Mana Armament

a rune given to Richard by Saint Lawrence

transforms mana into energy used by warriors

It worked to stimulate a mage’s weapon into something similar to warriors’ internal energy, greatly enhancing their strength, speed, and defence. Its effects were quite similar to the War Construct spell.

Lawrence truly was a creative genius; if not for his near-death at the hands of a legendary sorcerer, he would have been one of the best runemasters in all of Norland right now.

## GRADE 3

would give its user the equivalent of a level 14 warrior’s energy

## GRADE 4

The original would give its user the equivalent of a level 16 warrior’s energy

Richards improvements increased it to level 18 energy

Crafting this upgraded Mana Armament was far more difficult than Richard had expected, taking an entire month of work that involved eleven total failures. The new rune was a sum total of sixty different magic arrays, and the failures had almost cleaned out his entire warehouse to the point that he couldn’t even bring himself to be too happy with the finished product in his hand.

Realising that the original had been built with a mage’s physique in mind, he had decided to greatly relax the limits on the energy output of the rune. This was a risky modification that could potentially even kill a frail mage, but his own physique was equipped to handle it.

With the success of Mana Armament, he was finally at the level of a grand runemaster, amongst the pinnacle of runecrafting in all of Norland. Just this one rune was worthy of a convention all unto itself, and would even be lauded by many for its ingenuity and power.

this rune was even more difficult than Lifesbane

## GRADE 5

Next, I will showcase a rune that both has history and yet is completely new. Its power has reached the pinnacle of grade 5, and its usefulness surpasses all saint runes. The only limitation is that it is limited to mages.”

This is the capstone of Saint Lawrence’s career, the true Mana Armament. Although there is a bit of energy lost, it can convert a legendary mage’s mana into internal energy. With this on hand, the greatest problem for us mages is that we need to train in swords as well.”

The rare attempt at humour produced no laughs from the crowd. Everyone just stared at the rune on display, excited murmurs breaking out amongst the audience. Mages and their friends were naturally overjoyed, while those who had magical enemies went stiff. This was a rune that would destroy the already-delicate balance of the two main types of combatants. While mages already overpowered warriors in many situations before, now there wouldn’t even be any hope.

Richard himself was a very good example. He could beat most people with swordplay alone, having been famous for being a close combat mage well before he was even a legend. Even if one could doubt Midren, the lesser versions of Mana Armament had already proved their worth in the market.

### **Summary**

The original rune which Richard modified to lower its grade. It would give its user the equivalent of a level 18 warrior’s energy

Richard remade the rune with two divine cores (from god bodies). It is now almost as powerful as Midren's Battle edition.

By this point, Coco had grown extremely frail. Druids had been brought in to heal her every three days, but even so she could only hold on for a month. Richard immediately headed to the Forest Plane once he received the divine gold, spending two months there to build the grade 5 Mana Armament.

Godsblood and divine gold to meld a new core for the grade 5 rune.

At his current level, Richard could sense the upper limits of the plane. With two divine cores, the new Mana Armament was nearly as powerful as Midren’s battle edition, and the plane itself had started fluctuating whenever he neared completion. While he succeeded in the end, that had come off the back of four repeated failures. Other runemasters would be over the moon at that result, but to him it was actually disappointing. Thankfully, the process had at least stimulated his mana growth.

Most legends were bottlenecked by their comprehension of their chosen laws, but things were different for Richard. Having started on that process while he was still a grand mage, he controlled a number of them already. His analysis of the laws of life were even approaching completion; he only had the sixteen foundational laws left. The moment he finished that, he would be on par with the World Tree itself.

### **Reward Point System**

Especially in its grade 5 version, that rune was something basically every mage would hope for, even more so than Midren. That was why he had set a sky high price of 5,000 points through the reward point system, which left it nowhere near getting sold.

Ruben nodded. Of course, everyone knew that the Archerons were too busy fighting the reapers right now to make another Mana Armament. Thus, it would actually only be available once the war had come to an end. Given that fact, even the Celestial Sage would have to earn it honestly through accumulating points.

## **References**

1. ↑ Book 6, Chapter 32
2. ↑ Book 6, Chapter 32
3. ↑ Book 6, Chapter 33
4. ↑ Book 8, Chapter 119
5. ↑ Book 6, Chapter 32
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Book 8, Chapter 77
7. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 44