Chapter 287 Idiot
Nial's appearance was far from good as he approached Master Crevian and the five other Elves. The four older Elves took a step back to give Nial enough space to help Mathias.
"Why are you so dumbfounded? Were you that focused on engraving runic constellations?" Nial asked his friend with a faint smile on his lips when he turned back to Master Crevian. Mathias didn't say anything in return. He was just holding his chest and trying to prevent his heart from bursting into pieces.
The sudden appearance of Master Crevian and his followers had been too shocking for him.
"Master Crevian, I hope there is no problem with my runic constellations…" Nial replied and returned his focus to the more important fact.
The Old Elf seemed to be bothered about something, or so it seemed to Nial, at the very least.
However, Crevian shook his hand quickly as he clarified the misunderstanding,
"Problem? Definitely not…but you really engraved them, right?...that would be amazing…"
Master Crevian's voice was filled with interest and a bit of excitement. This astonished Nial a bit but he couldn't get himself to ask what exactly was so amazing about this feat.
'Even though I gained the experience of engraving my first Ancient Origin ring in a near-perfect manner, I didn't reach a perfection grade of 95% with all of my Basic runic constellations…that is nothing worth being amazed about,' Nial told himself inwardly.
A year had already passed since they had found out about Runiciers and even if there had been times when Nial didn't have time to focus on learning more about runic constellations, he should have made considerable progress in this duration.
Nial was greedy to improve. This greed was good and helpful as long as it was not obsessive but one could clearly tell that Nial's greed made him feel bad about being worse than he thought he should be.
"To think that you managed to achieve a 95% perfection grade without receiving a personal tutelage…" Meryl suddenly mumbled, looking at Nial with an awestruck face.
For a moment she questioned her own talent.
"You learned how to engrave these runic constellations just from some books and runic armaments, didn't you?" She asked while glaring at him as if he was her mortal enemy.
Nial was confused at her reaction but he remained honest, which was why he nodded his head and replied,
"I also attended the open-classes Crevian holds about Runiciers."
"That doesn't make me feel any better…" Meryl grumbled quietly, which Nial heard.
He smiled faintly at her reaction. Without even realizing it, his bad feeling about his slow progress dispersed. Nial heard that Meryl had introduced herself as the youngest Tier-1 Runicier of the Elven race. Thus, her frustration was something that made him feel much better.
Master Crevian noticed the reaction of the two youngsters and began to grin in response.
"How about I show what a truly perfect Basic [Sharpness] runic constellation looks like? I barged into your house without an appointment. The least I can do to apologize is to give you guys a helping hand," Master Crevian proposed lightly as if it was nothing special.
Without waiting for an answer, he took a piece of paper from the table and picked up Mathias' inscription tool. Master Crevian wanted to start his demonstration when Nial's voice suddenly reached him.
"Can we wait until Miranda returns from concocting potions? She is also learning how to engrave runic constellations and her interest in Runiciers is just as high as ours."
Nial didn't want Miranda to miss this opportunity. She was their master and if Nial were to be honest with himself, Miranda was the most interested in the occupation of a Runicier.
Miranda was not too keen on conquering dungeons or fighting with her life on the line every single day. She would rather help other Originals from the sidelines. Mathias and Nial, however, were the exact opposite.
The only factor that differentiated them from others was that they wanted to fight with the armaments they had created.
Master Crevian nodded his head in response. But instead of doing nothing, he chose to walk through the two-story floor to take a look at the equipment in the 'factory'.
"Dark Gold, that's not a bad choice to create Tier-0 runic armaments. I think there are two permanent dungeons around the Forest of Life harboring Dark Gold ore veins," Master Crevian answered lightly while adding in a scholarly tone, "...as long as you improve just a tiny bit, every casted weapon of yours will become a Tier-0 runic weapon. How long does it take for you to engrave one runic armament in a fully focused state?"
Nial felt as if they were in a class. It caused him to smile faintly because he felt relaxed and as if they were actually doing practical work in one of Master Crevian's open classes.
Oddly enough, he was quite happy and everyone could see this as his face began to glow.
"If I engrave the runic constellations in a fully focused manner and slowly, it should take half an hour to create one runic weapon," Nial stated out loud as he added, "But if I were to focus on generating more value in a shorter amount of time, I can engrave the runic constellations much faster by sacrificing a bit of the constellation's perfection grade."
Nial sounded quite nonchalant when he spoke which had offended Meryl somehow.
"If you start engraving runic constellations without any focus, you will never be able to create a Tier-0 runic armament! Just keep creating ungraded weapons with that attitude. You will turn potentially powerful weapons into trash by wasting precious materials…good job!" Meryl replied rhetorically and was about to curse at him when Master Crevian lifted his hand so as to prevent his disciple from further acting up.
He was just about to say something when Miranda's voice reached them from the second floor,
"Little Elven girl, there is no need for you to worry. Nial won't waste any materials even if he engraves the runic constellations quickly. After all, we have this runic solution!" When she said that, a vial appeared in Miranda's hand. She approached them by walking down the stairs with a faint glint in her eyes.
Her excitement and the pride in her voice were clearly noticeable. However, there was someone in the group of the Elves, who couldn't keep quiet.
"No potion can save this idiot when he starts engraving runic constellations quickly!" Meryl shouted out but even before she could continue with her rampage, Master Crevian rushed forward.
His hands reached out and he inspected the vial in Miranda's hand by using his range of perception in a precise and detailed manner.
"A low-ranked Mana dense runic solution….how did you concoct this potion?!" Master Crevian asked while holding Miranda's hand that held the runic solution.
"Did you find Magnatit crystals? Where? When? How?" Crevian's voice reached an octave with every spoken word and he sounded as if his brain was about to face a meltdown but Miranda just smiled faintly when she pointed at Nial.
"You will have to ask Nial about that. I received the Magnatit crystals from him," She shrugged off his doubts. In response to her words, everyone turned their attention to Nial, even Meryl, whose expressions changed drastically.
It looked like she had realized something and her cheeks turned red in response.
The young Elven girl knew that she had messed up before by calling Nial an Idiot. Now, she knew that he had a plan and that he wouldn't unreasonably increase the speed with which he had engraved runic constellations. He had a reason, a very good one at that.
"As long as you use the mana dense runic solution…you should be able to reach a 100% perfection grade while engraving runes slowly and a perfection grade of 95% while engraving runic constellations quickly…" Meryl mumbled after finally understanding what Nial was planning.
"You want to engrave runic constellations quickly not only to be faster but also to force your mind and hands to work with more precision. Basically, you want your muscle memories to do everything at a much faster rate," Meryl was impressed when she figured out what Nial wanted to do.
'That was my plan?' He wondered when he heard what Meryl thought about his non-existent master plan but he didn't say anything.
Rather, Nial just pressed his lips together in a thin line while trying to figure out what kind of problem the Elven girl had. She tried to headbutt him whenever there was an opportunity. This was frustrating and definitely not something he looked forward to.
"Nial? Where did you get the Magnatit crystals from? No permanent dungeon has a Magnatit crystal vein. There are various ores that are perfectly suitable to create runic armaments with but that's already it," Master Crevian was genuinely interested in finding out more about the Magnatit crystals procured by Nial.
Meryl had already revealed why mana-dense runic solutions were so valuable but it was likely that Nial didn't understand what exactly she meant.
It was not as if one could easily comprehend that mana-dense runic solutions could be used like guides to reach a higher perfect grade while engraving runic constellations!
While engraving a runic constellation with mana-dense runic solutions, one could faintly grasp whether the process was correct or not. A faint, nearly untraceable repulsive feeling would press on the inscription tools the moment one was about to make a mistake in the process of engraving.
"If you want to know more about the Magnatit crystals, how about I sell you some information about it?" Nial asked suddenly.
"I can also sell a few thousand Magnatit Crystals," He added with a smug look as if it was nothing special.
The moment Nial said all of this, Meryl's eyes turned red. She thought that Nial was setting up her master and within the following seconds, her desire to beat him to a pulp increased exponentially.
"You thief! We can find the Magnatit crystals without you!" Meryl shouted and was ready to fight Nial.
However, Nial merely smiled at Meryl as he mumbled quietly, "Whatever you say, brat."
'BRAT?!' She nearly shouted out but before Meryl could think about actually jumping at Nial to fight him, Master Crevian had already appeared by her side. He held his hand over her mouth to get the chance to speak to Nial.
"I will buy both the information about where and how you procured the Magnatit crystals, and as many Magnatit crystals as you can sell!" Master Crevian informed his decision out loud, while simultaneously trying to control the reckless raccoon, whose mouth he was trying to shut tightly.
His disciple was uncontrollable and that was something one could clearly see right now.
But Crevian enjoyed this a bit as well because it calmed his old heart, especially after it seemed like Miranda and Nial had set him up.
"Let's make a deal and then you can show us what a true perfect [Sharpness] runic constellation looks like!" Nial exclaimed while clasping his hands with a satisfied expression on his face.