Hexbound Apocalypse [LitRPG Apocalypse] (Book 3 Finished!)

Since Astrid was still dealing with Dolk and the other dark elves, Hazel decided to head back up to the rooftop so she could practice with her spells and rune crafting like before. She thought about showing Tine and Runa around the base, but her mom decided to do that in her stead.

With nothing else to do, Hazel simply went back up to the rooftop of the Jetport and tried to pass the time. Thankfully, she had plenty to do and planned to get as much done as possible.

Getting to the roof, she sat down in her usual spot and pulled out everything she needed to work on from her storage bracelet. Her books, magic ink, and even the Strengthened Stones she made and used against Grag'bog.

"Alright," She said while clapping her hands together eagerly. "Let's get to work, then."

Getting fired up, Hazel cast Telekinesis on her rune-crafting book and brought it up in front of her. While levitating in the air, she turned the page with her telekinesis spell as well, not even bothering to do this with her hands. That was how far her skills with Telekinesis had improved.

Flipping through the pages, she soon stumbled upon what she was looking for. It was a page that displayed a rune. It wasn't the Strengthening Rune that she used on the rocks but something else. It was a Mana Rune, a type of rune used to enhance a person's mana by increasing their Intelligence stats through the rune.

"Okay, let's see how this goes..."

She called her brush over, along with the magic ink, with Telekinesis. Once both items were in her hands, she soon coated the brush in the magic ink and then carefully painted the rune on her right arm. She needed to make sure that no mistakes were made, or else it wouldn't end well for her.

It was one thing to mess up a Rune on an inanimate object, but doing that on a person wasn't a good idea. And this was due to the recoil effect.

According to the book, the recoil effect was when the user incorrectly drew a rune on a living being and tried to trigger it, causing the rune to fail and recoil the energy that was charged into the person's body. Depending on how strong the rune is, the results of the recoil could be extremely devastating.

From what she read, it was stated that the person could end up with their body getting destroyed from the inside, resulting in instant death. That was why the book advised any users trying to attempt this to properly understand the runes before using them. Thankfully, she wasn't trying to make a complex rune but a simple one.

Simple runes didn't have a strong recoil effect, so even if she failed, the chances of her dying were low. The worst she could likely experience from this recoil would be her body flaring in slight pain.

After carefully drawing the rune of Mana, she placed the brush down and took a look at her handiwork. From what she could tell, the rune brand looked good. She couldn't find a single mistake, which meant she was good to go.

She then closed her eyes and focused on flowing her mana into the brand. A flush of cold energy surged toward her arm and then into the rune. Much like with the stones that bore the Rune of Strengthening, the rune of Mana pulsed a bright blue color, signally its activation. The fact that she wasn't in any pain either was a bonus since that meant she successfully crafted the rune.

Excited that the test worked, a new panel suddenly materialized before her.

[You have been branded with the Rune of Mana! Your Intelligence stat has increased by 2!]

Despite only increasing her intelligence by a measly two points, she wasn't worried about the quantity right now. All that mattered to her was that her experiment worked. And with enough practice, she could move on to the next step involving the Rune of Mana.

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While it appeared to be a waste for her to simply brand herself with a rune that possessed such a small effect, that wasn't actually the case. From what the book stated, the brands were able to be stacked. Meaning that she could combine another rune combination into her current one, turning it into a stronger rune brand.

Right now, the brand only increased her intelligence by two, but Hazel planned to make her brand increase it by at least ten full points. Of course, that was going to take a bit of effort and careful experimentation.

Thankfully, she had plenty of time before she and the others needed to leave for the Great Forest of Meir. So, with the time she had, Hazel focused on upgrading her Mana Brand. And while there was the danger of the recoil getting worse and worse upon improving her rune brand, she didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Her main goal was getting stronger, and this was one of the best ways to do that.

So, Hazel soon got to work on improving her rune brand. Hoping to succeed in her current goal with it.

...

A couple of hours had passed, and Hazel finally met her goal.

[Rune of Mana has been enhanced! Your Intelligence stat has now increased by 15!]

"Fifteen points!" Hazel grinned, fist-bumping the air. "Alright!"

Not only did she achieve her original objective, but she also exceeded it by five extra points. And all it took was branding a good portion of her forearm in runes. What used to be a simple rune branded on her limb was now a complex runic design with symbols and lines.

As she added more and more rune designs on her arm, it became more difficult to properly make them since she needed to make sure that they were accurate to the drawings in the book. However, she managed to get the job done and gained great results from it.

And now...she wanted to go further. Whether it was the thrill of success or her overwhelming curiosity, Hazel wanted to try one more thing before completely stopping her little experiment.

Bringing her book closer to her, she telekinetically flipped through the pages, searching for a specific page. She immediately stopped when her eyes spotted a familiar word.

"The curse rune..." Hazel muttered, a grin forming on her face.

As a witch, her specialty was curse magic. Even before selecting this class, Hazel always seemed to pick up curse-related spells like Decay, Baneful Sickle, and even her cursed spears. This type of magic seemed to simply resonate with her.

She read through the page regarding the curse rune, trying to fully understand the concept behind this runic symbol before trying anything. Because of how dangerous rune crafting was, if someone was careless, proper knowledge and safety were required.

"Okay, so this rune seems to increase the user's affinity with curse magic," Hazel noted, sliding her finger across the words from the book as she read along.

Increasing her curse affinity was a must for her since a good portion of her spells were curse-related. That and doing this would also very well enhance her curse damage when casting a spell. Curse magic spells possessed a lingering effect where the target was constantly damaged by the curse energy it was inflicted with.

And by increasing her curse damage, the lingering effect would also be stronger and more devastating toward the intended target.

After properly reading through the concept of the curse rune, Hazel quickly got to work. She brought up her non-branded arm and raised her brush with her other hand. The reason she was doing this on the non-branded arm was that connecting two rune sequences was incredibly risky and dangerous.

If Hazel messed up somehow, she feared that she would collapse and perhaps die from the backlash if the rune was off by even the smallest detail. She couldn't risk that.

Brushing that thought aside, she began to write the curse rune on her brandless arm. Despite how nervous she was, her arm was more or less steady, which made it a lot easier to properly make the rune. A few moments later, she was done. Before commencing the next step, she took another look at the runic branding, making sure that everything was right. Once she was satisfied with her work, she proceeded with flowing her mana into the brand.

Much like before, a cold sensation enveloped the brand like she had a cold patch on it. Then, an ominous purple light flashed across the brand before disappearing a moment later.

[You have been branded with the Curse Rune! Your curse affinity has been increased!]

[All cursed-related spells will now have a 25% increase in Curse Dmg.]

"Yes!" Hazel cheered.

[Your Witch class is resonating with the Curse Rune! Your Curse Affinity has been increased!]

[All cursed-related spells will now have a 30% increase in Curse Dmg.]

Her eyes widened at the new message panels before her.

"Well...that was a welcoming surprise," She grinned, elated at the sudden increase in her power.

It became clear that performing this experiment was the best choice Hazel had ever made since her world erupted into chaos.