Chapter 494: Wrong Direction

CH494 Wrong Direction

***

Hours later, back in their inn suite, Alex’s eyes snapped open.

He couldn’t sleep.

He glanced at his wives and confirmed they were deep asleep.

Quietly, he extricated himself from the tight knot of limbs around him, slipped out of bed, and walked out of the bedroom.

He moved to the living room window, looking out over Camp Red Rock.

His eyes were deep in thought.

’...Sigh.’

Alex exhaled softly as he stared at the midnight moon.

It hung bright in Verdantis’ skies, surrounded by stars glittering across the black expanse.

But the poetry of the scenery mattered little to him right now.

Though his gaze rested on the lone moon above, his mind was elsewhere.

’I can’t keep waiting...’ he thought.

The advancement of a significant number of his party members within the past week or so was a wake-up call for him.

It unexpectedly placed pressure on his shoulders.

’If I don’t recover my Rune-Tech soon, I won’t be able to reliably control the party anymore. I’d have to rely on uncertainties to keep the group in check,’ Alex thought grimly.

Virtute Furor...

The Fury family was one where a person ruled through power.

Even though he still possessed one of the strongest combat prowesses in the party, if he remained at Intermediate while others progressed to Elite, he would be underestimated regardless.

He would have to constantly prove himself worthy of being their leader.

Bonds of loyalty and trust could mitigate that reality, yes, but they were temporary fixes at the end of the day.

Only personal might could keep that trust and loyalty firm, and reinforce it when cracks formed.

Of course, he could rely on his wives, who would always have the best combat prowess at their rank.

But—

’I refuse to rely on my wives to keep my men in control!’ Alex’s eyes narrowed as the decision settled in his chest like steel.

What kind of man would he be if he did that?

A weak man.

Or so he believed.

He would rather his men mutinied than take that option.

He had never presented such a side of himself to his women. And if he ever did... it would be because he had decided he wasn’t worthy of them.

"Master...?"

Alex suddenly heard a voice call out behind him.

He turned around and saw Udara was awake.

Dressed in her nightgown, the changes brought by her advancement were far more noticeable.

The most obvious was her height.

She had grown taller.

And she had gained more muscle definition as well—leaner, sharper lines carved into her frame without taking away her natural grace.

According to Udara herself, her breakthrough had triggered a stronger expression of the Amazon component of her bloodline, causing both the increase in height and the shift in muscle density.

Thankfully, because her height had increased too, the added muscle didn’t make her bulky.

It only made her look more refined.

Most likely, it was the influence of the other quarters of her bloodline keeping the Amazon quarter in check.

Her lower body—her thighs and rear in particular—seemed the most affected, becoming even more... thicc.

A change that was, no doubt, critical for her Shadow Dancer class.

...Of course.

Alex’s grim, solemn expression softened as his eyes settled on the woman.

"Why are you up? Go back to sleep," he said, his voice gentle, a soft smile tugging at his lips.

Instead of listening, Udara stepped closer.

With her new height, she now stood almost level with him—either the same height, or only negligibly shorter.

She reached up and held his face with both hands, catching Alex completely off guard, and peered straight into his eyes.

"What’s wrong, Master?" she asked softly, almost pleading. "Please... share it with me."

Alex held her hands against his cheeks, leaning into their coolness, and the warmth beneath it.

’Sigh...’

A wry breath slipped past his lips.

"Alright," he said, smiling faintly.

He lowered Udara’s hands gently and turned back to the window, staring out at the sleeping Camp Red Rock. Then, he glanced back at her.

"I’m getting anxious about my Rune-Tech path," he admitted. "Watching you, Zora, and the others advancing your ranks is making me anxious."

His voice lowered, quieter now.

"I’ve started questioning my decision—how I chose to update my Rune-Tech path so I can progress. As you know, my rank won’t increase as long as my chosen path remains blocked."

Udara nodded slowly, listening without interrupting.

Alex continued, "I’m starting to think I may have made the wrong choice."

He fell silent.

Udara waited a heartbeat... then gently pushed.

"The wrong choice?" she prompted, seeing him hesitate.

Alex motioned for her to sit on the chair by the window, while he leaned back against the wall.

"My initial ambition for what became my Rune-Tech platform was to create an autonomous system that could deduce all runes," he said. "And by doing that, I hoped to master and command every rune."

"For that, the Tower Master gave me access to the Enclave’s library."

His eyes narrowed slightly as he remembered it.

"But then I came to realise I didn’t need to deduce all runes anymore."

"So I pivoted."

"I ended up creating a system that could use existing runes to communicate with all runes... to bring about anything I wanted—anything I could think of."

Alex exhaled.

"I no longer needed to learn, master, and command all runes."

"I just needed to figure out how to use the runes I already knew... to communicate with all the others."

"That’s how Rune-Tech came to be," Alex finished.

He paused again, as if a thought had just surfaced.

But a moment later, Alex shook his head, dismissing it.

"Master?" Udara tilted her head, questioning.

Alex nodded, then continued.

"The reason I was able to create Rune-Tech like that was because I had access to the Enclave’s library," he said. "Now, however, I don’t have access to a comprehensive library for Sigils like I did for runes."

His voice hardened slightly.

"And I don’t think I ever will."

"Huh? Why do you think that?" Udara asked.

"Think about it," Alex said. "The number of spellcasters we’ve met since arriving on this plane can be counted on one hand. What does that tell you?"

Udara hesitated.

"That spellcasters are scarce...?" she replied uncertainly.

"Exactly." Alex nodded. "But this isn’t natural scarcity. It’s a scarcity caused—imposed—by the people in power."

Udara frowned.

"Why does this matter, Master?"

"On Pangea, where there are plenty of spellcasters, but the number of Runesmiths and Array Masters amongst them is less than one percent," Alex said. "Far less, in fact."

His folded arms tightened as his eyes narrowed.

"If a plane with a large pool of potential candidates only produces a tiny fraction of people capable of using its power glyphs... what do you think happens on a plane where the inhabitants intentionally control the size of the candidate pool?"

Udara’s gaze sharpened as she followed his logic.

"The small candidate pool means the number of people who can use Sigils in Verdantis will be far smaller than the number of people who can use runes on Pangea," she said.

Then she realised something else.

Her eyes widened.

"We know the powers-that-be on this plane control the number of people who can become sorcerers," she said slowly. "But how?"

Her voice lowered as the answer came.

"Most likely... they control the knowledge needed to become sorcerers in the first place."

Udara looked at Alex, her expression becoming more solemn.

"And if they control the knowledge, it means it’ll likely be difficult to acquire the Sigil knowledge you need."

Alex nodded once.

"Unless I bow to them," he said, his tone flat, "or work for the people hoarding that knowledge."

He didn’t even hesitate.

"And that’s unacceptable."

Udara’s expression darkened as well, a quiet solemnity rising behind her eyes.

Then she forced herself to ask, almost like she was bargaining with reality.

"What’s the chance we’re wrong, Master?" she asked, still clinging to denial.

***