“Because the prestige connection between you and Gu Xiuxun is improved to ‘friendly’, you get ix black-iron treasure chest as a reward. Please continue to work hard.”
A dense black-colored treasure chest appeared before Sun Mo.
Yesterday, he had opened quite a few treasure chests. Because Sun Mo was worried that he had used up his luck and wouldn’t be able to open anything good today, he decided to open this another time.
On the way back to school. Sun Mo took out the spirit rune design template due to boredom. He looked at this metallic sheet as various thoughts formed in his mind.
“System, can this template really design whatever concepts I want?” Sun Mo asked.
The template felt cool to touch, as though it had just been soaked in ice water.
“Yes. From the start of the activation until the end, the effect wouldn’t drift further than 10%. In addition, the might of this spirit rune is dependent on the drawing abilities of the spirit rune master,” the system explained.
“Alright, I will introduce my design now.” Sun Mo coughed and cleared his throat. “I want this spirit rune to generate 16 circular-shaped lightning spheres upon activation. They would revolve and rotate around my body in a dormant state, and only a tiny amount of spirit qi is needed to control them. When they were rotating in a radius of half-a-meter from me, the speed of their revolution would slow down. Once they entered the alert state, the speed of their rotation would increase greatly and the defensive area they cover would expand. In a radius of three meters from me, they would revolve and rotate irregularly.”
The system was speechless. (Although I said any designs are possible, is there a need to make things so troublesome?)
“Can you do it or not?” Sun Mo was worried. “Continue!”
The system’s voice was calm. It mustn’t cower at such a time.
“When facing the enemy attacks, these lightning spheres would automatically track their target due to the static electricity produced from my enemy’s body, swiftly rotating to the front and blocking the attacks for me. As for how they should block the attacks, they would simply collide with the target and produce lightning radiation attacks in a circular area-of-effect in the direction of the enemy.”
“Can you make the design even more troublesome than this?”
The system felt its scalp turning numb. (IS this still considered blocking? This is already attacking and defending in one system. But this concept really isn’t bad.)
“Don’t interrupt me, I still want to add more things!”
Sun Mo continued, “The lightning spheres have to be able to be controlled by the user. Once the spheres discovered enemies, after the injection of spirit qi, they should be able to blast forth like cannons and explode, forming an explosion radius of three meters that’s entirely covered by lightning.” “Mn, the range must reach 30 meters at least!”
After Sun Mo finished speaking, he discovered the system falling silent. (It wouldn’t be too difficult, right?)
“System? System? Please say something if you are still alive!”
Sun Mo suddenly felt that he might be making things too difficult for the system.
“Creak!”
The system made a noise. After that, it felt like crying. “I suddenly feel some regret letting you have the chance to win the spirit rune design template. You are definitely the most troublesome client in the world.”
“Hehe, you already find this troublesome?” Sun Mo mocked. “You are still too young, do you know what’s the most troublesome product? It’s something that can drive a programmer crazy. For example, designing an APP that would change the color of your phone casing according to your love life! “For example, the color of the casing of ordinary single dogs will be red. Warm and gentle guys will be yellow, spare tires will be light green, those cuckolded will be dark green. Also, the light has to be in those extremely bright hues!”
The system felt its scalp turning numb. It suddenly felt that Sun Mo’s request was actually quite simple.
“After understanding my merciful side, you better hurry up and design that for me!”
Sun Mo spoke.
“Are you sure you don’t want to consider it more? I feel that I can design a shield that will change color according to your love situation. Red color if you are single, gold if you are married, green if you are someone’s spare tire, dark green if you are cuckolded. Stop, don’t interrupt me! The most marvelous aspect of this design is that when you got cuckolded, it would play a melody and transmit the scene of your girl cheating on you repeatedly in your mind.”
“Scram!”
Sun Mo ruthlessly pointed a middle-finger at the system. (You are the f***ing devil, right?) Honestly speaking, Sun Mo felt that his spirit rune design was quite complicated, and the system would need at least 10 days to half-a-month before it could create the embryonic form. But the moment he reached his dorm and was preparing to take an afternoon nap, the system told him that the rune was completed. “You wouldn’t be fooling me, right?”
Sun Mo was filled with doubts.
The silver spirit rune design template floated in Sun Mo’s vision. It revolved 360 degrees and allowed Sun Mo to admire it.
“Won’t you know if you try it?” The system then reminded Sun Mo. “Because this is something designed by you, after you learn it, your proficiency level will immediately be raised to the expert-grade.”
Sun Mo took the revolving spirit rune design template and placed it in his hand. However, he didn’t learn it immediately. He was observing the runic lines.
It contained over a thousand spirit rune lines. They were densely stacked together and looked very complicated yet beautiful. They exuded a type of beauty that arose from modern design.
This feeling was something like when one saw a peak-grade electric circuit board. The design was neat, clean, and artistic. Every single detail contained the aura of logic.
Sun Mo felt that beauty could be classified into two types. One type was born under a grandmaster’s brush and the elegance of splashing ink, something like calligraphy with bold and unrestrained strokes, exuding natural elegance. An example was the ‘Orchid Pavilion Preface’ and the painting ‘Along the River During the Qingming Festival’.
The second one would be the modern type of beauty that came after the industrial revolution. The largest object was a tank, and the smallest object was a CPU microchip.
Sun Mo possessed the spirit gathering rune and black tortoise spirit rune. From a glance, he could tell that these two runes were designed by humans. The ambitions of the creators must be like heavenly steeds soaring across the skies, daring to explore and reach out into the unknown. While this lightning protection spirit rune named by Sun Mo was clearly a product of artificial intelligence. The logic behind the design of the runic lines was simply too clear.
“Don’t waste any more time. Given your current knowledge in the study of spirit runes, you won’t be able to understand no matter how often you look at it!”
The system reminded Sun Mo.
“I know I won’t be able to understand. But having seen the design you drew, I feel like it opens up a new way of thinking for me.”
Sun Mo explained, his brows were furrowed in concentration.
“Eh!”
The system started. After that, it felt a little convinced in its heart. This Sun Mo truly wouldn’t give up any opportunities to learn.
Right now, Sun Mo was like a sixth-generation warplane designer who suddenly saw a seventh-generation warplane flying past his head. Although he didn’t understand the internal structure completely, just the exterior of the new generation warplane would cause him to gain plenty of inspiration.
It was like someone stumbling in the fog. Suddenly, a hand stretched out and pulled the person out onto the correct path.
The system fell silent for the sake of not disrupting Sun Mo’s thinking.
Sun Mo only crushed the design template an hour later.
Pak!
A beam of silver light shot into Sun Mo’s forehead.
A large amount of information instantly erupted in his mind, causing him to feel a splitting headache as though a hand grenade just exploded in his head.
“Ah!”
Sun Mo screamed in pain; his entire body was perspiring cold sweat. His clothes were instantly drenched.
One must know that after Sun Mo obtained the system, he had learned many pieces of knowledge in this manner. However, this time was the most painful one.
The pain persisted for an entire five minutes before vanishing. The current Sun Mo lay on the ground like a catfish on the verge of death as he panted heavily.
A puddle was formed from his sweat. His clothes were drenched.
Ding!
“Congratulations on learning the lightning protection spirit rune drawing technique. Proficiency level: expert!”
“This is the price of acquiring knowledge.”
The system’s tone was solemn.
The pain came from two sources. The pain was generated from the branding of knowledge into one’s mind. Secondly, it came from the stimulation by the system. It wanted to let Sun Mo know that knowledge was priceless, so he should cherish the knowledge and use it appropriately.
Sun Mo drank a few mouthfuls of water and rested a little before he sat in front of his desk. He took some paper and a brush and began to practice drawing the lightning protection rune.
Because his proficiency level was at the expert-grade, Sun Mo didn’t seem rusty despite drawing it for the first time.
The entire process was as smooth as water flowing into a canal.
45 minutes later, the spirit rune was completed.
Sun Mo shook his head in dissatisfaction because there was no spirit tornado generated. This indicated that the grade of this spirit rune wasn’t high.
“Eh? Sun Mo, you are not teaching any classes?”
Ludi came back to prepare pig trotters since he was free in the afternoon. Just when he was about to stew them, he realized that Sun Mo was still around. He couldn’t help but feel a little taken aback as Sun Mo was famous for being extremely punctual.
“I’m heading there now.” Sun Mo stood up.
“Eh? Are you alright?”
Ludi noticed that Sun Mo’s face was pale and his clothes were wrinkled. He looked to be in a very sorry state.
“I’m fine!”
Sun Mo would usually pay attention to his appearance. Thus, he fetched some water and washed his face. He also straightened his clothes and changed into a new set of clean teacher robes.
The class proceeded normally, but the number of students increased to 200, and the majority of the students were female. They had no interest in spirit runes and only came for the class because they wanted to see Sun Mo.
After the class ended, the students crowded around him. “I’m sorry, I have something on today, so I won’t be answering any questions.”
Sun Mo brought his spirit rune paper and ink as he headed to the residence outside the school. He continued to practice drawing the lightning protection spirit rune and he grew increasingly proficient in it.
When he drew his sixth set, the spirit qi tornado phenomenon finally manifested.
Sun Mo no longer drew after that. He went to the courtyard and injected his spirit qi into the rune.
Sizzle!
As the spirit rune paper was torn, a few electric arcs flashed by, forming three orange-sized lightning spheres that were slowly floating around him.
“So small?”
Sun Mo frowned. The amount of spirit qi he had injected into the rune was already more than what he had expected.
Since there were no enemies, it was impossible to test the rune’s defensive capabilities. Hence, Sun Mo decided to test the rune’s attacking prowess. He then glanced at the fake mountain in the courtyard.
Swish!
One of the lightning spheres flew out, but it didn’t manage to collide with the fake mountain. Roughly at the 25 meters range after launching out, the sphere exploded. RUMBLE
With the lightning sphere as the center, ten arcs of lightning inundated the area. The area of effect was roughly about 5 meters in radius.
Sun Mo remembered the data and continued testing.
One set! Two sets! Three sets!
Sun Mo used all the lightning protection spirit runes he had drawn today and soon discovered a rule. The number of lightning spheres corresponded to the spirit rune’s grade.
The higher the grade, the more lightning spheres would there be. The highest number of spheres he had generated today was due to the sixth-graded rune. Also, the size of the sphere was much bigger, roughly at the size of a coconut.
After the spirit rune papers were torn, the lightning spheres appeared immediately. As the spirit qi in them began to dissipate, the shortest lasted for 5 minutes and the longest 20 minutes.
The longer the duration, the more the spirit qi would dissipate, causing the prowess of the lightning spheres to be greatly reduced.
“It’s not perfect enough!”
Sun Mo shook his head.
“This is because your proficiency level is too low. When you reach the grandmaster-grade, you will be able to perfectly display the effect of the lightning protection rune.” The system explained, “But I have to praise you on this. This concept combines attack and defense, it is really not bad. This is especially useful out there in the wilderness. You can use it to defend against a sudden ambush.”
