After the breakfast Tepo spent a leisurely day, attending some courses and talking with his friends.

When evening arrived, the warrior felt his mental state was refreshed. It was the perfect time to engrave spells.

A week ago, Tepo visited the Web’s base. He went to the fourth underground floor, which had a large mission area, intelligence area, communication area, storage area, and exchange area.

Obviously, this base had more importance than the small base in the Carrying Winds World.

Thus, Tepo confidently went to the communications area and asked them to deliver the Ahiluscendum stored in the Carrying Winds World to this base.

Only to get told that he doesn’t have any contribution points.

Tepo could only go to the exchange area and trade in all the materials he gathered during the dungeon event, save for the forbidden spell and notebook.

To his surprise this brought him nearly 1500 contribution points, easily enough to pay for the delivery.

Afterwards he even had enough points left to buy a space in the storage area and safely store the unassuming grey stone carrying a forbidden spell.

Fortunately, the Web’s agents were professionals. They didn’t ask any questions and showed no sign of recognizing the material.

After all these preparations Tepo now went back to the Web’s base, trusting them more than the aristocrat-led forum.

He put on a black cloak and his mask, stepping into the spacious base.

As soon as Line entered the first floor, a familiar voice greeted him:

“Line! Good to see you. Have you thought about my offer?”

Smiling wryly behind his mask Line looked at the approaching Sapphire.

“Sorry, Sapphire, but I already told you. I’m only interested in training at the moment.”

“Ahh, don’t worry. It will still take quite a while until we will be able to form a suitable team. Just don’t forget about me.”

“Ok sure.”

Sapphire nodded at Line before turning around and joining another conversation. They were definitely a well-known figure, constantly making friends in the base.

Line shook his head. Sapphire invited him to raid a valuable dungeon, but he didn’t have much time. On top of that he didn’t know if he could trust Sapphire.

If he wanted to form a team with Web members, he would prefer to find someone with a similar strength as himself.

Putting the matter at the back of his mind, Line went down the stairs. He reached the fifth underground floor, which offered a lot of isolated training rooms.

Even though this base had training rooms on the fifth and sixth floor, it still took Line a few minutes to find an unoccupied room.

But finally, he was seated on a comfortable cushion, surrounded by sweet smelling wooden walls. Unfortunately, this base couldn’t provide such a dreamy view as the base in the Carrying Winds World.

But at least these rooms were also designed to calm one’s mind and support one’s training.

Line enjoyed the silence, perfecting his mental state. After a while he finally took out the small bell made out of Ahiluscendum.

For a moment he admired the intricate images carved into the legendary material. Gradually he reached out with his mental strength, with a dark root already waiting in his mouth.

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A bright golden spellcircle appeared in his vision. Nine runes occupied it, placed in a mostly straight line, forming a forbidden spell together.

Upon closer inspection he was somewhat intimidated. Each of the runes was made up of dense, almost impossible to discern, waves, which were incredibly difficult to engrave.

But now was not the time to hesitate. Line easily moved the [Minor Regeneration] spell into some free slots. Dealing with three-runed spells was indeed not complicated for nine-circled aspirants.

Thus, enough space was freed up for the Ahiluscendum’s spell.

Somewhat eager Line finally began the engraving. He carefully started with the first rune. He traced the tiny waves, letting them form lines, the first rune gradually taking shape towards the east of his core.

The process went smoothly, but Line already noticed the drain on his mental strength.

He couldn’t afford to let any doubts come up, though. Line quickly continued.

The second rune formed gradually. Golden lines formed in the next segment. But suddenly the entire rune shook slightly. The lines turned unstable.

Line’s eyes opened wide in surprise. His concentration was immediately broken. The rune vanished into thin air, quickly followed by the first runed as if it couldn’t stand being left alone.

Line let out a deep breath.

I only had the tiniest deviation in one of the waves and the rune immediately broke.

This was the first time something like this happened to him. The difficulty indeed spiked sharply.

Line relaxed for ten minutes before he tried again.

The first rune, second, third…

Suddenly the consumption of his mental strength increased by a large margin. Line didn’t expect this. He failed again.

Line could only smile wryly. It almost felt as if he was learning a language, having to repeat the words over and over.

The warrior had no choice but to start from the beginning.

But the cycle repeated itself. And with continuous exhaustion it only got worse.

Failed to engrave the fifth rune, failed to engrave the fourth, not enough mental strength, failed at the second rune, until Line eventually even failed the first rune.

At this point he sat in the training room, with the world spinning around him.

No choice, I need a break.

With those thoughts Line decided to go to sleep in his dorm. This was still the most effective way to recover mental strength.

When Line left the training room, a nearby fire spirit even stopped in place, looking at his tired expression.

I swayed its head before letting out a small jet of fire, pushing itself into the air. The spirit patted Line’s shoulder before falling to the ground and continue whatever it was doing.

Line could only smile wryly as he felt the warmth close to his face. A small flame was burning on his shoulder.

Immediately a water spirit discovered him. It hurried over, raised its short arms and splashed a stream of water at the dangerous flame.

Line blinked his eyes.

“Thanks… I guess.”

Hearing those words the water spirit left happily, not bothered by the drops of water running from Line’s hood and mask.

I guess this counts as refreshing as well.

Amused, Line exited the Web’s base. On the way he even found a wind spirit to dry his clothes.

A short while later he was back in his dorm. The next day had already arrived and his dormmates went out. Tepo had made a short detour to buy a bed, which was easy to transport thanks to his storage bag.

Placing it in his room the young man sank into a deep sleep.

Multiple days passed like this. Tepo had to put his entire concentration on engraving the spell, patiently learning rune for rune.

He made the Web’s training room his new home in the meantime. Eating and sleeping there to replenish his exhausted mental strength.

Finally, after three days Line had successfully engraved the first six runes. He kept a calm mind, prepared for another spike in difficulty.

Carefully the warrior worked on the seventh rune.

Immediately a headache hit him. His mental strength flowed out freely like a river. It was worse than expected.

With no other choice Line hastily swallowed one of the dark roots.

But his situation only improved slightly. The root wasn’t enough. Line struggled to hold on, but his vision turned dark as he fell unconscious.

Line didn’t even feel the call triggered by the dark roots.

Waking up on the ground, the masked man groaned feeling a massive pain assaulting his head.

The young man didn’t even bother to move, his body sprawled on the ground.

What a setback… and this is only the seventh rune. Now I know why Shorey said a nine runed spell can’t be engraved casually.

Only after relaxing for multiple hours did Line recover finally. He was contemplating his options.

Even with the dark roots it won’t be enough. Do I need to get some pills? But they won’t be cheap…

Wait, pills?

Suddenly Line remembered something. He took out a small box from his storage bag.

Opening it, intricate pill bottles came into view.

The pills mother gave me. I’m not sure what kinds she included…

Line carefully took pill bottle after pill bottle. Reading their names, his throat gradually turned dry.

General healing pills, pills for all kinds of special circumstances, pills for spell engravement, mental and physical recovery…

Mom, did you prepare all these for me…

Complicated emotions welled up in Tepo’s chest as he touched the warm pill bottles. Even his jaw slightly quivered.

Thank you, mom, but...

What are potency pills doing here?

For a moment Line didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, shaking his head.

But he quickly calmed down. His eyes locked on the pills before him as a confident smile formed on his face.