Extra's Path To Demon King-Chapter 49: Rank 2

After being able to write 10 of the 24 symbols, he moved on to the remaining ones. For some reason, the difficulty increased exponentially. He found it extremely hard to do every minute action of the engraving. It was as if he was playing the game on easy mode till now, but the difficulty abruptly increased to hard mode.

But that could barely stop his progress or slow him down, he doubled down on his efforts as he continued to engrave more and more symbols. Every new symbol he mastered, the next felt more difficult. The old librarian said that as a Rank 1 acolyte, the highest record of mastering the symbols was 20.

Axel could understand why that was the case. After mastering 20 different symbols, on the 21st one. The difficulty almost reached impossible levels. But with his each achievements, his existence was also improved to a greater extent, which balanced things out, despite the increasing difficulty. As such, in a mere 1 month, he had mastered all 24 symbols.

Another profound change occurred in him; the mana in his core was almost filled, but it was in a gas-like state. Normally, when the gas like mana is filled to the brim, a rank 1 acolyte advances to rank 2. But it did not happen to him. The gas-like mana seems to be compressing into liquid. Unbearable pain coursed through his veins.

It was as if all the energy or strength was leaving his body, then it was heading towards his chest. Axel felt the little chest of his might literally explode. The old man actually warned him not to do the advancement alone. There was a possibility that the old man did not actually expect Axel to master all 24 symbols as just a rank 1 acolyte.

But he did not trust them completely, after an unknown amount of time writhing in a hellish pain, the floor turned bloody. He could feel death looming over his head. After regaining control of his body, he gulped 2 healing potions, but the effects seemed minimal. He continued to drink one potion after another. Only after drinking 10 whole bottles of potion did his body heal completely.

When Axel inspected his new state, he was stupefied. For some reason, his viewpoint felt weird. He walked in front of a mirror, and his eyes widened. Axel had become taller, and his muscles grew. It looked like his physical body was forced to grow because of the increased power.

There was a heavy weight on his chest, an immense source of power. It was empowering every single corner of his body. Axel closed his eyes, felt his insides. He couldn’t believe it. Axel was at least 10 times or more stronger than he was as a Rank 1 Acolyte.

For a moment, he took off the ring his master gave him, then a greater change occurred in the surroundings. The mana within the surroundings churned. They started to act weirdly. Axel waved his hands, and the mana reacted to his whim. His senses also widened further. It seems the ring was suppressing his powers to make sure no one else knew of it.

Axel could now see the waves of mana particles in the air, the various elements. It was a beautiful sight. Mana flowed like waves and gathered towards him. Axel again picked up the rune-engraving pen. He wrote down all 24 symbols one after the other, with no trace of difficulty on his face.

He could see more of what and how the rune symbols worked. It wasn’t something too significant. But it was an improvement nonetheless. Axel noticed another change while looking at the mirror. The iris of his eyes seemed to have a strange pattern in them, which looked strangely captivating. The brown color of his eyes also changed to a very light green color, or more like obsidian; he wasn’t totally sure of it.

Axel focused on his mana core and made the liquid mana flow into every inch of his body while closing his eyes. There were strange pathways in his body, something like circuits. He carefully moved the mana through those precise pathways of the circuits. The circuits stretched to every inch of his body even his brains and eyes.

He needed to see what those eyes could do; his new vision of being able to see the mana particles couldn’t be all that it did. There had to be more and this circuit in him, which the librarian said nothing about, the books given by his master also did not contain details about them.

Axel could not help but think, the entire circuit itself seemed like an extremely complicated rune; he wasn’t able to generate a full picture of the circuit in his mind. The moment his liquid mana filled up every corner of the circuit, it even reached his eyes. Those particular parts of his body started burning again, including his eye. The pain seemed to be the greatest in his eyes.

He couldn’t help but curse, "Are you kidding me?"

Surprisingly, the pain did not linger too long, but the pain he felt in his eyes felt overwhelming for the short moment it lasted. Blood fell from his eyes. But he endured it nonetheless. Opening his eyes, the world seemed to have changed again. But there was a significant change; his eyesight improved. Axel could now notice even the most minute details in the surroundings. It almost felt like he could zoom in with his eyes.

But soon, a disgusting smell invaded his nostrils, as he saw black liquids all over his skin, even the floor was covered in that black liquid. Axel wondered, if this was the so called impurities that came out of him. Unable to handle the disgusting smell, he immediately cleaned up the entire place using a cleaning magic tool. Then went to the shower to clean himself properly. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

Inspecting himself in the mirrors again, the pattern in his eyes became more noticeable, more vibrant. Axel did not grow again, but his body became even healthier with fine muscles. All in all, his physical structure was improved further. He became even more handsome.

Axel felt refreshed beyond reason, his existence was cleansed indeed. Even the air he breathed seems to be somehow purified before entering his body. Axel felt wonderful beyond reason.

With some hesitation, Axel activated the magic circuit in his body and patterns in his eyes. He could feel it; as long as the liquid mana empowered the circuit, he felt incomparable strength coursing through his veins. While his eyes could see far more. Axel picked up the rune engraving pen, but he did not use the inks this time. He used his mana as the fuel, and his powerful thoughts directed the energy.

The symbol started to take form, but there was far more power in it. Just as he finished drawing the symbol. The rune wanted to take form, it glowed and dimmed violently. He hurriedly tried to rush backwards, knowing it was about to explode, and the rune exploded abruptly. The mana and the various elements in the room became chaotic.

Axel was hit by the powerful mana explosion, yet the explosion did not affect him much this time. The mana within his body did not flow violently, unlike before. Only some scratches took form on his skin, but it wasn’t anything serious.

A smile crept onto Axel’s face as he inspected that. He was disappointed that he wasn’t able to engrave the rune with just his mana, which would make it a permanent rune. But there were reasons behind it, permanent runes can’t be engraved on mana paper, they needed to be engraved on weapons or specific materials, based on the particular rune he was drawing. Everything needed to match perfectly.

But that was beside the point. It was merely a test to see what the functions of his eyes were, while he wanted to test how strong his body had become and the effects of the mana circuit, and he wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.

His eyes helped him while he was engraving the runes; he was able to see through the imperfections and the process of engraving in much deeper depths. It made his proficiency in the rune engraving process increase by double compared to before.

While the mana circuit made his mana flow immune or less reactive to any outside influences. His mana was much more in tune with the field of runic studies. Not to mention the mana circuit made his body much, much stronger in general.

Being satisfied with his gains, Axel now understood that he was a proper Rank 2 Acolyte. He needed to meet the librarian, and his master should be back by now. But there was a problem. Considering everything about him needed to be a secret. He couldn’t go out like that, his eyes and the changes would be noticed.

So, he used a communication magic tool to contact the librarian and asked the old man to come to him instead. The librarian could not help but get serious when he heard that request. The old mage became extremely worried if some kind of accident had happened.

So, without wasting a single more second, the old man rushed to Ashborn’s apartment without minding anyone. Yet, the moment he entered the room, he was utterly dumbfounded at the spectacle he saw.