"Success!" Sam shouted at the top of his lungs. His theory had been absolutely correct.
To produce a standard rune, a typical producer had to follow a grueling set of steps:
First, they needed a fire-attribute runic ability to melt down extracted monster runes. The temperature, density, and ignition control all relied heavily on the user's fire mastery to achieve the optimum melt. This step was crucial for burning away impurities.
Second, the melted monster rune had to be placed inside an incubator to prevent the core energy from dissipating. Concurrently, under a strict time limit, the producer had to concoct an alchemical catalyst crafted from mutated plants, monster parts, or a mixture of both.
Third came the final and most crucial step—the phase where all success or failure was decided. The producer had to pour the alchemical catalyst into the incubator, using their own internal rune energy to manually manipulate and merge the differing properties with the melted monster core.
However, the resulting reaction was often highly volatile. Any slight incompatibility caused by improper melting or unbalanced alchemy would lead to an instant collapse of the rune.
While it might sound straightforward on paper, the process was an arduous, agonizing task that took a massive physical and mental toll. The producer had to maintain a continuous, unbroken flow of rune energy from the very first spark of ignition to the final cooling phase, all while ensuring their own body didn't collapse from the strain.
Yet here Sam stood, back in the dark void of his special ability, staring at the exact same interface slots he had seen during his terrifying transmigration. He had spent ample time agonizing over them in his despair, but this time, a gentle smile graced his face.
"So, that's how this works."
The six pieces of Spiritual Fire Ganoderma automatically divided and stacked themselves, with two pieces filling each of the three outer slots. In an instant, a sudden wave of weakness washed over his body.
Meanwhile, the three outer slots ignited from the bottom up. They soon vanished from his sight, perfectly merging together until a brand-new, white pill with a distinct crack down its middle materialized in the center slot.
"My cheat ability actually worked!"
To an amateur, the crack might look like a critical failure, but in reality, that was exactly what a flawless One Round Invigoration Rune Pill was supposed to look like. Its primary purpose was to help F-Rank runic warriors level up their attributes.
The Invigoration Pill and the One Round Nourishing Rune Elixir differed from higher-tier products because they were exclusively designed for the F-Rank demographic. Crucially, neither recipe required a monster-extracted rune as a base. That was the entire reason Sam had chosen this specific path; without a fire-attribute runic ability, he had no way to melt monster cores anyway.
In a flash, his vision shifted, and he found himself back at his study table in the real world. The only difference was the solid, white pill now resting heavily in his palm.
"What an intoxicating smell!"
For a split second, every muscle in his body screamed at him to devour it on the spot. Forcing down his throbbing heart and primal urges, he carefully placed the pill into one of the small, empty boxes and snapped the lid shut.
Taking a deep breath, he stared intently at the container. "Money!"
He wasn't just looking at a pill anymore; he was looking at a mountain of upcoming wealth. He could already imagine the endless stream of sales notifications pinging across his VR network.
'Calm down,' he chided himself. He remembered the sudden wave of weakness that had washed over him right before the Merge ability activated. Keeping that in mind, he quickly pulled up his status screen.
Strength: 2
Agility: 2
Physique: 2
Spirit: 10
Endurance: 3/3 [Physique + 10% Spirit]
Rune Energy: 9/10 [Spirit]
Rune Abilities: [None]
Special Abilities: Merge [Merge Points: 1]
"It consumed exactly one point of Rune Energy." Sam nodded in understanding. The Merge ability obviously didn't operate for free, but this was well within his limits. He was more than happy to bear the minor burden. However, the truly shocking detail was the new addition at the bottom of the screen.
'Do Merge Points help me upgrade the ability itself?' he murmured. He had absolutely no information about the metric, other than the fact that he had gained exactly one point after successfully producing one pill. Deciding not to dwell on it, he pushed the thought aside.
'Time will reveal the answer.'
He had ample time to discover the system's hidden mechanics later. For now, he needed to strike while the iron was hot and mass-produce more pills. Grabbing a much larger handful, he held forty-eight pieces of Spiritual Fire Ganoderma in his palms and willed his rune energy forward.
Once again, he was transported to the dark void.
"I knew it!" he grinned.
The forty-eight pieces perfectly divided themselves, stacking sixteen pieces of Ganoderma into each of the three outer slots. But before he could celebrate, his knees buckled. He slumped to the dark floor, feeling as if every single drop of blood had been instantly drained from his face.
"So... this is what sudden, massive Rune Energy exhaustion feels like," he wheezed, staring up at the igniting slots with a pale face but fiercely determined eyes.
"I can handle it."
Swish! Sam clenched his teeth as cold sweat beaded on his forehead. Slowly, agonizingly, the ignition process ran its course. He felt like he had been thrown through a centrifuge, his body completely hollowed out, drained of every last lingering drop of energy.
"Done!" Sam sighed in immense relief as the merging light finally reached the topmost corners of the center slot.
"Aaahhh!" Sam gasped, his eyes snapping open as he was violently ejected back into his dorm room. Eight pristine, white rune pills rested on the table before him, their intoxicating aroma slamming into his face all at once.
Forcing down his primal urge to devour the entire batch, he meticulously placed each pill into its own small box and securely closed the lids.
"I did it!" Slumping heavily into his chair, he let his head loll backward, staring exhaustedly at the ceiling.
"So, this is the grueling, tiring experience every runic producer has to suffer through," he complained to the empty room.
He was shamelessly exaggerating his own hardship. A true newcomer had to spend hours continuously outputting energy, staying hyper-vigilant to prevent catastrophic explosions, and perfectly refining raw materials with fire abilities.
Sam, using his special Merge ability, had just mass-produced eight flawless pills in seconds without having to manually stabilize the reaction once.
Staring at his holographic status screen, he completely understood why his physical condition had deteriorated so rapidly.
Strength: 2
Agility: 2
Physique: 2
Spirit: 10
Endurance: 3/3 [Physique + 10% Spirit]
Rune Energy: 0/10 [Spirit]
Rune Abilities: [None]
Special Abilities: Merge [Merge Points: 9]