Power of Runes Chapter 411: Making his own AI (2)

"There you are."

Ash turned his head toward the sound of Eric’s voice. He spotted a vibrant young man wearing a golden monocle over his right eye, its lens subtly catching the light around them.

Yet Ash recognized that this was no ordinary monocle like the one from years past.

Instead, it was an evolved creation by Eric, far more advanced than its earlier form.

Now it served as his private repository, packed with all the data he had meticulously gathered for quick access, examination, and use. The sheer volume of knowledge inside was immense.

Not quite as vast as his own Soul library, yet still impressive in scale.

A soft sigh escaped Ash as he pondered this.

Eric’s rank hadn’t stagnated entirely, thanks to the herbs and numerous Mana stones that Ash had supplied. These aids had propelled him forward to some extent, even if the advancement felt rough without an ideal setting.

Still, such methods carried their bounds. To push his rank higher without barriers, Eric required a mana-abundant natural realm. Supplements like herbs and mana stones could fuel growth temporarily, but they couldn’t fully mimic the world’s innate mana flow.

His current level stood at Lord rank, equivalent to a Grandmaster in the human hierarchy.

"Lets go, we should start working on it now!!! I have already organized the basic structure, so if we begin now we might finally see some results."

Excitement radiated from Eric as he grinned widely, eager to dive into the project that had occupied his thoughts for ages.

With a grin of his own, Ash rose swiftly from his seat and glanced at him.

"Lets go."

Over these millennia, Ash had delved into every Rune to varying depths, with some receiving deeper focus, all driven by the challenge at hand.

Forming something from void is tough, but reshaping a departed soul into an Artificial Intelligence via revival posed an entirely steeper hurdle. Beyond mere expertise, it demanded flawless accuracy and insight into how a soul’s core meshes with reality’s core principles.

It bordered on the unattainable.

Bordered.

Not if Runes were involved.

In total, Ash had mastered 13 Runic symbols alongside roughly 8220 glyphs, factoring in all the Runes he had explored. Each Rune functioned as more than a mere mark; it embodied a piece of the cosmos’s foundational tongue that molded being, while its glyphs offered precise renditions or applications of that essence.

These 13 Runic symbols each embodied a Profound Concept of existence, too profound for exact verbal capture. Their intricacies outstripped basic speech, though for application, they were labeled with words that captured their core essence.

’Witness’ for 1 Runic symbol of Rune of Truth.

’Anchor’ is for 1 Runic symbol of Rune of Stability.

’Restore’ for Rune of Balance.

For Rune of Life we have ’Awaken’, ’Sustain’, ’Maintain.’ A total of 3 Runic symbols.

For Rune of Death we have ’Release’, ’Transition’, ’Revert’.

’Observe’ and ’Predict’ for Rune of Knowledge.

’Manifest’ for Rune of Wish.

And finally ’Synchronize’, ’Moderate’, ’Cycle’, ’Sequence’ for Rune of Harmony.

These marked the 13 Runic symbols Ash had fully grasped. Inside each lay numerous offshoots and layered implications that could shift outcomes based on their application.

Via the 360 glyphs in each Runic symbol, Ash had seized these nuances, seeing how minor tweaks in meaning could transform the end product.

Ash’s task now involved blending these 13 Runic symbols and 8220 glyphs into countless arrays. Among them, he sought reliable ones capable of reshaping a Soul and linking it to his Soul Library, serving as the hub for data, recollections, and ordered awareness.

The concept was inherently fragile. A soul couldn’t be crammed into a framework like plain information.

Stabilization, safeguarding, and integration with its container were essential. Any weak point in the procedure risked the soul’s disintegration or scattering.

Eric had already delved into all these needs over those endless years.

For millennia, Eric had meticulously probed the prerequisites for success, dissecting souls, awareness, and data frameworks to build a solid theoretical base.

Thanks to that groundwork, Ash didn’t face a blank slate. His duty lay in forging the Runic framework to bring the theory to life.

Experimenting with fresh glyph pairings wasn’t straightforward.

After all, even a Negative times a Negative yields positive. A minor shift in how they interplay could spawn wildly divergent results. What assurance was there that mixing glyphs wouldn’t unleash intricate, unforeseen consequences?

Handling the script that rules existence meant that even tiny glyph differences could overhaul the outcome. Hence, every array demanded thorough testing and full comprehension prior to any practical use.

This promised an exhaustive and demanding endeavor.

Despite Ash’s sharp insight and the horde of glyphs under his belt, the potential mixes from 13 Runic symbols and thousands of glyphs were staggeringly vast.

So Ash proceeded without haste.

He initiated with simple setups. Two glyphs linked. Then three. Next came brief sequences orbiting a central glyph as the guiding force. Gradually, he examined how essences clashed or merged when confined in one formation.

Certain blends yielded steady constructs that lingered serenely in the Soul Space for hours.

Others crumbled instantly upon creation, their essences clashing from the start. They might require a glyph mix he lacked at present.

Occasionally, outcomes surprised him entirely.

A glyph designed for "Maintain" might clash with "Transition", forming a repetitive loop that clung to what should advance. The structure would coil inward, cycling forever until the essences ripped apart and faded into glowing shards.

Calmly, Ash would watch each mishap.

He’d methodically break down the array and retrace the interplay, pinpointing the glyph sparking discord and the reasons for the essences’ refusal to align.

Then he’d attempt anew.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Eric remained involved in the whole affair, though his part differed greatly.

Runes eluded his comprehension.

To Eric, the Runic symbols Ash wielded stayed as enigmatic scripts of the cosmos beyond his reach. During Ash’s initial trials, he had devoted time to outlining the core principles of his work.

Not the profound secrets of Runes, as those defied verbal description.

But the rationale of the constructs.

At times, Ash would indicate a hovering Runic array and state evenly,

"This part keeps the soul stable. Without it the structure collapses."

Then he’d direct attention to another mark.

"This one allows information to flow. Think of it like a pathway between memories."

Eric absorbed it all intently, nodding deliberately at times or posing queries that seemed basic yet compelled Ash to reexamine the setup from fresh perspectives.

In response, he’d dissolve the array and reconstruct it with an extra reinforcement layer.

Such instances arose frequently.

Eric couldn’t steer the Runic crafting directly, as it surpassed his grasp. Yet his viewpoint, honed by years in logic, frameworks, and info systems, frequently sparked novel thoughts for Ash.

Occasionally, Eric might remark casually,

"What happens if the soul resists the conversion halfway through?"

Such prompts pushed Ash to probe angles he hadn’t first entertained.

Meanwhile, Eric didn’t labor ceaselessly.

He had already devoted millennia to this idea well before Ash’s arrival. The weight had pressed on his thoughts too heavily. With hands-on testing underway, he frequently withdrew, letting Ash tackle the intricate Runic tasks.

On numerous days, Eric lounged under the Soul Tree, gazing at Ash’s airborne Runic arrays with mild interest.

At other points, he reviewed his notes via the golden monocle, methodically sorting the flood of data from their trials.

The monocle aided in storing and retrieving info smoothly, but it wasn’t an omniscient relic. It merely enabled Eric to log findings and scan trends amid countless tests without oversight.

Ash managed the core intricacies.

Eric merely offered alternate viewpoints.

In this way, centuries slipped by unnoticed within the Soul Space.

500 years passed.

As those five centuries concluded, the wild testing era had evolved into a far more systematic approach.

Myriad combinations had been trialed and documented. Whole classes of shaky constructs were discarded, while various solid Runic bases started to emerge.

They weren’t finished.

Yet they showed great potential.

Ash had forged minor Runic arrays that could retain info snippets without failing. A few even preserved bits of spiritual content intact, without damaging the soul’s core.

This marked the initial real proof that their aim could succeed.

Eric examined a fresh construct via his monocle and eased back into his seat.

"So... this one finally holds?"

Ash watched the hovering array in silence for a beat before dissolving it with a light hand motion.

"It holds... but barely."

A quiet laugh came from Eric.

"Still better than the ones that exploded instantly."

A subtle smile touched Ash’s features.

For both knew this truth well.

Probing glyph mixes in vacant frames was mere groundwork.

The true test lay ahead.

Thus, after five hundred years of readying, the following stage commenced.

Ash produced the Spirit Devouring Crystal.

It hovered steadily before him, its facets quietly echoing the Soul Space’s glow. At its heart, Eric’s elder sister’s soul lingered, safeguarded yet inactive.

The trials would now leave theory behind.

They’d engage a genuine soul.

Eric sat up straighter at the crystal’s emergence.

"So... we are finally doing this."

Ash gave a measured nod.

"Yes."

His hand lifted.

Runic symbols materialized around the crystal sequentially, building the framework honed over centuries.

Stabilization formed the initial layer.

Synchronization came second.

The third would gently steer the soul into the storage linked to the Soul Library.

Followed by innumerable further phases.

Precision defined every phase now.

A soul’s failure mid-process meant no redo.

And so another 500 years glided by in the Soul Space.

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