Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage Chapter 692: Alex’s Troubles I

Alex released a soft sigh as he stepped into his impromptu Rune Lab.As always, the sheer volume of tasks before him felt overwhelming, with time seemingly insufficient to complete them all.Upon his arrival in the Hollowcrest Wildlands, his principal aim was to re-establish the functionality of his Rune-Tech platform.That objective has now been met.Though not precisely in the manner he had initially conceived—it was achieved nonetheless.With the Rune-Tech platform once again operational, a paramount task on his agenda was the mending of the compromised Interplanar Orb.At the very least, a hopeful beginning has been made.From the shattered remnants of the Interspatial Grand Formation, he successfully extracted the damaged and degraded Interspatial Teleportation Formation at its nexus.This he later repurposed into the Spatial Gate Formation, which he recently employed to assault Lost Heathen strongholds.However, Alex harbored the conviction that as his grasp of the formation-spell hybrid deepened, he would ultimately be able to revert it to its original state... or perhaps even enhance it significantly.Yet—that endeavor would necessitate time.Alex exhaled gently, contemplating this.Taking a seat at the Rune table within the laboratory, he began inscribing notes onto a sheet of parchment.'It's not merely the Spatial Teleportation Formation. I must also retrieve the actual coordinates for Pangea,' Alex reflected internally.This was a matter he had kept entirely to himself, not even divulging it to his wives.The coordinates stored within the Interplanar Orb had deteriorated along with the device itself.Much like the longitude and latitude coordinate systems—GPS navigation—from his prior existence, Pangea also utilized a coordinate system to pinpoint various planes adrift in the immense void of space... including its own location.However, the system employed by Pangea was considerably more intricate.The GPS systems of his former world ascertained location based on relatively stationary positions on a planetary surface.The movement of these reference points, in relation to the observer, was insignificant enough to be disregarded for practical navigation.Consequently, position could be simplified into longitude, latitude, and, for enhanced precision, altitude.Pangean navigation, conversely, was a system engineered for traversing the Void—a mode of spatial navigation incapable of relying on fixed planetary benchmarks.Within the void of space, all matter is in constant flux.Planets, stars, galaxies... even the universe itself drifts eternally through the cosmic expanse.Thus, determining location was not simply a matter of ascertaining position across three spatial dimensions.It also demanded the incorporation of a temporal coordinate.And that temporal coordinate was of critical importance.In the void, possessing an object's precise three-dimensional position was rendered meaningless without knowing 'when' that object would occupy those exact coordinates.Everything was in perpetual motion.A location that existed in one moment would cease to be valid in the next.'Fortunately, the temporal data remains intact.Thanks to this, the calculations will not be effortless... but neither will they be insurmountable,' Alex mused inwardly.'The true challenge lies with the spatial position data.I have only two of the dimensional coordinates preserved.The final axis is corrupted.Somehow, I will need to deduce the missing dimensional coordinate on my own.Only then can I commence the construction of an algorithm within the formation capable of continuously calculating Pangea’s exact current position in real time.'Alex’s hopes were pinned on the runes he had glimpsed moments before the Interplanar Formation had activated back on Pangea—prior to the catastrophic turn of events.His intention was to leverage that fragmentary runic data to extrapolate the missing information through calculation and pattern reconstruction.Unfortunately, this was a task far simpler said than done.Unlike planetary navigation, there existed no equivalent to 'up', 'down', 'north', or 'south' within the void.No naturally fixed orientation was present to serve as a universal frame of reference, thereby significantly escalating the computational complexity.But more crucially—the requisite knowledge for even initiating such calculations was incomplete.The foundational theory Alex required belonged exclusively to the realm of Space Mages.Like many advanced specialized professions within Pangea, the knowledge held by Space Mages was guarded with extreme discretion.Similar to Magic Armour Designers, it was practically impossible to access genuine Space Mage expertise without first being recognized as a Space Mage oneself.The secrecy surrounding this discipline was so profound that the organizations controlling such knowledge had deliberately omitted it from the Arcane Library servers they had procured at exorbitant expense.Consequently, even OmniRune lacked the essential data.Fortunately, not all prospects were bleak.

Thanks to Merlin’s… rather comprehensive curriculum, Alex at least had the basic knowledge needed to tackle the problem.

The difficulty lay in the fact that he would need to perform countless derivative calculations before arriving at the formulas and constant values required to even begin reconstructing the degraded coordinates—information that would probably be considered elementary by an actual Space Mage.

’Beggars can’t be choosers. I should be grateful I even have a starting point,’ Alex thought to himself.

Much like the damaged Interplanar Teleportation Formation, this was another puzzle he could only solve through brute-force analysis and iterative experimentation.

This implied it would demand an enormous amount of time before any tangible results could be achieved, even with OmniRune’s computational aid.

Alex continued to jot down his thoughts across the paper before him. It wasn't because he feared forgetting them—his memory was more than capable of retaining the information—but because the physical act of writing helped organize the chaos within his mind.

Line after line filled the page with theories, equations, and fragmented concepts.

Eventually, he flipped the paper over to continue writing, only to discover that both sides had already been completely filled.

Leaning back into his chair, Alex gazed up at the ceiling.

’There’s simply too much to do…’ he sighed inwardly.

A familiar warmth surged within his chest as AetherKindle silently purified and refined the mana circulating throughout his body—particularly the mana absorbed through his Everspring Rune Tattoo, as it consistently did.

Alex’s thoughts unconsciously drifted toward the Spirit Magic he had recently developed.

’That needs far more work as well…’

A groan escaped his lips.

’In its current state, Spirit Magic doesn’t function without AetherKindle,’ he mused.

Spirit Magic allowed for the creation of a completely autonomous spell platform—a conjured spell construct possessing independent movement and the capacity to cast subsidiary spells on its own.

As demonstrated during the battle against the Lost Heathen Combat Masters, Spirit Magic enabled Alex to create a combat support entity on the fly.

It also lessened the burden of continuously casting and micromanaging multiple spells simultaneously, seeing as the ’Spirit’ could act independently once manifested.

However—

’The current iteration still possesses a fatal flaw.’

Alex’s gaze narrowed slightly as he pondered.

’Without something actively commanding the conjured spell-form, Spirit Magic simply won’t work.’

***