Resonance Rune

The Rune Workshop had provoked such a huge reaction from Zhang Rui because, in truth, it was rather stealing the spotlight.

With Lincon's assistance in its construction, the Rune Workshop looked somewhat like an elven scholars' institute from a fantasy novel. Anyone passing by would be unable to resist peering inside.

Its main structure was a towering, exceptionally sturdy ancient banyan variant over ten meters tall, surrounded by several experimental banyan-wood cottages. Together, they made the workshop resemble a cluster of buildings woven from enormous, ancient, intelligent plants.

Under the Sunlight, as the breeze swept past, the lush green banyan leaves rustled and swayed. Long vines hung halfway down, and amid the shifting light and shadows, the entire workshop intertwined with nature. It looked almost alive, radiating a tranquil vitality.

Wang Bo led Lincon into the front courtyard, where someone was already waiting.

Su Yunqing wore a traditional standardized mage robe she had found somewhere, and she immediately came forward when she saw Lincon.

"Lord!"

Su Yunqing's face brimmed with uncontrollable delight. Dark circles ringed her eyes, as though she had not had a proper night's sleep in a long time.

"Where's Professor Shen?"

"He's still in the laboratory."

Lincon nodded and took the initiative to ask, "What have you managed to discover?"

At those words, Su Yunqing could not stop the corners of her lips from rising.

"Thanks to the rune theories you provided earlier, especially our understanding of Rune Arrays, we realized that runes are not entirely like mathematics, existing only as isolated entities. They are actually connected to one another..."

Su Yunqing was extremely excited. In her arms, she held a notebook containing the experimental data they had gathered from studying Rune Stones over this period. If she opened it to any page, it would look like an incomprehensible heavenly script to anyone else.

Lincon's head began to ache from listening, so he could only stop Su Yunqing from continuing.

Helplessly, he said, "Just tell me the results!"

"..."

Only then did Su Yunqing realize she seemed to have talked too much. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks, and she cleared her throat twice.

"Using Reinforcement Runes as a foundation and following the rhythm of energy flow, we discovered that there is rhythm and resonance between runes. Based on that, we developed a new type of rune."

"A new type of rune?" Lincon paused in surprise. "What type of rune is it? Has it been tested in practice?"

After he fired off several questions in a row, Su Yunqing answered confidently at first, but when it came to practical verification, her voice inevitably grew quieter.

"It is a conduction-and-resonance type rune. It strengthens energy connections and information synchronization between multiple independent objects.

For example, if Resonance Runes are added to a set of Reinforcement Rune Arrays, they will establish more stable, lower-energy channels between them. Or they can enhance a Purification Rune Array's ability to continuously resist dark creatures in the darkness..."

Through Su Yunqing's detailed explanation, Lincon roughly understood what this Resonance Rune was about.

This Resonance Rune was more like an auxiliary rune. Derived through calculations based on energy resonance between runes, it could stabilize the energy between them and thus be used in a variety of ways.

"However..." Su Yunqing's tone shifted, and she looked somewhat uneasy. "We still have not reached a practical conclusion on whether the Resonance Rune is actually viable. We do not have a runesmith capable of drawing runes, so we could only ask you to come."

"I see!" Lincon did not mind that.

After all, throughout Longwind Fortress, he was currently the only one capable of inscribing runes. That was an indisputable fact.

As early as when rune research had first begun, Lincon had understood that to become a runesmith, one first had to be an ability user, and specifically one with a sorcerer-type mental ability.

The group entered the workshop. Inside were only Shen Congzhi and one of his assistants, with bookshelves standing around them, filled with books they had gathered from who knew where.

Shen Congzhi was bent over his desk, writing furiously. A large pile of calculation drafts lay beside him, and on the topmost sheet was a new rune that looked remarkably similar to the Junior Rune Blueprint.

Lincon could not understand what the rune script specifically represented, but with just one glance, he knew that this rune was viable.

Having inscribed runes hundreds, if not thousands, of times, Lincon was intimately familiar with the three Basic Runes in the Junior Rune Blueprint. Drawing this Resonance Rune derived from the Basic Runes was not difficult.

As his fingers continuously moved through the air and poured immense mental power into it, a gentle breeze seemed to rise throughout the workshop.

Shen Congzhi lifted his head, his eyes bloodshot. Like Su Yunqing, he had not slept in a long time.

"This rune can be used."

As Lincon spoke, everyone in the workshop could not help letting out a sigh of relief.

Immediately afterward, Lincon found a basic piece of stone in the workshop and inscribed the Resonance Rune upon it. In an instant, a faint ripple of air emerged from the Rune Stone.

A smile appeared on Lincon's face. Sure enough, professional matters were best left to professionals. Things he had been unable to figure out for so long had yielded fresh progress in Shen Congzhi's hands in less than half a month.

Rather than a rune, this Resonance Rune resembled the "+" symbol from mathematics. Through it, two runes or Rune Arrays could be linked together through resonance.

All sorts of ideas flooded Lincon's mind in an instant.

If the Resonance Rune were applied to Shrines, could it form a Shrine Network? If someone approached the range of a Shrine, the Shrines would be able to record it and react to it.

Or, if Resonance Runes were applied to the fortress's defensive structures, they could also have an enormous effect.

"Thank you all very much. This breakthrough in your research may provide major help during the crisis that will soon befall the fortress."

"If any of you wish to leave, I will speak to Zhang Rui."

Lincon looked solemn. He had not intended to hide the fact that the Black Tide was approaching. If Wang Bo had not come to find him first, he might already have informed Zhang Rui and told everyone.

His words instantly swept away the joy in the workshop. The group exchanged glances, none of them understanding what was happening.

Su Yunqing opened her mouth to ask, but Shen Congzhi interrupted her from the side.

The middle-aged man slowly rose from behind the desk piled with drafts and accepted the Resonance Rune Stone Lincon had inscribed.

"No matter what happens to Longwind Fortress next, I do not care. As long as I can research runes, that is enough."

Shen Congzhi stroked the lines of the Resonance Rune on the Rune Stone with his fingers, lowering his head as though he were gazing at a lover he had long been separated from.

Su Yunqing immediately stated her position as well. "I should have died in the darkness that night. The City Lord saved me and allowed me to witness the truest side of Longwind Fortress beneath that sea of fire. Now there is this fascinating project involving runes. Even if the City Lord wanted to drive me away, I would not leave."

As Su Yunqing spoke, she playfully raised her eyebrows.

"But I still want to know what the fortress is about to face, for you to say something like that."

Everyone turned to look at Lincon.

"In fifteen days, the fortress will face a C-Rank Black Tide. Even I cannot be sure whether the fortress will still exist afterward," Lincon said solemnly.

The moment those words fell, the room became so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.

The two assistants abruptly raised their heads, their expressions tense and fearful.

Lincon's words instantly dragged their memories back to the night when the Black Tide had broken through Shangmai City like a tsunami.

Weird Calamities, Anomaly Calamities, Black Insects... Countless dark creatures within the black mist had been more terrifying than man-eating demons. They could devour even light completely.

There had been over a hundred thousand people in Shangmai City at the time, yet in the end, only several thousand had escaped alive. They had been among those lucky survivors.

Did they now have to go through such a terrifying ordeal a second time?