Chapter 196: The Advent of Warriors

Six strange runes, glowing with a golden hue, flew into their hearts, quickly transforming them into golden hearts.

The three mortals experienced no adverse effects; instead, under the modification of their hearts, they became stronger.

However, the other three individuals, whose mental power had reached the apprentice level, experienced considerable discomfort. One of them, possessing the strongest mental power, struggled painfully and died. Although the other two did not die, their bodies were severely damaged.

Ace observed for a while longer and found that their hearts slowly reverted to their original state. It seemed that the peculiar rune created by Mimicry Heart Force could not be sustained for long.

Ace opened his Grimoire and recorded in the Magic Diary page:

“This rune perhaps needs redefinition. It is a composite rune, a single rune but possessing composite attributes, and simultaneously possesses extremely strong exclusivity and danger.

This strange rune can produce a peculiar reaction with the heart, modifying it and instinctively repelling all Mana. Through experiments, on Monsters, it is equivalent to a powerful curse.

If placed on a human with Mana, it has a similar effect. I wonder what effect it would have on a Hero whose power also originates from the heart.

If given to a mortal without Mana, it can instead greatly stimulate their potential and strengthen their body. Although it will eventually disappear, the mortal’s overall physical constitution is greatly enhanced.

This might be an approach for cultivating low-end supernatural warriors in the future: mass-enhancing ordinary people who cannot achieve Mental Overdrive with special runes, and even exploring methods to make the special runes permanent.

I name this special rune the Courage Rune. Similar runes include the Compassion Rune replicated from Ancestar. They should belong to the Virtue Rune Group.

This type of rune originates from Mental Overdrive Specialists, from the fusion of Mana and will. Yet, it extremely repels Mana. Current knowledge cannot explain this, but it cannot be completely external to Mana; there must be some form of energy exchange with Mana.”

After recording all this, Ace immersed himself in new experiments.

The Courage Rune alternated between disappearing and appearing at all times. Through multiple experiments, Ace discovered that in the instant the Courage Rune disappeared, Heart Force could siphon external Mana.

If the meditation rune structure is placed near the Courage Rune, at the instant it disappears, the Mana siphoned by the meditation method will merge with the Heart Force. At this moment, injecting Mimicry Courage Will can form new Mimicry Courage Heart Force.

The next day, Ace had Ancestar and Arno attempt to trace the meditation rune structure near their hearts and then meditate according to the method he experimented with. As expected, the meditation problem was solved.

The hearts of Ancestar and Arno finally settled. Ancestar said to Ace with excitement and gratitude: “Thank you so much, Lord Torch-Bearer. We can finally meditate again.”

Ace looked at the two with a smile and said: “No need to thank me. I am the Knight’s Master. Naturally, I have an obligation to solve problems for those who pledge loyalty to me.”

After sending the two away, Ace continued his experiments. His ultimate goal was not yet achieved. He needed to distinguish whether the will resistance effect originated from Heart Force or the Virtue Rune, or if both had an influence.

Subsequently, Ace continued experimenting. He tried to directly trace the Will Rune using Mimicry Heart Force and found that the effect of the Will Rune composed only of Mimicry Heart Force was greatly enhanced. Of course, there was also a side effect: overflowing courage and fearlessness.

Ace applied this simple will-strengthening spell composed of Mimicry Heart Force to the mirror image, then tried to control the mirror image with a Charm spell. He succeeded only after several failures.

Undoubtedly, the Will Rune composed of this Mimicry Heart Force could indeed greatly resist mental control spells.

He experimented with the three mortals strengthened by the Mimicry Courage Rune and found that although they had no Heart Force, with their hearts modified by the Mimicry Courage Rune, mental control spells also faced significant resistance from the Mimicry Courage Rune.

Ace recorded in his Magic Diary: “Regarding this research, tentative conclusions can be drawn: First, the Mimicry Courage Rune has the effect of dissolving Mana; Second, Mimicry Heart Force does not possess the property of dissolving Mana. Mimicry Heart Force can merge with Mana and form new Heart Force by injecting will; Third, both the Mimicry Courage Rune and Mimicry Heart Force possess relatively strong mental resistance.”

Subsequently, Ace tried the Mimicry Compassion Rune. Aside from the influence on mental state and emotions, other effects were similar to the Courage Rune. He recorded another entry in his Magic Diary:

“The tentative conclusions of this research can be extended to the Mimicry Compassion Rune and should be extendable to all Virtue Runes.”

He closed the Grimoire in his hand with high spirits, rubbing the bottom of the book. Under the effect of Mana, the Grimoire turned into a pool of liquid, climbed onto Ace’s left index finger, and became a book-shaped ring.

Ace stretched, turned to the mirror image who was “cleaning up” the test subjects, and said:

“We can try to directly replicate the rune array of the Magic Item for resisting the whispering using Mimicry Heart Force. The effect of Mimicry Heart Force can be said to be very good, and it is much safer than the Mimicry Courage Rune.”

With the help of the Spirit of the Book, and based on the mirror image’s earlier research results, Ace successfully used Mimicry Heart Force to solve the problem of will reinforcement.

“The Magic Item we create should be convenient to carry at all times.”

The mirror image said to Ace while continuously tapping on a Mana-contaminated iron block with a hard Mana Crystal. After a while, he pulled out a badge blank.

Ace and the mirror image began the enchantment process on the blank together.

This kind of Magic Item is a personal exclusive item. Ace performed a special frequency Mana resonance on it. Accompanied by the rhythmic vibration and influx of Inherent Mana, the badge blank began to be infected by Ace’s Mana.

The entire process lasted for about an hour. The Inherent Mana had completely infected the badge blank. The Mana rhythm of the entire blank was close to Ace’s, possessing Ace’s personal mark.

Ace created Mimicry Courage Heart Force again. With the powerful assistance of the Spirit of the Book, he used Mimicry Heart Force to inscribe a composite rune array composed of six single Soul Rune Arrays onto the blank. The core rune arrays were the Emotion Check Rune Array and the Heart Force Charging Rune Array. The other four were Mechanized Mind, Positive Thinking Guidance, Self-Will Reinforcement, and Mental Block.

This badge could automatically suppress emotional fluctuations when they reached a certain threshold, guide thinking positively, reinforce self-will, and use the power of Mimicry Heart Force to seal the brain, blocking the influence of mental supernatural powers.

Ace fused the silver hexagram badge on his chest with this faceless badge. Pinning it to his chest, he said to the mirror image: “I am going to start inducing intense emotional fluctuations in myself. Pay attention to observe and record.”

After multiple red-eye episodes and hearing the invisible whispering, the badge on his chest erupted with Mimicry Heart Force, successfully suppressing, guiding, and breaking free from the influence of the whispering. Ace confirmed the badge was effective.

With this, the future trouble brought by the whispering was considered contained.

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