Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

CH70 The Nest Queen

***

Alex stared in disbelief.

"Controlled... modification?"

This creature had just rewritten its own biology—on the fly.

It wasn’t just a mutant.

It was adaptive.

And worse—it was intelligent, at least at a structural level.

’What in the world have I created?’

Alex’s first instinct was horror.

The chimeric ant archetype—a species that evolved too fast, bred too easily, and overwhelmed entire civilisations—was a classic villain trope in many of the novels, games, and anime he had consumed in his previous life.

And now, he’d possibly created one.

He almost spiralled into panic.

Almost.

But then he forced himself to breathe. Think. Not everything had to follow trope logic.

--

He calmed down and assessed the situation rationally.

And what he saw wasn’t so bad after all.

Why?

Simple.

Runes!

"Sleep."

With a wave of his hand, Alex cast the spell smoothly.

The bee-like creature—having just finished its first meal—wobbled, then collapsed into a peaceful slumber.

Alex didn’t waste any time. Carefully, he transferred the 60cm-long creature to the platform beneath his Alchemic Microscope and cranked the magnification to the maximum.

--

’As expected...’

He exhaled softly, though the disbelief in his eyes betrayed his amazement.

’It really is a being made of Runes...’

Under the microscope, the biological structure of the creature defied conventional logic.

Somehow, the virus had mutated the former mite’s cells, altering its genome. It no longer followed standard genetic patterns—its genetic code was made of Runes.

’No... not just any Runes,’ Alex muttered, his eyes narrowing as he studied the patterns.

’This is Runic Encryption. Likely a protective measure...’

He was looking at a full Runic genome, encrypted for structural security.

A lesser mage—or even a seasoned researcher—might have been utterly baffled.

But Alex was the creator of Rune-Tech. He had designed the system that enabled this transformation. He knew exactly what he was looking at.

’A Runic lifeform... a living, self-evolving script structure...’

And with that understanding, his fear evaporated.

This wasn’t a monster he couldn’t control.

This was a miraculous discovery.

--

Still, Alex didn’t immediately dissect or tamper with the creature.

Instead, he made a decision.

He would observe it in its natural state, see how it behaved when left alone.

"Release."

He cancelled the Sleep spell.

The creature stirred, blinking slowly before raising its head.

Its multilens sensory plates locked onto Alex.

It didn’t attack or flee. Instead, there was a moment of quiet tension.

A strange emotion passed through its posture—a mix of confusion and recognition.

Then, as if dismissing the thoughts from its half-formed mind, it turned away and flew back into its containment pen.

There, it settled into a quiet, dormant state, save for the faint shimmer of the encrypted Runes still glowing on its exoskeleton.

--

Alex’s Spirit Sight watched as energy began to churn inside it.

He quickly realised what was happening.

The creature had exhausted a large portion of its internal life energy—not just for the metamorphosis, but also for the physical expansion that came with it.

Its body might now be larger, more formidable in appearance, but in truth, it was weaker than before.

Its cultivation rank had dropped—from Class 1 to Class 0, putting it on par with an ordinary wild beast.

’So that’s the cost of self-reconstruction...’

Alex had assumed the bone meal would replenish its energy reserves.

It didn’t.

Instead, the creature underwent another transformation—but not of itself.

--

Like a queen bee, the creature began laying eggs.

It had consumed the bone not to recharge, but to reproduce.

Two pale, pulsing eggs appeared beneath it.

They began to grow rapidly.

Within half a day, the eggs reached full maturity—enough for Alex to see the developing shapes within.

Identical.

They were clones.

Two more of the same bee-like Runic creature—perfect copies of their mother.

--

"It reproduces asexually by cloning," Alex whispered.

Then, with a dry chuckle:

"This could really be the birth of a Zerg or Chimera Ant-type species..."

And then he added silently, eyes glinting with dangerous excitement:

’One that I can control.’

-

After a full day of observation, the eggs finally hatched— and brought Alex yet another surprise.

The so-called offspring weren’t living creatures.

They were hollow—empty husks.

More accurately: drones.

Artificial constructs that the original creature could control remotely via a Runic Mental Link.

A link, Alex quickly realised, that mirrored the same mechanism he had used before— between the Detector Rune on the mite’s carapace and the Receiver Rune embedded in the OmniRune.

’This gives me an idea...’

Alex grinned.

He instructed the OmniRune Core to piggyback on the creature’s mental link— to trace the signal that connected it to its drones.

And just like that—

Success.

Alex’s smile widened.

It was so seamless, so natural, that it almost felt as if the drones had been born already connected to the AI.

’In that case... let’s take it further.’

He pushed the OmniRune Core’s authority deeper, attempting to use the established connection to issue commands to one of the drones.

This part wasn’t as smooth.

There was some resistance, and the process required multiple iterations and fine-tuning.

But eventually—

He managed to wrestle control of the drone away from the creature.

For a few minutes, Alex experimented. He had the drone hover, walk, mimic human gestures. He even made it do a twirl.

Then, just before the creature acted again, he returned control.

The response was immediate.

A needle-like organ extended from the creature’s head and pierced the drone’s skull.

The previously motionless shell twitched— then activated, its limbs twitching as it stood up.

The creature repeated the same process on the second drone— the one Alex had briefly hijacked, but kept tethered to the OmniRune.

And thanks to that tether, OmniRune Core detected everything.

The needle had injected instructions— not just magical impulses, but a structured command logic akin to basic programming.

Alex watched, fascinated, as the two drones came to life and flew from the housing pen.

They hovered briefly, then oriented toward a corner of the lab.

--

Toward a plate of food Alex had left for himself.

’You’ve got to be kidding me.’

The drones worked in tandem, lifting a portion of the food and flying it back to the creature.

Alex could only stare in mixed horror and amusement as the creature consumed the offering with gusto.

With a resigned sigh, he moved the rest of the food into the housing pen.

There was no point in eating it now—not after the drones had touched it.

The creature devoured everything, not leaving even a morsel behind.

It didn’t hesitate, nor display any preference.

It was no longer restricted to bone essence or skeletal remains.

It was omnivorous now.

Another shift.

And once fed, both the creature and its drones fell dormant once more.

Alex noted the now-familiar stirring of energy in its core.

It was preparing to lay another set of eggs.

***