Chapter 75: Elemental Circlet Technique
'The Empire truly has many powerful families.' Raven nodded inwardly and realized how difficult his goal would be.
'At least, I need 100 or even 200 years to create a strong force to face an ancient family. But my opponent isn't an ancient family but the Royal Family. It is a true powerhouse capable of ruling all these twelve ancient families.'
[There is Wizard Union, too. Please don't take them lightly.] Zera said in his head, causing him to go silent.
As the carriage started moving, Raven remained seated without saying a word for a few minutes and organized his thoughts.
Then, he took out three books from the inventory and gave them to Selene.
"These are three spell books that related to Dream-related abilities. Try constructing them in your mind once we settle in an Inn."
"Aren't they the books you were writing earlier, My Lord?" Selene gave him a skeptical look and grabbed them. After that, she opened the first book and soon saw a detailed structure of a spell model drawn on the third page, along with descriptions in rune language.
"Oh? Dream Walk? With this spell, my consciousness can enter a separate world called 'Woolgatherer World,' huh?" As she continued to study the spell book, her face showed confusion.
"I never heard of such a spell from the Academy. And I find it hard to believe there is a different world based on dreams." But she could tell that the spell model was genuine.
'Can I trust this book? Even if I face a backlash, I will only be in bad shape for a month or two before recovering. It's worth a try.' Nodding, she continued to read the book.
Meanwhile, Raven and others stopped at different destinations to gather information and also for accommodation.
After some research, they picked a high-class Inn on Aurora Street and booked four rooms in an Inn called 'Glory Wine.'
Selene didn't mind any of them all this time and quietly focused on reading the book.
Raven and others didn't disturb her and even allocated an isolated room on the second floor.
Then, Raven soon moved to the special guest room allocated for nobles and high-class people and lay on the double bed.
'Although I took the remaining 6540 gold coins from the Royal Bank before departure, I don't think it should be enough to participate in the auction.'
[True, a Rank-1 Magical Beasts' corpse should cost over 3000 gold coins. If it's a rare beast, its value might skyrocket to 6000 or even 8000.]
Raven nodded his head and checked his inventory.
'7690 Gold coins, hybrid elemental crystal, one Night Vision potion, 2 Feral Eye crystals, Trollsbane Glands, Dreamvenom Tri-cobra's poison gland, two 60 cm long venomous fangs, and finally, six eyes of the cobra.' He considered selling them in the capital but decided to sell them now.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and Jacob entered shortly after.
"Do you need any help, My Lord?" He asked as he walked into the luxurious room.
"I need information about the list of materials auctioned on the 15th. Is it possible?" Raven asked as he took out the reddish badge-like emblem from the inventory and tossed it to Jacob.
"Yes, My Lord. I can use this to register a seat in the Seven Calls auction and get the list. All other items' names would be disclosed except for the special five items."
Jacob caught the badge and stored it in his pocket.
"I also want to sell a few things in an alchemy shop." As Raven spoke, he took out the items individually and talked about the item names and their values in detail.
"This life-affinity hybrid elemental crystal should fetch over 3,000 gold coins. If the offer is below 2,700, don't sell it. Each Feral Eye crystal is worth around 500 gold coins; the Trollsbane gland should go for about 1,200, and the poison gland should sell for no less than 750. These two venomous fangs are easily worth over 300 gold coins, and each of these six cobra eyes should be valued at 200 gold coins apiece." Raven had stored all other items in glass boxes except the fangs and preserved them carefully.
Meanwhile, Jacob was completely dumbfounded by the materials appearing out of thin air.
"H-How did you get your hands on these items?" He couldn't help but ask. After all, most of the materials were from Rank-1 Magical Beasts, which made him completely shocked.
"My teacher's other disciple is an alchemist. He gave me these materials when I visited him a week ago." Raven said with a smile, put everything in a large leather bag, and handed it to Jacob.
"Once you sell these items, put this vial for auction," Raven said as he took out a small vial filled with greyish-black liquid and gave it to him.
"It's called the 'Night Vision' potion."
Meanwhile, Jacob carefully took the vial and put it in a separate pouch.
"Then, I'll be leaving, My Lord." Saying so, he turned around and walked out of the room.
[What is your plan?] Zera asked.
'Nothing much. I wonder if I can learn the Easica language you told me about. As long as I learn that language, I can easily understand the runology experience from those memory books, right?'
[Hmm, you can learn that. But it will only delay your progress in basic Runology. Still, you will become an Apprentice Rune Wizard in under three months.]
Raven thought for a second and decided to take things slowly.
"I should create the Elemental Circlet Technique." He muttered and entered the memory library.
"Which elemental circlet technique is suitable for me?" Raven asked as he walked toward the bookshelf where Spirit Techniques, Mana Techniques, and Elemental Circlet Techniques were arranged.
"You've to check them yourself one by one." A voice echoed through the library, and soon, a young woman with pointy ears appeared behind him.
Raven quietly walked towards the shelf and gathered all the elemental circlet techniques.
"There are a total of two hundred and seven Elemental Circlet techniques. Which one should I choose?" While speaking, he grabbed a book named 'Imaginary Rings of Elements' and started reading it.
After a while, he couldn't help but furrow.
"This technique will allow me only to gather four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind." He quickly tossed the book away and shifted his attention towards the next one.
"Runic Cascade of Spectral Pyres: Fire, Water, Darkness, Soul, Life."
"Abyssal Bloom: Poison, Darkness, Earth, Chaos, Life, Fire."
"Tempus Surge of Twilight Flame: Fire, Time, Wind, Darkness, Light, Space."
"Dawn of Fortune Serpent Flame: Ice, Water, Fire, Poison, Luck, Time."
…
He checked all the books individually and separated them based on elements.
"Currently, I've Ice affinity, Life affinity. And I must need a technique with poison, time, Luck, and blood affinity."
Raven checked the techniques and soon noticed only four books available for him.
"Fortune Blood Lightening: Ice, Life, Time, Luck, Lightning, Blood, Water, and Dream."
"Twelve Petals Elemental Circlets: Space, Time, Destiny, Luck, Life, Death, Ice, Fire, Earth, Wind, Blood, and Poison."
"Blood Moon Circlets: Ice, Soul, Darkness, Time, Luck, Life, Water, Death, Blood, and Poison."
"Arcanum Circlets of Destiny: Ice, Poison, Life, Luck, Darkness, Blood, Time, Lightning, and Light."
"Choose the Arcanum Circlets of Destiny," Zera spoke as she stood beside him.
"What about other techniques?" Raven asked.
"Before that, tell me the types of affinity potions you learned from the Basic Alchemy." Zera's question surprised him.
Raven furrowed for a moment and soon spoke.
"Affinity potions are divided into basic Elemental affinity and Special Elemental Affinity potions. Basic Elemental Affinity potions are Fire Affinity potion, Water Affinity potion, Earth Affinity potion, Wind Affinity Potion, Light Affinity potion, and Darkness Affinity potion. Special Affinity potions are Ice Affinity Potion, Poison Affinity Potion, Lightning Affinity Potion, Life Affinity Potion, Death Affinity Potion, Shadow Affinity Potion, Blood Affinity Potion, Space Affinity potion, Metal Affinity Potion, Illusion Affinity potion, and Time Affinity potion."
"What are the Unique Affinities?"
"They are Luck, Fate, Dream, Soul, Music, Trickery, Wisdom, Void, Chaos, Sword, Spear, etc. Unlike the Basic Elemental Affinities and Special Elemental Affinities, it is almost impossible to make potions for the unique affinities." Raven answered and soon widened his eyes.
"Now you understand?"
"But Arcanum Circlets of Destiny also has Luck affinity, right?" Raven asked.
"Yes. But you can increase your luck by going through enlightenment by absorbing Runeth's memories or robbing the luck power from others using the devouring ability. Although we aren't sure if this ability devours others' luck and enhances your affinity, it's worth a try."
Raven nodded and asked further.
"But won't too much affinities hinder my growth? From the looks of it, I might have to stay in the alchemy laboratory for the rest of my life researching affinity potions."
"If you are a Wizard, you can focus on and excel in a single element. But Warlocks usually aren't as powerful as Wizards. A warlock's strength always depends on the origin of the bloodline he belongs to and his other weapon skills. Warlocks are like close-range fighters and rely mostly on weapons and physical abilities. For them, the more diverse their abilities, the higher their chance of survival against Wizards and other enemies." Zera paused for a moment and soon added.
"And you should know that Wizards aren't the only powerful beings in the universe. Gods, Demons, Devils, and even mysterious beings like World Devourers and Void Lifeforms exist. If a normal Warlock faces such an opponent, he won't even last a second."
'Oh?'
Raven nodded and quietly sat on the floor before opening the Arcanum Circlets of Destiny.
He read the first chapter for the next two hours and memorized the Array of the First Circlet.
"But to create an Array, I must enter the 'Mind Space.' It is a connecting bridge between my consciousness, body, and Sea of Consciousness." Thankfully, he even saw a rune verse to enter one's Mind Space.
He soon left the memory library and sat on the bed in a crossed-legged position.
Then, he closed his eyes and recited a short, runic chant. Although his vocabulary didn't match, he soon noticed a pulling sensation from somewhere.
Within seconds, he found himself standing in a dark space. But he also saw a few stars arranged in the sky in a line and was startled.
The first star appeared in a light greenish color, the second star appeared in blood red, the third star seemed purplish, the fourth star appeared golden, and the final one appeared eerie dark with shades of red.
As he focused on the stars, he soon noticed they were all hexagonal and floating in space.
'They are the spell models.'
"Oh, this is the Mind Space, huh?" He quickly bent down and used his forefinger to make a small line.
To his surprise, a white line appeared as if he were drawing on a blackboard with a chalk piece.
"The book said that whatever we do will be based on imagination, but I never expect it to be true." He erased the short line with a simple thought and started making a large circle under his feet. It was a circle of a 7-meter radius and looked plain.
Then, he wrote down more than two thousand rune words across the circle. It was just the beginning. Raven then recited a runic chant and created more runic words outside the circle.
After that, he made lines between the circle and split the circle into ten sections. Then, he chose a single section and drew a hexagonal structure within the circle. But instead of a plain line, he created the hexagonal structure with rune words only. Whenever he started writing a letter, he felt a strange connection between himself and the outside world. He stayed in the Mind Space for over three hours and finally completed the First Array.
But as he completed the Array, it glowed in a blinding greenish light and shot out a blinding light toward one of the star-like spell models in the sky!
A few seconds later, the small hexagonal star descended and slowly landed in the area where the runic hexagonal structure was created and assimilated.
The next moment, Raven felt a deep resonation from the depths of his soul.
Simultaneously, he noticed a refreshing sensation coming from outside and continued to store the strange life-elemental Energy within the hexagonal structure.
Although Raven didn't know how much life elemental energy he could store inside, he was sure he could use it to cast the bloodline spells more than two times.