Professor Maggie watched with a smirk on her face.

Finally, she turned to the whiteboard one last time.

She drew a complex, jagged circle with sweeping internal arcs. The outer ring was not smooth but with eight edges. Inside the ring, 3 arc lines converged on a central point, creating a spinning, turbine-like pattern. At the center, was a single dot connected to all three arcs and the outer ring simultaneously.

"The Wind Slash rune," Maggie said softly.

"The standard attack spell provided by the academy to every student for self-defense. It converts ambient wind mana into a high-velocity, razor-sharp blade of compressed air with range of fifteen meters."

She set down the chalk. "You have 20 minutes. Begin."

’This is it.’

Igris said with a smile and he studied the eight-faceted outer ring first.

Igris exhaled slowly. He brought his pen to the Iron Paper and started drawing it.

His wrist shook slightly and the lines actually moved and the first attempt failed.

The outer ring was fine, but on the second arc, his pen caught slightly on a imperfection in the cheap Iron Paper, causing the line to waver by a fraction of a millimeter and the paper turned to ash.

Igris hissed through his teeth. "Cheap garbage paper."

He pulled out a fresh sheet.

Second attempt. He adjusted his grip, applying slightly more pressure to compensate for the paper’s uneven texture.

The rune flickered, and detonated with a sharp ’POP’ that singed his eyebrows and sent a curl of smoke rising from the ash.

The Catgirl next to him squeaked and nearly fell off her chair.

"Sorry," Igris muttered.

Third attempt, fail!

Fourth attempt, ’Got you.’

Igris smiled as he succeeded.

Around him, students groaned as they failed. Students were on their fifth, sixth, even tenth attempts.

One by one, the successes accumulated.

Professor Maggie waited patiently.

"Congratulations to those who succeeded. You have proven yourselves competent. Now, we move to the phase that matters."

She paused,".

"Paper is forgiving," Maggie said as she held up a piece of Iron Paper between two fingers. "Paper doesn’t have nerve endings nor does it bleed. If you fail on paper, you lose a sheet. If you fail on flesh—"

She let the sentence hang.

"—you lose the limb."

The temperature in the room dropped.

"Lets move to the next phase. Now, Draw the Wind Slash rune on your arm, your non-dominant arm, unless you’re stupid, in which case, use your dominant one and learn the consequences of stupidity firsthand."

A nervous laugh escaped from the hall which died instantly.

"Do it wrong, and the energy will blow your arm off," Maggie said flatly, as if she were discussing the weather. "I have a healer on standby. She is very good. She has had a lot of practice. Begin."

The hundreds of students nervously stared at their arms.

Nobody moved. There was silence until, one student moved. The Elven boy in front of Igris. He rolled up his left sleeve with trembling fingers, placed his pen against his forearm, and began to draw.

Around the room, students followed suit, one by one.

Wet sizzling ’hiss’ sounded out as mana circuits tattooed on the skin of the teenagers.

The first scream came from the left side of the Hall as a human boy’s rune destabilized. The compressed air detonated against his forearm, shredding the skin from elbow to wrist.

A team of healers rushed in from the side entrances to his side.

The second scream came thirty seconds later as healers rushed to heal her.

Less than twenty percent of the class managed to successfully inscribe the Wind Slash rune on their skin.

Most students weren’t so lucky.

Igris, however, had a different idea.

He reached into his system inventory and pulled out the Arcane Skill Book he had acquired—the one that contained the blueprint for an upgraded version of the standard Wind Slash.

The standard Wind Slash had three internal arcs, the upgraded version had ’seven’. Where the standard had eight facets on its outer ring, this one had ’sixteen’. Where the standard had a single activation nexus, this one had ’three’, arranged in a triangular formation.

’Tempest Wind Slash.’

The standard Wind Slash could cut through flesh and bone at fifteen meters. The Tempest Wind Slash could allegedly shear through steel at thirty meters.

Igris grinned.

He pulled out his remaining Iron Paper.

He slotted the Flood Dragon Blood back into his pen.

The first attempt was a disaster. He’d barely completed the sixteenth facet of the outer ring before the rune sizzled, sparked, and disintegrated.

Second attempt also failed.

"Mr. Solaris," Professor Maggie’s voice cut across the Hall like an icy blade. "Is there a problem?"

"No, Professor Maggie," Igris said sweetly, brushing ash off his desk. "Just very committed to learning from my mistakes."

Her eyes narrowed, then she turned away without comment.

Third attempt. Failed. Fourth. Failed. Fifth failed.

Sixth attempt. Failed.

’’[Ding! 10x Multiplier Activated on Runic Comprehension!]’’

[Through repeated failure, you have grasped the underlying structural logic of Rune Inscription!]

[You have become a: Runemaster Apprentice!]

[Runemaster Apprentice (Title Effect): All Rune inscriptions gain a base +20% Success Rate. Mana conductivity during inscription increased by 15%. Structural flaw detection activated—you can now ’see’ weak points in rune circuits before they fail.]

Igris’s eyes widened and he almost roared in laughter.

’Runemaster Apprentice...’

Every failed attempt had been multiplying his ’experience’ and now he has unlocked a title.

Igris’s eyes sparkled with bright light.

He looked down at his remaining Iron Paper.

He drew the Tempest Wind Slash blueprint one final time. This time, his pen didn’t hesitate and he drew it perfectly.

The rune blazed to life on the Iron Paper, but instead of the pale, violent cyclone of a standard Wind Slash, this one generated a ’storm’.

Now came the real test.

Igris looked down at his left arm. He rolled up his sleeve slowly, exposing the skin from wrist to elbow.

He calculated his bonuses.

With the +20% of the pen and +20% from the title, his success rate increased drastically.

He pressed the needle tip to the back of his left palm.

The pain was sharp.

It was like liquid fire tracing under his skin, following the paths of his veins like a living worm made of magma burrowing into his flesh.

"Sssss!"

Igris inhaled sharply and clenched his teeth tightly. As the pain surged through his arm but he didn’t stop.

His vision blurred. Sweat poured down his face as his vision blurred.

The Catgirl next to him was staring at him in shock as his body shook.

The flesh around each line was red and inflamed as he drew each lines.

Thirteen. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen.

The outer ring ’snapped’ closed and a wave of compressed air exploded from his palm, ruffling his hair and sending loose papers flying across the desk. The Catgirl yelped. Wow the internal arcs.

The Serpent Blood huffed as it fused with his mana circuits.

Three activation points as rquilateral triangle, each one a single, microscopic dot of Serpent Blood.

Where the three circuits met at the nexus points, they fused flawlessly—three rivers merging into one, their energies amplifying rather than conflicting. The combined power of the seven arcs, sixteen facets, and three nexuses surged through the completed circuit like water through a broken dam.

The pain vanished instantly. Replaced by a sensation of ’power’—raw, furious, ecstatic power—that flooded through his arm and into his chest like a drug.

Igris looked down at his hand.

The rune didn’t look like a scar, nor did it look like a tattoo. It looked like a piece of golden jewelry embedded into his flesh—three interlocking circles around his wrist.

It was, without exaggeration, the most beautiful thing Igris had ever seen on his own body.

[Ding! Inscription Successful: Tempest Wind Slash (Combat Rune)]

[Effect: Generates a high-velocity blade of compressed wind (range: 30m, lethal radius: 5m). Secondary effect: Shockwave burst on impact, knocking back enemies within 3m. Tertiary effect: Wind aura passively increases host’s agility by +5 while active.]’’

[Warning: Rune draws directly from host’s mana reserves upon activation. Sufficient mana capacity required. Overuse may result in mana exhaustion, unconsciousness, or death]

Igris slowly lowered his pen. His hand was still shaking from pain and adrenaline and also the sheer intoxicating rush of success.

He stared at the glowing circles around his wrist, watching the wind energy cycle through the rune’s circuits in an endless, self-sustaining loop.

He pulled his sleeve down over the rune.

He looked up and Professor Maggie was at the podium, scanning the room, and counting the casualties.

Dozens of students groaned in pain, with their arms wrapped in healing bandages, their faces pale with shock.

Her gaze swept past Igris, paused and then narrowed. "Interesting."

Igris leaned back in his chair, his newly inscribed palm throbbing with a warm, steady pulse beneath his sleeve.

’Tempest Wind Slash,’ he thought, flexing his fingers beneath the fabric. ’Let’s see what you can do when the time comes.’

He had a feeling that time would come sooner rather than later.