After looking at all the runes he would need to combine, he quickly realized that he knew no way to combine them. Sighing for a few seconds, he sat down and began to think on the runes that he had seen. He was currently combining them in his head to create new magics.
As he continued to do this, he saw the old man begin to stir. As the old man got up, he looked at Sear's book and saw that he had copied all of the runes down.
"Ahh, very well. I'm guessing you want to learn how to combine runes now correctly?" - ???
"Yes." - Sear
"Okay then. Come closer. Let me just grab this and that, here we go. Now, I will show you how to combine runes by showing you a simple shield spell. The runes we will be using are spheric, to make it spherical, anti-mag, to give it some resistance to magic, anti-physic, to give it some resistance to physical, and lastly the transparency rune to make it see-through. First, draw the 4 runes. They should be equally spaced apart. Now that you have them all drawn, draw a circle in the middle. Now draw 4 circles around the runes. Then connect those 4 circles to the circle in the middle with a straight line. Lastly, draw a large circle that overlaps all of the runes and other circles." - ???
As Sear finished drawing it, he felt a short pull of mana from the air going into the paper before it flashed lightly.
"And just like that you have drawn a glyph. Now, you can also combine glyphs in the same manner by connecting them all to one mid circle and the larger circle. Now for how to use these scrolls. Since we as humans can't use magic, we have to rely on this mana crystals. They slowly absorb mana from the environment and when he touch it to something that absorbs mana it feeds it. This is the main reason many people don't use scrolls. These crystals are very expensive. There are also 5 different types. This one here is a blue crystal which is the first type. It can use feed a 25-rune glyph once before running out and can recharge in under a day. The other four, in increasing order, are green crystals, red crystals, yellow crystals, and finally purple crystals. Purple crystals are stuff of legend as there has only ever been one is existence many centuries ago, but it was said to be able to feed a 250 glyph spell with each glyph consisting of over 10 runes. It is though to be able to handle roughly 250 million times the mana of a blue crystal." - ???
Even for Sear, who had an enormous pool of mana, that crystal would be powerful. That crystal would be easily able to surpass the 100 unit marking. But one thing intrigued him. Why can't humans use mana? He would ask this question, but it would obviously show he isn't from around here.
"What do you mean when you say that there WAS one in existance?" - Sear
"The holder of the crystal attempted to power a 4 rune glyph that used the infinite rune. He was attempting to create a small object that would open up into a different sub-dimension where people would be able to store items. But the infinite rune was so powerful that it absorbed all the mana the crystal had, and once it ran out it began absorbing the very crystal. In the end, the ring he put the glyph into did connect to a separate dimension, but all the mana the ring stored only created an area 50cm by 50cm by 50cm. barely enough to fit crate of food. After seeing how much mana one of those things would cost. They gave up on using the Immeasurable Runes." - ???
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*Hmmm, even something with 100 units could only make something so small.
"Well, that's everything I could teach you. Now everything you do you must do on your own. You can have the book, but if you want crystals you will have to buy your own. Good luck out there kiddo." - ???
With that, the man pushed Sear out the door and just left him there.
*He just gave me this much information and just let me go? I guess since these people can't use magic it must not be very important for them. As for now, I wonder if I can draw the runes in the air with raw mana. I'll have to try that out in a bit. For now I'll go back to the inn and sleep. Tomorrow I'll go out and begin testing out a few glyphs. If i can learn them well enough, I may be able to create a shield that can protect me when I begin refining my mana again. That way I can be in peace.*
After getting a good nights rest, Sear left the town and went out into the wilderness once again. Once he got around 5 kilometers from the town, he sped up to his max speed, breaking the sound barrier and ran to an isolated spot.
Once he came upon a cave, he quickly went inside. Using his magic, he created a small room with a stone chair and table. Sitting down on the table, he took out his book and began to draw glyphs. He continued so for a few hours until he felt a large vibration shaking the ground. A few second later he heard a large roar coming from the town. Using his mana sense once more, he zoomed in on the town that was only 26 kilometers away.
What he saw surprised him. A large red wolf, well over 100 meters long. It had a total of 180 units of mana. What surprised him the most though was that city was winning. For now. Surrounding the city there was a semi-transparent dome of energy. It seemed to be a much, much stronger version of the shield that the mage had taught him.
From each of the large towers on the wall, he could see groups of five people holding large red crystals and drawing glyphs onto the ground. When they were done, large fireballs, of icicles, of spears of iron would be shot towards the beast.
These attacks were slowly but surely damaging it. But it wasn't enough. Sear could tell that even he would be hard fought to even fight that thing to a standstill, much less win. While he had more mana, it's physical power was enormous. The shield was strong, but with just it's physical strength it was causing cracks to form. The area around the city had been utterly destroyed. He could even feel the impact from its hits all the way here, over 20 kilometers away.
As the battle raged on, more and more cracks began to appear on the dome. After another 10 minutes, the beast decided to finish it all. Backing up, it prepared to use a magic attack. As Sear watched, it began to gather a large amount of mana in it's mouth, 100 units to be exact. Once it reached that threshold, the wolf roared.
A large red beam of pure fire shot out of the wolf's mouth. The moment it touched the dome it instantly evaporated. As it crashed into the town, the stone it got near melted in a matter of seconds. The beam continued, and as the wolf moved it's head side to side the rest of the town also met the same fate.
After finishing that attack, the wolf moved in and killed the remaining people, before beginning to devour the bodies, the ones that hadn't evaporated due to the heat at least.
Still in his cave, Sear gulped. Sweat ran down his neck. he knew that that one attack could kill him, or fatally injure, but that's basically the same.
Realizing this, he quickly got back to drawing the glyphs. He would need to become stronger. Much stronger. And fast too.