Chapter 614: Duality of Rune-Tech Glyph I - Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

CH614 Duality of Rune-Tech Glyph I *** Three Months Later... Time passed like a gentle, warm breeze for the Fortuna party. Alex did not immediately act on the information provided by Baron Luth Belloc. Instead, he kept the party on a low profile, taking on missions from both the Mercenary and Adventurers’ Associations to pass the time. This also allowed the core members of the party to properly acclimatise to the significant boosts in strength they had gained within such a short period. Fortunately, BloodIron City was vast. And a party whose average rank hovered around Silver largely went unnoticed by the city’s power players. That said, within the Adventurer and Mercenary circles, the Fortuna party had begun to build a quiet reputation over the past three months. They were known for taking on short-term missions that were relatively difficult for a group of their average level, and completing them with a high success rate. But more importantly, with remarkably low casualties. That, above all else, was what pleased Alex the most. Especially since neither he nor his wives had directly participated in those missions. Leaning into his more adventurous and free-spirited approach, Alex had placed Kavakan in charge of leading the Barbarians and Orcs on selected missions. As for the Fury Knights and his other followers— they were given the freedom to join missions as they saw fit. Because of this, while the Fury Knights often accompanied the Barbarians and Orcs, his followers adopted a rotational system. This ensured that no one grew rusty from inactivity, while still remaining fresh enough to respond immediately should Alex call upon them. As for his wives, Alex had them establish a storefront dealing in alchemical goods. Unsurprisingly, their most profitable trade revolved around berserk beast stones. The shop purchased large quantities of corrupted beast cores, and sold a limited supply of clear beast cores in exchange for berserk stones. Thanks to Alex, the corrupted cores could be cleansed of the berserk contamination. However, Eleanore was careful. She strictly controlled the volume of purified cores released to the market— selling only enough to sustain the shop without drawing unnecessary attention. She had no intention of attracting attention— not when both their shop and party lacked the background or deterrence needed to ward off the inevitable greed such a business would invite. Instead, she leveraged Raven Horn. Through the Black Scar Syndicate —and his connections within the Adventurers’ Association— she discreetly offloaded more sensitive goods, such as the purified beast cores. Alex did not involve himself in such matters. He trusted Eleanore’s judgement. She had a far better head for such decisions than he did, so he left the party’s financial operations entirely in her hands. Zora oversaw day-to-day decision-making, while Udara handled intelligence gathering and security. In essence, the party’s structure remained largely unchanged. Alex merely reinforced it— especially for the benefit of the newer additions: the Barbarians, the Orcs, Kron Belloc, and Raven Horn, who were still unfamiliar with their internal dynamics. As for Alex himself, he finally made use of the breathing room afforded by a city like BloodIron. He entered seclusion in a room within the mansion graciously provided by Wayne Achard, through Raven Horn, to the party. His goal was to fully understand the transformations within his Rune-Tech platform following the activation of the [Rune Sage] spell— And to explore what he could now achieve with it. It also helped that BloodIron City functioned as the central trade hub of the Hollowcrest Wildlands. Virtually every resource circulating through the region passed through the city at some point. Which meant, if something couldn’t be found here, it likely didn’t exist anywhere else within the Wildlands. Alex took full advantage of this. He procured a wide range of materials— Not only to replenish his reserves within the Sanctuary, but also to acquire new Sigil-sympathetic materials that had previously been absent from his inventory. The knowledge he had memorised from Heavenly Venerable’s study during the trial proved invaluable. It filled in critical gaps— allowing him to identify and understand numerous unique materials native to Verdantis that he would have otherwise overlooked. As a result, Alex was able to find viable substitutes for Rune-based materials that were unavailable in this world. Over the course of the past three months —with OmniRune handling the bulk of the workload— Alex systematically upgraded all his existing Rune-Tech products. What had once been purely Rune-based constructs were now reconfigured under the new Rune-Tech programming framework— one that incorporated Sigil nature. In doing so, every one of his creations became fully compatible with Verdantis’ magical glyph system. He also took the time to design an operational module for OmniRune— one that would allow the AI Mage Assistant to carry out similar updates autonomously in the future. With this, all Rune-Tech products could be adapted to newly encountered magical glyph systems without requiring Alex’s direct intervention. The system ensured that everything —from spells to formations, and even Rune Tattoos— could now function across both Pangea and Verdantis. In truth, the conversion process for spells and formations took less than a month. What consumed the majority of Alex’s time over the past three months... was the Rune Tattoos. He wasn’t content with simply making them compatible with Verdantis. He wanted to evolve them. ’As I theorised before, runes are rigid— almost mechanical in nature,’ Alex mused. ’They operate on fixed principles and do not adapt well to changes in external conditions. ’But their advantage lies exactly in that consistency. What you see is what you get.’ He paused. ’Sigils, on the other hand, are fluid. ’They adapt. They respond to changing conditions and variables.’ ’That flexibility is their strength—but also their weakness.’ ’Their output isn’t always constant.’ His gaze sharpened. ’Previously, my Rune Tattoos were limited by the rigid nature of runes. But now that I’ve incorporated Sigil nature into my system... ’It’s possible to combine the strengths of both.’ ’Simply updating existing tattoos isn’t enough.’ Alex shook his head. ’I should take advantage of this duality.’ ’Runic precision... paired with Sigil adaptability.’ Alex rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ’Sigils resonate better with the ever-changing nature of the human body and mind, while runes provide stability and consistent output.’ His thoughts began to crystallise. ’If I use Sigil nature as the foundational layer— linking the tattoo more naturally to the body and mind...’ ’...and then integrate Runic structures into the output layer to enforce precision and consistency...’ His eyes lit up. ’...then I can create Rune Tattoos that are both adaptable and reliable.’ A slow smile formed on his lips. ’In other words... better Rune tattoos.’ ***