Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 28: Progress II

CH28 Progress II

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Within a year of his Proof of Concept presentation and the formal signing of the trade agreement with the DragonHold Enclave, Alex had laid down the full infrastructure for both the Telecommunication Network and the first version of the Rune-Net.

Working alongside expert Forgesmiths, Alchemists, and other skilled professionals from various lifestyle-oriented disciplines at the Enclave, Alex refined and finalised the blueprint for the first generation of Rune-Phones.

He drastically reduced the device’s size and weight, transforming it into a compact, practical artefact. He even managed to implement several long-promised features—including an ambient-charging battery, drawing energy passively from the surroundings.

This leap in Rune-Phone technology also made way for the next major innovation: Brand Segmentation.

Three distinct product lines were created, each tailored to a specific market demographic.

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The first segment was designed for the general public.

These basic models were stripped down to only the Call function and ambient energy charging. No frills, no unnecessary components.

They were manufactured to be dirt cheap—affordable enough that a working peasant family could reasonably save up for one within six months.

The second segment was targeted at professionals, wealthy merchants, and the lower nobility.

Unlike the average peasant, this group was literate, magically inclined, and possessed more disposable income.

Phones in this category came with both Call and Text functions, along with a reinforced build using stronger materials for durability.

The internal Power Circle could run on ambient energy, personal mana, or a Mana Stone—offering flexible recharging options.

Then came the final segment: a luxury-tier product crafted exclusively for royalty and upper nobility.

This version was a masterpiece of magical craftsmanship and arcane opulence.

Each luxury model was styled with custom designs to suit the aesthetic preferences of its elite clientele.

The body was crafted using premium materials more aesthetic than functional, but undeniably valuable.

In addition to the standard features, it boasted:

Voicemail,

Recording functions,

A runic notepad, and

Telepathic linking for hands-free, mind-controlled usage.

And the price?

100,000 gold coins.

Each.

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”What? You think it’s expensive? Can’t you see the frame is made from Skysteel Tempiron?”

”Never heard of it? Good question! Skysteel Tempiron is an alloy of Tempest Silver and Skyforged Iron—crafted over an entire month by a Master Forgesmith!”

”You do know that Tempest Silver and Skyforged Iron go for thousands of gold per ounce, right?

”And surely you understand a Master Forgesmith’s labour over a month isn’t cheap, right?”

”Can’t afford it? That’s surprising. Why, Margrave Bron bought one for himself and his wife.”

”Oh? You’ll order four and pay by the end of the month?

”Excellent, Margrave Jack. Your custom-made phones will be ready exactly to your design specifications.”

That was Pinchcoin—skipping around the nobles like a hyperactive gnome-merchant, saliva flying and flattery oozing, all to fuel the perceived value and push prices even higher.

To be fair, he wasn’t lying.

Tempest Silver and other rare metals were indeed used in the manufacturing process...

But in truth?

The actual quantity of rare alloys used per unit barely amounted to a few grams, never mind ounces.

The bulk of the material used in the phones came from more common but still expensive components like mithril and adamantine—materials that, while valuable, were nowhere near as exotic.

Yet, even when some nobles realised this, they still bought in.

Why?

Because their friends and rivals were buying in.

And in noble society?

Pride and reputation trumped logic.

They simply couldn’t afford to be the only one not flaunting the latest artefact of prestige.

With the luxury phones gifted to the rulers of the Arun continent’s Empires—alongside the promise of significant tax revenues—the Enclave secured unrestricted rights to operate its telecommunications business across the continent.

Once the Royals were on board, the nobles wasted no time falling in line.

After all, who in their right mind would risk offending Legendary Mage Merlin, the arcane powerhouse who stood behind the Enclave?

The spread of the Rune-Phone across Arun was unprecedented.

No other technological product in history had reached such a wide user base so quickly.

Within just two years, tens of millions of phones had found their way into the hands of users across kingdoms and principalities.

And with a modest talk time fee of five copper per minute, a steady stream of gold began pouring into the Enclave’s coffers.

And that wasn’t even counting the massive profit margins from selling the phones themselves—devices whose production costs were, in truth, laughably low.

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Since the phones operated primarily on Runes, with little reliance on expensive materials, Pinchcoin devised a brilliant plan:

He launched a material recycling initiative within the Enclave to mass-produce phone casings from discarded waste materials.

This brought production costs to their absolute minimum, fuelling a profit boom and enabling Alex to pursue aggressive expansion plans.

Pinchcoin couldn’t hide the glee on his face or the spring in his step.

He was so ecstatic that—against all expectations—he even authorised generous bonuses to every single artisan, staffer, and mage involved in phone production and distribution.

When word spread, the entire Enclave erupted in chaos.

People were stunned.

They couldn’t believe it.

Alex had nearly doubled over in laughter remembering the utterly dumbfounded look on Zora’s face when Pinchcoin had approached her for approval.

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While the phone rollout was wildly successful, Alex found greater satisfaction working on the Rune-Net project.

For this, he collaborated with the Enclave’s two Master Alchemists and a Magic Equipment Forgesmithing Master.

Together with the Alchemy Masters, Alex synthesised a new class of crystals—ones exponentially more powerful than even the rare and precious Tear of Zan.

Then, working alongside the Forge Master, they constructed a magic artefact equivalent of a supercomputer.

To Alex’s surprise, the finished product far exceeded his expectations.

He had initially aimed for a performance level comparable to the low-end supercomputers he’d once seen in university labs or startup tech firms in his previous life.

What he got instead?

A mid-range National Lab–level supercomputer.

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Alex was ecstatic for months.

Not only could he now establish the foundational programming for the Rune-Net’s Virtual Digital Library, but the surplus computational power allowed him to kickstart the learning phase of his OmniRune Core AI at lightning speed.

Other than periodic check-ins to ensure that the encoded learning principles were guiding the AI in the right direction, Alex left it largely unsupervised.

The AI rapidly absorbed, processed, and digested large amounts of data from the Enclave’s digital library—thanks to both its evolving understanding of Rune Theory and the Programming logic it accessed from Alex’s memories.

The result?

The OmniRune Core had now developed a preliminary model for a competent Mage-support AI.

Its greatest breakthrough to date was the successful self-development of Rune Simulation capabilities.

Alex could now use OmniRune Core to rapidly simulate a wide range of Rune combinations—from simple Lesser Rune Circuits and Arrays, to formation of more complex Greater Rune.

It was a very welcomed development.

The OmniRune Core now had one key advantage: it allowed Alex to debug Runic programs step by step—in real-time.

He no longer had to wait until a full circuit was complete before testing its effectiveness.

This saved him an enormous amount of development time.

He completed his suite of basic Attribute Runes in under two years—far ahead of schedule.

Aside from his foundational Greater Rune Tattoo of Strength, Alex now had developed Greater Rune Tattoos for:

Agility

Dexterity

Defence

Vitality

Endurance

Perception

He had also begun work on more complex Greater Runes for attributes such as Mana Points, Magic Resistance, Physical Resistance, Attack Power, and more.

But the real breakthrough?

Tattooing a Rune directly onto a human body.

The first test subject was a volunteer from the Enclave’s military.

Alex inscribed the Greater Strength Rune onto the soldier’s chest, enhancing his physical capabilities by over 50%.

The result was nothing short of astonishing.

The man, formerly a peak Intermediate Warrior, successfully defeated an early Elite-Rank opponent.

He even managed to hold his own in a difficult fight against a mid Elite-Rank warrior before finally being overwhelmed.

And that was with only one Rune.

Alex envisioned entire squads of Rune Soldiers, each bearing at least five combat-enhancing Runes.

He even began drafting complementary Rune Sets—combinations of Runes that, when used together, would amplify each other’s effects and elevate a soldier’s combat prowess to terrifying new heights.

But such ambitions would have to wait.

For now, it remained a project for the future.

Alex was already stretched thin, juggling too many innovations at once to fully commit the time this endeavour required.

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Of course, not everything had gone to plan over the past three and a half years.

Chief among his setbacks: no progress on deciphering Zora’s Nirvana Markings.

Even before tackling her case, his understanding of Ancestral Markings remained frustratingly shallow.

Certainly far too limited for his current needs.

Uthvaazgol had made commendable progress in his own research, but his direction of study held little relevance to Rune-Tech applications.

Alex couldn’t use it.

He had no framework, no theoretical grounding for how to apply Runic principles to interpret, modify or even detect the functions of Ancestral Markings.

Outside of Uthvaazgol’s efforts, there was virtually no research available on the subject.

Among mages—whether human, elf, or dwarf—the topic was largely ignored.

Even the Wildkin tribes, whose members bore such markings, showed little curiosity about them.

The phenomenon was considered innate—more biological fate than magical system.

To make matters worse, Markings varied wildly between races, and sometimes even between tribes of the same race.

What Alex faced was a theoretical dead zone—an infinite pool of possible data, but no data points to work from.

Still, he refused to quit.

---

He continued generating ideas, frequently brainstorming with Zora and Uthvaazgol.

To his surprise, Zora turned out to be a Tier II Journeyman Array Master, well on her path to becoming a Tier III Expert.

Many of his early concepts were abandoned in the planning stage, after careful evaluation with the two experts.

But a respectable few were deemed viable and brought to life.

All of them failed.

Yet Alex remained undeterred.

He’d recently conceived another plan—one remarkably simple, but based on some very unorthodox logic.

And soon, he would put it to the test.

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Lost in thought, he barely noticed where his feet had taken him.

He looked up just in time to see the Tower Master’s door in front of him.

A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

He knocked, then stepped into the office.

***