The hardest part of sealing a rune was handling the metal solution. If Abel was too slow, the solution would cool down and solidify, which meant that he would no longer be able to draw with it. Also, if he made a mistake in the middle of the drawing process, then all the material he used would’ve gone to waste in an instance.
Since Abel was drawing with the light golden solution, he had to boost his concentration with both his mana and his power of the Will. To add a new attribute to the magic staff, he had to transform the metal stick into something that could allow mana to be transferred. It was the key to making a magic staff.
As he began his first stroke, a silver-white line appeared on where the pen laid on the magic staff. He was fast. Because of his experience with drawing runes, he didn’t hesitate to keep moving his pen. Soon, more and more rune patterns started forming, and the magic staff became fully drawn from top to bottom.
When Abel finished his last stroke, a golden light flashed across where the pen left. Thankfully, it didn’t start vanishing immediately, because that would mean that the drawing process was a failure.
Abel drank a lot of soul potions to do this. He wasn’t just trying to draw the rune patterns correctly. By entering into the mental stimulation mode that the soul potion could help him get into, he could combine his knowledge with some of the new discoveries he’d made.
A good example would be the stand on the tip of his magic staff. It was his new invention, meant to increase the total mana capacity of the staff. If he followed the original instructions he read from “An Introduction to Crafting Magic Staff,” he could only use the magic staff three times a day. Now that there was an extra spot to place an extra gemstone, he could use the same spell for many, many more times.
It was time to add an energy source to the sealed magic rune. To do that, Abel decided to use a fine red gemstone from his portal bag. Red gemstones were mainly for fire element spells. The blackrock python belonged to both fire and poison class, but since it was more leaned towards being a fire element spiritual, he decided to go with the safe option.
When the red gemstone was in the slot, Abel saw that the slot wasn’t quite tight enough. He had to push a little hard to make the gemstone fit, which was not exactly the best way to treat a precious gemstone. He knew that, of course. There were many other ways to make the gemstone fit, but he didn’t want the fragments of his synthesized gemstones to be picked up by someone else.
Unlike most soul-trapping magic staffs, this one actually looked like it was powered with a crystal core. Yes, with a gemstone that big and shiny, anyone would’ve thought that it was powered with a crystal core.
Now, then. All that remained was the final step, and that was to place the soul of a spiritual beast inside this staff. Abel took out the crystal bottle that contained the blackrock python’s spirit. Unlike the souls of hell creatures, Abel couldn’t see the python’s spirit with his eyes. He had to sense its presence with his power of the Will.
When the crystal bottle was opened, Abel grabbed onto the blackrock’s python. He then placed it inside the magic rune pattern that was drawn. The magic rune started shining when this happened. It started absorbing the blackrock python’s soul, and eventually, the two became one.
At the same time, Abel was chanting out some ancient dwarven spells. By doing so, he could effectively keep the blackrock python’s soul inside the staff. It was like a safeguarding device, which kept the blackrock python inside despite how desperately it screamed. Its physical body was dead, yes, but its soul lamented the idea of being enslaved by the one who slain it.
Abel had to be careful when he activated this sealing rune. If he was putting in too much force, he would weaken the blackrock python’s soul, thus reducing the power of the magic staff. On the other hand, if he didn’t tame the blackrock python, the whole crafting process would result in failure. The balance must be right. Despite how many challenges he had to face to make it, one more step still remained.
Just now, Abel had an idea. To check on the blackrock python, he decided to activate his soulspeaker ability from switching to his druid spirit. When he did so, he began to have an idea of how well he was trapping the blackrock python.
Eventually, the blackrock python started resisting less. It started giving in. It even started to feel comfortable being trapped. It was Abel’s first time doing something like. In fact, he’s never thought that he could use his druid ability like this.
When the last bit of the python’s ferociousness disappeared, Abel decided to stop with the trapping. It was already settled down with being part of the staff, so there was no further reason to force anything upon it. As evidence of this, the magic staff was already starting to flash in white light.
Abel should be happy, but honestly, this was the part where he got anxious. Now that the python’s soul was bound with the staff, it was no longer up to him to decide what the resulting craft would be. It was like shooting an arrow. You could practice and prepare, but in the end, the arrow had to fly on its own.
After expanding for a bit, the white light started shrinking back. Abel’s even heard the sound of a snake’s loud hissing. Soon, he started seeing the python’s image on the magic staff.
It was a success. The magic staff was viable. Now, then. It was time to write his own name on it.
Blackfire staff (made by Abel)
Description: Can activate level 12 inferno flame 10 times a day–gas a +50% damage bonus against undead creatures.
The attribute description of the staff was quite different from the abilities of a blackrock python. Abel had a better understanding of what staff-making was like. Unlike the blackrock python, this magic staff did not contain any poison-related attributes. Besides, if it wasn’t for his extra-fine gemstone, he could only use the staff three times a day. It was more of a secret weapon, something that could only be used when things went really bad.
In other words, this “Blackfire staff” was rather useless to Abel. If he was going to use it in the dark world, he would only be able to use it in a boss fight. It was a 10-times-a-day use item, after all. Also, he would have to use 14 points per second worth of mana to use it, which was a lot even for him. Hmmm. Maybe it was better if he was using it on the Holy Continent, which was a lot more peaceful than the dark world.
Abel’s never learned the “inferno flame” spell before. If he did, he would only have to spend 7 instead of 14 mana points to activate the staff. Worse yet, the “inferno flame” was not a one-time activation spell, meaning that he had to keep supplying his own mana once he activated it.
That was 14 mana points per second. Abel had a total of 600 mana points. That was actually a lot, but there was no way that he could use the spell while holding on for too long. On a positive note, a level 12 inferno flame could deal fire damage of 118-132 points. A level 13 “fireball” could only deal 23-31 fire damage, so it was possible to see how such an expensive spell would be worth casting
