CH481 Rune Tattoo Upgrade?

***

Rubbing his chin—now covered in stubbled hair that had regrown over the weeks since their arrival in Verdantis—Alex continued his musings.

"Even if I'm forced to implement the tattoo as it currently stands," he murmured, "that doesn't mean I have to completely waste one of Zora's Rune Slots."

He tapped a finger against his jaw.

"All I need to do is ensure the tattoo occupies as little Rune Slot capacity as possible—and more importantly, that it's expandable as part of a composite rune."

Alex's eyes lit up.

"If I can achieve that, then this rune can become just one component of a much larger composite structure. The other parts can be created later, using the improved method once I acquire sigil knowledge."

"That way," he continued, "any inefficiency introduced now won't be locked in and can be mitigated later on."

Of course, Alex recognised the increased complexity of what he was proposing. Designing a rune that was minimal, stable, and forward-compatible was far from trivial.

But difficulty had never stopped him before.

And it wasn't going to stop him now.

With a workable direction in mind, Alex walked over to his modular rune table and began setting things up. He removed his Beta Bracer and placed it on the table, activating its holographic projector screen and converting it into a full workstation.

A digital projection of a female human body appeared above the surface.

"OmniRune," Alex prompted, "display Zora's Siphon Rune."

The AI mage assistant immediately complied.

The Siphon Rune appeared overlaid onto the projected body. Then, drawing from its direct link to Alex's mind—and by extension, his memories—the projection subtly shifted.

The generic model reshaped itself.

Bone structure, musculature, energy pathways—everything adjusted until the figure became an almost perfect recreation of Zora.

It was a comprehensive model, reconstructed with the highest fidelity possible based on what Alex had observed through his Truth-Seeker Eyes while tattooing her Siphon Rune.

In essence, it was a near-perfect digital twin.

With this, Alex had what he needed to virtually design, test, and simulate a Rune Tattoo tailored specifically for Zora.

His gaze focused on the Siphon Rune already embedded in the model.

Only now did he fully appreciate something he had overlooked at the time.

When he bound the rune, he hadn't used the Rune Slot's full capacity.

Back then, he hadn't yet fully understood Rune Slots—or the role they played in the optimisation of Rune Tattoos.

Zora's Rune Slot had a total capacity of ten units, using Alex's base unit system.

The Siphon Rune occupied only eight.

That left two units unused.

Alex considered the unused capacity for a moment, weighing whether he could repurpose it for his current needs.

A fully realised Strength Rune Tattoo occupied a capacity of three units. In his current design philosophy, the new rune tattoo he was working on would need to fall within that same range for the broader composite Rune Tattoo plan to remain viable.

That meant he had to operate within a tight constraint of two to three units.

Coincidentally, that matched the remaining capacity in Zora's upper-arm Rune Slot.

Yet, after only a short deliberation, Alex discarded the idea and returned to his original plan—using a new Rune Slot instead.

The reason was simple: functionality.

The Rune Tattoo he was designing imposed strict placement requirements. Binding it to the upper-arm Rune Slot would fundamentally compromise its intended operation.

More importantly, the Siphon Rune already occupied that slot.

Although the two runes differed in execution, they shared overlapping functional domains. Their similarity alone made them incompatible within the same Rune Slot, regardless of remaining capacity.

Then there was the final—and most delicate—consideration.

The Nirvana markings.

Unlike Rune Tattoo designs for other people, working on Zora required accounting for the unknown variable which was her Ice Phoenix Nirvana markings. Alex still had no understanding of their internal logic, structure, or trigger conditions.

Any unintended interaction between a Rune Tattoo and the Nirvana markings could cause a flare-up.

That was precisely why the Siphon Rune had been placed where it was—close to a major cluster of Nirvana markings, almost to the point of contact. Its purpose was suppressive by nature, designed to siphon excess energy at the source.

This new rune, however, served a very different role.

It could not risk coming into contact with any Nirvana marking.

As such, Alex decided on a much safer placement.

Zora's lower right arm—ideally on the back of her palm, or at most, just beyond the wrist line.

That location offered optimal separation, stable energy flow, and minimal interference.

"Still," Alex muttered, glancing back at the unused upper-arm capacity, "I can't just leave that Rune Slot space wasted."

He paused, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Perhaps I can leverage its position to solve another problem at the same time."

With that thought set aside for later consideration, Alex finally turned his full attention to the actual design process.

At its core, designing a Rune Tattoo wasn't fundamentally different from designing any other engineered system.

First came the objective.

Then came the components required to fulfil it.

For Greater Runes, Alex had simplified the process into three primary elements; Activation / Control, Energy Source / Supply, and Functionality

Everything else—optimisation, compatibility, scalability—was built on top of those three foundations.

"For activation and control, this rune will be an active-only-on-demand type," Alex decided. "Zora must be able to decide when to turn it on and off."

Most of his earlier Rune Tattoos were passive constructs—always running as long as mana or energy was supplied. That approach was efficient, but unsuitable here. This rune had to be something Zora could consciously control, even if only in a binary on–off manner.

Alex would have preferred to incorporate finer control parameters—threshold regulation or graduated output—but all of that came at the cost of Rune Slot capacity.

And capacity was something he simply didn't have to spare.

"The energy supply…" Alex muttered, narrowing his eyes, "will have to come from the Siphon Rune."

Specifically, from the energy siphoned away from the Nirvana markings.

However, that immediately raised a complication.

When Alex first designed the Siphon Rune, he had worked under a flawed assumption that the Nirvana markings merely absorbed ambient mana.

By severing that supply, he had believed he could largely neutralise the Markings' influence.

Reality, however, had proven otherwise.

The Nirvana markings didn't just absorb mana.

They converted it.

What they produced was Yin-aligned energy—energy that was then gradually stored within Zora's Mana Heart.

As a result, cutting off ambient mana alone only slowed the process. It didn't resolve the root issue.

The excess Yin was still being generated.

That realisation had been… humbling.

It reminded Alex that no one—no matter how powerful—possessed complete knowledge. Not even an Ancient Dragon like Uthvaazgol had recognised the true nature of Zora's condition.

A simple truth, but a sobering one.

Alex didn't dwell on it though.

"There's only one solution," he said quietly. "The Siphon Rune must do more than reduce mana to the Nirvana markings. It also had to actively reduce Yin-aligned energy produced by them before they are delivered into Zora's body."

That was where the remaining capacity in Zora's upper-arm Rune Slot came into play.

In effect, Alex would be designing two interlinked runes simultaneously.

"I'll modify the Siphon Rune so that it interfaces directly with the mana pathways surrounding the Nirvana marking cluster," he reasoned aloud. "Its new priority will be to selectively siphon the Yin-aligned energy produced there—preferably all of it."

He paused, visualising the flow.

"And then…"

"The Siphon Rune's internal storage will be linked via a runic pathway to the new Rune Tattoo on Zora's lower arm. That stored Yin energy will serve as the energy source for the new rune."

In other words, the very force threatening to overwhelm Zora would be recycled and repurposed to restrain itself.

***

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