CH480 Rune Tattoo Conundrum

***

Alex contemplated a solution to Zora's condition.

At the end of the day, he kept arriving at the same conclusion. There was only one thing he could realistically do—short of hoping for a miracle.

Rune-Tech.

Alex raised his palm, and something that hadn't happened in a while occurred.

A spell formation manifested above his hand.

"…Too bad it's useless outside," he sighed.

Because the Sanctuary's governing laws were based on those of Pangea, Alex's access to Rune-Tech had been fully restored here. Unfortunately, that restoration came with a caveat—its practical application was extremely limited.

He muttered to himself, "If I really think about it, Rune-Tech can be divided into three branches…"

He paused, then corrected himself.

"…Four, if I consider OmniRune its own branch."

"No." He shook his head. "That's not right either."

"OmniRune shouldn't be considered a branch of Rune-Tech. I'd rather see it as Rune-Tech itself—the manifestation, the foundation, and the platform upon which everything else exists."

After all, nearly every Rune-Tech function originated from, was connected to, or was governed by this original, primus Greater Rune.

Alex lifted a finger, listing them off as he continued his internal monologue.

"Spellcasting. Formation construction and Artefact crafting. And lastly… Rune Tattoos."

"Spellcasting and formation construction within the Sanctuary are effectively meaningless on Verdantis. Things might be different if I had a portable formation core—or if I could create one—but that's not currently an option."

He exhaled softly.

"Rune Tattooing is the only branch of Rune-Tech I can develop here and still deploy on Verdantis."

That conclusion had already been proven in practice—thanks to Azgrug.

The Rune Tattoo scroll Alex had crafted prior in Pangea, had bound flawlessly to the Orc chief's sole innate Rune slot. The tattoo had functioned exactly as designed, increasing Azgrug's physical strength for three separate ten-minute intervals.

And once its uses were exhausted, the tattoo had quietly disintegrated—without harming the user in the slightest.

Verdantis' laws hadn't interfered at all.

"That denote me something important," Alex murmured. "It's not that Verdantis is hostile to runes nor is it rejecting them."

"It simply doesn't understand them."

A faint smile tugged at his lips.

"That's good. Very good. It bodes well for my emulator-cum-universal-translator plan."

His thoughts drifted back to Zora.

"Fortunately, it also means Rune Tattoos remain a viable solution for her condition…"

"…Even if I still haven't made any real progress acquiring sigil- or talisman-crafting knowledge."

Between direct tattooing and the scroll-binding method, there wasn't even a moment of hesitation.

The choice was obvious.

"Just to be safe, I'll bring Zora into the Sanctuary and draw the tattoo directly," Alex mused. "The same way I did her current Siphon Rune Tattoo."

He frowned slightly.

"I'm not letting her suffer through the scroll-binding process."

The Sanctuary was Alex's most closely guarded secret.

While the expedition party had almost certainly realised he possessed some kind of spatial method—after all, he casually stored and retrieved items with a wave of his hand—none of them, save for his wives, knew the true extent of it.

And Alex fully intended to keep it that way.

That was precisely why he hadn't mentioned the Sanctuary when explaining his path situation to the party back then.

"Which means," he continued, "if I'm going to grant Rune Tattoos to anyone else for now, it'll have to be through scroll binding."

The thought left him less than pleased.

He vastly preferred direct tattooing.

It consumed fewer materials, optimised itself far better to the bearer's body, and—most importantly—it was significantly less painful.

"Not to mention…" Alex muttered, eyes narrowing slightly. "If I could draw Rune Tattoos directly on Verdantis, that would mean I'd already achieved a working level of sigil and talisman mastery."

Rune-Tech had to remain rune-purist in nature.

But that didn't mean it couldn't import knowledge and ideas from other glyphs and glyph methods.

"Even a foundational programming language like Fortran allows paradigms to be imported and layered," he reasoned. "There's no logical reason a magical programming platform as complex as Rune-Tech wouldn't allow the same."

There existed a distinction between glyphs in his mind.

Runes were direct, rigid, machine-like power glyphs—precise, absolute, and highly efficient.

Sigils, on the other hand, were fluid and artistic –variable and expressive.

Runes excelled when interacting with inorganic systems. Sigils, however, were clearly more compatible with organics and living entities.

"If my deductions are correct…" Alex murmured, "…then I should be able to isolate the core paradigms from talisman-making that allow sigils to express themselves so naturally."

"And once isolated, I can translate those paradigms into Rune-Tech."

In essence, teaching runes to mimic Sigils' expressiveness and adaptability.

"If I succeed," he concluded quietly, "it would dramatically improve rune compatibility with living beings."

That single breakthrough alone would push the Rune Tattoo branch of Rune-Tech forward by an entire generation.

Alex saw Rune Tattoos based purely on Rune and Array Mastery paradigms as little more than external augments.

There was a hard ceiling to how much such Rune Tattoos could enhance a user—not because the runes themselves lacked power, but because of compatibility constraints.

Runes were inherently rigid, while living beings were not.

Organic systems were defined by constant variation—responding dynamically to environment, emotion, stress, injury, and countless other factors. When something as inflexible as a rune framework was imposed on such a system, conflict was inevitable.

That conflict was the true limiter.

If Alex could import paradigms from sigils, however… He believed he could loosen those constraints but by teaching them to respond these dynamic changes.

"If Rune Tattoos could vary their behaviour in line with changes in their organic background…" Alex murmured, "…then they wouldn't just be external augments anymore."

They would become something closer to internal bio-augmentations.

And that distinction mattered.

Because it created a dilemma.

"Do I begin work on Zora's Rune Tattoo now," he muttered, "or wait until I acquire sigil knowledge and refine the system?"

Immediate action versus future potential.

The answer had been easy when it came to the rest of the expedition party.

That was another reason Alex hadn't mentioned the Sanctuary—or the true state of Rune Tattoos—to them. None of them needed such power urgently. Waiting for a superior iteration had been the logical choice.

Zora, however, was different.

Yes, regular intimacy could slow the rate of her Yin flare-ups—and while Alex certainly didn't mind that solution, he refused to let it be the only one.

"I'm not going to make my wife dependent on that alone," he said quietly.

"If I'm going to push her to take the risk of progressing… then I need to give her something solid to fall back on."

As soon as he framed the problem that way, the answer became clear.

"She needs the Rune Tattoo now."

Even if it wasn't perfect.

It would further ease her condition, and more importantly, provide a buffer—one that would allow her to advance without constantly fearing a catastrophic Yin backlash.

Still, Alex frowned.

Even with a conclusion that made sense logically, he didn't move immediately.

He could tolerate using an imperfect solution when no alternative existed.

But when he knew a better one was within reach?

That hesitation lingered.

Then—

An idea surfaced.

And Alex's eyes slowly began to light up.

***

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