My Apocalypse Territory-Chapter 223 - 220 Rune Processing

The production of equipment now mainly relies on the workshop, and Kevin is responsible for the design aspect, that is, drawing blueprints.

The speed at which the workshop manufactures equipment and tools is incredibly fast; even the production cycle can be said to be almost zero.

Not even a second is required.

The materials go in, and the finished product comes out immediately.

However... Producing a few pieces of equipment doesn't take much time, but what about several hundred, several thousand, or even more?

Tang Yu could not understand why, given such advanced methods of manufacturing equipment, there was no option for mass production?

He would tire his fingers out clicking each time!

Even if he were to open up workshop access permissions, allowing others to be responsible for material input and equipment sorting and statistics...

It would be very troublesome, and he didn't want to do that either.

A new method of production needed to be developed.

Tang Yu came to the research institute, and around his usual workbench, various instruments and materials were placed.

He casually grabbed a piece of demonized beast skin that had been cut to A4 size, resembling a sheet of paper.

After processing, these demonized beast skins did not have any fishy smell; when touched, they felt soft and comfortable.

He laid the beast skin on the workbench and took out a rune pen that resembled a brush.

Engraved with dense runes on the body of the pen, when Source Power was injected, a small cluster of flickering light would appear at the tip of the pen, like the flame spouting from a lighter.

Increasing the injection of Source Power, the light blazed, and the flickering became even more vigorous.

Decreasing the Source Power, the light would immediately dim, as if it could extinguish at any moment.

This kind of rune pen was a tool commonly used by Rune Masters to draw runes.

It could be used to draw the vast majority of runes.

Drawing runes was akin to writing with a brush, but the difficulty was unknowably greater; the flickering light was inherently unstable, and during drawing, one needed to control the output of Source Power, at each energy node of the rune, inject neither too much nor too little energy, and pay close attention to the standardization of the runes. The slightest mistake was not permissible.

At best, the entire rune would be scrapped; at worst, it would explode.

During his learning process, several explosions had happened. Luckily, the runes he was drawing were basic and required little Source Power. And yet, the complexity of even those basic runes was far beyond that of mere text.

Tang Yu exhaled lightly, allowing himself to maintain an optimal state.

He lifted the rune pen and slowly traced on the beast skin.

His hand was very steady, his speed neither fast nor slow... These runes were complicated, yet it was a single stroke from start to end, unable to be rushed. According to his thousands of failed attempts, this speed and force were the best to control.

About a minute later, Tang Yu finished drawing. The rune lit up with a faint glow, which gradually dispersed.

"Done. It seems that I now have a very high success rate in drawing this kind of Basic Rune."

However, this talent was cultivated with Consuming Crystals. Tang Yu had heard Kevin say that, although Rune Masters aren't a Combat Profession, they are even more noble than the so-called noble profession of Mages.

Nothing else, it was simply burning money.

Each time a rune was drawn, it consumed a large amount of Source Power. Where did all this Source Power come from? The bit that an Awakener had within them was far from sufficient; that Source Power was merely the primer for manipulation. What was consumed more was the Source Power from Source Crystals.

When drawing, it was necessary to use high-quality beast hides, and even though demonized beast hides could be purchased at a relatively cheap price, high-quality ones were not so plentiful. In order to maximize the success rate, it was better to have demonized beast hides of a higher level.

Tang Yu didn't even dare to calculate how much material and Source Crystals he had used; the actual figure was probably enough to leave him breathless with heartache.

"Fortunately, the success rate is now high. It looks like I do have a talent for runes!"

He was drawing a Basic Sharp Rune.

High-level beast hides were able to carry the power of runes well. Tang Yu estimated that the rune could last about a month, which was already quite a long time.

Back in the day, why the Transcendental Factor extracted from demonized beasts by the science academy dissipate quickly? Firstly, it was the lack of a suitable carrier – ordinary paper couldn't hold the power of runes, and secondly, the academy hadn't understood the structure of runes.

The beast hide that had just been drawn with a Basic Sharp Rune was essentially a one-time scroll, which could enhance a weapon with a sharp effect, but it was also limited in duration and could not be permanently fixed to equipment, unlike engraving.

Yet, Tang Yu still used beast hides to draw runes, instead of directly inscribing them onto equipment.

Why?

Because that was even harder!

With his current level of runes, directly engraving on equipment had a woefully low success rate. It was better to practice more on beast hides.

The path of runes, an endless money pit.

"If we want to mass-produce rune equipment, the processing and assembling of the equipment wouldn't be difficult. However, the final step of rune engraving is a problem."

In Kevin's Equipment Department, the speed of manufacturing rune equipment was quite fast. The work of rune engraving didn't need to be done slowly, stroke by stroke, like Tang Yu had to.

This was thanks to the rune seal Kevin had created after achieving high proficiency with a specific rune. However, pressing the seal wasn't the end of the task. The same rune, when engraved on different equipment or on different parts of the same piece of equipment, would result in subtle variations that greatly affected the quality of the equipment. After each press, Kevin had to make fine adjustments before the rune completely set.

This eliminated the possibility of automated production.

Tang Yu had also toured the manufacturing process of the Equipment Department. Although low-level equipment could be produced in three minutes, Kevin's manufacturing process also proceeded one piece at a time. As long as it wasn't a multi-piece simultaneous production, no matter how fast it was, it couldn't compare to the speed of workshop production.

After some thought, Tang Yu came to the Equipment Department, where he could hear the noisy roar of machinery from afar.

He shared his idea of mass-producing equipment with Kevin, hoping for some useful suggestions.

Kevin frowned, "According to your idea of a production line setup, Lord, the manufacturing and assembly workshops are not a problem. The difficult part is the rune engraving workshop. Over at our place, there isn't such a standardized engraving process. It's often just a Rune Master leading a few apprentice Rune Masters to do the engraving."

R𝑒ad latest chapt𝒆rs at freewebnovёl.ƈom Only.

Even though the training of apprentice Rune Masters wasn't very difficult, it also required time. Currently, besides Kevin, who was an Advanced Rune Master, Tang Yu could be considered a Basic Rune Master and, beyond that, there were no others.

Even those two survivors who assisted Kevin did not qualify as apprentice Rune Masters.

Mass-producing rune equipment without dozens of apprentice Rune Masters was impossible.

"If you, Lord, only need low-level rune equipment, then that's a bit simpler. Seals for that level of runes are easier to make. I can rush some out, but without fine-tuning the runes, the quality of the equipment might only be twenty to thirty percent of its original."

"Is it possible to determine a direction for fine-tuning?" Tang Yu pondered. He was not a rune novice now and the more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. "Basic runes aren't complex. The subtle differences that arise when inscribing on equipment aren't as intricate as those for Advanced runes. Given this, can't we identify the pattern of these variations and compile it?"

"In this way, even if we are not proficient enough in runes, we can deal with it accordingly according to the summarized experience."

It was like having an exam question you didn't know how to answer, but you knew that such a question would appear and had memorized the solution process for that type of question ahead of time. All that was needed was simply to apply the formula and adjust according to the specific numbers provided in the question.