy runes as soon as possible!