Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage - Chapter 387

Chapter 387: Rune-Tech Restrictions
CH387 Rune-Tech Restrictions

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“I can’t use Rune-Tech.”

Alex’s confirmation sent a visible shudder through Zora’s body. She closed the distance immediately and wrapped her arms around him.

“How are you? You’re okay, right?” she asked, voice tight with concern.

“I’m fine. Physically, at least.” Alex offered a reassuring smile.

“But now that I really think about it… I feel shackled in this world. If I could, I would return to Pangea immediately.” He let out a wry chuckle that held no humour.

Zora frowned. “How bad is it?”

“Pretty bad,” Alex admitted. “I can’t do anything with Rune-Tech. I can’t spellcast, I can’t form arrays, and I strongly suspect I won’t be able to draw Rune Tattoos in this world either.”

Zora’s brows pinched together, but Alex raised a hand.

“But there is one bright side… Rune-Tech constructs that already existed before arriving here still work normally. Strangely enough.”

“Your Siphon Tattoo is still functioning, right?” he asked her.

“Yes,” Zora nodded. “If you hadn’t said anything, I wouldn’t have noticed any change.”

“That’s good.” Alex exhaled a short breath of relief. “My Everspring Tattoo is fine as well. And Fen’s LifeBank Tattoo is similarly also functioning normally.”

“Then the OmniRune Core and the Sanctuary space are still intact?” she asked.

Alex nodded.

“The Sanctuary is unaffected—as far as I can tell. Nothing seems damaged or weakened. As for OmniRune… its assistance is now restricted entirely to my mindspace. It can’t affect anything in the real world anymore.”

“That’s a big shackle…” Zora muttered.

“Indeed,” Alex sighed. “Almost all my spellcasting relies heavily on the Rune-Tech platform and OmniRune Core. Without them, I’ve lost most of my usual spells. I cast nearly everything through Rune-Tech rather than traditional spellcasting.”

He suddenly paused, expression freezing mid-thought. Then he let out a rueful laugh.

“What’s wrong?” Zora asked.

“Master… When I returned to the Enclave, he out-of-the-blue warned me not to abandon traditional spellcasting. I think he might have known this would happen.”

Zora stomped her foot in frustration. “Then why didn’t he tell you!? If he’d explained, you wouldn’t be in this predicament!”

“Maybe,” Alex said with a shrug, “maybe not. There’s no guarantee it would’ve changed anything. I did take his advice—I practised my spells back up to Grade 3 through traditional casting. But I stopped there.”

He shook his head helplessly.

“I simply didn’t have the time. Without Rune-Tech, my natural mage talent is only ‘excellent’ at best. Relearning everything the traditional way takes time I didn’t have. My Grade 4 spells would’ve taken me at least half a year of constant practice.”

He continued, “As for the Grade 5 spells… I’m not holding out much hope. I was basically cheating through Rune-Tech to cast those. With my natural talent, breaking past my rank limitation is nearly impossible. Grade 4 is the ceiling for an Intermediate Mage like me.”

“It makes me jealous of some monstrous genius I know.” Alex added with a wink in Zora’s direction.

According to Merlin, in terms of pure, innate magical talent, Zora possessed one of—if not the—best talents he had ever seen in centuries. That alone said more than enough.

Zora’s sharp retort came swiftly. “Are you sure you want to be jealous of my talent? Have you already forgotten the price I pay for it?”

Alex’s attempted humour collapsed instantly. His lips twitched in surrender.

“So… what now?” Zora asked. “Are you going to relearn your spells? I can teach you, if you want.”

Alex didn’t respond immediately. He lowered his gaze, deeply contemplating.

‘I’m stuck with my excellent-grade magic talent now. Even if I relearn everything, it’ll take years to recover the techniques I used to pull off with Rune-Tech.

‘Instant Casting, Multi-Casting, Copy Casting, Spell Interruption, Spell Interception… all of these require precision and talent I can’t brute-force with practice alone.

‘Realistically, it would take nearly a decade to regain what I’ve already lost.’

He sighed internally.

‘Thankfully, Master forced me to acquire the Extreme Mana Capacity and Elemental Affinity Enhancement talents. If not, my starting point would be even worse.’

“I’m not sure yet,” Alex finally admitted aloud. “Honestly, I think putting effort into recovering my Rune-Tech path might be the better investment. Even if I relearn the spellcasting techniques, it doesn’t fix the main issue—my cultivation path itself is barred here.”

He tightened his fist slightly.

“The solution isn’t just relearning spells. I either break through whatever is blocking my path… or I find a way to build a new one.”

“And let me guess,” Zora said, folding her arms, “you’re not willing to give up Rune-Tech.”

“Indeed.” Alex nodded firmly. “Rune-Tech is the path best suited for me. And… I’ve invested too much into it to abandon it at the first major obstacle. I built the Rune-Tech path from scratch once already.” A determined glint appeared in his eyes. “If I have to, I’ll build it again.”

Zora’s eyes brightened slightly.

“Does that mean you already have an idea on how you’re going to do that?” she asked.

“No, I do not,” Alex admitted. “I have a nagging suspicion that I can’t simply repeat the same process I used before and expect the same results.”

“Why do you think so?” Zora asked, genuinely puzzled.

Alex cast a proper Magic Ball spell, letting the spell circle float above his hand. The first thing Zora noticed was the strain—his spiritual force was stretched much harder than usual.

“Look at this. What do you see?” Alex asked, pointing to the slowly rotating glyphs within the circle.

Zora’s eyes narrowed.

“Those… those are not runes.”

“Exactly.” Alex nodded. “That’s the core of the issue. I’ve realised something fundamental: this world doesn’t use Runes. It uses an entirely different magical glyph structure.”

“I see…” Zora murmured, her brows furrowing.

“So when you asked why I can’t rebuild Rune-Tech the same way…” Alex continued, lowering his hand slightly, “there are three reasons.”

He raised a finger.

“First, I can’t use Runes at all. This world itself rejects them. If this plane has its own glyph system, then any attempt to impose Runes on it will simply fail. So if I want to replicate the experiment that birthed Rune-Tech… I’d have to do it using this world’s glyphs.”

Zora nodded slowly.

Alex raised a second finger.

“Second, if this world has its own glyphs, then it must have its own glyph methodology. On Pangea, we have Array Mastery and Rune Inscription. Here, those techniques are probably meaningless. I’ll need to learn this world’s version of inscription, formation, and glyph manipulation before I can even attempt a reconstruction.”

Zora gave a soft hum of agreement, understanding dawning.

Then Alex hesitated.

This last part was more speculative—intuitive, even—but no less important.

“My third and major concern is… Providential identity,” he said quietly.

“My class is Rune Master. My unique platform is Rune-Tech. My path’s material enabler is OmniRune. Everything—my path, my power, even my skills—are tied to the Providence associated with the word Rune.”

He met Zora’s eyes.

“Names have power. And that power is tied directly to Providence—gained or lost. If I try to recreate my old platform using a completely different world’s glyph system… I will not be rebuilding Rune-Tech.”

His expression tightened.

“I will be building something else… something new.”

He exhaled softly.

“A glyph-based system, yes… but no longer Rune-Tech. In essence, I suspect I’d be creating an entirely new power path. Glyph-Tech, or something along that line.”

“And if that happens,” Alex finished, “my path won’t be Rune-Tech anymore.”

**37**