Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 795: Mana Cement

CH795 Mana Cement

***

Despite being a Top-class Meditation Manual, the Aether Meditation Manual wasn’t without its drawbacks.

One could only enter the dark space where the bands of Aether were absorbed, once per meditation session. After entering and leaving the dark space, one had to wait for a period of time—akin to a cooldown—before entering it again.

This cooldown became shorter as one’s Spiritual Force, and one’s comprehension of the Aether Meditation manual, grew stronger.

However, thanks to the Fortune-Suppressing Dragon, Alex no longer had to withdraw his Spiritual Force in order to reel in the captured Aether bands.

The Fortune-Suppressing Dragon, using his Spiritual Force as a bridge—or a metaphysical highway—could bring the captured bands back for him, meaning he no longer had to withdraw his Spiritual Force.

As a result, he could extend his single trip into the dark space, allowing him to capture bands of Aether multiple times during the same session.

Unfortunately, remaining within the dark space continuously consumed the strength of his Spiritual Force over time. Moreover, Aether bands weren’t easy to find in the first place.

However, since he now had more opportunities to capture them than he normally would have, his comprehension of the Aether Meditation Manual had improved significantly.

He could now capture multiple bands at once, instead of the single band he had been limited to when he first began practising the meditation manual.

As his comprehension continued to deepen and he became capable of locating and capturing more bands at once, Alex’s cultivation speed would, with the aid of the Fortune-Suppressing Dragon, technically skyrocket.

‘Technically… that’s the key word,’ Alex sighed to himself. ‘In reality, aside from mana, something else I lack is… time.’

‘Creating Rune-Tech products, managing my territory, and dealing with countless other responsibilities take up most of my day. I have far less time to cultivate than most people.

‘This hack—or cheat, whatever you want to call it—only lets me recover some of the cultivation time I’m losing. It doesn’t actually mean I’ll have more time than everyone else any time soon.’

By all accounts, his Runemaster Class was a broken one. However, the universe was fair—or balanced—in its own way, so even it came with its own challenges that he had to work around or manage.

‘Don’t even get me started on being the only one who can use it, meaning I have to do so much of the grunt work and heavy-lifting myself…’ Alex gritted his teeth.

‘I wonder when I’ll finally be able to teach others Rune-Tech. People still can’t seem to make the shift to it.’

Realising this critical limitation of Rune-Tech, Alex had tried to teach Sugud to enter the Class, since it didn’t exactly conflict with his Arcane Mechanic artisan path. Unfortunately, as with every previous attempt, it failed.

The only explanation was that the Class remained uniquely locked to him.

That was good news in its own right, as it meant only he could perform certain tasks and create certain proprietary products. However, it also irked him because it meant he still couldn’t delegate much of his workload to others.

Alex stood up from the small cushion he had been sitting on and stretched his stiff body.

He felt refreshed, as though he had enjoyed a wonderful night’s sleep.

He scanned the bedroom. As expected, his wives had already left to attend to their own duties and responsibilities.

Alex walked over to the centre of the room and pressed down on a mana stone—not a Berserk Stone—powering the defensive and purification formation installed within the room.

He then walked onto the bedroom’s balcony and looked out over the town.

It had been some time since the domain council meeting. In fact, it had now been more than two years since they had arrived in Verdantis.

On the surface, it looked as though Fonterra hadn’t changed. But in the distance, faint columns of smoke rose into the air from the industrial district that had been built some distance beyond the original town limits, though still within the city’s walls.

People working in the district travelled to and from it en masse each day, preserving much of the original character of Fonterra.

‘But that will change soon,’ Alex muttered to himself.

The quarry, masonry, and cement factory in Castin Town were now fully operational. Soon, construction materials would begin flooding the domain, and rapid urbanisation would follow.

A concrete jungle would soon replace the modest town of wooden medieval era-looking houses currently before his eyes.

Speaking of cement production in Castin, a serendipitous event had occurred there, creating a new product that changed many of Alex’s plans.

Apparently, in Castin Town, there was a practice of mixing different powdered ores and pigments into clay or mud to create colourful moulds or clay bricks.

Someone had decided to apply the same method to produce coloured cement concrete bricks.

Unfortunately, most of the bricks shattered.

Unable to understand why, the brickmaker blamed the cement, claiming it was of lower quality than mud. This created a minor panic within the town as concerns spread among the people, some of whom who knew of the plans to build houses using cement bricks.

Understanding how volatile the situation could become, Alex travelled to Castin with Eleanore and Sugud to investigate in person.

Alex had established the formular with trial and error alongside Eleanore and Sugud for the factories in Castin.

The cement formula being used was one Alex recalled from a documentary he had watched not long before his transmigration, so it was still fresh in his mind.

Allegedly, it was the original cement used to construct many of the ancient buildings that were still standing in his past life, already thousands of years later by the time of his transmigration.

After reassuring the townspeople, Alex met with the brickmaker and asked him to recreate the cement brick.

It didn’t take long for Alex to discover why the bricks were shattering.

Mana… or rather, Berserk Energy.

The cement concrete bricks absorbed ambient mana (or berserk energy), triggering a reaction within them that caused them to shatter.

Since the other materials used to make the concrete were unlikely to be responsible, Alex, like the brickmaker before him, initially suspected the cement.

However, since none of the cement works elsewhere exhibited the same defect, it meant the cement itself didn’t inherently possess this property.

Alex then turned his attention to the most likely culprit—the powdered ores and pigments the brickmaker had mixed into the cement concrete.

What happened next was simple. Alex had the brickmaker produce more bricks, each containing only one of the four pigment materials.

Finally, they identified the material responsible.

Interestingly, the material didn’t have a name. It was regarded as nothing more than a peculiar type of sand found in a specific area near Castin.

Alex decided to name the material Manasilica.

This Manasilica apparently combined with cement to form a compound that, upon wetting and drying, produced a temporary mana storage effect—akin to a mana capacitor.

The previous incidents of the concrete bricks shattering had occurred because the Manasilica slowly absorbed ambient mana. Once it reached its storage limit, it discharged the accumulated mana. That sudden release reacted with two of the other pigments within the coloured bricks, causing them to shatter.

Case in point, the brick moulded by the brick maker that failed to shatter, had contain only small –inconsequential— amounts of these two powdered ore pigments.

After removing those two pigment materials, the bricks no longer shattered. Instead, they temporarily stored mana.

Hence, Alex named the new discovery Mana Cement.

Alex delegated the matter to Eleanore and Sugud, tasking them with researching the Mana Cement and refining its formula to optimise its mana capacitance.

Alex looked out over the Fonterra townscape before him as a smile formed on his face.

‘If Mana Cement works the way I think it will, then creating a city-wide formation network might not be as far-fetched as I thought.

‘Plus, since the key ingredient is a mineral that I don’t recognise from OmniRune’s Pangea database, it’s most likely unique to Verdantis. That would make Mana Cement an exportable product to Pangea.

‘If it works the way I think it will, there’ll be plenty of people lining up to buy it for its weight in Mana Stones!’ He grinned.

Knock~!

Just as Alex was lost in thought over this potential new source of revenue for his domain, a knock sounded on the bedroom door.

It was Sergeant Lopota.

“Come in,” Alex instructed.

Sergeant Lopota entered the room and saluted Alex.

Then he reported, “Sir, a representative from the Frontier Stronghold has arrived. He seeks an audience with you regarding the cancellation of the ore exchange with the Stronghold.”

‘Oh… they’re finally here.’ Alex grinned.

He thought for a moment. Recalling a scene from his memory, he suddenly felt an urge to recreate it.

“Send a message to the kitchen. Have them prepare a lavish feast for me,” he said with a smile.

Sergeant Lopota raised an eyebrow. However, he knew better than to question his liege.

He saluted before turning and leaving the room.

Alex turned back towards the townscape beyond the balcony, a faint smile lingering on his lips.

***