Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

CH702 SunHeart Rune Tattoo II

***

Alex swallowed subconsciously as his gaze swept over the princess’s alluring figure before he eventually nodded.

He moved towards the nearby table and began carefully mixing several cartridges of rune ink together. Since Eleanore had personally helped formulate nearly all the inks and concoctions Alex used for his rune inscriptions, she immediately recognised what he was doing.

”Why are you mixing runic ink? I thought you only needed to bind the Rune Scroll to my body,” she asked curiously.

”Huh?” Alex looked momentarily caught off guard by the question. ”Oh... I’m not binding the scroll to your body directly. I’ll be drawing it instead,” he explained.

”I thought you said the rune on the scroll was meant for me,” Eleanore replied.

”It is,” Alex nodded while transferring the prepared inks into the Rune Pen’s ink cartridges. ”But it isn’t going onto your body,” he answered cryptically.

Eleanore stared at him for a moment but ultimately chose not to press further, allowing him to maintain his air of mystery. After all, she would eventually find out soon enough.

And so, the lengthy tattooing session began.

The repeated cycle of inscribing with Emotional Energy followed by recovering afterward had gradually tempered Alex’s Mental Energy and Spiritual Force. As a result, his previous limit of roughly six continuous hours of inscription work had now increased to nearly seven.

Upon realising this, Alex had briefly been tempted to continue using Emotional Energy inscription as a deliberate method of further tempering his Mental Energy and Spiritual Force.

The only reason he refrained was because Emotional Energy itself remained an extremely scarce resource, being a by-product derived from Divine Energy.

Thanks to Zora’s constant teasing and antics during their previous sessions together, Alex had developed enough resistance to maintain focus on his work even with Eleanore’s soft curves resting barely an arm’s length away from him.

The Rune Tattoo itself was being inscribed along the back of Eleanore’s dominant left palm.

Unsurprisingly, the design took the elegant shape of a blooming SunHeart Flower.

However, Alex deliberately stopped just before applying the final series of strokes required to complete the Rune Tattoo.

Instead, he set down the Rune Pen before reaching for the already completed Rune Tattoo Scroll alongside a specially prepared set of binding concoctions.

Then, under Eleanore’s stunned gaze, Alex carried the scroll over towards Lord Bonsai’s section of the sealed space before kneeling before the young SunHeart Bloom shoot.

The young plant shoot stood barely half a metre tall, its stem no thicker than two of Alex’s fingers combined. Although Alex had deliberately used a relatively small Rune Scroll—one no wider than the palm of his hand—it was still noticeably larger than the available surface area upon the shoot itself.

Even so, that did not deter him in the slightest.

After carefully applying the specially formulated binding concoction—one created specifically for use upon the plant—Alex pressed the Rune Scroll directly onto the SunHeart Bloom shoot despite the obvious mismatch in size before initiating the binding process.

Instantly, the scroll erupted with radiant light.

Within moments, the scroll rapidly burned away and disintegrated into ash, leaving behind only the rune itself floating suspended in the air.

The rune suddenly shot towards the SunHeart Bloom before wrapping itself around the shoot. Then, as though alive, it rapidly shrank down to perfectly match the size required to bind itself onto the small plant.

The resulting image was strangely comical—a growing plant now bearing a tattoo of itself.

’Huh?!’

Eleanore had just opened her mouth to question what exactly Alex was doing when she suddenly felt an inexplicable connection form between herself and the plant.

[Third Step—Wraith’s Crossing]!

The moment Alex noticed her reaction, he instantly realised time was critical.

Without hesitation, he dashed back towards the workstation area, snatched up the Rune Pen, and rapidly inscribed the final series of strokes upon Eleanore’s Rune Tattoo.

Hummm~~

Within only a few breaths, the tattoo was completed.

A soft humming sound echoed through the space as the Rune Tattoo on the back of Eleanore’s palm lit up brilliantly.

The glow and resonance immediately synchronised with the SunHeart Bloom shoot and the rune bound to it.

Soon, both the plant and Eleanore’s tattoo pulsed together at the exact same frequency.

Then, a phantom image of a fully matured SunHeart Bloom slowly manifested behind the tiny shoot before drifting gently towards Eleanore and merging directly into her body through the Rune Tattoo on her arm.

Almost immediately afterward, Eleanore felt the connection between herself and the SunHeart Bloom stabilise completely.

More importantly... she could now draw upon the plant’s power as though it were naturally her own.

”How...?”

Countless questions flooded her mind all at once, leaving her unsure where to even begin asking.

”Hold your questions for now. I’ll explain everything later,” Alex replied quickly, his expression suddenly turning solemn.

Then, using both his Spirit Sight and Spiritual Force, Alex carefully examined the connection formed between Eleanore and the SunHeart Bloom. After all, this was the first time he had ever attempted such a method.

A sigh of relief escaped him once he confirmed that everything was functioning normally.

”Alex?” Eleanore asked, tilting her head slightly.

”Everything is working perfectly,” Alex replied.

Eleanore slowly sat upright on the Rune Bed and looked directly at him.

”Shouldn’t you explain now? What exactly did you do? Why does it feel as though I can draw upon the SunHeart Bloom’s powers without having absorbed it first?” she asked.

Alex grinned proudly.

”Obviously, it is thanks to my newest masterpiece—the SunHeart Princess Flower Rune Tattoo,” he declared.

”We are absolutely not calling it that,” Eleanore cut in dryly.

”Yeah, I know. The name is bad,” Alex admitted with a laugh.

Eleanore shook her head while laughing softly herself.

”It isn’t merely bad. It’s terrible,” she said.

Alex could only shrug helplessly.

Fortunately, his poor naming sense was not enough to dampen his excitement. Casually abandoning the naming issue for later, he instead focused on explaining the Rune Tattoo’s actual mechanism.

”Deities use Emotional Energy—faith—to establish connections with their followers. Through these connections, they draw Providence from their believers in order to support their cultivation and their comprehension of the planar laws aligned with their Divinity.

”I essentially replicated a similar system using Emotional Energy to create a connection between you and the SunHeart Bloom. Using the deity analogy, you naturally occupy the role of the ’deity’ within the connection, while the SunHeart Bloom acts as the ’follower’.”

Alex gestured towards the two Rune Tattoos.

”The Rune Tattoos I inscribed onto both of you effectively perform the functions necessary to establish those respective roles and maintain the connection between them.

”The Rune Tattoo bound to the SunHeart Bloom contains a reserve of Emotional Energy. It mixes that Emotional Energy together with the plant’s own power and essence before projecting the combined output towards your Rune Tattoo.

”Your Rune Tattoo then receives that transmitted energy and separates the Emotional Energy component from the SunHeart Bloom’s power and essence. The latter is absorbed into your body, while the Emotional Energy itself is cycled back towards the SunHeart Bloom’s Rune Tattoo.

”This creates a continuous loop that allows you to utilise the SunHeart Bloom’s energy and abilities without needing to absorb the plant as you normally would.”

***