Tech Hero in Another World
Chapter 68: [67] Later your name will add the letter N

Chapter 68: [67] Later your name will add the letter N

The afternoon sun greeted their arrival as three massive wasps gently descended onto the palace’s grassy courtyard. Their wings beat with powerful force, stirring gusts of wind that sent the palace flags flapping. One carried Ren and Elaria, while the other two were laden with crates filled with gifts from the hornet kingdom—sacred wax, royal nectar, and high-purity magic crystals.

As soon as they dismounted, Elaria stepped forward to take charge. "You there!" she shouted to the guards and attendants already waiting at the edge of the field. "Get all of this to the palace storage rooms immediately. Handle them with care—these are gifts from an honored guest."

The soldiers and servants bowed quickly and moved with haste to unload the crates from the wasps’ backs. Some of them still looked uneasy around the giant insects, but none dared complain.

Meanwhile, Veskar—who had flown alongside them for the entire trip—stood upright, his insectoid face stiff. He looked at Ren in silence for a moment before finally speaking.

"Nico..."

Ren, who was loosening his gloves, glanced over. "Hm? Yeah?"

"I know you dislike excessive praise. But still... I feel ashamed for the mistakes I made. If you wish... you may strike me. Just once. It might ease my conscience."

Ren gave a soft snort, his eyes narrowing in amusement. "You want me to punch that exoskeleton of yours that’s as hard as granite with my bare human hand? Are you serious? I’d rather fight a second Veskar than explain to the doctor why my fingers are shaped like the number three."

Veskar nodded, his tone serious. "You’re right. I forgot you’re quite fragile."

"And you’re too literal," Ren replied, rolling his eyes.

Elaria returned just then and stood between them, resting her bow casually on her shoulder. "You two are like children. But... I suppose you’re friends now, aren’t you?"

Ren and Veskar exchanged a glance, then nodded almost in unison. No more words were needed.

After Veskar took off again, flying back toward his squad, Ren let out a long sigh and walked slowly toward the garage where his car and workshop were stored. With his right hand, he reached into his chest pocket and pulled out a small, irregularly shaped stone—the Primordial Rune Stone.

The crystal looked simple, but from within it radiated a deep blue glow, like a midnight sky hiding countless secrets. Faint engravings in an unknown language circled its surface, and if one stared long enough, they seemed to shift ever so slightly—as if the stone was breathing.

(The Primordial Rune Stone... the thing Queen Melanithe said has existed since the time of gods. She said it wasn’t just an energy source—but a key.)

Ren recalled the queen’s explanation: the stone housed fragments of the world’s core concepts—the pure essence of a "rule" that defined reality itself. In Veskar’s case, the stone held the Rune of Endurance, granting his body incredible regeneration and resilience far beyond what any living creature could naturally possess.

Once synchronized with its bearer, a Primordial Rune

would grant one absolute ability—but only one, aligned with the bearer’s true nature at the moment of binding. And once bonded, it could not be transferred unless the user died or willingly released it.

(So... what will it give me?)

Ren closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the faint pulse of the stone in his palm. It was warm. Like a tiny heart beating in peace.

He didn’t yet know which "rule of the world" resonated with him. But one thing was certain—the path ahead was far from over. This world was too vast, too deep, and full of more questions than answers. But maybe... that was why he kept moving forward.

A faint metal tap echoed from the side of his car. Clunk, clunk. Ren turned to find Veskar standing there, like a shadow refusing to fade with time. Ren opened the back of the car and stepped down slowly, his body still not fully recovered from his previous wounds.

"Looks like you came to say goodbye," Ren said, folding his arms.

Veskar gave a single nod. "I must return. My duties as the kingdom’s chief guardian are far from over. But before that..."

His tone shifted, growing heavier. "There’s something you need to know."

Ren raised an eyebrow, gesturing for him to go on.

"The one who placed the slave Rune on me... he’s no ordinary mage," Veskar said slowly. "Even among magical scholars, he’s an outlier. A practitioner of high-tier spell structure—they call them Arkitectum."

"Arkitectum?" Ren repeated under his breath, gradually realizing this wasn’t the kind of enemy you could simply punch or shoot.

"They don’t cast magic in the usual sense. They rewrite the laws of magic around them, forcing the world to obey new concepts they create themselves," Veskar explained, his voice steady but weighted. "That’s why I could be enslaved—not because my will was broken, but because the foundation of my being was altered."

Ren was silent. Veskar’s words weren’t something he could just brush off. He looked down for a moment, catching his breath, then met the insect warrior’s eyes with sincere focus.

"This... is seriously a pain in the ass," he muttered. "But... thank you, Veskar. That information’s going to be valuable. And yeah, hold on—I’ve got something for you."

Without waiting for a reply, Ren turned and climbed into his vehicle. His hands moved quickly, activating a metal panel and opening his miniature workshop compartment. Using his material transmutation skills, he crafted something—not a weapon, not a tool—but a small, silver cylinder with a polished finish and a bee emblem etched into its side. Simple, but meaningful.

A few minutes later, he stepped back out and handed it to Veskar. "In return for all that your queen and hive gave me... This isn’t a weapon, or a gadget. It’s a token of respect. One of the few things I learned back home: never leave without giving something in return."

Veskar accepted the object with both hands. Though his expression was unreadable, he bowed deeply. "Thank you. I will keep it with honor in my quarters."

"Safe travels, Sir Nico, as they call you," Veskar added, his voice calm but genuine.

Ren gave a small shrug with a faint smile. "You too. And don’t forget to drink some nectar before bed—they say it’s great for the skin."

Though Veskar’s face couldn’t convey human expressions, a slight twitch in his antennae gave him away. A subtle reaction, but enough to suggest the towering insect was laughing in his own way.

Then, with a smooth motion, Veskar unfurled his wings and launched into the sky. A strong gust of wind swept over the grass as his body shot upward, leaving behind only a fading silhouette in the southeastern sky—heading home.

Ren could only watch him go. No dramatic farewell, no promises to meet again. But he knew—this world was too small to escape fate’s intersections.

As he returned to his vehicle, the familiar scent of metal and machine oil welcomed him back. The silence around him was broken only by the rustling leaves and the quiet hum of his cooling systems.

(Well... things just got a whole lot more interesting, ) Ren thought as he dropped into the front seat, eyes on the blank navigation panel before him.

With a long, steady breath, he knew—whatever came next would be even wilder than before. And with that, he stepped into the next Chapter of his journey.

---

That night, the inside of the mobile-turned-workshop was quiet, filled only with the soft hum of the cooling fans and the gentle clinks of metal echoing under the glow of dancing blue holograms. Ren sat before the main panel, eyes locked onto the projected structure of the Primordial Rune Stone with razor-sharp focus.

The holographic display revealed a complex network, resembling a living neural map—streams of data flowing in a constant loop. Each node pulsed with soft blue light, like the beat of a heart. Between these nodes, energy lines intertwined, forming a formation that no known scientific model could decipher.

"You’ve got to be kidding me..." Ren whispered, brushing his fingers over the projection as if trying to understand it on a deeper level. "It’s like... an Infinity Stone... but from this world’s reality." He shook his head, rejecting the easy comparison to the old American comics he used to read. "But... the neutron structure... it’s not on any known periodic table."

『Master, the particles inside this stone show inconsistency with Earth-based physics. Energy entropy remains stable, but its output adapts based on user intent.』

"In other words, it’s got... a will of its own," Ren muttered. He began constructing output simulations using electromagnetic pressure and internal heat readings. But the results were useless—the energy reactions couldn’t be explained by thermodynamics or any known electromagnetic theory.

"No reactive mass, but constant output. It’s like... this stone is rewriting the laws of physics around it."

『Perhaps we should consider... a metaphysical anomaly.』

Ren went silent. That word hung in his mind—metaphysical. Once a catch-all term for "stuff science can’t explain," now it was his daily reality. This world—with its magic, spirits, and creatures—didn’t obey the scientific laws he once trusted. And this stone, passed down from a hero of another world, was the proof.

He let out a long breath, then stared back at the holographic interface with fierce resolve. His fingers moved quickly across the floating keyboard. "Alright... if we don’t know, then it just means we don’t know yet. So... what if we approach it from physics. Quantum, maybe?"

『Master. Shall I begin theoretical mapping based on non-linear quantum mechanics?』

Ren snorted, massaging his temple. "Haah, no, I’m joking, Ultro. But... that joke just gave me another idea."

His expression hardened. He refocused on the three-dimensional network projected from the Rune Stone. The energy waves detected by Ultro’s sensors displayed a strange consistency—too perfect to be random, yet too fluid to be a fixed pattern.

"Ultro, I’ve got a crazy idea. Copy the entire structure of the Rune Stone... and integrate it into the energy distribution system of the Armor." Ren stared sharply at the projection, his mind racing faster than any machine in the room.

『Confirmation. You want to embed the Rune pattern into the Armor’s core circuitry?』

"Yeah. But not just for show—I want the system to recognize this energy pattern. We might not be able to make new Rune Stones, but maybe... we can simulate how it thinks."

『Embedding primordial structure into a human tech system is not conventional, Master. Risk of overload is at 73%.』

Ren grinned—the kind of grin he wore every time he danced on the edge of brilliance and disaster. "When have I ever played it safe, Ultro?"

『Rhetorical response detected. Beginning pattern integration.』

The hologram pulsed, its radiant lines curling around the silhouette of his armor. As the Rune structure was copied into the system, blue-white magical strands merged with the armor’s internal circuits. Rather than resisting, the system welcomed it—like a cell accepting compatible foreign DNA.

"Ultro, are you seeing this? It’s like—synthetic DNA for tech. And it’s not fighting the system... it’s seducing it," Ren remarked, raising an eyebrow, half impressed, half amused.

『If successful, your Armor won’t just be powered—it will respond like vibranium. It will absorb, stabilize, and convert external pressure into functional output.』

"So I’m basically building a mystic vibranium suit from a god-stone, huh? At least I’m not calling it Mark IX and painting it purple." Ren clicked his tongue as he spun in his chair.

He rotated the 3D projection, pointing at a layered helix in the center.

"If I recall, that bee queen called it something like... Rune of Edurane. Can you read that?"

『Confirmed. Data indicates a spiral substructure that regulates mana flow through resonance. It’s not just an energy circuit—it’s a pressure catalyst that transforms force into reverse resonance.』

Ren narrowed his eyes, then smiled. "Ah-ha! So what we’ve got here... is like an adaptive nervous system. The harder it’s pushed, the stronger it becomes."

『Technically, the Rune of Edurane uses counterconductive force. It absorbs kinetic stress and stores it as internal vibration—then releases it as a mana shockwave when triggered.』

"Holy hell, I’m building a suit with the nervous system of a planet," Ren said, tapping the workstation. "This isn’t just durable—it hits back when it’s hurt."

Ultro remained calm. 『Warning: your system has not been tested under full magical load. If the Rune reacts too actively, the armor could become unstable.』

"Note to self: don’t get pissed off while wearing the suit." Ren stood, rolling up his sleeves and stepping toward the integration station.

"Alright, queue up the initial power test. Let’s call this... hmm... Project Rune Resonator. And Ultro?"

『Yes, Master?』

"Try not to blow up my car this time."

『I will try. Although a minor explosion would be mildly entertaining.』

Ren clicked his tongue. "You’re getting way too good at sarcasm... I’m both proud and scared. One day you’ll probably add an N to your name and I’ll regret everything."

Ultro said nothing in response.