A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 186 Rune Construction

Here at Jiang Shuzhou's place, artillery fire raged, and blood flowed like rivers.

It's a completely different story with Jess.

"Professor Jess, why are orcs called orcs?"

"Professor Jess, what's the difference between orcs and humans?"

"Professor Jess, you said..."

Even with Jess's temperament, he was getting a little annoyed by the questions.

But there was nothing they could do; he was the only professor the students could find.

Jiang Shuzhou has been elusive lately, rarely seen. Jess and the students of Class 3, Grade 1 have hardly seen him at all.

Only Katniss had met him a few times because she needed to hand over the reins to Jiang Shuzhou.

To the others, the mysterious professor had vanished completely after glancing at them from the city wall and saying a few words.

There was no one to be seen at all.

On the contrary, Jess, because of his tighter financial situation, decided to spend his money wisely and didn't buy a portable laboratory, unlike Jiang Shuzhou who could conduct experiments anytime, anywhere.

The main reason is that he specializes in mechanics and can just draw blueprints; practical experience can be arranged later.

This is why Jiang Shuzhou doesn't like machinery; it's too precise and rigorous, lacking imagination and randomness.

It's different with flesh and blood. Sometimes, when Jiang Shuzhou has a flash of inspiration, he can start working on it immediately.

Although sometimes the product is completely different from what you imagined.

But it is precisely this randomness that makes it so fascinating.

"Alright, worry about yourselves first."

Jess said.

These students haven't fought against orcs for some time.

The number of points earned has decreased significantly.

He didn't care about the so-called ranking reward. The first place reward was just a few magic stones. Although Jess was poor, it was entirely because the experiments consumed too much energy.

Machinery is notoriously expensive.

After all, materials cannot be skimped on; otherwise, the strength will be insufficient, and even the best design will be useless.

The flesh and blood that Jiang Shuzhou researched was different. Although extraordinary flesh and blood was not cheap, ordinary flesh and blood could be used as a substitute first. Although the effect would be greatly reduced, it was still usable.

However, Jiang Shuzhou now directly uses extraordinary flesh and blood, since the flesh and blood mother tree's output in one day is enough for Jiang Shuzhou for a week.

"It's not our fault. Who knew Professor Navis's stuff would be so useful?"

"Exactly! I should have signed the contract already. Who would have thought that spear could kill a third-tier professional so easily!"

Those who hadn't signed the contract were now filled with regret. When they first saw Jiang Shuzhou's introduction, they thought it was just a purely funny gadget.

Who would have thought that these things, though having significant side effects, were so potent?

Although the spears might become weak and malfunction at crucial moments, the real issue is that without Jiang Shuzhou's spears, they wouldn't even be qualified to contend with those extraordinary beings.

"Alright, why complain about this?"

"Why don't you kill a few more while the orcs are besieging the city? That way you'll get more points and it'll be safer."

"At least it's safer than outside."

Jess knew exactly what Jiang Shuzhou was doing.

After all, it was a large-scale construction project. Although Jiang Shuzhou himself said it was a large camp, Jess could tell at a glance.

Isn't this just a concentration camp?

Jiang Shuzhou neither confirmed nor denied this.

Since he didn't build gas chambers and had no intention of mass killings, this place really was just a camp.

Jess neither confirmed nor denied this.

Jiang Shuzhou, who consumes more than fifty people a day, didn't think the other party would be so kind.

However, he will soon change his impression of Jiang Shuzhou.

Because Jiang Shuzhou's consumption of consumables will soon break a new record.

He's going to study orcs.

Inside the laboratory, Jiang Shuzhou was treating Lupus's body.

He carefully extracted the battle runes from Lupus's body. These were unique items, and if they were damaged, it would take countless orcs to replicate them.

"The energy flow path overlaps with the battle runes?"

After dissection and various experiments.

Jiang Shuzhou finally roughly understood the operating logic of the battle runes.

Simply put, battle runes are like an amplifier. When battle aura passes through, through the combined effect of various runes and the elements absorbed by the runes themselves, the intensity of the battle aura increases, and the efficiency of physical enhancement increases.

In general, it's like a respirator, assisting warriors in absorbing elements and increasing their utilization rate.

The design of the battle runes is ingenious yet primitive. It can enhance the strength of the recipient almost semi-permanently, but it places considerable demands on the recipient's physical strength and the path of their battle qi circulation.

However, over time, the effect of the battle runes will gradually diminish, eventually requiring them to be redrawn.

Furthermore, the battle runes are entirely custom-made and still fall within the scope of human alchemy.

Even so, it is still a very great technology.

The current battle runes only enhance strength, but what if Jiang Shuzhou created a battle rune that could make warriors fly?

The warrior's weaknesses will be completely compensated, and the bond between the warrior and the mage will be strengthened.

After all, if a warrior could directly inscribe runes on himself, he wouldn't be a warrior, but an alchemist who prefers melee combat.

Meanwhile, the situation where warriors are gradually being replaced by musketeers and magic mechs will gradually improve, although mechs will only appear in the private armies of some high-level alchemists for the time being, and not many will be deployed.

However, it cannot be denied that mechs are only expensive, anyone can pilot them, and loyalty can be guaranteed.

Warriors are different. If you want to level up quickly, you'll definitely need a lot of money, loyalty can't be fully guaranteed, and their strength is only average. The only thing worth mentioning is their growth potential.

But Jiang Shuzhou's invention will improve all of this.

After all, the most common professions in the Mage Alliance are not mages, but warriors.

And that's not all. If Jiang Shuzhou were to design battle runes that could aid in cultivation in the future, he couldn't even imagine how expensive they could sell for.

It's just that the orcs will have to suffer a bit.

But it's not a big problem. I'll just let the orcs suffer and bear the infamy.

As for the orcs' opinions? That's not important.

Just then, Chahara arrived.

"My lord, this is a list of all those who have attempted to rebel. Please take a look."

Jiang Shuzhou scribbled on the list handed to him by Chahara, and with just a few strokes, he decided the fate of hundreds of orcs.

"All greatness is forged through sacrifice; they will understand, or rather, they must understand."

At the same time, Jiang Shuzhou is also preparing to change his name.

War patterns are so outdated. This kind of groundbreaking product deserves a new name.

Rune Construct – that was the new name Jiang Shuzhou had come up with.

Warriors equipped with this technology are called rune warriors.

It sounds very advanced.

After receiving the list, Chahara left the lab and began to capture consumables for Jiang Shuzhou according to the list.