Chapter 27: Surging Dark Tide

“This is a derived rune …”

Watching the golden runes, that caused the tiny hurricane, gradually dissipate, Ron tilted his head. Although the hurricane was visible to the naked eye, it had no power, and it seemed to have just the effect of gathering some wind.

After keeping a firm image of the derived rune lines in his mind, Ron called up the achievement interface and added the 1 achievement just obtained to his spiritual attributes.

Ron was sure that the achievement of this Rune Explorer was a hidden one, which was not shown before in the interface. Hence, after completing the rune explorer achievement, he invoked the achievement interface to find out which new achievements were added under the rune explorer one.

Achievement: Rune Master (master all eight derivative runes of a certain element)

It was a bit difficult task. After all, it was necessary to master all the derived runes of an element. Well, but that goes without saying, Ron had to do it anyway, because the second-level and third-level magic were not that clear, and also, the fifth-level magic requires the use of all the derivative runes.

After practicing for four days, he finally mastered the derivative Rune. Although being a little tired, Ron was still excited at that moment, and immediately tried the rune fusion.

With the magic wand, he was fully qualified and prepared to master second-level magic.

Bang!

Ron tried to fuse the basic Rune with the first derivative Rune, but it was a total failure since the beginning, and the collapsed Rune turned into a howling wind.

Just as the wind was about to burst, Ron held his magic wand with both hands and groaned, moving the top of the wand forward a bit, and then the gust of wind like a pierced balloon flew away quickly. (E/N: hmm… wtf :o)

The magic wand was not just about the reduction of the release speed and mental power consumption, but it also brought to Ron a certain control of magic and runes, and even the elements themselves.

Although Ron was able to make the wind blade fly in the desired direction before, it was still difficult to control. Having the magic wand, he was able to make the Fireball hover at the top of the wand for a few seconds, then release it!

Also

The chaos caused by failed attempts to fuse and condense the runes could be guided and slowed down by the magic wand to prevent any kind of explosion.

“No way!”

After restoring and solving the collapsed Rune, Ron frowned. He had a vague feeling that the basic Rune could not be combined with this specific derivative Rune.

However, it was just a hunch, perhaps because two runes cannot be merged alone, and the third Rune was mandatory. Using the three runes directly might prevent such failure…

After thinking for a while, Ron decided to start the three-rune combination.

With his current control and the magic wand in his hand, even the elemental chaos caused by the failure of the three rune combinations could be completely suppressed, which would prevent the maximum possible accidents.

The fusion of the three basic runes was unsuccessful.

As he had a derivative rune, there were three other fusion possibilities:

One basic Rune paired with two derived runes
One derivative Rune paired with two basic runes
Three derivative runes merged.
Ron decided to try them one by one, and then immediately started testing.

…

In the middle of the night.

Ron, looking so tired, leaned against the reef, powerlessly letting down his wand.

“No, not like this…”

Without even eating a loaf of bread, from the evening till the middle of the night, dozens of attempts, all failed, every possible combination was tried. The runes combination was perfected as much as possible. However, Ron has still failed to generate the second-level wind magic.

All attempts were failed, which meant that this derivative Rune and basic Rune alone wouldn’t form the second-level wind magic.

Ron scratched his scalp, distressed, and quickly calmed down.

It’s just a failure.

Since this derivative Rune was not enough, probably deducing a new derivative rune was the best way to move on. Anyway, in his current situation, it was so difficult to extract a new derivative rune. After deducing the first derivative Rune, Ron already had some ideas about other derived runes.

Thinking of that, Ron exhaled, jumped off the reef, and walked into the distant town, and went all the way back to the hotel where he stayed.

At that time, the hotel people were basically asleep, Ron was also very sleepy. So, he planned to sleep after taking a shower, but unexpectedly, when he went to sleep, he heard a strange voice coming from the adjacent room.

“Don’t drink it, it’s almost time…go to bed. You won’t be able to attend the meeting tomorrow…the captain will probably skin you.”

“Just one more, another drink.”

It seemed like the shouting man was so drunk, he said: “It is a rare thing that admiral Krieg summoned all the fleets, it seems that he is going to start a huge battle.”

“Yeah, I heard the captain had an idea about an island in the sea area of Zell…”

“Zell’s waters? It seems that there are two marine branches on the core of two islands there… wouldn’t be good for us to fight there.”

“Idiot, it’s not about attacking the marine base, I just heard that he wanted to intervene in a ‘dark underground world’s weapon trade’. If he could get enough weapons, does it matter if two marine branches send their troops there??”

“That … if we succeed, captain Krieg probably will become the overlord of the East Blue!”

“Yes, this is the key battle that determines whether we can rule the East Blue.”

…

On the other side of the wall, Ron, who was originally sleepy, could not help frowning and listening carefully after hearing the subtle movements from the next room.

Although the walls separating the rooms in that hotel was so thick, and the sound was muffled that ordinary people might not be able to distinguish what they have said, but Ron was able to clearly hear what they were muttering about.

“Admiral Krieg?”

Ron raised his eyebrows slightly.

Listening to the pirates next door, Ron was able to extract the major idea. There might be a weapons deal in the Western of the Zell waters, and Krieg intended to gather all his troops and swallow all the weapons in one stroke to completely arm his Pirates crew.

If he didn’t guess wrong, the battle went to Krieg’s side, which laid to the birth of a new East Blue overlord. Afterward, Krieg Pirates were expanded into a huge pirate group with a fleet of fifty ships and five thousand people.

“Should I take part in this matter… But Nami isn’t here.”

Ron pondered.

He wanted to take a look. Because of such a huge battle, he could accomplish many achievements. At that moment, all Ron’s doubts about facing the huge number of pirates have cast away thanks to his new magic wand. But the thing was that he promised Nami to wait here at this town, and they didn’t have even a Den Den Mushi to contact each other. Ron was afraid that Nami would be troubled if she can’t find him