Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

CH698 Guardian of Happenstance Set

***

Despite the failures—or partial successes—surrounding his major projects, Alex had still managed to achieve something significant over the past month.

During the brief periods of downtime between his various research efforts, Alex had continued refining the Rune Set designs he had been tinkering with for quite some time on the Beta Bracer using OmniRune’s simulation function.

And at long last, he succeeded.

His work had finally borne fruit, resulting in the completion of his very first Rune Tattoo design and transforming his long-conceived Rune Soldier concept into a tangible reality. Now, all that remained was to bind the tattoos to one of his soldiers, and his first Rune Soldier would be born.

The Guardian of Happenstance—as the name implied—was based upon Alex’s own Plate of Happenstance chestplate armour.

The Plate of Happenstance possessed the ability to absorb the waste mana generated from Alex’s spells before cycling it back into his body, using it to enhance his defensive capabilities while replenishing portions of his physical stamina and spent energy.

Alex considered this to be an exceptionally valuable ability and had therefore sought to replicate a similar effect for his soldiers.

His goal was to create an elite force that would not tire easily—one that required fewer resources for recovery after battle, while also possessing survivability far beyond that of ordinary troops.

In essence, enhanced survivability, defence, endurance, stamina, and reduced resource expenditure formed the core design philosophy behind the Guardian of Happenstance Set.

As Alex had originally envisioned, the Guardian of Happenstance consisted of five individual runes that collectively formed a complete set.

Since this was the very first Rune Set he had ever designed, Alex adopted a relatively straightforward method when determining what type of runes would comprise the set’s foundation.

Within his mind, he conceptualised a pentagram-like structure. Each point of the pentagram represented a specific attribute, while the centre symbolised a unified set effect born from the interaction and fusion of all five attribute runes.

Out of the seven primary Rune Tattoo attributes he had previously conceptualised—Strength, Agility, Vitality, Defence, Endurance, Dexterity, and Perception—Alex ultimately selected the first five as the foundational pillars of the Guardian of Happenstance Set.

Even after deciding upon the attributes he wished to utilise, Alex did not simply settle for the elementary rune variations he had developed earlier.

Instead, he painstakingly redesigned and refined each one individually, tailoring them specifically to better suit the overall purpose and synergy of the Guardian of Happenstance set.

Alex picked up the scrolls one after another, starting with the scroll containing the Strength-aligned Rune Tattoo.

For the Strength Attribute, Alex had deliberately altered the original rune design. Rather than enhancing the bearer’s overall physical strength, the modified rune instead focused specifically on amplifying attack power according to the user’s intent and will.

The result was a dramatic shift in function. Instead of granting a balanced ten to twenty percent increase in overall physical strength, the newly developed Attack Strength Rune boosted offensive power by nearly forty percent.

Alex placed the scroll back onto the table before picking up the Rune Tattoo scroll belonging to the Endurance point of his conceptual pentagram.

For the Endurance Attribute, Alex had transformed the original rune into what he called the Reinforcement Rune Tattoo.

Rather than storing energy and gradually feeding it back into the body for recovery—as the original Endurance Rune had been designed to do—the new variation instead used available energy directly to reinforce and fortify the bearer’s body in real time.

Where the original Endurance Rune focused on alleviating fatigue and recovering from accumulated strain or injury, the Reinforcement Rune Tattoo abandoned internal storage entirely in favour of maximising the bearer’s endurance capacity and physical resilience through continuous enhancement.

By sacrificing the storage function of the original rune, Alex had successfully redirected the freed capacity towards strengthening the enhancement effect itself.

As a result, the improvements increased from the original twenty percent enhancement to potentially as much as one hundred percent—provided the energy supplied to the rune, as well as the bearer’s own body, could withstand the burden.

’The Shield Rune Tattoo...’ Alex muttered inwardly as he examined the intricate design inscribed upon the next scroll.

The original Elementary Defence Rune Tattoo had been created to support a warrior’s Aura coating, increasing their defensive capability by approximately twenty percent. However, once again, Alex had completely discarded the foundational design philosophy of the original rune.

For the Guardian of Happenstance Set, he had evolved the Elementary Defence Rune into the Shield Rune.

As the name implied, rather than reinforcing an Aura coating, the rune directly generated a protective shield of its own whenever the bearer consciously activated it—or automatically whenever the bearer was exposed to danger beyond their awareness.

Just like the previous two Rune Tattoos within the set, the Shield Rune Tattoo possessed no independent energy storage of its own. Instead, it drew energy directly from the bearer in order to function.

Alex smiled knowingly, as this had been an entirely deliberate design choice tied directly to the final set effect.

His gaze shifted towards the fourth rune within the set.

The fourth Rune Tattoo occupied the Agility corner of the conceptual pentagram.

If not for the final rune still remaining, this would arguably have been the most important—and certainly the most complex—rune within the entire set.

The Wanderer Rune Tattoo was a mobility-enhancing tattoo derived from the original Elementary Agility Rune Tattoo. It held particular importance for two key reasons: its practical utility and the type of users it had been designed for.

Unlike the other Rune Tattoos, which had primarily been tailored for human users, the Wanderer Rune Tattoo existed in two separate variants—one designed for humanoid bearers and another specifically created for quadrupedal mounts.

This single detail made the rune exceptionally significant within the set. It allowed Rune Bearers who naturally possessed only four available rune slots to still qualify as Rune Soldiers.

Instead of bearing the fifth rune themselves, the Wanderer Rune Tattoo could be placed upon their mount, thereby completing the five-rune requirement of the set—albeit only while the bearer remained mounted.

Both variants of the Wanderer Rune Tattoo enhanced the bearer’s mobility, acceleration, and evasive capability, especially across complex terrain—forests, rocky mountains and so on.

From the Reinforcement Rune Tattoo scroll onwards, it became increasingly obvious that the Rune Tattoo designs had grown progressively more intricate and sophisticated. The final Rune Tattoo—positioned at the Vitality corner of the conceptual pentagram—continued that trend even further.

Out of all the foundational attribute runes, the Elementary Vitality Rune Tattoo was the one Alex possessed the greatest experience modifying.

From his own Everspring Rune Tattoo to Fen’s LifeBank Rune Tattoo, and even to a certain extent Zora’s Siphon Rune Tattoo, all of them had ultimately been developed from the same underlying foundation— the Elementary Vitality Rune.

Because of that, Alex possessed extensive experience in altering and evolving its structure.

And it was precisely that experience which had allowed him to design the most important Rune Tattoo within the entire set—

The one that bound everything together.

The Happenstance Rune Tattoo absorbed excess Internal Energy or vitality naturally generated by the bearer outside of combat, as well as residual energy scattered across the battlefield, storing it to power itself.

Then, through the bearer’s will, the rune could channel that stored energy back into the body, converting it into physical strength, mental energy, vitality, or whichever form of energy the user required at the time—much like the Plate of Happenstance, perhaps even surpassing it in versatility.

In addition to this, the Happenstance Rune Tattoo also incorporated the effects of the [Link] spell, connecting the energies of every bearer of the Guardian of Happenstance Rune Tattoo Set together.

This was perhaps Alex’s favourite aspect of the entire set.

It meant that every bearer of the Rune Set could both contribute to and draw from a massive shared pool of energy—energy that could then be converted into physical strength, mental power, vitality, or any other required form of support. Whether for empowerment, stamina recovery or healing, the set dramatically increased the survivability of its users in nearly any situation imaginable.

’The Guardian of Happenstance could eventually become the standard-issue Rune Tattoo Set for all troops under my command,’ Alex mused inwardly. ’And in the future, I can develop specialised variants tailored towards the unique needs of different military units.’

A proud smile appeared across his face.

Now that the Guardian of Happenstance design had finally been completed—and the first full copy now rested in his possession—all that remained was determining who would become the inaugural bearer of the set.

’That decision actually isn’t difficult at all. There’s one obvious candidate. Giving it to them would help stabilise the current situation within our forces,’ Alex thought thoughtfully.

Afterwards, his gaze drifted back towards the Rune Tattoos spread across the table.

’I’ve only been making progress in runes and Rune Tattoos lately. When was the last time I achieved any meaningful advancement in technology?’ Alex chuckled wryly to himself.

He sighed softly.

’I suppose it’s because I haven’t operated within a stable or friendly territory for quite some time. Most of the technological ideas I can think of would require either supporting industries to manufacture them or a territory capable of properly utilising them. Without one of those two foundations, there’s little point introducing such technologies... or at least, that’s what I’ve been telling myself.’

Alex shook his head.

Once more, his thoughts drifted back towards the earlier failed projects.

’Even with the Guardian of Happenstance, I still need a method to easily mass produce Rune tattoo scrolls, which is another project that hasn’t gone anywhere.’

Alex sighed as he absentmindedly began packing away the set rune scrolls.

In his distracted state, the rune pen on the table suddenly rolled over and dropped onto the floor.

Alex released another tired sigh, finally snapping back to his senses.

He reached down to retrieve the fallen rune pen—

And in that exact moment, a sudden epiphany struck him like lightning.

’That’s it!’

***