Zenith Online: Rebirth of the Strongest Player

Chapter 617: Alice in Wonderland



Soon, only Kieran and Alice remained on the top floor of the Godhand Bazaar.

Practicing runes, whether it be self-taught or guided by a mentor, was a mind-numbingly dull process. And as hilarious as watching Kieran grumble and grouse was, everyone

eventually grew bored of it.

Kieran had no intention of keeping them captive here. As long as they were available at the beginning of their journey, all was good, in his opinion. And that was reinforced by the unbothered grunt he gave everyone when voicing their departure.

Alice, meanwhile, pulled up a chair, closely analyzing the rune Kieran had finally succeeded with after an unknown number of hours. It was mentally taxing, and earned an exaggerated sigh of relief as he deflated into the chair, staring at the dimly lit ceiling of pale magelight. Combing a few errant strands of her hair behind her ear, Alice glanced at Kieran, eventually voicing a question on her mind. "How many times does this rune appear in the text?"

"Quite a lot," Kieran responded, shifting in the chair until he mustered enough mental resilience to pull himself up.

"I expected as much," Alice nodded. "I think this rune could be translated as 'search, findings, or discoveries.' If the Mad Alchemist had encountered any breakthroughs, that would be the rune to use."

"Huh," Kieran grunted with astonished amusement. "So a rune is kind of like a word and synonym wrapped together? How does that work?"

Alice's eyes shimmered with an excitable familiarity before tracing the strokes of the rune with a finger. "Well, you see. It's all about these lines here. Runes are said to be the language of scholars or those who retain history. But as you know, history can happen fast or slow, so the bookkeepers and wardens of tales devised a method to compact many meanings into one - runes."

Kieran listened attentively, his eyes fixated on Alice as she spoke. Something about his intense gaze gave her pause but not enough to provide a start. Instead, a pinkish hue graced her cheeks, and she soon averted her gaze, shifting her focus to the rune.

"Building off your comment, it is somewhat similar to synonyms. But it's more that you must understand the context of the sentence. I think that's what we call syntax? I'm not entirely sure. Nevertheless, the rune's meaning is based on the preceding and/or succeeding rune. That's why alone it can have several meanings," Alice explained.

Kieran hummed in thought, nodding his head slowly. "Feels like I'm back in school again. But this one-on-one lecture is by far more enjoyable than the ordeal. I think it's the main reason the scribing process has become gradually less tedious for me. It's a fucking godsend, honestly."

"I'm glad I can make the learning experience more straightforward. Though I wouldn't say I'm skilled as a teacher," Alice smiled.

Kieran scoffed. "Not skilled as a teacher? Yeah right. That eloquence could be used in the workplace. The ability to make something complex seem simple is a sign of excellent teaching capabilities and an insightful grasp of the concept."

Alice rolled her eyes, avoiding the eye contact that Kieran strangely never shifted elsewhere. She didn't understand how he could look someone in the eye for so long without faltering. It was genuinely perplexing to her.

After a while, she had to look away, or else she would get too overwhelmed.

A moment later, Kieran grasped the quill, hovering it over the papyrus page with the complete rune. He held a thoughtful expression while comparing the runes in his mind, searching for one with a similar composition.

Eventually, he found a few and chose those as the ones he'd work on next.

With that, the room fell into a focused silence, with two people staring at the same object of focus. One was hard at work, chewing on his tongue and licking his lip like a child tracing a line with laser focus, and the other stared with silent wonder, subdued admiration, and subtle stupefaction.

The countless hours of leaning over this papyrus were bearing fruits, and those manifested in the form of refined mana control. Though it had yet to improve by leaps and bounds, Kieran had become increasingly conscious and methodical in his approach.

Rather than suffer by splitting his attention in two, using the contents of his Mystic Gates as a reference for his scribing while simultaneously practicing the rune, he decidedly chose to prioritize one and burn it into his active memory.

Then, he traced those motions in his mind. Once wasn't enough, and neither was ten times. He traced the strokes endlessly until his hand acted according to the thoughts in his mind. It was a kind of hypnosis that tricked his body into believing it had completed this process hundreds of times.

Visualization, it seemed like.

Of course, Kieran's smooth, deliberate, and tedious movements weren't achieved easily. Even now, as he moved his hand, he wasn't breathing. His focus was directed on one task, resulting in everything else being shut out.

Tens of minutes later, the second rune was complete.

There was no moment of celebration or feeling of triumph; all that came was heavy panting as Kieran wiped the beads of sweat pearling on his brow.

"Phew," Kieran exhaled deeply. "Holy crap, that was insane. I didn't know I could focus like that. I didn't even realize I stopped breathing."

[Obviously, boy. As a Mystic Runemaster, your focus is superior. That is why you no longer have Focus and instead awakened the Hidden Attribute Veracity, which deepens and hastens your ability to focus, especially when dealing with abstruse and knowledge-based tasks.] 'Oh? Sweet, I do remember a notification about that. Must have slipped my mind.'

Meanwhile, Alice nodded. "You're doing extremely well."

Hearing the praise, Kieran tilted his head ever-so-subtly and smiled, his pearly white and prominent canine teeth on full display. Alice took in his side profile and then tapped on the

papyrus.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"If you have time to show off that dazzling smile, then you have time to get back to it, mister," Alice smirked with feigned strictness.

Kieran let out a belly laugh and wiped a tear. "You look fucking adorable, but you're not wrong. I feel like I can do more. I just need time to focus again."

After a moment of thought, Kieran turned to Alice and furrowed his brow. "You know, it's all so bizarre. Why do runes have to be so precise?"

"Because they're the building blocks of a spellform. Simply put, runes also comprise the logic

a spellform follows to achieve a desired effect. Maybe there is a form of runes out there with no purpose other than to serve as written language, but I have yet to see such a thing," Alice

answered.

Considering the place Alice learned her runic knowledge, Kieran half-expected the answer but needed confirmation to settle his dubious mind.

'Runes are the foundation of spellforms, and Supreme Letters are the foundation of any fabricated Construct,' Kieran thought.

More parallels, but those subtle links reinforced Kieran's belief that it was a part of the same family. And that also meant his efforts would not be in vain. As long as he reached some level of mastery, he could apply the concepts to his wordmancing.

Of course, he still foresaw essence control training in his future. One flowed out of the mind

while the other flowed through his body.

Surely, the wielding methods had some variance.