System vs Rebirth

Noel knew that his current abilities were enough to kill a Peak Level Demon in a short time. However, this demon was different.

Not only did his ability as a Peak Level Demon top notch, but he was also fleeing with all his abilities. Unless Noel had an overwhelming attack or a surprise attack that could catch him off guard, he wouldn’t have any chance of defeating this demon within the time limit.

‘The rune I will get from the Random Rune Scroll will be according to the current level of my Rune Mastery. I am at level sixth right now and I have only learned about the Rune Enchantment System.

‘The next four levels of the Rune Mastery are Rune Engineering, Rune Spell, Rune Body, and Rune Array. Rune Engineering is about programming a certain movement in an object while Rune Spell is a way to store and release the rune power in a certain object…’

Noel fell silent. He had enough Skill Points to upgrade his Rune Mastery, but he didn’t know whether the Rune Engineering was enough to defeat the demon or not.

“This is annoying.” Noel clicked his tongue. Since the scroll was random, he decided to give more options by upgrading the Rune Mastery twice. ‘Ardagan! Exchange the Honor Points to Skill Points and upgrade the Rune Mastery with all the Skill Points I have!’

Rune Mastery (7/10)

Rune Mastery (8/10) 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝑙.

In that instant, he received a lot of new knowledge regarding engineering and spell systems.

He also got four new runes from each system.

[You’ve acquired Enhance Forward Rune.]

[You’ve acquired Extension Rune.]

[You’ve acquired Rune Sword.]

[You’ve acquired Rune Arrow.]

“…” Noel gritted his teeth, trying to process the knowledge as quickly as possible. “This…”

Noel didn’t know what to say about these four runes, considering each rune from each system was similar to the other.

The Enhance Forward Rune can be embedded in an object and cause the object to move forward. But the Extension Rune could shoot up the Spiritual Energy inside the rune to extend the tip of the object. It was similar since both of them released something forward.

Meanwhile, if he used the Rune Sword, there would be a sword made of Spiritual Energy appearing before him. The Rune Arrow was similar. It summoned an arrow from the Spiritual Energy.

However, there was something unique from both Rune Systems. He felt they were connected.

The Rune Arrow could be paired with the Enhance Forward Rune, allowing him to shoot the arrow without a bow. On the other hand, the Rune Sword could be extended with the Extension Rune.

However, there was a problem. He didn’t know whether these runes could harm the demon or not.

He thought for a moment, thinking of another way to use the rune. He couldn’t help but smile, realizing that there were more applications he could try to attack the demon.

Noel took a deep breath and gathered the Spiritual Energy into the tip of his fingers. He started pouring out Spiritual Energy to form a rune in front of him.

This time, it was Rune Arrow. After that, he formed another rune on top of the arrow. This was the Enhance Forward Rune.

With the Spiritual Energy, he could tweak the arrow energy to apply the rune’s ability. He immediately released that rune arrow.

As expected of the rune system, the rune arrow flew forward even faster than Noel’s flying speed. It managed to catch up to the demon in an instant.

“!!!” The demon was surprised by this new ability. After all, this ability didn’t come from the spirit, but from a new system unrelated to the spirits. It wasn’t something that he used to deal with.

The demon didn’t know whether to dodge it or not. On the one hand, he didn’t know whether this ability could harm him or not. On the other hand, he had some level of confidence that his instinct would kick in if this arrow was dangerous.

So, the demon tried to choose whether to follow his rationality or his instinct.

In the end, he chose to follow his rationality. This was what made Peak Level Demon different from other low level demons after all.

The demon dodged it carefully while using his fire to burn the arrow.

To his surprise, the arrow was completely reduced to nothingness. It turned out his instinct was right. The arrow was not dangerous.

And because of his action, the demon ended up giving Noel some time to catch up.

Noel smirked while gathering the Spiritual Energy to use the Spirit Weaponry on his blade. After that, he formed the Extension Rune on Ardagan.

Suddenly, the sword was extended forward, turning Ardagan into a twenty meter long sword.

“!!!” The demon widened its eyes, not expecting that Noel was actually able to release that unique Spiritual Energy out of his sword.

This was what made the Rune System unique. Not only could it incorporate normal Spiritual Energy, but it could also work with the Spirit Ability and Spirit Technique. It was so versatile that it was too strong for anyone to monopolize the system.

Noel immediately swung downward, trying to cut down the bird.

As expected from a flying demon, its maneuverability was far superior to Noel’s Phoenix Wings. The moment it saw the incoming blade, it immediately spun its body while flapping its wings, generating a wind to push him sideways.

The spin even released a few feathers from his wings.

*Boom!*

*Boom!*

*Boom!*

The feathers exploded, trying to crush the extension from the Spirit Weaponry.

Looking at the result, Noel was happy about two different things. Firstly, he realized that the enemy was wary of his ability, showing that the Spirit Weaponry could really be extended. Secondly, he might be able to fuse the rune with something else.

‘This is interesting. I know that combining the runes is possible, considering the last level of the rune is the composite rune, which is basically combining all four rune systems.

‘Although I don’t have a lot of knowledge and experience about combining two runes or even more, I’m still able to do it safely. I just have to maintain enough distance so that the demon can’t turn around and attack me while I’m drawing the rune.’

Noel knew how to fight the demon after confirming his new ability.

He immediately drew the Rune Sword, summoning a gold sword made of Spiritual Energy. Instead of using the new runes, he actually used the Energy Gathering Rune.

This was normally used in the Spirit Enchantment to fuel some energy into the rune to activate the runes embedded in the pieces of equipment. But this time, he enhanced his Rune Sword with the Energy Gathering Rune.

As for the Spiritual Energy that would be poured into the rune was none other than his own Spiritual Energy.

Of course, normal Spiritual Energy wouldn’t work. But he had two answers to fix it. He could either apply the Spirit Weaponry’s energy or the energy from the Spirit Link.

Unfortunately, to release the energy from the Spirit Weaponry, he had to use the Spirit Dispersion Rune on the Spirit Weaponry first, so it would make the system extremely complicated. Hence, Noel chose the second one.

He used the energy from his Spirit Link, which was a unique Spiritual Energy that came from the spirit itself.

He poured that ice energy into the Rune Sword, turning the gold sword blue.

Seeing the overwhelming ice element inside the sword, Noel grabbed it with his bare hand as if he had just pulled a sword out of the ground.

The ice element would have frozen him if he had wielded this sword without any protection. But due to the Spirit Link, his cold tolerance increased, so he didn’t feel any cold from the sword.

So, he raised his sword, aimed at the demon, and threw it forward.

There wasn’t much distance between them, so the demon had to move quickly if he wanted to dodge it. But because this was the first time he had seen something like this, the demon’s reaction was a bit slower.

The sword ended up touching the tip of its wing.

*Boom!*

The ice element immediately exploded, releasing a chilling white smoke from within the sword.

As expected, Heisk’s Ice was quite strong even though she wasn’t the highest rank of Spirit. The ice extinguished a part of the fire wing, causing the bird to lose its balance.

It ended up flying to the side to maintain its balance. This was Noel’s chance to catch up.

He knew that he would be attacked by the connection between the bird and the sun if he went from above. So, this time, Noel approached the bird from the side.

His left hand formed the Ice Lotus while his right hand gathered some Spiritual Energy to use the Spirit Weaponry.

Noel smirked, seeing this opportunity. The lotus released its petals while Noel flew straight to the demon’s body while swinging his sword.