Chapter 68: Performing over their limits

The moment Nein saw that significant amount of runes, the first thing that came to his mind wasn't surprise, but disdain, as he has seen this type of performance more than once.

'Hmph, using quantity over quality to make your skill look better than they are, these are probably sub-rank runes that all they do is take the body's capacity and give an insignificant boost.'

An individual has a limit at the capacity of runes his body can bear. This is correlated to the energy and vitality of the body. So unless the rune can offer an improvement they can use in the long run they usually don't spend their money on them.

This is why most Rank 1 life forms don't possess a rune and often save their money and wait to find a more suitable rune in the future. Besides, most of the basic runes can be replaced by spells that are easier to obtain.

Even though Nein was sure that going through these runes will be a waste of time, he was smart enough to know that Zatiel had some type of relation with Heinz. Offending a prince from the Empire was not something he could afford to do. 

He will check these runes and then have a solid excuse to reject or put very harsh conditions in the contract.

Nein took the piles of beast skin and started to appraise the inscriptions in one of them. The moment he did, he was surprised, but being someone who has lived hundreds of years, he was able to control his expression so the rest didn't notice, or at least they chose not to comment on it.

'These runes are not mere low-grade Rank 1 runes, the inscription that all of them carry is very complicated, and there is not a single mistake in any of them. The precision and control needed to do this are impressive,' Although he could not know the effect of the runes by just looking at them, Nein was a Rank 1 runemaster. He was approaching the level of Rank 2, so he was able to detect the general Rank of the work that Zatiel did.

For the first time since he enters the room, Nein gives a detailed look at Zatiel.

'The amount of energy in his body is between Advanced and Master level of Rank 1, so if he made these, his talent is impressive.' 

Nein went back to the runes. This time carefully organizing them before he started to go from one on one, to see if the same quality was in all or there were some inferior ones in between.

The old man had all of his focus in the red glow that was left in the sword marks and had not paid any attention to the runes that Zatiel left. Still, when he noticed the change in Nein's attitude and the care he was giving his work, he became intrigued. 

Especially when he saw the surprise in the middle-age man so much. That he was not even bothering in hiding it anymore, as he was reaching the runes at the end that were different from the rest.

There were only three types of runes in that stack, but the quality varied, especially the ones at the end, that were made on the ninth and tenth day.

The old man moved his hand, and three runes at the end moved by themselves and reached his palm, and as he judged them, his eyes narrowed before he looked at Zatiel.

"What is the name of these runes?" 

Although the old man's voice was indifferent, it carried great pressure that will make any Rank 1 quiver.

"They are Ecolocalization, Hunters Mark, and Magic Shield." 

Zatiel remained calm without fear as he stared back at the old man.

The old man was a little surprised by Zatiel's composure, but after hearing the names, he focused on the runes again. He took a strange orb from his spatial ring and put a rune over it before filling it with energy.

When the orb appears, Heinz and Nein concentrate on it, waiting for the result to happen.

The orb started to glow, and the rune began to float over it as a small hologram of a humanoid appeared. A strange tattoo starts to generate over the man, beginning in his throat, extending to the back of his ears.

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The humanoid roared, and no sound came out. In the hologram, you could see how a sound wave was generated, expanding with the man at the center, before returning. The runes in the back of the ears started to glow. The hologram ended, and a screen with the information describing the effect of the rune appeared.

The old man's face was severe, and without wasting time, he took the next rune and put it above the orb replacing the previous one.

Another hologram appears, but this time two humanoids were shown. On the first, a tattoo appeared on his arm, the man activated the rune. In the second humanoid, an invisible dot was sticking. The two humanoids separated inside the hologram until the rune glow turned off. Like before, the effects of the rune were displayed.

Although his expression was more composed this time, the old man was still impressed by it, and he put the final rune in the orb.

The hologram with the humanoid was generated. A tattoo that covered a significant part of the upper chest appeared, before starting to glow as an invisible barrier covers him. A great ball of fire was launched against the humanoid, generating an immense explosion. When the flames vanished, the humanoid was unharmed, and the barrier remained.

The moment the old man and Nein saw this, they were both shocked.

"Master, how much power did that spell carry?"

"100 degrees of damage, and yet the barrier remained without a problem." The reason for the surprise of the old man was different from Nein, he had lived a long time and was a Rank 2 Runemaster with the ability to inscribe some Rank 3 runes. 

He had heard of the rune known as 'Magic Shield,' and although it was rare to find it on the open market, some in the Empire were kept for personal use. 

He knew that the maximum degree of damage that the rune can handle is supposed to be 100 degrees, yet this one remained standing after that.

There were several ways of making a rune display power over the theoretical limit, like replacing the material in the diagram for similar ones of a higher rank.

But this was counterproductive as the value that the rune would be inferior to the cost it took to make it.

The old man keeps looking at the rune for a long time, even using his consciousness to assess it. He was able to determine that the reason for its performance was due to a sublime work all the way from the processing of the material to the inscription, which could only be achieved with great talent.

The old man focuses on Zatiel for a long time trying to see something from his expression. Still, he remains calm and indifferent no matter how long he looks at him.

Once again, activating the orb, the same scene appeared. A more powerful explosion of fire reached the barrier, yet it remained.

On the third trial, the barrier finally broke. Yet, the amount of power that reached the humanoid only made some light injuries and nothing more.

When the screen with the rune's effect appeared, both the old man and Nein were shocked.

"Master, it was able to withstand 135 degrees of damage!"

"Yes, It is a Rank 1 rune with a power similar to a Low-grade-Rank 2 rune. I guess I don't have to tell you what this means and the commercial value of this rune."

Heinz was looking from the side and didn't understand how the assessment of a runemaster works. But he was able to get that the runes Zatiel created were truly impressive from the expression of the two.

When Zatiel first shows up, the expression of both was of indifference and annoyance, but now when they saw him, there was intrigue and praise.

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