That evening, we went back to working on runes in my room. Mnex had completed his analysis. Apparently, runes didn't just work in pairs, they could function in triplets or even more complex groupings. But we still hadn't figured out how.
At first, the whole thing gave me a headache. But now? It had turned into a kind of game. A real time puzzle. No anime to watch, no games to play... and I was long past the age of playing with toys, at least mentally.
What kept me going wasn't an escape from boredom. It was the thrill of progress. And if I wanted more, I had to crack the runes.
Pull, Push, Bind, Seal, Stabilize, Flow... Each had a distinct effect. Pairing them raised the total to thirty six. With triplets, it shot up to 216. And the number just kept growing:
6¹ = 6
6² = 36
6³ = 216
I could smell opportunity.
"Maybe there's a logic to the sequence of these runes," I said.
Mnex activated his reasoning module. His voice was focused, though slightly distant.
"Running one more simulation."
That's when I felt my mana drain, fast. It had been happening a lot lately. Mnex's high speed simulations guzzled mana like a spoiled noble drinks wine.
Working by candlelight would've been a pain for anyone else. But Mnex had manually adjusted my pupils' light intake. Plus, apparently, there was zero risk of eye damage.
"EUREKA!
Henry, get in here… quick!"
I dove into the mind world. Mnexland. We were back in our study room. He'd scribbled something on the chalkboard. Mnex practically flew across the chalkboard. His movements were so fast, it looked like he was dancing with the equations. I almost asked if he needed a towel.
"Look at this," Mnex said, practically vibrating with excitement. "It's way more complex than we thought. For two rune combos, it's enough to place them side by side. But if you want to combine three... you need at least five runes."
"Huh?" I blinked. "So... you need five runes to use three? What kind of logic is that?"
Mnex drew quickly on the board:
Pull + Bind + Stabilize + Bind + Seal
"Here's the deal," he said. "Brace yourself. It gets technical.
Three rune combos don't work just by slapping runes together. If they can't "talk" to each other, the system crashes. Something like Pull + Flow + Seal might create a mana stream from point A to B, sure but based on what? Through what? Where does it stabilize?"
As I stared, Mnex drew another arrow on the board.
"That's where Bind comes in. It acts as an interface, lets the runes talk. Stabilize keeps the structure from collapsing. And Seal is basically the 'close program' command."
He paused.
"In programming terms, Bind is your interface. High level rune engineering relies on these linking elements. Runes alone are like words but if you want sentences, you need conjunctions and punctuation."
An interface? What was next, Java mana edition? Maybe I should just download Visual Rune Studio. I kept staring at the board.
"So... if I want a three-person conversation, I have to invite five people to the room?"
Mnex sighed.
"If we go with your analogy... sort of. But it's four, actually. One just closes the door, another links the discussion."
I had no clue what he was really talking about, but the way he lit up, it was like watching a kid with a brand new toy.
"That's a basic triple combo. But to make it functional, you'll need a seven rune sequence. Like a programming command:"
pull.mana → bind → flow.target → bind → stabilize.system → bind → seal();
Mnex filled the board with a long rune chain. Then he turned dramatically, waving his imaginary chalk like a wand. He swung the imaginary chalk like a maestro conducting an opera an overly caffeinated one. I was half expecting him to shout 'abracadabra' or summon fireworks. Instead, he just pointed to the board like he'd just solved world hunger with geometry.
"Behold, Henry. This... is a code block."
I blinked. "A code block?"
"Exactly. Think about it, runes aren't letters. They're commands. A program, written in mana. But the programmers of this world... are dead. Dwarves built this system thousands of years ago. And you humans are still fumbling around like programmers who never learned if/else."
"So, you're saying runes work like the programming languages I've known in my past life?"
He nodded.
"Which means, now that we've figured out how they function, we need to adapt this to the Mana Infused Organism."
"To make it work with the MIO, we'll need to convert this code system into something it can understand."
"But how? Do you have any idea how long it would take to etch these runes onto every single seed?"
Rune covered pots? Useless. Drawing on paper and burying it? Nope. Manually etching hundreds of thousands of runes? Forget it.
Mnex turned back to the board. His eyes flickered like a calculator chewing on a fat equation.
"Traditional runes are state based. Each has to be processed individually, both in the mind world and the real world. But if I'm right... then if we build a closed loop energy circuit with Flow, we can activate contextual binding."
"So... we're setting up a magical LAN?"
"More like... spiritual Ethernet."
"So if we only draw the first rune ourselves..."
"Then it doesn't matter who draws the rest or how," he said. "Time saving. Efficient. A masterpiece of magical engineering."
I opened my eyes.
"Alright then. Let's run our first test."
"Whenever you're ready."
The first rune, which sets the primary power source, is drawn in both the mind world and the real world:
Stabilize + Bind + Flow + Bind + Seal + Flow
The following connection runes, responsible for transmitting flow, are drawn only in the real world:
Flow + Bind + Stabilize + Bind + Seal + Flow
Finally, the third set known as MIO runes is drawn only in the real world and directly interfaces with the seeds:
Flow + Bind + Pull + Bind + Stabilize + Bind + Seal + Flow
I drew the first one.
I didn't expect fireworks, this part was supposed to work. And it did. No surprise there. The real test was whether the others would.
I moved to the second sheet. Drew it. Nothing. The mana sat still like a kid pretending to sleep. I felt my stomach twist. Maybe we missed a line. Maybe a symbol was out of alignment. Closed my eyes.
"HOLY MOTHER OF RUNES, IT WORKED! Woooohooo! I am a god among circuits!" Mnex roared.
I opened my eyes, pulse racing. Mana had transferred to the second sheet.
My heart thudded.
Of course he was more excited than I was.
Just the real world this time.
I moved to the final sheet, fingers trembling just a bit. What if it failed? What if the first two were flukes? I held my breath, pressed the rune down... and waited. One heartbeat. Two. Still nothing. Just when I was ready to curse the whole system, mana surged through like a silent scream.
"Hahahaha! I'm a genius! Ahahahah! Einstein, who? Newton, who? Call me Mnex, baby!!"
Now all that was left was figuring out how to implement this in the field…
"Yakisugi."
The word dropped like a stone in a pond. I blinked.
"Did you just speak Japanese?"
"Shou Sugi Ban."
For a second I wondered if this was code for 'you suck' in another language.
"If you're insulting me in another language…"
"No, you idiot. This is exactly what you need right now."
Wood, huh? Nature's original USB stick. At least it was cheap and plentiful.
Mnex was talking about an old Japanese wood treatment method. Heat and smoke blacken the wood, making it waterproof, fire resistant, and bug repellent. It was perfect for us.
Iron was too expensive. Clay wouldn't work. And plastic? A few centuries early.
That left us with one option, cheap and abundant, wood.
We'd engrave the connection runes into wooden sticks. These would stretch out across the fields. The MIO runes would be etched directly beneath the crops.
"Yes, yes, brilliant! Modular, cheap, portable. And the best part? If something goes wrong, you just swap the faulty part.
It's like... hot swapping software!
We can replace parts even while mana is flowing, at least in theory.
I love it. Approved. Patent filed."
Mnex was grinning so hard I thought his voice box might short circuit. I was expecting him to give himself a standing ovation right now. I didn't interrupt. He deserved it.
Normally, being that in love with your own idea would be pure narcissism. But this time... he'd earned it.
And honestly?
I was proud of him too.