The number of Will Runes is vast, with thousands of common ones, and countless more that Wizards have researched themselves.

Generally, when learning Alchemy, one only needs to master some basic Will Runes. However, if you wish to achieve something in Alchemy, you must master more Will Runes.

Will Runes determine your level of Witch Array skills, and the level of Witch Array determines the upper limit of Alchemy. The two complement each other.

Mastering Will Runes requires engraving them in your mind, similar to constructing a Magic Model in your mind.

Duke, holding "Alchemy Basic Introduction," was observing three basic Will Runes related to Magic Power.

The structure of these Will Runes was very complex, looking like randomly drawn symbols with no order.

Duke carefully observed the structure of the Will Runes and then tried to engrave them with Spiritual Power in his mind.

The process was somewhat difficult, at least more difficult than Duke had anticipated. The process of engraving Will Runes was clearly not simple.

Duke spent a full three hours before he successfully engraved one basic Will Rune.

He still needed to successfully engrave the remaining two Will Runes to perform the most basic refining of Demonized Items.

Duke spent almost the entire day on this, only completing the engraving of the three Will Runes by the end.

He asked Merrick how long it had taken him initially, and the answer was ten minutes.

Merrick only took ten minutes to complete the engraving of these three basic Will Runes, highlighting the gap in their Talents.

Master Land noticed Merrick's extraordinary Talent and took him as his student because of it.

Duke was not discouraged; he always knew his Talent wasn't great, relying on the Skill Tree to gradually get to where he was.

If it were truly about Talent, Vivian would outshine him significantly.

After completing his daily patrol and exploration tasks at the mining site the next day, Duke returned to Moon Shadow City and went to a small blacksmith shop.

He had a small piece of Earth Radiance Iron that he acquired from Merrick, which was also a type of Magic Metal and quite common.

Duke intended to use this small piece of Earth Radiance Iron to craft a Ring. Although there were blacksmiths in the Slave Creature Legion who could forge it for him, Duke felt he should do this himself, as he couldn't always rely on others for help.

Thus, he began attempting to craft a Ring himself, with a Kobold blacksmith nearby guiding him and explaining basic blacksmithing techniques.

Once Duke actually started, he realized that it was not easy. After spending more than half a day, he finally ended up with a silver-white Ring.

The Ring was somewhat crooked and irregular in shape, but it could barely fit onto his finger.

Looking at the somewhat unsightly Ring on his finger, Duke felt rather satisfied, murmuring, "It's okay, as long as it works."

The Kobold blacksmith beside him twitched his mouth upon seeing this scene.

After finishing the Ring, Duke hurried back to start the next step of his work.

His next task was to choose a Magic spell and engrave its Magic Model into the Ring.

Duke thought for a moment and chose the spell Petrification Skin.

He then began engraving the Magic Model of Petrification Skin onto the Ring using Spiritual Power, a process that was not simple either.

Previously, when constructing Magic Models in his mind, he was doing it within his mind, easily maneuvering his Spiritual Power.

But now, to engrave a Magic Model onto the Ring required a strong control over Spiritual Power.

Duke spent a considerable amount of time completing this step and then began engraving the three Will Runes into the Ring to form a self-charging miniature Witch Array.

This step failed several times before he finally succeeded through repeated attempts.

[Petrification Ring: Level 1 (1/30)]

As expected, after completing the refining of the Petrification Ring, a corresponding branch appeared on the Skill Tree, similar to Magic Potions.

Duke calculated that the cost of refining this one Petrification Ring was about seventeen or eighteen magic stones. If sold, the Ring could generally fetch dozens of magic stones.

The price of Demonized Items is usually not cheap due to high refinement costs, often requiring Magic Metals as materials.

However, selling these items is not very easy. If Duke were to refine thirty Petrification Rings, it was uncertain when he would sell them all.

Generally, one needs to sell them in bulk through the channels of the Commerce Association to actually make sales.

On Academy Island, for example, there are not many people in need of a Demonized Item like the Petrification Ring, making it very difficult to sell dozens of them.

Demonized Items differ from Magic Potions. Magic Potions are consumables; once used, you need to buy another.

However, Demonized Items can be used for a long time. They last with the person—one ring used for three generations.

Considering the sales rate, Duke became a bit hesitant. Without an easy way to gain proficiency in Alchemy, it likely required a high cost investment.

He planned to ask Merrick later if there was any Alchemy-related work he could do on the Space Fortress, allowing him to gain proficiency in Alchemy without cost.

Despite the large upfront investment in Alchemy, the potential payoff is very good if one manages to achieve something significant.

This was apparent from Duke's own Demonized Items, for which he spent thousands of magic stones, taking up the bulk of his expenses.

...

During Duke's time of studying Alchemy, the war on the Wilderness Continent of the Beastman Plane continued.

Wilderness City is the largest Beastman city on the Wilderness Continent, capable of housing millions, making it an incredibly large city for this era of the Beastman Plane.

Once the largest and most prosperous city on the Wilderness Continent, the atmosphere in Wilderness City was now extremely tense, with hundreds of thousands of Beastman troops establishing a defense line centered around it.

Since the sudden appearance of enemies from beyond half a month ago, the Beastmen on the Wilderness Continent have been retreating, with numerous cities falling and most not even surviving the first day before being breached.

As these cities fell, countless Beastmen were forced to migrate, their range of movement shrinking under the intentional control of the Wizards, all converging near Wilderness City.

This place has gathered the strongest Beastman force on the Wilderness Continent, boasting over 400,000 Beastman troops and the continent's mightiest.

Legendary Warrior McKinney, who is also the disciple of the Beastman King Reynolds.

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