Second World

As he was still pondering the problem, he saw from the corner of his eyes that Peniel was stifling laughter. He glared at her, then said annoyingly, ”if you know which part is wrong, tell me, please. Time is running out soon. It will be really frustrating if we fail this trial due to your amusement.”

Peniel tried to glare back, but when she realized that Jack was serious, she retracted her playfulness.

”Fine!” she said and flew towards the rune formations floating in front of the rod. ”You noticed these runes are arranged in a circular fashion, right? What about the displayed images that you had to memorize?”

”They were arranged in a straight row,” Jack answered.

”Exactly,” Peniel said. ”Now there is a significant clue in that point, because all spell formations that consist of more than one rune are always arranged in a circular formation, like the one you see here. There is no row arrangement for a spell formation. So it is not just about the runes, their arrangements are also important.”

Jack pondered her words for a while, ”so do you mean that the arrangement or the positions for these runes also determines whether they are correct or not?”

Peniel nodded, ”the center rune is the one that connected all the others, so as long as the placements of the other six are not correct, the center rune will never turn golden, hence the formation will not be completed.”

”How do I know the correct arrangement?”

”I donʼt know.”

When she saw Jack gave her a suspicious look, she added, ”I really donʼt know. Every spell formation is unique, but the trial usually gives you random kinds of formations and runes that are not runes used in real spells. What I can tell you is that the runes that can connect and formed a spell formation always have their inscriptions somehow connected as well. For example, a line that was extended at one rune somehow appeared to be passing through and continue to its adjacent rune.”

Like linking a puzzle? Jack thought after hearing the explanation. He looked at the seven runes floating in front of him again. Some of them if being rotated and placed at a certain place, could be made to appear as if the lines continued between the runes. If it was about arranging puzzles, then he had no problem with it. He was good at it after all. Problem was, he was short on time now.

He immediately analyzed each of the runes against the others, trying to determine which one was linking to the other one. Too bad he could not draw them down onto a piece of paper. He could only do it using his imagination.

Jack was putting all his attention into imagining the arrangement. Some beads of sweat flowed down his forehead, exhibiting the intense concentration he was having at the moment. Even Peniel did not dare to make a sound for fear of disturbing him after seeing his focused expression. Time ticks by while Jack remained still.

When the remaining time left was five minutes, Jack moved. He tapped the green gem to reset the formation. He did not bother to look at the runes displayed and directly went to tweak the orbs of light. He dispelled any extra thoughts and set his mind completely on the task of reshaping the orbs into a series of glowing rune formations. He worked slowly to ensure there was no mistake, but at the same time, the slow process meant that he would not be able to have another try anymore, considering the amount of time left.

Peniel couldnʼt help but get nervous as well. She watched as Jack shaped the runes one by one with his mind. When she saw how the runes linked with each other from the ones that had formed, she was hopeful.

One minute left!

All the six runes at the circumference were glowing in gold already as previous, and Jack finished drawing the last line of the center rune at the last minute. However, the rune light remained white color.

Jack frowned. Peniel also checked on the formations. ”Why didnʼt it work? All the lines were lined up already!” Peniel uttered in agitation.

Seeing Penielʼs reaction, Jack knew Peniel had told the truth. He also believed that she would not keep on joking around now that the situation was critical. Although the rune formations seemed to be correct, something must have gone wrong!

He studied the formations intently. He then realized that when he looked at the central rune, if he rotated the runes a hundred and eighty degrees, the lines would still connect with the other six runes. However, there was no more time to do another retry. There was less than half a minute left.

Could he just rotate the rune with his mind? Since there was no other option, he decided to give it a try. At first, there was no response, but as Jack focus his willpower on pushing the central rune to rotate, he noticed a nudge. Encouraged, he pushed harder. Finally, the rune started to turn, albeit slowly. Jack gritted his teeth and kept his mind from giving up.

When the last few seconds were about to expire, the rune arrived at the position he had envisioned. For an instant, Jack was afraid it would still fail, but the rune abruptly turned golden. The entire formations shone brightly in golden radiance and the seven runes started to turned rapidly before exploding into countless magnificent fireworks around the room.

”Congratulations, you have passed the trial to become an advanced class. You are now a Mage. Receive inherent skill: MP +10%, basic spell range and standard magic attack range +10 meters. Acquires new spell: Barrier.”

Jack could not believe how relieved himself when he heard the notification. He fell to the floor on his butt, he just sat there as he relieved his nerves. He did not move much muscle at all during this trial, but the fatigue he felt was no less tiring compared to when he just finished difficult combat.

Just like Warrior, he received inherent skill after becoming Mage, but he got two for Mage instead. The MP increase was nothing much to speak of, but the increase in range was significant. That meant the area he could cover with his spells was now around double.

He thought further about this increased of range. The stats-increase provided by advanced skill was large. Advance melee class players would slowly become much faster. The basic range attack provided by a normal magic staff was only ten meters. Those advanced class melee players would be able to cover such distance quickly. If advanced class magic users did not receive a boost in range, they would soon become handicapped players.

”That was closed,” Peniel said. ”I thought you have failed for a second there.”

”Hehe, me too,” Jack replied.

Jack opened up his status window to check his new spell, but before that, he set his experience gain setting back to 50:50, so that his new Mage class could start to receive experience points again. After that, he went to the skill page.

Barrier, level: 1/20 (Active skill, defensive, required magic weapon)

Create a barrier around caster that can withstand a damage of 50% from casterʼs maximum HP. Barrier will vanish once damage threshold is reached or duration had passed.

Duration: 30 seconds

Cooldown: 3 minutes

Mana: 50

A defensive spell, one that became more potent for players with high HP. A normal mage usually had only little HP. So this spell in his hand, who had two classesʼ combined HP, compared to normal mage was like heaven and earth. At this current stage, if he cast this spell, he could endure 345 damage!

While he was happy with the spell, he noticed something different. There was a rune symbol beside the spell name.

”What is this?” He asked Peniel while referring to the symbol.

”Try to cast the spell,” Peniel replied with an instruction instead.

Trying to be enigmatic again? Jack thought with irritation, but he proceeded with her request. He focused his mind to trigger the spell activation.

”Hm?” Nothing happened.

”Why canʼt I cast the spell?” He asked nervously.

”Donʼt worry, that was normal,” Peniel told him. ”From advanced spells above, magic users no longer cast their spells instantly like basic spells. You need to construct a rune symbol or rune formations in order to cast the spell.”

”Rune symbol? Like the one from the trial just now?”

Peniel nodded, ”why do you think the trial was having you work on those symbols? Now try to form the rune as shown beside your spell name, in the same way as you did in the trial just now.”

”Where do I get the mana to form the rune?” Jack asked.

”Pull it out from your staff,” Peniel answered. ”Just imagined your staff is the orb of light from the trial.”

Following Penielʼs explanation, Jack proceeded to apply the theory into practical application. He memorized the symbol beside the spellʼs name in his skill window, he then focused his mind to draw mana from his staff. A strand of light appeared from the tip of his staff.

It works! He thought. He then used the mana to form a trail that slowly shaped into the rune symbol same as the one shown beside the Barrier spellʼs name. Once the rune was correctly formed, it condensed into a small orb before bursting out to form an encapsulating light barrier around his body.

Success! Jack was elated, but not long after, he turned gloomy.

😉