Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 569: Kindness

CH569 Kindness

***

”Points? Rewards?” Alex raised an eyebrow.

Eleanore gestured toward the glowing point on the stele.

Alex followed her gesture, his gaze settling upon the illuminated spot.

Instantly, the reward list appeared before him as well.

’Alchemical potion formulas... equipment... even rare ingredients. Not a bad selection,’ Alex thought.

His eyes drifted to the bottom corner of the projected list where the current point tally was displayed.

’Nine hundred and ninety points?’ Alex raised an eyebrow slightly.

”How many points do you have?” he asked. ”And what reward are you trying to redeem?”

”Nine hundred,” Eleanore replied. ”I want the second item on the list.”

”Unfortunately... I’m twenty points short.”

Alex shifted his attention to the second item listed.

[Unknown Plant Seed]

Alex frowned slightly.

However, the moment he concentrated on the item, an image suddenly appeared within his mind.

’This...!’

His eyes flashed.

He quickly glanced at the required point value.

”Nine hundred and twenty... alright.”

He nodded.

Just as he was about to select the item, the old man’s voice suddenly rang out.

”You may want to examine the item ranked first before making your decision.”

Alex turned toward the old man briefly, then looked back at the reward list.

The item ranked first was—

Introduction to Energy Alchemy!

Alex’s body trembled slightly.

Eleanore reacted the same way.

”How many points do you have?” she asked quickly.

”Nine hundred and ninety,” Alex replied.

”Then what are you waiting for?” she said immediately. ”Buy it!”

However, to her surprise, Alex hesitated.

He stared at the reward list in silence.

After several moments of contemplation, he finally made his decision.

Rumble...

The stele suddenly shifted.

A hidden compartment slowly opened, revealing a small jar within.

Inside the jar rested a single item.

A seed.

”Why did you—?”

”This is more important to you than that is to me,” Alex interrupted gently.

He shrugged.

”I might not even be able to make proper use of it even if I redeemed it.”

Alex walked over and retrieved the jar containing the seed from the stele.

Returning to Eleanore, he placed it carefully into her hands with a small smile.

”For the SunHeart Princess,” he said lightly, ”I present a seed of the SunHeart Blossom.”

Eleanore was left completely speechless.

”Oh, one more thing,” Alex added suddenly, as if remembering something.

”You might be interested in my trial. I had OmniRune transcribe the entire process.”

”You can check it out on your Rune Phone.” Alex said with upwards nose tilt.

With that said, Alex turned and casually walked toward the next stele —the Stele of the Anima Trial— before beginning the next test without another word.

Eleanore remained standing where she was, still holding the jar.

It took her several moments to recover from her stunned state.

Her gaze slowly lowered to the seed in her hands, her expression filled with complicated emotions.

Watching her reaction, the mysterious old man chuckled quietly in amusement.

”If you are able to view his trial or learn about it, you should,” he said while stroking his long grey beard.

Eleanore nodded somewhat stiffly before retrieving her Rune Phone.

Once again, the old man found himself fascinated by these young people.

Using the limited access authority granted by the SunHeart gemstone embedded in her choker, Eleanore requested OmniRune to display the transcript of Alex’s trial.

As she read through the record, she discovered the method Alex had created.

A completely new branch of alchemy.

’Pill Alchemy...’

’Leave it to Alex Fury to come up with something so strange,’ she thought.

Her gaze drifted toward him as she remembered the expression he wore when telling her about the transcript.

”Show-off,” she muttered softly.

Yet despite the words, her eyes softened with quiet affection.

At that very moment, something subtle happened.

Unnoticed by her—

The seed in her hand cracked.

A tiny leaf slowly emerged from within.

The metaphysical plant, which required a very specific form of Providence —the Providence of Kindness— had begun to awaken.

Without realising it, Alex’s actions had fulfilled the seed’s requirement.

Now...

It was only a matter of time before it blossomed.

This, however, went completely unnoticed by Eleanore.

She was still immersed in thoughts of Alex’s brilliance.

His creation —combined with the quiet sacrifice he had made for her— stirred a new feeling within her heart.

It swelled slowly, warm and unfamiliar.

Then a thought suddenly struck her.

She turned toward the old man.

”This is such a breakthrough. Why is there only a ninety-point difference between our scores?” she asked, frowning slightly.

”His method is revolutionary and has extremely broad applications. He should have earned far more.”

The old man smiled and nodded.

”You are correct,” he admitted. ”The difference between your scores should indeed not be so small.”

”The boy’s score is already the highest possible score within the framework of the trial.”

”It is not that his score was too low.”

”It is that your score was inflated.”

”My score was inflated?” Eleanore asked in surprise.

”You managed to resonate with Zaxan’s Will,” the old man explained. ”The bonus points were granted because of that resonance.”

”Without that influence, your original score would likely have been no higher than six hundred.”

Eleanore nodded quietly.

She was not particularly surprised by the explanation.

After reflecting for a moment, the reasoning made perfect sense.

If Alex’s revolutionary new method had been evaluated at nine hundred and ninety points, then her own potion formula —which was only applicable to a single problem— truly did not deserve to exceed even half of that value.

It was likely only because of the critical importance of the berserk crisis within Verdantis that her formula had received such a high baseline evaluation of six hundred points in the first place.

Realising where the additional points had come from, Eleanore turned back toward the reward list and began searching for several specific items.

”As expected,” she muttered softly. ”They are here.”

A small smile appeared on her lips.

[Zaxan’s Alchemical Research Log] ×8

As she had suspected, the bonus points existed precisely so she could obtain the complete set of the wizened troll’s research scrolls.

During the trial itself, she had only managed to read one of them.

Now she could acquire the remaining ones as well.

And unsurprisingly, the full set cost exactly nine hundred points.

Eleanore did not hesitate.

Without even bothering to examine the other reward options, she immediately redeemed the scrolls.

At that exact moment, the tiny seedling emerging from the SunHeart Seed in her hand grew slightly larger.

This time, Eleanore finally noticed it.

Just like the seedling... a gentle smile bloomed across her face.

Nearby, the old man also smiled quietly to himself.

’Congratulations, old friend,’ he thought.

’It seems your life’s work has finally found its way into the right hands.’

***