I have an Apocalypse City

Chapter 553: Understanding Skills

Be tough on your enemies and even tougher on yourself, Song Jian once again focused his gaze on a tiny magic rune at the edge of the magic array.

This magic rune was rather simple. Under Song Jian’s continuous watch, the tiny rune slowly began to gain three-dimensionality.

At this moment, Song Jian realized that the rune, smaller than a little fingernail, was actually split into two layers, and its magic structure was far more complex than he had imagined.

He can’t help but start imitating this magic rune, his right index finger moving slowly.

This time, for more than half an hour, Song Jian was absorbed in the task of imitating this magic rune.

The drawing of a magic rune must be completed in one stroke. Song Jian continuously imitated it. Slowly, under his right hand, an invisible screen appeared, leaving obvious marks as his finger moved across it.

When Song Jian had just copied a third of the rune, the markings on the screen suddenly shattered into light spots. Song Jian, sensing this, started over again from scratch.

Once, ten times, a hundred times…

The magic rune under Song Jian’s hand disintegrated time and time again. Every time it dissolved, he restarted from the beginning. At this point, he seemed like a novice rock climber attempting to scale a mountain with bare hands.

From his first grip on a protruded chunk of stone on the mountainside, he kept falling off. He did not stop until he could scale halfway up the mountain.

To stand on the peak, he fell over and over again. But each fall gave him a better understanding of what he should do next time he reaches that spot. If he fails once, he tries twice, and if twice doesn’t work, ten times…

Song Jian’s understanding of this magic rune was rapidly improving…

After an unknown amount of time, he was finally able to completely imitate this simplest magic rune. As soon as the rune was successfully engraved on the screen under his right hand, Song Jian came out of his state of enlightenment.

He was now a mess, his Vitality Points and Spirit Points dangerously low. Startled, Song Jian glanced at Qi Yun in the middle of the magic array. Qi Yun, encased in a light shield, was deeply absorbed in the experience of absorbing shadow energy and oblivious to his surroundings.

System: You have observed, imitated, and acquired the skill “Magic Rune Engraving”. Skill level: 1, number of magic runes mastered: 1.

Song Jian sat aside and took out some supplies to recover his Vitality Points and Spirit Points. He had plenty of honey, which he had originally planned to use to make honey wine once he returned. However, at this point, it was more important to recover quickly and focus on learning these magic runes.

After recovery, Song Jian couldn’t wait to start imitating the second magic rune…

A day passed quickly and night fell, darkness enveloping the surroundings, and the magic array was the sole source of dim light.

By this time, Song Jian had successfully imitated all three magic runes and the “Magic Rune Engraving” skill had been elevated to level three as well.

“Magic Rune Engraving”: Active, Level 3, basic understanding of magic runes, capable of producing accurate magic runes, number of magic runes mastered: 3.

“These three magic runes make up a simple circuit, and once energy is activated in this circuit, it is transferred to the next set of magic runes. Now, I need to figure out how these three runes form this circuit…” Song Jian focused on the three runes, brooding over them.

He was in a situation somewhat similar to learning three English words and trying to understand English grammar to form sentences with these words.

The difficulty multiplied by more than one any simple imitation. After an entire night, Song Jian finally, by a mixture of guesswork and cogitation, had understood the principles and functions of the three simplest runes in the loop.

System: You’ve understood the skill “Magic Rune Array”, Level 1;

[Magic Rune Array]: Active, Level 1, have the most basic understanding of the magic rune array, understanding how to build the simplest magic rune array;

Just the simplest, most basic rune loop took Song Jian a day and a night to figure out. The magic array in front of him was a thousand times more complex and larger in scale than what he had just comprehended. It seemed impossible for him to fully comprehend this magic array given the time left.

After hesitating for a moment, Song Jian finally decided to give up on continued comprehension. He sighed, ate some food and drank some water, and started to rest;

Half a day later, Song Jian was once again full of energy. Looking at the magic array, he thought to himself, “It would be nearly impossible to learn how to construct a magic array by self-comprehension. If only I could get a corresponding Skill Book.”

With this thought, Song Jian involuntarily glanced at Qi Yun in the center of the Magic Array.

“Since he could set up this magic array, then he must have mastered this skill. If I kill him, I might be able to get the corresponding Skill Book…”

Engrossed in the process of increasing his strength, Qi Yun suddenly felt a chill in his heart. He almost broke out of his ascension state and his brows furrowed slightly.

But as he did not sense continued danger, and the magic array was designed to protect him, he ignored it, thinking of it as his imagination.

After three days, the six dark Shadow Crystals on the magic array became increasingly dim, as if all their energy had been drained, only the Shadow Crystal with the internal crack still emitted a brilliant glow.

Bang~

At this moment, a dim grey crystal suddenly exploded. The magic array flickered, and one after another, more Shadow Crystals exploded. These Shadow Crystals had been drained of all their energy and could no longer withstand the impact of the magic array’s energy. In just a short time, five Shadow Crystals had exploded, leaving only the Shadow Crystal with an internal crack to maintain the array.

Song Jian could clearly sense that the magic array was drawing power from this single Shadow Crystal at six times its original rate. A large amount of shadowy energy was rapidly drawn from the crystal, even forming small magic whirlpools in its surroundings.

The energy of the magic array began to fluctuate wildly. Originally designed to run on six Shadow Crystals, it now only had one. This situation not only damaged the magic array, but also the remaining Shadow Crystal.

If this had been an ordinary Shadow Crystal, it would have shattered from the instability. However, what surprised Song Jian was this Shadow Crystal, despite having a crack, seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of energy that managed to support the entire Magic Rune Array;

Qi Yun, who was currently absorbing dark energy to improve his strength, also found this situation unusual. According to his estimates, the six Shadow Crystals should have been depleted by now, and the magic array should have stopped running.

“How can this be?” Just as Qi Yun was doubting his senses, a wave of unfamiliar energy surged from the magic array, flooding into him;

Qi Yun’s eyes opened wide. A swirl of dark energy coiled around his eyes, and his flesh began to wither rapidly, making him look thin and emaciated.

“What is this…” Qi Yun’s eyes blazed with anger. He tried to stand up, but found himself inexplicably bound, unable to move even a finger.

…