Chapter 128
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<The Next Rune Holder> was an unfinished novel.
Towards the end, the confrontation began in earnest and various clues about the monsters were provided, but I ended up getting summoned to this world before seeing the conclusion.
Naturally, there was still a lot I didn’t know.
Things like the setting collection I had eagerly bought while immersed in the novel just provided supplementary explanations about the events or monsters that appeared in the story.
‘A black magic stone…?’
I had never heard of a black magic stone before.
The colors of magic stones indicate their grade – E~C grade stones are usually blue, B~A grade are red, and S grade have a purple tinge.
There are some variations in color between special types of magic stones, but even among those, I had never seen a black magic stone before.
It was a completely new form of magic stone to me.
“Huh?”
Then something strange happened in succession.
The color of the magic stone, which was pitch black just a moment ago, quickly turned red – back to the original A-grade magic stone color.
“What the…?”
Ever since I got dropped here out of nowhere.
I had faced countless variables.
Park Jin-woo who didn’t learn [Wave Sword Technique], Kang Juyeon who didn’t go to <Flame Dance>, Yoo Eun-seol who came as a short-term instructor at the academy, Kim Do-yoon who appeared and was subdued earlier than in the original story…
Just thinking of the ones off the top of my head, there were too many to count.
However, I had flexibly dealt with them so far.
It was bewildering but I had made the best judgements I could.
So I needed to watch this new variable with more interest.
A black magic stone.
It was an object I was completely unfamiliar with, but it was certainly worth researching.
‘It could be another key.’
I got summoned to this world even before the confrontation with <Villain> in the original story ended.
So I had no information at all about the story or ending after that.
Perhaps the black magic stone could become a small key to those clues.
Exploring new information was essential even for the future.
Of course, it is difficult to research now since the evidence had disappeared.
‘When there’s time left….’
I glanced to the side and Moon Ga-eun was trying to harvest byproducts like leather from the other Manticores after the magic stone.
That was a process that took quite a bit of time.
I decided to use the remaining time to claim the duel victory reward I had put off for now.
[You were victorious in the duel! Due to your great contribution in the duel, your victory is acknowledged. With the Rune Hunter’s marvelous power, you can replicate one of the opponent’s runes. Please select a rune to replicate.]
[1. Rapid Recovery (Temporary) 2. Lion’s Sturdy Tendons 3. Venom (Unselectable) 4. Endurance (Unselectable) … … 8. Quadruped Combat (Unselectable)]
‘What the… this too.’
Right after.
After the black magic stone, another abnormality appeared.
Of the eight runes possessed by the Manticore, the first selectable rune was a ‘Temporary Rune’.
I knew about runes that appear in this temporary state.
These are runes obtained through special circumstances that the original Holder did not possess.
Ha Do-kwon, whom I fought before, was a similar case.
He had temporarily gained the [Ruthless Charge] rune by using a [Berserk Potion] at the time.
Just in case, I opened up the other information windows too.
I caught three Manticores in total.
Since they were different individuals, I could also gain runes from the other Manticores.
[You were victorious in the duel! … Please select a rune to replicate.]
[1. Lion’s Sturdy Tendons 2. Venom (Unselectable) 3. Endurance (Unselectable) … … 7. Quadruped Combat (Unselectable)]
‘As expected.’
It was just as I thought.
The other Manticores didn’t have the temporary rune [Rapid Recovery].
Only the first Manticore.
In other words, only the ‘special Manticore whose magic stone momentarily shone black’ had the temporary rune.
It was a situation that proved the color change of the magic stone didn’t just end as a peculiar phenomenon…
‘Let’s take them all first.’
First I had to take the runes and check the information to be able to find out anything.
[You have selected Rapid Recovery. Since it is a Rare rune of Level 3, its level will be downgraded to 2 when registered.]
[You have acquired a new rune.]
[You gain 2 Recovery from the rune’s properties.]
[You have selected Lion’s Sturdy Tendons. Since it is a Rare rune of Level 11, its level will be downgraded to 6 when registered.]
[You have acquired a new rune.]
[You gain 2 Strength from the rune’s properties.]
[This is a subordinate rune that connects with a superior rune. Through the Rune Hunter’s marvelous power, the ‘Lion’s Sturdy Tendons’ rune has been registered as a subordinate rune of the ‘Descendant of the Barbarian King’ rune.]
[Lion’s Sturdy Tendons] was one of countless combat-support runes I had obtained before – a rare rune for physical enhancement.
In particular, like [Lizard Scales] and [Tough Wolf Skin] I got before, it had the name of the related beast and connected as a subordinate rune to the superior rune [Descendant of the Barbarian King].
Thanks to that, after gaining a superior rune, I could finally register a newly acquired rune as its subordinate for the first time.
‘And….’
The problem [Rapid Recovery].
I hurriedly summoned the information on this rune.
<Rune Information>
◎ Name: Rapid Recovery
◎ Rank: Rare (Rare) / Downgrade
◎ Level: 2
◎ Engraved Location: Right palm
◎ Special Effects:-
: (Sealed due to downgrade)
: Can quickly recover from injuries caused by magic attacks. Recovery speed increases further proportional to Divinity.
◎ Derived Skills: –
–
◎ Detailed Information: –
: One of the main enhancement techniques of the Barbarians, a primitive tribe. Artificially injected and engraved through the special power of Runic magic. Registered in a downgraded state compared to its original power during the process.
‘This is…’
It was truly a ‘problem rune’ as the name implied.
The information on [Rapid Recovery] contained many unfamiliar, new pieces of information, more perplexing than I expected.
First, the rank I was seeing for the first time – ‘Downgrade’.
The additional ‘Downgrade’ next to the original rank, like superior runes, proved it was a debuff rank – one of the special effects was sealed, as if to demonstrate that.
It seems some special circumstance occurred when the Manticore gained this rune…
I couldn’t tell whether this was downgraded from Epic to Rare, or if only the effects were downgraded while retaining the same rank.
That paled in comparison to the details that followed.
‘Barbarians? Runic magic?’
Information recorded in the details explaining [Rapid Recovery] – these were all unfamiliar, new concepts I was hearing for the first time.
Of course, it’s not like I had no guesses whatsoever.
‘A type of spell for the Mage-type?’
Rune Holders of the Mage-type.
They each have their own spells.
Among those, the most representative spells are [Florian Spell] and [Adrian Spell].
Just as the Warrior-type has [Three Essences Sword Technique] and the Archer-type has [Star Destruction Archery], it was a common rune for arranging and manifesting magic power when the Mages used it.
I guessed [Runic Magic] was something similar – another spell system for the Mages, even though I was hearing the term for the first time.
‘Barbarian Enhancement seems to be an ability related to Divinity…’
Abilities related to enhancement or status buffs/debuffs are mostly within the domain of the Recovery stat.
Seeing the rune’s power is proportional to Recovery made me more certain of it.
Especially the name ‘Barbarian’.
I had heard this before.
When gaining the superior rune and legendary rune [Descendant of the Barbarian King], the details definitely contained the information ‘Barbarian King Magnus the Barbarian’.
I don’t know how closely related the Barbarian tribe and Barbarian King are, but… they seemed to at least be connected concepts.
“I’m done…!”
Around then when I was briefly perplexed by the new information.
Moon Ga-eun suddenly shouted with joy.
She had gone to harvest byproducts like leather from the other Manticores.
She was grumbling ever since catching the harpy earlier, but this time she finally succeeded in skinning a leather.
I smiled and approached her.
“You skinned the leather?”
“Yeah! Look at this.”
Moon Ga-eun handed me the Manticore leather she skinned herself.
“….”
It was a leather that looked quite shabby.
Due to inaccurate skinning, the thickness was uneven, and there were holes and tears here and there due to her inexperienced skills.
At a glance, I could tell it was leather in poor condition.
I smiled and gave the leather back to Moon Ga-eun.
“It’s alright, it’s fine. Big clans use professional skinners anyway. If Archers are good at skinning too, they’d be jack-of-all-trades. Don’t be too disappointed.”
“…Is it that bad?”
“Yeah. Let’s just focus on magic stones from now on.”
“Ugh…”
With a sullen face, Moon Ga-eun threw away the leather she had skinned.
‘I told her not to be disappointed, and she gets disappointed immediately.’
I burst into laughter and spoke to her.
“Let’s go hunt again. We have to do what we’re good at.”
“Tch, fine.”
It reminded me of something I had put off earlier.
The black magic stone and [Rapid Recovery].
They were information that perplexed me, but…
Anyway, those were issues to think more about later.
The immediate goal right now was tackling the ‘Nest Covered by Clouds’.
To do that, we had to head back to the boss room now.
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