Chapter 32: Detection Method

CH32 Detection Method

***

"What did you come up with?" Zora asked, noticing the sudden spark in Alex’s eyes.

"Huh?" Alex blinked, surprised at how easily she could read him.

"I think I may have figured out a way to speed up the research into Ancestral Runes," he revealed. "Let’s go meet with Master first."

"Okay," Zora nodded, giving him the sign to do the honours.

Alex smiled and got to work clearing the table of the leftover materials from preparing the Rune Tattoo ink.

He opened the portal to Uthvaazgol’s lair and motioned for Zora to go ahead.

’Ladies first.’

She returned a smile and stepped through.

Alex chuckled quietly to himself as he followed her into the swirling tunnel.

—

"You’re here."

Inside the lair, they found Merlin seated on a large rock.

"Yes, Master." "Yes, Father." Alex and Zora said in unison.

"How did the procedure go?" Merlin asked.

"Successful," Zora said, beaming a rare, genuine smile.

Merlin was momentarily taken aback.

In all their years together, he had rarely seen such a pure, unguarded smile on Zora’s face.

His own lips curved into a genial smile in return.

That smile meant more to him than the fact Alex’s Siphon Rune had succeeded.

What had started as an endeavour to repay a long-lost friend had become a true desire to see the girl happy.

Though he was often distant from human emotions, Zora’s smile assured him that he had made the right choice—one that might lead to her happiness.

"You didn’t have to come together just to tell me that," Merlin grumbled.

Zora didn’t mind. Her smile remained steady as she nodded toward Alex.

"I didn’t plan on interrupting your Master–Disciple time. I only came because he asked me to. He has another idea."

"Ho-ho, is that so?" Merlin said, turning his sharp gaze to Alex. "Let’s hear it."

Alex nodded.

"I think I may have found a way to gather the information we need on Ancestral Markings."

"Until now, I’ve been assuming that Ancestral Markings and Runes are entirely different, so I subconsciously dismissed any idea involving their interaction. But what if that interaction is exactly what we need?"

"You did so for good reason. Runes and Ancestral Markings follow different operational schemes. It’s reckless to connect them without fully understanding either side," Merlin cautioned.

"You know that too, Alex. So you must have thought of a workaround. Don’t keep us guessing," Zora chimed in.

It dawned on her that referencing the interaction she’d noticed between his new Siphon Rune and her Nirvana Markings was the source of inspiration for Alex’s idea.

Alex nodded,

"A Detection Rune," he said.

"My idea is to link a Detection Rune—connected to the OmniRune Core—to an Ancestral Marking. The Detection Rune’s sole function would be to monitor and record the activities and mechanisms of the Ancestral Marking it’s attached to.

"If this works, I can gradually compile a record of Ancestral Markings and how they function. With enough data, I’ll be able to deduce the principles behind these Markings. From there, I can start designing ways to influence them with Runes."

Alex’s idea wasn’t exactly groundbreaking. In fact, it was a time-tested method of study.

From his previous life’s chemistry and medical sciences to his current life’s alchemy, substances with known properties—detectors—were often used to analyse unknown materials.

Detectors function in various ways.

Some interact directly with the unknown substance, and the researcher observes changes in the detector to infer the properties of the substance. For example, if water were used as a detector, how the unknown substance reacted with it—whether it was hydrophilic or hydrophobic—would offer clues to its nature.

Other detectors don’t react directly with the substance. Instead, they bind to it and leave a trace revealing the substance’s reaction or activity pathway.

Some detectors release unique colours when bound to specific substances. By tracking these colour changes, a researcher can follow the activity of the unknown substance more easily.

Alex’s plan to create a rune detector was simply adapting an age-old practice. But that might be where the simplicity ended.

"Ancestral Markings usually don’t work in isolation. They interact with others to create effects. It’ll be difficult to deduce much if you bind your Detection Rune to just one marking, but it also becomes infinitely more complex if you try to bind it to a whole set," Merlin pointed out.

"I’m aware," Alex nodded. "If we consider the Markings analogous to Runes, then there are individual Markings, Circuit Markings, and Array Markings.

"For this plan to work, I have to avoid Circuit and Array Markings. The former might be manageable to some degree, but my best bet is to focus on beings with individual, singular Markings and work my way up."

"Are there beings with singular Markings? I don’t recall any," Zora said, pursing her lips in thought.

"There are," Alex replied confidently. "I still remember them from Master’s research notes."

Thanks to his Eidetic Memory brought about by the Truth-Seeker eyes, Alex couldn’t forget this information which he had studied so carefully—even if he wanted to. Not to mention, the OmniRune Core AI also had this data and was currently highlighting the relevant entries in his mind.

He listed a few creatures with single markings from Merlin’s research notes on Ancestral Markings.

"Alex, those are all extinct creatures," Zora pointed out.

"Huh? But they’re in Master’s notes," Alex said, confused.

Merlin had only begun researching Markings in the past two decades, after meeting Zora. He couldn’t have made inferences on creatures he hadn’t encountered in that time.

After all, if he hadn’t been actively looking for them, there was no reason a dragon of Uthvaazgol’s status would take note of creatures that, to the dragon, were like ants to humans.

How often does a human bother to take notice of ants they pass, if they weren’t looking for them for a specific reason?

Alex and Zora turned to Merlin for an explanation.

"Ho-ho. Looks like the hand of fate is at work,"

***