CH665 Alex’s Rune-Tech Alchemy I

***

The next day, just as Alex had expected, a carriage from the BattleBane Guild arrived discreetly at the Fortuna Mansion.

Dalton Asheton and Lady Rosa Mercier stepped down from the carriage.

From the care in their movements and the low profile they maintained, it was clear they were fully aware of the current tension surrounding the Fortuna Company and had wisely chosen not to draw unnecessary attention to themselves.

Then again, it was equally possible they simply did not want others wondering why representatives of the BattleBane Guild were visiting the Fortuna Mansion at all.

There were far too many shadowy groups in this world—groups that, once they decided to become curious, could uncover even the deepest buried secrets.

"You must be Lady Rosa Mercier and Captain Dalton Asheton. We have been expecting you."

Zora stepped out from within the mansion to receive them with perfect poise.

"I am Zora Frost-Pendragon, major-domo of the Fortuna Company’s estate and holdings."

She offered a polite nod before gesturing inward.

"Please, this way. You have arrived just in time to witness the production of the potion you requested."

Dalton Asheton frowned immediately.

"We have not ordered anything," he said quickly.

"I beg your pardon?" Zora paused.

Her gaze shifted towards the cargo carriage accompanying their passenger carriage—the one clearly carrying the requested goods.

"Our mistake, then. We assumed that since you brought along the requested divine statue, one brimming with divine energy no less, you intended to proceed with the trade. Our leader even delayed the medicine refinement process specifically so you could witness it."

She gave a small, polite smile.

"Since you have not come to trade..."

Zora lightly signalled to a nearby Fury Knight, calling him over.

"Please go to the garden and inform Alex that he does not need to continue the concoction. The BattleBanes are no longer interested."

Then she turned back to Dalton.

"Please note that the materials involved are rather rare. It may take up to a year to gather another complete batch. Are you absolutely certain you are not here to trade?" she asked.

Dalton’s lips twitched slightly at the shamelessly strong play.

Lady Rosa stepped forward immediately before he could worsen the situation.

"You misunderstand my companion," she said smoothly. "We do indeed wish for the trade to happen. We merely hoped to discuss the price before proceeding."

As she spoke, she shot Dalton a subtle but sharp glare.

"The quoted price of ten mid-grade Berserk Stones per potion is rather high. We were hoping we might be able to reach an alternative arrangement... perhaps something involving a mercenary defence contract?" she proposed carefully.

Zora smiled knowingly, not the slightest bit surprised.

She, Alex, and Eleanore had already discussed the likelihood of the BattleBanes attempting exactly this kind of move.

After all, the news of Fortuna’s growing hostility with the Lost Heathens—and the BattleBanes’ noticeable reaction, or rather lack of reaction—had already become common knowledge within BloodIron, at least among those who paid attention to such matters.

The BattleBanes had likely assumed they could secure a cheaper deal from Fortuna by offering their protection services in exchange. Of course, that "service" would almost certainly come at a premium—one expensive for Fortuna, yet allowing the BattleBanes to obtain the cure for far less than the quoted price.

Going a step further, when the three of them predicted this possibility, they had also assumed the BattleBanes would include an important condition: that they would only act in defence of Fortuna, and not actively participate in any direct conflict against the Lost Heathens.

Alas...

"So, while your proposal is appreciated, we are not currently in need of such services. We ourselves are a mercenary company, and we are quite capable of handling our own affairs." Zora said smoothly.

She gave them a calm smile.

"As you may recall from our leader’s earlier performance, our members are often far more than they first appear."

She paused briefly before continuing.

"As for renegotiating the price of the treatment, that would require a discussion with our leader directly. However, that would only apply to any future treatments. For this first trial treatment, the price remains unchanged."

Her tone remained perfectly polite, but there was no room for argument hidden beneath it.

"If you accept our terms, then please follow me. If not, then you are free to return. We will not see you out—and this offer will be considered withdrawn permanently."

With that, Zora turned and began walking towards the side corridor that led to the garden behind the mansion.

Lady Rosa and Dalton Asheton exchanged a brief look.

Lady Rosa gave him one final warning glare before both of them quickly followed behind her.

Though her expression toward Dalton was reproachful, she did not truly blame him. In his position, she likely would have attempted something similar herself—only with a little more subtlety and considerably more tact.

The opportunity had simply been too good to ignore.

On the brighter side, now that things had unfolded this way, it made it far less likely that Dalton would overstep during the actual negotiation.

After all, she was the one the BattleBane Master had officially designated as the negotiator.

When they arrived, to their surprise, they found Alex seated cross-legged in a lotus position before a cauldron.

There were no flames beneath it, yet the cauldron radiated an intense heat that could be felt even from ten feet away.

From the violent trembling of the lid, it was obvious that materials had already been placed inside, and whatever was happening within was far from calm.

"I thought Lady Eleanore was the alchemist in charge of preparing the potion. I didn’t realise Young Master Alex was also an alchemist." Lady Rosa whispered to Zora.

"Eleanore is currently preparing the means for the actual cure to your condition. That process will take some time, so our leader asked her to get a head start on it. Fortunately, our leader is a master of many trades, so there is no need for concern. In fact, what you are about to witness is a crafting method he created himself—one that extracts the highest possible efficacy from any medicinal formula." Zora replied.

Unfortunately, watching pill concoction in action was, in truth, rather boring. On the surface, very little seemed to happen. There were no dramatic colours, no overflowing light, no visible reactions beyond the trembling cauldron and the oppressive heat radiating from it.

However, the same could not be said for Alex.

Within the cauldron, his Spiritual Force was engaged in what could only be described as a full-scale tug-of-war.

The Greater Cleansing Potion—or rather, the pill version of it—was an enormous fifty-ingredient formula.

Not only did he need to manage the plant essence of all fifty ingredients simultaneously, but he also had to actively transmute nearly half of them into the required compatible essences using [Zaxan’s Transmutation].

Fortunately for Alex, he had an equaliser on his side—the cauldron itself.

Much like the one he had used during the Stele trials, Alex had essentially converted this cauldron into a Rune-Tech product, embedding it with all manner of Rune-Tech formations.

Linked directly to OmniRune, these formations functioned as ready-to-activate programs for his AI-mage assistant.

Among those formations were several specialised [Zaxan’s Transmutation] arrays.

Since the method itself was fundamentally a spell, Alex and OmniRune had been able to convert it into a suitable Rune-Tech formation with relative ease.

This, however, turned out to be a far bigger breakthrough than either Alex—or even Eleanore—had initially expected.

One critical detail Eleanore had overlooked regarding [Zaxan’s Transmutation] was its immense knowledge requirement concerning both the original plant essence being converted and the target plant essence it was being converted into. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The spell was not some automatic conversion switch.

The user needed a clear understanding of both the essence being converted and the essence it was being converted into for the spell to function as intended.

The deeper the understanding, the better the result.

Eleanore had overlooked this because, as a highly practised alchemist, she already possessed an extensive knowledge base regarding medicinal ingredients and their respective plant essences.

For almost anyone else, this requirement alone would make the spell incredibly difficult to use—never mind the fact that the spell itself was far from easy to learn in the first place.

However, the spell-turned-formation bypassed this limitation.

Once converted into a Rune-Tech formation—essentially an OmniRune program—the method now possessed what could loosely be described as input and output sections.

As long as data regarding both the source plant essence and the target plant essence existed within OmniRune’s memory or database—preferably supported by actual sample exposure of both input and output—then, by drawing upon the user’s Spiritual Force and mental energy, OmniRune could automatically execute the transmutation process with near-perfect accuracy and precision.

It was a subtle by-product of the Rune-Sigil duality update to the Rune-Tech platform.

Without the variability potential and mental-energy interaction granted by the introduction of Sigil nature into Rune-Tech, OmniRune would have only been capable of analysing both plant essences—essentially acting like an advanced sensor that made monitoring easier for the user. It would never have been able to perform the conversion itself.

Thanks to OmniRune shouldering much of the burden, Alex’s rather... limited alchemy experience—an understatement by every reasonable standard—did not ruin the pill concoction.

The process turned out to be significantly less difficult than expected, though it remained painstakingly tedious.

The spell consumed a large quantity of materials, leaving empty ingredient sacks scattered all around the cauldron.

After each ingredient was added, AetherKindle extracted the plant essence and refined it to the highest possible purity.

Once refinement was complete, AetherKindle—under Alex’s precise control—individually constrained each plant essence and transferred it into containment formations that prevented the essences from spilling over or combining prematurely.

Within those containment chambers, OmniRune took over, activating the [Zaxan’s Transmutation] protocols embedded into the cauldron.

One by one, under Alex’s near-obsessive supervision through his Spiritual Force, the substitute essences were converted into the exact required essences.

Since this was the first time Alex was deploying the method in practical application, he observed every step with extreme care, making sure everything functioned exactly as intended.

And it did... for the most part.

***