Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 63: Heartwood Tree

CH64 Heartwood Tree

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[Author’s Notice]

[Important!]

[Please make sure to read the Chapter ”Primal Origin Flame” first before diving into this one. There was a mix-up in the publishing schedule, and the Chapters were released out of order.]

[Apologies for the inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding and support!]

***

When the lights dimmed, they found themselves in a meadow-like space with short, uniform grass and a clearly artificial sky.

Merlin’s eyes narrowed. The grass was fake. The sky was fake. The only real things were them, a peculiar bonsai tree, and a single wolf cub—currently sprinting circles around Alex, tail wagging wildly.

Zora’s eyes sparkled at the sight. ”He’s adorable!” she exclaimed, watching Alex scoop the cub up.

”She wants to hold you too,” Alex said to the cub.

Yip?

”She’s my friend, and he’s my Master.”

Woof?

”No, not that kind of Master,” Alex clarified, chuckling. ”More like a teacher.”

Growl~

The wolf cub eyed Zora warily.

”He says he’ll only let you hold him if you’re my mate,” Alex translated bluntly.

Zora blinked. ”Wait—you can understand him?”

Alex nodded. ”Seems my maternal bloodline has ties to wolves. I used to feel a vague connection, but after awakening my True Name, I can communicate clearly with him.”

She reached out to the cub, but it swatted her hand away.

Growl!

”He says he doesn’t want to be touched by anyone other than me or my mate,” Alex said with a helpless shrug.

Zora gritted her teeth.

”Fine! Yes, I am your mate!” she snapped, a blush rising on her cheeks.

Alex stared, stunned. ”Are you sure? It’s a wolf. You know you can’t take it back, right?”

Zora stomped her foot.

”Yes, I’m sure!”

”Alright then.” Alex looked down at the cub. ”She’s my mate.”

The cub gave him a very human look of approval before leaping lightly into Zora’s arms.

The woman immediately began cuddling it with unchecked affection.

”Smart cub,” Merlin noted, clearly seeing through their little scheme.

”Yep. A man’s best friend,” Alex replied with a shameless grin.

Zora cooed, ”What species is he?”

Alex shrugged. ”Don’t know exactly. His parents were a Crimsonspine Wolf and a Frostback Wolf, but he doesn’t look like either. He does have a Frostback’s ice affinity, though.”

Merlin studied the cub intensely. The little creature squirmed under his gaze, nestling deeper into Zora’s bosom—setting off a jiggle that made Zora blink.

”There are foreign energies in his body,” Merlin said after a pause. ”It’s triggered a bloodline atavism. The process isn’t complete, but once it is, we’ll know what type of wolf he’s truly becoming.”

Alex nodded. ”Understood.”

Merlin turned to Alex. ”If you have a True Name from your maternal bloodline, then you should have information about it, yes?”

”Yes. It’s the bloodline of a transcendent wolf named Auramir. It was thanks to that bloodline’s wolf-like aura that I could connect with and subdue the cub,” Alex explained. ”Have you ever heard of Auramir, or the Auramir Bloodline?”

Merlin shook his head. ”No. There are too many transcendent beings and bloodlines across the realms for anyone to know them all.”

”I see...”

”So, what is this space? What did you bring us here to show?”

”This...” Alex gestured around. ”This is a space I created. I believe it’s a pocket dimension.”

”You created it?” Merlin raised an eyebrow.

Zora didn’t even blink, too preoccupied with stroking the contented cub, who seemed to be enjoying the soft comfort of her chest a little too much.

Alex glared at the cub. ’Damn you, horny dog. That’s mine!’ he thought darkly, then turned back to Merlin.

”Before I explain how I created it, let me introduce the most important thing I found in the dragon’s lair.” He pointed.

Zora and Merlin turned to look.

A bonsai tree. Unassuming. Ordinary.

Too ordinary.

Merlin frowned. ”That tree... it’s too normal.”

”Exactly. It was dormant at first. But when I touched it, it elevated my consciousness into a place—or perhaps a state—I call the Realm of Runes.”

”In that state, I could see the natural rune formation of everything I looked at. That’s how I deciphered the dragon lair’s Mana-gathering array. It was far more complex and dynamic than anything I’d ever seen. Just by copying its static components, I modified the OmniRune Core. Now, I passively gather mana.”

He paused, looking conflicted.

”I also copied the spatial formation from the Nullcore Orb you gave me. My idea was to create a better, freely available storage device.”

Merlin’s brow twitched. ”You tampered with spatial formations... at your level?”

Zora gave him a scolding glare.

”In hindsight, yeah—it was stupid. I nearly died. The Nullcore Orb and the entire high-grade mine... the spatial formation I copied absorbed everything to form this pocket space.”

”It also took the tree with it. Since then, I haven’t been able to enter that Realm of Runes again.”

”This tree... it was the only other thing in the dragon lair?” Merlin asked sharply.

”Yes.”

Merlin’s eyes abruptly shifted—draconic slits replacing human pupils.

A strange, archaic voice echoed—not from Merlin’s lips, but through him.

”As expected...”

The presence vanished, and Merlin’s eyes returned to normal.

”Your suspicion is correct,” he said quietly. ”This tree is the most valuable thing in that dragon’s hoard. I can’t even begin to fathom how a fire dragon got its claws on it—much less how it’s now in your possession.”

Alex stepped forward. ”What is it, Father?”

Merlin exhaled deeply. ”One of the rarest and most sought-after plant species in the known universe... a Heartwood Tree.”

”A Heartwood Tree? What is that?”

”It is an extremely rare tree that adapts itself to meet the greatest need of its caretaker.

”The Fire Dragon sought comprehension and enlightenment to evolve into an Elder Dragon — or its equivalent... or maybe something even greater. So, the tree helped by becoming one that elevates wisdom and perception. Something you’ve ended up benefiting from.

”From what I can see, the tree now takes you as its caretaker. It is changing itself to meet your most potent need. Right now, it’s becoming an Energy Tree — a rare and also much sought-after species that absorbs all forms of elemental energy from the void and fixes it in its location.

”If it continues down this path, this dimension of yours might become a Mana mine in itself.”

Realisation dawned on Alex. He understood why the tree might think energy was his biggest need.

His plan to make Spatial items using the Spatial formation hinged on providing the Spatial and Elemental energies required to fuel the formation.

However, this wasn’t what Alex wanted from the Heartwood Tree.

He rushed to the Bonsai tree.

”Brother Heartwood Tree, please don’t turn into an Energy Tree. Please remain a Wisdom Tree. I need the improved wisdom and perception more than the energy.

”You must be worried because of the accident I caused back at the lair, right? You want to prevent such an accident from killing me. That’s exactly why you should remain a Wisdom Tree. With enhanced wisdom and perception, I won’t make such a mistake again.

”By giving me energy, it’s like telling me to continue my crazy experiments.”

Zora and the cub exchanged a look. Both found a shared embarrassment over Alex’s one-man comedy show.

Zora turned to Merlin. ”Father, how are you so sure it’s a Heartwood Tree?”

”Heartwood Trees are entities that live on Providence. Their growth depends on the Providence of their caretaker.

”From the Primal Origin Flame formed in the aftermath of the Fire Dragon’s death, we can infer that the Dragon was entangled somehow with an entity of Providence. That entity had to be close by for the Primal Origin Flame to have been born.

”This, along with the Tree’s changing characteristics... all signs point to it being a Heartwood Tree.”

Alex eventually stopped his fruitless grovelling in front of the tree and returned to the trio.

”There is one more thing I need to show you.”

Alex removed the entrapments and coverings over the final inhabitant of the space.

”I lost all my gear and traps when the Nullcore Orb shattered...” Alex glanced hopefully at Merlin.

The old man didn’t react. Alex hoped it meant Merlin didn’t care about the lost Nullcore because it was too expensive to replace.

”...so I had to work up a makeshift confinement.”

Sleep!

He cast the spell before opening the last confinement.

Alex revealed the Spindlecarve Mite.

The 30cm insect lay dormant after Alex’s spell. It was not attractive by any stretch of the imagination, but it still caught everyone’s attention thanks to the single Ancestral Rune etched on its carapace.

”You found one?” Zora asked, pleasantly surprised.

”It came to me, actually,” Alex replied. ”I was really lucky. I spent twenty days searching for a beast with a single marking. It showed up just when I was about to give up.”

’If it was only one thing, we could call it luck, but with everything you’ve acquired in the Subspace...’ Merlin’s eyes took on a strange glint. ’Luck doesn’t cut it.’

’Is he really a child of destiny?’

Alex, Merlin, and Zora left the dimension with the cub and mite in tow.

”Master, do you happen to know a way to obtain Spatial Energy cheaply?” Alex asked.

”You mean without destroying valuable materials like a Nullcore Crystal?”

”Yes,” Alex answered sheepishly.

”I already gave you the Nullcore Orb. What you do with it is your business. I won’t ask for it back,” Merlin said, understanding the youth’s distress.

”The easiest way to obtain Spatial Energy in large quantities and high purity, is from the void. Another option is from Spatial rifts and other Spatial phenomena — none of which you’d call easy methods.

”If you don’t care about purity, though, you can look into debris and dust from Spatial rifts. They contain only a strand or two of Spatial Energy, but they’re cheap. You’d need to set up a mining operation around a Spatial rift. But, don’t expect high purity or yield though.”

Alex nodded thoughtfully. ”In that case, the first thing I need to do is figure out how to extract Spatial Energy from large masses of Rift dust and debris, then focus on containment and storage.”

It was clear he hadn’t given up on his Storage device plan.

Despite his near-death experience, surprisingly neither Merlin nor Zora said anything to dissuade him.

If anything, they were eager to see his plan come to fruition.

He had already brought them too many miracles to doubt him now.

”Before that, you should recover your rank as soon as possible. Now that you have the two talents, you have my permission to rank up to Intermediate,” Merlin said.

”Actually, if you can, it’s best to leave everything else and focus on promoting to Intermediate rank. A higher rank will make your work a whole lot easier,” Zora suggested.

”Alright, I will do the best I can,” Alex nodded in understanding.

***