Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 893: Cement Business II

CH0893 Cement Business II

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This was important because ambient mana was like any energy source; its flow rate fluctuated with environmental conditions. And like devices, runic formations were usually configured to function best within a specific mana flow rate range.

Outside this range, the runic formation might operate outside its design specifications.

As a result of this, a significant chunk of a formation—especially a Structural Runic Formation—was dedicated to regulating the mana flow rate through the runic formation.

Whenever Mana Cement released its temporarily stored mana, it did so at predictable flow rates, which usually aligned with its thickness and geometric shape, thus becoming a natural regulator for the flow rate of mana through a runic formation.

Regardless of how high or low the flow rate of ambient mana was, Mana Cement’s absorption and subsequent release mechanism ensured the flow rate to the runic formation inscribed on it remained constant.

However, this important capacitance ability of the Mana Cement increased disproportionately primarily with the thickness or volume of the Mana Cement used.

In fact, the BRD reported a diminishing-returns curve when they compared the increase in capacitance against the thickness of Mana Cement used.

They noted that this was likely due to the absorption part of the Mana Cement depending on surface-area contact with ambient mana, which was reduced with increasing thickness, to absorb the mana, and a uniform release mechanism across the body of the material, which slowed the flow of mana from the depths to the surface and vice versa in the case of the release of stored mana.

As such, the research team concluded that it was best to use Mana Cement as plastering or a relatively thin coating for already constructed structures, on which the runic formation would then be drawn.

This was actually good because it meant less of the precious material was needed to be used for any structure. It also meant that older existing structures could also benefit from the material by layering a fresh Mana Cement plaster or coat on the surface of the structure.

These two conditions potentially made the Mana Cement attractive to an even greater number of customers.

Everyone, regardless of whether their structure already existed or they intended to build a new structure, would desire the product.

And Pinchcoin no doubt quickly caught on to this.

‘As expected, Young Master Alex is a walking source of coin.’ Pinchcoin smiled.

“Young Master Alex, please leave some samples of this Mana Cement with me. I will have some grunts run extensive tests on the material that would allow me to better advertise the product to the needed circles,” Pinchcoin said.

Alex nodded.

Although the BRD had conducted their tests on the material, the research conditions of his domain on Verdantis could not be compared to those of the DragonHold Enclave.

Even on an advanced plane like Pangea, the standards set by the DragonHold Enclave were respected all across the plane.

How could his budding territory in a less advanced world compare to the standards of one of Pangea’s titans of academia?

“Can I get a copy of the research report once it is done?” Alex asked.

“But of course, Young Master Alex. The report will be sent to you as soon as I get it,” Pinchcoin promised.

“But if we are going to build a business with this product, we will need a very large stock, as you can expect a high demand. You can already expect demand to be high within the Enclave, never mind outside territories across the continent,” the gnome expressed.

“I understand. And we are working on it.” Alex nodded. He thought about it, then added, “One of my goals on this return is to look into how I can safely increase my production rate. So, you can expect I will have more inventory when I return next.”

“That’s encouraging. I will do my best as well,” Pinchcoin said.

“Let’s use the same contract we used for the Rune Phone,” Alex suggested.

“Should we set up another company then?” Pinchcoin inquired.

“You can begin the process,” Alex said after a moment of thought. He continued thoughtfully, “The Golden Palace is already drawing too much attention with monopolistic products. Setting up some new companies will allow me to sell some other groundbreaking products without all the heat being on the Palace, ending up drawing unwanted attention to the company.”

“I discussed a Holding Company method with Haggleworth. You can discuss it with him and see how we can integrate the new company into the framework,” he added.

“Understood.” Pinchcoin nodded excitedly.

“Is my residence still unoccupied?” Alex asked.

“Yes, it is. The residence is designated as yours until your death is confirmed or decided otherwise by the Tower Master,” Pinchcoin replied.

“Good. I will drop off the first batch in the residence’s storage area. You can pick it up later. In the meantime, I will be heading to meet Master. We’ll continue our discussion after that,” Alex said.

“That’s fine by me,” Pinchcoin replied.

Zora and Udara went ahead to meet Merlin while Alex made a quick pit stop at his former residence from when he had been studying in the Enclave. Pinchcoin headed to prepare for the material testing as promised.

‘It’s clean.’

Alex found, to his surprise, that the residence was spotless when he arrived. This wasn’t just due to a maintenance formation cleaning the residence. It was more likely that someone had meticulously cleaned the residence by hand.

‘There are only a handful of people I gave access to the residence,’ Alex thought to himself.

‘Was it her?’ Alex wondered.

Unfortunately, there was no time to check if his suspicion was correct. He quickly walked to the residence’s backyard storage and deposited a few bags of the Mana Cement.

Alex also placed down a Space Gate scroll on the ground within one of the lab rooms in the residence. In fact, it was the same room where he had begun the creation of his Rune-Tech platform—the room where he had scribbled a complex rune formation on its walls before realising he needed to use a ‘digital’ method to allow the formation process to modify itself.

After spending a few moments reminiscing about the old times like a boomer, Alex left the residence and headed for the Tower Master’s office.

Upon getting there, he was immediately engulfed by a portal.

Before he knew it, he was within the familiar cavern—the den of the Ancient Dragon Uthvaazgol.

“You are here.” A timeless voice echoed through the cavern as a pair of massive eyes slowly opened—eyes which seemed to peer through space and time themselves.

“Master,” Alex bowed in greeting.

“Hmm…”

The space shuddered as the awakening dragon moved a bit to get itself more comfortable.

Alex looked around but, surprisingly, found no one else around.

“My avatar is meeting with the lass and Udara,” Uthvaazgol said as if reading Alex’s mind.

Alex nodded in understanding.

After finally taking a more comfortable position as it lay on the ground, Uthvaazgol’s mountain-sized form looked at Alex with clear interest.

“So, how was your maiden Interplanar expedition?” he asked.

As Merlin was also meeting Zora and Udara, Uthvaazgol had heard some of the tale of Alex’s expedition. However, the Ancient Dragon was more interested in hearing the details from Alex himself.

After all, the Silver Tongue (previously True_Sage) was a better tale weaver than Zora or Eleanore.

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