Chapter 29: The Dragon's Hand

Time slowly trickled away, and Garon eagerly absorbed the knowledge from several books, his dragon eyes filled with solemnity and seriousness.

Three hours later, Garon set down the last book, "Compendium of Enchantment and Transmutation Spells." Among these books, only this one and another titled "Complete Collection of Apprentice Tricks" contained corresponding spell models and specific enchantment runes.

Then, Garon exhaled a long breath of cold air and half-closed his eyes.

In the pitch-black field of vision, Garon's spirit was entirely focused as he meticulously traced a spell model shaped like a bent five-fingered hand, engraving basic runes and spells into the model with his mental power.

Due to Garon's powerful mental strength, the process of inscribing the spell model in his mind seemed easy and straightforward.

In just a few minutes, a lifelike hand-shaped spell model appeared in Garon's mental world, extremely clear, with every rune and each twist of the pattern sharply defined.

A cantrip, Mage's Hand.

The most commonly used trick, with virtually ninety-nine percent of mages engraving the Mage's Hand spell model in their minds first.

Because it is very simple, a cantrip can be cast by mere thought.

Garon opened his eyes, stretched out a dragon claw, and pointed at a glass vessel on the table.

The magical power stored in his blood began to flow, drawing on the elemental energies in the air, forming a translucent hand that shakily grasped the glass vessel, causing the strange green liquid inside to bubble.

"Interesting."

Like a child with a new toy, Garon began pointing left and right, summoning translucent Mage's Hands that flew around him, each carrying different items.

If human mages were to see this scene, they would be astonished.

It was his first use, yet he could cast the same spell multiple times and control it effortlessly.

After a while, Garon stopped playing and put everything back in place, pondering. He felt that something was off about Mage's Hand—it looked rather unnatural.

A few seconds later, Garon realized the issue.

Mage's Hand was modeled after a human hand, but he was a dragon. It was indeed strange for a dragon to use a human hand model rather than a majestic and powerful dragon claw.

With this realization, an idea formed in Garon's mind.

He closed his eyes again, immersing himself in his mental world.

"Hmm, it should have sharp claws like blades, indestructible scales."

Garon began modifying the Mage's Hand spell model, gradually transforming it into the shape of his own dragon claw. Runes and spells adorned the patterns, forming an outline of a dragon claw bristling with scales.

The dragon claw slightly opened, its tips sharp as if ready to grasp the heavens and earth, exuding an indescribable aura of dominance.

Opening his eyes, Garon excitedly infused magical power into the spell model.

Whoosh!

The elements in the surrounding space churned, responding to Garon's call and creating a gust of wind.

However, after the gust, there was nothing.

Garon had failed.

But he was neither surprised nor discouraged.

"The model changed, becoming more complex. The pathways for transmitting magical power increased, and the number of rune nodes also needed to be adjusted."

Garon examined the dragon claw model and quickly identified the reasons for the failure.

He inscribed additional runes on the dragon claw model, and after several attempts, he gradually perfected it.

About twenty minutes later, Garon took a deep breath, scrutinizing the lifelike dragon claw model, each scale sharply delineated.

However, due to the large number of runes, what was originally a cantrip, Mage's Hand, could no longer be cast by mere thought.

"ωдλνЯ."

Garon uttered a somewhat obscure spell, and the air around him rippled and wrinkled, then two seconds later, a basketball-sized fearsome dragon claw materialized, still translucent but with vividly detailed scales, conveying a strong sense of power.

"What spell level would my Mage's Hand be considered now?"

Garon looked at the elemental energy-formed dragon claw and mused.

Next, he targeted the ground and controlled the dragon claw to strike down.

Boom!

A thunderous sound erupted, accompanied by flying rocks and a severe tremor on the ground, nearly matching the impact of Garon's own slap.

When the dust settled, a deep imprint of a dragon claw was etched into the icy ground, tearing it three inches deep with many fine web-like cracks extending around it.

Garon blinked and then his face lit up with joy.

"Amazing, Garon, truly worthy of you."

He couldn't help but praise himself.

A true dragon's battle relies heavily on its robust physique, a vast array of magical abilities, and innate supernatural powers.

As they age, true dragons prefer to rely less on claws and more on their

 increasingly profound magical knowledge.

Now, considering the principles of spellcasting from the "Fundamentals of Spellcasting" regarding the relationship between spell power, the number of runes, and spell levels, Garon deemed it a third-level spell.

"Upgraded to a third-level spell, it's now my unique creation."

"Calling it Mage's Hand is no longer appropriate."

According to the spell-naming conventions of the Noah Continent, his spell should accurately be called "Garon's Dragon Claw Technique."

"Garon's Dragon Claw Technique sounds odd; let's call it Dragon's Hand."

Garon didn't limit himself to just the Dragon's Hand spell. He slowly began to inscribe various cantrip models in his mind.

Light spell, Arcane Mark, Detect Magic, Dancing Lights—no matter how useful they were to Garon, he embraced them all, constructing each spell model.

The number of cantrips wasn't extensive, with only nine described, most of which were rather trivial.

However, what caught Garon's attention was the Arcane Mark cantrip.

This trick allowed a personal mark to be placed on objects. With the Arcane Mark, the marked items could maintain a certain connection with their owner from a great distance.

Thus, he could now bury or discard some items and find them again after many years had passed.