Chapter 147: Magic Runes

To pit the status of a quasi-wizard against a veteran wizard who advanced over three hundred years ago was an idea bordering on sheer madness. Had he possessed any other way out, Greem would never have dared to entertain such a thought!

Counting on his fingers, his side could barely muster three valiant souls, and even that was a stretch.

The core of the evil insect had been entirely subjugated by Anderson. Although the beetle, embodying Entick's primary consciousness, repeatedly swore it could reclaim its body in a short time, such words were entirely untrustworthy! Consequently, in his heart, Greem had always calculated Entick as merely half a quasi-wizard. It would already be a blessing if the creature did not turn on them and aid Anderson at a critical juncture; Greem never dared to pin his hopes of victory on him.

Mary, on the other hand, seemed like a reassuring helper. Unfortunately, her vampire bloodline was entirely Anderson's handiwork. To assume Anderson had not left behind some hidden contingency within it would be to underestimate the cunning of such an incompetent wizard—something Greem refused to do.

Knowledge is power!

Truly wise wizards relied on their intellect and knowledge to vanquish their foes.

Therefore, utilizing Mary also filled Greem with lingering trepidation. Much like the evil insect Entick, when calculating combat strength, Greem rated Mary as no more than half a quasi-wizard.

Within this iron triangle meant to stand firmly against Anderson, two of the three members were profoundly unreliable. One could only imagine how deeply depressed Greem felt at this moment, and how immense the pressure he bore truly was!

It seemed that when the critical moment arrived, the only person he could truly count on was himself!

As for the enemy they had to face—the First-Grade Wizard Anderson—if estimated by the Chip, his combat capability was easily equivalent to that of eight to ten quasi-wizards. This meant that even setting aside the amplification provided by the swamp tower and additional magical equipment, Anderson alone could effortlessly withstand the siege of eight to ten quasi-wizards.

Of course, if there were genuinely ten quasi-wizards, they might indeed force Wizard Anderson to make concessions. Unfortunately, they had no such luxury!

There were simply too many variables surrounding the evil insect Entick and Mary. Once war broke out, the likelihood of them becoming dead weight far exceeded the possibility of them being assets. Had there been any other choice, Greem would never have wished to ally with teammates who might betray him at any second!

Consequently, once hostilities commenced, the vast majority of the pressure would inevitably fall upon Greem himself.

Since the birth of the Flame Lord, Greem's own strength had undergone a heaven-shaking transformation. He could now be considered a qualified quasi-wizard in his own right; whether in offense or defense, he was by no means inferior to ordinary quasi-wizards. If he exerted himself to the limit, he could even sustain two Flame Lords stepping onto the battlefield simultaneously.

From the comparison of combat strength during the previous battle between the Flame Lord and Alice, it was evident that a wizard-tier Flame Lord possessed combat efficacy equivalent to two or three elemental quasi-wizards. Even if both Flame Lords were calculated at maximum output, it would still only equal about six elemental quasi-wizards.

When combined with Greem himself, Entick, and Mary, such combat strength meant they merely had a fighting chance against Anderson. As for victory or defeat? Greem's side had less than a ten percent chance of winning!

Even this meager ten percent chance of victory relied on all of Greem's schemes succeeding, coupled with Wizard Anderson failing to deploy any overly astonishing trump cards.

It was precisely because the odds of winning were so abysmally low that Greem had no choice but to desperately accumulate chips for his own side while striving to diminish Anderson's advantages!

Upon careful calculation, Greem's faction did possess a few hidden means. The most favorable piece of good news was that the evil insect Entick could continuously provide intelligence on the enemy. As the saying goes, know your enemy and know yourself, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles! In Greem's strategy, thoroughly mapping out Wizard Anderson's layout and plots, and then executing targeted counter-measures and counter-attacks, was the most prudent tactical approach.

On the other hand, Greem's faction harbored a hidden super expert—Alice. Although her relationship with Greem remained ice-cold, when her own life was threatened, she would undoubtedly become a major combat asset for their side. At the very least, in Greem's mind, Alice was far more reliable than Entick and Mary!

To improve their chances of victory in battle, even if it meant acquiring the most negligible chips, Greem had to meticulously plan and strategize. Even the goblin Kirby was assigned several crucial tasks within his blueprint.

While plotting his counter-attack, Greem was simultaneously striving to enhance and elevate his own survivability.

One could easily imagine that once the facade was torn away and a fierce battle erupted, Greem, as the core pillar of his faction, would inevitably become Wizard Anderson's primary target. Therefore, honing his offensive combat prowess right now was far less important—and far less practical—than improving his battlefield survivability!

Through extensive screening and comparison, the paths available for a rapid breakthrough that could swiftly enhance his capabilities were few and far between, but magic-text inscription was undoubtedly an exception.

According to records in wizardry tomes, the origin of spellcasting stemmed from ancestral humans observing and copying the natural magic marks found on magical beasts. These magical beasts and monsters often understood no wizardry knowledge whatsoever, nor did they comprehend any magical principles; yet, relying purely on their innate affinity with the world, they mastered certain mysterious abilities without a teacher.

Although these magic marks were simple, they pointed directly toward the rules of the world, serving as the materialization of certain underlying plane laws. Consequently, they all possessed startling and uncanny abilities!

Ancestral humans did not understand all of this at first, but humanity was, above all, the race best at learning and creation in this world. Certain clever individuals among them observed and copied these natural magic marks, then inscribed them onto their own bodies, forming acquired magic marks.

This was also the initial origin of magic arrays!

Later on, as ancestral humans learned and mastered an increasing number of magic marks, they filtered out the dross and selected the essence, continuously combining and arranging them to grant themselves unprecedented new capabilities. These special runes refined from natural magic marks were precisely the spell runes every modern wizard had to master and understand!

One could say that ancient wizards were actually a group of ordinary humans who used special pigments to trace strange and eccentric magic mark lines upon their own bodies, thereby granting themselves uncanny abilities comparable to those of magical beasts and monsters.

Through tens of thousands of years of evolution, this group of humans, who continuously delved into the occult sciences, finally cast off their status as ordinary mortals and became the leaders and protectors of all mankind. They no longer engraved magic marks upon their flesh; instead, they etched them onto weapons and specialized equipment, transforming them into terrifying magical artifacts and wizardry gear.

They even learned meditation, enabling themselves to transform step by step into magical creatures akin to beasts through progressive methods. They further unraveled the laws of planes, thereby leaving their own conscious imprint upon the operation of planar worlds.

What Greem most wished to rely upon at this moment was magic-text science, allowing him to rapidly elevate his foundational combat power. The numerous discarded parchments Alice had previously seen in his room were the custom-tailored magic rune arrays Greem had designed for himself.

Originally, Greem believed this task would not be overly arduous. After all, he was a puppet master capable of etching seven magic arrays onto a crystal core no larger than a fingertip. Now, simply transferring the canvas to his own body, expanding the available surface area by over a hundredfold, should have made the task even easier!

Yet when he truly assigned the task to the Chip, a comprehensive physical scan and statistical analysis revealed that the usable skin surface area available for inscribing magic marks on a human body was actually less than one-seventh. Moreover, these regions were scattered fragmentedly and chaotically across various parts of the physique.

Based on the distribution of these magic-text zones, Greem deduced that most of the magical energy regions on the surface of a human body were connected to vital internal organs. For instance, areas such as the heart, brain, and lower abdomen were zones of dense magical energy, whereas the limbs and the periphery of the torso were regions of sparse magical energy.

Because the vital organs connected to each region varied, the amount of magical energy they could sustain also exhibited subtle differences. To utilize them effectively required genuinely meticulous, comprehensive scanning and analysis, alongside massive amounts of data statistics and computation.

It was hardly any wonder that magic-text scribes were so scarce, and commissioning the inscription of a magic mark was so exorbitantly expensive!

According to the information Greem had gathered, for an ordinary apprentice to have a magic mark inscribed on their body—even if it was merely an agility rune array (+1 Agility) drawn on the foot—the minimum fee charged by a magic-text scribe was one thousand magic crystals. As for sketching a power-gathering rune array over the heart region (doubling the rate of elemental convergence), the minimum fee was three thousand magic crystals.

Drawing a rune array capable of granting double eyes the power of perspective commanded a fee soaring as high as five thousand magic crystals.

Witnessing those exorbitant prices, Greem felt his heart twitch. Perhaps when he had nothing better to do in the future, moonlighting as a magic-text scribe might be a rather decent career choice!

Because Greem had already completed the transformation into a Flame Body, the magical energy regions on his physical surface were far superior to those of ordinary apprentices. Consequently, figuring out how to utilize these magical energy regions effectively became his greatest challenge. For this reason, Greem had not stepped a single step outside his quarters recently; he was continuously testing the regional characteristics of his own physique and then utilizing the Chip to construct the most flawless magic-text patterns.

From this endeavor, one could easily understand why Greem had met so many wizards yet rarely saw them bearing inscribed magic marks. To carve magic marks required a magic-text scribe to understand and master detailed, comprehensive data concerning their bodies. One had to ask: which wizard would ever willingly allow every minute detail of their physical secrets to be mastered by an outsider?

Thus, this was likely one of the major factors hindering the popularization of magic-text arts!

Following a comprehensive and detailed calculation, the magic-text inscription plan Greem formulated for himself was unprecedentedly vast and intricate.

He scheduled energy-gathering rune arrays to be carved on the soles of both feet; high-efficiency impact runes on both hands and wrists (capable of instantly surging elemental output to double elemental damage effects); a large-scale elemental reinforcement rune array across his chest and abdomen; a large-scale elemental protection rune array upon his back; and a spiritual light rune array across his forehead and temples (capable of directly converting spiritual power into lethal fire-attribute wizardry).

Every single rune array was custom-tailored by Greem specifically for himself!