After I finished drawing some runic diagrams to try understanding how they work, I remembered that I still needed to extract more information from Wallaheesh: specifically, some that would give me some insight on what to do with him. However, I was still down to learn as much as I could about the family as I could, to help with any potential secret identity that I may have to concoct later to fool the Galamon Council.

I broke the long standing silence in the room. “So, you didn’t tell me about the East Wing yet,” I pointed out.

“Yes, yes, of course. The East Wing is just a massive residential area where most family members live. It is a quite densely populated area of our palace and kind of resembles an indoor city,” he said.

Nodding, I suddenly realized that he had not divulged a single family secret the entire time I was interrogating him. He seemed to be trying to satisfy me with nothing but general information about the palace and the Galamon family.

Oh, how mistaken he is, I thought. Let’s see if I can’t get him to reveal some more juicy Galamon secrets. He said he didn’t know most of them, but that indeed implies he knows some, I thought, before deciding to interrupt him.

“Wallaheesh!” I barked.

“H-how did you know my name?” he asked, looking terrified.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Did he forget how he was boasting about himself to me and mentioned his name before I downed him with an extra-powered lightning bolt surrounded by an energy barrier to make it silent? That’s great, actually. I could use this to my advantage and pretend that I have Psychic powers as well!

I glared at him. “You thought I was so weak and pathetic, like you insects, that I would limit myself to just Magic and Cultivation?! Are you daft or stupid, or both? I have spent entire centuries gathering all types of power, and you think I wouldn’t be able to use a basic Psychic ability? You should be grateful that I’m just nicely asking you for this information instead of ripping everything directly from your head and leaving you a mindless husk!” I proclaimed.

Wallaheesh visibly shuddered hearing what I said. I think I have terrified him to a new level, I realized, laughing my head off mentally at his thoughts.

When I looked back down at him, he was slumped over with his eyes closed. Surprised, I felt his pulse. Well, he is clearly alive, I thought. And then it hit me. HAHAHAHAHAHA! He fainted? In fear? Damn. I may be doing too good of a job acting like a super powerful villain.

Deciding that I would tone it down a bit from now on since I wasn’t able to get any juicy information from him this time, I went back to studying the intriguing field of Arcane Magic known as Enchanting Runes. I also took some notes on Enchanting, so I just glossed over what I had so far to make sure I didn’t miss anything important due to the distraction that is a snoring Wallaheesh.

According to my reading so far, the difference between Enchanting Runes and simply casting Arcane Spells has to do with the underlying mysteries and mechanics of Mana. While casting spells requires a Mage to have a good understanding of how to use Mana to influence or create natural or unnatural phenomena in the external world, enchanting requires one to learn how to flow Mana through an object for some amount of time.

Apparently, the enchanting process goes roughly as follows. The Mage chooses a goal, like having stronger armor with the same weight. Then, this Mage would carve a Runic Diagram, commonly known as a Rune, onto the armor. Fundamentally, a Rune is just a certain path that Mana can flow through for a long time, due to its unique molecular structure.

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Though I wasn’t able to find much information on the details for the molecular structures for Mana, I thought. Well, I guess the Alchemists would know more about that kind of stuff. If only there were Alchemy books around here…

After a moment of pondering, I realized that I should probably squeeze everything I can out of this room before I let go and look for other sources of power. Haha, I’m sure even a discount Mage like me wouldn’t be too easy to deal with as long as I’m prepared.

With that encouraging thought to myself, I looked back down at my notes and kept reading through and mentally summarizing what I’ve learned so far.

The reason that Mana is able to follow set physical paths, with various effects depending on the path, has to do with the incredibly complex molecular structure of Mana, combined with the fact that almost all molecular bonds inside Mana hold a tremendous amount of energy (which is why the first book I read mentioned Mana being a condensed energy).

To visualize this, I had to think of Mana as a fluid. Essentially, a Mage has to start the Mana flow at some point on the Rune, called the starting position, and after the Mana flows through and covers the entire length of the Rune, the flowing Mana would hit the Mana that did not move from the starting position.

Now, since even objects on the quantum scale follow the conservation of momentum, the Mana that was hit would start flowing and the Mana that was flowing would stop, roughly speaking, because both halves of the fluid would be about the same mass. And this system would continue for a while, only getting slower because of the fluid resistance throughout the entire path until it wears off and reaches equilibrium.

However, the actual “magic” behind Enchanting Runes is this: if the Mage is able to create path, through calculations or other means, that can cause the Mana at the ends of the “fluid” to collide with a specific combination of speed and orientation, then there would be a reaction between the complex Mana molecules on either end, causing some desired effect.

Through fine-tuning and experimenting, Mages throughout the millennia that had a passion for Enchanting, also known as Enchanters, have perfected various Runes that provide an object with certain effects, and such knowledge has been passed down or rediscovered over time.

Most of what I read about Enchanting makes it look so easy! As long as you find a diagram of a Rune, you could just engrave it onto an object and start a flow of Mana in it and Bam! You got yourself a working Enchantment, I thought. But I’m pretty sure there’s going to be an absurd amount of nuances involved, or else anyone who picked up an Enchanting book could become an Enchanter, and I’m pretty sure that they are quite rare. Well, I guess I’ll only understand why this is the case once I try it myself, I thought grimly.

Satisfied with my understanding of the fundamentals of Enchanting, I decided that I was going to try carving a simple Rune onto a rock to make it heavier. I specifically picked this Rune because it seemed easy to create and I remember that a book titled Safety Guidelines for New Enchanters recommended that this be the first Rune that Mages should create because there was no way for an incorrectly carved path to give any harmful side effects.

Oh, there’s that too, I recalled. Enchanting things wrong often leads to explosions and other life-threatening incidents… The book did mention that.

I facepalmed. So that’s probably why Enchanting is so rare. No one wants to blow themselves up for nothing! I really feel stupid sometimes, forgetting minor details like that, I thought.

Just as I was about to pick up one of the rocks lying on the floor near my seat, Wallaheesh stirred and woke up.

He glanced at me, eyes wide in what was probably fear, and looked away quickly. He shuddered and started clenching his fists rhythmically while taking deep breaths, peeking at me to make sure I wasn’t looking at him, even though I could see him with my peripheral vision.

Being reminded of Wallaheesh’s presence in my room, a sudden thought struck me. Why don’t I just use Wallaheesh to test out various Runes? That way, not only would I minimize the risk of Enchanting (for me), but I could also somehow use this situation to make him less afraid of me, which is what I need right now in order to get any good secrets out of him before he faints in fear again.

“Hey, Wallaheesh!” I called out. “Listen up! I’m in a good mood right now. What do you say to learning some basic Enchanting? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you don’t explode.”

HAHAHAHA! Like hell! If he actually explodes, I wonder what his last thought would be… Ah, who am I kidding? I don’t even care, I thought.

Wallaheesh looked at me, surprise and shock evident on his face. “You would… you would teach me Enchanting? Without risk?” he asked.

I grinned. “Of course. No risk. There is absolutely nothing to worry about. This is my promise to you,” I assured him.

Yeah. No risk... To me, I chuckled mentally.

“But first,” I said, “you have to tell me all the secrets you know about the Galamon family. Main branch, side branch, I don’t care. Tell me everything you know, and in return, not only will I spare the lives of all innocent members of your family, but I will teach you some basic Enchanting as well. I don’t believe you are in a position to negotiate. Oh, by the way, I will know if you leave anything out… psychic powers, remember? So don’t even think about holding anything back. Got it?” I asked.

Without even waiting for an answer, I continued, as I was totally in the moment.

“So, do we have a deal?”