CH485 Spell Enhancement Rune tattoo II

***

"Do you want to rest before continuing?" Zora asked, concern flickering in her icy eyes.

Alex shook his head. "No. Let's continue while I still have the momentum."

He paused, then asked with furrowed brows, "The pain is tolerable, right?"

"The anaesthesia is working well," Zora nodded.

Alex had only recently succeeded in bring the idea of applying local anaesthesia to the tattoo area to life. Anaesthesia that reduced the pain endured by the Rune bearer.

Eleanor had helped him develop two forms of it.

One was a cream applied over the intended area before he began drawing.

The other was infused directly into the rune ink itself, numbing the skin as the ink was applied and the tattoo took shape.

Both methods also came with an added benefit—improving rune tattoo binding speed and efficiency.

Alex nodded after receiving her confirmation. Then he paused again, carefully examining the Siphon Tattoo.

Only after confirming that the earlier damage had been corrected—and that the structure was stable—did he swap the ink cartridge and begin Phase Two.

Whether Mage, Warrior, or Warlock, one's energy pathways were hidden within the body.

The easiest way to conceptualise them was to think of them like blood vessels.

Normally, it would be difficult for a rune drawn on the surface of the skin to reach those internal mana pathways.

But Alex had a way around that limitation.

Across the body were points he mentally classified as mana discharge points—places where an individual could release mana outward through their flesh.

This was easiest for warriors, but it generally became easier for everyone as their cultivation rose.

One could think of these discharge points as akin to acupuncture points: junctions along the mana pathway map that extended outward until they reached the skin—more specifically, sweat pores.

In Alex's design, he drew runic components over the sweat pores connected to these discharge points.

These components would allow the Siphon Rune to exert a controlled suction force, letting it draw Yin-aligned energy flowing through the major mana pathway before it could fully circulate.

While Phase Two was far easier than Phase One, Alex still worked with meticulous care.

This after all involved Zora's mana pathways—her lifeline and the foundation of her ascension path.

The added runic components spread outward like microscopic spider webs, reaching from the Siphon Rune Tattoo towards their target sweat pores—and by extension, the mana discharge points beneath.

Click.

Alex imagined the sound –A phantom sound, like mechanical parts locking into place with flawless precision, the moment he drew the final stroke.

Illusion or not, the result was undeniable.

He watched Yin-aligned energy begin to flow from Zora's mana pathways, travelling through the web-like extensions and into the Siphon Rune itself.

Alex didn't speak for a long time.

He simply observed—silent and focused—monitoring the rune extensions for nearly half an hour, checking their stability over and over again.

OmniRune's simulation function could recreate reality with frightening accuracy, but Alex refused to gamble on it completely.

Yin wasn't something he truly understood.

Not in the way he understood runes.

His knowledge came from old concepts, half-remembered stories, and deductions from a civilisation that didn't exist in this world.

That meant the margin for error was real.

And if he was wrong in any way, Zora would be the one to pay the price.

Fortunately, nothing went wrong.

The spatial shielding method he'd built into the extensions held firm, protecting them from Yin's natural tendency to drag everything it touched into a lower energy state.

'Fortunately, the Yin isn't strong enough to freeze space yet,' he thought.

This wouldn't have worked if it was.

Then a wry smile tugged at his lips.

'Well… Zora wouldn't even be alive long enough for me to try, if that were the case.'

The power to freeze space itself wasn't something that should exist in a mortal body.

Alex didn't even believe Epic-ranked beings could pull that off.

'Maybe only someone on Master's level…' he mused grimly.

After exhausting himself with confirmation after confirmation, Alex finally turned to Zora.

"Phase Two is complete."

Only then did he notice the beads of sweat on her forehead.

His expression softened.

"Let's rest for a few hours. We'll continue later."

Remaining still for hours on end wasn't easy—especially not when her body was fighting a war from the inside.

Zora felt a flicker of embarrassment.

Alex was the one doing the work… yet he was stopping because she was reaching her limit.

Alex meditated to recover from the mental exhaustion gnawing at the edges of his mind, while Zora flexed her arms and rolled her shoulders, trying to bring feeling back into them.

A couple of hours later, Alex moved on to Phase Three.

In terms of raw difficulty, Phase Three might have been the easiest of the four.

But it was easily the most tedious.

All he had to do was draw a runic equivalent of an energy pathway, linking the Siphon Rune Tattoo on Zora's upper arm down to her lower arm—where the new Spell Enhancement Rune Tattoo would be placed—while ensuring it didn't overlap with her innate mana pathways.

That part was simple.

Alex had already mapped out the route during the design phase, and with his Truth-Seeker Eyes, he could see Zora's mana pathways clearly while working. Avoiding them was almost effortless.

The problem was everything else.

The pathway had to be composed entirely of tiny, near-microscopic energy-carrying Semi-Greater Runes—each one reinforced with spatial confinement properties to ensure the Yin-aligned energy wouldn't spill out during transport.

Phase Three wasn't complex.

It was just… endless.

A grind from start to finish, with no shortcuts.

Alex began his work, drawing the runic pathway inch by inch.

The strip itself was only slightly longer than Zora's forearm and about a finger wide—roughly thirty centimetres long and two centimetres wide.

Yet completing it demanded a herculean amount of effort.

His calculations during the design phase estimated that he would need to draw around fifty thousand runes to finish it.

For the sake of his sanity, he stopped counting after the first thousand.

The work consumed the entire day.

And only through sheer stubborn determination did he manage to complete it.

'I am NEVER doing that again!' he roared inwardly as he finished.

He hadn't truly understood how mind-numbing it would be until he actually started.

Most people would have given up halfway, even he wanted to.

It was only because the Rune bearer was Zora that he doggedly stuck to it until he finally finished.

To put it into perspective, even Zora—who did nothing but sit still and watch him work—looked mentally drained by the time he finished.

As for Alex? He felt like his soul had been scraped raw.

Still, Phase Three was complete.

Alex immediately retired for the day, practically collapsing onto a nearby bed. Before his eyes could even fully close, he prompted OmniRune to open a portal for Zora, just in case she wanted to leave the Sanctuary Space.

Then he slept.

He slept through the bulk of the next day, his mind and body recovering from the sheer torture Phase Three had imposed.

But the moment he woke up, like the glutton for suffering that he was, Alex got right back to work.

He wanted this done as soon as possible.

Phase Four was the Spell Enhancement Rune itself.

The rune was small—compact enough to fit neatly into the allotted Rune Slot capacity—but it was also absurdly complex. Alex had stuffed as much functionality into as tight a framework as he could mana

It only way he could barely meet the Rune Slot capacity constraints while still achieving the effects he needed.

Of course, the trade-off was brutal.

By compressing everything into such a small space, the difficulty of inscription skyrocketed.

'I'd rather do one difficult draw than repeat that tedious torture again,' Alex grumbled inwardly.

The Spell Enhancement Rune Tattoo wasn't just an outlet for siphoned and stored Yin energy.

To ensure the Yin energy truly enhanced Zora's spells—just as the name implied—Alex had to introduce a runic 'program' that would automatically port with the spell formation of any spell Zora cast.

But that wasn't all.

Alex also incorporated something he called the Phantom Twin function.

If Zora ever needed to dual-cast using both hands, a phantom projection of the Spell Enhancement Rune would manifest on her other palm, drawing Yin energy through the spatial anchor embedded within the true rune.

An indirect –pathless or wireless—energy transfer method

Alex was fully taking advantage of the fact that he had access to a rich store of spatial energy—enough to support all the spatial solutions he was layering into this design.

The only downside was that every spatial trick he used made the inscription itself far more delicate.

Still, Alex was up to the challenge.

After confirming the exact location of the mana discharge point in Zora's palm—where the mana fuelling her spells naturally left her body—Alex began drawing the Spell Enhancement Rune almost directly over it.

This way, Zora's mana from the discharge pathway would mix cleanly with the Yin energy drawn from the Rune Tattoo.

The blend would ensure that her spell formations wouldn't reject the rune's porting attempt or the Yin energy itself.

All in all, it was extremely delicate work—drawing a single, compact construct that was so densely packed with functions. The Spell Enhancement Greater Rune Tattoo was small, but it was heavy with meaning.

Even with the raised inscription difficulty, Alex genuinely enjoyed the process.

Because he wasn't just drawing another rune.

He was bringing to life yet another game-changing product.

Six hours later—with only a short half-hour break in between—Alex finally completed the Spell Enhancement Rune.

The rune looked plain at first glance. It was nothing more than a 6–8mm circle on the back of Zora's palm, about the size of a small circular drug tablet.

Only when viewed up close—almost right in front of one's face—did its true nature reveal itself, the simple circle resolving into a strange yet mystic-looking glyph, filled with microscopic complexity.

Once the Spell Enhancement Rune Tattoo was complete, Alex released a long breath he hadn't realised he was holding.

Then he began placing the finishing touches across the entire system.

The Siphon Rune and the Runic Pathway shimmered with a hazy blue glow… then faded, vanishing beneath the skin as their concealment functions activated.

The Spell Enhancement Rune, however, remained visible on the back of Zora's hand.

There simply hadn't been enough capacity to squeeze in concealment without compromising the core functions.

Alex stared at the small, tablet-sized rune for a moment, then smiled apologetically.

"Bear with it for now. Once I upgrade it in the future, I'll add the same concealment function as your Siphon Rune."

Zora shook her head.

"I don't mind," she said softly. "This small dot is a very small price to pay."

Alex nodded… though whether he truly accepted her words was another matter entirely.

"Circulate your mana through your body," Alex instructed, "and initiate the runes."

Zora did exactly as he said.

Immediately, the fragile dams Alex had placed between the Rune Tattoos and Zora's pathways shattered open. Mana and energy surged through the newly established system like a river released from a blocked channel.

And almost instantly…

Alex sensed it.

The Yin energy within Zora's body began to recede.

His lips curled into a satisfied, content smile.

"Looks like it worked."

***

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