43 Rune Forging 3

"Since ancient times, there existed the basic hundred runic symbols. The basic runic symbols are what allows for Artificers to merge and combine the symbols together to form an entirely new symbol. Till this day, the Artificer Union of the Divided Continent have created over millions of combinations, forming many new runes!"

"That is amazing! Millions of combinations!" That was the first time Wang Li Tian had heard of something being able to achieve such a large number. Of course, Long Tang Yun was feeling rather low-spirited from Li Tian's reaction. Why couldn't he act this way when I spoke about my achievement?!

"However, the number of combined runes that are effective are actually very much lesser. The biggest reason for that is due to the complexity in the combined runes. Some new runic symbols were a culmination of 50 different basic symbols. The instability will result in the overall rune to collapse. That is why I emphasise to you that…?" Long Tang Yun was waiting for Wang Li Tian to reply that 'a strong foundation is very important', yet all that he received from the boy was a confused expression on his face.

"A strong foundation is very important, Little Li Tian! Understand?" The little boy was slightly shook when Long Tang Yun suddenly raised his voice. He nodded and agreed along with his teacher.

"Ah…" Long Tang Yun was exhausted from speaking so much. If only his disciple could read and get an understanding of the knowledge from books. Sadly, this was not possible and so he had to explain everything by himself. Shaking his head, he focused back on giving his disciple his assignment.

"Now, I shall give you your assignment. The first thing any disciple in the School of Artificing has to learn is the 100 basic runic symbols. 33 are able to form primary Wards, another 33 form the primary Glyphs and another 33 form the primary Observers. There is one runic symbol that is special. It is an all-rounded runic symbol that has traits of all three types." The stack of paper that had runic symbols were passed to Wang Li Tian. Those runic symbols are the basic runic symbols that Long Tang Yun talked about.

"You will be stationed in this room until you finish memorising every single runic symbol. You will not be able to step out of here. There will be food delivered to you. When you have used up that stack of paper, I shall replenish it." Standing up, Long Tang Yun walked to the door before finally turning around to look at Li Tian. "I wish you all the best my disciple."

"…" The door was closed and Wang Li Tian sat on the cushion, looking at the door with a dazed expression.

On the other side, Long Tang Yun paced himself around the room, his arms was behind his back. Was that too mean of me? Should I have not done that? What if this assignment is too hard for Little Li Tian and he has to be stuck in that room forever? Should I have given him more aid and not just drop him down such a steep learning curve?

No matter how much the Prime Elder thought about it, his pride got the better of him and would not allow him to reenact his decision. Worse comes to worse, should it prove to be too difficult for him, I can only hope that little Li Tian would request to give up.

Inside the room, Wang Li Tian sat in his seat, stoned. It was only when Li Tian realised a crucial problem, did he react to his situation. "Oh no! I have a meeting with Elder Phoenix tonight!"

Wang Li Tian did not know what he should do. After all, his teacher told him that he was not allowed to leave this room until he memorised the runic symbols. On the other hand, Elder Phoenix's meeting was equally important. Wang Li Tian hated disobeying the requests of others, especially when he cared about those people. Although he had only met both his teacher and Elder Phoenix yesterday, his heart tells him that they were both great people.

As Wang Li Tian was thinking about what he should do, a glowing red object pierced through the rice paper window and it's speed slowed down considerably when it went into the room. As it flew directly above Li Tian, the red object started to drift down and landed on the table. It was a feather with nice details. Wang Li Tian picked it up. The feather started to glow even more and a voice transmitted into the boy's head.

"Young one, this is the Old Phoenix speaking. I see that your teacher has given you a large task for you to complete. Do not worry about tonight's meeting with me and just focus on your task. My consciousness is able to spread across the entire academy and so I was able to know of your circumstance. In regards to your task, there is one hint I could give impart on you. The Demonic Beast language is all-encompassing and comprehensive. There is more to it than meets the eye."

The message ended there and the feather dissipated into thin air. With regards to the mysterious hint, Wang Li Tian wasn't really focused on it. After all, he was more worried about the meeting with Elder Phoenix. Since Elder Phoenix does not have any problems with it, I shall start memorising! Pulling up his sleeves, Wang Li Tian got into a comfortable posture and started to look through the runic symbols that Elder Long gave to him.

One runic symbol, two runic symbols, three runic symbols, four runic symbols in, Wang Li Tian was hit with a rush of exhaustion. He shook his head, trying dispel the tiredness. It was not that Li Tian does not enjoy learning new things, it was more that if he had to focus on something unfamiliar, there would always be a wave of fatigue that strikes him. Luckily, this would not be the case for things that he had already learnt.

Ah whatever! Maybe writing it out will help me with memorising… Wang Li Tian picked up his ink brush. As he referred to the master copy, he copied down the symbol. Like he had done it before, his hand flowed and slithered across the paper. The finish product looked as if he had drawn this runic symbol before. That's weird…