Chapter 613 - 237: Landing on the Island!

A slot, a Mechanical Heart Rune Device...

Frankly, if you placed these two items in front of any Rune Expert or Legendary Mage, they would never associate them with enhancing the power of a Mechanical Undead.

But in Wei’en’s eyes, this one tiny modification was enough to impact the entire Undead World. It could even subvert the Mechanical School’s entire system of Mechanical Puppets and mechanical enhancement.

And that was—

Wei’en took out a palm-sized metal plate he had prepared earlier. Pointing at the dense Rune Patterns covering its surface, he said, "This is a prototype of a Rune Array Board Card I made. Inscribed on it is a Rune Array the Mechanical School was very fond of during the Fourth Era—the Iron Heart Fury Array."

The Iron Heart Fury was the first Mechanical Puppet blueprint he had learned. The Iron Heart Fury Array branded within it only had two runic effects: Solidify Heart and Fury Burst.

And the metal plate in his hand was inscribed with that very Iron Heart Fury Array.

"An Array Board Card?" Teresa looked at Wei’en in the center of the holographic screen and asked in confusion, "Director, this castle has a room specifically for inscribing Rune Arrays. It seems like you’ve just miniaturized the Array?"

In her understanding, the size of a Rune Array didn’t affect its power. While adding more nodes and patterns could certainly amplify an Array’s strength, there was otherwise no difference.

Wei’en didn’t explain. He simply took the Rune Array Board Card and, reaching through the bars of the Bone Prison, inserted it into the slot in the zombie’s chest.

???

Teresa and the others watched his action, exchanging confused glances.

"What is he doing?"

"He just... put it in?"

But Christa’s eyes widened as a possibility suddenly struck her. "Director, you, you... no, it can’t be, can it?"

Just then, the Mechanical Heart Rune Device on the zombie’s chest suddenly shot out two dazzling beams of light. One traveled upward to the Origin Core in its head, while the other shot down into the slot—no, to be precise, it landed on the card inscribed with the Iron Heart Fury Array.

SNAP!

Wei’en snapped his fingers, then turned to the zombie and prompted, "Solidify Heart."

CLICK!

The zombie saw the smile on his face and took the hint. The power from its Origin Core flowed into the slot within the Mechanical Heart Rune Device.

Amidst a flash of brilliant light, a faint halo enveloped its body.

Escobar’s eyes went wide. "Holy sh—"

Adolph waved its tentacles, expressing its utter confusion. "Holy sh...?"

"You, you..." Teresa’s jaw dropped. She pointed at the zombie on the screen and asked in astonishment, "Director, did you inscribe a new Array on it?"

"It wasn’t inscribed! It was the board, the Rune Array board the Director just inserted!" Oshana suddenly leaned in, pressing her eyes right up against the black communicator, her expression tinged with excitement.

"This..." Ausel muttered to himself. "I’ve only ever seen Rune Masters inscribe Rune Arrays in fixed locations, on things like steam cars, Steamships, large buildings, and so on. But nothing has ever had an impact on me like what the Director just showed us..."

"So, in other words..."

Before they could say more, Wei’en cut in and nodded. "In other words, yes. Besides the original inscribed Arrays and runes, the mechanical body of a Mechanical Undead can be fitted with new Rune Arrays through this port to enhance its capabilities."

"And this brings me to my third directive: the research and development of Rune Array Board Cards!"

Previously, after realizing he couldn’t complete the established project goals, he had been racking his brain for a way to elevate the power of the Mechanical Undead to the next level.

He had thought for a long time without any good ideas. Then, yesterday evening, after Menor contacted him through that black Deacon identity card, he was struck by a sudden inspiration: he could install a device for an additional Rune Array within the mechanical body.

And to increase the Mechanical Undead’s combat effectiveness, these additional Rune Arrays could be made flexible—detachable and installable.

For example, when facing an Elemental Mage, you could install a Forbidden Magic Array like the one Huberto used. When encountering an Extraordinary with plague-like abilities, you could choose a corresponding poison immunity Array or a purification Array.

This way, they could adapt to different environments or enemies by choosing different Rune Array Board Cards, making the Mechanical Undead far more versatile.

"I’ll send you the detailed design blueprints for the Mechanical Heart Rune Device along with the project plan shortly. For now, take some time to rest, study the blueprint’s structure, and see if you can find any methods for improvement or identify other, more suitable Rune Arrays."

Seeing the shock and astonishment on their faces, Wei’en’s confidence in his sudden inspiration grew.

His original goal in researching the Mechanical Undead project was simply to solve the problem with Shawa’s body and further enhance her strength.

Later, after obtaining the "Death Master" identity through the Undead Transformation Spell, his ambitions for the Mechanical Undead grew much larger.

Now, with the research project more than halfway complete and the future of the Mechanical Undead looking brighter than ever, especially with the addition of Rune Array Board Cards...

’I’m confident that once this project is complete, the power of a Legendary-grade Mechanical Undead will shock everyone.’

’Especially those Ghost Mages who specialize in undead modification and the Wizards of the Mechanical School. I hope they can handle the shockwave from the newly-crowned father of Mechanical Undead!’

After a long silence, Teresa stepped forward, pulled Oshana back behind her, and bowed to Wei’en on the holographic screen. "Thank you for your trust, Director. This advancement is enough to earn us a place in the annals of the Ghost Soul School."