The moment the twelfth Will-Rune solidified within his sea of consciousness, Pierce felt a spiritual torrent, nearly physical in its intensity, explode within that void. His previously hazy perception was torn asunder, and the world before his eyes became transparent with a clarity he had never known.

  His Spirit attribute, in the wake of that soul-shaking tremor, surged to a fixed value of 35.93 units.

  By the standard academic metrics of The Spire Academy, an initiate could begin the arduous task of condensing their Arcane Crystal once their Spirit crossed the threshold of 50 units. However, Pierce’s soul, ever wandering the edges of truth, felt an almost instinctive rejection of such a path. He understood profoundly that every inch the foundation extended determined whether the eventual Arcane Spire could touch the stars.

  The "Scions of Truth" born into the ancient houses of Aurora City, leveraging secret high-tier meditations, could construct 18 or even 24 Will-Runes during their initiate phase. Possessing such a divine edge as the Omniscient Eye, for Pierce to settle for a mediocre advancement would be the most humble desecration of the gift he had been granted.

  He murmured internally: Omniscience, using the Common Meditation Technique as the underlying logic, perform a deep optimization.

  "Task created. Performing topological optimization of the energy circuits within the Common Meditation Technique. Estimated time: 202 days, 12 hours, and 56 minutes."

  Pierce scrutinized the projected blueprint manifesting in his mind: the optimized model could support an architecture of 24 Will-Runes. This was already equivalent to the rarest high-tier inheritances circulating within the Astral Coalition, enough to place him among the ranks of geniuses.

  Yet, a trace of restless dissatisfaction remained. This agitation stemmed from a blind, almost religious faith in the near-infinite calculative power of the Omniscient Eye.

  "Omniscience, can you break the shackles of the existing framework and forcibly increase the rune limit of the optimization further?"

  The feedback from the system was like a bucket of freezing abyssal water, snapping Pierce back to reality: within the current logical chain, 24 runes was the absolute limit of calculative balance achievable through this method of optimization.

  "The limit of optimization..." Pierce keenly grasped the phrasing. If it weren't a "repair" based on an old, fractured framework, but a "reshaping" based on the underlying logic of the Arcane?

  "Omniscience, using the Common Meditation Technique as a reference point, create a brand-new meditation technique for me. Requirement: the construction limit of its Will-Runes must exceed 24."

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  "Please set a specific anchor of truth: the target number of runes."

  "25 runes," Pierce ventured a single step forward.

  "Task updated. Deriving new primordial Arcane logic. Estimated time: 286 days."

  It was viable! Pierce felt his heart hammering against his ribs. Like a gambler constantly provoking the forbidden zones of the gods, he continued to greedily raise the stakes: 26 runes... 27 runes...

  As the target quantity climbed, the time required for derivation surged exponentially. The sheer span of time seemed enough to bury his entire remaining life. It was not until he set the value to 33 that a dark red warning, as piercing as fresh blood, flashed across his vision.

  "Warning: Target exceeds the current world rule limit. Creation impossible."

  The limit of world rules.

  A feverish light burned in Pierce’s eyes. This meant that within the fundamental protocols of this plane, the maximum capacity for Will-Runes an initiate’s soul-vessel could bear was exactly 32.

  Creating this ultimate meditation technique—which he christened the Pillar of Truth—with 32 runes would require 704 days. Even with his current spiritual power of over 35 units channeled into full-throttle acceleration, it would take at least forty grueling solar cycles. Yet Pierce did not hesitate; he knew these 8 additional runes would grant him a nearly saturated reservoir of mana in the battles to come.

  "Omniscience, establish the ultimate task: Create the Pillar of Truth meditation, and place it in the highest priority sequence."

  During the interval waiting for this grand technique to be born, his sole focus was to bolster his Spirit attribute. In an Arcanist’s logic, attributes were calculative power, and calculative power was the speed at which one reached truth.

  Beyond the Spirit Spring Potion, for which he had developed a severe resistance, his gaze locked onto three strictly controlled strategic resources: the Spirit-Arousing Flower, Heavenly Jade Water, and the legendary Myriad Flower Honey.

  Night fell over Aurora City like thick ink.

  Pierce tallied the fruits of his labor from the past few days. Those $100$ sets of materials, under the near-cheating real-time monitoring of the Omniscient Eye, had finally transformed into 63 vials of potion emitting a seductive crimson glow. "Exquisite" quality accounted for $5$ vials, while "Superior" reached a high of 26.

  The valuation of this batch had reached a staggering 6300 Gold.

  Stepping once more into the Black Market—a place thick with the scent of vice and commerce—Pierce’s dark cloak seemed to dissolve into the shadows. No sooner had he settled at his previous stall than a cloaked figure, as imposing as a tower of iron, appeared silently before the counter.

  "I’ll take all of these." The voice was low and gravelly, carrying an air of authority accustomed to high command.

  Pierce did not look up. The familiar scent of metal and blood told him that this was indeed the same High Knight who had previously tasted the benefits of his work. A procurement of this scale suggested the faction behind the man was facing a significant conflict.

  Pierce efficiently stowed the heavy bags of gold coins and then turned to enter the mahogany doors of "The Arcanist’s Crate."

  "Proprietor, I require three Spirit-Arousing Flowers and $500$ milliliters of Heavenly Jade Water. Additionally, give me the primordial recipes for Antidote and Stamina Potions."

  Within the growth path of a practitioner, Rank 1 potions typically required the spiritual power of a Rank 3 Initiate to be perfectly controlled. Thus, his current goal was horizontal expansion—incorporating all practical unranked potions into his knowledge base. This was not merely for the lavish profit, but to hold a ticket to survival on that primitive, deserted island soon to be revealed.