"Not bad! I'll take this one. How much in total?"
Furan didn't know much about horse breeds herself, but she possessed mastery-level Modification Studies.
In her view, the horse before her was very healthy and could theoretically withstand a few more enhancements... Of course, although her hands were itching to try modifying it now, she would have to wait until she entered the Antire; performing modification surgery within the Alliance's territory was too dangerous.
Aaron handed over a booklet from the side and said:
"Your Excellency the Mage, these are the precautions for using this horse."
For those rough types like knights and mercenaries, they might cherish their horses, but sometimes they just couldn't do it in the right way.
No matter what you told them, they might end up treating the horse the same old way.
Mages were different; if you told them something, they would actually listen. After specifically doing business with mages, Shane had now intentionally printed a bunch of booklets to teach the precautions for using horses.
"It's five gold coins in total... I'll waive the change."
Shane chuckled and waived the change for Furan.
Furan used the Hand of Telekinesis to take five gold coins from her pouch. After Shane took them and weighed them in his hand, he revealed a bright smile.
"Thank you, Your Excellency the Mage... I'll have Aaron see you out."
---
Furan rode the black horse, slowly traveling along what looked like a path but was actually a difficult road to traverse.
The sides of the road were overgrown with weeds, and only the spots where no plants grew vaguely showed traces of footprints and carriage wheels.
The entire road surface was bumpy with frequent large potholes, making it impossible for the horse to go too fast.
Meanwhile, Furan wanted to study the short sword she had just acquired; the runes on it interested her greatly.
She carefully felt the engravings on the short sword and applied a bit of mana. After the runes flashed, ice elements gathered on the blade.
After careful observation, Furan understood the ingenuity of this rune and why that Mercenary said it failed from time to time.
General runes have a cooldown period and need some time to recharge after use.
Depending on the type of rune, this time would be between five seconds and two minutes. Some runes temporarily stop working due to overuse, leading to a two-hour recharge time.
For example, the [Weight] rune on Furan's current longsword was one that could be activated during an attack. Once activated, it would significantly increase the sword's Weight, dealing powerful damage to the opponent.
This rune required a five-second cooldown after one activation.
Furan had also placed a permanent rune, [Sturdiness], on the longsword to make it more durable overall.
This rune wouldn't be consumed when the longsword wasn't under attack; it would simply persist until the sword struck a hard object, at which point it would take effect.
Once this rune encountered an attack exceeding its limit, it would enter cooldown or be directly damaged by the powerful strike.
However, the rune before her was quite different. According to Furan's observation, the effect of the rune was likely to add Frost damage during an attack, with a chance to freeze the area hit.
Furan had previously wanted to enchant her longsword with a similar set: [Frost] + [Freezing].
Exactly; to achieve the effect on this short sword, she would have to add two runes to get a similar result.
Because gathering ice elements for an attack and making ice elements freeze on the opponent are two different effects; the former has a certain probability of causing the latter, but the chance is very low.
Thus, two separate runes were needed to enhance the effect.
But the runes on the short sword Furan had just acquired actually contained both effects, and Furan even sensed something else.
Furan increased the infusion of Spiritual Power, and the runes began to emit a blue light.
At the same time, Furan could feel the gathering of ice elements, which had already surpassed the basic ice element Spell [Ice Bolt].
This was because Furan's Spiritual Power was stronger, allowing for a more powerful infusion of Spiritual Power, so the effect she achieved surpassed that of the Mercenary.
She felt as if there were a progress bar inside this rune, and her infusion of Spiritual Power would slowly fill it.
"Could this be an Ancient Rune?" A hypothesis emerged in Furan's mind.
This weapon fit the fighting style of a Rune Warrior perfectly; one had to understand runes to infuse Spiritual Power into them, and one needed strong Spiritual Power to fill the progress bar.
Furan felt that this rune was very likely an Ancient Rune; the power it displayed could be said to far exceed the runes she had learned.
"How exactly is it possible that a simple Spiritual Power engraving can gather more elements than an apprentice's spellcasting?"
She was secretly alarmed. It was because her Spiritual Power was high that she could gather so many elements, but this also showed that the upper limit of this rune was very high.
Just then, several wolf howls came from the distant bushes; it was the signal for the pack to assemble.
"Not again. Why are there so many Magic Beasts outside Apprentice City?" Furan said as she intensified the infusion of Spiritual Power, dissatisfied with these Magic Beasts attacking her.
Whether it was because there were too many mercenaries around Apprentice City or too many Magic Beasts in the wilderness, Furan had encountered two waves of attacks since setting out in the morning.
This was already the third wave, and they were all these wild wolves—pitch black all over, with little of value on them and meat that smelled of rot.
The black horse beneath her was unhurried, moving slowly forward because it knew its master would handle everything.
If the first two waves of attacks had made it a bit nervous, reminding it of being chased by these Magic Beasts as a foal and making it barely hold its form while wanting to run fast... then now it was quite relaxed, only glancing sideways before continuing forward.
The pack ran across the meadow, their vigorous running making the grass messy and tangling many stalks together.
They didn't attack immediately because they wanted to observe whether this prey was a pushover.
If the prey ran upon seeing them, they would chase recklessly and fill their bellies with its flesh.
But if the opponent stood their ground and confronted them, they would have to weigh how hungry they were; if they were truly starving, they would attack regardless.
When they came within ten meters of Furan, they fanned out, surrounding her and moving along with the person and horse.
Furan felt that the progress bar was already full, and the entire short sword emitted a faint blue light.
She casually flicked the sword, throwing it at a larger wolf.
The wolf dodged nimbly, letting the short sword stick into the ground. It was about to howl to call its companions to attack during the opening, but then it felt the bone-chilling Frost from the short sword embedded in the earth.
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