Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 866: Shadow Matriarch Rune Tattoo Set I

CH866 Shadow Matriarch Rune Tattoo Set I

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“The Shadow Monarch Rune Tattoo Set.” Udara echoed the name.

Alex nodded.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Oddly the same, yet different. I can’t put my finger on it,” Udara said.

Alex nodded once again. “Looks like things went according to plan.”

“According to plan? What exactly do these tattoos do, Master?” Udara asked.

“I thought you didn’t care about that?” Alex said teasingly.

Udara blushed. “You know what I meant, Master,” she argued.

Alex pointed to each tattoo one after the other.

He softly ran his finger across Udara’s forehead.

“The Shadow Ruler’s Marking… a rune drawn with ink made from a Shadow Realm stone. Technically, its main secondary function is to improve your affinity towards Shadows. But in reality, I expect it to basically work more towards passively improving your affinity for the Shadow Realm—specifically, raising your spatial awareness within the Shadow Realm and thus improving navigation through the realm.”

The Shadow Realm was one of the immaterial dimensions bordering the material realm. It was a realm Udara shuttled through like a shortcut between points in space within the material realm whenever she used [Shadow Dash].

Fortunately, due to her inherently absurd level of Darkness affinity, Udara had been able to safely shuttle through the Shadow Realm. However, the Shadow Realm was far from being completely safe.

Which was why Alex designed the Shadow Ruler’s Marking. It increased her affinity for the Shadow Realm specifically. It was a measure to ensure her safety, regardless of how minuscule the odds were of her getting lost while shuttling through the Shadow Realm.

But that wasn’t all.

In addition to being a safety measure, it also improved her actual navigation through the realm. This meant Udara could not only remain longer within the realm, but she could now travel farther.

The longer one spent in the Shadow Realm, the greater the chance they were going to be lost to the immaterial dimension—either due to native beasts or the inherently xenophobic conditions of the space. No one could be sure.

Hence, even someone like Udara, who had a high Darkness affinity, didn’t spend long in the space—no more than a second or two breaths, just barely enough to travel to any distance within her line of sight in the material realm.

This was the true reason for her limitation when using [Shadow Dash]—navigation. If she spent longer than two breaths in the space, she could not only lose her way, but it would also become more difficult for her to leave the longer she remained within it.

Essentially, Alex used the pure Shadow mana within the Shadow Realm rock to both cloak Udara’s body and simultaneously raise her spatial awareness, allowing her to last longer and travel farther through the realm.

“So that means I can make better use of [Shadow Dash] now?”

“Yes, that’s the idea. Entering and exiting the realm should also cost you less mana now.” Alex nodded.

But then he said seriously, “But Udara, this is designed first and foremost as a safety measure. I believe you should still maintain your line-of-sight limitation for [Shadow Dash]. This is not something to depend on, but merely something to raise your safety ceiling if something goes wrong.”

“Understood, Master.” Udara nodded solemnly.

Alex paused before eventually saying, “As I have said, the Shadow Ruler’s Marking will gradually raise your affinity with Shadows. Plus, with your already extreme Darkness affinity, you should be able to pull off other moves or abilities with Shadows now. You just have to be careful about interacting too deeply with the Shadow Realm.”

“I understand, Master. I’ll take the warning to heart,” Udara said.

“That’s all I can ask,” Alex muttered with a thin smile.

‘I hope I don’t regret this,’ he thought to himself.

Alex’s hand travelled down to her right shoulder, where the Warrior Crest rested proudly.

“The Warrior Crest is a rune designed to polish your body with the essence of one of the higher-ranking Amazon Warbeasts. That said, unlike the Shadow Ruler’s Marking, the Warrior Crest is a bit more boring in its function,” Alex informed her.

“Yeah, I figured from the name. It’s like you didn’t think about it at all,” Udara chipped in with a chuckle.

Alex pressed her nose with a deadpan expression, which only caused her to laugh.

“Although it is boring, like many things like it in life, the Warrior Crest does the important but underappreciated work of ensuring your body can withstand or bear the enhancements and new potential brought by the other runes in this set.

“While I call it a Warrior Crest, it doesn’t directly increase anything in your physical repertoire. However, over time, it should passively raise all your physical potential—strength, explosive power, durability, coordination, and so on—as your body reiterates itself under the rune’s influence to bear your increased potential.”

There was an interesting story between the Amazons and their Warbeasts.

The so-called Amazon Warbeasts weren’t a single race of beasts, but rather a general term used to describe the beast companions of the Amazons.

In one of the histories of the Amazons passed down through the generations, it was said that the female, matriarchal pseudo-human race was born when a beast lord of a Great Forest took a few human females under its protection.

The Golden King Tiger beast lord, for whatever reason, protected the women and fed them from its own hunts—most of which consisted of high-calibre beasts. Slowly but gradually, the women’s physiques were altered, eventually growing into the ancestors of the peak physical specimens the Amazons were now known for.

Through their relationship with the Golden King Tiger beast lord, the Amazons succeeded in taming and forming pacts with beasts—becoming the first recorded beast tamers of Pangea.

They set the precedent for the auxiliary profession, which was now mostly filled by mages of all people following the development of the [Eternal Magic Companion Contract] spell.

Perhaps to distinguish beasts tamed by Amazons through the traditional means of forming a partnership bond over time, from those tamed by mages using their fancy contract spell, magic beasts tamed by mages were called Beast Companions, while those of the Amazons were called Warbeasts.

As the name might already indicate, unlike mage Beast Companions, which were trained using fancy training methods, feed, and elixirs, the Amazons trained their Warbeasts in the most primal way—in constant battle.

Perhaps as a result of this, at least physically, the bodies of Warbeasts were always at least a step above those of Beast Companions.

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