Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 427: Reusable Scrolls

CH427 Reusable Scrolls

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The Healer Domain grand formation scroll was a product in which Alex and Eleanor managed to cram a multitude of Healer spells—such as [Heal], [Rejuvenate], [Purify], [Cleanse], and others—into a single scroll (which in itself was no small feat), but that wasn’t even the most impressive part.

That honour belonged to the scroll itself.

Ordinarily, magical enchantment scrolls and runic inscription scrolls were single-use items, burning up completely upon activation. However, Alex and Eleanor had succeeded in creating a multi-use scroll—which could also support both magical enchantments and runic inscriptions.

Eleanor developed a specialised alchemical potion that significantly increased the tear and energy resistance of beast skin and leather during the scroll-making process.

Meanwhile, Alex designed a runic formation that impregnated the scroll’s fibrous structure. This formation dispersed the activation energy of both spell enchantments and runic constructs, preventing the energy release from destroying the scroll upon use.

The marriage of their two methods—Alchemical and Runic—gave birth to a reusable product, capable of functioning as long as the potion coating and structural runic formation remained intact.

In their most rigorous tests, using the strongest combination of spells and array formations they could safely fit into a single scroll, the couple confirmed that a scroll could be reused at least fifty times.

That said, these scrolls were far from cheap.

The potion ingredients alone made the coating solution one of the most expensive Tier III potions around, even by Enclave standards.

As for the craftsmanship fee—Alex had no intention of undervaluing their work. He was adamant that the scrolls should be priced at nothing less than a premium, placing the scroll’s value squarely in the Tier IV scroll range, or even Tier V.

It was a steep price to pay for a scroll that could only support low Tier IV enchantments and inscriptions at best. Alex was fully aware that this made the product inaccessible to most buyers, which was precisely why he initially planned to auction a limited number of them at the Gold Palace’s grand auction.

Alas, Zora made a compelling argument against that idea.

Not even the Golden Palace could withstand the attention and pressure such scrolls would generate—much less the two of them, Imperial Princess and Fury heir or not.

It was one thing to introduce a product that pioneered a new branch of technology; it was another when that product threatened the established order.

Scroll makers—both Magic Enchantment scroll crafters and Runic Inscription specialists—operated within a long-established system. There were rules, balances, and unspoken agreements governing each side. Alex and Eleanor’s creation threatened to shatter all of them.

For one, the fact that the scrolls could be reused multiple times meant they would significantly undercut the earnings of countless scroll makers who relied on the single-use nature of scrolls to generate wealth.

Then there was the effectiveness of the scrolls themselves.

With a single scroll, one could activate a Great Mage–level spell multiple times without needing an actual Great Mage to be present.

Now imagine an organisation acquiring several such scrolls, each loaded with Grade 7–8 spells (Great Mage-level) spells. They could unleash high-tier magic repeatedly, with impunity.

And now imagine if an organisation obtained the production method for the scrolls...

That prospect alone was enough to make countless powers scramble—willing to seize, coerce, or eliminate Alex and Eleanor for the sake of their seemingly innocent creation.

Faced with such implications, the couple wisely shelved the scrolls entirely. They didn’t even dare approach a Great Mage—even those they trusted—to inscribe spells into them.

Well... Alex did convince Merlin to inscribe one Grade 8 spell onto a scroll—but it was purely defensive. As for attack spells, the stingy dragon was only willing to humour Alex if he was prepared to pay for his time.

The time of a being beyond Class 8.

Alex was wealthy, but not that wealthy. Even if he could afford it, he would never pay such a price for a single Grade 8 spell.

Beyond the cost and danger of public exposure, there was another drawback to Alex and Eleanor’s improved scrolls.

Once a spell or runic construct was inscribed into the scroll, it could not be altered.

Ordinary scrolls—so long as they hadn’t been activated—could be cleansed of their enchantments or runic formations and repurposed. Alex and Eleanor’s scrolls did not allow this.

The process of cleansing a scroll of its spell enchantment or runic inscription also stripped away Alex’s runic framework and degraded Eleanor’s potion coating. As a result, the scroll lost its reusability and reverted to an ordinary, single-use scroll.

After producing the scrolls and realising they couldn’t safely sell them, the two worked together to stuff a single scroll with every Healer spell they could think of—and more importantly, every spell Eleanor could personally cast at her current level.

Using OmniRune and Rune-Tech, Alex copied each spell Eleanor cast, translated them into runic arrays, and fused them together into a single, complex construct.

The result was an intricate Healer Grand Formation—a reusable spell enchantment—runic inscription hybrid that could be activated multiple times.

This turned out to be incredibly fortunate.

The Healer Grand Formation included purification and cleansing circles that surreptitiously suppressed the Berserk component present within Verdantis mana, significantly reducing the party’s exposure to the property.

By activating the scroll, Eleanor deployed the formation to create a purified zone—one in which the expedition party could heal injuries, recover from fatigue, and more importantly, remain shielded from the nefarious Berserk property that, until now, only the Verdantian clergy were supposedly capable of shielding and suppressing.

To a native Verdantian like Kron Belloc, this bordered on a miracle.

Thanks to the Grand Formation, the expedition members no longer needed to take extreme precautions against Berserk contamination while cultivating. Even so, they continued to refine their mana carefully—better safe than sorry.

As Alex watched the Grand Formation activate for the seventh time since leaving Barnsil, he let out a quiet sigh of relief, feeling fortunate that his Rune-Tech products still worked.

The magical rules of Verdantis only prevented him from creating new Rune-Tech constructs. Anything already completed continued to function normally.

The phenomenon felt eerily similar to how Pangean spellcasting still functioned on Verdantis.

’It’s as if there’s a higher rule governing all of this,’ Alex mused. ’Something that supersedes the laws of individual planes... universal laws, perhaps.’

Whatever the truth was, he knew one thing for certain.

If none of his Rune-Tech creations had worked, it would have been a devastating blow. Their survivability in this world—where they were already operating at a disadvantage—would have plummeted.

Lost in thought, Alex stared into the campfire.

Then Udara quietly appeared beside him.

”Where to now, Master?” she asked. ”The Hollowcrest Wildlands?”

***