I, Stone Golem, only want to forge.

Humans cannot actually understand the meaning represented by runes.

More precisely, most creatures in this world cannot understand the meaning of runes.

Among the several relatively well-established civilizations, perhaps only the elves can barely understand some of the essence of runes.

However, they could only understand it, but couldn't express it.

The most subtle thing is that the natural affinity that elves possess means that when they carve runes, it severely affects the meaning of the runes themselves. So even if you can understand them, they are very difficult to carve.

Because most of the world's most skilled rune writers or rune engravers are half-elves.

Ella was a half-elf.

Moreover, her runic talent is among the best of all half-elves.

However, fate gave her enough talent, but charged her a certain price.

Just as Will ventured out because his family went bankrupt, she did so because she was being hunted.

She was actually a noblewoman from a certain elven kingdom, but her family had chosen the wrong side, and after the new king ascended the throne, he began to settle scores.

Ella had no choice but to flee her hometown with her younger sister and come to the human kingdom, where she was recruited by Will to become an adventurer.

But this was only a temporary measure for her; she still wanted revenge.

He simply lacked the necessary skills and had a family to support, so he could never find an opportunity.

But... things might change for the better today.

……

Ella also put on her microscope, staring intently at Murphy's movements, her lips pressed tightly together.

To be honest, she couldn't understand what Murphy was doing.

A single rune is composed of multiple strokes.

There are four types: straight line, arc, broken line, and point.

However, even though there are few strokes, two originally identical runes can become different runes if the position of one of the strokes is slightly off.

This is why a rune dictionary is needed.

Those runes that you're more familiar with can be memorized, but the less common ones are really impossible to memorize.

However... it was as if Murphy had memorized all the runes!

Every stroke was executed with perfect precision, without any hesitation.

Even the slightest deviation could lead to failure.

It has no psychological burden at all, it comes naturally, flowing smoothly and effortlessly.

This was somewhat difficult for Ella, who was always very careful when carving.

Even so, she could understand.

She could only offer forced explanations such as Murphy being a steady stoneman, having a steady hand like a craftsman, and having a good memory.

However, a single rune is only the basic unit of rune engraving. For a rune to produce an effect, different runes must be combined together!

This is what Ella doesn't understand.

I don't understand it at all!

It's like someone doing a math problem.

There was no inference, no process.

It simply begins with a line: Obtainable by paying attention.

This is exactly how she sees Murphy now. Many times, she can't even understand why the previous rune is used in this way, but Murphy has already written a long line.

Furthermore, these runes can strangely combine to produce a reaction.

What she found most abstract was that the runes Ella learned all had a common syntax.

But after observing Murphy working for half a day, she couldn't find a single trace of it.

Some of them not only didn't follow the grammar, but they even went against the grammar rules.

But those runes could still operate in a strange way.

"Wait, why is the damage rune at the beginning? Shouldn't it be at the end...? Why is the termination rune at the beginning too? Ah... oh, I get it, ah, it's because we need to reverse the damage output. Ah, why is the flow rune placed like this...?"

As Ella watched, she kept muttering to herself.

She would look surprised from time to time, then suddenly realize something, and then fall into even deeper confusion after realizing it.

Will, who was standing to the side, couldn't stand the chanting any longer and took two steps to create some distance.

Fina, who was supporting the person, suffered a lot. She couldn't just abandon the person and run away, could she?

He could only squint his eyes in pain, trying his best to turn his head away from Ella's mouth.

Fortunately, Murphy's extremely fast engraving speed saved her, preventing Elard from nagging for more than a few minutes.

With a flash of light from the longsword, Murphy completed the first layer of engraving.

"Hmm, is it done already? That was way too fast!"

Will, who had been idly pacing around on the sidelines, saw a flash of sword light over Murphy's side and immediately went over to ask.

"Huh? Is it done?"

Ella froze instantly. She had been so engrossed in her research that she hadn't noticed Murphy's engraving speed.

Even so, she only roughly understood 1/10 of the runes, and she was already done?

real or fake?

"Not done yet, there's no power right now." After Murphy finished speaking, he took out another box of semi-transparent liquid that looked like both oil and wax from under the worktable and gently brushed it over the sword.

However, wherever this liquid touches, the runes on it will disappear.

"Oh...ah...ah..."

Ella's mouth was slightly open as she watched the runes gradually disappear. With each reduction, she let out a startled scream, her body trembling with each sound.

After all the runes disappeared, her mouth was slightly open, her eyes were empty, and only her mouth was moving slightly.

Everything is gone...

She had originally planned to ask Will for the sword after it was finished to study the runes on it in detail.

Now it was impossible; she suddenly felt a suffocating pressure and a sharp pain in her heart.

Murphy was made uneasy by the strange cries. He looked at the human with pointed ears, glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, and gave him a strange look.

It wondered why this thing was making those noises, since humans don't have estrus cycles.

But different races may have different...habits, right?

Murphy simply chose to respect that decision.

Without saying much, they simply moved a little further away and began the next stage of engraving.

What Murphy did before was to use runes to enhance the sword and the sword user himself.

The next step is to let the sword draw upon the magic that exists in the outside world.

Murphy used to spend a lot of time on this step—the amount of information per unit area of ​​this type of rune is simply too large.

Not only are there many runes, but there are also many strokes.

It's engraved, densely packed.

It can be quite troublesome to carve by feeling alone.

But this time it's different...

Murphy touched the microscope on his eye.

This thing is so useful!

I just don't understand how this microscope works, or whether it's even possible to make one.

Work is important! Work is important!

Murphy suppressed his distracting thoughts and continued working!

Sizzle! Sizzle! ...

As Murphy continued to advance, several flashing purple arcs of electricity appeared on the sword. They connected and arched back and forth on the sword, changing shape as if dancing.

"God..."

This strange, exposed sight caused even Fina, who couldn't understand the runes at all, to gasp in surprise.

Of course, at this point, whether you understand runes or not makes no difference.

Ella was also completely bewildered by Murphy's hand gestures.

He only had one thought in his mind.

How did I become an amateur?

Just as he was looking confused, he suddenly heard a sharp, piercing laugh.

Her expression froze, and she turned her head to look.

Will, who had just wandered off somewhere, suddenly teleported over and stared at Murphy's sword, which was crackling with electricity, with a lewd grin, like an idiot.

Hehehehehe.

Ella couldn't help but click her tongue. She could already picture this idiot waving that damn sword around in front of her, looking all smug.