Chapter 415: Rule Development (Patreon)

Chapter 415: Rule Development

After recovering some of his mental energy, Richard placed the buffer crystal imprinted with the Aberration Rule onto the experimental table.

Although he had successfully imprinted the Aberration Rule into the buffer crystal, altering its properties, he wasn’t entirely sure what effects it would have.

Under the light, the purplish-red crystal emitted an eerie glow. Richard picked up an energy probe and conducted a simple scan.

"Hmm? No energy field leakage?"

Looking at the data from the probe, a trace of surprise flickered across Richard’s face.

The absence of an energy field meant that, under normal conditions, this crystal had no impact whatsoever on its surroundings.

This was the exact opposite of the Aberration Rule’s inherently invasive nature.

"Interesting. Is the buffer crystal’s stability really this high?"

Richard’s expression grew excited. The stability displayed by the buffer crystal far exceeded his expectations.

If this wasn’t just a unique case, then he wouldn’t have to worry about finding suitable materials to serve as rule carriers when crafting Rule Magic Gear in the future.

Holding the buffer crystal in his hand, Richard channeled a small amount of Magic Power into it.

Almost immediately, the crystal emitted a faint glow. Under this light, the cells in his hand showed subtle signs of agitation.

"Good. It seems the Aberration Illuminator can be realized."

Richard pulled out a small box from his pocket, filled with a silicone-like padding.

He carved out a hollow in the padding and carefully placed the buffer crystal—or rather, the Aberration Crystal—inside.

Although the Aberration Crystal’s properties were stable, there was no telling what might happen if it suffered physical impact.

Better to err on the side of caution.

After securing the Aberration Crystal, Richard meditated for eight hours to fully restore his mental energy.

Then, he began his second rule imprinting—this time, the Soul Rule.

Runes shimmered across the alchemy table as the intangible Soul Rule gradually fused into the buffer crystal within the Alchemy Array under the table’s power.

The Soul Rule was even more fragmented than the Aberration Rule, making this imprinting process much easier than the last.

Once completed, Richard felt slightly lightheaded, but his mental state remained steady.

He picked up the crystal from the Alchemy Array and scanned it again with the energy probe.

"Excellent. It really is the buffer crystal’s stability at work."

Satisfied with the probe’s readings, Richard nodded.

From now on, as long as the rule’s fragmentation wasn’t worse than the Aberration Rule’s, he could use buffer crystals as rule carriers when crafting Rule Magic Gear.

After storing the Soul Crystal in the same manner, Richard repeated the process, imprinting all his remaining rules into buffer crystals.

For ordinary Alchemist Wizards, crafting Rule Magic Gear was a luxury.

Imprinting rules was easy, but extracting them from materials afterward was far more difficult.

But Richard had no such concerns.

After obtaining the Dimensional Gap’s spatial bubble, his soul essence had become self-sustaining. If not for the fact that forcibly advancing to Great Wizard status with soul essence was impossible, he might already have become a Great Wizard by now.

The cost of extracting rules from materials? A trivial matter.

After imprinting all the rules, Richard began using these crystals as core components to craft Magic Equipment.

At this point, the advantage of the materialist approach became evident.

Unlike the rune-focused method, Richard didn’t need to design a specialized Rune Array for rule optimization. He could simply proceed as he would with ordinary Magic Equipment.

The Distorted Light Projector, Flesh Scalpel, Nightmare Mask… Within just a year, Richard had transformed all the crystals into Rule Magic Gear.

Most of these were laboratory instruments, functioning even more efficiently than when they had been integrated into Richard’s body.

Under the effect of the Rune Arrays, these rules radiated brilliance far surpassing what they had exhibited within Richard.

This realization made him somewhat embarrassed.

He had sorely underestimated the potential of these rules before.

It was as if he had been standing atop a mountain of gold, yet had been distracted by a mere nugget at his feet.

“It seems the development of these rules must be prioritized,” Richard mused.

He glanced at his to-do list and promptly added an entry titled “Rule Development” at the top.

Radiation Rule… This one appeared to have vast potential.

Radiation was a broad term. By his previous life’s definition, it was a physical phenomenon inherent in all matter under non-absolute-zero conditions—every object inevitably emitted thermal radiation.

But in the Wizard World, radiation was defined as the overflow of energy.

By that logic, the Radiation Rule was practically divine. Since everything in existence possessed energy, mastering energy would equate to mastering the world itself.

Yet, in Richard’s tests, his Radiation Rule didn’t demonstrate such terrifying capabilities.

The rule significantly enhanced his Spell penetration, allowing even the simplest Magic Missile to pierce energy barriers capable of withstanding spells of a thousand energy levels.

Additionally, he could emit high-energy radiation.

However, this radiation wasn’t self-sustaining—it drew entirely from his body and internal Mana Recirculation.

Prolonged use of this ability would lead to physical deterioration.

Beyond that, he could manipulate radiation within a certain threshold. Beyond that limit, he could only weaken it, not control it.

Here was the irony: even with mastery over the Radiation Rule, Richard would still be reduced to ashes by the radiation near the fortress’s Power Furnace if he returned—though he might last slightly longer this time.

This left Richard deeply frustrated.

He sought Ulysses’ counsel on why this was the case, and the foreign World Master answered thus:

“A rule is an amplifier with varying degrees of potency. But if what’s being amplified is too small, even the most powerful amplifier can’t compete with the giants.

This is why a demigod can never defeat a World Master.

Your combat power is one. A rule might amplify it tenfold. Even with deeper rule development, the amplification might reach thirteen, fourteen, or at most twenty.

So your peak combat power would still only be twenty.”

The combat power of a World Master is ten. Even though their utilization of rules is crude, with amplification factors only reaching eleven or twelve, their final combat power can still reach one hundred to one hundred twenty.

This disparity in data has already surpassed what skill alone can compensate for.

So, don’t blindly worship rules—your own strength is the foundation of everything.

"You’ve grown a bit too greedy."

Ulysses’ words struck Richard like a wake-up call, jolting him to his senses.

Obtaining rules was originally a good thing, but he had fallen into frustration because the abilities granted by the rules weren’t strong enough.

This was truly the work of greed.

Realizing this, Richard couldn’t help but feel a surge of fear. Fortunately, he had discovered this issue early and hadn’t made any mistakes yet.

But if he had lost his head on the battlefield, he would have been truly doomed.

"Ah, the gains from the Green Forest World were so great that they made me this greedy," Richard sighed.

Greed was the most taboo trait for a Black Wizard, and yet, without even realizing it, he had fallen into its grasp—truly terrifying.

Ulysses consoled him, "Caw, realizing it is a good thing. Greed is human nature—even the God-King has moments of greed."

Richard summoned a ball of water, washed his face, and freed himself from his emotions.

As Ulysses had said, realizing it was a good thing.

Returning to the Wizard Tower, Richard went to his study and began flipping through the books he had just borrowed from the library.

This borrowing had taken him a great deal of effort because Elina happened to be on leave those two days—these library spirits had ten days of vacation each year, during which they could leave the library freely.

Richard had only just learned of this rule.

Who would have thought that these little spirits, who seemed to have nothing to do all day, would have dedicated vacation time?

The books Richard had borrowed this time numbered in the hundreds, mostly covering knowledge from the School of Evocation.

The rule of radiation didn’t have much room for development in Alchemy.

The School of Evocation was where it truly shone.

...

As days passed, Richard read more and more books. His mastery of the radiation rule grew increasingly proficient.

Through his efforts, the power of his spells had improved dramatically.

An ordinary Fireball spell, with the assistance of the rule, could now reach nearly eight thousand energy levels. His Heart of Annihilation spell had even reached fifteen thousand energy levels.

A spell of this power could kill even a Third Circle Wizard on the spot if they weren’t careful.

And this was just its normal power. If Richard disregarded the consequences, the spell’s power could multiply several times over—though the cost would be devastating.

Beyond spells, Richard had also developed a form of Spellcraft called the Radiation Battleform.

Through his experiments, Richard found that even without the radiation rule, this Spellcraft could be achieved using certain radioactive materials.

Its combat power was also extraordinarily exaggerated.

Once the Radiation Battleform was activated, every strike Richard made carried lethal energy radiation.

This radiation possessed formidable penetrating power, whether against energy barriers or robust physical defenses.

And this was just a byproduct of Richard’s efforts.

His original idea was to turn himself into a Power Furnace, then externally drive a set of rule-powered armor to maximize the advantages of being an Alchemist Wizard.

Time passed swiftly like a fleeting white horse.

In the blink of an eye, the day of the Wizard gathering arrived.

Prompted by Jimmy’s reminder, Richard quickly organized his equipment and hurriedly left the Wizard Tower, heading toward the Garon Wizard Academy.

For a Wizard like Richard, who had joined the academy, attending the gathering naturally meant going together with the academy’s Wizards.

Upon arriving at the academy, Richard immediately spotted the group of Wizards hovering in mid-air.

The Garon Wizard Academy had many Third Circle Wizards—nearly two hundred of them. Such a large number of Third Circle Wizards could almost serve as the backbone for a Plane War expedition to a minor world.

Spotting Richard, Jimmy laughed loudly and called out, "Richard, you finally made it!

If you’d been any later, you’d have had to find us at the Tower of Truth instead."

(End of Chapter)