Extra's Path To Demon King-Chapter 56 - 12,926 Unique Combinations..

Clenching his fists, Axel condensed all of his killing intent into the 24 swords and wrapped it around them. The power contained in those 24 weapons increased even further. Their imbued concepts began to affect more areas. Cedric received one shock after another.

Despite expecting something beyond unreasonable from the boy, he was terrified internally at the display of that absolute might. Yet, outwardly his expression remained calm. Not willing to let his disciple see him with that shocked face. He would not be able to maintain his dignity in that case.

After Axel was done condensing all of his mana and killing intent into the 24 swords. He pulled his clenched fists backward as if preparing to punch into the very sky itself. The air itself started to cackle.

Zzz–CRACK–ZZZ!

Axel punched right towards his master who was hovering in the air with incomparable speed. All 24 swords flashed in a dangerous light, in a mere instant, they reached their target, and a cacophonic explosion reverberated through the surroundings. From his own viewpoint, it almost seemed like the artificial space in its entirety shuddered from the overwhelming display of pure destructive power.

A transparent barrier appeared surrounding him as the shockwave of the explosion reached him. Axel couldn’t believe it. The explosion was so powerful that it easily destroyed everything within a radius of at least 3 kilometers. His hands and eyes trembled in disbelief that it was actually a power he himself unleashed.

Thankfully, his master laid the protection barrier around him otherwise, he would have been killed by his power. There was destruction all around him, he could only see violent mana raging like a storm because of the release of such might. It was like he was in the middle of an explosion.

Soon, his master walked out calmly. With a simple wave of his hand, all that destructive power in the atmosphere had disappeared. The destroyed ground also turned back to normal slowly, the lush green grass covered the ground again in just mere moments.

Axel also felt exhaustion take over his entire body; his reserves of mana were entirely emptied because of that display of power, as he used that little gas mana of his to empower every facet of his abilities, not holding anything back. frёewebηovel.cѳm

The barrier dispersed, and seeing his tired look, his master handed him a higher grade of potion, which he gulped down immediately. His master stated, "Your overwhelming power far above the current level is now similar to that of the Legendary Durein Nightcrown."

"With some polishing, your combat prowess will definitely reach his level," he added.

Axel could not help but ask, "Did that person also complete mastering all 24 symbols to become a first circle mage?"

"As far as we know, no. He had mastered 20 symbols for advancing as both a Rank 2 acolyte and a 1st circle mage. But his combat prowess was monstrous," revealed his master.

"It’s ok, don’t think about it too much, I’m not comparing him with you. You might be able to surpass his achievements in the field of combat prowess in due time; no need to worry over those things. You have already surpassed him when we are speaking about reaching the limits of each stage."

"Sigh, I think I have already lost my ability to be surprised anymore by your monstrous talent in runic studies," stated his master helplessly.

Then he continued in a serious note, "Now, shall we talk about the areas and factors where you can improve and things you did wrong?"

"Yes, master. Please tell," he added.

Then Cedric began to explain things in detail, he began to advise him on how empowering all 24 of the symbols at once was a mistake. Instead of that he should find out which of the runes he has the greatest compatibility with him. Then fight with those particular engraved weapons.

Since he had such exceptional killing intent, it would be best for him to fight while having the weapon in hand, instead of wasting mana on making the weapons fly. The key here is efficiency and precision. While empowering all the 24 weapons with his mana and making them explode generates the greatest destruction. It is unbecoming of a mage to simply let out mindless destruction.

Precision, control, and power were always the key to every path of the magic. His master also began to explain to him about the next tasks he needed to complete to advance to the higher circles.

"As you may already know, each of the three circles has three divisions of stages within it. Initial, mid, and peak. In the initial stage of a circle, the mana is in a gas-like state. In the mid-stage, gas mana is filled to the brim and then liquified. Then in the peak stage, the liquid mana is filled to the brim," explained Cedric.

"Unlike your breakthrough, usually when a runic mage breaks through by mastering 5 different permanent runes. They create a pentagon circle in their soul sea, and throughout their journey, they have the highest control over those 5 runes, or the number of runes in their pentagon circle. In your case, which is 24. So, you basically have the highest level of connection with all 24 rune symbols."

"Of course, that doesn’t mean your compatibility with all of those concepts is equal," iterated his master.

"So, which makes things far, far difficult for you. Now let’s take a normal runic mage as an example. They have a pentagon in their soul space. To advance to the second circle, they need to master being able to engrave 2 different runes into the same weapon."

"And the mage needs to master all the unique combinations of those 5 runes. For example, for a total of 5 runes, you have to engrave 2 different runes into each raw weapon or tool; a total of 10 artifacts can be created with unique effects each. With those 10 artifacts, your next circle is formed, which surrounds your first circle within the same dimension."

"Then, for advancing into the third circle, this time you need to engrave 3 runes into each of the weapons instead of 2. Which creates the number of unique combinations for the pentagon base circle to 10."

"Same for advancing to the 4th circle, in which the unique set number becomes 5 for a pentagon. In each of the stages, a circle-like polygon shape is formed, which encircles the previous ones while staying in the same dimensions." Revealed his master.

While Axel himself became baffled at the complexity of the things, but from a mathematical perspective, it was an understandable calculation, nothing too difficult.

Then his master also revealed his circle was actually a decagon when advancing as a mage, meaning he mastered engraving 10 of the 24 symbols instead of the minimum requirement, which was 5.

So, for his master, unique weapon engravements were -

Creating 45 artifacts for advancing to the 2nd circle.

Creating 120 artifacts for advancing to the 3rd circle.

Creating 210 artifacts for advancing to the 4th circle.

"But for you, my disciple, who has created a polygon of 24 sides, the numbers will be" -

276 unique 2-rune artifacts for advancing to the 2nd circle.

2,024 unique 3-rune artifacts for advancing to the 3rd circle.

10,626 unique 4-rune artifacts for advancing to the 4th circle.

Axel’s jaw dropped hearing that immense number, till now all of his engraving attempts were little more than 11,000. More than 10,000 attempts were failures. But these number’s mean that he had to successfully engrave a total 12,926 almost 13,000 unique artifacts.

Meaning the number of his failed attempts would likely reach at least 100,000 or more, to make 13,000 successful artifacts. He couldn’t even imagine the number of materials he would need to waste. The amount of time he would need to spend to reach that level.

A sense of despair spread within him, how many years would he need to spend on engraving the runes, his little brother had a little over 5 years time. But considering all that he knew, it was unlikely that he would be able to properly begin his research on the cancer unless reaching 4th circle. Upon reaching the 4th circle one can start learning the next stage of runic language. The 12 extended rune symbols.

This introduces flexibility to the rigid runic language concepts. Something that will allow him to create new systems and operations through the runic studies. New methods can be implemented or discovered. The light in his eyes dimmed, just when the situation seemed hopeful and everything was going well.

Another impossible roadblock was placed in front of him. How ironic was it? Because of his overwhelming talent and his greed, his own talent had become his bane to the faster path of power. He laughed mockingly to himself, Perhaps it would have been better to just take the normal path or simply form his polygon circle with just 20 runes.

He now began to understand, perhaps Durein Nightcrown intentionally did not create the polygon with all the 24 symbols, because he knew the impossible level of difficulty that would follow this achievement. Part of him wanted to blame his master, for not sharing the full information with him, even though his master did warn him repeatedly about it.

He sighed in defeat, It was one problem that it would take him a long time to advance to each new levels. But another problem was, would he actually be able to make all those engravings, making all those countless different combinations? Not to mention, some of the concepts among the 24 rune symbols were direct opposites of each other. This time, things truly seemed impossible to overcome.