28 Chapter 28: Practice, Practice, Practice

Mordred grabbed the talisman papers off to the side and began to work on his first inscription.

He decided to first practice with the Berkana rune. This rune had many different functions but the most basic talisman it would create was the Tier 1 Spell: Water Healing.

This was most people's first rune due to how easy it was to draw. In all truthfulness, runes were very easy to draw as long as one was careful.

The difficulty when it came to [Basic Inscriptions] was properly pouring in the correct amount of mana while evenly distributing it through the end of the brush.

Mordred dipped the brush in the ink before putting it onto the paper and creating the first line before making the other parts of the rune.

But when he brought the brush away, he saw how awful the rune was.

Even though the rune was drawn correctly, the ink was uneven which meant that the mana would not properly circulate through the rune.

In short: It was a failure!

Mordred threw the paper off the table before picking up another and beginning to work on his next one.

For the next 27 hours, Mordred did nothing but repeat a pattern:

1. Grab a piece of talisman paper

2. Dip brush in ink

3. Calm down

4. Guide mana through the brush and into the ink at the tip

5. Draw the rune

6. Judge the quality of the rune

7. Throw away the shitty rune

8. Rest once every 2 hours

9. Repeat

Even after 27 hours of practice, Mordred had been unable to complete a single successful rune, though he did manage to level up his [Basic Inscription] to level 5.

'No wonder they say that this profession is equal to alchemists in being a money burner. There weaker runes are hard to seel since there are so many and annoying to make yet necessary to actually make me better.

Even rune sequences are pretty common unless they are above 5 steps.

Guess I will just have to keep on working on these for a while.'

And work on them Mordred did. For the next 2 weeks, he would pretty much do nothing but work on runes. He also added two more steps to his rune creation plan, buy more materials and eat.

Even though he knew he would need to buy more, he did not expect the sheer amount. And while it did not cripple his savings of system points, it was still upsetting for him to see his points being used so much without any improvement.

He would also make sure to summon Nyx and teach her different things while he was working. Mordred figured he would kill three birds with one stone.

'Nyx is pretty much like a blank slate. While she has some personality, she has no knowledge. I may as well teach her a bit while I practice.

I can also use this as a chance to increase my [Familiar] skill to a higher level. Although it is already decent, I need to get it to the point where I no longer feel the drain.

Oh! I can also use it to practice writing runes while my mana is constantly being drained or low. This might help me be more efficient with it.'

With those thoughts in mind, that is how Mordred went through another month of practice. Not only had both of his skills had gained levels but he was also able to complete his first rune.

'Finally. I've beaten the time El predicted it will take. That is what that damn woman gets for doubting my genius. [Analyze]!'

[Intermediate Talismen of Tier 1 Spell: Water Healing: Using the water element, the user is given the experience of being soaked in the refreshing water, so that their fatigue is also recovered while being healed.]

"You finally got it, boss?" asked a voice in Mordred's head.

Mordred looked over to the banshee-loli staring at him while she had 3 books floating in front of her. Nyx did not even appear to be looking at him while she asked as she was too focused on studying.

'I wonder if this is a good or a bad thing. She has become too much like me with just a month of my influence. Do I corrupt people that easily?'

Nyx had indeed grown much in the past month. Not physically or spiritually (haha) but mentally. She was no longer a completely blank slate and had developed more advanced cognitive abilities.

Her personality also became much more fleshed out and less two-dimensional.

"Yep. Finished the first and I plan on trying to make sure I can repeat it."

Nyx did not speak again but just nodded her head in understanding.

Seeing his familiar not even speak to him did not bother Mordred. The pair had good chemistry since he was so similar to her, he did not find faults with her behavior.

'Now that I have made the first one, let's see if we can replicate this.'

Mordred was able to replicate his success after only 3 more tries. The next time he succeeded after 2 more tries. He soon reached the point where he could correctly draw the Berkana rune correctly every time he tried it.

After he got Berkana down, Mordred began practicing the other 23 runes. He was able to successfully write each of them down after another 2 weeks of practice and effort.

This result was beyond genius. Most demon inscriptionists would take at least a year to be able to write all 24 runes while races like humans would take years.

This was all due to Mordred's innate talent/genius and his species rank. Both gave him an overwhelming advantage over others.