Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage Chapter 665: Alex’s Rune-Tech Alchemy I

CH665 Alex’s Rune-Tech Alchemy I

***

As Alex had foretold, the subsequent day saw a discreet carriage dispatched from the BattleBane Guild find its way to the Fortuna Mansion.

Dalton Asheton and Lady Rosa Mercier alighted from the vehicle.

Their careful comportment and unobtrusive arrival clearly indicated an awareness of the present apprehension surrounding the Fortuna Company, leading them to prudently avoid drawing undue attention.

Alternatively, it was equally plausible they simply wished to prevent speculation regarding why representatives of the BattleBane Guild were visiting the Fortuna Mansion at all.

The world held a multitude of clandestine organizations, capable, upon deciding to indulge their curiosity, of unearthing even the most deeply concealed secrets.

"You must be Lady Rosa Mercier and Captain Dalton Asheton. We have been anticipating your arrival."

Zora emerged from the mansion, receiving them with impeccable grace.

"I am Zora Frost-Pendragon, the major-domo overseeing the Fortuna Company’s estate and various holdings."

She offered a courteous inclination of her head before extending an invitation inward.

"Please, come this way. You have arrived precisely in time to observe the creation of the potion you requested."

Dalton Asheton’s brow furrowed without delay.

"We have not placed an order for anything," he stated curtly.

"I beg your pardon?" Zora paused, her expression momentarily faltering.

Her gaze drifted toward the cargo carriage that had accompanied their passenger carriage—the one conspicuously laden with the supposed requested merchandise.

"Our apologies for the misunderstanding, then. We had presumed that given the delivery of the requested divine statue, one pulsing with divine energy no less, you intended to proceed with the transaction. Our leader even postponed the medicine refinement process specifically to accommodate your presence."

A delicate, polite smile graced her lips.

"Since you are not here to conduct trade..."

Zora subtly signaled a nearby Fury Knight, beckoning him closer.

"Kindly proceed to the garden and inform Alex that he need not continue with the concoction. The BattleBanes are no longer interested."

She then redirected her attention to Dalton.

"Please be aware that the materials utilized are exceptionally rare. It could potentially take up to a year to gather another complete set. Are you absolutely certain you are not here to finalize the trade?" she inquired.

Dalton’s lips tightened marginally at the unashamedly bold tactic.

Lady Rosa stepped forward swiftly, intervening before he could exacerbate the delicate situation.

"You have misunderstood my companion," she interjected smoothly. "We most certainly desire the trade to proceed. Our only hope was to negotiate the price prior to finalizing the arrangements."

As she conveyed this, she cast a subtle yet pointed glare at Dalton.

"The offered price of ten mid-grade Berserk Stones per potion is rather steep. We were hopeful we might arrive at an alternative agreement... perhaps involving a mercenary defense contract?" she proposed cautiously.

Zora’s smile held a knowing quality, showing no hint of surprise.

She, alongside Alex and Eleanore, had already contemplated the probability of the BattleBanes attempting precisely this maneuver.

After all, intelligence concerning Fortuna’s escalating animosity with the Lost Heathens—and the BattleBanes’ conspicuously muted, or rather absent, response—had already become common knowledge within BloodIron, at least among those observant of such affairs.

The BattleBanes had likely gambled on securing a more favorable deal from Fortuna by offering their protective services in return. Naturally, such a ''service'' would almost certainly come at a premium—prohibitively expensive for Fortuna, yet still allowing the BattleBanes to acquire the cure at a fraction of the stated price.

To elaborate, when the trio had anticipated this scenario, they had also conjectured that the BattleBanes would stipulate a critical condition: that their involvement would be strictly defensive for Fortuna, precluding any active participation in direct hostilities against the Lost Heathens.

Alas...

"Therefore, while your proposal is appreciated, we are not currently in need of such services. We ourselves operate as a mercenary company and are fully equipped to manage our own affairs." Zora stated with practiced ease.

She offered them a composed smile.

"As you may recall from our leader’s preceding demonstration, our members frequently possess capabilities far exceeding initial appearances."

She paused briefly before continuing her statement.

"Regarding the renegotiation of the treatment’s price, that would necessitate a direct discussion with our leader. However, this would pertain solely to any subsequent treatments. For this initial trial treatment, the price remains firm.

Her tone maintained its perfect politeness, yet a resolute finality was unmistakable beneath its surface.

"Should you agree to our terms, please accompany me. If not, you are at liberty to depart. We shall not escort you out—and this offer will be considered permanently rescinded."

With that declaration, Zora turned and proceeded towards the side corridor leading to the garden situated behind the mansion.

Lady Rosa and Dalton Asheton exchanged a fleeting glance.

Lady Rosa shot Alex and Dalton one last warning glare before she quickly followed behind them.

Despite her stern look towards Dalton, she didn't truly hold him accountable. In his shoes, she admitted to herself, she might have attempted a similar gambit, though perhaps with a touch more finesse and considerably more careful planning.

The chance presented had simply been too tempting to pass up.

On a more positive note, the way matters had unfortunately unfolded now made it exceedingly unlikely that Dalton would dare to overstep his bounds during the actual negotiation.

After all, she herself had been officially designated as the negotiator by the BattleBane Master.

Upon their arrival, they were taken aback to find Alex seated cross-legged in a meditative lotus position, directly in front of a large cauldron.

Curiously, no flames were present beneath it, yet the cauldron emanated a powerful heat that could be distinctly felt even from a distance of ten feet.

The violent shuddering of the cauldron's lid made it abundantly clear that ingredients had already been added, and the process occurring within was far from stable.

"I was under the impression that Lady Eleanore was the designated alchemist responsible for preparing this Grand Elixir. I wasn't aware that Young Master Alex was also skilled in alchemy," Lady Rosa murmured discreetly to Zora.

"Lady Eleanore is currently occupied with preparing the very means for the ultimate cure to your ailment. That particular process is quite time-consuming, so our leader requested she begin that preparation ahead of time. Fortunately, our leader is a master of numerous disciplines, so there is no cause for alarm. In fact, what you are about to witness is a unique crafting method that he personally developed—a method designed to extract the absolute maximum efficacy from any given medicinal formula," Zora responded.

To an outside observer, witnessing the brewing of a pill was, in reality, a rather uneventful affair. On the surface, hardly anything appeared to be happening. There were no dazzling displays of color, no bursts of radiant light, and no visible reactions beyond the constant trembling of the cauldron and the palpable heat radiating from it.

However, the same could not be said for Alex's experience within the process.

Deep within the confines of the cauldron, his Spiritual Force was locked in what could only be accurately described as an intense, all-out battle of wills.

The Greater Cleansing Potion—or rather, its condensed pill form—was an incredibly complex concoction, comprising no less than fifty distinct ingredients.

He was not only tasked with managing the plant essences of all fifty ingredients concurrently but also with actively transforming nearly half of them into the precisely required compatible essences, utilizing the intricate spell known as [Zaxan’s Transmutation].

Fortunately for Alex, he possessed a significant advantage in this endeavor—the cauldron itself served as his primary tool.

In a manner quite similar to the cauldron he had employed during the trials of the ancient Stele, Alex had ingeniously re-engineered this cauldron into a pinnacle of Rune-Tech artistry, integrating a multitude of powerful Rune-Tech formations within its structure.

These formations, directly interfacing with OmniRune, operated as pre-programmed directives, ready for immediate activation by his sophisticated AI-mage assistant.

Among the sophisticated formations embedded were several highly specialized [Zaxan’s Transmutation] arrays.

Given that the transmutation method itself was fundamentally a deeply complex spell, Alex and OmniRune had successfully managed to translate it into a suitable and potent Rune-Tech formation with remarkable ease.

This achievement, however, evolved into a far more significant breakthrough than either Alex—or even the brilliant Eleanore—had initially anticipated or foreseen.

A critical detail that Eleanore had inadvertently overlooked concerning the application of [Zaxan’s Transmutation] was its profound and extensive knowledge requirement, encompassing both the original plant essence undergoing conversion and the specific target plant essence into which it was being transformed.

The spell was by no means an automated, push-button conversion process.

The individual wielding the spell needed a crystal-clear, comprehensive understanding of both the essence being transmuted and the target essence it was intended to become for the spell to manifest its intended effects accurately.

The greater the depth of understanding possessed by the user, the superior the resulting outcome would be.

Eleanore's oversight in this regard stemmed from her extensive background as a highly experienced alchemist, which had endowed her with an already vast repository of knowledge regarding medicinal ingredients and their corresponding intricate plant essences.

For virtually any other individual, this profound knowledge prerequisite alone would render the spell exceptionally challenging to employ—not to mention the inherent difficulty of mastering the spell itself, which was notoriously hard to learn in the first place.

Nevertheless, the spell, now transformed into a formation, adeptly bypassed this significant limitation.

Once successfully converted into a Rune-Tech formation—effectively functioning as an advanced OmniRune program—the transmutation method now incorporated what could be broadly characterized as distinct input and output parameters.

Provided that comprehensive data pertaining to both the source plant essence and the target plant essence resided within OmniRune’s extensive memory or its vast database—ideally corroborated by actual physical sample exposure of both the input and output essences—OmniRune, by drawing upon the user’s Spiritual Force and mental energy, could autonomously execute the complex transmutation process with an astonishing degree of accuracy and precision.

This remarkable capability emerged as a subtle yet significant by-product of the groundbreaking Rune-Sigil duality update implemented across the entire Rune-Tech platform.

Absent the inherent variability potential and the crucial mental-energy interaction facilitated by the integration of Sigil nature into the Rune-Tech framework, OmniRune would have been limited to merely analyzing the constituent plant essences—functioning essentially as an advanced sensory apparatus to aid the user's monitoring efforts. It would have been entirely incapable of performing the actual conversion itself.