During the past five years, Atticus had both increased the number of runes he could engrave before needing to drink the will renewal potion, and the variations of runes he could engrave.
He wasn’t just able to engrave the shield and fireball runes anymore; he could now engrave myriad of different runes.
As soon as Atticus dropped the finished slate by the side, he quickly picked up another unused slate, focusing on his intent, he swiftly engraved the word “illuminate” on the slate, which does exactly as it sounds, illuminating the surroundings.
Dropping the slate by the side and repeating this process once again, Atticus, focusing on his intent, engraved the word “Dash” on the slate, which, when used, increases the speed of its user for a few seconds.
Atticus repeated his process once again, engraving the word “silence” on the slate, which creates a zone where the sound is dampened and muted.
Atticus continued the process of engraving different types of runes and putting them down on one side. His will had grown incomparable to before.
Back then, he had needed to strain his will just to create a single rune, and that was only possible because of his high intelligence. With how low his will was, Atticus should have never been able to engrave a single rune.
But now that his will had grown tenfold, Atticus could engrave about 14 runes before needing to take the renewal potion.
If one were to look at the stats as a consumable, before, it had taken him about 3 will points to create a single rune, but now, coupled with his increase in intelligence, Atticus had shrunk that down to 2, making him able to create more than he should be able to.
Atticus persisted, ceaselessly crafting various runes.
But after completing the 14th, an immediate fatigue settled in.
‘No matter how many times I feel this, I can never get used to it,’ despite the familiarity of this horrible sensation, he grappled with the exhaustion, resisting the urge to succumb to his inviting bed.
‘Wow, I never knew the bed was soft and fluffy. Even the pillow looks so nice,’ Atticus couldn’t help but entertain the allure of his soft, fluffy bed.
Each touch seemed to accentuate its comfort, and even the pillow appeared irresistibly inviting as he ran his hands over it.
But almost immediately, Atticus shook his head vigorously, snapping himself out of the terrible feeling.
He swiftly brought out the renewal potion and immediately drank it.
Atticus took in deep calming breaths as he began regaining himself gradually.
‘A very dangerous feeling,’ Atticus thought, taking another deep breath.
He truly didn’t like the feeling of losing all his motivation suddenly. But unfortunately for Atticus, this was also part of the training process.
Anytime he loses his motivation, it took him a great amount of effort not to give up on everything instantly.
And although it took just a few seconds before he drank the potion, those few seconds still needed a lot of effort before he could pull it off.
Plus the fact that even after he drank the potion, it unfortunately didn’t instantly restore his will; he still had to meditate for a few hours before it was back to full strength.
All of this served to increase his will.
Atticus sat down cross-legged on his bed with his eyes closed as he entered a meditative state.
He continuously visualized in his head the faces of both Alvis and Ronad who had almost killed him and the other Ravenstein youths back at the Raven camp.
He was continuously visualizing the face of the one who had killed him in his home back on earth.
Despite what one might think, even after all these years had passed, Atticus had never once forgotten.
‘No matter how long, even if it takes a million years, I’ll have my revenge,’ Atticus thought, seething with anger. His aura suddenly surged explosively, causing the very walls and bed in his room to quake as if understanding the gravity of the moment.
Every time Atticus practices his rune engraving and loses his motivation, this had always been his way of not losing himself.
No matter what and no matter how long it takes, Atticus will always repay his grievances tenfold.
He continued meditating for about 30 minutes. And when he felt like he had regained his will fully, Atticus continued his process of making runes once more.
But this time around, Atticus didn’t get to 14 runes like earlier. He had to stop at 13 because of the warning Grimestone had given him back when he was just learning how to engrave runes; he couldn’t use the will renewal potion more than once a day.
Fourteen was his limit, and if he got to that number again, he would lose practically all his motivation.
And since he couldn’t use the potion, he would have to make do and recover his will over time normally.
This was unfortunately one of the issues he had to face to increase his will. And he had been running away from this back at the estate, which was why he had always slept after one session.
But now, Atticus decided to brave through it. He was determined to cross the milestone before the one month was over.
Atticus entered another meditative state, the usual faces of his enemies appearing in his head instantly as he started repeating his mantra constantly.
It was completely to his surprise, but after maintaining the meditative state for about 3 hours and 10 minutes, Atticus could feel his will had recovered.
It was surprising because Atticus had also found out that it took about 8-9 hours before a regular grade one runemaster could regain his or her will fully, and this was if said individual wasn’t relying on any potions.
But it took him just 3 hours.
‘Probably because of my intelligence,’ Atticus pondered.
Currently, Atticus had accurate control over his emotions. If he wanted, he could be profoundly happy and then suddenly sad in the next second.
And Atticus was sure that this had everything to do with his high intelligence.
The best and the most appropriate way of regaining your will was to always trigger your emotions, ensuring they constantly fueled and resisted the urge to give up.
For Atticus, the driving force was vividly remembering the faces of his enemies.
Having successfully regained his will, he embarked on the same process again, once again halting at the 13th rune.
