Chapter 414: Rule Magic Gear (Patreon)

Chapter 414: Rule Magic Gear

"Elisa, does the library have any books about Rule Magic Gear?"

In the Garon Wizard Academy library, Richard stood beside a massive stone bookshelf, addressing the small elf before him.

The Garon Wizard Academy's collection was as vast as the sea. Even browsing the catalog would take considerable time. The most efficient way to find the books he needed was to seek help from the Library Elves.

Though these little creatures didn't seem particularly intelligent, their abilities as librarians were beyond doubt.

They remembered every single book that entered the library with perfect clarity.

And the price for their assistance? Just a single elf lollipop worth ten Magic Stones.

Elina, no larger than a palm, held a lollipop in her hand, her delicate miniature face showing a hint of contemplation.

"Rule Magic Gear? There are many books on that topic in the library. Do you want to borrow all of them?"

"Many?" Richard's face lit up with joy. "The more, the better. What's the cost for borrowing these books?"

"Hmm... a lot. A whole lot."

Elina's expression turned troubled. She set the lollipop aside and began counting on her fingers. "Some require Magic Essence, some need contribution points, and others require special privileges.

Which kind do you want?"

"Magic Essence," Richard answered without hesitation.

At the moment, Magic Essence was the only thing he could offer.

"Alright, let me calculate for you."

Elina continued counting on her fingers for a while before finally speaking. "In total, it'll be fifty-three thousand two hundred Magic Essence for seventy-three books."

Hearing the price, Richard froze for a moment before pulling out his Communication Crystal Ball.

The cost had caught him off guard—he hadn't brought that much with him. Soon, the connection was established, and Jimmy's voice came through the crystal.

"This is Jimmy. What do you need, Richard?"

"Well, Master," Richard said with an awkward chuckle, "I'm planning to borrow a batch of books from the library, totaling fifty-three thousand two hundred Magic Essence. But I don’t have that much on me right now..."

"How much? Why would it cost so much Magic Essence?"

Jimmy interrupted Richard abruptly, his voice sounding as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Elina, did you miscalculate again? How many books is Richard borrowing to need fifty thousand Magic Essence?"

Hearing Jimmy's skepticism, Elina, who had been enjoying her lollipop, immediately flared up.

"No! I checked multiple times this time! Jimmy, if you keep spreading rumors about me miscalculating, I'll... I'll move all your books to the very bottom of the catalog!"

At Elina's threat, Jimmy's hearty laughter echoed from the crystal ball.

"Fine, if Elina says it's correct, then go ahead and read those books first.

As for the Magic Essence... no rush. It's not like you can't pay it back. Just put it on the tab for now."

Hearing Jimmy's response, Elina nodded.

"Alright, I'll note it down on your tab then."

After Jimmy ended the call, Elina drew a glowing circle in the air with luminescent dust and then vanished into it.

About an hour later, Richard suddenly heard a rustling sound above him.

Thick, encyclopedia-sized Magic Books began falling from a glowing circle of luminescent dust in the sky.

Richard reached out to catch the books, and soon all seventy-three volumes had landed in his hands. Stacked together, they stood three times his height.

"Alright, these are all the books you've borrowed."

Elena finally emerged from the glowing circle, flopping onto the topmost book like a salted fish.

"Thank you, thank you."

Richard chuckled as he used a Magic Hand to steady the stack, casually pulling another elven lollipop from his pocket and offering it to Elena.

But upon seeing it, Elena waved her hands frantically and shook her head. "No, no, fetching books is my duty. I can't accept your candy again."

With that, she drew another glowing circle in the air and fled as if escaping.

Watching this scene, Richard found it rather amusing.

"I'll just leave the candy here then. Wouldn't want it to go to waste."

Having said this, Richard stored all the books in his pocket and went on his way.

Much later, a glowing circle suddenly appeared beside the lollipop. A small hand reached out from the circle and snatched the candy inside.

"Oh dear, this Wizard is impossible. Such good candy shouldn't be wasted.

Sigh, I'll just have to refuse next time.

But what was this Wizard's name again? Ah yes, Richard. Must remember that name—no more candy from him next time."

...

Carrying these books worth 53,200 Magic Essence, Richard immediately rushed back to his Wizard Tower without pause.

In the tower's study, he carefully cataloged and shelved each borrowed volume according to a numbering system he devised.

Then he immersed himself in this sea of knowledge.

Through these books, Richard learned what Rule Magic Gear truly was—how it differed from conventional Magic Equipment and some techniques for crafting it.

Essentially, so-called Rule Magic Gear was simply Magic Equipment enhanced through alternative enchantment methods.

Ordinary Magic Equipment used Rune Arrays to achieve certain effects, while Rule Magic Gear employed rules directly to accomplish the same.

In principle, Richard's Fuel Ring that refined radiation rules was itself a type of Rule Magic Gear, albeit with rather specialized effects.

However, Rule Magic Gear had one advantage over conventional equipment: normal Magic Equipment could undergo rule-based enchantment to become Rule Magic Gear, achieving synergistic effects where one plus one exceeded two.

But regarding how to perform rule-based enchantments or effectively harness the power of rules, the books diverged significantly.

Approaches to crafting Rule Magic Gear generally fell into two schools. The Materialists worked by imprinting rules directly onto materials before applying enchantments.

The Rune School, meanwhile, first created standard Magic Equipment, then imprinted rules onto it in rune form to directly amplify the Rune Arrays.

Both schools presented compelling arguments, with editors including extensive experimental data to support their claims—while occasionally mixing in personal attacks against rival Wizards.

Richard spent three years reading through all these volumes.

Upon finishing, he felt he'd nearly mastered doublethink.

Countless seemingly contradictory yet simultaneously valid data points collided constantly in his mind.

These collisions failed to spark inspiration—instead leaving Richard with a splitting headache.

...

Not a single error in content! Find it at 69shu bar!

"This is a bit tricky."

Richard stared at the communication crystal ball in his hand, Jolod's message within leaving him feeling helpless.

As an Alchemist Wizard who had only recently advanced to Third Circle—not much earlier than Richard—Jolod was equally blank when it came to knowledge about Rule Magic Gear.

Before consulting Jolod, Richard had also asked Anna, who gave the same response.

"Sigh, no one's researched this. Seems I'll have to learn through practice."

Richard placed a blueprint on the workbench—an aberration light projector he'd casually designed during his three years of study.

For this device, Richard adopted the first production approach: imprinting rules into materials to alter their fundamental properties.

The advantage of this method lay in its simplicity. Compared to enhancing rune arrays with rules, this approach required no changes to the standard Magic Equipment production process and placed fewer demands on a Wizard's expertise, making it ideal for beginners.

"According to the books, materials for rule imprinting should ideally have no inherent characteristics and exhibit extreme stability. Such materials..."

Muttering to himself, Richard pulled a colorless crystal from his pocket.

This crystal, called a buffer crystal, was commonly used as an energy relay in Alchemy Machines. It possessed no special properties and was remarkably stable.

"Next comes rule imprinting."

Richard glanced left at a row of cyan ice spheres on the workbench, each containing a trapped glow.

The glowing orbs were arranged by size—the largest contained Aberration Rule, followed by Soul Rule, then Nightmare Rule, Gestation Rule, and finally the smallest one holding the Flesh Rule Richard had first obtained.

After retrieving the Aberration Rule, Richard produced a black stone slab and began drawing an Alchemy Array on the workbench.

Rule imprinting required an extremely complex auxiliary array. Every Wizard who adopted this approach for creating Rule Magic Gear emphasized one crucial point in their writings:

The imprinted rules must be incomplete.

Wizards of the rune faction often used this limitation to criticize material-focused practitioners.

Yet current evidence suggested the material approach wasn't flawed—it simply lacked sufficient technical refinement.

The auxiliary imprinting array was extraordinarily complex. Richard needed to inscribe nearly five million runes onto a one-cubic-meter black stone platform.

This would be a painstakingly long process.

Five years later.

"Finally finished."

Beads of sweat dotted Richard's forehead as he examined the completed black slab on the workbench.

"Now for the final step."

His gaze shifted to the other side of the workbench, where a black alchemy platform stood incomplete, missing just this last slab.

Richard placed the final piece, completing the assembly.

Instantly, runes across the platform began glowing, their intricate patterns illuminating every corner of the structure.

Soon, the light faded.

Not a single fissure remained—the slabs had fused seamlessly into one unified whole.

Witnessing this, Richard exhaled in relief, an unconscious smile spreading across his face.

The alchemy platform was complete.

Without delay, Richard immediately encased the alchemy table with an outer shell to protect it from damage.

Next, he opened a Mystic Realm Rift and pulled Ulysses to his side as insurance before beginning to imprint the rules onto the alchemy table.

Richard placed the buffer crystal at the very center of the table, then unfroze the ice sphere containing the sealed Aberration Rule.

In the next instant, the alchemy table lit up. A force field replaced the seal, trapping the dissipating Aberration Rule within the confines of the experiment table.

A bead of sweat rolled down Richard’s forehead as he carefully used the alchemy table to imprint the Aberration Rule into the buffer crystal.

A long time later, the alchemy table dimmed once more.

Richard leaned against it, dizzy—imprinting the rule had drained too much of his mental energy.

But fortunately, everything had gone smoothly.

At the center of the alchemy table, a deep violet-red crystal, resembling congealed blood, now emitted an eerie glow.

(End of Chapter)