Durin did not rush into practice like the other Mage Apprentices. Instead, he recalled the knowledge points just discussed, and then first outlined the first basic rune in his mind.
According to the 'Introduction to Rune Construction' book in front of him, which clearly detailed the first basic rune model, with his eyes closed, the first basic rune was clearly imprinted in Durin's mind.
To prevent his eyes from remembering while his hand did not, Durin borrowed a fountain pen from someone else and wrote it out on a blank piece of paper again.
He opened the book and compared the rune he had written with the one in the book.
Exactly the same!
Even the curvature of each line was identical!
Durin closed the book and tried again. This time, he switched to a rune pen and purple potion ink, and as Instructor Ashley on the stage had said, he began to infuse his magic power into the pen tip.
He formally began the hands-on practice of drawing magic circuits.
And after truly getting started, he finally understood why Instructor Ashley had said at the beginning that this was a costly course, and that students should accumulate more academic credits to purchase equipment from the school at a discount.
Furthermore, she had reserved most of the time for them to conduct specialized training in basic rune drawing.
It was… simply too difficult to draw.
Just putting the pen to paper was extremely challenging.
First, the magic power had to be output evenly, not like opening a floodgate all at once, nor intermittently like dripping water. It had to achieve a continuous flow of precision, then cooperate with mental power manipulation, and at the same time construct a basic rune.
Secondly, these patterns and shapes are mostly composed of the simplest geometric forms. A single circuit unit can be drawn very standardly with a little practice, but once they are combined, the difficulty begins to increase exponentially.
It's like a pile of disorganized geometric shapes pieced together, and you still have to connect them head to tail according to a pattern.
Finally, the magic circuit is continuous, and a complete magic circuit has at least a dozen units, and sometimes dozens or even hundreds of units. These units also have specific connection methods.
If you get distracted at any step, or stop midway, the rune will collapse, and the magic power will immediately become ineffective, turning into a normal pattern on a blank sheet of paper.
This means that even if you make a mistake, you have to keep going; you can't stop even for a tiny bit.
Durin could only concentrate fully.
Then, success!
Although it was only drawn on ordinary white paper, the surface of the basic rune shimmered with colorful light, and the emanating magic fluctuations were clearly palpable.
"You, you succeeded?"
A Mage Apprentice next to him noticed Durin's situation, his eyes immediately widened, and he mumbled.
But Durin didn't pay attention to the other person's voice; his gaze had already shifted to the next basic rune.
The second one.
Success!
The third one.
Great success!
The fourth one.
Success!
The fifth one...
...Failure.
Durin frowned slightly. This failure wasn't because he had made a mistake in outlining the rune, but because his mental power was somewhat insufficient.
His magic power could only sustain him for four basic runes?
That shouldn't be...
Wait!
Durin suddenly found that his two bottles of potion ink were almost empty!?
Is it that inefficient?
Durin felt a bit helpless to complain. No wonder the school provided two sets of materials for free; it turned out to be so little. It was like a free gift that comes with a purchase, simply to let you try it out, after which you need to pay for it yourself.
It seems this will be another significant expense!
While sighing inwardly, Durin closed his eyes and began to meditate to restore his mental power and magic power.
However, his successful drawing of four runes in a row had already attracted the attention of those around him.
Not only the new apprentices, but also the old apprentices and even the fiery Instructor Ashley on the podium were drawn by the series of magic fluctuations from Durin's side.
Some new apprentices, who had been planning to spend money to secretly ask Instructor Ashley for guidance, had a thought and decided it might be better to save some money and ask this seemingly talented student instead.
However, when these people saw Durin only draw four runes before starting to meditate, they fell into hesitation again.
In short, you cannot directly interrupt someone's meditation; it is impolite and disrespectful.
Of course, some new Mage Apprentice from wealthy families ran up to the podium, pulled a gold cogwheel from their pocket, and handed it to Instructor Ashley. After receiving the money, the sexy and fiery female instructor was quite practical, lowering her voice and explaining a lot to him, which made all the newcomers below envious.
Not everyone who comes to Piltover University is wealthy; most are middle-class, and the tuition fee each semester is enough to give their families a headache, so their pocket money for a semester is usually only 3-5 gold cogwheels.
And this new Mage Apprentice always cooperated by showing an expression of sudden realization, as if understanding everything.
Durin was the fastest among the newcomers in sketching basic runes, thanks to his physical fitness far exceeding that of ordinary people, and his stability in controlling his wrists and arms was far superior to these newcomers.
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