Sage's Test

The time had started ticking the moment the door was closed. 

A quick survey of the room and Samar found all the supplies he could need on the table at the center. He picked up one of the metal plates and the chiseling pen and inspected them. Much to his surprise, both the chiseling pen and the metal plate were of Bronze-Copper Grade!

Containing his excitement, Samar walked over to the wall depicting the Fire Rune, since he was the most familiar with it.

"The trick to drawing any rune is uninterrupted movements," Samar muttered, recalling the words Bowsmith Sangma had said when showing him how to make the Rune arrows.

"It does not matter if my rune looks a little crooked; what matters is the uninterrupted flow of energy." 

Remembering the teachings, Samar closed his eyes and imagined drawing the symbol. He tried a few different ways to achieve maximum fluidity. When he had found the most optimal path for himself, he began to chisel according to the steps he imagined in his mind. 

When Samar put the Chiseling pen to the metal plate and started to draw the rune, he ended up poking a hole through the thin Metal Plate. He replaced the plate but he was still unsuccessful. 

After trying for a few times, he realized that Bowsmith Sangma had made it look much easier than it really was, much to his dismay. 

Samar realized that drawing on a metal plate was a test of his grasp over his strength. He needed precision and control to skillfully inscribe the Runes on metal. If too much force was used, he would end up poking a hole through the metal plate; too little, and there wouldn't be any carving on the plate.

Most Players would struggle at this point, just like Samar did.Unless the player had some experience with carving, they simply could not inscribe a Rune on the metal plate without trying at least a hundred times! 

Only the hidden stat of Dexterity would provide some assistance in regulating their force. 

For ordinary players that meant reaching a 100 Points in Agility Stats but Samar had unlocked it before he was even Lv10, thanks to his infallible aim.

Moreover, he had 10 points in the Dexterity stat, which boosted his control over his muscles. After poking holes in just a few plates, he was able to smoothly complete the inscription of the Rune of Fire on his eighth try.

Next part was Invocation. 

Samar closed his eyes and tried to feel the Fire Rune's power. Instantly, he was brought into a different space where the red particles were all around him. He quickly realized that they represented the Fire Rune's power! 

Samar began to recite the hymn from memory but he could not attract even 40% of the particles in the space towards him. Then he remembered the way Bowsmith Sangma had chanted the hymn. It had a certain tune to it, making it sound like a pleasant melody.

Deciding to imitate his way, Samar adjusted his tune. The effects were immediately visible. More than 80% of the red particles were attracted by the hymn, but he was still not satisfied.

'What are you doing wrong that only 80% of particles were attracted? Why not the rest of 20%?' a voice that suspiciously sounded like his mom asked in his heart.

While he racked his brains, Samar remembered how in the previous VR game, his summons would not answer his call unless he pronounced their name in a specific way. 

He realized that Invocation was no different. He was essentially summoning the powers to do his bidding, so maybe the pronunciation of the words in the hymn also mattered.

Samar tried pronouncing the words in a different way than Bowsmith Sangma, and the outcomes indeed changed. At first, his diction was way off and pushed away even the particles that had approached him. 

When he adjusted it to closely resemble the Elven way of speaking, the results were astonishing. More than 90% particles had gathered around him, willing to obey his commands!

Still a little unsatisfied, he tweaked and corrected some words here and there. He only stopped after the particles around him were so densely packed that he could not perceive anything beyond them. 

Knowing he had given his best, Samar opened his eyes, and he was back in the test chamber. The metal plate in front of him was shining bright red, and a hologram of a mini fireball was lit up on its surface, along with a notification that quantified his progress.

[Rune of Fire completed with 97% Effectiveness. (SS Grade)]

An unexpected surprise also awaited him in the notifications.

[Intelligence +1]

Samar had never imagined there would be more benefits to taking the test. The incentive of an extra point in Intelligence motivated him to complete the test even more.

Most importantly, invocation, which was the hardest part for most of the NPCs, became the easiest part for Samar because he could see the particles of power and gauge their response to his invocation!

He chose the Wind Rune next. Its shape was relatively easy to carve and only took him two tries. He also completed the Invocation within 10 minutes with a 95% effectiveness and moved on to the simpler Water Rune.

He completed the inscription successfully in one attempt. Invocation was tricky but easier than Wind Rune. Hence, his Water Rune was completed with 96% effectiveness.

The last but not the least, the Earth Rune. 

It took him two attempts to get it right. He wasted 5 minutes just inscribing the rune on a plate and only had 15 minutes left for invocation. 

The lyrical structure of the First Hymns of all elemental runes was quite similar and easy to remember. Their tunes also matched to an extent. 

The problem was pronunciation. Of all the four runes, the words for Earth were hardest to pronounce. If he pronounced one word wrong, it messed up the entire rhythm. 

Some words were so hard to speak that any mispronunciation not only butchered the tune but also changed the meaning of the hymn. It was as if he was saying a completely different word, drastically lowering the density of particles around him.

Finally, as the timer beeped the last 60 seconds countdown, Samar gave up experimenting and settled for a 91% effectiveness, securing 'S' grade evaluation for the Earth Rune.