Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 157: Suspicion and Epiphany

CH157 Suspicion and Epiphany

***

After holding a cool pose over the slain troll for a few moments, Alex finally waved his hand. A familiar spatial circle shimmered beneath the corpse, and in the blink of an eye, the massive body vanished from the Pangea realm.

The Fury soldiers, including Lieutenant Cross, barely reacted to his actions this time. They had already accepted this as one of Alex’s mage eccentricities.

And honestly, it was better this way. A troll’s corpse was hardly something you wanted hanging around.

Wildkin, especially races like trolls, were infamous for becoming vectors of disease in death. Their carcasses could infect the entire surrounding area if not properly disposed of. Normally, the platoon would have burned or buried the remains. But neither method was completely safe or clean, not within a forest like this, teeming with vibrant lifeforms.

To the troops, throwing the corpse into the void—as they assumed Alex had done—was a brilliant solution.

The void’s nature, devoid of air and ambient mana, ensured that no pathogens would survive, and its ceaseless tearing force would reduce anything to particles finer than ash or dust.

It was, in their eyes, an ideal disposal method.

Only, it wasn’t the void.

Alex had quietly sent it to his Sanctuary space.

Turning to face the others, he gave a sharp nod. ”Sweep the area. Clear out any unused traps. Also, try to determine why the troll wandered this far into the forest. It wouldn’t have come all this way without a reason.”

”Yes, sir!” the soldiers responded in unison, quickly fanning out to carry out their orders.

Alex remained behind with Lieutenant Cross.

”What do you think?” he asked, his voice low but serious.

Cross shook his head, brow furrowed. ”That troll wasn’t just lost. It is too strong to be a rogue or exile. Even if it had its territory usurped, it would have just migrated deeper into the Ironmourn Desert. There’s no reason for it to be this far south, up to the forest’s opposite edges even.”

Alex nodded grimly. ”Then our suspicions weren’t misplaced.” He pointed to the dropped club lying beside the cleared kill site. ”What do you make of its weapon?”

Unexpectedly, Laura, who had been silently observing nearby, moved quickly to drag the troll’s club over to them.

Alex couldn’t help the small tug at his lips. She’s acting like a real adjutant now.

Cross crouched to inspect the weapon. ”Doesn’t look special to me.”

”It is,” Alex countered, pointing at the faint markings etched into the metal spikes. ”The signs are subtle, but the troll did not make this weapon itself, something Troll Warriors almost always do themselves. These markings come from a specific iron refinement technique.”

He straightened and met Cross’s gaze.

”A technique only humans use to produce high-quality iron.”

Lieutenant Cross’s eyes flashed.

Laura’s eyes widened.

”Couldn’t it have scavenged the iron spikes from some human settlement?” she asked uncertainly. But even as the words left her mouth, her face shifted.

Realisation struck.

”Oh... I’m sorry,” she said softly.

”Don’t be. That was a valid question,” Alex said, brushing off her apprehension about interfering in his and Lieutenant Cross’s conversation.

”Look at how the metal is integrated to reinforce the wooden club. The technique is subtle, but it shows a level of craftsmanship that, judging by the troll’s fighting style and intelligence, it couldn’t possibly possess.

”And more importantly, it’s a method typically used by humans—not Wildkins, and certainly not trolls.”

He lifted the weapon slightly off the ground for emphasis. ”All signs point to a human craftsman.”

Then Alex turned to his two top subordinates, his tone sharpening. ”So... why would a human make a club for a four-metre-tall individual? How many humans do you know that grow to that height? And of those, how many favour a weapon as crude and ’uncultured’ as this?”

The implied answer made both Laura and Cross frown.

Until now, the notion that something was off had only been suspicion—a whisper beneath the surface. This weapon, however, was their first unsettling but tangible proof.

Clap!

”Don’t worry too much about it,” Alex said with a shrug, clapping his hands together. ”Whatever’s going on, I’m sure those above us will prop the sky up if it falls. No need to trouble ourselves with such things.”

Both officers stared at him, blinking.

’You do realise you’re one of the people expected to prop up the sky, right?’ they thought in near unison.

Judging by his relaxed expression, their young commander clearly did not think so.

Cross shook his head and stepped forward. ”You should clean up before the blood dries, Commander. I’ll have someone fetch water.”

”Oh!” Alex looked down, finally realising the state of his clothes. The conversation had driven the thought from his mind. ”No need.”

[Clean!]

He activated the basic Grade 0 utility spell. Blood, bits of flesh, and bone fragments lifted off his uniform and drifted to the ground like dust.

’Ah... such a convenient spell,’ Alex mused. ’It’s almost too good to be a Grade 0.’

The spell was available to every mage, even Acolytes. Its only requirement was mana. The deeper or more stubborn the stain, the more energy it consumed. Simple and efficient.

Even better, it wasn’t a one-time mana cost spell but rather a continuous drain, meaning even someone with low reserves could use it as long as they still had mana to give the spell circle. Once depleted, they could simply wait and recover before casting again.

Interestingly, the Clean spell was more than just a hygienic trick. It served as a foundational spell—much like how Mana Ball and Mana Bullet were stepping stones to more advanced elemental spells like Fireball and Fire bolt respectively.

In this case, Clean formed the base for various extraction spells used by crafting-type mages, especially Alchemists.

”It makes sense,” Alex muttered unconsciously, eyes narrowing as thoughts clicked together. ”Many high-grade spells are just expansions of simpler ones. The often overlooked low-grade spells more often than not form the important skeletal framework of the celebrated higher grade spells.”

His eyes, for some reason, darted to the healer being supported by a pair of Fury soldiers. The man had burned through his mana pool buffing the Shieldbearers and now required help just to sit up and meditate.

Unknowingly, Alex had a spark of epiphany where he stood.

He recalled the spell circle of the buff spell the healer used—and more importantly, its effect on the battlefield.

He was particularly intrigued by how the spell had enhanced multiple Shieldbearers simultaneously.

”Command—” Lieutenant Cross began, noting his distant expression.

But Fen nudged the man and shook his head.

’Don’t disturb him,’ the direwolf seemed to say.

Lieutenant Cross paused, then nodded in understanding. He also sensed that Alex had entered a state of magical comprehension.

He quickly cordoned off the area and ordered the Fury soldiers not to approach, nor allow anyone—or anything else—to intrude.

’The spell creates an area-of-effect zone where allies within the caster’s designated parameters receive enhancements,’ Alex mused.

’But... if the caster can designate who gets affected, why waste energy on an area of effect? Why not have the spell directly target individuals?’

He fed the original formation into the OmniRune Core’s simulation function in his mindspace, adjusting several core runes.

Then came the realisation.

’I see. Individually targeting recipients imposes a significant mental strain on the caster, especially for such a delicate and potentially large-scale enhancement spell. That’s why the area-of-effect model was adopted.

’It wasn’t wasteful—it was an elegant compromise.’

Alex smirked faintly.

’That limitation doesn’t apply to me, thanks to my stronger and more durable spiritual force. And besides, I can just have OmniRune cast it.’

He began redesigning the spell formation, replacing the area-of-effect mechanism with a focused point-cast model.

But a problem quickly emerged.

Calibrating the formation to balance precision and mana flow required more data-crunching than anticipated. Testing it in real time would be unsafe without proper calculation.

Fortunately, he was in the perfect place to try.

’Right... I can delegate the data modelling and simulation cycles to OmniRune. About time I tested how far its simulation protocols can stretch.’

He issued silent instructions to the OmniRune Core, feeding it parameters and constraints. The Core AI would handle the reiteration and refinement of the spell formation autonomously.

Then his focus returned to the present.

”Master, I’ve found something you need to see,” Udara’s voice rang out across their mental link.

Like the platoon soldiers, she’d been ordered to search the area. But Alex had placed greater confidence in her senses than in any of the Fury troops.

He was right to.

Because Lieutenant Cross had cordoned off the area around him, no one noticed when he moved away from the troll’s bone throne.

Alex followed his link to Udara, crossing about a hundred metres before he reached her.

There, standing over a pile of corpses, was Udara.

Alex’s gaze fell upon the bodies—and his countenance chilled.

”Goblins.”

**