Since Adrian understood it quickly, Irene continued.
"To be more precise, we can achieve this through ancient runes. Each rune has a specific meaning. Arranging some runes in a specific way can release the magic power in the body, like interpreting gestures and incantations, to produce the magic you want."
"What if we could tell the magic directly what we want to do?" Adrian suddenly remembered the magical state he'd entered before.
"Then it involves wandless casting and silent casting knowledge. Only a handful of wizards can do this," Irene explained, then reminded Adrian not to aim too high, that wasn't something he could do now.
After briefly explaining the principles of making magical items, Irene put the carving knife in Adrian's hand.
Then she placed a stone carved plate on the workbench. More than a hundred different ancient runes were burned onto it, but only about half were marked with notes, and only around thirty had detailed instructions!
Most of the marked runes were related to death, corrosion, and pain. Only a few runes represented positive attributes like protection and isolation.
Seeing this, Adrian finally understood why most of the dark magical items Irene made were cursed, it was because only this part of the runes had been analyzed.
"Next, you'll try to burn these runes on wood. Just practice the first one today, until you can carve the rune perfectly!" Irene pointed to the wooden board on the table.
Adrian picked up the carving knife and tried it out. It didn't seem too difficult to burn symbols on wood.
Although he'd never had similar experience before, Adrian had enough patience. After failing more than ten times in a row, he finally burned the first character completely onto the wood.
It just looked a little crooked, and the marks were of different depths.
This kind of rune certainly couldn't satisfy Adrian, so he continued working hard.
However, carving complex runes on wood wasn't an easy task. At least it couldn't be learned in a day or two. Adrian burned dozens in succession but couldn't achieve the regularity of the stone plate.
[Ding!]
[After a period of practice, your Alchemy proficiency has improved, current Level 3 (196/2000)]
Hearing the prompt in his mind, Adrian paused his rune carving practice and felt frustrated. After more than three hours of practice, his Alchemy proficiency had only increased by a few dozen points.
Obviously, burning runes was a skill that required focus and long training periods.
A few days, even a few weeks, might not be enough.
'Or... should I try that?'
Adrian's mind stirred. Since returning home, he hadn't consumed grade points anymore to buy the experience card.
Previously, he'd reserved them for self-protection at critical times. Now that he could use blood magic freely, the danger in Knockturn Alley had decreased considerably for him. Keeping so many grade points wasn't very useful.
He decided to act on the thought immediately. When Adrian changed his mind, the system prompt sounded.
[Ding!]
[One hundred grade points have been deducted!]
The next second, a familiar feeling came over him. Adrian suddenly felt the carving knife in his hand wasn't so difficult to control. As long as his hand was steady enough, burning runes wouldn't be difficult.
Irene looked around for a while, watching Adrian's expression slowly turn from calm at the start to frustrated, which she found quite interesting.
It had taken her a long time to learn to burn runes back then. She'd tried to give up countless times before she could make carved runes reach the standard to be used. Even now, she still remembered how much energy she'd spent.
Thinking this kind of basic learning might take a long time, Irene turned to study new rune arrangements.
She didn't know how long had passed. When the research hit a bottleneck and Irene turned her head to check Adrian's progress, she was stunned.
The large wooden boards had been carved with densely packed ancient runes. The first ones were crooked and twisted with marks of different depths, but the later ones appeared more and more regular.
The last few weren't even slightly different from the ones carved on the slate.
Irene's expression became very strange. If it weren't for the growth pattern of Adrian's rune burning on the wooden boards, she would have thought Adrian had been practicing privately behind her back for several years.
This progress speed was too fast!
Irene's gaze quietly watched Adrian's right hand holding the carving knife. The hand was steady without the slightest tremor. Under her gaze, Adrian recorded more than thirty runes again. Each one was more accurate than the previous one.
Obviously, Adrian's level of burning runes was still continuously improving.
Irene remembered Adrian had said beforehand that he'd acquired a magical ability after concocting a bloodline fusion potion. Concentration could greatly increase his thinking speed and help him quickly learn various spells.
Irene hadn't believed it before. How fast could "faster learning" really be?
But now she had to believe it.
Could blood fusion really provide such huge improvements?
Irene stared blankly for a while. If Adrian hadn't told her the success rate of producting a bloodline fusion potion was very low, that one careless move would be disastrous, Irene couldn't help but want to try it herself.
Adrian was very dissatisfied with his work. Compared to the ones he'd seen before, he always felt something was missing.
Moreover, he'd also injected his magic without any effect.
"Learning runes is really too difficult!" Adrian sighed. It had taken him a full two hundred grade points and two hours to reach this level in experience card mode. He hadn't expected burning runes still wouldn't be standard enough.
'When I exit this state, won't burning be even worse?'
Thinking of this, Adrian worked even harder.
Irene was speechless for a while and hurried to interrupt.
"You can now pour magic into the carving knife and burn the rune on this yew wood. Try again!"
"You can inject magic power?" Adrian was surprised and quickly did so. He discovered the carving knife in his hand was also a magical item. After magic was poured in, the tip of the carving knife faintly glowed with magical energy.
Adrian gently slid the carving knife across the wooden block, pulling out a trace.
The carving knife had become much sharper. More importantly, the carved marks seemed completely different from before, the marks caused by magic remained on it.
Adrian then realized the method he'd used before was wrong. So he burned onto the yew wood Irene had given him, selecting a cross-shaped star with bifurcated runes on both sides, which represented corrosion.