[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-re-tales-of-the-rune-tech-sage":3,"chapter-re-tales-of-the-rune-tech-sage-re-tales-of-the-rune-tech-sage-chapter-136":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},148049,246,"Chapter 135: Facade of Invincibility","re-tales-of-the-rune-tech-sage-chapter-136",136,"\u003Cp>CH135 Facade of Invincibility\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>***\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alex left the arena grounds and walked into the tunnel leading out of the coliseum.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only when he was certain he was completely out of sight did he finally release the tension in his muscles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His body faltered slightly—he nearly collapsed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pain surged through his muscles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His internals screamed in agony.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His mana pathways were completely dry, his core locking down what little mana remained—just enough to stop him from slipping into mana shock... or worse, mana deviation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Contrary to the façade he’d maintained in the arena, his victory had been far from easy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was not the invincible warrior he had made himself appear to be.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If anything, he had given his absolute best performance across both duels—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pushing his body to the absolute limit in order to deliver an overwhelming, flawless victory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Could he have won without going that far?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t need to brutalise Kurt with a five-minute barrage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t need to Spell-Dominate Viscount Lars’s Heaven Punishment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could have just prevented the man from casting it altogether.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So why did he?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Simple.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shock and Awe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back in Alex’s previous life, one of the most effective conventional military tactics was exactly that:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shock and Awe —\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A method of using rapid, overwhelming violence within a short period to demoralise, destabilise, and psychologically break the will of the opponent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Violence isn’t just a weapon... It’s a message. A very brutal message.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a tactic that could be applied by anyone— From a lone operative behind enemy lines to the full force of a military invasion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You didn’t need to kill everyone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You just needed to crush the first few opponents so completely that the rest overestimated your strength and recalculated the risk of opposition.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And in the Fury family?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was exactly the kind of message Alex needed to send.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Fury family was full of rebellious, ambition-driven, egotistical lunatics who would leap at any opportunity to challenge him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rather than deal with their constant provocations one by one, Alex chose the cleaner, more brutal option—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nip the problem in the bud.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if it meant seriously damaging his body in the process.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Going into the duels, the only person Alex was certain he could defeat decisively was Kurt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kurt had underestimated Alex’s strength as a warrior.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Alex played into that assumption and used it to stage the first phase of his operation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since no one expected much from him as a warrior, overwhelming Kurt—brutalising him in front of the crowd—dramatically raised Alex’s profile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But in truth?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alex wasn’t nearly as strong as everyone now believed him to be.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hadn’t actually trounced Kurt for five straight minutes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What he had done... was knock Kurt out in a single moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One decisive instant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One blow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And from then on, Kurt was unconscious and completely defenceless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rest? The entire five-minute barrage?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just theatrics.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A perfectly constructed illusion meant to cement Alex’s ruthlessness, brutality, and—most of all—the illusion of overwhelming strength.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To everyone watching, it looked like he dominated Kurt in a prolonged one-sided assault.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When in reality, he had only ensured the boy didn’t recover or defend himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This carefully executed performance had served its purpose brilliantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time he entered the second duel against the six heirs, they were already psychologically defeated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They tensed up before the fight even began.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had they been in a normal state of mind, five-against-one?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alex wouldn’t have stood a chance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The knight would’ve soaked his attacks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The berserker would’ve locked him down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rogue would’ve struck from the shadows.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the swordsmen?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They wouldn’t even need to fight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that’s not what happened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because of Alex’s duel with Kurt, the hiers went into their duel with him nervous, hesitant, overestimating his capabilities...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>... and that gave Alex the opening he needed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was especially true after Alex’s theatrical declaration that he would kill Viscount Lars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That moment created a short but critical window—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A window where the heirs would engage him while in a psychological debuff, if one could call it that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alex knew that if the fight dragged on too long, the heirs would see through the illusion of his invincibility.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They’d regain their composure... and once that happened, he’d be in real trouble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, he had no choice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had to defeat them quickly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was why he went all in—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even using physical techniques he hadn’t fully mastered or learned to execute safely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He gambled everything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The illusion of invincibility had to be established... and more importantly, it had to be maintained.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for why he didn’t simply wipe the floor with them using magic during that brief opening?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Well... that’s another story in itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>---\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Alex first arrived at the venue and inspected the coliseum, something had struck him as off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mana ambience was odd—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Too refined in certain areas, too thinned out in others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And beneath it all... a familiar pulse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Array Formation energy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Subtle. Hidden. But not too well hidden.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Someone had recently installed a formation—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And it didn’t match the venue’s original array layout.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn’t hard to deduce the intent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Someone had tampered with the arena’s infrastructure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And considering the timing, it had everything to do with his duel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alex’s first thought?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sabotage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But if it were truly dangerous, Earl Drake would’ve noticed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And if the Mad Earl hadn’t acted on it, that meant it posed no threat to the audience.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Which left only one conclusion—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The array was set up specifically to affect him, within the duelling arena.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In other words... a trap.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alex quickly realised what was going on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’So this is a test, huh?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It made sense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Earl Drake likely saw this as a way to prepare Alex for the future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, stepping into traps was inevitable on the path of cultivation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Better to give him a taste of it now—before the stakes became life and death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Alex chose to make the most of it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He immediately instructed the OmniRune Core to begin hacking the formation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It didn’t take long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The array turned out to be a support formation—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One designed to temporarily amplify a mage’s casting capability far beyond their natural limits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In fact, it could support a spell up to Grade 7— A tier normally reserved for Great Mages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had it only been Grade 5, or even Grade 6 at a stretch— Alex could have overpowered and hijacked the spell directly using the OmniRune Core’s AI’s assistance\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But a Grade 7?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was out of his league.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To hijack it, Alex couldn’t try to dominate the spell in the moment of activation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He would first need to dominate the array formation itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that... would take time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It also meant he’d have to sacrifice something else—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn’t use magic while the OmniRune Core was occupied with hacking the array.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the real reason why he handicapped himself against Kurt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since he wouldn’t be able to cast magic anyway during the early parts of the duel, he decided to make a spectacle out of it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So he leaned fully into the \"I’ll fight you as a warrior\" declaration, and played the role of a martial fighter—A calculated persona to elevate his mystique and buy OmniRune time to do its work.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time the duel against the heirs began, OmniRune had already breached the formation circle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alex had full access to hijack its control whenever he needed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He could have stopped Viscount Lars from casting the spell altogether.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But once he assessed the battlefield and noticed the Armoured Knight was still standing strong...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...he chose a better option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rather than waste mana and effort defeating the Knight himself, Alex let Viscount Lars burn his own mana to activate the enhanced spell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, when the time was right, Alex stole it—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And redirected the full brunt of the Grade 7 lightning strike... straight into the knight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the moment Alex turned someone else’s trap... into his own weapon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, what Alex hadn’t expected...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Was that the insane old mage would actually cast a Special Warfare Spell—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A rare, high-tier class of Grade 7 and above spells designed exclusively for battlefield annihilation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had other plans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t want to kill the knight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, he couldn’t just redirect the full force of the spell straight at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instead, Alex had to weaken the output of the spell— all while it was charging.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Complicating things even more, due to the power level of the spell, Alex couldn’t completely sever Viscount Lars’s connection to the spell matrix.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At best... he could block it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So each time Viscount Lars shouted \"Heaven’s Punishment!\", the spell formation did respond.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only, Alex had already taken control of its output channel and kept the spell from firing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The spell never stopped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its energy accumulating... growing stronger and more volatile with every failed cast attempt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Which meant when Heaven’s Punishment finally evolved into Alex’s so-called Heaven’s Fury, it wasn’t just due to his magic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All Alex did was apply a key modification. He altered the output channel of the spell formation, dumping all the accumulated energy at once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This created the illusion that he had empowered the spell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even after limiting how much direct of control he fought for, Alex still suffered serious backlash.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If not for his unique talents—[Extreme Mana Capacity] and [Elemental Affinity Enhancement]—he wouldn’t have lasted a second standing after the spell fired. Let alone delivered a speech and walk off the arena grounds with his own two feet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, he was just an early Intermediate-ranked mage attempting to manipulate a spell meant for Great Mages, two entire ranks above him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fact that he pulled it off—and survived—was a testament to his real achievement:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rune-Tech magic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For it did all the heavy lifting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>-\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Staggering, Alex leaned against the tunnel wall for support.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His legs buckled beneath him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, Fen broke the command to stay hidden.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without waiting, the wolf morphed into his Direwolf form, and somehow managed to lift Alex onto his back without worsening the injuries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As soon as Alex mounted, the Solmir components of his True Name triggered, working passively alongside the Everspring Rune.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was just enough to help him stay conscious—or at least upright—as Fen tore out of the coliseum and sprinted through the streets of the City of Ashes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their destination: the secluded Back Mountain lodgings of Ashen Castle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately for Alex, they made it just in time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment they crossed the threshold... he blacked out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>***\u003C\u002Fp>",1759,"2026-05-29T03:49:10.136Z","2026-06-01T04:29:07.188Z",1,"novelbin.me","0a1a6accd7ab8d7d76a2ad0a34f4fa2161ad7b7f7d3f88a29cdaf44be9072057","re-tales-of-the-rune-tech-sage-chapter-137","re-tales-of-the-rune-tech-sage-chapter-135",692,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fre-tales-of-the-rune-tech-sage-cover.jpg"]