41 Rune Craftsmanship

The following month, Drake spent his time conducting research and purchases through Roxanne's store.

Usually, the knights focused on body strengthening elixirs and such things, and Roxanne didn't have that many clients to begin with. However, she was still a rank 2 acolyte.

"Do you have anything that might interest acolytes like me?", Drake asked out of curiosity

Roxanne grinned in a terrifying manner. She was always wearing a veil, only showing her mouth. She didn't seem to be old, but as a witch, appearances were deceiving.

"Of course, I do. What don't you take a look to the backstage of my store? There is plenty of stuff I accumulated throughout the years, when I studied ruins. Unfortunately, most of the useful knowledge has already been sold. I suppose there remains some encrypted information and partially damaged books, but I can't promise you will find what you seek"

Drake was a bit thoughtful. The potions he could purchase with his 30 magic crystals were not worth buying. After all, ever since Drake became a Half Grand knight, his attributes were so high that the toxins wouldn't have any effect on him. Only his Grand-knight level breathing technique adapted to his body showed some signs of increasing his bodily attributes.

Drake took a look at the scrolls, but unfortunately, he couldn't just scan them. They were protected by some kind of array that prevented someone from stealing the information or part of the information contained in them. However, just the title was sufficient for Drake to purchase the 8 scrolls contained in the shelf.

[Barbarian Research – Runic Tattoos, written by Rune Master Polis]

Runes. The reason why Grand Knights held so much status despite not having magical power and having limited potential was the fact that they usually owned enchanted items. Using enchanted armours and weapons, they could unleash a fearsome power dealing both physical and magical damage, sometimes dangerous enough to threaten newly advanced Magi.

'This…Runic knowledge? This is a great deal! How come she gave up on learning it?'

[Beep! The book is written in Ancient Babylonian Dialect. Furthermore, the Rune Master Polis encrypted the scrolls, probably making it near impossible for someone who doesn't have the key to understand what he has written]

'Can you decipher it?'

[Beep! Depending on the level of encryption and method, it will take 3 to 18 hours to thoroughly decrypt the 8 scrolls]

Had it been anyone else, these scrolls would have been utterly useless, but Drake possessed a trump card regarding analysis: his biochip.

"I would like to buy these scrolls?"

"Ten magic crystals", Roxanne said

"Is this how you treat your regulars? I don't mean to say that we know each other very well, but considering that I am a sentinel, I believe you owe me fairness at least. This level of encryption…If I can even decipher a tenth of it, it will be enough to consider myself lucky!", Drake said, faking outrage.

Roxanne sighed. She knew all too well the difficulty of breaking an encryption. Sighing, she said: "Considering that you spent over sixty magic crystals to purchase me potions last time that allowed me to conduct a few experiments, I will make you a discount, and sell them to you at 5 magic crystals. Even if it is complicated, it is still rank 2 acolyte knowledge, perhaps even rank 3 acolyte knowledge."

"3 Magic crystals. I want to read them out of curiosity. I don't really think that I will gain anything"

"4 Magic crystals!", Roxanne replied

Drake thought for a while, and accepted: "Alright. It seems like we have come to an agreement"

Later in the day, Drake returned to the [Bear Tavern], and secluded himself in his room.

After six hours of studies, a notification woke him up.

[Runic Barbarian Tattoo – Rank 3 acolyte information

By using the blood of a magical creature and 27 magical ingredients, it is possible to create a runic barbarian tattoo increasing the strength, agility and constitution of the target by up to 2 points in each attribute. The increment is permanent, and a person can only have one tattoo at the same time. Getting rid can be done fairly easily by destroying the runes meticulously with a [Rune Engraver] tool, though it is time-consuming.]

'Amazing…'

Some people might disregard this runic knowledge as inferior, but in the eyes of a body refinement acolyte, it was pure gold.

'Not only will I be able to strengthen myself greatly…I might even be able to raise a unit of peak-knight subordinates within the sentinels!'

[Beep! Resuming analysis of [Wind Blade] and [Wind Barrier], as well as research on [Grand-knight level Sword Art]. Respective progress: 12%, 13%, 44%. Estimated time before completion of the respective tasks: 1 week, 8 days and 24 weeks]

'Good!'

On his night table, there was a missive. He was currently reading a letter from his household.

Drake had been exchanging letters with his father in the past weeks, learning great news. The secret of his father's recovery on top of getting his hands on the barbarian king two-handed claymore capable of releasing flame made him joyous. With his father's peak knight cultivation and this enchanted weapon, it was only a matter of time before Count Prio would be fully conquered. The war had just started, but the Viscount Allan had already crushed two sub-armies of the Count with very few human losses.

Meanwhile, Drake had heard of the son of the Count, acolyte Jean Prio, preparing to meddle with the war. Drake could not attack him in Helios because of the laws. If he murdered him in daylight, there would be endless waves of problems. Furthermore, it would bring tremendous problems to the Sentinels he had joined as well.

But Drake had already planned a scheme.