Chapter 55
Rock Body
By flipping through his research notes, Matthew discovered that Mold seemed to be conducting some kind of witchcraft research recently.
This research into sorcery appears to be incorporating a special rune into Mord's sorcery.
The notes recorded Mold's series of ideas for this research, as well as his summary of the failures.
The text does not record the specific spells of the witchcraft, but from the information revealed between the lines, it can be seen that Mold has successfully integrated some special runes into his witchcraft.
"Special runes?"
Matthew continued flipping through the notes and found that it was clearly recorded that this rune was obtained by Mord by chance deep in the snowy mountains of the Winter Realm.
Although the specific runes are not depicted above, the description of the runes reveals that it is a strange eye pattern composed of countless twisted lines.
Upon seeing this, Matthew couldn't help but frown.
"This rune..."
"It should be the same rune as the one on that snow rock beast."
Matthew was lost in memories, and a sinister, eerie, twisted eye resurfaced in his mind.
"I didn't expect Mold to have obtained that rune as well, and actually want to integrate it into his sorcery?"
"But these are clearly two different systems of runes, how did he manage to convert them?"
Matthew's doubts grew stronger. He knew that the strange eye rune was a system that even the Tide School had not included. How did Mold, a mid-level apprentice, complete the conversion?
To convert a rune system into a Wizard system rune system, you need to fully analyze how that system uses power.
This involves the meaning of each rune in the system, its logical structure, energy loops, and so on...
This workload is something that even a mid-level apprentice could not complete, and even with the help of his family, it wouldn't be enough.
Putting aside everything else, just collecting all the runes in a system is an extremely long task.
Unless he or his family has completely taken control of that plane, but that's obviously impossible.
Furthermore, and very importantly, the energy sources of different systems may be completely different. The wizarding system uses magic, but other systems may not use the same energy source.
In other words, even if Mold converts the strange rune into the wizarding system, theoretically he would not be able to integrate the rune into his magic.
"Could that system also utilize magic?"
Matthew shook his head. He had too little information at the moment, so he had to put the matter of the strange runes aside for the time being.
He closed his research notes and then rummaged through Mold's spatial ring to find a diary.
The contents have nothing to do with witchcraft, but rather record how Mold searched for magical beasts related to dragon bloodlines through various means.
For example, he purchased large quantities of wyvern blood while in the wizarding world, and he also discovered traces of a dragon beast in the Winterlands, and...
Matthew saw his name on it.
"As expected... Mold came for my Flame-Devouring Dragon bloodline."
"What is his purpose in wanting so much dragon blood?"
Matthew flipped through the diary and found that there was no specific reason recorded, only that Mold seemed to send new dragon blood back to his family whenever he obtained it.
"Could it be related to his family's bloodline research?"
Upon seeing this, Matthew recalled that Mold possessed the bloodlines of two different dragons.
However, according to common sense in bloodline studies, different bloodlines will conflict and reject each other, and forcibly fusing two or more bloodlines will inevitably lead to genetic collapse.
"How did he manage to fuse two bloodlines simultaneously?"
The wizard Silas once said that some powerful magical beast bloodlines could resolve soul corruption.
"Perhaps I can obtain a method from the Mold family to fuse the two bloodlines."
Then, by fusing with a magical beast's bloodline, the problem of soul corruption can be resolved.
With this in mind, Matthew made up his mind to find an opportunity to visit the Mold family.
However, we need to find out about his family situation beforehand, to avoid an awkward situation when we deliver the goods to his door.
After putting away Mold's diary, Matthew continued searching through his spatial ring.
He found hundreds of spirit stone fragments inside, as well as a considerable amount of potions, magical plants, alchemy materials, and so on...
"Looks like this guy had a good haul in the Winter Realm!"
"Huh, what's this?" Matthew suddenly pulled out a crystal ball from the corner of his spatial ring.
【Name: Knowledge Storage Crystal Ball】
Ingredients: ...
[Note: This item contains a record of an earth-based defensive spell.]
[Refinable: Rock Body (Content)]
"It's actually a defensive spell?"
Matthew recalled the scene during his fight with Mold, where Mold's entire body was encased in rocks; this must be the magic he was referring to.
What he lacks most is defensive magic; the only defensive means he can offer is dragon scales.
However, while dragon scales are fine for defending against attacks from low-level magical beasts, they are somewhat insignificant in a wizard's battles.
This [Rock Body] skill perfectly compensated for his defensive weaknesses; it was like a pillow delivered just when he was sleepy!
There aren't many defensive spells available for apprentices to choose from in the Tide School, and defensive spells generally require more credits to exchange compared to offensive spells.
Matthew remembered that although [Rock Body] was only an apprentice-level defensive spell, it required ten credits to obtain within the school.
"System, refine!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Matthew felt a memory being forcibly inserted into his mind.
It contains a detailed introduction to the [Rock Body], as well as runes, spell models, spell paths, precautions, and more.
In short, this is a basic defensive sorcery consisting of thirty-eight runes. When cast, it can cover the entire body with hard rock, blocking damage from all 360 degrees.
Just as Matthew was carefully reading the spell description of [Rock Body] in his mind...
Suddenly, a prominent notification popped up in front of him.
[Can be optimized]
"It can even be optimized!"
Although [Rock Body] is only an apprentice-level sorcery, Matthew is already quite satisfied with it.
He never imagined that witchcraft could be optimized!
After a moment of joy, Matthew did not hesitate at all.
"System, optimize!"
Immediately, the optimized [Rock Body] appeared in Matthew's mind.
The magic circulation path of the [Rock Body] has been optimized, resulting in a more reasonable and smoother magic flow.
The original [Rock Body] only utilized 48% of its magic power, with a significant amount of magic power being lost as it passed through its circulation path.
And now, the [Rock Body]'s magic utilization rate has increased to an astonishing 92%!!!
"Magic utilization has increased by more than 40%!!! That's almost doubled???"